OT: Audio gear, what have you got?

[daker13]

Originally Posted by mcteague

RE: the Randi challenge; Pear, the cable vendor who was working with Fremer, backed out of the deal. As to the 5/5 test he took. Do you have details? Proper test? Was one of the amps operating out of normal flat audio specs?

Tim

You're mistaking me for someone who wants to debate you about double blind testing. I'm not. Those debates are all over the internet, so have at it.

Yes, I did read that Pear backed out of the comparison. Fremer has his own response to that. Mikey is a pretty crusty guy. As for the AES stuff, I'm definitely not going to look that up for you.

Look, this is a well-worn debate. I had a good friend who was getting into audio, and then, for a few months, all he wanted to talk about was double blind testing. Fortunately, he eventually bought a pair of Spendors. This is why there's a "Propeller Head" forum at Audio Asylum, so there's a place for the double blind testing guys to talk about double blind testing.

If you're into audio as well as measurements and specs, good for you--have fun.

Per "normal flat audio specs," well, there are a lot of amps that measure well and sound bad. Tube amps in general don't measure well, especially the single-ended ones. Personally, I don't really care how a stereo measures. Like I said before, I don't think double blind testing is a valid way of comparing cables (or anything for that matter) because I think the subtle differences between components come out over time, and some sound better at first but less so as time goes on. So I'm sure, in some kind of weird testing environment, many people might make mistakes comparing an expensive cable and a Radio Shack cable. Comparing components--if you're into that, and frankly, I only have a little stomach for it--is best done in your own system under normal listening-to-music conditions, in my opinion.

I like a decent scotch too, but I don't particularly want to prove to anyone that I can tell the difference between cheap whiskey and good scotch.

[RobJ]

Back on subject...

Returning to audio after being away for a while. Reading these various threads gave me the bug again, plus I was starting a basement renovation project so decided to incorporate a HT/audio room into the plans

So here's my current direction:

Marantz 7012 9.2 channel AVR
Marantz 7025 2-channel AMP (bi-amping fronts)
Cambridge Audio CXUHD 4k UHD SACD Blu-Ray player
Panamax M5400-PM Power Management
Rega Planar 2 TT (planned)
MartinLogan Motion 60XT fronts
MartinLogan Motion 50XT center
MartinLogan Motion 15 Rears
MartinLogan Helos 12 In Ceiling (Mid Surrounds, Height channel)

[pjm]

Sounds like a nice little starter system.

[mcteague]

I started this post and now am in the process of making some changes. After living with the Linkwitz Orion speakers for 14 years I sold them to start a build of the Linkwitz LX521.4 speakers. Gone also is the Rotel 8 channel amp and ASP, replaced with a pair of Emotiva A-500 5 channel amps and a miniDSP 4x10HD.

The build is slow going as the flat pack of HDF speaker cabinets got hung up in the Post Office for 10 days. Also found the wooden dowels and many screws were missing from the kit. Slowly getting things sorted out. Should be fun!

Tim

[William]

A few recent additions...

Preamps...

Carver C1 (rebuilt)
Carver C-4000
Carver CT-24 (modified)

Power amps...
Carver M500T (rebuilt and modified)
Carver M500T (All original)
Hafler 9300 Transnova (rebuilt and modified)






W.

[pjm]

Originally Posted by mcteague

I started this post and now am in the process of making some changes. After living with the Linkwitz Orion speakers for 14 years I sold them to start a build of the Linkwitz LX521.4 speakers. Gone also is the Rotel 8 channel amp and ASP, replaced with a pair of Emotiva A-500 5 channel amps and a miniDSP 4x10HD.

The build is slow going as the flat pack of HDF speaker cabinets got hung up in the Post Office for 10 days. Also found the wooden dowels and many screws were missing from the kit. Slowly getting things sorted out. Should be fun!

Tim

Those are some wild looking speakers. Are they tri-wired?

[FierteTi52]

I have several systems in my house, so here is the main one that is in my great room:

Rotel RSP-1066 5.1 surround processor pre amp
Rotel RT-1080 tuner
Marantz CD-6006 CD player with usb input for streaming
Adcom 5503 200 watt x 3 amp for mains and center
Adcom 555mkll 200 watt x 2 amp for rear
Definitive Technology BP 2000 speakers with built in subs for mains
Definitive Technology CRL 5000 center channel speaker with built in sub
Definitive Technology BP 6 speakers for the rear
Hitachi 55” Plasma TV

Most of the equipment is close to 20 years old but works great. The CD player/DAC is a recent purchase. This is a bottomless money pit hobby. lol

[mcteague]

Originally Posted by pjm

Those are some wild looking speakers. Are they tri-wired?

They are 4 way, open baffle dipoles. All Linkwitz designs are active rather than passive. Any speaker designer will tell you active is the best way to go, for sound that is. All crossover and equalization is done before the power amps. That allows more control with fewer side effects and makes the power amps job easier. The downside is you need a separate amp channel for each driver. So, the 2 tweeters share a channel, but the upper and lower mids plus both woofers need a channel. That makes 10 total channels. Thus the use of two Emotiva 5 channel amps. Things can get messy and confusing so few commercial speakers follow that path.

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/conclusions.htm

Tim

[benb]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

I was surprised years ago to read an article that stated that professional classical musicians seldom appreciate REALLY good reproduction systems because their brains automatically fill in missing frequencies on mediocre systems. I'd bet they would be bothered by distortion though.

I think anyone who is trained is listening to different things than an untrained audiophile. It’s what you’re concentrating on. And actually the audiophile is trained too, they’ve trained themselves to hear audiophile things.

If you’re thinking about the chord progression or what amp or effects the guitar is going through or which notes the pianist is accenting you’ve got less attention span for listening for hiss or sound staging. Plus there are certain things like amplified electric guitars which audiophiles would think sound pretty objectionable in person. Turn up those amps and there’s a level of hiss and hum that is very noticeable. It gets edited out when making a record.

Likewise I bet a recording engineer listens to an entirely different set of things too.

I think a lot of this sound stage stuff is a bit amusing actually. A lot of it is an artificial effect created in the recording process. You can hear some of it live with an orchestra but in a lot of cases you don’t hear it live the way you do on recordings and particularly in a rock band no one participating is hearing it that way. People stay interested in it because they’re in this audiophile bubble where the magazines and websites talk about it instead of the music.

[Rudy]

I rocked a mid-fi setup for years: Bang and Olufsen turntable; Nakamichi tape deck; Creek integrated amplfier; Rega disc player; Bowers and Wilkins bookshelves.

Now I go with my Macbook and Peachtree M25s. Having lost much of my hearing in 1977 courtesy of a Montrose/Ted Nugent show, this rig suits me just fine.

[benb]

No-nonsense setup at my office that always amazes me if I don't listen for a while.

Fiio X1, < $100 a few years ago. Their software takes forever to stabilize, I wouldn't want one of their newer players necessarily which are much more like an iPod Touch. This one has a 128GB removeable card in it, I have about 90GB of music on it, it has FLAC files of ever CD I ever bought on it, plus ever track I've ever bought from the Amazon or Apple music stores. I have a very limited selection of hi-res audio files on it as well, although at this point if I have the choice I will buy that over a CD. Just got Julian Lage's latest CD and Gary Clark Jr's latest earlier this week. As long as the cost is not outrageous I'll do that and not deal with the physical CD. I do not see a point in buying an album that has been pre-compressed to MP3/AAC at this point, I either buy the CD or the high res lossless files. I will then archive everything onto my file server at home.

Also whatever the Fiio dock is called.. it has various inputs/outputs on the back + the dock connector. Drives bigger headphones well. Again a cheap purchase.

Sony MDR-7506s with Beyerdynamic replacement ear covers, the Beyerdynamic covers are a nice upgrade for not much money, much more comfortable. All I wish for is these headphones had a detachable cable setup so I could get a straight cable. I hate the coiled cable. No big deal at the desk but it is a deal breaker for some things like trying to use the headphones to play guitar with an amp with a headphone jack. Coiled cable = tangled mess.

All stuff that I wouldn't cry too much if it was stolen.

I listen to my iPhone or computer through it with the line in fairly often but the X1 with lossless files sounds considerably better. Enough to put a grin on your face vs streaming music for sure.

[parris]

I'll be picking up an Ariston turntable with a Sumiko Blue Point cartridge in the next couple of weeks once it's been gone through.

[RobJ]

Originally Posted by benb

No-nonsense setup at my office that always amazes me if I don't listen for a while.

Fiio X1, < $100 a few years ago. Their software takes forever to stabilize, I wouldn't want one of their newer players necessarily which are much more like an iPod Touch. This one has a 128GB removeable card in it, I have about 90GB of music on it, it has FLAC files of ever CD I ever bought on it, plus ever track I've ever bought from the Amazon or Apple music stores. I have a very limited selection of hi-res audio files on it as well, although at this point if I have the choice I will buy that over a CD. Just got Julian Lage's latest CD and Gary Clark Jr's latest earlier this week. As long as the cost is not outrageous I'll do that and not deal with the physical CD. I do not see a point in buying an album that has been pre-compressed to MP3/AAC at this point, I either buy the CD or the high res lossless files. I will then archive everything onto my file server at home.

Also whatever the Fiio dock is called.. it has various inputs/outputs on the back + the dock connector. Drives bigger headphones well. Again a cheap purchase.

Sony MDR-7506s with Beyerdynamic replacement ear covers, the Beyerdynamic covers are a nice upgrade for not much money, much more comfortable. All I wish for is these headphones had a detachable cable setup so I could get a straight cable. I hate the coiled cable. No big deal at the desk but it is a deal breaker for some things like trying to use the headphones to play guitar with an amp with a headphone jack. Coiled cable = tangled mess.

All stuff that I wouldn't cry too much if it was stolen.

I listen to my iPhone or computer through it with the line in fairly often but the X1 with lossless files sounds considerably better. Enough to put a grin on your face vs streaming music for sure.

Excellent! But you just cost me a few hundred bucks As I am moving back into audio/HT this has me researching the lossless players, a capable desk setup and software to rip all the CD/SACD's I have (not sure those can be ripped actually). I've been streaming Apple music at my desk for a year or two or listening off my library and need to upgrade...

[ScottW]

Originally Posted by RobJ

snip... SACD's I have (not sure those can be ripped actually).... snip

It can be done with very specific versions of PS3 that still have older firmware (rare) and, thankfully, with specific models of Blu-Ray players that are more easily obtained on the used market. Put the relevant firmware on USB stick, get the required free programs for your PC, and the rest is pretty simple.
Power up the player with USB stick inserted, the drawer pops open, you insert disc and close the drawer, then the firmware basically puts the BR player into a trance-like state (server mode) where it waits for the PC software to request the data off the disc, then sends it via ethernet or wifi.
BR player needs to be connected to your network obviously. You only need to connect it to a TV/monitor just for the step of configuring network access; after that it can be run as a headless appliance. You will need to input the IP address of the player into the PC software. It may help if you configure a static IP to the BR player's MAC address.
This thread I believe contains some links to get you started.
Last year I picked up a Sony BDP-S5100 for $25 and it works great, no issues playing the files on either of my DSD capable DACs.

[RobJ]

Originally Posted by ScottW

It can be done with very specific versions of PS3 that still have older firmware (rare) and, thankfully, with specific models of Blu-Ray players that are more easily obtained on the used market. Put the relevant firmware on USB stick, get the required free programs for your PC, and the rest is pretty simple.

Power up the player with USB stick inserted, the drawer pops open, you insert disc and close the drawer, then the firmware basically puts the BR player into a trance-like state (server mode) where it waits for the PC software to request the data off the disc, then sends it via ethernet or wifi.

BR player needs to be connected to your network obviously. You only need to connect it to a TV/monitor just for the step of configuring network access; after that it can be run as a headless appliance. You will need to input the IP address of the player into the PC software. It may help if you configure a static IP to the BR player's MAC address.

This thread I believe contains some links to get you started.

Last year I picked up a Sony BDP-S5100 for $25 and it works great, no issues playing the files on either of my DSD capable DACs.

Good deal! Thanks Scott. Just dipping my toe back into audio things and this was excellent. Plus my player is supported out of the box.


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