What kind of home audio system do you have?

O

orangesuedeshoes

250+ Posts
I just added the following to my Mac w itunes:

1 Peachtree Audio Nova
2 PSB Imagine Bs

First, I'm not an audiophile. In fact, I've never had a quality home audio system before. This system is unbelievable. Granted, there is a limit to how good an mp3 can sound but damn... damn... damn... I never knew what I was missing when it came to music.

Anybody else recently discover the benefits of a decent hi-fi system?
 
yamaha reciever (dont know specifics but it was $1500 refurbished about 8 yrs ago-no troubles) Klipsch surround sound and sub.

50 inch samsung plasma and samsung blue ray player
 
It's amazing how good music can sound on a nice stereo. Dynamic, yet clear and nuanced.

What kills me is that music is being mastered with limited dynamic range and other compromises to make it sound better on crappier equipment.

SACD and DVD-A sound fantastic but are dead formats. I'm glad blu-ray supports really high quality audio though.

I've had a nice stereo for a long time and I'm glad that HDTV has finally made the video on par with the audio.
smile.gif
 
I have some awesome speakers that I bought just tonight. They sell at Best Buy for a lot of money but they ordered too many and I got a great deal. There was a guy who works at Best Buy who was not happy about having to face his boss after not being able to sell all of them at another store down in South Austin. Lucky for him, AND ME, today was pay day.

I ended up with this high end speaker package for only 450 bucks. He wanted 500 but I showed him who is boss when it comes to negotiating!

I think I did something wrong in setting them up because they don't sound very good. Must be the limitation of the source. I guess I need a better receiver or home unit? Maybe better cable. I will try to figure it out tomorrow. Maybe I will be lucky and find him in his white van again. He may have a deal on other things.
 
Orangesuedeshoes,

Congratulations on your purchase. Did you compare the Peachtree to the Benchmark Media DAC1 and/or the Bel Canto DAC 3 (or how did you decide to buy this)? And do you have (or have you done research on) the Wadia I-transport (ipod dock)? I heard the Peachtree has a good class A tube headphone stage. I ask because I am interested in buying the Peachtree and pairing that with my Shure E550 headphones.

System, good but modest by audiophile standards (bought used, but not from a white van; or on a 1-2 year no interest credit):
Proceed pre-amp and 3 channel amp-made by the Mark Levinson folks
2 channel Anthem amp
Sony S9000ES SACD player (powers that be: please let Blu-ray be the new standard)
Sonus Faber Concerto speakers
PSB Alpha speakers for rear channel
M&K subwoofer
Monster balanced interconnects
Transparent speakers cables
 
They got you a great deal too?! I am going to wait to hook 'em up till later just before a big date. I hope she is blown away by the quality of my new savvy buy of high end speakers!
 
NAD T773 surround sound receiver (new $1800) I bought it on Audiogon for $500. It weighs about 65lbs and has power to spare.
PSB Image 4T's front tower speakers
PSB image 60c center channel
NHT classis 2's surround speakers,sweet little bookshelf speakers
Energy 10S subwoofer

Oppo 783 SACD/HDCD/DVD player great sound and video!

I bought most of this system used on Audiogon for about $1500 total and everyone that hears it is blown away.
 
I grew up in a house where the old man knew how put together a good sound system and did so (with limited $). He even had one of those big Akai reel-to-reel decks in the wooden case (still works like a charm after 40 years).

I have tried to follow suit. I have a Denon receiver of some sort, a NAD single disc CD player, and a crummy Sony double-cassette player. The Ariston turntable is the key, especially as it has a $500 cartridge and stylus on it. Simple belt-driven bliss. Very nice. Basic Altec-Lansing speakers. I seldom play my system loudly, so I can't really say if it kicks mucho tail, but it does the trick at a minimum.
 
I still have the same Sansui system I had when in college, some 20 plus years ago. But it still sounds kick ***. Of course the turntable and cassette deck are obsolete and thus laying in a landfill somwhere. But I have added a Sony cd/dvd unit and added two 100 watt indoor/outdoor Yahama speakers to the back of the living room. They are right next to the windows that open to the back patio, so I can move them in or out as needed with zero effort. Connected them all to a 53" Mitsubishi HDTV with the speakers in all four corners. So while it is not state of the art or latest technology, nor does it do true justice to the digital age, it still sounds great and it is hard to justify replacing any of it while it does.
 
You can get a decent turntable now for not too much money. If you like the rich sound that vinyl can give you it may be a good addition to your equipment.

Find a good source in your town (there are likely many if you look) and you can find some really good titles for a good price. They will be used but usually in good shape. Inspection, of course, is a must. You can find out of print things you cannot get on CD. To me there is a certain romance with the whole process of vinyl.

It begins with selecting, taking out of the sleeve and then placing it on the turntable. Then cleaning it and setting the needle down. That pop, the rich sound and I guess habit of it is special. A feature of some software packages that convert to MP3 filters out the vinyl pops and sounds. Why?
 
Audio is the stepchild of home entertainment. Think about how much better most appliances/electronic devices are compared to 30 years ago. In 1978, we had giant tube TV's that are laughably bad compared to the flat-panels of today. We had Ataris and Intellivisions compared to Xboxes and Playstations. Compare the images from a betamax tape to those from a blueray.

But in 1978, there a pretty good chance that your old man had a decent turntable and a nice set of floor speakers. Compare that to what passes for a home audio "system" today: an ipod and a little docking station with 3" speakers.

It's just incredible how home audio has gotten WAY worse in 30 years while everything else has gotten so much better.

Slightly off topic, but worth adding, is that music itself was harder to own back then. It required a trip to the music store. When I was a teenager, your record collection said a lot about you as a person, and you made purchases with great care. Now all of you who are reading this thread can own just about any record still in print by clicking a few buttons-- you don't even have to get up from where you're sitting.

Music was appreciated more when it was harder to own. Now it's ubiquitous, and in the forms that it is most commonly consumed (hypercompressed mp3's and earbuds), it sounds truly awful.

Props to you guys fighting the good fight.
 
My computer set up is where I listen to most of my recordings. Audiophile 24/96 sound card feeds a Mytek Stereo96 DAC. Sony MDR-7506 Headphones.

My home setup consists of Harmon Kardon integrated. Cerwin Vega floor speakers and Infinity Surround.
 
When I was 19, the van guys tried to sell me some speakers outside of supercuts in waco. about 1993. I barely had enough money for the haircut I had just gotten. I remember getting pissed at them because they were pressuring me to buy these speakers. I remember saying.

"im sure they are fine speakers dude, but how many times do i have to tell you, i barely have enough money for the damn haircut i just got, now f off man"
 
I like vintage solid state stuff.......and LP records.


Dual 1249 Turntable (1977)
Onkyo TA-R301 Cassette (1991)
Marantz 2230 Receiver (1974)
MArantz 2270 Receiver (1976)
Pioneer QX-949 Quadrophonic receiver (1974)
JBL L100 Century (4) Loudspeakers (1977)

The gear sounds great and looks even better.


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Didn't know there were so many HIFI lovers on this board. This sits very well with me! I got sucked into this great hobby 3 years ago when I bought my p1 on a whim at Audio Systems in North Austin. Since then I've done the majority of my shopping and demoing in East Austin with Brian at Whetstone Audio. I can't recommend his shop enough.

My current rig -
Rega Brio 3 integrated amp
Rega P1 turntable with Ortofon Red cartridge
NAD PP1 phono pre-amp
PSB Alpha B speakers
NAD speaker wire.

I'm looking at purchasing a OPPO player as I've heard nothing but wonderful things at the price point ($199.99), but can't justify the cost as I listen to about 95% of my music at home on vinyl. At some point down the road I also see myself upgrading to the Rega P3-24 turntable with the outboard power supply, these things really sing with the right cartridge and pre-amp combination. Happy listening!
 
At the moment what I'm listening with is a Nelson Pass designed Adcom GFA 555 amp and GFP pre amp from 1985. The speakers are 1998 Speaker Art Super Clef (# 209 & 210) tweaked by designer/builder Bob Gross. Turntable is a 1977 Technics
SL-1400 with a Stanton 681EEE cartridge and the CD player is NAD.

I also have '72 Marantz Model Twenty Seven integrated amp/receiver and a 1960 H.H, Scott integrated tube amp. I have a mid eighties Hafler DH-100 for a back up preamp
 
Good stuff ths71, keep an eye out for a Pass Aleph amp. Truly stunning and the epitome of clean. Class A, no switching distortion though power hungry. Neat that the higher the volume the cooler the amp runs since the power it makes is being dissipated in the load (speaker) than the amp's output stages.

There was a time when I was getting my EE degree at UT that I thought about being an amp designer but computer chips are the future and Class D amplification is intriguing that it works at all.
 
FYI - If you havent heard by now the playstation 1 doubles as a high end CD player, comparing well to units costing 500-1000 dollars. Apparently , gaming systems have very high sampling rates and this unit has high end audio hardware, making it the best audiophile value on the planet costing anywhere from free to 30 dollars on the used market. I have one on my modern home theater system and it sounds much better than the DVD player hooked up to it

As you would expect, there is not total concencus on the greatness of the ps1 in your Hi-Fi rig. If you google PS1 and cd player you'll find a few haters (mostly guys that think high fidelity is not achievable unless your player is connected w/ 100 dollar cables) . My conclusion........prolly not better than a 500 dollar CD player (NAD C-515BEE, Marantz CD5003) but close enough to warrant saving the cash if you dont have money to burn and you want better sound than a consumer level cd player.
 
For the ipod consumer set, and given that the wife's not interested in a large setup in the living room, I got a B&W Zeppelin (not the mini) that really does great imaging for the space with solid depth in the bass, particularly if cornered. Fills a room really nicely for a "box."
 
I've read the exact same thing in Stereophile magazine about the PS1, in fact it was list as one of their recommended products in their annual issue this year.
 
Denon receiver. B&W CM1 front speakers, B&W sub, B&W LM-1 rear speakers.

I have Denon separates that are kind of just sitting around. I am thinking about getting some Martin Logans to go with that system for music only.
 
Also, the best audiophile community forum on the web is www.audiokarma.org/

Full of helpful advice and the traffic is unreal. A multitude of Forums for vintage, repair, brand specific, etc. Links to service manuals, owner manuals etc.
 
I got pulled in back in the 90's with a Yamaha DSP A1000 and a moderate Velodyne subwoofer anchoring my sono system. I still think the DSP A1000 popularized the minimalist front side hiding controls in a flip down panel. Happy days back then in the hey day of Dolby Pro Logic. Now it sits in the garage collecting dust.

What's replaced it? A cheap *** $400 Panasonic Blu Ray player with 7.1 surround, micro speakers included, that just about barely doubles for everything else my old system did and then some, including web surfing and an ipod dock.

I never would have guessed that the Blu Ray component would swallow up every other component in a traditional sound system.
 
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