What audio system do you have, or plan on getting?

[Spineur]

My Nakamichi amplifier finally died after a 6 months agony, so I had to find a replacement.  It turns out I also needed a network streamer to play my digital music stored on my QNAP NAS.  I opted for this relatively cheap pioneer NC 50 DAB



Very pleasantly surprised to see how extremely easy to set up.  Found the NAS immediately and the navigation through directories of composers, albums with the remote is easy.  I havent tested the digital radios, spotify/tidal/qobuz capacities, but this is something I was looking for.  It has a CD player as well.  The DAC chip is a Sabre 32 bits which is used in many high end hifi players.  It supports also fire connect for multirooms audio broadcasting.

Listening to Haendel Ariodante/Minkowski right now.  The sound is a bit "digital" for my taste.  Maybe there are setting to improve this.

It is listed for 850 euros on Amazon.fr but got it from Hifi Fabrik (a German outfit) for 630 euros.  Not bad.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

This is a long thread, and I'm not sure whether I asked this before. Can anyone recommend adjustable (height) speaker stands appropriate for these powered speakers (AudioEngine A5+)? https://audioengineusa.com/shop/poweredspeakers/a5-plus-powered-speakers/

I may periodically take them from room to room, and the height of my ears off the ground will be different in different chairs. I have Vandersteens in my main system, and these have their own dedicated stands.

Aside from that I've never bought speaker stands before. Do most smaller speakers have a common mount like camera bodies of various manufacturers that have the same threaded hole to fit any tripod head? How can I be sure a given stand will work for these speakers? Any thoughts/advice on what I should buy?

[drogulus]

    I decided to get the Oppo 4k unit as my all purpose media source. All in my case means all file kinds from a bunch of HDDs. It also has an HDMI in so you can run a streamer or PC into it if you're out of inputs on the AVR or just because it's convenient. As I expected the thing plays everything. You can even professionally calibrate the video and use basic setting on the TV for cable. For music you hit the pure button and that turns off the front panel display and the video circuits.

[marvinbrown]

    Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to the following speakers (Sonus Faber Venere 2.5), powered by a Musical Fidelity amp.

 

  I was stunned! They were superb with classical music and sounded SMOOTH as SILK! I did not know that speakers could sound like this. One day I would love to get these. Something to budget for within the next 5 years perhaps....

 

[The new erato]

And this is the cheap end of their range. Advice: Don't listen to the > USD 10.000 stuff. There's no going back.

[marvinbrown]

And this is the cheap end of their range. Advice: Don't listen to the > USD 10.000 stuff. There's no going back.

  I can well imagine! By the way, I wouldn't consider their retail value, new of £2400 cheap.  Plus you need an amp in the £1500-£2000 range to get the most out of them and a CD player in the £1000-£1500 range and before you know it you are spending £5400 pounds on a system. That's really pricey in my opinion.

 

[The new erato]

Yes indeed, but it's still the cheap end of their range. I've listened to their 8 grand 2 way systems and lived with their 4 grand floorstanders for some months a few years ago........

[Baron Scarpia]

My Bose Quietcomfort noise-canceling headphones got stolen, and I want to replace them. Mainly I would use them with my phone (either wired or bluetooth) or maybe with a tablet or laptop for casual listening here and there. I have more serious headphones for listening to the real stuff at home.

Any suggestions as to which would provide better fidelity, the latest Bose QuietComfort Series III, or the Sony competitor WH1000XM2, or maybe something else noise-canceling at the same price point (about $300).

[Baron Scarpia]

No comment, eh.

Changed my mind. Going for the Bose QuietComfort 25 noise canceling headphones, basically because are simple wired headphones, no wireless connectivity.

Basically, the wireless connectivity of the QuietComfort 35 or the Sony seems like it would be nice, but bluetooth is always irritating to use: you have to wait for it to connect, deal with the inevitable instance when it fails to find the device, deal with the inevitable instances when it finds the device when you don't want to use the device, deal with the situation where there are multiple devices in range and you have to figure out why it keeps connecting to the wrong one, etc. Plus these fancy headphones are controlled by an app, and they have a button that automatically invokes Google Assistant. Does there have to be an app for everything? Do I have to talk to my headphones? When I finish listening to the Hamerklavier Sonata, will it be interrupting to suggest I listen to Andre Rieu?

I am anticipating the day when you can't use a toe nail clipper without configuring the app and logging into the clipper. Then they will sell data about you to the highest bidder, and your health insurance rates will go up because of health concerns based on analysis of your toe nail clippings.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

My turn to ask an esoteric question. I've been thinking of upgrading my turntable. I have the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon which costs c. $400, it's about 5 years old, and I think it's great.

My question is: if I upgraded to a turntable in the $500-$1000 range - i.e. something not vastly more expensive than what I already have - would the improvement be worth it? I can understand getting major improvement from a table that costs 1000s of $$, but what about going just one step above?

Please tell me it's not worth it, I don't want to get sucked down the audiophile rabbit hole!

[Baron Scarpia]

My turn to ask an esoteric question. I've been thinking of upgrading my turntable. I have the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon which costs c. $400, it's about 5 years old, and I think it's great.

My question is: if I upgraded to a turntable in the $500-$1000 range - i.e. something not vastly more expensive than what I already have - would the improvement be worth it? I can understand getting major improvement from a table that costs 1000s of $$, but what about going just one step above?

Please tell me it's not worth it, I don't want to get sucked down the audiophile rabbit hole!

The most critical component is the cartridge, and after that the tonearm, whose job is maintain constant tracking force on the stylus, and introduce negligible friction resistance as the stylus follows the groove from the edge to center. The quality of the bearings is crucial. The task of spinning a disc at constant speed is very simple compared to that. I'd think about whether the tone arm of the new turntable is better.

[Baron Scarpia]

Oddly enough, I get attracted to the idea of getting a turntable (the last one I had was an old Thorens which worked like crap). But then I remember I threw all my LP records away three years ago. Problem solved.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Oddly enough, I get attracted to the idea of getting a turntable (the last one I had was an old Thorens which worked like crap). But then I remember I threw all my LP records away three years ago. Problem solved.

I never threw them away - they were stored in my parents' basement, and that gave me the incentive to buy a turntable. It started as a kind of nostalgia trip, wanting to hear all those records again that I had last listened to years ago. (It's not because I was deeply convinced by the arguments of the Anstendig Institute or anything like that.)

[Baron Scarpia]

I never threw them away - they were stored in my parents' basement, and that gave me the incentive to buy a turntable. It started as a kind of nostalgia trip, wanting to hear all those records again that I had last listened to years ago. (It's not because I was deeply convinced by the arguments of the Anstendig Institute or anything like that.)

Truth be told, I saved about a dozen LPs. Now I can think of another dozen I should have saved. But there were probably 200 of them, at least, and the others I don't miss.

Didn't realize anyone around here still remembers Anstendig and his Institute. The web site still exists, at least. I still remember there was some obscure phono cartridge which, before he got it, no one had ever heard music properly before.

[BasilValentine]

Oddly enough, I get attracted to the idea of getting a turntable (the last one I had was an old Thorens which worked like crap). But then I remember I threw all my LP records away three years ago. Problem solved.

Hah! Never gave mine up. Or my records. I cobbled together a system with a Technics turntable, receiver and tape deck, still going strong after thirty five years of use, two different CD players, and a pair of Cerwin-Vega speakers. About the latter: I went to a big stereo store in Boston armed with Shostakovich's Tenth and King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic and tried numerous speakers. I picked the ones that sounded best. When on computer I use Sony headphones.

[Fëanor]

My turn to ask an esoteric question. I've been thinking of upgrading my turntable. I have the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon which costs c. $400, it's about 5 years old, and I think it's great.

My question is: if I upgraded to a turntable in the $500-$1000 range - i.e. something not vastly more expensive than what I already have - would the improvement be worth it? I can understand getting major improvement from a table that costs 1000s of $$, but what about going just one step above?

Please tell me it's not worth it, I don't want to get sucked down the audiophile rabbit hole!

I got onto the hi-fi treadmill back in the day when LPs were really the only option, (tape cassette was around but new).  What I always hated about LPs was the concern to keep them dust- and scratch-free and avoid wear & tear in generally.  I understand that some people actually enjoy handling the physical albums, admiring the covers, reading the back and liner notes, destaticing and dusting them.  But I hated the handling rituals.

I bought my first hi-fi CD player an couple of years after the introduction of that media, after prices and settled down a bit.  By the mid '90s I ceased buying LPs altogether.

There are still lots of people who say the LPs sound better than CD.  I say it basically isn't so.  In the early days neither the average CD nor most CD players sounded very good so it was easy to make the claim, but 21st century CDs and CD playing technologies, (no longer restricted to actual, self-contained players), have come a long, long way.

It's always been true that 90% of sound problems aren't the playback media or equipment but rather the recording and engineering processes.  But if these processes are well doe, a CD or hi-rez computer file will beat an LP everytime.  Further I will assert, at the risk of the ire of many, that LPs and the phonograph playback stream are preferred by their admirers because they filter the sound in a pleasing way

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

There are still lots of people who say the LPs sound better than CD.  I say it basically isn't so.  In the early days neither the average CD nor most CD players sounded very good so it was easy to make the claim, but 21st century CDs and CD playing technologies, (no longer restricted to actual, self-contained players), have come a long, long way.

It's always been true that 90% of sound problems aren't the playback media or equipment but rather the recording and engineering processes.  But if these processes are well doe, a CD or hi-rez computer file will beat an LP everytime.  Further I will assert, at the risk of the ire of many, that LPs and the phonograph playback stream are preferred by their admirers because they filter the sound in a pleasing way

Now that I've been back into vinyl for a few years, my conclusion is that neither medium intrinsically sounds better than the other. When I've compared CDs to their LP equivalents, sometimes the CD is better, sometimes the LP is, sometimes you can barely tell the difference. Even that is too general a statement, because different issues of the same recording, irrespective of medium, often sound different. Vinyl fans can get obsessive about sonic differences between different issues of a particular LP.

The only generalization I feel confident in making is that LPs are more ambient and CDs more precise. But that's a gross generalization based on years of listening experience.

[The new erato]

Studio or mastering work is far more important than medium, and that goes for SACDs as well.

Just bought me one of these. Will probably be my last CD/SACD device, but I don't stream and cannot be bothered to rip:



Still awaiting delivery BTW.

[Baron Scarpia]

Pioneer? They're still in business? What is the country of manufacture?

[71 dB]

Pioneer? They're still in business?

Why wouldn't they be still in business?