Double Bass Audio Systems. How do we listen to music?

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

@TroyK questioned in another thread why we don’t have a thread about this so I’ll test the ice.
One of the questions I’ve had since I began playing music almost fifty years ago is, ’why do a lot of musicians not put more value into the system they listen to music on’? Some very fine musicians I know don’t have any audio system at all other than maybe their phone. One excellent bassist and conductor falls into this category. He spends days and weeks listening to a piece of music, preparing to conduct an orchestra through a little Bluetooth speaker connected to his phone. Wouldn’t it be more pleasant, and informative to have a more full range system? Oh well………..
I was into audio gear before I ever seriously got bitten by the bug to actually play and perform music. My older brother brought home a nice Dual turntable, amplifier and speakers. Man, I played that 45 of Paul McCartney singing and playing the infectious bass line on Silly Love Songs every day for weeks. That song is probably why I chose the bass.
Marriage and kids came along and my system has evolved and ‘devolved’ accordingly but I’ve always had something.
Anyway, the main system is strictly vinyl and tubes. No transistors in this one. We have another system with a Dual automatic TT and CD player as well.

None of this was terribly expensive and through buying used and a bit of DIY, cost me about what one would spend on a nice Kay.

So what music delivery system do you have?

 

[AGCurry]

When I really want to listen to music for an extended period of time, I use my Altec "Valencia" speakers, which have Voice-of-the-Theater components. Although they're not of the highest fidelity, the horns provide a wonderful soundscape. I'm not so concerned with what's driving those speakers ... last time, I hooked up a laptop to the Sony receiver, played a bunch of WAV files, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

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If I just want to listen for a little while, it's generally through headphones.

 

[Don Hergert]

The owner / engineer of the studio where we record says if you want to hear a good, commonly available sound system outside of the studio, listen to a quality automotive sound system. And in my experience he's pretty on target.

Between the resonance and acoustic shape of most car interiors and the controls and speaker systems involved, a good car stereo system reproduces recorded sound very accurately, especially when the car is stopped and the engine/motor is turned off.

The only problem is that most new car stereos no longer have CD players. We usually have to move our albums to thumb drive for our travel listening now

 

[SAlcott]

Rega Planar 1 TT, Sony RCD-W1, Carver C2 preamp, mid 60s Dynaco ST70, Snell type K Mk II speakers for LP/CD listening. Computer drives Presonus Eris E5 powered speakers for streaming, mainly Berlin Phil (Digital Concert Hall is one of the greatest bargains ever), Vienna Staatsoper, Met Opera, YouTube .....

 

[James Hart]

This is to my immediate right, the matching JBL studio monitor is to my left while at my computer in my home office / home studio. All my music has been on my PC since early Y2K, currently playing through an M-Audio Air 192|14 interface.

I have a Klipsch 'The One II' in the kitchen and 'The Three II' in the livingroom... that I push MP3s or Spotify through an LG V40 or V60 (retired but kept cellphones) via wired connection (to make use of the high quality dac they each have built in). Outside on the deck (65ish feet long with an acre of woods 20 feet off of it), I bought the wife a cheap Gemini brand 1x12 powered PA cab with bluetooth and a built in trolley & handle... it sounds surprisingly good and pleasantly fills the area with minimal listening fatigue.

 

[rebellovw]

@TroyK questioned in another thread why we don’t have a thread about this so I’ll test the ice.
One of the questions I’ve had since I began playing music almost fifty years ago is, ’why do a lot of musicians not put more value into the system they listen to music on’? Some very fine musicians I know don’t have any audio system at all other than maybe their phone. One excellent bassist and conductor falls into this category. He spends days and weeks listening to a piece of music, preparing to conduct an orchestra through a little Bluetooth speaker connected to his phone. Wouldn’t it be more pleasant, and informative to have a more full range system? Oh well………..
I was into audio gear before I ever seriously got bitten by the bug to actually play and perform music. My older brother brought home a nice Dual turntable, amplifier and speakers. Man, I played that 45 of Paul McCartney singing and playing the infectious bass line on Silly Love Songs every day for weeks. That song is probably why I chose the bass.
Marriage and kids came along and my system has evolved and ‘devolved’ accordingly but I’ve always had something.
Anyway, the main system is strictly vinyl and tubes. No transistors in this one. We have another system with a Dual automatic TT and CD player as well.

None of this was terribly expensive and through buying used and a bit of DIY, cost me about what one would spend on a nice Kay.

So what music delivery system do you have?
View attachment 5084645 View attachment 5084646

Nice - looks like I see a Dynaco tube amp there - I have a couple Dynaco based Tube amps (that I built from kit a couple of times):

And my speakers are from 1976 (or 77 - can't recall)

 

[Keith Rawlings]

I run my vinyl through a Technics SL-Q2 Turntable going into a Technics SA-5170 receiver with a set of speakers called Acoustech Labs KA-900 speakers. They’re early 90s old stock Kenwood made speakers that I bought from a person on FB marketplace who’s father owned a stereo superstore back then. They sound great with my setup with no additional power amp needed. I went with vintage because of the price of newer audiophile tube stuff is comparable to buying a used car. I’m looking to get a CD player that matches the silver face look of my setup, preferably Technics as well.

I do the majority of my listening in my truck with CDs and streaming services. I have an old pioneer CD changer still in the box that I want to add to my current stereo setup so I don’t have to change individual discs on the go.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Wow, a lot of cool systems there!

I listen either on my studio monitors (old M-Audio SP8B’s, before Avid bought and ruined the company), or a set of Sony 7506 phones, or a set of nice Jabra earbuds. All middle-high end consumer stuff well below the pro audiophile level.

 

[TroyK]

Not the sexist photoshoot I could have done, but I had an 80s NAD receiver that I loved, but it died, I got it fixed, it died again and I finally laid it to rest a few years ago. It was hooked up to a '70s Philips turntable (Grado Blue Cartridge) and a new, inexpensive Onkyo CD player. The barings in the tone arm died and I looked for parts tables to harvest, but they all had the same barings issues, so I rebuilt during the pandemic and it kept me sane.

It turns out that I am what Audiophiles call a "British sound mid-phile". I tried a few new and vintage receivers and intigrated amps, but when I heard a used Creek A50i I was home for about $400. It was everything that my NAD was only better and it lacked a tuner, which I don't need, but do kind of miss. Rega had a supply chain issue during the pandemic that positioned them to sell some of their upper line stuff at mid-line prices because they couldn't source what they usually put out on those consumer lines, so I added a Rega P3 turntable. I had been using a pair of Klipsch bookshelf speakers that were fine, but voiced pretty heavily in the wrong direction for Blue Note jazz and I was able to sell them and embraced my adopted Britishness with a set of Epos Epic speakers for neutral money. The synergies are glorious.

I consider it a vinyl first system, but have a bunch of CDs and found myself streaming a lot. I was looking for a better DAC and a Creek Evolution 50 CD showed up used and underpriced. It is technically a CD Transport with a independent stereo DAC, so the CD's and any streaming uses the DAC. I don't buy CDs anymore unless it is a local band. I also sold/traded a lot of records that either a) I didn't like b) weren't in good enough condition to enjoy listening to or c) were bad reissues to begin with. The downside of upgrading components was that I really hear the difference now. Same with CDs to a large degree. Early ones were not necessarily better than steaming, later produced ones can be arguably as good as good (not great) vinyl and better than streaming in 2023. I have embraced streaming and use the lowest paid level of Tidal, because it sounds better, you can play albums side-to-side, and they compensate artists better. Pandora and Spotify have better algorithms to help me find bands that I didn't know I loved and I mostly listen to them when I'm BBQing or something.

For me, my audio system is what TV is for a lot of other people. Especially listening to jazz and being a bassist, the audio benefits are evident. With decent or better vinyl, it is bliss! With good CDs it can be almost as good. Tidal feels generally CD quality and really useful. Virtually all of the records in the world are available to me at any time, which if you think about it, is amazing.

Duke Pearson - Sweet Honey Bee is now playing.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

My system:
-Restored Pioneer PL-41 turntable in a new plinth. This was Pioneer’s best in the late 60s and has a high mass arm which is perfect for a Denon DL 103 lomc cartridge. It didn’t work at all with the high compliance MM Shures I tried. I will get the AR back into service but the Grado Platinum cartridge is in need of a new stylus and I’ll likely put a Shure back on it. The Pioneer/Denon combo is quite a bit better.
-Denon AU-320 step up transformer.
-Chinese EAR 834 clone phono stage into a Chinese clone preamp
-Dynakit ST-70 amp. I had one in the late 80s through mid 90s and regret selling it. This one is just like it would have been in 1959 but with new parts other than the iron.
-Vandersteen 1C speakers. Very natural sounding speakers and good in the small room

 

[BassFalcon]

While I may be derided by those with audiophile leanings, I have a pair of Bose Revolve+ and I love them, I’ll use a single a lot but for serious listening I’ll pair them in stereo mode. My Pro-ject turntable has Bluetooth out as well. Sitting on my patio, with one off to either side about 10 feet, to me, is pure audio bliss. They can sound very impressive. I’m sure there’s better options but that’s what I have and I love it. Audiophilism isn’t anything I want to spend time or money on, beyond what I already have.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

The owner / engineer of the studio where we record says if you want to hear a good, commonly available sound system outside of the studio, listen to a quality automotive sound system. And in my experience he's pretty on target.

Between the resonance and acoustic shape of most car interiors and the controls and speaker systems involved, a good car stereo system reproduces recorded sound very accurately, especially when the car is stopped and the engine/motor is turned off.

The only problem is that most new car stereos no longer have CD players. We usually have to move our albums to thumb drive for our travel listening now

I took some recording classes in college and my work study for two years was working in the recording studio. I learned that any mix should sound good on a nice home system but also sound good in the car; not easy to do.

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

I’ve spent several days getting the sun porch converted into a bit of a study for my wife; a place she can go and write, meditate, pray or just get away from me.
In that room:
-Dual 1019 turntable with Shure M55 cartridge just as it came from the dealer fifty odd years ago
-NAD CD player
-Dynakit PAS 3 preamp I modified many years ago
-Aiyima class D power amp. These things are the size of a small paperback, sound great and $79 on Amazon
-NHT (Now Hear This) Super Zero speakers I got at Goodwill
She wanted a simple, small system and almost bought a SHARP boombox. NO…………………

 

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

While I may be derided by those with audiophile leanings, I have a pair of Bose Revolve+ and I love them, I’ll use a single a lot but for serious listening I’ll pair them in stereo mode. My Pro-ject turntable has Bluetooth out as well. Sitting on my patio, with one off to either side about 10 feet, to me, is pure audio bliss. They can sound very impressive. I’m sure there’s better options but that’s what I have and I love it. Audiophilism isn’t anything I want to spend time or money on, beyond what I already have.

Audiophools are often as much about ego as a love for listening to music. As much as I enjoy the hobby of tinkering with my system, I know that it’s pretty modest and I just enjoy the way it delivers the music I enjoy.

 

[marchone]

Slightly off topic but I had a friend who worked as a sound guy in Nashville. He said he once saw Jeff Beck alone in a room listening to a playback on a boombox. He got up the nerve to ask the Maestro why that box? He replied that what the kids listen on.

 

[fdeck]

Uh-oh. Confession time.

Here's my listening setup in the factory. On a whim, I decided to see what I could build by going to Parts Express and doing "sort by price, low to high" on woofers and tweeters. Then I took each woofer, starting with the cheapest, and plugged it into my modeling program. The first one that looked halfway tolerable, I bought 4. Then I repeated the exercise with tweeters and bought 4 of those too.

The boxes are varnished 1/4 inch plywood, ported using PVC plumbing pipe.

The amplifier is a ST Microelectronics TDA7297 dual audio amplifier chip, spec'd at a whopping 15 Watts per channel, but based on the power supply that I found in my bin, is capable of about 6 honest Watts per channel. Because of the very low power level, I can get away with a simplistic crossover -- just a capacitor in series with the tweeter.

The signal source is an old Android tablet, allowing me to play streaming radio.

Now I think the audio quality is surprisingly good for what these things are, if I'm playing classical or jazz at low volume. My daughter was pleased enough with the sound that she asked me to build a second pair for her, using up the 4 sets of drivers that I had bought. Total cost less than 20 bucks per pair.

Perhaps a thing about musicians is that we process music symbolically, meaning that we can ignore defects in the audio quality if we're really tuned into the music itself. And we're used to a lot of great stuff such as early jazz being of limited audio quality anyway.

 

[Don Kasper]

we can ignore defects in the audio quality if we're really tuned into the music itself.

We have a winner...no more calls, please!
Thx!

 

[TroyK]

Uh-oh. Confession time.

Here's my listening setup in the factory. On a whim, I decided to see what I could build by going to Parts Express and doing "sort by price, low to high" on woofers and tweeters. Then I took each woofer, starting with the cheapest, and plugged it into my modeling program. The first one that looked halfway tolerable, I bought 4. Then I repeated the exercise with tweeters and bought 4 of those too.

The boxes are varnished 1/4 inch plywood, ported using PVC plumbing pipe.

The amplifier is a ST Microelectronics TDA7297 dual audio amplifier chip, spec'd at a whopping 15 Watts per channel, but based on the power supply that I found in my bin, is capable of about 6 honest Watts per channel. Because of the very low power level, I can get away with a simplistic crossover -- just a capacitor in series with the tweeter.

The signal source is an old Android tablet, allowing me to play streaming radio.

Now I think the audio quality is surprisingly good for what these things are, if I'm playing classical or jazz at low volume. My daughter was pleased enough with the sound that she asked me to build a second pair for her, using up the 4 sets of drivers that I had bought. Total cost less than 20 bucks per pair.

Perhaps a thing about musicians is that we process music symbolically, meaning that we can ignore defects in the audio quality if we're really tuned into the music itself. And we're used to a lot of great stuff such as early jazz being of limited audio quality anyway.

View attachment 5084837

Good job! Have you considered spending just a little bit of money on a DAC? If feels like you'd notice an upgrade from the internal one on the tablet.

 

[elberon]

Sansui 7070, Dual 1249, Oppo DVD/SACD player, Nakamichi CR1A cassette player, Boston Acoustic A400 speakers is my main serious system (there are others). It drives me nuts how the teens that I teach mainly experience music through an iPhone. A lot goes missing.

 

[fdeck]

Good job! Have you considered spending just a little bit of money on a DAC? If feels like you'd notice an upgrade from the internal one on the tablet.

That's probably true. I also haven't investigated whether there are differences in the audio quality of the streaming services based on compression and other things.