What kind of sound system rig do you have?

GuitarBizarre · 09-26-2009, 07:16 AM

UPDATE TIME!

Just upgraded my system again. Got rid of some bits and pieces, simplified it, set it up in my new house (With a much bigger, much better listening space), and generally improved it. The DAC is fed via USB from PC.

The new amplifier KICKS ALL KINDS OF ASS.

Zer0 · 09-27-2009, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

The new amplifier KICKS ALL KINDS OF ASS.

I'm looking for a newer amp at the moment. How many speakers can it cater for and what kind of money was it?

GuitarBizarre · 10-07-2009, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero1986

I'm looking for a newer amp at the moment. How many speakers can it cater for and what kind of money was it?

It was £279 new, it caters for one pair of speakers.

s_k · 11-23-2010, 09:02 PM

I actually have a couple of audio rigs in my home. There's two that could be qualified as 'audiophile'. And then there's one that just sounds fine on my bedroom.
Can't post links now since I don't have 15 posts yet, but I'll make that up to you later.
The not-so audiophile set is in my bedroom.
It's a very nice vintage Teac set (Teac V-9, T-9, P-9 and A-7). I added a Philips CD 104 since the original set hasn't got a CD player to go with it. Hooked the whole thing up to a set of vintage Acoustic Research AR4's. Sounds a bit warm, but that's fine for a bedroom

.
Still having to check out which cartridge sounds the best under de V-9. The original one is plain crap. I'll be trying out some different ones soon.

Then there's my living room. I've been trying to buy the right thing at once which got me into buying a Vincent pre/poweramp, Pro-ject turntable, Tannoy Eaton speakers and a Sony CDP-XB920QS CD player and it sounded like crap.
So I started all over and got through all sorts of different equipment.
I now have an audio set that's fairly budget, but it sounds really, really brilliant.
The amplifier is an Audiolab 8000SE that I hooked up to IMF Super Compact II speakers, using Monitor Audio cable.
My record player is a Sony PS-X70 that I ran into at a thrift store (!). My cartridge is a Goldring 1022GX and my phono preamp is a Teac PA-4, that I might replace sometime soon because I think it sounds a bit too bright. I use an Cadence Okki Nokki to clean my records, which is an audiophile improvement on itself.
My CD player is a Yamaha CDX-880 which I will be modifying soon (new laser unit, muting relais in stead of transistor and a new clock by guido tent). I already borrowed a player that had this modification and it sounds wonderful that way.
I have a Sony MDS-JB940QS MD deck, a Denon DRS-610 cassette deck, an Akai equalizer I use as a tapeswitch for my tapedecks (a 4 and a 2 track machine, I tend to switch them now and then, I have quite some tapedecks since I collect them). My tuner is a Grundig Finearts, but I never listen to the radio since they never seem to play what I want to hear. There's a PC hooked up to my set for playing music's and video's. It's also my server/mainframe. This PC is just an old Compaq Evo P4 2.66. Still using it's (not too bad) onboard sound card now but that'll soon be replaced by an ESI U24.
Interlinks still need improvement, it's not much so far. I'll soon be heating up the soldering iron to create soms audiophile interlinks

.

Then there's my studio. I mainly use this to create mix tapes and digitize vinyl and tapes.
There's quite a lot here and, as I said, pictures will be coming soon.
I'll had one picture as an attachement. It's a bit older so new ones will be made soon

What have we here...
Well, the Amplifier is (a rather amazing, really surprised me, this one) a Philips DFA888. The DAC-section is as dead as a dodo, but the ampilfier is just fine. Bought it of a boot sale for €5, so I really don't mind the DAC doesn't work.
The Speakers are the totally amazing Tannoy SRM10B. I love those.
My monitors are Wharfedale Active Diamonds.
Everything is connected via a Soundcraft Spirit Folio F1 16 which sounds more like a good preamp than like a mixer, so that's fine. The record player is a good ol' Technics SL-1200 MK-II with a cheapo Technics AT-95E which sounds incredible in combination with this arm. My tapedecks are, currently (they change now and then) A Teac A-3440 4-track 4-channel machine and a Teac A-2340 4-track 4-channel machine. Both machines sound incredible.
The A-2340 is connected for 4-channel use via a Behringer Euroreck MX802A.
My CD player is a Sony CDP-303ES. Oldie but goodie. My cassette deck is a Philips FA870, MD is a Sony MDS-JE770 and a Yamaha MDX-9 (for when I need to make copies). I have a Sony DAT DTC-55ES which is broken most of the time and an Akai GXC-710D cassette deck that I adjust all the time, depending on which tape I play. I get a lot of tapes from different people and it seems as though the heads of cassette decks are never adjusted quite right. This deck is easily adjustable while it's playing and since I won't be messing around with my other decks, this one does the job just fine. Sounds pretty good, too. I have a NAD 4225 tuner, a DBX 200 tapeswitch and a DBX222 noise reduction system. Then there's a Pioneer GR-777 equalizer. For 78rpm records I have an old Dual 1219 with a Shure M78S 78rpm cartridge.
Last but not least, there's my Audio/video PC which is an AMD Athlon 64 x2 3000+ with 4gigs of ram running Windows XP and 7, dualboot. It has an ESI Juli@ Soundcard which is just brilliant.
I use Adobe Audition 3 for audio editing and play my music via VLC MPlayer and Winamp.
My "Office" PC at which I'm typing all this is a Reliable IBM Thinkcentre 2.66ghz P4 with 2gigs of ram. I'll soon be replacing this with a Intel core2duo 2.67ghz as I just bought some parts.

Ah, before I forget, my office PC is hooked up to a Hitachi HA-M1, FT-M1 and D-M1 minitower. with the original HS-M1 speakers. Seems pretty rare, since I can only find the M2-series. It sounds quite alright. It's not tiring in any way so it's more than good enough for "PC speakers". And it looks nice

See the attachment to get an impression of what it looks like

.

Freebase Dali · 11-23-2010, 09:49 PM

^ Gorgeous setup!

I'm more of a digital kind of guy, so I think I'll have a lot to learn from you being here. Welcome to the forums!

s_k · 11-23-2010, 09:54 PM

Thanks

.
I'll be glad to inform you.
If you ask me, there's not much improvement on sound quality the last years. I have some jazz and classical 50's recordings that sound just brilliant (e.g. Davis' Kind of Blue and Brubeck's Take Five)
Yeah it's getting easier to get good sound nowadays. There's not much to go wrong when copying a CD. Tapes and cassettes too are often qualified as 'lo fi', but that's because even back then, people often didn't know how to use their equipment.
A tape can sound at least as good as a CD (even a cassette), if not better. But it takes some effort, that's true

.

I'm not the kind of guy who hates digital 'just because'. Digital sound can be brilliant, but the format that's used on a CD (16 bits 44khz) just isn't quite enough. It had to fit on the disc, though. So what do you do. It's the same with tapes. The faster the tape runs, the more space there is for music and the better it sounds. In studio's these tapes run at almost a meter a second, which is...well... fast ;D

Freebase Dali · 11-23-2010, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s_k

Thanks

.
I'll be glad to inform you.
If you ask me, there's not much improvement on sound quality the last years. I have some jazz and classical 50's recordings that sound just brilliant (e.g. Davis' Kind of Blue and Brubeck's Take Five)
Yeah it's getting easier to get good sound nowadays. There's not much to go wrong when copying a CD. Tapes and cassettes too are often qualified as 'lo fi', but that's because even back then, people often didn't know how to use their equipment.
A tape can sound at least as good as a CD (even a cassette), if not better. But it takes some effort, that's true

.

I'm not the kind of guy who hates digital 'just because'. Digital sound can be brilliant, but the format that's used on a CD (16 bits 44khz) just isn't quite enough. It had to fit on the disc, though. So what do you do. It's the same with tapes. The faster the tape runs, the more space there is for music and the better it sounds. In studio's these tapes run at almost a meter a second, which is...well... fast ;D

I hear ya.
I mostly approach digital from a mixing/mastering angle and it's just generally a lot more efficient and cost-effective for me to be on the digital side of that. But I do love the quality of analog and I'd kill for a vintage reel to reel to do some recording with then transfer to digital for the rest of the process.

s_k · 11-23-2010, 10:17 PM

It IS more efficient. Don't get me wrong, I make my mix tapes on my PC and convert them to tape afterwards. It's really very practical. But that doesn't mean I can't hear the difference

.
When I really want to enjoy music, i play a record or a 2 track tape at high speeds.
Since I don't record music myself (unfortunately!) I have no reason to go digital. But it is efficient, indeed.
There's a lot of producers recording their digital mix onto an analog 2-track tape before putting it on a CD. I'm not sure about that. It does take the 'edge' off, but a tapedeck shouldn't 'add' anything. It's a big misunderstanding that tape (or tubes, same story) sound 'warm'. They can, but then they just distort your sound.

I try to get my tapedecks to reproduce exactly what I throw at them. And some of them can, indeed. I haven't seen a CD recorder that can do that, so far.
I do think my sound card gets quite close, when set to 24 bits 192khz

.

I'm off to bed now. My english is getting more crooked by the post.
I'll hopefully be seeing your reply in the morning.

Freebase Dali · 11-23-2010, 10:23 PM

Yea there's just too much dynamic information being truncated in the conversion to 16bit digital for CD, not to mention the sample rate itself.
I don't know whether to call it fortunate or unfortunate that most people won't notice anyway, either because they've never heard better or because most music now days is so processed that it wouldn't matter anyway.

Ah, have a good one.

s_k · 11-23-2010, 10:33 PM

Lots of people I know are happy to listen to their music via their laptop speakers.
And that hurts

.

Nighty!

11-23-2010, 09:02 PM	#64 (permalink)
s_k Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,206	I actually have a couple of audio rigs in my home. There's two that could be qualified as 'audiophile'. And then there's one that just sounds fine on my bedroom. Can't post links now since I don't have 15 posts yet, but I'll make that up to you later. The not-so audiophile set is in my bedroom. It's a very nice vintage Teac set (Teac V-9, T-9, P-9 and A-7). I added a Philips CD 104 since the original set hasn't got a CD player to go with it. Hooked the whole thing up to a set of vintage Acoustic Research AR4's. Sounds a bit warm, but that's fine for a bedroom . Still having to check out which cartridge sounds the best under de V-9. The original one is plain crap. I'll be trying out some different ones soon. Then there's my living room. I've been trying to buy the right thing at once which got me into buying a Vincent pre/poweramp, Pro-ject turntable, Tannoy Eaton speakers and a Sony CDP-XB920QS CD player and it sounded like crap. So I started all over and got through all sorts of different equipment. I now have an audio set that's fairly budget, but it sounds really, really brilliant. The amplifier is an Audiolab 8000SE that I hooked up to IMF Super Compact II speakers, using Monitor Audio cable. My record player is a Sony PS-X70 that I ran into at a thrift store (!). My cartridge is a Goldring 1022GX and my phono preamp is a Teac PA-4, that I might replace sometime soon because I think it sounds a bit too bright. I use an Cadence Okki Nokki to clean my records, which is an audiophile improvement on itself. My CD player is a Yamaha CDX-880 which I will be modifying soon (new laser unit, muting relais in stead of transistor and a new clock by guido tent). I already borrowed a player that had this modification and it sounds wonderful that way. I have a Sony MDS-JB940QS MD deck, a Denon DRS-610 cassette deck, an Akai equalizer I use as a tapeswitch for my tapedecks (a 4 and a 2 track machine, I tend to switch them now and then, I have quite some tapedecks since I collect them). My tuner is a Grundig Finearts, but I never listen to the radio since they never seem to play what I want to hear. There's a PC hooked up to my set for playing music's and video's. It's also my server/mainframe. This PC is just an old Compaq Evo P4 2.66. Still using it's (not too bad) onboard sound card now but that'll soon be replaced by an ESI U24. Interlinks still need improvement, it's not much so far. I'll soon be heating up the soldering iron to create soms audiophile interlinks . Then there's my studio. I mainly use this to create mix tapes and digitize vinyl and tapes. There's quite a lot here and, as I said, pictures will be coming soon. I'll had one picture as an attachement. It's a bit older so new ones will be made soon What have we here... Well, the Amplifier is (a rather amazing, really surprised me, this one) a Philips DFA888. The DAC-section is as dead as a dodo, but the ampilfier is just fine. Bought it of a boot sale for €5, so I really don't mind the DAC doesn't work. The Speakers are the totally amazing Tannoy SRM10B. I love those. My monitors are Wharfedale Active Diamonds. Everything is connected via a Soundcraft Spirit Folio F1 16 which sounds more like a good preamp than like a mixer, so that's fine. The record player is a good ol' Technics SL-1200 MK-II with a cheapo Technics AT-95E which sounds incredible in combination with this arm. My tapedecks are, currently (they change now and then) A Teac A-3440 4-track 4-channel machine and a Teac A-2340 4-track 4-channel machine. Both machines sound incredible. The A-2340 is connected for 4-channel use via a Behringer Euroreck MX802A. My CD player is a Sony CDP-303ES. Oldie but goodie. My cassette deck is a Philips FA870, MD is a Sony MDS-JE770 and a Yamaha MDX-9 (for when I need to make copies). I have a Sony DAT DTC-55ES which is broken most of the time and an Akai GXC-710D cassette deck that I adjust all the time, depending on which tape I play. I get a lot of tapes from different people and it seems as though the heads of cassette decks are never adjusted quite right. This deck is easily adjustable while it's playing and since I won't be messing around with my other decks, this one does the job just fine. Sounds pretty good, too. I have a NAD 4225 tuner, a DBX 200 tapeswitch and a DBX222 noise reduction system. Then there's a Pioneer GR-777 equalizer. For 78rpm records I have an old Dual 1219 with a Shure M78S 78rpm cartridge. Last but not least, there's my Audio/video PC which is an AMD Athlon 64 x2 3000+ with 4gigs of ram running Windows XP and 7, dualboot. It has an ESI Juli@ Soundcard which is just brilliant. I use Adobe Audition 3 for audio editing and play my music via VLC MPlayer and Winamp. My "Office" PC at which I'm typing all this is a Reliable IBM Thinkcentre 2.66ghz P4 with 2gigs of ram. I'll soon be replacing this with a Intel core2duo 2.67ghz as I just bought some parts. Ah, before I forget, my office PC is hooked up to a Hitachi HA-M1, FT-M1 and D-M1 minitower. with the original HS-M1 speakers. Seems pretty rare, since I can only find the M2-series. It sounds quite alright. It's not tiring in any way so it's more than good enough for "PC speakers". And it looks nice See the attachment to get an impression of what it looks like . Attached Thumbnails __________________ Click here to see my collection

11-23-2010, 09:54 PM	#66 (permalink)
s_k Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,206	Thanks . I'll be glad to inform you. If you ask me, there's not much improvement on sound quality the last years. I have some jazz and classical 50's recordings that sound just brilliant (e.g. Davis' Kind of Blue and Brubeck's Take Five) Yeah it's getting easier to get good sound nowadays. There's not much to go wrong when copying a CD. Tapes and cassettes too are often qualified as 'lo fi', but that's because even back then, people often didn't know how to use their equipment. A tape can sound at least as good as a CD (even a cassette), if not better. But it takes some effort, that's true . I'm not the kind of guy who hates digital 'just because'. Digital sound can be brilliant, but the format that's used on a CD (16 bits 44khz) just isn't quite enough. It had to fit on the disc, though. So what do you do. It's the same with tapes. The faster the tape runs, the more space there is for music and the better it sounds. In studio's these tapes run at almost a meter a second, which is...well... fast ;D __________________ Click here to see my collection Last edited by s_k; 11-23-2010 at 09:55 PM. Reason: Lack of sleep and speaking english ;)

11-23-2010, 10:17 PM	#68 (permalink)
s_k Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,206	It IS more efficient. Don't get me wrong, I make my mix tapes on my PC and convert them to tape afterwards. It's really very practical. But that doesn't mean I can't hear the difference . When I really want to enjoy music, i play a record or a 2 track tape at high speeds. Since I don't record music myself (unfortunately!) I have no reason to go digital. But it is efficient, indeed. There's a lot of producers recording their digital mix onto an analog 2-track tape before putting it on a CD. I'm not sure about that. It does take the 'edge' off, but a tapedeck shouldn't 'add' anything. It's a big misunderstanding that tape (or tubes, same story) sound 'warm'. They can, but then they just distort your sound. I try to get my tapedecks to reproduce exactly what I throw at them. And some of them can, indeed. I haven't seen a CD recorder that can do that, so far. I do think my sound card gets quite close, when set to 24 bits 192khz . I'm off to bed now. My english is getting more crooked by the post. I'll hopefully be seeing your reply in the morning. __________________ Click here to see my collection

11-23-2010, 10:33 PM	#70 (permalink)
s_k Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,206	Lots of people I know are happy to listen to their music via their laptop speakers. And that hurts . Nighty! __________________ Click here to see my collection

11-23-2010, 09:49 PM	#65 (permalink)
Freebase Dali Partying on the inside Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5,584	^ Gorgeous setup! I'm more of a digital kind of guy, so I think I'll have a lot to learn from you being here. Welcome to the forums!

11-23-2010, 10:23 PM	#69 (permalink)
Freebase Dali Partying on the inside Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5,584	Yea there's just too much dynamic information being truncated in the conversion to 16bit digital for CD, not to mention the sample rate itself. I don't know whether to call it fortunate or unfortunate that most people won't notice anyway, either because they've never heard better or because most music now days is so processed that it wouldn't matter anyway. Ah, have a good one.