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Are you into HiFi?
- Thread starter twinjet
- Start date
I've been into HiFi since I first heard The Beatles Revolver through a pair of Koss Pro 4A through a Marantz receiver at my uncle's Christmas ‘66. Finally I could hear the bass fully defined! I think a good part of the reason I've been into quality stereo is because I am a bass player. Better quality gear helped me pick out my parts better than a lesser system.
Most of my gear was acquired in the 70s-90s, and I still have my first pair of Koss Pro 4A headphones, and other headphones and in-ears, including my Alclair Tours. I still use my early 70s JBL L-100 in my main system, although I did add a Velodyne sub, Conrad Johnson/Rotel, etc. I also use a pair of (eight foot tall) Acoustat 2+2 driven by Electrocompaniet/Harmon Kardon in the music room. Lots of other gear as well. I listen to quality source material through my systems (mostly CDs, some vinyl, open reel, etc) but also can enjoy higher quality mp3s on my car stereo. I love music, and it is on most of the time.
Most of my gear was acquired in the 70s-90s, and I still have my first pair of Koss Pro 4A headphones, and other headphones and in-ears, including my Alclair Tours. I still use my early 70s JBL L-100 in my main system, although I did add a Velodyne sub, Conrad Johnson/Rotel, etc. I also use a pair of (eight foot tall) Acoustat 2+2 driven by Electrocompaniet/Harmon Kardon in the music room. Lots of other gear as well. I listen to quality source material through my systems (mostly CDs, some vinyl, open reel, etc) but also can enjoy higher quality mp3s on my car stereo. I love music, and it is on most of the time.
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Uh oh ... you mentioned HiFi and Bose in the same post. Prepare to get flamed
It’s all hi fi now. Before 1986, when I got my first CD player for my (relatively) decent stereo at home, I had no access whatsoever to anything that sounded remotely as good as 320kbps streaming audio through my iPhone into a decent set of Sony headphones. The vinyl back then was usuallly dodgy, unless you were buying German audiophile discs, and tape...tape was just bad news, and that was ALL you had for portable audio. It’s so good now.
I've gone through a bunch of decent gear, though not the crazy high-end stuff. I prefer CDs.. vinyl is too much maintenance for me, though I always loved the ritual of putting on the LP. Technology continues to displace physical media for convenience. Sadly, sound quality is no longer a priority, and critical listening seems like an alien concept to most people these days. Dropping the CD in the tray is my compromise. I'll never tire of listening to an album in its entirety, or looking at album art and liner notes. It's an experience, a ritual. I can't do background music.
I have some NAD and Adcom equipment in the basement, but my current rig is Yamaha CDP, Creek headphone amp, Sennheiser HD650. I listened to ESL last night, and it is sublime. I'd love to get a new, nice CD player.
I have some NAD and Adcom equipment in the basement, but my current rig is Yamaha CDP, Creek headphone amp, Sennheiser HD650. I listened to ESL last night, and it is sublime. I'd love to get a new, nice CD player.
I only have a work-supplied cell phone so streaming music is pretty much out due to data restrictions. So I listen to CDs in my Tacoma's stock sound system. Does that count?
I worked in that industry for about 5 or 6 years. Heres what i learned.....
a ton of it is worthless snake oil.... while a surprising amount is totally legit. Overall, your room is the biggest factor so I decided to go with a good headphone rig. Much more fun and easier on the wallet.
a ton of it is worthless snake oil.... while a surprising amount is totally legit. Overall, your room is the biggest factor so I decided to go with a good headphone rig. Much more fun and easier on the wallet.
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Honestly, if I listen to rips of stuff at like 256K+ bitrate using a good encoder like LAME, I don't find anything objectionable with MP3's or have any need for AIFF or FLAC.
Yeah, I get it. When I took the test, I was almost always able to tell 128k from 320k, but 320k and WAV were nearly impossible to distinguish.
- Jan 26, 2014
- 1,525
- 1,946
- Disclosures
- I teach lessons and perform live music in and around San Diego CA. Sometimes I even make money doing it!
It’s mostly hype, and listening is subjective, so buy what you like to hear. The best ears in the world can’t tell 320kbps mp3 from lossless with any degree of accuracy, but if you have the Storage space for it, go ahead and go with lossless formats, then you can always downsize if you need to go portable.
Old analog tapes mastered straight to vinyl are a different story, that’s a magical experience to our modern digital ears when you get the chance, but most modern hipster vinyl doesn’t start out analog so it’s not the same. A $99 Audio Technica turntable and some old Brubeck and Stan Getz records will give you an experience we don’t often come across any more, dust and all; it’s really like being in the studio.
I don’t have time to get into fussy audiophile stuff, and there seems to be a LOT of snake oil in that business (high quality AC cords? ***?). Btw, that nice sounding Bose sounddock would get you laughed out of the audiophile club, to which I say, don’t join the audiophile club. Listen in stores when possible, or audition stuff from retailers with good return policies, then get good quality stuff and enjoy yourself. Btw, If you’re at all handy, and you want some really nice speakers that don’t break the bank, there are some great kits at Parts Express. I built the Tri Trix TL kit, that with a turntable and an ancient Yamaha receiver and I’ve got a seriously great sounding home stereo for less than a couple vintage tubes for an audiophile’s power amp.
I have some slightly hifi gear... 85wpc Sony from the late 70s with an MK passive sub and JBL 4408 2-ways in the music room. Early 70s Kenwood 35wpc with some Ohm speakers in the house... Mid 60s all tube German table top radio in tje shop.
The music room is hooked to My DAW and about 600gb of music (mostly 320bit max VBR MP3s). The house setup streams online sources via bluetooth. The shop set up has an aux input for my LG V20's hifi dacs and the misc random 20gb of files I keep on it any given day (it also pushes some decent earbuds at the office)
The music room is hooked to My DAW and about 600gb of music (mostly 320bit max VBR MP3s). The house setup streams online sources via bluetooth. The shop set up has an aux input for my LG V20's hifi dacs and the misc random 20gb of files I keep on it any given day (it also pushes some decent earbuds at the office)
I disagree.
I agree.
I totally disagree.
I'm a pretty experienced listener, but do not consider myself an audiophile. I used to know a few people who do consider themselves audiophiles, and they could totally tell the difference with 100% accuracy. As I said earlier, I'm ok with my iPhone and earbuds. I burn my CD's to iTunes with a pretty high bit rate, because I can tell the difference. Though because of capacity, I have them auto-converted to 256 kbps when downloading to my iPhone. In the car, I am typically not listening as carefully, and along with the background noise, I don't notice the difference.
$200+ power cables, speaker cables, and directional signal cables? Yeah, those are a rip off. But bit rates? I know too many people that can always tell the difference, and I can with fairly good accuracy, apparently more so than the woman in that video.
I used to have a few direct to disc vinyl records. Those were heaven. Unfortunately, all my vinyl and my turntable were lost in the great divorce of '00, and I pretty much replaced everything with CD's. I have been yearning for a record player lately though.
Me Too. Have 17,000 songs so far. But the old classic is starting to lose battery life. It is amazing to me how long this thing has lasted, I have used it every day for many years.
Finally took a dive into high end headphones a couple years ago. Audeze, sennheiser, grado, etc. Had a pair of senn heiser HD800s that sounded pretty damn good, but ended up preferring a pair of beyerdynamic DT880s driven by an audioquest dragonfly. My favorite cans now. Also use senn HD650s for gaming, and some pair of audio technicas for whatever general listening (and bass guitar) and have been pretty happy ever since.
Any music is better than no music, I will listen on almost anything if I have to although there are some devices that make listening painful. We both love our music and hifi has become an important addition to our house over the years. Most of our listening is on vinyl or at least if we sit down to listen it is, we only got our first CD player about 3 or 4 years ago, they are very convienient and the sound quality isn't bad but I conceed the quality of the player isn't up to that of our record deck.
I find it amusing all the arguments hifi can cause, this make or that make, this cable makes a difference or they can't/dont, this medium or that or even your ears can't tell the difference. On the latter, your ears or at least a good set are capable of detecting changes in wavelength of a sound wave as small as the electron orbit of a hydrogen atom so yes differences can be heard, as to what's better, that's purely up to the listener and how our brain interprates the sound.
We've messed about with all sorts over the years but eventually we seem to have found a system that works for us but it won't suit everyone but it consists of:
Record deck - Michell Orbe, SME V, Dynavector XX2 MkII, Naim Prefix "S", Teddy Pardo Supercap
CD player - Naim CD5XS, Supercap
Preamp - Naim 52, Supercap
Power amps - 2 x 135
Speaker cable - NACA5
Speakers - Focal JM Labs Micro Utopia
I find it amusing all the arguments hifi can cause, this make or that make, this cable makes a difference or they can't/dont, this medium or that or even your ears can't tell the difference. On the latter, your ears or at least a good set are capable of detecting changes in wavelength of a sound wave as small as the electron orbit of a hydrogen atom so yes differences can be heard, as to what's better, that's purely up to the listener and how our brain interprates the sound.
We've messed about with all sorts over the years but eventually we seem to have found a system that works for us but it won't suit everyone but it consists of:
Record deck - Michell Orbe, SME V, Dynavector XX2 MkII, Naim Prefix "S", Teddy Pardo Supercap
CD player - Naim CD5XS, Supercap
Preamp - Naim 52, Supercap
Power amps - 2 x 135
Speaker cable - NACA5
Speakers - Focal JM Labs Micro Utopia
Sansui G7700 receiver and X8900 speakers from about 1978 for me. No ear buds, cell phone speakers or Bluetooth scrap...I want to hear Mozart on a real system, thanks!
I also have some 4408's. Still one of my favourites. I changed the foam surrounds a few weeks ago.
I recently did my subwoofer surround. My 4408 were redone 5 or so years ago. They are great near field monitors!
I haven't taken the test, but this has been my experience. Recordings at 320k are similar to good MiniDisc recordings, which, unless you have very good equipment, are difficult to distinguish from the original CD. Sometimes, however, audio quality differences aren't readily apparent in an A/B test, but with sustained listening they'll start to reveal themselves. You'll notice a little harshness here, a lack of depth there, etc.
I've become less and less of an audiophile over time, largely because I don't do much critical listening at home. (I do, however, deeply regret ditching my beastly old Denon integrated amp in favor of a space-saving JVC receiver inherited from my in-laws. Huge mistake. I really hear the difference.) Most of my serious listening is in the car, or when I'm trying to learn songs on bass or guitar with my Tascam Bass Trainer. Both of our cars have decent audio systems, and I have 160GB iPod Classics in both, but I play CDs in the cars as well. With the road noise, I don't hear much difference. Bluetooth sounds terrible IMO, so I almost never use it.
When I do listen at home or traveling, it's often through headphones. I prefer Sennheiser HD535 at home, and Urbanears when on the go. The Urbanears sound surprisingly good, and I've been very happy with them. I also have a Sennheiser HD280 pair, which I bought for studio use for their flat response, but even for recording I think I prefer the HD 535s. I do like the HD280s for learning music though. I generally don't do earbuds, but I have a set in my backpack for emergencies.
