Anyone else grateful that they got hooked on this crazy addiction


I got home tonight after a 12 hour day of busting my ass for the IT company I work for and sat down in the single chair in my dedicated listening room and turned on Dido’s “Still on My Mind”. As I sat there listening with the lights off, I thought about the fact that the majority of the people in this world will never get to hear anything close to this kind of sound and I get to hear any track, at any time, at any volume I choose. Please don’t think that I am bragging about my system as I know that the majority of you have systems that put mine to shame. I am attempting to express how very grateful I am that I got into this amazing hobby, especially with all the crazy things that are happening in our world today.

 

As a lurker on this forum for a couple of years, I have read the great majority of the posts. Some with a chuckle, some with great awe and some with disgust. We all enjoy an amazing hobby that allows us to escape from the realities of life right in our own home.

 

My system consists of a Devialet Expert 250 Pro, Dynaudio Contour 60 speakers, a pair of REL S510 sub-woofers, AQ William Tell speaker cables, an Uptone Audio Etherregen, SOTM ethernet cable, AQ Tornado power cords, an AQ Niagara 1000 power conditioner, GIK acoustic room treatments and an SGC i5 Sonictransporter running Roon with 5TB of hi-res recordings and streaming Tidal and Qobuz. Once again, I am not bragging, and I am not looking for any comments about how good or bad my system is or could be. My goal is to give you some perspective about how lucky we are to be “audiophiles” in this crazy world.

 

When I sit down with a glass of scotch and put on whatever it is that trips my fancy that night, I can easily put the world out of my mind in under 5 minutes. Listening to what I think is an incredible soundstage and how I can be transported so quickly to the artist’s location is sometimes beyond belief. The best is those nights when you audibly mumble “holy sh-t” after an especially dazzling track.

 

We are a very lucky group of people to be able to sit down with our system that we have built with our own hands and hard-earned money. To think how much time we have spent reading forums and reviews as well as the never ending tweaking. Who would have thought that moving speakers ¼” would make that big of difference?

 

So, who else out there is grateful that we have these amazing systems in our homes and it would almost be welcomed to be quarantined for a couple of weeks?


desert38
It’s late spring 1979 and I’m leaving my first job, a dish washer at Wally Mitchels in Surf City NJ. When Cliff the owners son standing at the back door says “psst yo dude come upstairs and listen to my new stereo” Cliff was great guy and always had tasty buds to spark up. So I’m like “sure man let’s rock”. There it was under his neon blue bong a JVC receiver matching turntable and BIC monitors on a couple of milk crates. On the table was the new Supertramp Breakfast In America album. After a couple of hits he spun up the TT and dropped the needle. I was like WHOA!! Never heard sound like that! The sound transcended anything I had ever listened to before! Heck I’m 15 I’ve been around and know what sounds good. This sounded great! Soon after I gave up weed and have been on a lifelong quest for awesome sound! Glad to report I’ve found my holy grail and listen with great joy in my heart!

Hi my name is Chris and I’m an...
three_easy.....I upgraded to the 510's from a pair of T7i's.  The 510's go way lower and they are so fast.  I have them turned way down since my room is rather small, but they still dig out the low notes.  Boz Scagg's "Thanks to You" never sounded so good.  The upgrade was worth it.

Can totally relate.  I sent in a Devialet D-Premier back to Paris for upgrade to a D-250 Pro.  I thought the D-Premier was as good as it gets,  but the D-250 Pro is just amazing. The sonic upgrade alone was worth it to me, but the added streaming options were icing on the cake,  as it were.  The rest of the system consists of a Chord M-Scaler,  which I use as a front end digital processor from most of the digital sources.  The speakers are Tyler Acoustics Linbrook Signature Floorstanders, along with a SVS PC-4000 subwoofer.  The Tyler Acoustics speakers are outstanding sonically, as the have all SEAS Excel/Millennium drivers,  along with 1K worth of crossover and wiring upgrades.  The sound from this setup never ceases to amaze me.   The D-250 Pro makes the Linbrook speakers speakers sound like top of the line speakers.   All types of music sound great,  but symphonic music is where the difference is the most noticeable.  

I've owned many high end rigs over the years,  including Audio Research,  Pass Labs, McIntosh,  Electrocompainet,  etc.   To me, the Expert Pro 250 just sounds more accurate than anything else out there.   The PRAT, low level detail, dynamics,  are top shelf all the way.   Some audiophiles may prefer more euphoric playback setups,  but to me, accuracy in playback is the name of the game.   

Been spending more time reading whilst listening to music nowadays. Don't see that changing.  

Your audio system sounds amazing. I don’t think I had much choice as a young boy. I was fascinated by my grandfather’s vacuum tubes laying around everywhere. Is it any wonder I have an integrated vacuum tube amp with NOS RCA tubes in one audio system and a tube preamp with NOS Sylvania tubes in another? If someone says " Genalex Gold Lion"  I will get into the conversation.....