Who is also an audiophile?

[JTK]

I make my own music, mostly (gypsy jazz guitar) but I listen to a lot of other kinds of jazz. I don't care about the tech, I care about the music.

HOWEVER, in order to make good audio/dslr presentations online (www.soundslides.com ...see the samples) I bought an amazing Olympus LS-10 digital recorder...superb built in mikes, ability to focus them something like shotgun mikes...dead silent, Leica-sized. With audio downloaded offline it's at least as good as common CD...use it to drive shoebox-sized Yamaha powered speakers or latest Sony compact earphones amp with NAD receiver and play through unnecessarily large floor-standing Beovox speakers.

My impression is that audiophiles are technophiles more commonly than music makers, just as camera operators are more commonly equipment owners than photographers...🙄

I know a lot of people that really likes music and photography (or audio and photo gear 🙂), so there must be a few around in RFF...

I confess myself a very addicted, but recovering, audiophile. By this, I mean I started by playing music (classical guitar), then listen to music, then buying the best gear to listen to music and suddenly, I was listening to sound and not music, although my system was MILES better than where I started.

I'm recovering (although I still own a system where just cables make a Noctilux seem cheap. Very cheap. 🙁) and I am again able to sit down and just listen to music.

Sometimes, I have a feeling I'm falling into the same trap in photography (and it's even worse, because gear is not so expensive, meaning GAS attacks are more frequent...). I get myself analysing the merits of a photo in purely technical terms, the way I used to when listening to sound. And subtely but surely I've been making technicaly very good photos but worse as "photos". And, worse of all, I've been falling into the trap of "Oh, if I just had that lens, I would take wonderful photos!".

Feel free to share your audio setup, if you are an audiophile and your thoughts on this, even if you are not.

My "final" (yes, it's final unless I downgrade) system is a bit esoteric:

Michell Orbe SE turntable/SME V arm/Sumiko Celebration cell
Harmonix Reimyo CD
Dartzeel pre-amp
Dartzeel amp
Wilson Audio WATT VII speakers
Transparent Reference cables for CD/amp and amp/speakers, proprietary Dartzeel cables between pre and amp.
Also using Abbey Road Reference cables once in a while (at the moment, for instance).

 

[usagisakana]

I definitely went through a stage where I was interested in audio gear, but I never spent vast sums of money. I am able to realise when I am happy with something, and that if I was to spend a drastic amount more money, the return would be close to nil. I think the same thing applies to my photography gear. Except photography gear is cheaper and more varied, so there is more of an interest.

I settled on a pretty decent sony solid state amp, Sony CD player, some $20 a metre cable (yes, I have listened to a number of cables and honestly couldn't tell the difference). and I built (with my dad) a set of pipe speakers, which I am very happy with. They sound great, look great, and it gives me a great sense of achievement to listen to them. I'm sure there are "better" systems out there, but I enjoy mine a lot and probably wouldn't change anything unless I won lotto and didn't know what to do with the money.

 

[filmfan]

I think I am becoming one now that I own Shure in-earphones. Hard to deviate back to friends' generic buds. Does that count as an audiophile?

 

[Trius]

I'm an audiophile with not enough money to buy what I really want, but that's turned out OK. I have a very good table ("The Source", from a defunct Scottish table) which is massive. I'll be putting it back into service fairly soon. It will drive a small office system of a modified Dynaco PAS-3x pre-amp, and the amp I am going to try is an old Motorola unit from a console. The amp is low power, so I'll have to find some small, very efficient speakers.

It's not high spec by any means, but the electronics might be a good match for vinyl playback ... and if I sneak a couple of MP3s in from time to time, it will warm them up. 😀

I'm in it for the music, so I won't fuss much.

 

[John Robertson]

My audio equipment is 20+ years old, Technics amp, Phillips 877 record deck Phillips CD104 disc player, Videoton Minimax speakers, I still like the sound so why change it, I have 500+ LPs (mostly classical) and access to about 3000+ CDs. (all sorts)
The music is the main thing for me.
I still have about 100 shellac 78'S🙄

 

[bobbyrab]

I have quite a nice Naim/Linn system, all bought second hand, I'm actually in the process of upgrading the naim amp/pre amp, with some more secondhand Naim, interestingly I should get back more or less what I paid for it ten years ago. So although the initial costs were higher than buying standard high street systems, it's actually been cheaper in the long run.

 

[rogue_designer]

I have a 1960s Dual 1209 turntable, one of Sony's better pre-amp/amp combos from the mid 90s, and a decent Sony single disc player. All into a second hand Polk sub-sat system.

By no means audiophile (talk to my dad though - he's big into it). I like music. I like it sound good. But I also know the limits of what I can hear, and would rather spend the time and money elsewhere. When I really want the most out of something, I have good headphones and an ok headphone amp (sennheiser 555 phones, and a headroom - bithead, and honestly, most decent headphones will vastly outperform anything I can afford to put together).

 

[Rayt]

I am a budget audiophile and my set up includes nothing more than a SACD player, headphone amp and high end Grado and Sennheiser headphones.

 

[mcgrattan]

JTK: Cool, I play gypsy jazz a little, too. Not very good yet [it's a style I am working my way into]. I also play a little classical guitar.

I like having a nice system, but I am a cheapskate. So I don't have an audiophile system at all.

Tannoy speakers [Sixes, rather than anything expensive]
Sansui amp [70s integrated]
Technics turntable [just a bog-standard direct drive model]
Yamaha tuner

[Attached to my PC I have a Denon receiver and a set of Tannoy Mercury speakers, with a Beresford DAC connected to the optical out on my soundcard].

 

[Tuolumne]

"I was listening to sound and not music..."

That describes me many years ago. I enjoyed the music much more when I had a $150 stereo than when I got my Dynaco tubed pre-amp, amp and AR speakers (and that was in the mid-'60s). I finally kicked the habit. Now I mostly listen over my PC speakers (nothing fancy, just Logitech), but I do keep around a Cambridge Audio Preamp, Amp and CD player connected to Magnapan mini-speakers. I really think music sounds better through planar speakers rather than cones. This last set-up is the most satisfying I have ever owned, from a musical point-of-view, and that's all that matters. It was also very cost effective. I don't remember the total cost but it was under $1500.

I did get a mobi sub-woofer for this system, which I decided I didn't like. Added it to my home theater system, decided I didn't like that and it is now turned-off. I mostly spend money on iTunes downlaods these days. It's better that way.

I am finally done! Wish I could say the same for photography! 😉


/T

 

[Michael Markey]

Linn Sondek ,Ittok. Powered by a Linn Lingo. Amp is an old 80`s Rogers A100, Speakers are Linn Kans, Tuner is a Quad FM. All conected to a separate electrical circuit which is connected directly into the main supply using substantial wiring .
Been happy with it for years. No desire to upgrade but when I do look at the prices for the turntable upgrades it makes Leica prices look like bargain basement !
Camera stuff is an M3 DW with a Nockton 40 , Pentax Me super and a Kodak Hawkette Number 2.

 

[findwolfhard]

Set up

Set up

Hi!
Mark Levinson LNP-2 pre-amp, MarkLevinson Cello Encore power,
Acoustic Solid turntable (traded it in for a Platine Verdier) with Eminent Technologies air-bearing tone-arm, Transfiguration Temper Supreme cartridge (away for service at the moment!) Phono Pre-amp Manfred Baier Omtec. CD system Linn Karik and Numerik.
Speakers are a two-way design by a friend of mine with external crossovers, which use tubes as passive capacitors to bridge foils, etc. also his cbales throughout.
Also vintage Braun turntable with SME arm and budget Grado system as emergency unit till other system is returned.
Best Wolfhard

 

[James24]

I bought a Quad 33/303 back in 1974, along with a Goldring GL75 deck, and the following year added a pair of esl57 electrostatic speakers. The amps are still going strong, as is the FM3 tuner and Rega Planar 3 that joined the system in the early eighties. The speakers were replaced by another, better set of esl57s which probably date from the late sixties about 5 years ago.

I keep my cameras just as long. I still have the Nikkormat FTn I bought in 1975, and my first Nikon F was added a couple of years later.

 

[bmattock]

Just go to www.audiokarma.org and all your audio questions will be answered. They're the audio equivalent of RFF.

 

[lorriman]

I don't think I could ever justify the cost. However I would be an audiophile if I had a large enough range of music.

When I was at school, a boarding school in the mid eighties, I began casting around for better reproduction on my cheapy walkman, recording from CDs on to metal tapes, that sort of thing. One day one of the older boys who had realised that I hadn't a clue drew me in to his room and spanked me, er, I mean he played "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" through his cheap-but-cheerful Rotel amp and £300 turntable. It was like a religious experience. That album was always fabulous, but on this kit it was sublime.

I've realised since that most 'Hi-Fi's' upon which people have sometimes spent quite a lot of money are nothing of the sort. They should have visited a real HI-Fi shop and ended up with something that would move them to prayer, and for much less money. That Rotel Amp was only £150 at the time.

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

I used to be. My last setup included Martin-Logan speakers, McCormick and Acurus amps, California Audio, etc. Maybe not super-esoteric stuff, but considering my resources at the time and the space i had to work with (NYC apartment), it was not bad.

But, even with a 7' tower of gear, i found i was listening to music more while working on my computer - using Kensington Sound Sticks, playing MP3s. I actually ENJOYED the music more from that setup, amazingly. It had more 'energy' and immediacy. So, when i got rid of that big system, i found that i had more money to spend, but less of an inclination to spend it on audio. I still bought Sonus-Faber speakers, but just bought a Rotel receiver.

What's 'sick' about high-end audio is that no matter where i went to audition components, the music sounded perhaps 'accurate' and balanced, but it was a bit boring. I remember, in the middle of the process, i gave a friend a CD of stuff i wanted him to listen to. He played it in his car, and i was struck by how big and involving and exciting the sound was. From a cheap, unbalanced car system. So, my interests and priorities have changed. I'm more interested in listening to music on something that lets me feel and enjoy it, rather than worrying about specs and elite brand names.

I'm trying to get there with photography, as well, but can't. I've tried LOMOs and Holgas and such, but i still need a better technical foundation.

But, even when i was buying audio magazines, i was always laughing at guys who were paying hundreds and thousands of dollars on interconnects and speaker cables. It's kinda funny when you realize that the studios where the music is produced rely on $15 cables, and the people playing back the results are spending $1,000 on a single speaker cable. This 'test' was cute:

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/03/audiophile_deathmatch_monster_cables_vs_a_coat_hanger-2.html

 

[Trigeek]

About 15 years ago I walked into a Naim showroom and walked out a convert. Spent a bit on a nice system that was very harmonious... Naim 72 / 140 / Hicap, CD3 w/ Hicap, Linn Kabers. Never once have I have a desire to change and this system has provided many, many, many blissful hours of listening. Listening to it now, as a matter of fact (Frank Sinatra). I see a number of people saying they own Naim systems... they are quite amazing, at least the systems made under Julian Vereker's watchful eye.

 

[crawdiddy]

I voted No, but I like music.

I'm sort of the opposite of an audiophile.

I like music a lot, but in a more abstract way. To me, focusing on music reproduction diminishes what I like about music in the first place. Which is mainly good songs (composition).

Also, I tend to like music which may be "flawed", like a singer with not a traditionally good voice, like Neil Young, or The Mountain Goats, or Lucinda Williams, or Tom Waits. Insisting on high end reproduction of audio which isn't "perfect" to begin with seems pointless.

Not to be contrarian, but....

 

[nikola]

Just bare enough to call my self audiophile.
Listening FLAC on these budget Grado is real satisfaction!

 

[ErnestoJL]

Once upon a time I was listening to the amps´ sound not music. I was an audiophile even enjoying music.
It stopped some 20 years ago when I started working with Power stations steam turbines. A lot of exposition to VERY loud hissing noise rendered a serious loss of frequency/level response.
Now I listen to music only, disregarding if the unit is high end or not.
The audio system I still keep is very simple and old (a mix from the late ´60s and ´70s):

Pioneer SX 780 receiver/amp.
Pioneer CTF 8080 and Sansui SC 1330 cassette players
LG 5 CD changer
Lenco L850 belt drive turntable
Garrard 401 transcription turntable (no electronc pitch control) with a couple of Lenco arms salvaged from scrapped turntables
Audio Technica AT 20SS cartridge with Shibata stylus (and some other cartridges)
General Electric VR II (for those old shellac 78 rpm records)
Audio Technica ATH8 and ATH 7 electrostatic headphones
Home made 3 way speakers.

Ernesto