I own a Kicka** audio system, anyone care to discuss.

I only use Pioneer componets for playing, I use only Studio Lab Digital Serires Monitors for listening.

Discuss

I use either Sennheiser HD212 Pro headphones, a Sony Hifi, or Creative speakers for my music/gaming/TV/DVDs.

I recently 'acquired' a set of British Airways IFE headphones- they're pretty good actually.

I'm looking at the Bose Quiet Comfort 2/3 headphones but can't afford a set yet.

My car has Kenwood 240W 6x9s.

Creative PoS 5.1 that came with the computer and Sony 7x100 pro-logic amp with http://www.pinkbull.de/index.php?id=38&L=1#58

Suffice to say, LFS sounds great, especially with a tweaked V8 turbo!

Quote from TiJay :

I use either Sennheiser HD212 Pro headphones, a Sony Hifi, or Creative speakers for my music/gaming/TV/DVDs.

I recently 'acquired' a set of British Airways IFE headphones- they're pretty good actually.

I'm looking at the Bose Quiet Comfort 2/3 headphones but can't afford a set yet.

My car has Kenwood 240W 6x9s.

Use a pair of logitech headphones, wireless. Had them for 2 years N/P

I run a Pioneer VSX D608, studio lab D65, Studio lab Digital Series Monitor 4's.

Have 6 other pioneer componets.

Audiophiles Unite

I invented the "noise woggle". It's a small cylindrical piece of plastic that you put under your speakers and it eliminates any part of the sound that you don't like. Would you like to buy one for only £279.99?

No really, it works, come and listen to it in action in The Emperor's New Booth.

Headphones: Alessandro Music Series One, modded with HD414 pads

Speaker: Alesis Monitor One Mk2 passive

Turntable: Technics SL220 with Shure M97 xE

Amp: Yamaha CR-820



The amp will stay for the next 10 years for sure, but I guess the headphones an the speakers will change. Maybe some Adam Audio.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I invented the "noise woggle". It's a small cylindrical piece of plastic that you put under your speakers and it eliminates any part of the sound that you don't like. Would you like to buy one for only £279.99?
No really, it works, come and listen to it in action in The Emperor's New Booth.

I use some circles cut out of dense rubber mouse mat as vibration isolation feet for all my components. I have some very expensive Quad speakers, an Arcam CD player and Rotel amplifier as the main Hi Fi, then I have someJVC and Sony mini systems in other rooms of the house.
The main hi fi was a present to myself when I returned to uk from my ex-pat time in Saudi, I figured it would be the only time I could afford to treat myself to such a system

Quote from ATHome :

Headphones: Alessandro Music Series One, modded with HD414 pads

Speaker: Alesis Monitor One Mk2 passive

Turntable: Technics SL220 with Shure M97 xE

Amp: Yamaha CR-820



The amp will stay for the next 10 years for sure, but I guess the headphones an the speakers will change. Maybe some Adam Audio.

I Run a PT -TT9 Turn Table, Studio lab Digital Series

Be more than happy to post pics

Just got the Pioneer 160HD........I can bit-torrentt, Lets say,Da Vincci, took this old machinee 34 minutes

My stats

256 ram

800mHtz

And i still set wr's, or will be with 3rd.

Proff, XRR SO5, XRR Claasic

Three days

Sources: NAD C541i for CDs, Audiophile 2496 sound card (in main PC) for MP3s/FLAC and integrated sound in second PC.

Interconnects: QED Quenex 1, 2, and 3, for CD player, main PC and second PC respectively.

Amp: Rotel RA-01

Speaker cables: QED Silver anniversary bi-wire

Speakers: 2x B&W DM601 S3s backed up with a Mordaunt Short MS309 subwoofer

Photo - note I don't race like that, was just playing around at the time.

My main issue with the system is that since I'm usually sat at the desk, I'm way too close to the speakers. It's difficult to explain, but sitting on my bed at the other end of the room, there's no obvious change, but everything just sounds more alive and suddenly justifies all the money I've spent. A shame, since it feels weird sitting there doing 'nothing'.

Michell Gyrodec (orbe platter upgrade kit) with an SME IV arm and Lyra Dorian cartridge into an EAR 834p phonostage. Preamp and amp are Glasshouse tvc and 300b SET amp kits, speakers are IPL S3 (ribbon tweeter version) t-line kit. All the kit stuff I built myself. Cables are a mix of Missing link, Zanash and chord odyssey.
NO Cd player.

Bob: Move your speakers!

Quote :

I own a expensive audio system...

I only use xxxxx componets for playing, I use only xxxxxxx for listening...

No, you're not an audiophile if you got expensive gear. You're just a gear snob...



...unless you invested two to three times the money on room acoustics alone. Sorry but that's the truth.

Quote from spankmeyer :

No, you're not an audiophile if you got expensive gear. You're just a gear snob...

...unless you invested two to three times the money on room acoustics alone. Sorry but that's the truth.

I usually prefer your stupid posts to your clever ones, but this one was good.

Also: Have you ever noticed how people who spend a fortune on boutique hi-fi equipment only ever use it to listen to Pink Floyd?

... and people often get super duper hardware, only to listen to mp3's on

The acoustics part is very true btw. That's also a reason i never bothered about surround sound for at home. It's hard enough already to get a _good_ sound from 2 speakers - more speakers doesn't make it easier (neighbours too).

B&O Beomaster 4000 amp. (1974) and Sennheiser headphones / Citronic Ultima HP500pro

Room acoustics are very very important, that is true! A lot can be accomplished with electronic room correction though. And if you do both you're in hog heaven. I have a very well setup system and room, and when I put the new Audyssey Room EQ standalone into it, it's just plain awesome.

My system, should anyone care:
Dali Euphonia MS4 fronts
Dali Helicon C200 center
Dali Helicon S600 subwoofer
Dali Concept2 rears (very ready to be replaced)
NAD M15 and M25 posessor and power to drive it, and
Audyssey Room EQ to tame it all.

I'm a happy hog!

Quote from atledreier :

Room acoustics are very very important, that is true! A lot can be accomplished with electronic room correction though. And if you do both you're in hog heaven. I have a very well setup system and room, and when I put the new Audyssey Room EQ standalone into it, it's just plain awesome.

My system, should anyone care:
Dali Euphonia MS4 fronts
Dali Helicon C200 center
Dali Helicon S600 subwoofer
Dali Concept2 rears (very ready to be replaced)
NAD M15 and M25 posessor and power to drive it, and
Audyssey Room EQ to tame it all.

I'm a happy hog!

Adjusting the output through EQ only brings more problems - unless you do all your listening in one fixed spot and do not move your head more than an inch or two. Room modes, standing waves, reflections, phase anomalies... it's an endless swamp of problems and more gear is not the answer in the long run.

I know that dumping silly amounts of cash on room treatment is not anywhere near as sexy than buying high-quality gear we all love, but you're only fooling yourself. Acoustics are beautiful, brutal raw physics and there's no easy way around it.

EDIT: I try my best not bash anyone, but there's so much bullcrap black magic, folklore and corksniffing around this subject, that it's somewhat difficult to stay neutral. Owning great gear without extensive room treatment is actually quite nice too - at least the gear comes with you if you gotta move some day.

Audiophiles vs 'non believers' is often more of a brawl arena than the average LFS vs rFactor debate..

Do you go by science or by feel? Putting expensive dampers under a CD player doesn't change anything. Unless you charge a hefty sum for the thing, then the buyer simply WILL hear a difference.. Afterall, he spent all that money, so the 'soundstage' (whatever that is) must expand! Its quite hilarious imo how many impossibly expensive useless gadgets there are. Cables for $1000 per meter are commonplace, yet you can't fault a piece of $1 piece of decent copper. Try those cables on your coffee machine and enjoy a new taste! Err.. Oh not to mention your washing machine; colors preserve a lot better with a 2000 quid cable.. But in audio, yes, every expense somehow changes.. no.. not that.. IMPROVES the sound!

I rate sound quality as an important thing but I approach it from the 'scientific' side. Mp3, if coded correctly (LAME for instance, and to be safe at a high rate like 160 or 192kbit) is not audibly different from WAV. Very very few people can hear that, and in some cases they preferred the MP3.. Often blind tests, wether it is simple things like CD players, cables or MP3s, show no difference between 'good standard stuff' and 'exotics costing 20x more'.

By far the most important things regarding sound reproduction, imho, are:
- the recording; often not ideal, often using too much compression (no dynamics) and poor use of stereo or tonal balance can really make a record sound 'bland'.
- The speakers; distortion, frequency response.. All much harder to get right in a speaker. Any normal CD player will be great, a reasonable (few hundred euro) amp will deliver.. but speakers are more variable.
- Acoustics (sp).. A stone room or Granny's living.. Huge huge differences in how sound bounces / decays..
- Setup: having a dedicated listening 'triangle' spaced well away from walls to avoid being subject to indirect sound..

and of course..

- Neighbours: poison them so you can actually listen at fairly loud levels for more than short periods without them coming after you with an axe..

Audio is just two streams of 2 dimensional low frequency (relatively) stuff thats really not that hard to get right. If we all optimized our (living) rooms for accoustics, poison our neighbours, and sack 80% of the recording studio personell.......

Generic acoustics tip (and costs nothing) try moving your speakers around and try to avoid putting them very near a wall. When moving them around you should be able to hear the huge difference in sound timbre everywhere in your room.
There are also math approaches to speaker placement, but i won't go into that here

Ideally you should build them into your walls

Quote :

Audio is just two streams of 2 dimensional low frequency (relatively) stuff thats really not that hard to get right.

can't agree about many things in that sentence. 2 dimensional? Not that hard to get right?

sounds like you're a non believer

Quote from Victor :

sounds like you're a non believer

And it sounds like you are, Victor!

I am well aware that a good portion of the human species don't give a rat's ass about sound quality. Not because they can't tell the difference, but because they don't want to. Could be that they are stubborn. Could be that they are untrained. Could be that they just don't care. Either way, they have decided there is no difference of you do this or that to your system. In my opinion, this is no different from the guys that coat their CDs with green rubber along the edge and claim to hear a difference. The believers will hear a difference that isn't there, the sceptics won't hear a real difference. I'm not one to tell one from the other. If you claim there's no difference, fine. Likewise, if you hear a difference I can't, good for you. The thing that gets me though, is people dismissing or embracing a difference before they have heard the system in question.

I have a well treated room. Without any electronic correction it sounds just about as good as a room of my size can. I have alot of experience from different rooms and setups, being an installer for a hifi-shop. I also have the opportunity of testing a lot of different components in my system, and in my room, including acoustic treatment. I would say I know a thing or two about the subject both in theory and from experience. I know that my system perform much better with electronic room correction. It won't be perfect, but it will be much better. The correction system can and will introduce some artefacts to the signal. In some cases the artefacts will be more severe than the original problem, so in effect you have just moved the problem to another part of the signal.

The Audyssey system use multiple measurements for multiple positions and average the results in a very complex manner. The actual calculations are copyrighted, and I probably wouldn't understand them either, but they work. My system sounds incredibly much better with the system engaged. And not only for a single position either. I could get better spot-precision (is that even a word) from a single measurement, but if I moved my head an inch, my measurements and correction would be void and worse than useless. The way Audyssey do it, I get a much wider sweet-spot, and a smoother response through the entire audible range in a relatively large area. How they do it? Beats me! Does it work? Beyond a doupt! I'm not asking me to take my word for it, I'm asking you to try it for yourself before you dismiss it as rubbish and a waste of time and money. Or even better; go put on a CD and forget about my ranting. I know I will...

Quote from atledreier :

And it sounds like you are, Victor!

I am well aware that a good portion of the human species don't give a rat's ass about sound quality. Not because they can't tell the difference, but because they don't want to. Could be that they are stubborn. Could be that they are untrained. Could be that they just don't care. Either way, they have decided there is no difference of you do this or that to your system.

There's also the people who are willing to concede that fancy audio kit might be better (audio agnostic?), but at the same time can see the economies of scale at work and find the costs of boutique kit laughable.

And anyway, half of my record collection is badly recorded. Old Upsetter label stuff or old-school hip-hop mostly cut together on old 16-bit samplers are still going to sound pretty crappy no matter how much money you spend on the reproduction equipment.

Quote from atledreier :

And it sounds like you are, Victor!

I am well aware that a good portion of the human species don't give a rat's ass about sound quality. Not because they can't tell the difference, but because they don't want to. Could be that they are stubborn. Could be that they are untrained. Could be that they just don't care. Either way, they have decided there is no difference of you do this or that to your system. In my opinion, this is no different from the guys that coat their CDs with green rubber along the edge and claim to hear a difference. The believers will hear a difference that isn't there, the sceptics won't hear a real difference. I'm not one to tell one from the other. If you claim there's no difference, fine. Likewise, if you hear a difference I can't, good for you. The thing that gets me though, is people dismissing or embracing a difference before they have heard the system in question.

I agree 100% - in the end it's all about what YOU think sounds nice. There is no such thing as a perfect sound, or a pure sound - speakers are so physically ineffective, combined with never perfect acoustics (and not even talking about the recording), it's just not possible to create a 100% natural sound.

The discussion Audiophiles vs non believers is really a discussion about taste. Like you say, some will care a lot - some won't care at all and settle for a yoko 1 euro clock radio playing badly received fm (of course i will never compare that clock radio against a really good audio setup - of course there are audible differences between low and high end setups)

I'm not really an audiophily actually. But I do know some things about sound and it's not simple at all, especially if you go deep into its theory. But the other side is the practical side and people are easily satisfied with how something sounds and yes, the higher-end you go the less difference you'll hear and good chance people in the highest ends are thinking they hear better sound, but maybe they aren't really, like you said.

There's a lot of comparison you can do with video as well btw - wasn't it a topic somewhere here lately about HD tv and how people don't really notice that it's HD until they think about it?
Another thing is they compared two experiences - watching a movie first on a CRT and then on an LCD. You only notice how distored the CRT was when they switched from LCD back to the CRT. When you are _watching_ a movie (not disecting it) you barely will notice any quality difference. Same with sound - usually.

blahblahblah yadayadayaday

Oh man, don't get me started on video! :Eyecrazy:

I personally find my Philips 5.1 speakers do the job, I like how they're small and can be placed easily closely. I never use them that loud anyway so for me they deliver perfectly good sound quality for my use. Same argument for the free JVC headphones I use, they do the job for me of delivering distortion free sound at nice quite volume levels