Audiophile VS Musiphile - Your Thoughts?

[accwai]

3 hours ago, The_K-Man said:

An audiophile is focused on how, IE. a recording of a Beethoven symphony sounds on their system.  A melophile, like yours truly, is focused on how the symphony itself sounds.  Capeesh?

 

Separate "audio-" from "melo-" in your mind and you'll get the the gist - of this thread, as well as mine.  

 

Thanks for taking the time to enlighten us 'philes. Lately I've been focusing a lot on the sound of this:

 

 

So in my mind what should I classify myself as?

[audiobomber]

1 hour ago, Musicophile said:

Get a Sennheiser HD800 and you‘re all set. 

 

Actually I am 100% satisfied with the DT 1990. These headphones with Analytical pads and Asgard II amp are the end game for my headphone system. 

[Taz777]

I've seen it mentioned a few times on HiFi and review sites that the audio you hear from your own music system should be as close as possible to the studio recording. How would anyone know how the studio recording sounded, and from which vantage position would/should the reference point be?

 

Could two people in the recording studio hear exactly the same sounds?

[The_K-Man]

1 hour ago, Taz777 said:

I've seen it mentioned a few times on HiFi and review sites that the audio you hear from your own music system should be as close as possible to the studio recording. How would anyone know how the studio recording sounded, and from which vantage position would/should the reference point be?

 

Could two people in the recording studio hear exactly the same sounds?

 

Your listening space and the original recording(or mastering) studio are going to differ sonically.

 

That aside, your reproduction system should not add to or detract from what is on that recorded album.

[Teresa]

1 hour ago, Taz777 said:

I've seen it mentioned a few times on HiFi and review sites that the audio you hear from your own music system should be as close as possible to the studio recording. How would anyone know how the studio recording sounded, and from which vantage position would/should the reference point be?

 

Could two people in the recording studio hear exactly the same sounds?

 

One cannot. IMHO there is no way to judge the accuracy of music replay using recordings made in the studio or using electronic musical instruments. I use recordings of unamplified human voices and  acoustic instruments recorded in real acoustic spaces such as concert halls, jazz clubs, auditoriums, churches, etc. in which the engineers claim to use no EQ. Using any other type of recording is guess work IMHO.

 

To answer the OP question, I think I am a combination of Audiophile and Musiphile.

[Ralf11]

One can compare electronic musical instruments used in a concert with a recording of the concert...

 

I agree it is best with voice & acoustical instruments.

 

 

[Ralf11]

3 hours ago, Musicophile said:

 

B&W 800 Prestige sedition

 

 

 

 

Those used to be illegal

[Ralf11]

he's a fan of Kraftwerk and Joy Division, but finds he's been buying "plinky-plonky jazz" because it shows off his equipment. "I would never," he says heavily, "have bought a Diana Krall album unless I was into hi-fi. But play a Diana Krall album on my system…"

 

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

[DuckToller]

6 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

Big THANK YOU @Ralf11 for this beautifully crafted article about our somehow peculiar hobby.

Cheers, Tom

 

[The_K-Man]

What I want to know is, and I see the ads for them all the time on top of these forums:

 

What diffference does USBing out of ones device, into a Dragonfly, then into the mini headphone cable make, compared to just coming directly out of the headphone jack?

 

To me I prefer a direct out vs. all those other steps. 

[accwai]

He asks me if I want to hear something on his system. I choose "To Here Knows When", the 1991 single by My Bloody Valentine that Brian Eno described as "the vaguest music ever made". When it was released, people kept taking it back to the shops, convinced that there was something wrong with the record they'd bought: surely it wasn't meant to sound like that, with its beautiful sleepy-eyed melody almost drowned out by layers of churning, woozy noise. I've listened to it obsessively for 25 years, trying to get to the bottom of what the band thought they were doing. In Steve's front room, I feel like I'm sitting in the middle of the song, the guitars arcing around me. It's overwhelming. And once again, all the downsides of audiophile addiction – the ridiculous financial excesses, the mystical woo, the obsessive behaviour – seem to evaporate.

Who wouldn't want music to sound this enveloping, this enrapturing? ... Of course I wouldn't. But there's a part of me that knows precisely why they do and thinks the rest of us don't know what we're missing.

 

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

[audiobomber]

6 hours ago, The_K-Man said:

What diffference does USBing out of ones device, into a Dragonfly, then into the mini headphone cable make, compared to just coming directly out of the headphone jack?

 

To me I prefer a direct out vs. all those other steps. 

The difference between the inboard DAC and headphone out on my Dell Inspiron laptop vs. a $79 Sabaj Da2 USB DAC is night and day. Sound from the laptop alone is thin and sibilant. Playing through the little USB DAC adds warmth, detail and smoothness. It is literally pass vs. fail, 4/10 vs. 7/10. 

 

Try one of these, you will not regret it: https://www.amazon.com/Korg-DSDAC100M-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B00GTIUX0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547576094&sr=8-1&keywords=korg+ds-ds-100m

[Ajax]

17 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

 

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

 

Thanks Ralf,

 

Excellent article, recommended to to those who have not yet read it.

[fas42]

Just skimmed the article - very fast. The amusing thing, to me, is that the people who get the "extreme" presentation of the music are the only ones who are actually experiencing what's on the recordings! Everyone else is getting such a pitiful, decolourised, blurred version of what was captured - and they say, they're the ones getting an "accurate rendition" ... hooo, boy !!!

[NOMBEDES]

10 hours ago, accwai said:

 the mystical woo,

 

 

Can I change my screen name to mystical woo?

[The_K-Man]

4 hours ago, audiobomber said:

The difference between the inboard DAC and headphone out on my Dell Inspiron laptop vs. a $79 Sabaj Da2 USB DAC is night and day. Sound from the laptop alone is thin and sibilant. Playing through the little USB DAC adds warmth, detail and smoothness. It is literally pass vs. fail, 4/10 vs. 7/10. 

 

Try one of these, you will not regret it: https://www.amazon.com/Korg-DSDAC100M-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B00GTIUX0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547576094&sr=8-1&keywords=korg+ds-ds-100m

 

No thanks!  If I needed a smiley EQ curve or the equivalent of a Loudness button I could accomplish that with my EQ app.

[Kal Rubinson]

4 hours ago, audiobomber said:

Try one of these, you will not regret it: https://www.amazon.com/Korg-DSDAC100M-Digital-Analog-Converter/dp/B00GTIUX0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547576094&sr=8-1&keywords=korg+ds-ds-100m

I have one of those in my closet.  My recollection from way back is that it was that it was "pleasant."  That's all.

[audiobomber]

3 hours ago, The_K-Man said:

 

No thanks!  If I needed a smiley EQ curve or the equivalent of a Loudness button I could accomplish that with my EQ app.

Your comment on EQ is off the mark. The Da2 is identical to the SMSL Idea. You can see the smile-free FR response here and comparison with a Dragonfly Black here:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/measurements-and-review-of-smsl-idea-and-audioquest-dragonfly-black-dacs.2397/

 

I read your post and compared the DAC's I had available (Sabaj Da2 and Korg DS-DAC010R), so I could give an informed reply. I used DT 1990 Pro headphones which are 250 ohms but very efficient. The difference between my newish i7 Windows 10 laptop's headphone out and the little Sabaj was shocking, larger and more important than the difference between the Sabaj and the several times more expensive Korg. The Korg is easily better than the Sabaj in several ways, but as I mentioned, the difference between inboard and external was pass vs. fail. 

 

It seems to me you did not want a response to your question after all, or maybe you were just trolling?. 

 

 

[audiobomber]

3 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

I have one of those in my closet.  My recollection from way back is that it was that it was "pleasant."  That's all.

PM me if you want to sell it.

[The_K-Man]

20 minutes ago, audiobomber said:

Your comment on EQ is off the mark. The Da2 is identical to the SMSL Idea. You can see the smile-free FR response here and comparison with a Dragonfly Black here:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/measurements-and-review-of-smsl-idea-and-audioquest-dragonfly-black-dacs.2397/

 

I read your post and compared the DAC's I had available (Sabaj Da2 and Korg DS-DAC010R), so I could give an informed reply. I used DT 1990 Pro headphones which are 250 ohms but very efficient. The difference between my newish i7 Windows 10 laptop's headphone out and the little Sabaj was shocking, larger and more important than the difference between the Sabaj and the several times more expensive Korg. The Korg is easily better than the Sabaj in several ways, but as I mentioned, the difference between inboard and external was pass vs. fail. 

 

It seems to me you did not want a response to your question after all, or maybe you were just trolling?. 

 

 

No.  My point is I don't need some electronic intercessor changing the sound.  I want to hear what's there. 

[jabbr]

13 hours ago, The_K-Man said:

No.  My point is I don't need some electronic intercessor changing the sound.  I want to hear what's there. 

 

Hearing “what’s there” Is the point of pretty much everything here. The questions and debates are over the best way to do that. Let me break this down into two broad camps:

 

1) Your ears are the ultimate arbiter of sound. You are looking to hear what the mastering engineer mastered or what was present in the live performance. The best equipment is what creates this experience with the most transparency. You are the judge of what’s best.

 

2) The digital file is a precise sequence of numbers that precisely defines a waveform. Measurements measure the fidelity of the reproduced analog waveform to the digital signal as recorded.

 

Perhaps the DAC built into your laptop or your CD boom box  isn’t the best method for either 1) or 2) at least for many people, but suit yourself.

[DuckToller]

On 1/15/2019 at 1:07 PM, accwai said:

He asks me if I want to hear something on his system. I choose "To Here Knows When", the 1991 single by My Bloody Valentine that Brian Eno described as "the vaguest music ever made". When it was released, people kept taking it back to the shops, convinced that there was something wrong with the record they'd bought: surely it wasn't meant to sound like that, with its beautiful sleepy-eyed melody almost drowned out by layers of churning, woozy noise. I've listened to it obsessively for 25 years, trying to get to the bottom of what the band thought they were doing. In Steve's front room, I feel like I'm sitting in the middle of the song, the guitars arcing around me. It's overwhelming. And once again, all the downsides of audiophile addiction – the ridiculous financial excesses, the mystical woo, the obsessive behaviour – seem to evaporate.

Who wouldn't want music to sound this enveloping, this enrapturing? ... Of course I wouldn't. But there's a part of me that knows precisely why they do and thinks the rest of us don't know what we're missing.

 

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a8618/are-the-audiophiles-hearing-something-were-not/

This is genuinely well crafted British sarcasm. Or more like a sinister revenge if you happen to know the song.

Just: WHY?

[marce]

I was going to get a new DAC, but after a little debate with myself I went and got a new Fender Jazz Bass instead... I am now in audio nirvana.

[NOMBEDES]

2 minutes ago, marce said:

I was going to get a new DAC, but after a little debate with myself I went and got a new Fender Jazz Bass instead... I am now in audio nirvana.

 

 

PLEASE POST PHOTO.  Love to see it!!!

[marce]

My new baby, the kids are all grown up, I haven't played seriously for decades and have only had a cheap bass for the last 20 years... The feel, action and play-ability and sound are awesome, had one 35 years ago. Back to basics though a month of just practising major scales with differing fingering to re aquatint myself with the fingerboard.

As a kid I grew up in a seroius music family, my Mum was lead trombonist with Ivy Benson Band for a few years, my Aunty played trumpet in the same band, later in life they had a jazz quartet,  so we had music nights, were we sang and played music together. I had piano tutition from 4 and played trombone in a junior brass band about 9-12. Then bass in a few bands, let it all go, but my daughter is learning piano and ukulele (a 21 pilots fan like her dad, we are going to see them soon, can't wait, having a twenty year old daughter to escort me to concerts is great.) so its nice to play together, making music is the best buzz.