Relative importance of differences in stereo systems

[STC]

4 minutes ago, The_K-Man said:

 

In other words:  BLING 

 

It need not be so if you are only after high fidelity. But not exactly cheap either.

[bluesman]

7 minutes ago, STC said:

Like the Audioquest and Wadia DAC that you are using.  

 

My profound apologies, Kal.  As usual, you were 100% correct - it really isn’t my concern.  From now on, it’s omnis homo sibi!

[John Dyson]

These discussions are bit confusing to me -- because I have been around the best quality -- and it often doesn't have polished wood cabinets and/or nice foam carrying cases.   I like have worked with super high quality audio -- yet so many people who are audiophiles seem to go for an ambience that isn't important to me.   For example (wrt my project) -- lots of audiophiles have likely listened to material that has been mis-mastered, yet feel like maybe a lower jitter (or some other mostly specious attribute) has helped the sound.  (Jitter CAN distort audio, but one doesn't need the kind of jitter specs that are often looked for (or, the actual 'jitter' is usually more of an analog noise situation.) Here is what I mean:  people who are desperate to improve their equipment might be looking in the wrong direction for good solutions.  (This is where the snake-oil salespeople misdirect/mislead for their own financial benefit.)  A proper and complete analog engineering degree (which can be gotten in 4 yrs), is a very good first step (along with additional study/materials) which will prepare the 'audiophile' to solve their own problems.  How many people have a hobby that has lasted 20yrs, and they are in the same rut of polished speakers, questionable home-brew and snake-oil designs, and using the same defective recordings (loving the nice, bright highend or some other defect?)  A small part of the 20yrs can be used to actually learn what is going on -- then being immune to the snake-oil, but maybe even create something (gratis) for others to use...   So, BEING MORE PRACTICAL -- instead of the full education -- a bona-fide attempt to bypass the snake-oil would be helpful -- don't just look in the audiophile popculture information -- and watch out for snake-oil people trying to look like they are contributing to legit imprrovements.

(Some new, esoteric ideas ARE good ones, e.g.  the very interesting  time base correction scheme for audio tape -- that IS a good thing.)

 

Good audio equipment isn't 'elite', but boutique equipment certainly is 'elite.'

 

Point being -- if someone likes the sound of their polished mahogany speakers  (or amplifying devices which double as space heaters and night lights) -- that is cool, but such ambience isn't needed for good sound.  It MIGHT be needed to make a given audiophile happy -- and that is okay also, that is -- unless someone who 'really doesn't know'  might  judge against my simple, effective and very good soundign equipment.   My equipment is like that used in an EE lab, being used to TRULY benefit the quality of recordings -- and it is just as good as any other 'semi-industrial' equipment.  (Geesh -- DolbySR, which was used along with DolbyA to encode/decode old recordings used pathetic OpAmps (many of them in the path), that would make the 'elite' audiophile cringe.)  Some of their 'music' has been tainted by that equipment which 'cannot sound good.' :-).

 

Status isn't important to me -- been there, done that.  I found that simplicity is my own key to happiness.

 

John

 

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Posted 1 hour ago

  1 hour ago, STC said:

Like the Audioquest and Wadia DAC that you are using.  

 

1 hour ago, bluesman said:

 

My profound apologies, Kal.  As usual, you were 100% correct - it really isn’t my concern.  From now on, it’s omnis homo sibi!

????  

[Axial]

When stereo music is playing from various systems and rooms it comes in all colors and colorations. It's the same thing with live musicians and opera singers and blues players and pianists and symphony orchestras and jazz bands.

 

Three films three music styles ...

• A Star Is Born

• Green Book

• Bohemian Rhapsody

 

Which one is "BLING" and not?

 

 

 

 

 

[Sal1950]

On 1/13/2019 at 11:06 AM, 4est said:

here just isn't enough multichannel material for me to wreck my living spaces with even more speakers.

Oh Lord, I never thought I'd hear an audiophile declare more gear would "wreck his living spaces"  😲

That's more of a WAF commnent than the boss of a man cave. 

[The_K-Man]

2 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Oh Lord, I never thought I'd hear an audiophile declare more gear would "wreck his living spaces"  😲

That's more of a WAF commnent than the boss of a man cave. 

 

"WAF" - English please?

[Sal1950]

18 minutes ago, The_K-Man said:

 

"WAF" - English please?

Wife Acceptance Factor. 

[bluesman]

1 hour ago, Kal Rubinson said:

But why address me in a responso to STC's comment?

 

...because of your reaction to my comment on STC's statement that "...[t]o be an audiophile you need to have high end equipment", specifically :

 

19 hours ago, Kal Rubinson said:

I am commited to music and the ability to enjoy it live and at home.  That is consistent with being an audiophile.  There will always be those who see things differently and get their joys in other ways, perhaps.  They are not my concern.

 

After clinging tightly to my innocence for 7 decades, I had to let it go when confronted with "It was statement to emphazise the importance of room acoustics... Today, audiophile refers to lifestyle and branded equipment despite what they claim to be. Like the Audioquest and Wadia DAC that you are using."  I don't know who "they" are, but they seem not to approve of my equipment choices.

 

This interchange opened my eyes! I'm with you - I'm wasting my breath and sticking my neck out for no good reason.  It's no longer my concern.  I hope that everyone can and does pursue his or her passions, and that each gets as much pleasure and satisfaction from them as you and I and our wives do from ours. But I will not again intervene - let everyone make his or her choices and live with them.

 

In fact, you've inspired me to set up MC!  I'd forgotten all about my Pioneer Elite 7.1 receiver, which I put in the closet when we sold the house 3 years ago.  The Wolfson 24/192 DACs may not be "audiophile quality" 😉, but they're a start.  I'll find out how important differences in the system are to me as I develop this.

[Kal Rubinson]

OK.  I suppose the intricacies of multi-link quoting confused me.  

[Sal1950]

On 1/14/2019 at 2:22 PM, Teresa said:

have never been to anyone's home which has a dedicated room for music. They either have a stereo or multichannel audio/video system in the living room or in their single room if they live in a studio apartment like me.

 

I thought only very rich people had separate rooms for video and audio systems. For the rest of us a single system is used for both audio and video. And many of the few I've been in with multichannel systems have the rear speakers setting on top of the front speakers because they don't want wires running along the walls. If one rents an apartment they cannot put wires in the walls. I suppose one could get wireless speakers for the rear. Oh, well. 

Neither have I,  everyone of my acquaintance is in the lower midclass and don't own 13 room 5000+ sq ft homes.

 

You'd be surprised  how much gear can be tastefully accommodated in a smaller space.

My last home had a very nice 12x20 ft living room. If I placed my listening chair facing north I looked at my stereo rigs equipment rack and speakers along with the shared subwoofer system. Turn the chair 180 and I faced my video system with the TV,  and  the gear for a 5.2 multichannel system. 9 speakers total really wasn't that overwhelming.

I've since decided that multich and stereo can co-exist in a single system.

My current retirement home has a open floor plan with the area dedicated to audio/video being about 12x16.  It houses my 75" Sony and a 5.2.4 multich rig. Again I don't find the gear overwhelming, I actually find it comforting to be surrounded by the pieces of the "hobby" that I love.

I never worried too much about the visible wires, at the floor level, keeping the rear speaker wires tucked into the wall/floor intersection with most of the area hidden by furniture made it completely acceptable to me. Recently when the time came to install the ceiling mounted speakers for a Atmos immersive upgrade I looked for some options to hide the wires best as possible.  I found at my local Lowe's some very inexpensive wire channeling. It comes with two sided tape for attachment to the walls, is white in color but can be painted to match room color, and makes the wire routing all but invisible. There's a bunch of different options along these lines.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Legrand-1-Piece-0-5-in-x-60-in-Straight-Channel-Ivory-Cord-Cover/1000282085

[The_K-Man]

50 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Wife Acceptance Factor. 

 

Thank you!  Was that so hard to type out in full?

 

Sorry, but I don't speak or type in code, like many Millennials do.

[Sal1950]

16 hours ago, STC said:

Today, audiophile refers to lifestyle and branded equipment despite what they claim to be.

In todays definition of "audiophile" I find it offense to use the term in relation to myself.

To be considered a true audiophile in places such as this site you are expected to believe in the fairy tales such as of the sound of wire and all the rest. To have abandoned science and the use of scientific  methodology to determine that which is "superior or advancing the SOTA".  "Sounds good to me" is all that is required to be taken seriously.  BLAH

Don't fall for the 10 biggest lies in audio.

https://www.ecoustics.com/articles/ten-biggest-lies-audio/

[Sal1950]

33 minutes ago, The_K-Man said:

 

Thank you!  Was that so hard to type out in full?

 

Sorry, but I don't speak or type in code, like many Millennials do.

Millennnial, me?  LOL

Sorry but just about anyone who's been involved in audio over the last 4 decades or so knows what WAF refers to when it comes to room decor. Maybe your just starting out?

[The_K-Man]

11 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Millennnial, me?  LOL

Sorry but just about anyone who's been involved in audio over the last 4 decades or so knows what WAF refers to when it comes to room decor. Maybe your just starting out?

 

Nope!  I just tend to speak - and correspond - in full words as much as is practical.  Makes the conversation easier to follow, that's all.

 

But when I see/hear individuals from my age(late forties) and up communicating in alphabet soup, I find it discouraging and depressing.

[Sal1950]

13 minutes ago, The_K-Man said:

But when I see/hear individuals from my age(late forties) and up communicating in alphabet soup, I find it discouraging and depressing.

Don't be sad, maybe by the time you reach my age, near 70, you'll learn too.

[bluesman]

22 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Don't be sad, maybe by the time you reach my age, near 70, you'll learn too.

 

As 70 fades in my rear view mirror, it's clear that the young 'uns can be mighty funny creatures, Sal.  The older they get, the smarter we get.  Just stay in the groove, man' - many will eventually catch on and catch up.

[The_K-Man]

27 minutes ago, Sal1950 said:

Don't be sad, maybe by the time you reach my age, near 70, you'll learn too.

 

Nahh.  I'm too conservative when it comes to that stuff.  That acronym sh- is for the under-thirty set.

[bluesman]

24 minutes ago, The_K-Man said:

 

Nahh.  I'm too conservative when it comes to that stuff.  That acronym sh- is for the under-thirty set.

LOL!

[esldude]

1 hour ago, The_K-Man said:

 

Nope!  I just tend to speak - and correspond - in full words as much as is practical.  Makes the conversation easier to follow, that's all.

 

But when I see/hear individuals from my age(late forties) and up communicating in alphabet soup, I find it discouraging and depressing.

Odd for the user named The_K-man to eschew acronyms.

[Ralf11]

3 hours ago, Sal1950 said:

Oh Lord, I never thought I'd hear an audiophile declare more gear would "wreck his living spaces"  😲

That's more of a WAF commnent than the boss of a man cave. 

 

 

He may not be master of his domain

[christopher3393]

1 hour ago, The_K-Man said:

 

Nahh.  I'm too conservative when it comes to that stuff.  That acronym sh- is for the under-thirty set.

 

Yeah, it's FUBAR, but FYI writing out LGBTQ longhand gets old. YMMV.                     

BTW I'd blame the military, not  Millennials, e.g.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Marine_Corps_acronyms_and_expressions                

Semper Gumby!                 

 

As to the relative importance of differences in stereo systems, I'd go with this: once the sound is pretty damn good, thank your lucky stars and listen to more music. There is more great music than any of us will ever get our heads and hearts around and music is what it is about. An exception might be the technophiliac audiophile.

[The_K-Man]

1 hour ago, esldude said:

Odd for the user named The_K-man to eschew acronyms.

 

K-Man contains an actual word, so technically it is not a pure acronym.

 

It developed out of the inability of many people to correctly pronounce or spell my name.

[esldude]

4 minutes ago, The_K-Man said:

 

K-Man contains an actual word, so technically it is not a pure acronym.

 

It developed out of the inability of many people to correctly pronounce or spell my name.

I thought it was in reference to Dave Katz and his K system because of your avatar.

[The_K-Man]

15 minutes ago, esldude said:

I thought it was in reference to Dave Katz and his K system because of your avatar.

 

"Dave" Katz?   DAVE Katz?

🤣😂🤣😂🤣

 

You mean BOB Katz, who I have met personally and own some of his books.

 

Figures an audiophile would get the name of a nationally known mastering engineer wrong.