I am what I am. Here is how I approach this hobby. We can ALL agree,we can recognize the sound of a train. However,can we all agree on the same exact sound? Of course not. Our brains don’t process everything the same. I’m not going to try to tell another person how they should hear something. Yet,we see this everyday. While a great majority on this site forgot more than I know technically, I don’t understand how someone can tell me the best sound to my ears. I’ll leave that to MY internal processor. |
@rocray I know what sounds good to my ears. After that, I don’t don’t know $h/t from the proverbial shinola. that is THE most important thing, and to be accepting and honest about it - key key step in musical happiness in system building -- too many people who come here looking for advice fail to know this, or cannot express this properly |
I know what sounds good to my ears. After that, I don’t don’t know $h/t from the proverbial shinola. |
In the last 48 years I've made my living doing everything from live sound, rock & roll roadying, acoustical consulting, professional systems design and installation, design, manufacturing of speakers, selling HiFi, owning a HiFi store, scrounging garage sales and reselling, and 20 years as an IT Architect for AT&T. So actually, I know quite a lot about quite a lot and know there's even more that I don't know. I will confess to loving vinyl and turntables, and continue to be amazed what different loudspeaker designs can do, (BBC nearfield, Magnepans, vintage Altec and JBLs). My next exploration will be an HE full range driver in a transmission line enclosure from my shop driven by (hopefully) a 300b tube amp. And I'll use my Sonos 1s for background music while building it. |
I can advise people on speakers, amplifiers, cables, digital to analog converters, preamplifiers, and tuners as well as room setup and placement options but you have to leep an open mind around me because the stuff i suggest may surprise you for sure.
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Like Willie Nelson said “ I sing, but I’m not a singer, I play guitar, but I’m not a guitar player, what I am, is a song writer”. |
In the 1990's when I was young and had a ton of energy and ambition, I did a lot of trial and error. I mean a lot of running back and forth to various audio salons. I happen to hit on a few combinations of really great sounding gear. Those impressions have stayed with me to this day. I'm much less focused on it all now as health issues and other matters have crowded in. I'm in the process of finishing my new basement. Maybe that will restart my interest in it all. |
Actually I am a civil engineer and electronics engineer, or was. I retired 3 tears ago but still keep interested. My first
audio was back in 1966 (Kreisler valve radio, multilayer drop records) before creeping to higher spec as money allowed.
Now I am proud and embarrassed to say my system is worth big money. Does that make it better than anyone else’s? It’s what we are happy listening to, what we are used to. No arguments. “My specifications are really no better than yours). I have a MS-91L TT and a J Allberts MC-1 cartridge. Nothing special but is sounds great. There are some other components that I think make my listening special, but please done think I am bragging. I’m not.
My employment enabled me to elevate to where I am.
Each and everyone of us will do the same. Maybe not to the extent it did, but in the end we are all looking for the best sound for the budget we have.
All the best all of you
AG 🇦🇺 |
L+,R+
True stereo for all
screw dolby |
I am an absolute master of mediocrity over all technical aspects of sound recording and reproduction. The beauty of music tends to overwhelm me, so I guess I don't know much about music either, but I do like it. |
Audio production; broadcast, studio mix and master, live music. I worked in the analogue realm, then moved over to digital video editing.
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Spelling and on/off swichs |
I am expert in judging blog posts and comments and point out flaws with their knowledge |
With every one thing I learn, I realize there are two more things waiting for me.
And so on, and so on, and so on...
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I can fill a known glass or carafe to various levels by sound (not sight).
Certainly this special ability must have some HiFi application.
DeKay
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I advise you to not listen to advice but to music
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I stick with stuff I've heard and what I've learned from trial and error over the years. I have no special expertise just personal experience.
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I am an equal opportunity music and gear lover. Personally, I do think that I have a critical ear and have been to enough live unamplifed shows and audio gatherings to have had the pleasure to hear the very best and worst that this hobby has to offer. I know intimately what my system can do and I am able to make comparisons with other gear that I have listened to, just to hear and guage where the given systems are better, worse, different etc. There are just too many quality components available that none of us have the possibility or resources to try them all, but we can try to listen to as many as we can. Even live music sounds different from evening to evening. So many variables. Enjoy the process 🎶 |
untangling multiple runs of speaker wire
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Jack of all trades. Master of none. |
i have been messing with hifi since my late teen’s in college in rhode island, with a part time job at tech hifi to make pocket money and play with cool stuff -- been a music lover, heard many a live performance, professional and amateur (freshman roomie was a music major, saxophonist), supported jazz organizations formally and informally during my working life, in various capacities
i always try to make note when at very good venues for live performances, make mental notes of what that sounds like... tonal balance, how sound expands with loudness and how it quiets, is there imaging? is there a sound stage?, how does it decay at trailing end of notes?,what does an unamplified singer sound like? what do sss’s and tttt’s sound like? what does the leading edge of a soprano sax note sound like, what do grand pianos on stage sound like, what does a grand piano in a small jazz room sound like, how does an acoustic bass note engage the room, hit your chest ... how is it different when the music is mic’d and amplified?
then when messing with gear, i try to get recreate those sonic remembrances... rule out gear just gets it wrong |
Matching various varietals to the music. |
I'm in the category of unknown knowns. |
I became an expert at figuring out when an advice is not worth listening to.
I cannot make my own more often than not, but I can tell you when yours is worthless. I guess that is half point. |
Nothing really, but I dabble broadly.
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I know almost nothing....
But what i learned is very interesting and useful for me and i hope will be to others...
Any "embeddings controls" will exceed in transformation power most upgrade if implemented rightfully: vibrations/resonance controls, any way to decrease the electrical grid noise floor and the TWO complementary way to tune room acoustic:
The passive way with materials surface which are absorbing, reflecting and diffusive, looking for the right balance between these three is the BASIS...
BUT it is not enough,
Activation of the room by controls of the pressure zones and their modification by Helmholtz method using pipes and tubes finely tuned by ears like a piano tuning....Not only to transform the room but to help each ears to extract information from EACH speaker in controlling timing threshold and with the marking out of the direction of sound in the room differently for each ear....
I discovered that the most audiophile precious object is not any piece of gear at almost any price but a dedicated room....Contrary to almost all others opinions when they boast even rightfully about their favorite branded names....
This is all i know.....Give me any " relatively good system " even at low cost it will shine so much with my methods that upgrading urge will cease...
This was the basis for my audiophile experience with a low cost system under control which RATIO S.Q. /price exceed most system....Read carefully my system is NOT the best system here.... but it is one of the best under this RATIO....
Acoustic and psychoacoustic are so powerful that it is impossible to undestate them... You can improve a system by a more larger margin with acoustic than by buying most upgrading electronical design if what you already have is "relatively good" to begin with.... This truth could kill a big part of electronic market in audio .....
Then i know almost nothing, but what i have learned through my listening experiments give me the key to sonic bliss without needing to buy anything exceeding basic relatively good gear thats all....
i know that it is incredible ....
All people by the way after placing some bass traps and some absorbing surfaces think they have already a good room.... 😊😁😊 Alas! it is a bit more complicated than that, this is the bad news.... The good news is this is possible to create it at NO cost.... I did....But you must trust your ears and it takes time to fine tune it....
The test at the end is simple: no headphone can compete with your room under control.... I know i trash in a drawer my 7 pairs....dynamic,magneplanar,hybrid and electro-static.... |
I don't know what I don't know |
I’m very good at sitting and listening to music. Only problem, too much sitting. |
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Digital is my Domain. SACD/DSD especially. But I find it very hard to educate people on what "good" Digital is compared to what they perceive based on what they've read in Stereophool or in the The Absolute Ass or some YouTube Video (Guilty as charged).
There is excellent PCM out there as well. It's all in how it's Mastered actually. |
Mostly just stuff I have tried. |
