HiFi Audio Setup Thread

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Just don't get a case of upgraditis. Diminishing returns are extreme in hi fi.


Don't be like Ken Fritz whose son documented his project to create a "perfect" audio room that cost him a million dollars, to the detriment of his family, and then he died. His family sold it for a fraction of what he paid.

I guess it depends on how you look at it, I have done 3 upgrades over the years, new amps and speakers basically, it was all second hand though, not vastly expensive although the price went up as my income did, I spent more than most people would consider reasonable but I listen to music constantly, get an enourmas amount of pleasure out of my hifi, never saw it as an investment, if I had to sell it I might get back what I paid maybe wouldn't but that was never the point, I really really like listening to a nice stereo so for me the cost is worth it, I don't play golf or drive a porsche, I have a nice hifi that's my thing

[afc wimbledon]

I also had the advantage of working part time in the old A&B sound back in the 90's, it did two things, taught me what was good about hifi and what was stupid, the stupid is persuit of sound quality for its own sake, back in the day audiophiles would go on about 'jazz at the pawnshop' as the perfect album to listen to, the reps would come through and demo their gear with these dreadful albums of boring perfectly recorded jazz I would never bother to go listen to live, let alone home on my stereo, they would laugh at me as a wierdo when I'd put some early Louis Armstorng or Jelly Roll Morton on, I would point out in the end the guy playing the music is what makes it great, not the recording engineer

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

I guess it depends on how you look at it, I have done 3 upgrades over the years, new amps and speakers basically, it was all second hand though, not vastly expensive although the price went up as my income did, I spent more than most people would consider reasonable but I listen to music constantly, get an enourmas amount of pleasure out of my hifi, never saw it as an investment, if I had to sell it I might get back what I paid maybe wouldn't but that was never the point, I really really like listening to a nice stereo so for me the cost is worth it, I don't play golf or drive a porsche, I have a nice hifi that's my thing

Of course getting better components when you can is fine, but some people can't stop looking for a perfect reproduction of something they've heard or imagined they could hear.


I bought my living room speakers used as well. The guy who bought them new returned them after a week to get the next model up. And the kicker is he was using $2400 bookshelf speakers as rears in his home theatre.

The old adage applies: Music lovers use their equipment to listen to music; audiophiles use music to listen to their equipment.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Of course getting better components when you can is fine, but some people can't stop looking for a perfect reproduction of something they've heard or imagined they could hear.


I bought my living room speakers used as well. The guy who bought them new returned them after a week to get the next model up. And the kicker is he was using $2400 bookshelf speakers as rears in his home theatre.

The old adage applies: Music lovers use their equipment to listen to music; audiophiles use music to listen to their equipment.

the other thing people tend to forget is hi end systems tend to be lousy at playing most of the music that we grow up on, you can't listen to punk or most rock on expensive systems, it just sounds brutally bad, I have a low end bedroom system that I play most of the stuff I grew up loving, it has all the things audiophiles hate, tone controls and a loudness button!! but the Damned or MC5 sound kick arse on it

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Of course getting better components when you can is fine, but some people can't stop looking for a perfect reproduction of something they've heard or imagined they could hear.


I bought my living room speakers used as well. The guy who bought them new returned them after a week to get the next model up. And the kicker is he was using $2400 bookshelf speakers as rears in his home theatre.

The old adage applies: Music lovers use their equipment to listen to music; audiophiles use music to listen to their equipment.

I've never heard of this but it makes sense to me. Extreme Hifi can get exhausting, so I wondered what some of those guys were enjoying.

I can hear many of the differences, but even then, sometimes I like enjoying the music by "zooming out" and just listen generally vs have insane detail meaning I am "zoomed in" and must examine constantly.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

If it helps at all the great thing about conventional hi fi is it doesnt really age or need replacing unlike almost everything else in life, the 3000 will be all you need to listen to music into your dotage if you choose.

My speakers were bought in Montreal for 6 grand in the early 90's, I then bought them off the origanal owner for 2500 in 2008 or so, never needed a repair, are now more valuble than when I bought them ironically, I will pass them on to one of my kids if I have to move to an apartment or retirement home and they will continue to work fine for another 50 or more years

Almost nothing in life is as good a value as hi fi, cars break down, houses cost a fortune while you live in them, almost everything else requires constant upgrades subscriptions and has to be replaced while an amp and a pair of speakers just work for decades if you dont abuse them

Thanks, and yes, im starting to see that it is essentially a 30 year investment, with the odd upgrade here and there.

I also did make the choice to get a receiver that allows bluetooth connection. ultimately i think that will help early on taking advantage of the speakers while i slowly build out a vinyl collection (as well as later).

[Cappy]

Pardon the foam roller in the corner:

https://imgur.com/a/ujXBDCP

I'll probably get some speaker stands and put them next to the sideboard.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Cappy

Thanks, and yes, im starting to see that it is essentially a 30 year investment, with the odd upgrade here and there.

I also did make the choice to get a receiver that allows bluetooth connection. ultimately i think that will help early on taking advantage of the speakers while i slowly build out a vinyl collection (as well as later).

I bought a wifi server a few years ago, I bought it because my pre amp was really old and only had three inputs, TT, Aux and tape but it sounds so nice I didn't want to replace it, I realised the new Digital to Audio convertors were now small pre amps so I could plug the DAC into the aux connection then plug the CD, TV, my sonos reciever and still have a few left over inputs, then I realised I could plug a Hard drive into it and stream FLAC files through it using an app on my phone.

I now control my 1980ish hifi via an app on my phone from anywhere in the house, make up little playlists for myself as I eat dinner, it's so effing cool and convinient!!

[flamesrule_kipper34]

So...not sure if the best thread and if not will create a separate thread on its own.

Recently bought a Platinum Karaoke Cello 2 set: https://platinumkaraoke.com/products/intl-cello-v2.

Intent is to connect it to one our our TVs for the words but trying to figure out a budget friendly receiver/speaker combo that'll fit the bill, I know neither of our current soundbars are the right way nor do we have a receiver.

Not looking to break the bank on this, not pros, just looking for a decent budget friendly set up.

Thoughts?

EDIT: I did find a decent deal on a used
Onkyo TX-NR515 Receiver
2x Polk Audio TSi200 Book shelf speakers

The specs seem to line up well, curious if others may have thoughts?

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by flamesrule_kipper34

So...not sure if the best thread and if not will create a separate thread on its own.

Recently bought a Platinum Karaoke Cello 2 set: https://platinumkaraoke.com/products/intl-cello-v2.

Intent is to connect it to one our our TVs for the words but trying to figure out a budget friendly receiver/speaker combo that'll fit the bill, I know neither of our current soundbars are the right way nor do we have a receiver.

Not looking to break the bank on this, not pros, just looking for a decent budget friendly set up.

Thoughts?

EDIT: I did find a decent deal on a used
Onkyo TX-NR515 Receiver
2x Polk Audio TSi200 Book shelf speakers

The specs seem to line up well, curious if others may have thoughts?

Without digging, I would assume it will turn out OK. If anything, the quality of output from the karaoke set is the part I'd be least confident in if the quality of the output turns out weird.

[photon]

Originally Posted by photon

Yeah spent some time in the EQ and am quite happy with them.

Interestingly enough they also give me a bit of pain at the top of my head, but not nearly the same level as the Sennheisers did. So it must just be me, which is weird because my previous headset wasn't some weird thing that didn't sit on my head, and my work headset too doesn't really cause an issue. So no idea what's going on there, I just have to shift them around a bit every so often but I do seem to be getting used to it.

I thought I might need to switch to the other brand with the leather strap!

As far as sound goes I really like them and they're definitely a step up compared to my Sennheiser PC38x set.

So have had the DT990s for a year and sound wise am still quite happy with them.

Comfort wise I'd say they're fine as long as I'm not using them too long.. the pain on the top of my head is a lot less than before but if I wear them too long it still develops eventually.

That's my overall complaint about them, they're comfortable for 3-4 hours but if I'm wearing them during the day while working to listen to music then I wear them in the evening for some games by the end of the day my ears hurt because the ear cups are too shallow I think; they press a bit on my ears. I do have a different set of cooling foam ear cups on order that look a few mm deeper so that may make a difference. Plus still the top of the head pain, I can shift the headband forward and backward to mitigate but still.. downside of not having hair I guess.

But what I really want is something I can wear for as long as I want without issue.. I could do that with the Sennheiser/Epos/Drop/Whatever PC38x's I had.

After some research I ended up ordering a set of ATH-R70x:



I wanted to try these because they don't even HAVE a portion of the headband that goes across the top of the head!

Trying them out a bit can confirm they're super comfortable and a lot lighter than the DT990 Pros. Ear cups feel just a tad deeper which we'll see if it helps with comfort.

Sound wise they're a lot more forward or present, but I'll have to play with the EQ as I think the mids are a bit high.. everything else sounds good so far.

Probably the only real downside so far is the cable plugs into the headset are keyed so that you have to rotate them to lock them in place. Not sure if that's a standard of some kind but if it limits my ability to replace those cables then that would suck. The DT990's have a coiled cable and I'm finding I really like them compared to just a loose cable but not sure if I'd be able to find such a cable for the ATH-R70x.

[photon]

I have a SoundBlaster X3 which says it supports up to 600 ohms and the ATH-R70x are 470 so it should be fine, but if I wanted to upgrade there a Schiit Modi/Magni combo should be enough to drive those correct?

Though looking at those doesn't look like they're easy to get in Canada, I'd have to order from them and pay shipping and duty + exchange.

Anything else that's worth looking at?