I have made some purchasing mistakes in my time. I remember an "audiophile" CD player which I bought for 40% off, the Muse Signature 9, somewhere around $2000 back in the 90s. It was awful, cut off beginning and ending transients. I guess I bought it because my analog would always beat CDs in the 80's and 90's. Worse than my Sonys and Kyoceras.
I bought speakers in the 80's and 90's that didn't suit my electronics but I sold them for minor losses. Most recently I purchased some SR products which were more playthings than sound enhancements (I love SR duplex outlets, fuses and HFTs).
Got 80% of my purchase price back.
So, we all make mistakes along the way to building a great audio system. My equipment is mostly 13 to 30 years old with only cables and tweaks which are recent purchases and my new DAC, the COS Engineering D2 as of yesterday.
Yes, that expensive CD player purchase bugs me even today. |
geoffkait has made many interesting and educational audiophile posts which I appreciate. Then he goes off on I'm right and you're wrong attitude which is shear arrogance. I've had much worse trolls that put me down on a personal, race and religion basis.
Headphone listening has it's place and is a substitute for a dedicated listening room. I prefer listening with dynamic music in the room rather than close to my eardrums. I also like to feel the bass/air movement if it's present. Since I am a part time mastering engineer for the aforementioned symphony, chamber group and many choirs, I depend on a good set of headphones since I don't have a mastering studio to work in. |
YOU ARE SOOOOO WRONG!!! I have a custom built listening room with ONLY the equipment I use to hear music. I have two book libraries, a separate custom shelving room housing the music collection which I actively listen to and a Tuff-Shed with the same custom made shelving for another 5,000 78s and LPs. My listening room cost exceeded $500/sq. ft. Friends homes have similar and higher cost listening rooms. Frank and Robert already know how great my system sounded compared to nearly all the systems heard at shows and audio salons. There is NO way that my excess equipment, music library or anything else interferes with the listening room. My room is seen in this video prior to completion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=49&v=vUg7Xd16ifA&feature=emb_logo
However, my cable manufacturing friend has a truly crappy room with a tube TV between his speakers, glass side wall, 8’ ceilings, long wall mounted system, CDs and LPs stacked and walled behind the speakers.yet his system sounds fabulous without deep bass (heard, not felt), possibly due to his 5" mid-woofers being too small and the room dimensions. |
My circle of friends include Kevin Gray, Steve Hoffman, Robert Pincus-all well known remastering engineers. Maybe you hate their work-most people don’t. Other musician long time friends include a conductor Noreen Green of a private symphony whose members consist of top LA Symphony and Hollywood studio musicians, Viklarbo Chamber Group headed by Maria Newman (you know Alfred Newman’s daughter), many opera singers and my large coterie of singers and instrumentalists. I really doubt you have as deep and broad a connection to music as I have. Too bad, you should get out more.
I doubt you share listening to music using headphones. You are a "know it all" type person. Anyone who states that they haven't been wrong since 1985 is an arrogant fool.
I am an intellectual without all the answers, curious and learning all the time. |
@glupson My listening room cost about $155-165,000. It has 16" thick, acoustically engineered walls per AcousticFields designer with activated carbon filtering, a 3000 psi 12" thick steel reinforced slab, 2 ton low noise HVAC, dedicated power panel with 10 circuits with 10 gauge wiring, 90 oz. plush carpet, 3/4" cherry paneling. Synergistic Research blue duplexes for audio gear. The interior walls are set on a 12" plate with 1" MDF, 1/8" Acoustiblok vinyl sheathing, 3/4" MDF, 3X12 studs, alternating 2X12 and 4X12 full height blocking, sandwiched in the 2X12s are 4’ X 12.6" four 4" thick chambered carbon filters, 4" thick insulation, all interior joints sprayed with flexseal (20 cans), then the cherry plywood. The ceiling has fire-rated industrial lighting. Ceiling suspended and side wall mounted absorption panels. The ceiling could not accommodate the load (2X8s), so there is 4’+ thick roll insulation above the built-up ceiling. The two doors are 6’8" (800 lbs) and 8’ (1000 lbs) high and 17" thick, built identically to the interior walls.
NO bass traps needed. The room is tuned to 25 Hz low frequency flat and designed to accommodate 6 - 12" woofers without overhang. That’s why my room cost $500/sq. ft. But it is worth it!
P.S. Which record did you purchase? |
The 8' door is supported by six industrial hinges and the 6'8" door has four. Each door has the same structure as the walls:MDF, Acoustiblok vinyl, MDF, 3X12 frame, 2X12 and 4X12 interleaved blocking, 4" 4 chamber carbon filters, 4" insulation, flexseal sprayed at all joints and finished with cherry plywood. They swing with a smooth, velvety touch of the finger. I can send you photos of the doors if you like.
As to my audio system, I've heard a system which trounces mine at a cost of $1.4 million. Otherwise, I estimate my system trounces 95% of audiophile systems despite their higher pedigree of components. Music is the thing I cherish, not the audio system. If my amps break down and can't be repaired (they're custom made), I'd buy a VAC 200IQ to replace it. If my preamp broke down similarly, I'd probably buy an EAR 912. Turntables, arms and cartridges are easily replaced today. I just bought a DAC to replace my EAR Acute. So, I wouldn't even think about audio equipment on my deathbed, only the music. |
glupson-I was prepared to spend another $50,000 if the room was 25’ X 20’ X 14’, the site of my extra land adjacent to my family room. However, on 3-17-2017 the City of Los Angeles passed a anti-mansionization law that downsized to 20% buildable area on 20,000’+ lots (25% on lesser size lots) zoned RA. Since 1/4 of L.A. is a zoned RA, that killed construction/additions beyond the reasonable size for large lots. However, they kept in place 50% buildable area for under 7,500’ lots and 45% over on R1 lots, the majority of lots in L.A. So this stupid law allows 4,500’ mansions on 10,000’ lots to still be constructed overshadowing neighbors with modest 1,200’ homes which is very much still happening. So, I used two of my four slightly oversized garages to build an interior of 15.8" X 19’8" X 10’ high listening room with those 16" thick exterior walls..
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On any residential zoned lot, one can construct up to a 10’ X 12’ shed, not larger, without permit, but can build as many as a lot can hold (in my lot, about two dozen on my grassy areas). Stupid laws in California. Gov Newsom and the Democratic supermajority are passing many stupid laws, such as two weeks ago, permission to construct two ADU (additional dwelling units) on any residential lot regardless of HOA and municipal zoning ordinances. No additional parking is required. This is to encourage homeless residences to be developed on private land. Yeah, like someone is going to build ADUs and have homeless move onto their properties, especially in my guard gated neighborhood. |
My wife heard the Von Schweikert/VAC/Kronos/etc. $1.4 million audio system at a show and said that's the one she wants. I can't afford it and it is too large for my listening room. But that's the one she wants which is better than 99.9% of what the audiophile population owns. No, the Von Schwekert Ultra 9 won't work for us either, it's too large as well. |
geoffkait Again, you're talking out of your .... You haven't heard the system and your dismissing it as garbage. Dozens of audio critics spent hours listening to that system all over the U.S. and thought it was the most entrancing music reproduction system ever. Grow up! |
I saw the photos of the Von Schweikert exhibit on-line. That room was humongous. Doesn't look like the other rooms they've shown in or the one I heard. However, I brought my own LPs and CDs to hear the Ultra 11 set-up which I used throughout the local show of the Ultra 11s. This included the Urania LP Paul Price Breaking the Sound Barrier on LP, Mercury CD Ramsey Lewis Down to Earth. Awesome recreation of the studio/recording venue and immensely realistic sound with great pacing. There was applause after the LP played. The big Tidal speakers sounded great only on jazz, why is that? Forget the Magicos, Vivids and Wilsons, the music was not as focused or realistic (and where was the pacing on the Magicos)? Actually the Volti speakers got the pacing right as well as the realism, not the tonality though. |
