Reminiscences Of An Audiophile

Privateday7 · Jun 6, 2013

U ulackfocus
Levinson amps were really nice. Best system I ever heard was a pair of monobloc Perraux's powering Acoustats. Blew my bi-amp Adcoms powering 12" Infinity Beta subs and B&W's out of the water.

Not dissing the B&W's, but a silly mistake I made years ago was not buying a near mint set of Magnapan's for a measly $500. 😲 😟 🤦

The GOOD ones.
Oh yeah, forgot this one: 🤯

Planar speaker for $500 ???? .............and you don't take it????? ::weird::

seamonster · Jun 6, 2013

adam78
I'm an audiophile! 😉

Respectable Member adam78

The state of the art of yesterday. Quality and classical beauty that cannot be duplicated, today.

Thank-you.

Archer · Jun 6, 2013

Have been into audio for a long time - started in the late 70's when in high school. Of course on a budget back then, but still managed to get some nice sounding equipment. Pretty much all that stuff is gone now, and this is my current system:

No turntable anymore....I find I don't have a lot of time for pure listening, and when I do I don't want to spend it cleaning LP's, so I sold the turntable to my nephew. The amp in this photo doesn't even have a phono stage....

The double cassette deck (lowest rack) is from a time when my wife was teaching aerobic classes and wanted to dub all sorts of tapes for her classes - it's just a cheapie. The rest of the system is just a disk player, integrated amp, power conditioner, and speakers - simple is good for me.

Cheers, Al

Privateday7 · Jun 6, 2013

Archer
Have been into audio for a long time - started in the late 70's when in high school. Of course on a budget back then, but still managed to get some nice sounding equipment. Pretty much all that stuff is gone now, and this is my current system:

No turntable anymore....I find I don't have a lot of time for pure listening, and when I do I don't want to spend it cleaning LP's, so I sold the turntable to my nephew. The amp in this photo doesn't even have a phono stage....

The double cassette deck (lowest rack) is from a time when my wife was teaching aerobic classes and wanted to dub all sorts of tapes for her classes - it's just a cheapie. The rest of the system is just a disk player, integrated amp, power conditioner, and speakers - simple is good for me.

Cheers, Al

And you still maintain the big old grand speaker. Very nice. Speaker is probably the most important part of an audio system.

Archer · Jun 6, 2013

Thanks - the speakers are big, and heavy (about 100 lbs each) but not that old. Maybe 10 years old or so. Canadian company called Mirage - good stuff but less focused on the higher end now and more bookshelf style speakers and home theatre.

I know people dislike the digital MP3 type stuff (and yes that's not a great format for sure), but honestly when my current disk player goes, I won't be spending money on another. Linn (who makes the player I have now) don't even make a disk player anymore, and they now only make turntables or digital audio source components. The last CD player I had before the Linn was an Arcam (great player for the money), and when it died they could not replace the transport mechanism because it was discontinued.

I sort of relate a CD player now to quartz watches - not always repairable and many parts discontinued.

For me home theatre taking over the audio market is a bigger "hit" to the purist audiophile market than things like MP3's. The audio shop I have used for decades now only has one of their listening rooms dedicated to pure audio, and the rest are filled with home theatre systems....oy....

Cheers, Al

Privateday7 · Jun 6, 2013

I stand corrected about age of your speakers. Of course there are many grand high-end speaker producer still around. But as you mention - more and more going to cater to MP3/ Ipod player smaller form speaker (which I believe low margin) or Home theater modular style (which where the money could be made).

Trev · Jun 6, 2013

Very basic setup here, but does the job fairly respectably:

Macbook Pro + iTunes + BitPerfect + Hi-res FLAC files (or decent 320kbit MP3's) → Optical out → Big old Denon Receiver, which just happens to have a decent DAC and headphone amp → Sennheiser HD650 headphones

Next upgrade will be the Crack headphone amp and Speedball add-on.

I've never liked the mushed-together analog sound of vinyl, even on higher-end setups. I just don't have any appreciation (or nostalgia) for it when hi-res digital formats are flawless, and can still be fed to appropriate tube-amps. 😁 This is assuming the digital copy is well-mastered and not some commercial crap that's killed off most of the dynamic range in favour of sheer volume and punchy sound.

Trev · Jun 6, 2013

seamonster
Respectable Member adam78

The state of the art of yesterday. Quality and classical beauty that cannot be duplicated, today.

Thank-you.

Respectable member Seamonster,

I believe all things are relative. It won't be too long until this is also considered a design classic:

When people grow complacent and bored with their computational implants and other exotic gadgetry, they'll yearn for the days of simple music players crafted in Chinese factories from real metal and plastic.

gatorcpa · Jun 6, 2013

I've always been a fan of high-end audio, but never really felt the need to spend the big bucks back then. Now my only thing that's close is a set of vintage 1970 KLH 6 speakers originally purchased by my father, which I've integrated into my Yamaha 5.1 surround sound system with very good results.

A friend gave me a couple of KLH 24's (similar to the 6's, but a bit smaller) which I put in the 2nd bedroom with an older Technics Class A receiver.

My music needs today are pretty much solved by a 1TB hard drive with approximately 4 months of music on it, iTunes and iPhone. Just rotate the selections every so often, set up the randomizer on the phone and Bluetooth and rock out in the car.

Nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done.
gatorcpa

Reminiscences Of An Audiophile

Privateday7

seamonster

Archer

Privateday7

Archer

Privateday7

Trev

Trev

gatorcpa

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