Any audiophiles here?

Guilty as charged!

I am, and to me it's both a gift and a problem. I hear what most people don't even understand, sometimes I wish I wouldn't - but then again, when I hear good sounding music (both sonicaly and musicaly), it's like heaven! But when I'm not satisfied, it's like hell. It tends to be black or white to me, even though I know and hear it isn't. Sometimes it can be like an obsession, sometimes I don't care that much, it depends. The recent problem is that I'm starting to hear that many CD's I've been replaycing with re-masters, actualy sounds worse then the originals, I almost paniced whan I first discovered this and I'm still sweating just writing about of it.. But I also know they sounded good on my old equipment (that I sold, due to damage, but in haste I bought a less good stereo). So now I'm saving to get a better stereo and then I better can hear the difference and make better decisions of wich CD's to replace back to the originals. In some cases I'll keep both or even several versions. Right now this problem makes me not love the music as much as I used to, it's sad and troubeling. But I know it will work out in the end, it always does.

^ 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.

^ sure, if you live in an area where the power net is unstable then you need special equipment. But in an area where normal equipment works fine (hi-fi amps, computers etc.) special equipment will not improve the sound at all. Anything it does to the power will be nullified by the power supplies of the components anyway.

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!

jch wrote: Hi Mr ProgFreak Thanks a lot hopefully I will get there. I had a look at your Logitech set. I will go and have a listen the Z5500 Digital for my self for (computer room) It looks nice and compact. Anyway good luck with Z 5500 upgrade. Jiri    Hi Petrovsk I couldn’t agreed more with your previous post   Chances are I'd be spending even more on my studio monitors by that stage anyway.   Just wondering if you have any particular (brand, model) monitors in mind? I have recently auditioned ATC SCM 150ASL Active speakers and they are good I mean really good Nevertheless price is too high unless bought 2 hand from Audiogone or so http://www.atc.gb.net/scm150aslpro.htm   Take care Jiri www.jirihifi.com

The ones you seem to be looking at look more mid field monitors, which isn't what I want at this stage.
Bear in mind I'm 20 years old and don't make much money at this stage, so I don't have the kind of physical household space for those type of monitors.
Currently I'm just using a set of Genelec copies but I hope to upgrade them.

http://www.event1.com/

These are my absolute dream near fields. I know someone (he's a pro audio engineer that bought a set of the Opal's very recently for about 4999 AUD and he said.
They compared well to American made imported monitors costing over twice the price and now he feels he wont need new monitors for a very long time. He said from there, now he had to upgrade the room treatment and most importantly, his ears so to speak, in order to take full advantage of the sheer detail they provided.
Yes, 4999 AUD isn't cheap, but if they do compare to monitors that are 10 000 AUD+, then I certainly wouldn't mind a set.

Thinking more realistically, I'm looking at these monitors:

http://www.krksys.com/product_vxt.php
Those replaced the V Series 2 monitors fairly recently (2 years ago IIRC) and they look like strong contenders in their price range. They cost around 3000 AUD, although I imagine I could pick them up for about 2000 AUD if I shop around and look for sales.
They are in about the same price range as the Mackie HR824MKII and some of the Alesis monitors.
They aren't top shelf, but considering I don't have a pro environment (good room treatment etc) the Opals would be wasted on me anyway.

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


Edited by Petrovsk Mizinski - September 14 2009 at 00:19

^ 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.

I've read good things about the new entry level Genelec monitors:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/genelec_6010a_anthrazit.htm



P.S.: They're meant to be used with a separate subwoofer:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/genelec_5040_apm.htm




Edited by Mr ProgFreak - September 12 2009 at 16:50

^ 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

How much money have you been spending in those 15 years? I hope it was worth it ...