Not taking the advice of many of the commenters on this forum.
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@bobpyle , You're welcome...and speaking for the crowd sourced here, we're always more than happy to opine on everything conceivable audio and then some... ;) @boxcarman, here in NC it's what's available at the going rate here in NC and subject to whom you're conspiring with....somethings never seem to change... 🤷♂️ |
For myself, it is the artistry of music creation. Most of the time I could care less how my system reproduces the sound or the quality of the recording. It all has to do with the artist. I truly admire the 0.0001% who are able create what we call music. It is something that I was never able to do. For instance, I enjoy listening to Yoko Ono. She is far from an outstanding mainstream artist. Her music can be screeching to the ears. Yet, the effort and passion is exemplary and I enjoy her music because of that. |
The room. By a mile. Not even close. Other things can affect the sound but you can actually see them working. You can turn a dial, move a speaker or change a cable But you can't see a room working. So it is often held in less regard. My NAD preamp, old Carver Amp and Salk Songtowers edge out my Don Sachs Preamp, Primaluna Evo amp and Tannoy Turnberry...at much less than half the price. Old house had a hard plaster acoustic ceiling and better dimensions. New room is not bad but it took a lit of work to get it to where it is. And much more to do.
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One other thing I think is important is to realize not all "audiophiles" have the same goals for their sonic hobby and one should define what they want out of the hobby for themselves and realize not all will agree with that. If you have a friend who is a good musician or access to a good musician, have them come and play their instrument for you in your listening room. I was surprised at the power of real. |
as a rule, music leading to the devil is listened to in youth (there are no brains, life experience, hormones and biology are boiling) ... |
@holmz + 1 - Gotta be somebody shoving their religion at us. |
@thecarpathian - Personally, I do edibles, mostly! |
Over the last month I replaced/updated my entire system’s cables, ICs, PCs and speaker from very well known and well reviewed company, PLUS, some 10 yo+ PCs from a boutique company to Nordost knock-offs from China. Like most of us I proceeded cautiously, first buying just a Odin 2 coaxial cable to replace my Pangea Premier XL ($169). The improvement was not subtle, so I ordered Odin 2 XLRs and power cord, similar improvements, so I followed with 2 robust twisted, but unnamed PCs from same company @ ~ $40 (these for my transport and dac/pre outboard PS- much better than the boutique >$400PCs. Enjoying my vastly improved musical enjoyment, it occurred to me that I should also replace the PC to my CorePower 1800 PLC. This time I ordered a Odin Gold, and the system sounded better still. On well recorded discs I often feel transported to the live performance or recording studio. Sharing this experience with a fellow ’phile, he noted the Odin Gold might not be heavy enough gauge for the PLC and recommended a Chinese PC that is available from Amazon; 10ga single crystal copper, very high quality Rhodium plated plug 1.5m just $45 with 20% discount, shipped in 2 days, compared to the ~ 3 weeks from China!. I decided to try it on the dac/pre PS- absolutely no comparison, so Saturday I ordered another for my transport, which is scheduled to arrive today On entry level kit one may not notice much, but if your system, sans cables, is $3K +, Im confident you will be highly rewarded
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IMHO, the source, i.e., the vinyl/SACD/CD, etc. If the original recording, mastering, engineering is sub-par so will be your listening experience. Will a $250K system make a crappy source more listenable, probably. But combine that system with a recording/pressing that is top notch and you achieve nirvana. Again, just my humble opinion. |
@blisshifi @jasonbourne52 @ghdprentice @elliottbnewcombjr @syntax @sns @mike_in_nc @islandmandan @larsman @fuzztone @willgolf @cd318 @thecarpathian @deadhead1000 @rsf507 @baylinor @corelli @baclagg @jl1ny @pdspecl @asvjerry @jbmac75 @dekay @aewarren @rockysantoro @roadwhorerecords @panzrwagn @robertgagnon @joey_v @sls141 @audioman58 @serjio @holmz A massive thanks to everyone who responded in the 24 hours since I posted this question, your comments are gratefully appreciated! I purposely kept the question simple, to allow you to respond with your opinions. After all, your opinion is all that matters in this subjective hobby of ours. It has been satisfying to read your responses, which clearly come from a wealth of experience. It has also been very encouraging to read that, save for one or two excursions, respondents have replied politely and remained on message. It has taken me almost 50 years to find my audio nirvana. I say nirvana, because I have arrived at a place where I just do not want to spend any more money on trying to find more entertainment value from my home audio listening experience. What I have is not “perfect” but it leaves me wanting little more. During this time, I have come to understand that all of the elements you have raised in response to this post are important. There are many more elements that have not been mentioned, both technical and, psychological. Everything – and I mean everything – that we can think of in the music reproduction chain can, and does, have an effect on the entertainment value and our enjoyment of our selection of music programme. Highly tuned hi-fi systems, including the all-important associated upstream and downstream elements can be very fragile and fickle. Many of these are outside of our control. My system performance is fickle and fragile and I hear it change quite frequently. Add to this, our state of mind (as blisshifi put it) and the complexity of human hearing psychology and it is no small miracle that we ever get moved to tears by the music we listen to in our home environs. I could go on and on, but that would not be helpful to anyone. However, if, during my 50 years journey along the path to my audio nirvana, I could have done one thing different, it would have been to research and understand the psychology and perception of human hearing, at a very early stage of my journey. Thank you all and happy listening! BP |
To start your sourse is technically the most critical for your quality and musicality is won or lost here ,a good quality dac or turntable is essential in this area you buy cheap no matter how good the rest of your system it will destroy the musicality as a whole if you try to sacrifice in this most critical area. |
Engagement. If the system, modest or mammoth, engages you then it's all good. If for whatever reason it doesn't engage you, you'll never be happy. The Large Advent was far from perfect, but with a good 30-60 w/ch amp, and a decent turntable, they were engaging with almost any type of music. An NAD 7120 20 w/ch receiver and a pair of Magnepan MMGs (in a perfect room for Magnepans) was transcendent, if not loud. The Sonos Ones Streaming Amazon }prime UHD are stunningly engaging in a smaller room, especially after being tuned with their TruePlay DSP - and they're under $400 a pair. One the other End, a pair of Wilson Sasha DAW fed by about $40K of Jadis tubes and a VPI HRX/Koetsu front end made mincemeat out of a $100K budget - and my ears, in the best way possible. These systems couldn't be more different, and that's my point. The one thing they shared was engagement. They made you want to listen to another song, another album. They engaged you. |
That element for me is listening to songs that I’ve heard hundreds of times and hearing them for the first time. It doesn’t happen in every song, but there are some that make me take notice. Whoa wait a minute moments. I knew there were back up singers but not there and there and there! Wait what moments. That guitar riff has always been great, but I never heard that other guitar far off in the back responding to the first. Those hair standing moments when a female vocalists is singing soulfully and in the black background you can hear her lips part to form a word. Yeah, this hobby can be tedious at times, but it’s those moments that make it special. |
Carpathian, even though I took a bit of abuse from one member for having mentioned my preamp more than once, since you asked, it is the Herron VTSP-3A tube preamplifier, it is one of the early ones that were first developed by Keith Herron, it uses six 6922 tubes, where later units only have four 6922s. I don't know if this makes much of a difference in sound quality, but I love this preamp far beyond any other I have ever owned or heard. I'm not much of a well-traveled audiophile, but I am astonished at the spectacular improvement in how my system sounds. You can see what my system is composed of in Virtual Systems- Done For Now, under the name of "The Summit", meaning my personal summit. Custom built HPD Tannoy speakers, DIY custom crossovers, and 3C24 tube power amp designed and built by Paul Birkeland are the main contributors in the stereo part of my music-home theater system. Thank you for asking, regards, Dan Thomason |
@fuzztone - I'm an Indica man myself!! 😁 |
