Any Audiophile Barfers?

[shrimants]

I'm pretty into high end audio. I have a setup thats far more expensive than your average person would be willing to spend, though nothing astronomical as far as audiophilia goes. Just whatever it took to get me plenty satisfied.

What do you guys run? What are your favorite albums/songs to listen to?



My headphone setup:
ATH-m50 and etymotic HF5 for portable/work setup. Fiio X3 player (currently used only as a DAC, if at all).

At home, HD650, Schiit magni+modi combo. Asus Xonar DSX soundcard was my previous output but i only use it as a mic input now.

For speakers, i have B&W 685's, really dig that warm sound signature. Center is a pioneer C22 and rears are Pioneer FS52. Klipsch RW12D subwoofer.

All powered from a Marantz SR6007 receiver.

Lately i havent been using my speaker setup practically at all because such is the apartment life. Mostly been using the HD650's.

I'm thinking about building a Torpedo amp from beezar. get that nice tube sound coupled with the HD650, a little EQ, should be fantastic.

 

[GAJ]

Yeah, my Dad sucked me into it and I've been upgrading over the years.

I have a NAD 7250 driving music from my computer to my living room setup which is all Optimus (Radio Shack) speakers with Linaeum tweeters and an Infinity sub; that drives speakers in the garage and kitchen as well. Burned hundreds of my old vinyl records to digital.

My brother unearthed some McIntosh equipment my Dad used to have and am noodling replacing my NAD with the C28 and MC2125 seen here but it will cost several hundred bucks to have them shipped here and then likely several hundred more bucks to get them into playing shape; I think the legacy aspect will be worth it.

But If I did that I would put my ProJect Carbon Turntable next to them and spin some vinyl again but that, of course, would require better speakers. :laughing

Thinking about Golden Ear Triton Sevens.

In my Home Theater room I have a Denon AVR 1912 driving Usher 602's with a 603 center and some old B&W bookshelves for the rear speakers.

The discontinued Ushers are a little known gem from this company specializing in much more expensive speakers.

That system also drives the outdoor Boston Acoustics speakers I have on my deck.

While I have the money for more expensive speakers I find that at some point you get massive diminishing returns and thankfully my house isn't all that big anyway so large/expensive speakers would be a waste.

In the Home Theater room I do have a ridiculously oversized Velodyne DD15 Subwoofer that would knock the house down if I wanted to but I hate too much bass and on a scale of 1 to 100 on the volume setting, (100 being the loudest), it's set at 11 so ridiculously oversized for the room and cost more than the rest of the system, (including 60 inch Panasonic Plasma) combined.

Gave my daughter some of my old equipment as she is huge into vinyl.

My old Revox B795 Linear Tracking Turntable, my B&W Concept 90 CM1's, a Velodyne SPL100r sub and a Denon receiver who's model number escapes me.

Those are my castoffs but, new, even that system cost close to $3,000 so I've passed on the sickness to her! :laughing

The idea of resurrecting my Dad's old equipment and buying some nice new speakers is exciting. :thumbup

 

[shrimants]

I've heard nothing but excellent things about those triton speakers.

I actually hit that diminishing returns thing just this year. I realized I was somewhat bored with my music and wasn't really listening to it. Also, I realized my receiver will cross over to the sub nearly perfectly, so getting a big floor standing tower wouldn't be worth the money. I figured I'd keep my mains as somewhat higher cost bookshelf and just say fuck it for the center and surround. That's not to say a klipsch reference system would be passed up on though lol.

Last night I used my hd650 to listen to pink Floyd meddle and radio heads in rainbows. Sounded fantastic.

I'm going to try doing some equalization experiments with equalizer Apo. Basically going to run sine waves at different frequencies till I find they are all sounding at approximately the same level. Then maybe adjust it by adding a tiny bit of bass and removing a tiny bit of treble.

Tonight I plan on listening to some daft punk: tron random access memories. And also some more pink Floyd. Wish you were here.

 

[GAJ]

I've heard nothing but excellent things about those triton speakers.

I actually hit that diminishing returns thing just this year. I realized I was somewhat bored with my music and wasn't really listening to it. Also, I realized my receiver will cross over to the sub nearly perfectly, so getting a big floor standing tower wouldn't be worth the money. I figured I'd keep my mains as somewhat higher cost bookshelf and just say fuck it for the center and surround. That's not to say a klipsch reference system would be passed up on though lol.

Last night I used my hd650 to listen to pink Floyd meddle and radio heads in rainbows. Sounded fantastic.

I'm going to try doing some equalization experiments with equalizer Apo. Basically going to run sine waves at different frequencies till I find they are all sounding at approximately the same level. Then maybe adjust it by adding a tiny bit of bass and removing a tiny bit of treble.

Tonight I plan on listening to some daft punk: tron random access memories. And also some more pink Floyd. Wish you were here.

Meddle is one of my favorite Pink Floyd albums! :thumbup

Am a bit spoiled by today's techology; in my Home Theatre room the receiver's Audyssey feature and microphone sets up the system equalization to the room environment and the sub has it's own software and massive microphone to do the same thing.

In the other room I pretty much leave everything flat and set the sub manually to where it's barely noticeable.

Have fun geeking out. :laughing

If you don't mind my asking how old are you?

I'm 57 and haven't bought a vinyl record in 30 some odd years and only used my Turntable to digitize my albums.

My 28 year old daughter is HUGE into vinyl and no longer buys digital music of her favorite bands.

Before vinyl she never geeked out with "listening sessions" using music more like background music.

Now she's a full on audio geek. :laughing

Whatever it takes is my attitude.

Ever get into vinyl?

 

[shrimants]

i just turned 25 about a month ago. it took a bit to get my system to where it is now but the journey was pretty enjoyable. Ive since learned that its not so much about how expensive or "neutral" your speakers are but after some basic things are met, its more about how you like the sound of them. and that kind of sucks because you cant measure enjoyment level of speakers without listening to them, unlike a neutral response which can be measured. if nothing else, i might upgrade some of my speakers with some nice vintage speakers. I had pioneer HPM60's at one point and they actually sounded really damn good despite having the bass driver replaced. i would definitely not mind some klipsch heressy or something similar in my house. Hell, something like that might even become my mains and send my BW's to the rear.

I have audyssey on my receiver too, its a marantz SR6007. I actually didnt like the way it did the measurement and setup. one of its key features was the individual crossover per channel, but after fiddling with it i found its best to set ALL channels to about 120hz. my subwoofer is pretty fantastic (compared to what filth comes off the shelf nowadays) so having the receiver handle that crossover works really well. recently, i switched the crossover down to 80hz on all channels because thats right where the "thumps" happen. This way, my neighbors dont get too much bass unless its that low droning bass, and i dont have many songs that get all that low.

Ive never gotten into vinyl. i thought about it but the cost of entry and the cost of constantly paying for music kind of ruins it for me. as of right now ive never paid for music. i just acquire a flac rip of whatever i want. And most recently, i just listen to it on youtube or spotify. in the HD youtube videos, the sound quality isnt too shabby, and spotify does 320kbps mp3.

One of the things ive noticed about my system is that whenever i play anything thats dolby or DTS, the volume drops drastically. i dont know if this is because my receiver is "2 channels driven" or if its just the nature of the codec itself. I suppose what i'll try is to pipe 5.1 to the receiver and then force it into stereo mode.

I suspect that it has 2 dedicated amp channels and it has a duty cycle in which those amp channels are shared between all other channels. so even though its 80 watts per channel, its max output is 160 watts rather than 400 watts. Granted, thats still PLENTY of sound considering all speakers are roughly 10 feet from listening position in a small and non-acoustically treated room. But i do wonder if grabbing one of emotiva's 5 channel amps wouldnt be a good idea.

For music, i find myself listening to stuff thats "different". the run of the mill pop, rock, rap, etc doesnt really appeal to me and gets boring pretty quick. I like some specific albums from pink floyd like meddle, wish you were here, dark side, the wall, animals. i like most of daft punk's albums except the first. Alive 2007 was fantastic, as is the tron soundtrack. but i also like some of the weirder stuff. maximum the hormone, mars volta's early stuff. I have some hans zimmer as well. my music taste is all over the place but it all boils down to people innovating in music. and that tends to be difficult to find, especially if you arent in the mood for that particular innovative music at the moment.

a lot of music seems very repetitive and formulaic to me

 

[maxandgrinch]

Yeah but -tell us how you've modified your listening environments that can wreck/color/affect/effect the tens of dollars spent on all that flashy equipment.

What about standing waves, sympathetic harmonics, correct room dimensions/equipment placement, floating and insulating your listening room.....

We want the Bob Villia/Norm Abrams details - you're not a real audiophile unless you have a floating room with a separate HVAC system/power source.

Also, what kind of speaker cable is the best? :laughing

 

[GAJ]

mars volta's early stuff.

My daughter has all their stuff on vinyl...huge into the Mountain Goats also, as are my wife and I.

Yeah, unless you have a relative with a bunch of old gear and vinyl it can be a bit expensive to start down that road.

Overall today's equipment is tremendous and relatively inexpensive.

If you're ever up in Santa Rosa be sure to visit Soundscape; one of the last great audio stores.....complete with grumpy opinonated owner. :laughing

 

[GAJ]

Yeah but -tell us how you've modified your listening environments that can wreck/color/affect/effect the tens of dollars spent on all that flashy equipment.

What about standing waves, sympathetic harmonics, correct room dimensions/equipment placement, floating and insulating your listening room.....

We want the Bob Villia/Norm Abrams details - you're not a real audiophile unless you have a floating room with a separate HVAC system/power source.

Also, what kind of speaker cable is the best? :laughing

:laughing

Yep, some people can go bananas.

An area rug, a tapestry and a few other things help knock down that echo in a room when you clap your hands.

But I've never felt the need to go whole hog as my wife has to live in the rooms also. :laughing

 

[tzrider]

But I've never felt the need to go whole hog as my wife has to live in the rooms also. :laughing

Yeah, it can be hard to create the perfect listening environment if more than one person's considerations must be accommodated. :laughing

Actually, in a lot of situations, there is exactly one seat in the room where the listening is optimal. We recently remodeled our living room to be "the music room," which is functionally all we were using it for anyway. The idea was for each family member to be able to practice their instruments in there, or listen (or read) in front of the fireplace. Hence, the room ended up looking like this:

As far as audio is concerned, the speakers are Definitive Technology Mythos STS towers. They have built in powered subs and the rest of the spectrum is powered by a Carver power amp that produces about 175w a side. I skipped a preamp, instead directly connecting a Sonos ZonePlayer to the amp. I don't need EQ and additional inputs.

I used to be into vinyl, but as a practical matter the Sonos setup is hard to beat. Our whole CD collection is ripped to FLAC, stored on a NAS and is accessible to ZonePlayers in the living room, back & front patios and garage. Though Sonos is a wireless mesh, I've run CAT6 to two of the four ZonePlayers to ensure good throughput despite other sources of RF in the house, including the wireless transmitter for my guitar, which used to cause dropouts. No such problems now.

The setup accommodates my desire for good sound with the realities of wanting the room to look nice and not having unlimited time to fuss with set-up every time I want to listen to something.

 

[maxandgrinch]

:wtf

Really? I thought you were audiophiles!

I've been dreaming about a room with 'noggins' since I saw them

Just build a man cave inside your man cave?

If you're not going to let them touch the carpet (static electricity jumping on the other electrons and messing up your stabilized voltage?) why not have exact length power cords or at least research figure eight cable coils, because a round coil can potentially cause electromagnetic interference? Research it like you would wood glue used in the butcherblock amplifier risers :laughing

At this point, I'm happy if the remote control turns stuff on.


.

 

[tzrider]

You know you've gone too far when you worry about shit that recording studio designers don't. :laughing

 

[russ69]

:laughing...Yep, some people can go bananas.... :laughing

You guys are just getting started. I run 5 complete systems now. Mostly tube gear but a little solid state thrown into the mix. 40 years ago I spent a weeks pay on a phono cartridge, an engineer's week of pay! Now my budget is in better shape, I haven't slowed down at all.

 

[maxandgrinch]

You know you've gone too far when you worry about shit that recording studio designers don't. :laughing

Nobody records in studios anymore - they rent a haunted castle or the men's room at BART. No more studio tans


Friggin' ProTools..... actually real audiophiles probably don't do digital do they?

Audiophiles want their sounds colored by the equipment (knowing better than the artist?) and adding warmth or coolness. Like taking a Julia Childs recipe and using Miracle Whip or margarine.

 

[auntiebling]

.

Also, what kind of speaker cable is the best? :laughing

I have some 12ga stranded lampcord that works really well. Do I not belong in this thread?

 

[tzrider]

You guys are just getting started.

It's hard to know whether to even bother with a thread that has the word "audiophile" in it. There is no objective way to say whether one is part of the club, beyond whether you have a love of listening. That's kind of my one criterion these days.

As you probably know, the hobby can take on a life of its own where people spend more time fussing with equipment than they do listening to music. I'm not really sure what to call that hobby. :laughing

 

[tzrider]

I have some 12ga stranded lampcord that works really well. Do I not belong in this thread?

If those are your earbud cables, yes.

 

[GAJ]

You know you've gone too far when you worry about shit that recording studio designers don't. :laughing

:laughing:laughing

Dayum TZ:, your music room looks EPIC! :thumbup:thumbup

 

[GAJ]

You guys are just getting started. I run 5 complete systems now. Mostly tube gear but a little solid state thrown into the mix. 40 years ago I spent a weeks pay on a phono cartridge, an engineer's week of pay! Now my budget is in better shape, I haven't slowed down at all.

I remember my Dad's tube McIntosh gear back in the day.

It had a cool glow but every few weeks they would start to buzz and then off for a new tube.

I've stayed away though I believe the McIntosh amp I'm thinking of resurrecting is part tube. :wtf

I pretty much limit my enthusiasm due to the size of the house and the fact that I'm cheap and don't want the value of my musical gear to exceed that of my motorcycles! :laughing

 

[auntiebling]

If those are your earbud cables, yes.

I just shove the stripped ends directly into my earholes, its like direct injection for music

 

[shrimants]

im lucky enough that my apartment has wall to wall carpeting, weird non-parallel surfaces, and a small enough listening environment that the sound gets damped by the couch pretty effectively.

i did computer engineering in college, a lot of that was basic electronics and concepts. so right now my cables are some 10 dollar for 12-pack of banana plugs (dont do this, the plugs are shit.) and some really really shitty 10 cents per foot cable.

the cable works just fine, but my only issues with it are build quality. the jacket on it is made of a very weird material that sticks to everything so it begins to look absolutely filthy. it also kinks very wierdly.

I got these ocelot 12-pack of banana plugs just so its easier to connect/disconnect but they constantly come loose so ive slowly been replacing them with just bare wire.

Might eventually get a box of cat5 or cat6, strip all the wires inside, and use them as speaker cables. 4 wires for hot and 4 for ground.

Honestly though, my HD650 has been my best purchase even with all the speaker stuff. im thinking of buying an amplifier kit and building it. either the torpedo from beezar or the bottlehead crack with speedball upgrade.

As for my music collection, its 100% digital. most of it is in flac unless i cant find it in that format. 320 is good enough for my car or phone or anything, really. i just have flac for archival purposes.