The Best for the Least

[bigbob]

22 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

I'm curious what he has for a $300K system  

I don't know everything about it, but I know it sounds good.

[bigbob]

6 hours ago, firedog said:

I wouldn't worry about it. The preference for DSD is one of taste and/or having components that sound better playing back DSD. If you like the sound of your PCM playback just stick with it. Even DSD resampled to PCM can sound perfectly fine if your system is optimized for PCM.

 

I understand for many folks that they hear a difference between PCM and DSD, and I don't doubt that they do. When you are living on a tight, fixed income budget, you have to decide what is most important.

 

It would cost me $500 to replace my 20 favorite albums (Oh, Jeez, how would I decide on numbers 15-20?) in DSD.

 

IF I had an extra $500 lying around, I would wonder if there was a capital investment (equipment) which would make everything I already have sound better. Well, after only two days of testing--I can tell you that $249 for a Modi Multibit, and $99 for Schiit Wyrd would be at the top of my future budgets. This thing blows away anything I have ever heard! It is truly a Yggdrasil for 1/10th the cost!

[bigbob]

7 hours ago, firedog said:

It can if you compromise 2 points:

1. extremely low bass

2. loud volume playback with no loss of macrodynamics

--clipped--

Much of the big bucks in audiophilia are devoted to chasing after the uncompromised 2 points above.

1

 

My friend with the $300K system said that the majority of his money was spent to eliminate noise--and that is something you realize until it is gone.

[bigbob]

8 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

 

You can buy very good used subs very cheap?

I can beat very cheap. My friend has a sub in his shed for me. Free, just waiting to bring it over. Looking forward to the heartbeat on Dark Side to thump my chest. Or The Flaming Lips -Oczy Melody.

[bigbob]

1 minute ago, Spacehound said:

Magico  were new and unknown.

 

If they cost 1000-2000 dollars a pair nobody would have given them the slightest attention as they would be 'beneath' wealthy people and the magazines that cater  for them.

 

It's how 'high end' audio  works.

 

And we all know folks who need to know the cost, before they can opine about the value. The value of anything audiophile ought to be solely based on how it sounds, not the cost. The desire and aquire syndrome appears to only effect those who can afford the upgrade.

[bigbob]

10 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

your vintage speakers probably already go pretty low...many of the modern speakers speakers need  help though as few have large woofer drivers anymore.

I have 1975 large Advent Loudspeakers and never wanted more bass. The second cut on the Flaming Lips moves the woofers such that the tie-dyed speaker covers appear to be breathing.

[bigbob]

1 hour ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

In my experience, there are also those who desire but lack the means to acquire, and the resulting frustration colors their entire view of what gear is desirable and what gear "SUCKS"

That would apply to some on this forum.

Even if I won the Irish Sweepstakes, I would never have spent $7800 on a one meter pair of Nordost Valhalla Reference speaker wire, but that doesn't mean that a gift didn't Vastly improve the SQ compared to lamp cord (albeit Monster Cable Audiophile lamp cord)

[bigbob]

50 minutes ago, wwaldmanfan said:

 

I'll bet you are the only person here who's speaker wires cost three times as much as all the rest of your stereo equipment put together. Even if you didn't buy them, that's pretty special.

Considering that my system was a 1980s Yamaha RX-135 and a pair of 1975 Advent speakers before I was given Denon and Nordost Valhalla Reference speaker wire, I could put the value at $200 With Schiit Modi 2 being worth half that.?

[bigbob]

1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

 

best upgrade: stacked Advents

 

No argument, I am glad I saved my "Audiophile-quality" Monster Cable lamp cord to connect the second pair

[bigbob]

18 hours ago, firedog said:

I can hear small differences.

DSD is a little different for me. It sounds "different" - sort of softer - so I can often identify it from conversions.

 

 

Even though my end of the Hi-Fi spectrum is based "the best for the least" I can concede that some things just are different. Different is not always better, but it sometimes is. The difference between the Schiit Mimby and an iFi iOne is warm vs. cool. So yes, they are different, but it would depend upon personal preference and your own ears to decide. I cannot imagine how one would quantify that, except to say "I like A" or "I like B" and I would think the $50 difference or the 'native DSD' of the iFi would only be a factor if that was your interest. As for me, I think the Modi Multibit is the BEST DAC I have reviewed in the "under $300" class (which is using USB not S/PDIF digital coaxial interconnect) I am anxious to compare the De-Crapifier Schiit Wyrd to the iFi iPurifier2. I am using the latter with the Mimby, awaiting the arrival of the Wyrd. We heard a distinctive difference with or without the iPurifer2 and its Active Noise Cancellation in a very easily repeatable test.

 

[bigbob]

2 hours ago, kumakuma said:

 

Sony is the last company I would trust to get things right. Every Sony product I've owned in last 40 years had some "feature" that made me want to pull my hair out.

 

I know this is way off-topic, but in my former life as a photojournalist, I was a naysayer to new Sony mirrorless cameras (How can you make a camera without a mirror?)

And although I was heavily invested in Nikon, I had to change my mind when I got my hands on the Nex-6. Sony is willing to try new and different approaches, some which were popular and some faded. While Betamax was trounced by VHS in consumer electronics, it remained the Standard in Broadcasting. Any sporting event you see on television is a Sony video camera (with Canon glass). And once again, little old Sony has blown open the Professional market with the A-9 camera.

Okay, thanks for your attention--now back to the inaudible range of human ears....

[bigbob]

1 hour ago, Fluffytime said:

 

Oh wow. Only in your mind does "class warfare" have anything to do with hi-fi.

 

Out here in the real world, not so much.

 

Hmmm...so that is the problem. Class warfare would dictate that the person with the most toys wins. In Audiophilia that translates into "more expensive equals better" which may be true sometimes, but that does not mean the less expensive equipment doesn't sound "good".

 

In real class warfare terms-- the majority of music is listened to by "normal people" with earbuds hooked to their iPhone or the stereo in their car. When they get back to their home, it is probably a 5.1 Surround Sound hooked to the Blu-Ray player and the NEW 69-inch TV they bought at Best Buy.

 

Since we like to argue about the upper limits of human hearing, quoting Norquist or Hasenpfeffer, whose research has very little to do with whether you like Blondie or AC/DC-- we are not 'Normal' musical listeners.

 

In the 'real-world' you lose one of the wireless earbuds for your new iPhone, and you go to the Apple store and fork out more bucks to replace it. End of Story

[bigbob]

3 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

 

All i can say is that if you state this is "established science", then all I can say is that "established science" is wrong.

It wouldn't be the first time I disagreed with "established science".

 

 

Wasn't Galileo declared a heretic for postulating that the Earth orbited the Sun?

The 'established science' of human perception, as interpreted by peer-reviewed scientific journal articles still cannot explain why one rendition of a song sounds warmer than another--because warm is a touch sensor, not a hearing sense.

I learned a long time ago, when but a wee lad, that touching a hot skillet burned my fingers.

Wouldn't it be nice if hi-fi stereo was as easy to assimilate?

[bigbob]

10 minutes ago, pkane2001 said:

 

I’d be very careful, certain disagreements with science can end badly. For example if you believe you can fly if you flap your arms fast enough and jump of a building. Do you disagree?

 

OK scientists....explain how David Blaine can levitate? 

Some things science can explain, it can dissect and analyze ad infinitum (or ad nauseum) but I still can't figure how Blaine lifts off the ground.

And I have seen him do it on TV, so it has to be real.

Conspiracy theories about the events in Dallas on November 22, 1963, were based on acoustic data from an open mike on one of the motorcycles in the motorcade-- and they are still trying to figure that one out 55 years later.

Nordost claims that the signal travels at 96% the speed of light in their Valhalla Reference speaker ribbons. I don't care, but they sound better on my 40-year-old Advents than the Best Monster Cable lamp-cord speaker wire, which they replaced.

[bigbob]

14 minutes ago, pkane2001 said:

 

Yes, like the electronics you are using to type this, like the cars, planes, satellites, like the advances in medicine and food supply, like the weather forecasts, like the ability to communicate instantly with the rest of the world, like instant access to all of human knowledge, like the audio equipment we are discussing.... devastating, isn’t it? I’d like to see you give up all that science made possible.

 

Wait for a second...I built this computer from spare parts I got a Goodwill. It is ONLY a dual-core processor. Since Intel is making faster processors--how is it possible to read what I am typing on a $5 used keyboard.

Surely it would be 'unreadable' to the discerning reader...

[bigbob]

9 minutes ago, pkane2001 said:

 

Enlighten us as to what helps improve hi-fi  more than science? (OK, alcohol and certain drugs, yes, but what else?)

 

PS: Ever hear about the internet?

 

Alcohol and drugs can take you only so far...at a Grateful Dead concert, it is the shared experience by a large group of people mixed with the genius of some audio engineers that created the synergy of the experience. Without the benefit of the drugs, the music still sounded great, it just didn't flow like technicolor rainbows out of the speakers...

[bigbob]

8 minutes ago, fas42 said:

 

This is the area that really interests me - some would be "shocked" by the quality of sound that can presented by components that cost no more than chain store, midfi gear; I get a buzz from boosting the effective quality of such to where it easily surpasses the most expensive audiophile rigs in key areas.

 

Which merely says that the industry is doing a lot of things wrong, very wrong - the focus on silliness, and bling by so many is not doing this pursuit any favours ...

 

Welkommen to mein World !

You almost sound like a "Computer Audiophile on the Cheap"

I have said to anyone who would listen, that little things are important. Just 6 little cones of metal, under a pair of speakers--isolating them from the floor--, allows the bass driver to push air better than when it is trying to load the hardwood. That is a $12 for 6, tweak from eBay or a $49/per cone Audiophile accessory if you buy the same thing from Audio Advisor.

[bigbob]

1 hour ago, Teresa said:

 

First GUTB tells me I'm not an audiophile despite preferring audiophile recordings because I don't lust after what I cannot afford.

 

Now you (Big Bob) seem to be telling me I'm not a "normal person" either, as I fall way short of your description of normal people. I don't have an iPhone or any kind of cell phone, never have, my corded landline telephone does everything I need a phone for. Also I don't have a car, I ride the bus or walk. At home, I don't have a surround sound system, mine is a 2-channel audio / video system. I do have a Blu-ray player which also plays SACDs (my favorite format) and I did buy my HDTV at Best Buy but It's a 28-incher not 69-inches like you said normal people have.

 

In short, I have the wrong kind of phone, I don't own a car and my 28-inch HDTV is 41 inches too small to be a normal person. So does that make me an abnormal non-audiophile?

 

 

You are an Audiophile if you know where the sweet spot is, and if you appreciate good music on the system you own. The point I was interjecting was that the General public get their music in less than Audiophile ways, so belaboring whether humans can hear like a dog is a manifestation of the affliction we call a hobby. BTW, no car, 32 inch flat screen that cost $72 to replace led array and power supply- left for trash beside the road, same for my monitor. 1975 Advents 20-yr old receiver and $14 computer from Goodwill...so we are both quite normal?

[bigbob]

50 minutes ago, STC said:

 

No sir that makes you a normal audiophile who is interested in high fidelity and Not high priced equipment.  

 

 

Agreed and no disrespect intended.

[bigbob]

50 minutes ago, Fluffytime said:

 

That depends on wether the interconnects were hooked up in the proper direction or not.

 

And where they properly burned in first?

Don't forget the magic magnets...

[bigbob]

1 hour ago, beerandmusic said:

 

What?  Jerry didn't have anything to do with it?  Give credit where credit is due (wink)

Well, Jerry was a tremendous guitar player, and all the ideations since he left his mortal coil have fallen short of the High standard he set for the group....and I do mean High

[bigbob]

1 hour ago, Fluffytime said:

Eww, smelly hippies.

The unique blend of body odor and Patchouli oil, mixed with whiffs of Kind Buds....

[bigbob]

1 hour ago, Teresa said:

 

First GUTB tells me I'm not an audiophile despite preferring audiophile recordings because I don't lust after what I cannot afford.

 

Now you (Big Bob) seem to be telling me I'm not a "normal person" either, as I fall way short of your description of normal people. I don't have an iPhone or any kind of cell phone, never have, my corded landline telephone does everything I need a phone for. Also I don't have a car, I ride the bus or walk. At home, I don't have a surround sound system, mine is a 2-channel audio / video system. I do have a Blu-ray player which also plays SACDs (my favorite format) and I did buy my HDTV at Best Buy but It's a 28-incher not 69-inches like you said normal people have.

 

In short, I have the wrong kind of phone, I don't own a car and my 28-inch HDTV is 41 inches too small to be a normal person. So does that make me an abnormal non-audiophile?

 

Oh, Sweet Baby Jesus... please don't compare anything I say to @GUTB

I grew into a 7-foot tall body, and I don't even know what "normal" is. I took the term "freak" as a compliment when I attended my first Dead Show (Oct. 30, 1977--Assembly Hall, Bloomington IN)

It was just me and Bill Walton standing head and shoulders above the teeming masses....

[bigbob]

17 minutes ago, Fluffytime said:

The lesson here is: Just don't listen to GUTB.

Now can I get an 'Amen' from the congregation.....

[bigbob]

2 hours ago, Fluffytime said:

Welcome to Post Factual Society. May I take your coat? Oh, and try the shrimp.

 

Oh, the Shrimps were delicious, do you know all the ways to prepare shrimp?

There's boiled shrimp, there's fried shrimp, there's shrimp etouffee, there's ....