Any audiophiles here?

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Petrovsk Mizinski wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ I hope you'll find what you're looking for. As far as I'm concerned, my 80 EUR Logitech speakers give me a lot of joy ... maybe I'll upgrade to the more expensive digital version later this year, but I can't envision myself spending more than 1000 EUR on audio equipment. I know what big systems sound like, I've had one about 15 years ago and we even had a home recording studio in the basement, with expensive monitors and a 24/8/2 mixing console for about 4000 EUR. So I know what I'm missing, and my opinion is that it's not worth the effort ... IMO it actually distracts you from the music. There's a reason why it is called "audiophile" and not "musicophile" ... obviously I'm the latter. BTW: This is what I currently use to listen to music: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/211&cl=au,en And this is what I might upgrade to: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=au,en Distracts you from the music.........interesting. I don't feel distracted from them music when I listen through my active monitors, simply because if I'm in the mindset where I'm just there for listening and not concentrating on production aspects, it's ok. Personally I couldn't live without a set of studio monitors now.  I still haven't decided whether I'll pursue professional audio engineering yet and even if I don't, I still want to hone my skills to at least a semi professional level for my own personal home music projects and of course that would mean computer speakers would simply not be good enough, especially since I'd like to at least post my music on forums and show them to friends and such. I'm just saying that looking for the perfect system can become an obsession ... like that one guy in the video who had already spent 10000+ EUR but still wasn't happy with it, and said that it was an ongoing journey. Nothing wrong with that - as long as it makes you happy. Others collect stamps or build miniature railways. Still, I maintain that with most audiophiles I argued with over the years it seemed to me that they had become more interested in audio equipment than the actual music.

Certainly I can agree with that. I play guitar and bass guitar regularly, so I certainly don't see that happening to me, given the kind of focus on the musical aspect I need for that.
Certainly, I think in the case of audio engineers (ones that do it for a living), high quality studio monitors are a necessity. Fortunately in the case of monitors, 5000 AUD  monitors can be to the studio monitoring that 20 000 AUD audio systems can be to the hi fi system world.
Certainly I know, as I said, I'd rather spend 5K on monitors but possibly even less for my normal listening system. You could probably argue I could just listen through my monitors in my spare time too, but I would probably end up hating them lol. I know that many of the Andy Sneap forumites like to leave behind the work stuff at work and just listen on regular systems for leisurely listening since after all the regular audio systems are designed to color the sound to make it sound smoother and well......not sound like you're needing to mix music.

Also, what was that quote you mentioned to me? Something about only a 10 per cent difference between 2 certain price points.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: Petrovsk Mizinski wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ very entertaining ... as a scientist I can't help it, I find most of the esoteric equipment ridiculous. "Clean electricity" ... that does not affect the sound in any way. Computers have very strict requirements about voltage, but still a 30 EUR power supply can easily provide that, independently of any typical fluctuation in the power grid. It's not ridiculous at all. Well okay, the extent to which this guy does it is, but on the other side the coin I would not be protecting my hypothetical super high end system with "FROM YER AVERAGE ELECTRICAL STORE" type power adapter/supply unless I knew my wiring was absolutely perfect. I live in a relatively modern house and my father is a qualified electrician and did the wiring himself, so I'm lucky, but others might not be as lucky. Otherwise that's why proper power conditioners exist, because in the real world conditions are not perfect. I may live in one of the most developed and one of the richest (GDP per capita) in the world, but I'm not gonna fool myself into thinking every music venue around here is going to have exceptionally good wiring. Be it in Canada, the US, wherever, the horror stories of musicians have their gear destroyed, DJs having their equipment damaged etc by bad power does happen Every power supply contains a "power conditioner" ... what I don't understand is why you would want to use separate power conditioners. Ok, if you worry about surges then you can get an USV or something like that ... but power filters specifically designed to improve audio quality? Sorry ... that complete nonsense. Ask you father if you don't believe me!

Wait, hang on, I was just talking about protecting the audio system, not actually the power conditioners improving sound quality.
My bad You're right, yes. I do know that some people have mentioned that proper power conditioners have helped eliminate hum from their guitar amps/audio systems if they live in an area with high susceptibility to hum or say a band is playing a gig in a venue with questionable wiring, but that was it, no actual discernable increase in sound quality. Although I guess that audiophiles that can apparently hear 30KHz will beg to differ
(I'm 20 and I think I can't even hear 18KHz anymore lol)
Bear with me, I've been awake for close to 32 and a half hours now, so my brain isn't exactly at full functioning mode


Edited by Petrovsk Mizinski - September 14 2009 at 05:19

Hehe, I got major power net instabilities in the apartment where I live.

I tried yesterday to listen to listen to the surround mixes from the Genesis 1970-1975 box set. Every time the elevator in my house moves (I live right next to the it, the elevator shaft goes through my apartment so to speak), the sound disappears for a couple of seconds :)

The funny thing is that there is no problem if my TV is also on, showing the static pictures/track names from the DVD. But I prefer to not keep the TV on when listening to audio only discs because the Plasma TV gives off quite a loud buzzing sound... Must be some weird grounding problem I guess.

Maybe I should try grounding the whole system to some metal plumbing or something, or get a power conditioner of some sort.





Edited by Rottenhat - September 14 2009 at 13:55

Mr ProgFreak wrote: ^ You could get one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply or else sue the owner ... the power lines in your house might simply be in need of a radical overhaul.

Thanks for the link. Yes that might be useful.

The house was built in the 50's, so that may explain things :)

I run my iPod (containing only the highest bit rate CD rips) through a 100 Watt, two 12in speaker Kustom guitar amplifier (since it's garbage for playing guitar through anyway!) and get magnificent bass response (obviously).  The highs are somewhat muddy/warm/subdued, but I prefer that tone.

I do the same with the line out of a Sony CD when I'm listening to CDs

Kinda wish I had a record player too.