I am so happy.....


That my upgradeitis is over before it even started.

I am so happy with the system I have, I want to share with everyone the fact that that even a very modest and cheap system can produce great sound for me and makes me happy to the point where I no longer have to search for improvements.

Call me ignorant if you want. Does not bother me even an iota. I will go the grave happier than everyone who is condescending.

I am using my own home made Neurochrome 686 stereo amp with 1000 VA medical grade toroidal, 160 amp rectifier (very little fwvd hence virtually no heat generated) and 200,000uF filter capacitors producing approx 220 watts rms/channel. It sounds just absolutely FANTASTIC.

My preamp is a Freya S. Speakers are B&W.

I have a Linn LP12 with SME 3009R and Nagaoka 500 and a Mani which I find that I listen to less and less in favor of the convenience and the dynamics and quietness of digital.

For my music server, wait for it......... I use an LG V60 phone, which has a great in built DAC, which I bought for $300 brand new on ebay ($1200 retail but no longer made) using the lossless Apple Music and Qobuz apps. I use an AuidoEngine B1 as my bluetooth receiver to which the LG phone can send aptX-HD which I can actually also connect directly to the Freya S on occasion.

The combination sounds simply fantastic to my ears and I listen to it for hours grateful that this technology available today provides this gift to me.

Just as I am writing this, I am listening to smooth jazz "Euge Groove Slow jam" and it is just sublime.

 

128x128cakyol

Showing 3 responses by asctim

There's upgradeitis, and then there's experimentitis. I have been very happy with my systems many times, but I can never get over the question "I wonder what it would sound like if..." And then I wonder "Why am I so fascinated with this audio thing?" I guess we all need something to do. I change my diet around a lot too, not because I'm unhappy with the current diet, but just wondering what will happen, like if I change from a keto diet to an ultra low fat / high carb diet? So I try it and find out I can ride my bicycle faster with lots of carbs, but need to bring food with me on longer rides and dress warmer in cold weather. I deal with hot weather much better but also pee a lot more. 

@mceljo

I suspect that playing with different brands is similar to rolling tubes were the result can be "different" as much as "better" or "worse" in a lot of cases.

I agree. Different but not necessarily better is something I’ve found frequently. Recently I changed my TV to a big 75" flat screen, which is located smack between the speakers. I was very concerned about how it might change the sound. It did change the sound, but in a way that seems as natural as before. The bass response needed to be adjusted. More recently I experimented with putting absorption behind my tweeter horns as I suspected that sound was diffracting from the horn mouth and going around behind them. This created a much stronger measured effect than I expected at the listening position, with the lower end response of the horn dropping off, and early delay times in that range also coming down quite a bit. The spectrogram analysis looks very clean. I didn’t realize how much of the later reflections were emerging from the surfaces directly behind the horn. Now that I’ve re-equalized it the effect is obviously not as noticeable. It’s a bit more refined but as I get used to it the improvement seems less important. It’s just business as usual. So that’s another issue with upgradeitits - the improvement is more exciting when it’s new. If it’s getting rid of something really bothersome than that’s definitely going to improve long term satisfaction. But if it’s something more subtle that wasn’t bothering you before but is noticeable, the satisfaction of the improvement itself fades over time. Whatever this absorption did is something nice that I really didn’t need to enjoy the music. Am I enjoying it more now, or is this again just something different? In a way it’s just something different. Some early reflections don’t always sound unnatural. They add a little vibrant effect at the expense of some fine details. This sort of thing happens in real life with real acoustic instruments in real spaces all the time so it doesn’t come across as wrong sounding, at least to me.

@mahgister 

But i never wanted to listen my favorite music WITHOUT an acoustical relative perfection learning  stoically to deal  with a low level quality sound ... i wanted audiophile relative top level experience...That was my goal...At the lower cost...I succeeded...

I've had some first hand experience with how powerful room acoustics can be, verifying your approach to good sound. I got to listen to Revel Ultima Salon II, JBL 4367, some Golden Ear towers (don't know which model), and a few other speakers going down to $2000 a pair in a room that isn't sounding good yet. They were fed with Big McIntosh and Mark Levinson amps and high end digital sources - don't know which. In that room the choice of speaker/electronics couldn't overcome the situation. I could hear some differences but the overall effect of the space swamped whatever the speakers and electronics could do. It just plain sounds bad in there right now and it makes all those speakers sound bad in pretty much the same way. There's no doing anything about it other than fixing that room. Well, there was one thing - turn them down and sit really close. That helped a bit.