Homage to those who are pleased with your audio rig

@2psyop --

I am now pleased with my two audio systems. I am enjoying the music. Both are, by most measures, humble audio rigs but.... I am enjoying the music.

Great that you’ve gotten to that, enjoying the music - or managed to continue enjoying music on your audio journey, because that’s not always a given. Sometimes an audio journey is more about audio (or one certainly becomes more engulfed with it in these hi-fi affairs) than music per se, but the two are hardly inseparable; I find enjoying music an even bigger experience now because of how it sounds, or maybe it’s because I don’t feel ashamed about cherishing the sound of music and letting the physics of sound have its say.

The live experience of an organ concert in a church and the acoustics it offers is cemented by its sonic nature; the grand locale, the reverberation, the loftiness, the massive scale, the physicality of the organ playing - this way it becomes more than music and turns into an experience of transcendence even. Try recreating that through the stereo. Most fail miserably and the experience falls utterly flat.

Please tell us all, how did you get there? Are you still working at it? Care to tell us what equipment your using? Simple rig? Are you enjoying the music?

To me it has been about progressively realizing the importance of physics and size of sound, and how effectively miniaturizing sound mostly through speakers too small and inefficient - and believe me, most are - is diminishing the impact and nature of music-as-sound on its own terms. It’s not about SPL per se, but its uninhibited and effortless attainment at any desired or necessitated level is part of the equation, if you would. To my mind it’s become too much about "cultivation" and brands from a sonic package too wimpy and never really getting the basics right, on a broader scale at least.

I’ve gotten to where I am now with the gradual implementation of horns, large radiation area/overall size, high efficiency and active configuration (see my setup on my profile for those interested, so not to take up more written space than needed), and this involved eschewing traditional hi-fi speakers and amps and instead choosing pro (i.e.: studio and cinema mostly) segment solutions.

What I have now won’t essentially change down the road, so my current setup is pretty much the basic expression of what I seek in audio reproduction. A relief and great joy, actually, and an outset to work from that will have continuity and keep prices reasonably at bay.

Simplicity may not be what best describes my system and overall approach. I mean, main speakers + two subs, 3 stereo amps (one for each driver section) and digital cross-over - plus the rest (DAC/preamp and PC-based source). The complexity issue, at least for the uninitiated lies in setting filter values by yourself and integrating the subs properly. It’s not plug-and-play for sure, but the efforts have been very worthwhile.

I’m enjoying music immensely. No genre is left by the wayside, music just immerses with an effortless, full, present, coherent and dynamically unrestricted presentation. Frequency range extends down to 20-25Hz at full click, that is any desired SPL with ease. Very informative and alive at low levels as well. Happy dandy here.

@mahgister --

We can live happy at 50 hertz....

I am....

What has surprised me is how much a hard deck of 50-ish Hz actually suffices. For music you get a long way with this, and it's certainly much more important how >50Hz is reproduced than more blindly going after added extension. Indeed, hunting for an octave lower can be an expensive endeavor, in more than sense, not least of which is potentially making matters worse for how the bass above it and in very general is presented - if not properly implemented.  

But the question presses itself: should not lower than 50Hz suffice? It's a matter of how you go about it, what your goal is and the time and effort one is willing to invest. To me it's been about weighing the potential disadvantages against what could be gained going with lower extension, something's that is also tied with the specific bass principles I've pursued and their limited bandwidths, how it may affect sensitivity, structural integrity and specifics with floor construction, the impact on enclosure size (i.e.: and inevitability with horns), and so on. A close to 25Hz tune seemed a proper balance to me all things considered. 

Properly implemented an honest octave lower than 50Hz makes a difference with lots of music and not least films, I can tell you that.