Any Audiophiles Around?

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
I am not even that old - not even 40. I do like my vinyl - unmatched dynamics for me. I also like the physical nature/look of the records, crates, etc...

What can everybody recommend for all-time favorite gear? I like to try stuff and am always looking for stuff to put on my list. I have been trying "newer" stuff lately.
 
#6
Vinyl def has character but I wouldn't say anything is better or higher quality, in fact much the opposite. From the get go that is a deteriorating media so every single time the needle passes over a groove it slowly carves it. The first thing to start rounding off is the high end which everyone seems to like to refer to as the "warm" sound. Next to go is actually the dynamics. Those grooves in the record are actually little wavs just like we see WAV files on computers as those get carved away they simply get worse and worse from a fidelity standpoint. I do like listening to vinyl tho, well at least the old stuff that wasn't recorded with digital equipment then converted into vinyl for nostalgia's sake.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
I am all set in my car... Focal Be 3-way with Zapco Amps. Once I heard a bi-polar amp, I won't be able to use MOSFET ever again. I am slowly fading on needing a high end setup in my car... I just mostly listen to sports radio anymore and it is way easier in a home without strange surfaces, glass and road noise everywhere.

There is no way for digital media to store a true wave... they cannot go to infinity and represent a true curve like analog can, but they are pretty good if you let the file size get big and take more points. We do a lot with sound at work and it is amazing to see the dynamics that even a 24 bit can round or miss points on... but you probably need a 2K receiver and a really nice set of speakers to probably even tell. Some people cannot even tell on my Mac6700 and Grand Utopias, but most people can. There are some folks working on storing waves as formulas instead of byte arrays (which they all do now, no matter what they tell you), that might be really awesome - they would require a wave generating chip instead of a FPU, but the hardware should be easy if the algorithm can be figured out.

I blame really bad radios in cars, mobile devices and really bad headphones of the past for the somewhat horrible sounding music of the last 2 decades... a pop album that my daughter bought does not have a note under 50 or over 7500 hz... and the dynamics are as flat as Eastern Colorado. I am so glad that the good artists still get it and at least make a high quality download.
 
#9
I'd like to listen to that album of your daughters too I can't believe that frequency range is so tiny. Especially for pop. Usually subs are filtered out for mud in most other genres but pop usually has some pretty good low end. that high end cut is crazy too. Old analog tape used to start attenuating around 15-16khz.
 
#10
I am all about the character of analog most of the equipment I have for the studio is analog but it still crosses over at some point. Why a lot of people don't like the sound of digital is because of the THD and signal to noise ratio is so low, the old gear with big transformers colors the sound so much when you hear a recording without that harmonic content it sounds sterile in comparison. I could talk about this stuff for hours I'm a total goober for this.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#11
I meant infinity within range on the wave - where a true tangental line could be drawn on a real curve.

I can put some warmth into any music, but I hate it that most dynamics were lost in digital music for a long time - it is getting a LOT better.

What gear are you using today? I am currently on a McIntosh kick (always wanted to try them)... Mac6700, MC10 and Grand Utopias. I just got a set of Chorus 836w to see if I can tolerate them. Even if they are 95% of what the Utopias are, I will probably be happy and sell the Utopias since I know that I don't enjoy them like somebody else would and then I could buy more gear with the cash. Put me down on the list of people who don't think that the extra money provides the extra value... but at least I got to hear for myself.
 
#12
that is some serious cash invested. my set up isn't the home listening type situation. but my interface is a RME UFX which does have pristine A/D D/A conversion and i have had many sets of studio monitors over the years from the old trusty Ns10's to newer focal lines, what i really want to get is a pair of barefoot micromain 27's. it will be a while till i have that kind of cash to drop tho haha. the cheapest I've ever seen those grand utopias go for is still over $50k i don't make that in a year so thats not in the cards for me lol. thats awesome for you tho, id love to have a listen some day.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#13
You don't have to pay anywhere near that kind of money for them used, but they are lost on me - save your cash and there will be another financial crisis like there was in 2007 and 2008 and you can get a steal. I have heard a dozen sets that are within 2 or 3 percent and are a tenth of the price. The MC10 is the same way. The 6700 might be worth the money.

I have always admired barefoot stuff from a distance, but I don't think that I have ever heard anything.
 
#14
jda123;336384 said:
I am not even that old - not even 40. I do like my vinyl - unmatched dynamics for me. I also like the physical nature/look of the records, crates, etc...

What can everybody recommend for all-time favorite gear? I like to try stuff and am always looking for stuff to put on my list. I have been trying "newer" stuff lately.
I can say the same, at least for a couple more weeks.
I am not looking to get as involved with stereos, just something we can enjoy. I've been to listen up and listened to b&w to their big sonus faber. We really dont watch movies and dont care to have towers in the living room. Is there something designed more for music but still sound good with TV? Do they make ceiling speakers that provide the sound of towers? Is there somewhere that breaks all of this down for the beginner? My wife just wanted to have a sound guy come in and install what they suggested but I dont. She bought the marantz sr7009 w/blu ray and thats where I stopped her.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#15
Bookshelf speakers? You could use them alone for audio, but maybe as part of the front stage of a 7.X for TV and movies?

We have a 7.2 that was here when we bought the house and I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 for music, but it is probably a 9.5 out of 10 for Movies and Sports. I have an Onkyo and it will turn off everything but the front L & R and sub when I want to play music, but the theatre speakers are in-wall and just don't compare to a tower or bookshelf, even though they are nice ones.
 

JuanGutz

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#16
Okay so I've got a question I'm looking at getting a system put in my truck and really want something that's crystal clear. Idc how loud it gets I just want to be able to turn on some Santana or whatever and hear everything. Listen to a live so and actually feel like I'm right there in the crowd. Any suggestions?
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#17
For a car, the installation is the #1 thing. I have heard people ruin a $5K set of speakers by installing them poorly. You are probably going to want components. Image Dynamics makes nice lines of car speakers for reasonable prices, or you could all the way up to DynAudio, Focal, Hybrid, or the like. Zapco and Arc Audio make the best amps on the market IMO for price and quality. The input stage on JL Audio amps is really nice and can take just about any signal, but the sound is not any better than a normal amp if you have clean, high voltage sound already. Look around for used stuff and you can save some cash.

Make sure that tell the installer that you want accurate, clear highs - it will matter where they put the tweeters.
 

JuanGutz

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#18
jda123;336478 said:
For a car, the installation is the #1 thing. I have heard people ruin a $5K set of speakers by installing them poorly. You are probably going to want components. Image Dynamics makes nice lines of car speakers for reasonable prices, or you could all the way up to DynAudio, Focal, Hybrid, or the like. Zapco and Arc Audio make the best amps on the market IMO for price and quality. The input stage on JL Audio amps is really nice and can take just about any signal, but the sound is not any better than a normal amp if you have clean, high voltage sound already. Look around for used stuff and you can save some cash. Make sure that tell the installer that you want accurate, clear highs - it will matter where they put the tweeters.
I honestly didn't know installation matters so much I've always installed my own speakers done all the wiring and everything. If I want the best sound quality I'll want to pay Huh? And what places do you suggest for the installation? I'll I know are car toys and places like that.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#20
It can matter a bunch. If you buy some highly detailed inverted dome tweeters, you might want those on-axis (pointing at you) whereas a softer silk dome tweeter can be mounted just about anywhere. Windshields and windows are not your friend, but they are everywhere. If you get a 3-way set, then I would suggest having the midrange as close to the tweeter as possible and not in the door where your leg can dampen the sound.

You can certainly do it yourself, but where and how you do it will matter.
 
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