Losing the interest and also realising that dumping thousands doesn't make that much of difference

[Versus rider]

I've been there with losing interest in a very good set up in a dedicated room in the garden. Got myself a 1957 Ford pop and proceeded to restore it. Three years on the car is almost finished, I have kept on the road in most of that time and now my enthusiasm for music is back.. Now making some changes like you do. 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Versus rider

[wen]

i have down sized over a couple of years, now have the cheapest 2 amps i have owned in 20+ years, never enjoy my music more than now. One amp is custom made , the other a small valve amp, agreed, you don't need to spend big dollars, just choose wisely

[Super Mustud]

On 26/12/2019 at 4:19 PM, LogicprObe said:

 

I have played a double bass and didn't feel it either.

Maybe it was faulty?

Maybe it is time to try a triple bass.

[Super Mustud]

On 26/12/2019 at 4:39 PM, Primare Knob said:

It is surprisingly relaxing and calming to be in the happy zone.

 

The rush is gone and I have more time to enjoy.

Nicely put.

[Tasebass]

Dumping thousands not making a difference....mmmmm

 

I did just this when diagnosed with bowel cancer 5 years ago...why you may ask...well a couple of reasons first off was the fact that I may not make it and at least I would like to enjoy  what a really nice..albeit vinyl ..system could sound like as well as living with one...

From my perspective this helped me greatly in my recovery and associated challenges along the way..I spent time with system set up which meant learning some new stuff and once all was sorted and settled with the system the enjoyment, calmness and relaxation that the system offered up was a blessing and revelation. What was being offered up in SQ was just as important..or had just as an effect..as the recovery process per se.

 

I owe a lot to my system back then and still thank some of the gear I still own to this day though I know I will have to part with some purely because it aint getting used as it should.

 

YMMV...just thought I would share this.

 

Tase...who's all clear and healthy...

Edited January 6, 2020 by Tasebass

[LogicprObe]

 

Go Tase!

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Seen a lot of folk cycling up and down in system cost over the years ,most often due to frustration with the sound quality as they spend more money. So back to basics and the joy is back, for a time,then the upgrade bug hits again and ......

I am not sure if there is any easy answer to the above but an experienced ,enthusiast retailer or friend can be a great help. Putting together a system based on good reviews has never been a good route in my experience.

As bricks and mortar retailers disappear the jop of putting together a musically satisfying system is imo getting harder.

My advice is never throw out the whole system and start again as that can get very expensive. Try to find a dealer that will let you listen to new components in your home.

[Tasebass]

14 hours ago, LogicprObe said:

 

Go Tase!

....and to all who are going through some awful challenges...

[lemarquis]

On 26/12/2019 at 9:08 PM, gibbo9000 said:

... Then I accidentally listened to the Kii Three (actives) at the hi-fi show.  The sound blew me away.  Compact, 20Hz bass, highly adaptable to difficult rooms.  If you haven't taken a look at reviews or had a listen then might be worth a quick look. 

 

Not something I ever imagined before I saw / heard them, and not for everyone, but a complete game changer for me.  Most components now gone and wife and I very happy.

 

Gibbo

Downsizing to 30K actives? Certainly a downsize in box count 

 

I haven't really gone all out in terms of upgrading but have settled on a decent system for my room (living) and needs. I'd say it's the best I've had. I'm not at the stage where any upgrades are ruled out, but feel they will be in the amp department at some future stage.

 

Doing a lot of listening these days.. to the music!

Edited January 7, 2020 by lemarquis

[Grant Slack]

On 24/12/2019 at 6:40 PM, ufo said:

I thought I should start a new conversation about loosing the interest in chasing the ultimate and settling down with what's reasonable.

 

Hello ufo,

 

there couldn't be a better time to "settle for reasonable", in both size and price. Loudspeakers, especially, have reached the point where flat frequency response and smooth beamwidth transitions are available at very reasonable prices, if one chooses well. Amplifiers and digital sources have long ago reached the point of sufficiency.

 

Mentally, also, one needs to "settle" by adopting a mindset that 'lets go' of a few treasured audiophile maxims, including brand worship, there's no substitute for size, analog rules, garbage-in-garbage-out front-end emphasis, and you get what you pay for. At best -- at the very best -- these are all highly debatable today, and indeed, a strictly rational, show-me-the-valid-evidence attitude could lead one to discard them all.

 

How reasonable, one may ask, can reasonable get, without resorting to headphones?

• Digital source of choice
• 5" active standmounts with near-flat FR and smooth DI (e.g. JBL 705P, KEF LS50 Wireless)
• 12" sub with inbuilt EQ (e.g. Elac S12EQ $1300)

If that doesn't give reasonable sound that the ready-to-settle audiophile could be very happy with, then I'll go he.

 

Regards

Grant

Edited January 19, 2020 by Grant Slack

[almikel]

On 07/01/2020 at 2:21 PM, Grant Slack said:

How reasonable, one may ask, can reasonable get, without resorting to headphones?

• Digital source of choice
• 5" active standmounts with near-flat FR (e.g. JBL 705P, KEF LS50 Wireless)
• 12" sub with inbuilt EQ (e.g. Elac S12EQ $1300)

The JBLs look awesome - and provide DSP delay for better integration to subs where the mains require more delay than the subs...

If you found a sub with a digital input, you could use the "digital through" on the JBLs, and need nothing else if your digital source has volume control.

...a spectacular minimalist system...

 

cheers

Mike

 

[JT1]

I’ve toyed with this idea for a few years. Have the Paradigm studio series in 5.1, often thought about moving to 2 speakers of much higher quality. Still don’t know if this is a good idea.

[MrBurns84]

Been in this game for 10 years now, knew very little back then and now a little wiser.  Seen dacs a many, including sources, preamps and a few subs.  The one best decision i made 8 years ago was to spend some good coin on my speakers - SGR CX4F's.  Now in its mk2 form, i was content back then as i am now.  I learnt 2-3 years back that keeping up to date in this game cost me some good amount of coin that i will never get back but also i have enjoyed the journey and fun it presented at the time.  Still kept my tt rig, allo usb streamer, routed to a minidsp - room corrected via Dirac v2 and out to the CX4Fmk2's.  And a few months ago, added dual SB3000's just for movies.  Just how i like it

Edited January 18, 2020 by Porkbuns69

[ufo]

1 hour ago, JT1 said:

I’ve toyed with this idea for a few years. Have the Paradigm studio series in 5.1, often thought about moving to 2 speakers of much higher quality. Still don’t know if this is a good idea.

Paradigm Studios are great speakers. You would have to fork out substantial amount to improve on them.  I once saw an article about Parasound displaying their premium JC1 monoblock amps + legendery JC2 Preamp with Paradigm Studio's in a HI FI show in the US and the author  was very impressed with the sound. If it is good enough for Parasound to display their top of the range stuff then it is gotta be really good. I would say stick to them. I upgraded from Studio Series to Signature series, yes, of course there is difference but is it worth the cost?!?

[JT1]

I’d honestly say yes for music. Had s2s for a long while and they were really impressive for music. The issue now is the signature series or equivalent is no longer available, and a significant step up these days costs way too much, partially as Paradigm went upmarket and also from our weakened dollar. Been toying with the idea of selling the system and going for B&W diamonds and required amplification but the cost really does add up.

Edited January 18, 2020 by JT1

[ufo]

24 minutes ago, JT1 said:

I’d honestly say yes for music. Had s2s for a long while and they were really impressive for music. The issue now is the signature series or equivalent is no longer available, and a significant step up these days costs way too much, partially as Paradigm went upmarket and also from our weakened dollar. Been toying with the idea of selling the system and going for B&W diamonds and required amplification but the cost really does add up.

Yeah, I still scratch my head as to why Paradigm stopped producing Signature series. S8s are such marvellous speakers. (They actually came seventh or eighth in the line up of best ever 15 speakers line up) You would have to fork out many many more times of their cost to better them. Listening to them in 2CH setup thru JC2 + Anthem M1 mono-blocks were out of this world. I listened to every single CD I had once I had this set-up and realised how much I was missing throughout the years listening my CD collection. But u know rest of the story. I do miss my old listening room in the big house I sold. The place where we live now is s**t sonically :(.

[Hi-Fi Whipped]

10 hours ago, JT1 said:

I’ve toyed with this idea for a few years. Have the Paradigm studio series in 5.1, often thought about moving to 2 speakers of much higher quality. Still don’t know if this is a good idea.

If you enjoy surround sound keep it. If your mix of music ht is heavily weighed towards music and watching movies without surround effects won't bother you, go 2ch.

[genkifd]

ive had my Monitor Audio RS 7.1 HT setup for over 10 years - various electronic has been replaced to due failure etc. for me a few years ago i found myself gravitating towards music. its great having the HT for movies and games but music was a little disappointing as the AVR at the time didnt have enough power to get out the true potential of the speakers. 

 

In the past year i decided to get a dedicated hifi system something far exceeds what my HT can do (mind you with the upgrades my HT system actually sounds pretty good in regards to music).  listened to about a dozen systems all around $20k to 35k mark. The system i have settled on is vastly superior is many ways where the HT falls sort in regards to music.   

[keinesorge]

On 24/12/2019 at 4:10 PM, ufo said:

How about you guys, has anyone been thru such downgrade for a change where everything seems to be about upgrade even though sometimes side ways?!?

 

Hi Ufo,

 

Some time ago i got rid of most of my hifi gear and decided to start from scratch with learning amplifier tweaking / voicing and getting my head around building my own audio gear.  From an internet forum / pub point of view its a massive downgrade.

 

Now i'm down to the component level, thinking up designs and putting it all together.   Over the last few years, i've been enjoying this hobby like never before. 

 

In hifi parlance, it might be the downgrade of all downgrades.  But i'm having a good time and finally have the sound that i'm after.

[almikel]

9 hours ago, keinesorge said:

Some time ago i got rid of most of my hifi gear and decided to start from scratch with learning amplifier tweaking / voicing and getting my head around building my own audio gear.  From an internet forum / pub point of view its a massive downgrade.

I started in HiFi with DIY in the early 1980s, building my first amp, an Electronics Australia Playmaster 60-60 integrated amp, which was too much for my parent's speakers, which died pretty quickly at the SPLs I was driving them at, and I built my first speakers soon after from a kit (Vifa D25 tweeters, P21 8" woofer, passive crossover and port).

They sounded fantastic...the DIY mantra...even if they're shite, the speakers you build yourself sound awesome 

 

I've never regarded DIY as any sort of downgrade, and over the 35 years or so I've been into audio, I've continued to upgrade, with DIY a key part of that...for me DIY was/is about "bang for buck" - if I build it, will it cost less but sound better?

 

Having built numerous power amps, phono amps, analog active crossovers, headphone amps -  I've stopped building electronics.

• 30 years ago you could build a great DIY power amp cheaper than you could buy one.
• 30 years ago a Linkwitz Riley 24dB active crossover was awesome, cheap to build, and blew the socks off any passive crossover system (in my mind anyway).
• 30 years ago a Linkwitz Transform circuit/preamp on a sealed sub was a revelation (I remain in awe of Siegfried Linkwitz).
• 30 years ago the NHT1259 12" driver was the Xmax king of DIY woofers

None of my current electronics is DIY since I went to the darkside of DSP in 2010 with a DEQX, and swapped out DIY amps with commercial amps when the DIY amps died...

 

All of my current speaker system has varying amounts of DIY...and I accept DIY speakers aren't necessarily better "bang for buck" than commercial speakers...it's very easy to go overboard in DIY, but often it's only your own labour that is spent.

I've never regretted the hours I spent building my TD18 mid bass speakers, or the T20 sub underneath.

 

My PSE144 horns I just assembled - but they sound great.

 

I've never had "upgrade-itis"...I upgraded my speakers (to PSE144 + TD18) and added a sub (T20) around 2014/2015, which meant upgrading to double DEQX...but I haven't spent a $ on the system since then.

 

I lose interest in audio cyclically as I focus on my other hobbies, but I wouldn't dream of "downgrading".

 

9 hours ago, keinesorge said:

From an internet forum / pub point of view its a massive downgrade.

All of my friends remain in awe of my system with its DIY bits...colleagues I've met through SNA think it sounds pretty good also.

I've maintained bragging rights for the best stereo within my circle of friends for several decades now...a friend asked one of my brothers about keeping up with my system, my brother said he gave up long ago, even though he has a keen interest in audio.

...not that I care...I'd love to go to a friend's house with a better system and listen to tunes...maybe I need to hook up with a few more SNA people...

 

My own journey in HiFi has yielded significant sound improvements with every upgrade I've made...

 

cheers

Mike

Edited January 19, 2020 by almikel

[henry wilbury]

I have gone through several years of.... torture... trying to get my dream system together, as budget allows. Sitting in my dedicated music room is hard work. It is occurring to me that I may never be happy in that room.

 

On the other hand, I have some 35 years old Bose Roommate powered speakers up on the wall in my living room, hooked up to a portable digital audio player that plays Tidal. Very happy there.

 

Many years ago I had a car that just had great sounding AM radio. Happy there also. 

 

I think the first time I heard "Abbey Road" and "Abraxas" all the way through was a plastic record player with a sound like a cheese grater. Very happy.

 

[Fubar990]

Might be slightly off topic.  I am not really on 'wind down'....but I think I have reached peak 'wind up' much earlier than others, with less gear. 

 

From what I read on these forums, folks are looking for audio heaven and chasing it at all costs.  Its the reason why there are normally frightfully expensive items in the classifies priced within reach of the rest of us.  Sometimes I wonder if it is possible to 'get it right from the start'?  Because, I certainly feel like I may have.  I am not flexing here at all...because I also wonder if I am kidding myself.  This has been my journey over the last 4 years.

 

My first forays into hifi were merely CDs and streaming over the home network into the HT system.  I thought that was awesome....until I heard what is closer to awesome.  Speaking with friends and hearing their systems, I realised the biggest bang for $$ was going to be the speakers.  I swapped out the cheapy HT speaker system (which are still pretty good) out to the mancave for my sons' enjoyment and bought a pair of Martin Logan Motion 60XTs.  This was a pretty whimsical purchase if I am honest....I never expected my first speaker upgrade would be to a pair of substantial $4000 floor standers (I paid $2500 for them - near new).    With some encouragement from folks on this esteemed forum, I went ahead and pulled the trigger.

 

When l plugged the MLs into my little Denon 1709 HT amp, I was blown away....the speakers are beautiful and sensitive (94db I think from memory) but the next discussion was about HT amps driving what was now a dedicated 2ch system.  Enter the Anthem i225 - another recommendation from on here....and I had heard that Martin Logan used these amps in their test facility for the Motion series speakers....surely they couldn't be wrong.  When I plugged that in, well....next level now.  Outstanding.

 

I was enjoying my beginnings of vinyl, a Sherwood JBHIFI jobby soon became a Project Debut Carbon with an Ortofon Blue Cart.  The first pre was an NAD PP2....which then became the equivalent Cambridge....which, even without speculation, I knew were both rubbish.  They really did sound harsh and nasty.   The Schitt Mani arrived, and that was another wow moment.  This stuff lasted for 18 months or so before I heard a mate's Project Classic...which I liked the look of too.  Then an Xtension 9 with Kontrapunkt A cart came up on the classifieds.  With spousal permission, I dived on it.  The Debut was given/half sold to my son.  At this stage, I am starting to get scared....was I addicted like the other people on SNA are??  Then the Mani got retired because it had been suggested that it was not worthy of the Kontrapunkt A and I was definitely missing out on what it was capable of.  I resisted this for about 8 months...then bought the Musical Surroundings Nova II that was on here a few weeks back....yes, another wow moment.  I cant have ever imagined a record sounding as good.

 

The digital system is just a PC with Roon on it, running to a Chifi SMSL M100.  Again, I think the sound is outstanding, and I can't imagine bothering going any further....and if I do anything here, it might be, once the little laptop running Roon dies, replace it with a home built fanless.  I am bracing myself for when my friends visit with the latest great DAC. 

 

My total spend....Speakers ($2500), Anthem i225 Integrated ($950), Project Debut Carbon ($700 - sold to my son for I think $200), Schitt Mani ($229 - Sold to son for $140), Xtension 9 TT ($2300 landed), Musical Surroundings Nova II phono ($660), Laptop ($800...but bought for other purposes before this), SMSL M100 DAC ($140), Osborn Datalink Speaker Cables (bi-wire) ($100), Roon ($175AUD/yr), Tidal ($11.99/mth student).

I feel like I am at end game already to be honest.  I've never not been happy...looking to 'fix something.   While ever the system is located in my lounge room, I am pretty confident I have reached steady state (end game).

.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Fubar990