Yes. My cat quickly realized that those speakers were my pride and joy and so decided to terrorize me anytime he wanted food or attention by jumping up on top and pawing at that gorgeous tweeter…
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Double Bass Audio Systems. How do we listen to music?
- Thread starter Greg Clinkingbeard
- Start date
Define "good". Most car stereos have ridiculously hyped low end. On my two Toyotas the EQ controls were stepped from -5 to +5, with 0 supposedly being flat. I run them at -2 all the time. My new Subaru is much better, I have not touched the default EQ, but I still don't think it sounds very good overall compared to the system in my living room.
That system is strictly "mid-fi" with Onkyo receiver (with wifi for streaming), Technics turntable, Shure V-15 cartridge, Sony CD and cassette decks. The secret sauce is in my Tetra speakers, I have their smallest/cheapest model which cost me $2K about 20 years ago (I'm sure much more today) but they present more detail than any speakers I've owned in the past.
Those are small speakers, woofers are only 5", dimensions 10.5" H x 9" W x 7.5" D but they sound huge.
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I'm going to answer this question knowing that my response will be very different from everyone else's so far and will impress absolutely no one.
I sold off my component hi-fi system years ago and recently gave away nearly all of my vinyl, keeping just a few signed or collectable albums which I will never actually play as I don't own a turntable.
I mostly listen to streamed music on an Amazon Echo with a subwoofer, and I have the smaller Echo Dot for my office/music room. I plan to get a second Echo Dot for my bedroom. I do still have a lot of CD's and I listen to these on a Victrola bookshelf system that looks like an old hi-fi receiver. I like it because it has a balance control so I can turn off the channel with the bass when using my jazz play-along CD's.
So there you go.
- Steve
It’s funny, they never once complained. I generally listen at pretty low levels and that in the middle of the day or early evening. Regarding tubes etc, I kind of sidestepped all of that and just bought some very high end streaming powered monitors. I need something that can move with me, something uber-practical, digital and yet versatile. These have downloadable “master-tunings” that you can use to your taste and room. There are neutral, mid-forward, sub bass, close-wall, etc tunings. Plus room correction for different spaces. Portable enough to move easily. Incredible sound. I didn’t want to go down that rabbit-hole of gear swapping and pairing, just wanted something that was excellent, out da box, so I could stay focused on music instead of gear.
I have to agree here. Sorry but I find car stereos, even my friends Porsche panorama, to be pretty awful from a frequency response perspective. They feel good for sure, thumping and immersive, but they’re not my favorite.
I think of the drive thru lane at Chick Fil-A with those nails on the roof to keep the birds away so they don’t crap on cars.
The bow may cause diffraction and a phase anomaly around 7khz on the left side. I can’t tell if it’s French or German to say for sure.
Cats are pretty smart about that kind of thing...
I have one cat that claws my ankles if I'm even humming a tune while getting his food ready. I keep telling him he's lucky I'm not a donkey, he'd get kicked through the window.. He replies "Are you sure?"
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I understand. I’ve always been drawn to tubes for the simple reason that I think they tend to deliver a more natural sound. There’s no reason for the noise level to be higher, although there can be a bit more hum if it’s not done right.
The knock on vinyl with surface noise? I may be going deaf, but I simply don’t usually notice it. With a decent turntable and cartridge (my setup was under $500) it’s barely audible. To the extent it is, I tend to think of it like someone coughing or such during a performance. It’s just background. When I can pick up a Dave Holland solo promo album (Emerald Tears) for $4 I can live with it. My guess is that less than 10% of my vinyl cost over $10 so I’m more likely to gamble on music I might not want to spend more on. I just picked up a sealed Eddie Gomez/Jeremy Steig (flute) duo record for $5 at a local vinyl store which is amazing.
Now, the meat of it. Audiophools tend to value detail and checking off items in the audiophile glossary. Detail, soundstage, can they hear the triangle at 2:13 on the second cut of some obscure pitchy singer’s latest audiophile release that you can only buy at the local high end audio salon. There is also some rumor about hearing a subway train on a RCA recording of the Chicago Symphony doing Mussorgsky or something. Who needs that? Who cares? I quit that game long ago. A good system is the one that makes music enjoyable.
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I may go vinyl, tubes and La Scalas one day…. I have a feeling that is my joy sound. But for now I went convenience and detail. I agree that the best system is one that excites you to listen to music. I’m also a love-the-one-you’re-with kind of guy. If all I’ve got are Apple AirPod pros I’m totally satisfied in the moment.
Timely thread.
I need to assemble a sound system for a room in a new half-glass summer house we're building this year. 18'x28' with a 10' ceiling, 28'x8' tall sliding glass doors, and quarry tile floors. This living room will also be a de facto practice space. Not a designated recording studio.
Streaming only. Bluetooth receiver. Two stereo speakers? Or a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker array?
No turntable, CD or cassette player.
I'd love suggestions from the brain trust. Under $5K.
I need to assemble a sound system for a room in a new half-glass summer house we're building this year. 18'x28' with a 10' ceiling, 28'x8' tall sliding glass doors, and quarry tile floors. This living room will also be a de facto practice space. Not a designated recording studio.
Streaming only. Bluetooth receiver. Two stereo speakers? Or a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker array?
No turntable, CD or cassette player.
I'd love suggestions from the brain trust. Under $5K.
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Similarly, Sonos speakers provide all that I need. Space is very much at a premium, my house having been (re-)built 150+ years ago on a narrow mediaeval street, so storing vinyl and having a suitable player available is not really possible.
This app, combined with AirPlay, provides convenient listening to entire albums.
My Buchardts came in under that. Plus they have room correction which will be very useful in that high ceiling reflective space. A cheaper option would be KEF LS50 wireless.
I hear you; Based on my Job in High End Hi-Fi I was always listening critically for those Audiophile nuances not the Music some you mentioned and finally realized it after I left field and remembered what was really my passion; Music
Garrett2 beat me to it. They make a beautiful compact subwoofer that perfectly compliments the LS50 wireless. It is called the KEF KC62. You can get them in matching finishes and they fully integrate with an excellent app.
This, of course is one way to go. Another might be something along the lines of a NAD M10 with some Zu Audio Dirty Weekend 6 (DW6).
It's easy to lose your mind in that world and audiophiles are often insufferable procks. But a good system is something that you never regret. I did my research and pulled the trigger and never looked back. I quickly got back to the music, not wallowing in forums and frequency response graphs. It was fun for awhile to get to know what is out there but I quickly realized that most of those audiophiles have never even played an instrument, don't even really know what live music sounds like. They're talking all about fidelity, about sounding like the music is being played in front of you, blah blah blah, but they don't know how music is made, how instruments function or really sound. It was like people pretending to be surgeons who never touched a human body before.
