I am now happy with the tube preamplifier P2 of Douk... I use it for my active speakers...
Astounding , better holography and the tone controls are useful to maximise the speakers sound ... Peanuts cost... No downside for me ...
I use the Fosi sk1 for my AKG K701 for movie essentially ... Same thing no downside ...
The low cost chinese product are not all junk ... Many compare well and for a better price sometime than Schiit products for example or other european products ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKdv7C5KcPY&t=10s
They are not high end if we define high end product by price tags ...
But nevermind the price , any gear system need to be optimized mechanically, electrically and acoustically to reach his implicit acoustic potential contribution..
Then i quit these triple misleading distinction between high end, mid-fi, and low-fi or chi-fi , which are very deceptive on many counts ...
The only valuable and objective description is by comparing acoustic factors , each one of them as balanced or not once compared to the others factors contribution in the creation of the soundfield impression , being transients, dynamics, timbre , bass , imaging, holography , immersiveness etc..
Then the only valuable distinction is between after and before the necessary triple optimization process is this question : with this low cost system, with what i own have i reach the minimal acoustic threshold of satisfaction or not ? Or with this highly costlier system , have i reach the maximum acoustical satisfaction threshold ...
In the two case the minimal as the maximal acoustical satisfaction threshold , we are happy and not at all in a stop-gap phase...
But if our system is not well embedded nor well optimized acoustically , mechanically and electrically , nevermind his price , the unbalance between acoustics factors and parameters will induce frustration and unhappinness ...
Then classifying systems between low-fi, mid fi and high fi , not only is deceptive but hide the real and necessary optimization process by the illusion of the costlier the better ... It is false ...
All that to say i am in ectasy with my low cost tube pre-amp ...
In a minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold for sure , but the minimum well done is enough to be no more frustrated at all believe me ...
The ratio S.Q. / better price is the meter of success but also the creativity you had invested in the optimization process ....
I almost pity those who had invested too much without reaching satisfaction ...
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I will add, you must, once this is done, read enough about how to controls vibration/resonance , electrical noise floor of the gear/room/house and especially acoustics concepts not just room acoustic ... Without this applied even with high end components the S.Q. will never be optimal if not even good ...
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Thanks very much to the two of you ....Ellajeanelle and deep_333...
I put them on my memory as a first choice USED ...
because my budget is limited ... They will cost me new at least 8 times the price of my actual completely satisfying one ... Even if i dont doubt that they will be better after my optimization process ...😊
But to give you more information , my actual self powered speakers , which i modified goes to 50 hertz as the Elac with a smaller woofer by the way ... Clear, not boomy with natural relatively good timbre and they work fine for now ...So much i dont need a sub in my acoustical corner treated and designed for them ...
If they broke i will go with a used Elac for many reasons + your two informed recommendations ...And they are relatively small then perfect for me ... And i can work the porthole and design it for my ears as i did with my low cost self powered good speakers which improved tremendously with this and vibration/resonance controls and shielding and deceasing of the noise floor level with my homemade plate ...
I thank you a lot for the kind advice ...
Making the most with the less is true audio knowledge...
You are missing out a bit. There is a true audio savant in industry named Andrew Jones who offered charity for many years. It may be practically impossible for other dudes to eek out quality sound with non-existent budgets like Andrew. You probably owe it to yourself to try one of his speakers. He uses Yamaha amps primarily when voicing his speakers.
Elac Debut 2.0 bookshelf speakers, msrp ~350 usd
Yamaha A-S301 integrated amp., msrp ~350 usd
Get them used for way less. It may be a big upgrade from what you currently have.
I bought a pair of the Andrew Jones designed speakers (ELAC Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 Bookshelf Speakers) for an extra room while they were on sale for $419.98 recently and must say that this guy really knows what he's doing. No speaker has impressed me this much in decades. I did buy the Debut 2.0 before those and sent them back though. The difference between the two is dramatic.
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I am not so much in stoicism nor in the self control of desire ... I am not so wise ...
In audio musical experience i simply discovered how creativity make us really happy without asking for any renunciation or ascetic self control ...
Acoustics knowledge ( + mechanical and electrical noise and vibration controls for sure ) can make a 1000 bucks system so good on all acoustic factors that we are able to pass what i called the minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold ...my actual system is not a stoic stop gap at all, it is completely satisfying even it it cannot be high end top or passed the maximal acoustical satisfaction threshold ...
my motto is :
Acoustics science rule the gear not the reverse ...
Then the secret of contentment is staying creative till your death and investing yourself creatively in what you have but which is used in the wrong way ... Learn how to use it in the optimal way ...
( As an example i modify thanks to Helmholtz knowledge the rear porthole of my speakers and the result is astonishing )
The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach.-- Lin Yutang
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Thanks for this personal anecdote that if meditated will help others to cure their audio disease bug and push them on the road to satisfaction with their ears at the wheel instead of the higher possible price tags in their head ...
I am impressed by the way people learn how to create their audio system at relatively low cost/ price tag ratio...And by the way they learn to listen and trust their ears and acoustics...
Their system impress me way less than their creativity...
my best to you ...
One of my best audio eureka moments was earlier this year. My system is based on "carefully curated components" within a reasonable budget. I have been through at least 20 amp/preamp combinations and ultimately settled on Convergent SL-1, a few choices of SS amps and tube amps, Magnepan 3.6R, and sub $1k dac or turntable to feed the SL-1. Earlier this year a friend and I visited the local McIntosh dealer, where we were treated to a demo of a Moon Audio DAC, Mc amp, and huge Sonus Faber speakers. Our host played a very familiar Dave Grusin tune. While the $250m system was very enjoyable, I left the store feeling very good about my system. Perhaps my ears were the limiting factor, but it’s nice to find the plateau where the gear satisfies the ear and the focus is then on discovering the music.
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The bass extension of the M-Audio Av40 4 inches driver is described as : 85 hertz...
In 50 hertz test tone i feel the sound... 😁
What did i did ?
I increase the volume of the rear port-hole with full lenght straws (17 ) glued together and put inside...I had modified the volume and neck of what is called in acoustic an Helmholtz resonator... each speakers is a resonator... ( i tuned 100 resonators in my past acoustic room by the way )
The highs are clear as crystals also , i help the focus and separation with a cardboard empty paper roll around the twitter...I know it is not esthetical! But i dont give a damn... And i am proud of my homemade acoustic tricks...
Imaging is very improved now... Soundstage too...
The mids and human voice are fluids and perfect and saxophone feel as one real one ...
Cost of speakers 12 years ago : 100 bucks
I just test the bass with this:
And i felt the bass physically, i just listen to this right now and i miss nothing :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ0mBQsrbqc&list=PLnQJF3Qi_4_DT_NKFgfSy7pLhHb9W9Dka&index=107
I damped the box with concrete and isolate them and use my homemade designed "Golden plates" on the cables connections and dac to improve the texture of the sound... ( shungite+ copper plate ) ... I put them in a dedicated acoustic corner...
These small active box are so good now that even Steve Guttenberg who reviewed them and gave them 8 on 10 , 12 years ago, will be amazed...I was not so much amazed BEFORE my embeddings controls this month... I had no more any other choice of speakers this is why i thought about their optimization... I succeeded ... What is a basic good small box is now a fantastic cheap pair of speakers almost audiophile... I will not upgrade because i am afraid to do so UNDER 1000 bucks...
There is no relation between the sound right out of the box and now...
Then in audio before upgrading you must embed all components right and surprize! upgrading is no more so appealling or necessary...
No subwoofer is needed for me and for most music...
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Yes it is true especially in the speakers case and in dac...And in amplification too...
Self powered speakers can be very good...
Dac at low cost can be very good... More so than a cheap turntable even if at the top as some had experienced the turntable is better... But i cannot verify that at the top, the one claiming this own a 500,000 bucks system...😊 I dont doubt him for sure but he will not contradict me about the sound quality value of low cost dac in low cost good system compared to cheap turntable in low cost system ...
Sound experience is mostly acoustic at the end , and first gear designed but only first... Acoustic experience and perception is the recording core and the listening periphery...Electronics is in the middle as a microphone or as speakers ...
My recommendation for all is to be as open minded and receptive as possible when looking at all the different relatively cost-effective ways one might satisfy their hifi music yearnings these days,
It’s not like the old glory days of analog 2-channel hifi, like back in the 1960s and 1970s, anymore. If one thinks only in terms that defined things 50 years ago there is much one may miss out on in regards to maximizing one’s investment in good music. Technology has come a long way, opened up many new doors, and taken on many different forms. It just has! Don’t miss out!
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Thanks for the beautiful and moving story...
My very best to you...
My wife and I were supposed to be in Cape Cod visiting her mother this week, but my wife caught COVID on the plane coming back from Europe. The weather here in the Midwest is glorious right now. I had already taken the week off, so I am hanging outside on the back deck to get away from her and catching upon on some work on the laptop. I have a Sony Bluetooth Speaker that cost around $250 that picked up for less than half of that at one of the online discount sites. It blows the pants off the ancient B&W Patio speakers. I played a couple of different versions of Beethoven Pastoral Symphony yesterday, just perfect music to accompany the day, and it was heavenly. So yes, one can achieve Audio Nirvana on the cheap if all the stars are aligned
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You are perfectly right... If i was in your shoes and situation i would have act exactly as you did...And i will own the audio system you painstakingly assemble over decades which is a high end top one ...😊
But I had no money and some time to spend in audio studies after retirement...It was a luck too...my luck... Then i faced this hobby more from the bottom up than from top products upside down , by the fate of my situation and limits in money..
But many people are very limited in their budget as i was and had time to do research in audio and acoustics etc .. I spoke for them...
i never claimed that my satisfying audio systems compare in actual quality to yours...I only claimed that mechanical, electrical, and acoustical embeddings control put a relatively low cost well chosen system on a level of minimal satisfaction which would have been impossible with only these low cost components without their optimization... Your high cost system also as you already know had benefit from acoustical, mechanical and electrical embeddings control in a huge way if you had done your job right ...I think you had reading your posts..
For me musical and acoustical satisfaction is possible passed some minimal or optimal threshold...After that exist different quality levels of experience for sure but at very high cost compared to the minimal acoustic satisfaction threshold with a specific system of relatively low cost or the optimal one with any system at any cost ...
Here 2 videos which perfectly explain my position and experience:
High end audio, is it really better ? Steve Huff opinion and experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMO-rZUUq7Q&t=962s
Why Steve Huff sold his end games audio components ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUQaqZRpnU
@mahgister ”…It is generally way less costlier to learn acoustic and mechanical and electrical embeddings than to purchase an upgrade ...”.
Sure… but It really depends on your lifestyle. When I was working I typically worked more than sixty hours a week for the half time I was not out of the country. I made good money in my career… what I did not have was time. So, while I enjoyed extensive research while traveling… there was simply no reason not to buy good quality equipment.
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Thanks...
Our satisfaction level reflect an objective threshold of perception and knowledge a limited one but a real one ...
It is generally way less costlier to learn acoustic and mechanical and electrical embeddings than to purchase an upgrade ...
The objective/subjective extended zone of diminushing returns contain our own potential ENDING POINT of objective/subjective diminishing returns in the ratio perceived S.Q. versus the money invested ......
The search for perfection reflect often a subjective illusion when focussed merely on the gear design search by itself instead of focussing on the necessary learning of the way to embed each components optimally and synergetically in the system/desk/room/house/ ears BEFORE upgrading if we are not satisfied at this point ...
If you search externally from your room acoustic experience with what you already own without optimizing it electruically , mechanically and especially acoustically, and if you look for "the very best sound you can find" from a mere piece of gear you will fall in all probability for the bottomless pit of perfection marketing trap instead of touching the relative ceiling of your acoustical satisfaction point...
Then the bottom up approach is the only one compatible with a real learning/experimenting journey...The top down approach is good for customers with no budget limits and no time to invest in the learning of acoustic and electrical and mechanical basis...
Comparing "the sound" of separated components by upgrading is not a real acoustic learning but a consumers relative learnings about different branded names... We dont learn what is "timbre" and soundstage and imaging and holography and dynamic and transients or about the sound sources dimensions (ASW)and the listener envelopment (LV) in acoustic experience by mere purchasing but by experimenting in our room with what we already have ...
Interesting- the OP approached it from the bottom up seeking a minimum amount to satisfaction, while my journey was top down by listening to very best sound I can find, then try to replicate with the least amount if sonic compromises but within my budget…which often slips
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My 18 propositions to reach satisfaction at low cost :
1. No speakers beat the room...
2. Integrate can be good and pre-amp can be good too... Tubes or S.S. or classD can be good each one of them... No competition exist between good alternatives, only different propositions for different needs...There is many tubes design as there is very different S.S. design ; bad and good one... Fanatics of a brand name excluding anything else are acoustic ignorant very often...
3.Dont upgrade BEFORE the rightful control of the three embeddings dimension : mechanical, acoustical and electrical..
4. Cables and power cord are only component tools they dont replace embeddings controls nor real upgrades, treat them as useful tool working as components..Then refrain to pay too much for them...
5. Turntable or Dac, quality exist in these two formats if we stay under 50,000 bucks ... let audiophile with no limit to their wallet decide that vinyl is better at the endgame ...Who want a 100,000 bucks system anyway ? Not me, if i think with sanity...I am not Bill Gates...
6. Remember that there exist very expansive system that sound not so good and even bad... Guess why reading the 5 other points... And remember that those who claim that no audiophile experience exist with an inexpansive system ignore acoustics, ignore what is synergy, they ignore what were the top audio components of the past not available at low costs and then they are at best not creative...Buying to solve problems is not always creative...
7. Buying is more easy than thinking...Especially in audio...
8. The best way to acess audiophile realm at peanuts cost is learning acoustic enough and designing your own room... I know because i did it once...It takes me one year 7 day by 7 day for sure... I was retired... i had all my time... But tuning all takes me a lot of time... I designed homemade 100 resonators each one tuned... The results were 3-D sound all around the room... With better speakers it would have been even better ... But it was so much good that it trash all my headphones... Audiophile experience cost something , if not money, it cost time , and studies....
😊
9. The sound experience come more from all the working components in relation with the room and the ears...It is why putting a price tag on audiophile experience is preposterous... Acoustics is more important than the specs of the component... I suppose here that we are passed a minimal quality threshold of the basic components for sure to begin with... It is why boasting about the difference between a 25 000 bucks components versus a 50,000 bucks one is most of the time meaningless marketing...Read me right here, i dont claim that there is no differences between these 2 components...I say that the difference in quality matter less than the mechanical,electrical,and acoustical embeddings very often...
Most audio S.Q. come from the right embeddings for specific ears...Thats is my point...A psycho-acoustical point more important than the price tag...
10. if your system is already good , dont upgrade anything buy a BACCH filters system and call your audiophile journey done...it is my recommendation for a relatively costly real upgrade if you want one at all cost... I dont need one now... I will be tempted though... Dr. Choueri is a genius read about him... 😊
11. In general invest 10 times more money in music than in gear...Doing this will make you creative enough to create low cost solutions... My greatest luck was not having money to buy all audiophile design i wanted to... I studied and became creative and learned... Reading a user manual is not learning... Reading basic acoustic is...
12, Placebo effect create miracles : what you have create yourself sound always better than what you only bought without adding anything coming from you...Only ignorant mock people attributing to their experience the "placebo effect" qualitative when they means in fact the concept of deception and illusion...Ignorant dont understand a so deep and complex concept as the "placebo" effect which is anything save deceptive and illusory , the opposite of what they means ... I will not go further here...
13. audio experience is not subjective nor objective, it is less related to the separate gear than related to your working experiments when you LEARN how to hear and LISTEN...
14. audio experience confuse and conflate OFTEN three distinct vocabularies : audio engineering vocabulary, acoustic/psycho-acoustic vocabulary and musical vocabulary... Wise audiophile learn by experiments and studying to distinguish the three distinct perspective... Marketing hide these facts under the rug... They need to sell not to enlighten you.... For example the concept of "timbre" is seen differently from these three perspective...We must learn to distinguish these perspectives...
15 Someone who can do the most can do easily the least...Then if someone cannot optimize a low cost good system so much to make it minimally satisfactory will not be able to optimize the costlier system either... Buying do not replace acoustics knowledge ...
16. When a system reach a MINIMAL sound quality threshold, you forget upgrading because you are lost in music and in ectasy ... This threshold vary for each person and each audio history for sure but EXIST at relatively low cost...
17. Acoustics is the sleeping princess, your ears /brain is the Prince, and the 7 dwarves are the working components...
18. STOP MOVING THE GOAL POST game without end ...This is my 18 th points...These audiophiles moving the goal of each acoustic factors separately to improve them separately, they buy to correct one or the other factor , forgetting the ACOUSTIC WHOLE...They are immersed in some aspect of sound but without the acoustic knowledge to make the whole good to begin with ...
Perfection in small room audio is USELESS and ILLUSORY... It is a market superstition ,Why?
Because our ears/brain are imperfect.... Our small room are generally not perfect too...
Then we must seek synergy between components,ears, and room , not "perfection"...
And synergy must be LEARNED..."Perfection" can be bought if we trust consumers conditioning publicity... i trust my ears not publicity...
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I like so much my self powered small speakers that active speakers will be my next move...
Is it clearer?
english is not my first language then i apologize...😊
"I would like to try it but my small speakers are self powered.... And i just discovered that active speakers will be my next move ."
Aren’t powered speakers the same as active speakers? Am I missing something?
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Very interesting suggestion... Thanks...
I would like to try it but my small speakers are self powered.... And i just discovered that active speakers will be my next move ....
I listen intensively on my headphone because they are top and very hard to beat...
I listen casually on the small self powered speakers without feeling any deep lacking even in the bass ( i had no deep bass for sure)
Would love to try the new Fosi V3 with a pair of large high quality high efficiency speakers that I do not own currently. I would go in with very high expectations.
If anyone with large good quality high efficiency speakers would like to try that, I’d be interested in the results. Could a $140 Class D amp be a reasonable alternative to a 10X or more pricey tube amp that would normally be assigned the job? Inquiring minds want to know! The Fosi V3 with upgrade power supply is only $140 on Amazon and easily returnable.
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I cannot say that i will abandon the quest for better sound... Then i guess i am like ghdprentice on this...😊
But lacking money i focussed in the past my attention on low cost improvements neglected generally by most...
Anyway i cannot say, even if like ,as hilde45, the contemplative view of Thoreau a lot, I cannot say that i could ever downgrade by spiritual and minimalistic ethical imperative; in the opposite the way the music experience became immersive now for me ,PASSED A SPECIFIC ACOUSTIC SATISFACTION TRESHOLD made very easy for me to forgot the never ending audiophile quest for better sound.... Music is so powerful with not too much limitations in the acoustic front now, that any upgrade appear to me even if possible if not useless, not necessary at all ... But saying that i am conscious too that tempted by some revolutionary product as the BACCH filters i will purchase it right now if i could do it...
It is my paradoxical attitude...No need of anything but open to some REAL upgrade...
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I am a music lover first, but i am also an audiophile; give me 100,000 bucks i will go with ghdprentice club...😊
I never said that my 2 systems are audiophile ceiling , only at the audiophile minimal floor starting point for the speakers, but higher for my headphone which is a unique design a top one in all headphone history ...
My next upgrade will be not the headphone nor the amplifier but the dac, i dream to buy a BACCH filters dac system...
You have arrived a totally blessed place!
Hopefully everyone else can join you, there!
As you see even totally satisfied i dream anyway... But the BACCH system is way more than an upgrade to be truthfull,... I will not upgrade probably save with that...
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I modified my small speakers M-Audio AV40 so much well they are completely transformed...
I add cardboard cylinder around the tweeter to make easier imaging and directionality toward my listening position... Impressive results...
Then i increased the Internal volume of the small box with the right bundle of 20 tubes( straws for one dollar) i put them in the rear porthole... Results as astonishingly good no drawbacks...It is simple Helmholtz design applied... Now i have more bass depth , more extension too... The explanation is to be look for in any basic acoustic book...
New speakers completely... They were very well reviewed but now they beat or rival most headphones in near listening save my AKG K340 for sure...
Audiophile results dont equate only with "price tag" ... It is acoustics basic for me....
Think twice before qualifying my acoustic experiments by "tin foil hat"... What i did is based on acoustics not foolishness... 😊
No designer can sell a small box with tubes going out at the rear and tube going out in front... I can....
These are my third and fourth systems. Number 1 and 2 are still much more costly, but I have been successful downsizing all around in recent years accordingly as a result of not being afraid to first try less expensive and easily returnable things that do not necessarily have the high end audio industry "blessing". Meaning I am less prone to simply throw money at the problem than in past years, which is a positive development.
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I was prepared long ago about this drawback ...
The title of my virtual page in the last 10 years is : "Audiophile experience for the poor"
I discovered that the three embeddings controls : acoustic, mechanic and electric, put us far enough on the road to claim audiophile results at low cost...😊
Add to this synergy between the right vintage conmponent and you are there...
What amplifier can beat my Sansui alpha today and at which cost ?
Good luck... It will be way costlier...
For the Akg K340 , to beat it buy an Abyss or a Susvara...
Now add the cost of a new amplifier and of the susvara and you exceed easily 10,000 bucks versus my 700 bucks...
I know for sure that i enjoy music with a very good sound... No need to fool my brain .... Upgrading will for sure be possible...
But as i said there exist a MINIMAL audiophile threshold of satisfaction ...By objective as subjective criteria together...
😊
The only drawback is membership in the prestigious high end audio club will be harder to earn, so better get busy right away on that one.
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Very interesting post!
Thanks...
Especially the preacher Rembrandt metaphor... 😊
I can recall many highly emotional and satisfying moments with "lesser systems." As my knowledge and awareness of "better sound" pursued an upward trajectory, each time a layer was peeled back revealing the complexity and nuance (and, yes, bone-jarring impact) of the performance my appreciation for the music, and those boxes and cables that made it happen grew exponentially.
On a long commute to a business interest years ago, I was scanning radio stations and came across a sermon that caught my attention (good preachers are excellent teachers). The message went something like this: "We are merely ants on a Rembrant seeing textures and colors change beneath our feet as we scurry around, unable to appreciate the masterpiece has been put together in front of us."
This hit home with me on many levels, including the reproduction of music. As we work our way up the "hifi scale", there is a transition from merely seeing (hearing) colors and textures (changes in tone and tempo) to a level where we can more fully appreciate the masterpiece that’s in front of us.
There’s a statement: "You don’t know what you don’t know." Which is to say that many (most?) don’t know what is missing from their musical experience at home, and are quite satisfied with what they own. Do we audiophiles provide musical inspiration to others, or are we bubble busters?
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I think that it is an interesting metaphor thanks...
It correspond to my feeling about my acoustic journey...
So, does a satisfaction level exist under $1,000? Absolutely. If you cannot afford more… or if you are compulsively frugal and can afford more.
I went to Outward Bound and after having no food or water for three days, being rained on for a day, snowed on for a day, freezing my butt off, with no tent or sleeping bag and having a trail biscuit and hot tea was one of the best meals I ever had.
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I dont think for sure that someone who spend 100,000 dollars is deluded at all....
There is priorities to see BEFORE upgrading for sure : acoustics and ele4ctrical and mechanical embeddings controls but upgrading is ALWAYS possible...
My question was and is about a defined minimal satisfaction threshold defined objectively by some acoustic characteristics and for sure very important subjective factors which are linked to our sound and personal music history ....
No one is the same....Our needs too constraint our choices; i am alone and dont need a room for the family and friends for the enjoyment of music... Costs and gear are then different...
Or, one can try to convince oneself that everyone else who can spends more is deluded. (That’s hard, too. Better equipment -- room and gear -- does yield better sound.)
Happily i never give up about the idea of good sound nor about the way to reach some satisfying level...It takes me time and trials and experiments but i am more than happy now...
I can forget sound easily and focus on music because my basic acoustic needs are satisfied: Imaging , soundstaging, holography, timbre, etc upgrading is possible but a real upgrading but will be very , very costly...It will cost at least ten times the cost of my system...My last upgrade was a disastrous and cost me two times almost the cost of my actual system...
Or, one should give up the idea of better sound and just focus on music only, not sound. (That's hard.)
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Perhaps it is true...
Without the 35 years old Sansui alpha nor unique 45 years old hybrid AKG K340 i will be far from where i am now...Especially without this headphone i think... Or i would had pay way more...
Then my question did not have the same meaning ...It takes very refin3ed past products to reach some minimal acoustic satisfaction level...
Sub-$1,000 quality systems disappeared during the 1970s.
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I must confess that if i was impressed by some costly system on some occasion , each time the acoustic of the room was the MAIN culprit ...
For Jay he does not know enough about acoustics ... Buying panels is not enough... 😁
Some people invest in gear....More and more... Some others like me had no choice than invest in the knowledge necessary to improve what they have...
It is rewarding because whatever i had in the future as what i have now will sound very good...
Making the most with the less is true audio knowkledge... Anybody can buy the best amplifier of the world... 😊 Not me right now though and i dont need it really bad anyway even if i am very curious about it for sure...
I heard Jay’s Audio Lab system played on YouTube through my TCL tablet. It was playing THAT Elvis song "I love you baby ..." from Tidal. Execrable sound quality! The Wilson speakers looked and sounded like what you’d see at a rock concert! So a quarter million for the Wilson’s and another quarter million for the electronics! There is no limit to the follies of the rich!
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Thanks for your thoughts and history...
It seems i am less alone in my experience than i thought i was...
When I was in high school my friend had an affordable system: Pioneer receiver and turntable, KLH 6 speakers. Listening to Buffalo Springfield, The Nice and Pink Floyd was so enjoyable compared to my folks’ GE console! Too many members here have lost touch with Reality by pursuing ever more costly components. Enjoyment of music is a subjective experience that eludes comparison based upon cost of gear.
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Interesting!
For sure there is something here that apply to me...
I know that my actual amplifier will be inferior to the best class D amplifier as atmasphere amp for example ... But anyway it is out of my budget...And my actual amp is good enough anyway...
But did i convinced a part of my brain to be happy even if it is not perfect ?
Probably you are right here for sure ...Thinking about it, i will surely invest 100,000 bucks in an audio system if i could... This contradict my ectasy each evening with a 1000 bucks system...
The problem is i dont think so it is necessary to upgrade when listening music in ectasy and being unable to fault as completely wrong on any acoustic count my audio system...It seems to me not lacking in any acoustic factors even if any of these factors can be improved for sure with an astronomical amount of money compared to 700 bucks...
I loose my bet the last time, one week ago, i tried to upgrade...Lesson learned...
For sure it is possible to upgrade with the right choice : for me a BACCH filters system... 😊
If I already know that my budget is limited, I adjust my expectations.
I’m happier if I believe that the thing I cannot afford won’t make much of a difference.
The challenge is this: if part of my mind suspects this is false, how do I convince the other part of my mind to believe it.
Orwell called this doublethink. One way I accomplish this is I find other people to help me convince myself that what I want to believe is true.
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Thanks you confirm my claim that there is a minimal satisfaction threshold... Even an objective minimal one defined by all acoustic factors must exist ...
I have an inexpensive system that I like very much...but I like my main system much more...but could be happy with my under $1000 system if need be...
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For sure you are right...
I was just curious about the way some people would be able to create a very good audio system for low price and a good audiophile experience...
For sure for people owning costlier gear my claim is preposterous...😁 Money talk here...
But acoustic do more than what most people think.... And the right components... And the right synergy...
Anyway i am in heaven ... I am just curious to know if there is anyone happy with under 1000 bucks system and why as i am ...
@mahgister
That depends more on the listener than the equipment and the variation is so wide there is no reliable answer. You would have to ask 10,000 random people and analyze the results.
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i was always original it seems ... 😊
Do you think acoustic conditions define good sound or "price tag" ?
I just improve my small box speakers by acoustic embeddings so much they are completely satisfying...
I modify them...Put them in a designed acoustic corner...
Cost of my small speakers : 100 bucks...
They best most headphone on the market and many speakers in living room ......
😊
Yes, you are.
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