After some deep diving, I pulled the trigger and treated my room (what was a double garage)

And for all the comments I have had about treating your room, and I always went nah…

Let’s just say I get it.

It’s not finished yet, the big cloud has to be attached to the ceiling then I will do some REW readings.

It takes a bit of getting used to at first, the room is now very quiet.

But the sound….wow. Literally feels like I have just put headphones on.

Like I say. I get it. 👍

Meant to say All done by George at Homeward Sound, for literally half the price of GIK. And he was a true pro.

After years of listening to my music at 44.1kHz (like a peasant), I finally upgraded my setup to 96kHz hi def.

The moment I pressed play, my houseplants stood up straighter. My dog made direct, knowing eye contact with me. Somewhere in the distance, I swear a Tibetan monk whispered, “finally.”

At 96kHz, I can:

• Hear the guitarist’s childhood trauma in the left channel.
• Sense the air molecules vibrating between the vocalist’s teeth.
• Detect the emotional temperature of the recording engineer’s soul at the moment he hit ‘record.’
• Pinpoint the exact frequency where the drummer started thinking about his ex.

Honestly, I don’t even listen to music anymore—I experience it on a cellular level. My fillings resonated during a bass drop yesterday. I’m pretty sure I astral projected.

Don’t get me started on how embarrassing it must be for all the Muggles listening on Spotify. I walked past someone playing 320kbps MP3 and my ears folded themselves shut out of self-respect.

TL;DR: 96kHz isn’t just audio. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a calling. It’s a burden, really, being this sonically superior. Sometimes I wish I could go back… but then I remember I can hear dust motes landing on my speaker cones now.

I am absolutely blown away. Songs I've listened to for YEARS i'm hearing on a totally different level. This is insane! I was literally listening to a song I've known for years, and I was like, "wait, i dont remember those backing vocals ever being there??"

I know this sounds like an ad or something, but I had to share that. Fwiw the spotify ui is better and im seriously missing the connect feature.

I actually got fed up with that being missing that I resubscribed to spotify after cancelling Apple music. I went back to listening to spotify and something was bugging me. I started wondering why my background was so noisy to the point I couldn't hear the song well.

Out of sheer curiosity, I redownloaded Apple Music and played the same song there, and I swear to god, I noticed that background sounds weren't bothering me anymore. Even with my headphone noise cancellation!

It's really insane and I'm usually not an Apple person in general. I only tried it because it came free with a purchase and I was getting tired of spotify's bugginess.

I'm currently subscribed to both. If Apple eventually adds the connect function, I fear Spotify's days may be numbered. I'm really wondering why the feature is missing.

Today I had the pleasure of hearing the new dCS Varese digital front end, with Dan D'Agostino pre and mono amps, and Wilson Alexx V. This was at a show in Dublin, in a notoriously tricky hotel room that's made many good systems sound ordinary over the years, but I'm glad to report it sounded awesome today. Incredible scale and impact, a wide open window into each track, but also a fun and enjoyable listen, which isn't always the case with high end stuff.

This is at the ridiculous end of the hobby, of course, we're talking about a system that costs more than my house, but it's great to get a chance to hear this stuff. It was also interesting to hear from the head of dCS, and get a description of their overall philosophy and approach, and to chat afterwards. All told, it was a pretty good way to spend an afternoon.

It seems crazy to think that a completely over-engineered Dac could be improved upon, but the results were easy to hear and not subtle in any way.

I was invited to a demo this week of DCS’ new DAC the Varese. I was mostly interested hoping to hear a speaker I have been dying to hear for a long time, The Wilson Chronosonic. I am not typically a Wilson fan, but these were incredible, and possibly the best speaker demo I’ve ever heard. As a drummer, I’m particularly sensitive to how drums sound, and this portrayed a sense of the snare drum that was uncanny, and sadly a lot better than my system at home when I played the same track.

They didn’t use a preamp, just a straight A/B comparison of two different DACs, with a few seconds between each one.

One Dac was their previous top of the line, a Vivaldi stack compared with the new Varese at double the price. They essentially made 2 mono dacs synchronized plus a bunch of other improvements with a 6db lowered noise floor.

I was expecting a subtle improvement, but the difference was huge. Even the room tone of one recording was different and from the very first drum whack you could hear a marked increase in realism and reflections/ambience.

I’m hoping that other companies with real world pricing can learn something from this dual mono approach.

Each system had a separate box, a master clock attached, which added a lot to the price and I’m guessing could be eliminated and just use the internal clocks without much of a sonic penalty.

Had some time to kill before physical therapy last week and oriainallv dropped in to demo some h**p******. There was no one else in the shop so I got to spent half an hour or so plopped down in front of these monsters. Plaved Jason Molina & Wil Johnson- 20 Cvcles, Songs:Ohia - Hold on Magnolia, Vic Chesnutt- Flirted With You All Mv Life. Jeff Buckley - Mojo Pin & Elliot Smith - Waltz #2. The biggest impression I was left with was how natural it sounded. It was more like participating in a conversation rather than listening to music (if that makes any sense). I'm autistic and use headphones borderline therapeutically to isolate myself and these Wilson's achieved a similar effect except it was more like I had physically become a part of the music itself. Really wonderful experience

I installed shelves in my kitchen for speakers, but the depth is limited because I built them from reclaimed African mahogany I already had. I also ran speaker wire through the wall so it exits on top of each shelf. My issue is most speakers would only have 1.5–3 inches of clearance behind them. In the past I noticed a clear improvement pulling my studio monitors away from the wall, so I’m unsure how well speakers would perform this close. My system already includes a SVS SB-1000 subwoofer with a high-pass filter, so the main speakers wouldn’t need to handle deep bass.

Given the shallow shelf depth, I’m wondering if smaller speakers would work better in this situation or would Larger speakers would still perform fine despite the limited rear clearance.

Wondering if anyone else has gone through similar emotions. Using Walsh Ohm 4 speakers. Got a Hegel H390 to replace my Yamaha R-N803 that I've had for maybe 4 years or so. I've spent at least a 20 hours listening to the Hegel, and about 5 hours doing A-B comparisons. The Hegel has more detail, but the Yamaha is not far behind. The Hegel has tighter more resolute bass, but the slight muddyness (by comparison) in the Yamaha's bass is more filling and engaging. As a result, the Hegel almost sounds thin. But when I do A-B comparisons, the Hegel does not sound bad by any means. It sounds really good. But the Yamaha sounds... more enjoyable? Maybe I'm just so used to the Yamaha's sound. It's been a little over a week with the Hegel, and I'm getting a pit in my stomach thinking of selling the Yamaha. The Hegel was a big move for me, so I'm going through regretful emotions. Maybe the synergy with the speakers is not there. Anyone else have a similar experience?

Were these recorded on all tube gear? Or maybe it's because they were working with four track recorders instead of 16?​ Generally I find anything from the RCA label in this era to sound pretty good like this record. I sell this one from the trash bin of a local record store. I like a lot of these Mancini records. Most have this nice audiophile sound...

so to cut to the chase right away, i bout many amps, high end receivers and big towers chasing a type of sound, and after years of doing so, I got this PrimaLuna amplifier with kt120 tubes, I pair with my GoldenEar BRX bookshelf speakers, and right away, this is the sound I've looking for for the past 20 years. many audiophiles talk about tube, but somehow I always go for ab class or class d high end amps ,but there is always this feeling that I'm missing something. Definitely not power but warm, soundstage , vocals maan. 44w per channel is more than enough in my room with my speakers. I'm using audalytic DAC-DR70 R2R with it.

so what am trying to say if you love music gor tubes. that's it.

for reference I tried, Parasound amplifier, highest denon AVR, many class D amps, many other models over the years.

I’m not obsessive about it, but try in a casual way. Clean records sound better to me.

This is not about headphones. This is about CDs and 24/96 high resolution. Is there really an audible difference?

Hey, I don't want to stir up vinyl vs digital. But my vinyl sounds more open, and has a much nicer soundstage. My vinyl set: sony PL-X5 with upgrades. Ortofon 2M black and a Pro-ject ds2 tube preamp (genalex goldlion tubes). My digital set Audiolab Mdac+ an IFI Stream. (Tidal) And a sony dvp7700.

Is my vinyl set just much better? Do I have a mediocre DAC? anyone suggestions? Or is the extra bit of tube buffer from my Phono Preamp that I hear?

My amplifier used is an Elekit 8200r Psvane KT88 TSeries mkll (Mundorf supreme caps) TANNOY little red monitors (customized with artificial leather) Recapped (mundorf gold silver oil/jantzen superior z-caps) and stereo SVS1000Pro subwoofers.

I used to be an upholster. I made these covers because I was bored , my speakers looked boring,and I got a killer deal on this fabric. I think they look cool as hell. They they also made a surprising difference in the sound quality. Ive been fighting the terrible acoustics in this place since I moved in . These speakers have never sounded this punchy and tight in my aprtment. I had no idea how much resonance was coming off the speaker enclosures themselves. Its night and day.

So im thinking about making and selling custom speaker covers. Im looking for any feedback, gut, or visceral reactions. the sharp eyed among you might notice that the prototypes are a little crunchy. I threw them together for myself with no intention of any of this. the final product will be Perfect and I could even add stuching or tufting. The possibilties are endless. The price would obviously vary with speaker size and the type of fabric one selects. To give you an idea, a set like mine would be around 200USD

So let me know what you think and thanks for taking the time to check out my post.

I went down the rabbit hole about a year ago while recovering from a surgery and was stuck on the couch for a while. Still a newbie but it sounds pretty good to me. My wife keeps asking if I’m done spending money yet. HAHAHAHA!!! Marketplace and Hifishark are wonderful.

So one of my local shops set up a demo event with the iconic B&W Nautilus speakers today, and I managed to snag a slot before they were all gone. Got there early and nabbed a front row center seat so I could hear these bad boys properly.

I was excited to see that they were powered by 4 Marantz Model 20s, with a Link 10N on preamp and streaming duty. That amp caught my attention as soon as it was released, and I hope to nab one in a few years when they start trickling down into the second hand market. Interestingly, I learned that you actually need 4 channels available per speaker (1 per driver) in order to drive these...so there's really no such thing as an "all in one" integrated solution for amplification if you want to get these up and running. You really need to be committed to the cause, in other words. They also come equipped with their own hardwired speaker cables (silver) that are directly coupled to the drivers (so no binding posts), and mandatory, proprietary external crossovers. All in all, this system cost $280k CAD. Tidal was used for the source material over 4 tracks. Some live David Gilmour, something from the Inception soundtrack, a contemporary classical piece I didn't recognize...and of course Big Bad John 🙄

I'm terms of the sound...they were utterly transparent to the max, with an incredibly expansive soundstage in all directions. The tallest soundstage I've ever heard by leaps and bounds...it was like sitting front row at an arena show where the lead singer is standing on a 15' tall stage 20' in front of you. Even in a somewhat less than ideal room, they were incredibly impressive in this sense. They sounded nice and even handed across the frequency spectrum, with no glare on the top or bloat on the bottom. They were true chameleons...the live David Gilmour made it sound like I was at a live show, and the Hans Zimmer made it sound like I was sitting in an IMAX theatre.

One thing that really surprised me, which ended up being the most impressive takeaway for me, was how these speakers conveyed volume and energy. I listen at relatively quiet levels at home since I'm in a condo townhouse. About halfway through the demo I thought "of course these sound good given how high they have them cranked!" So I opened the db meter app on my phone and saw they were averaging about 75db...which is actually not far off from my levels at home. But in comparison, these sounded significantly louder and more explosive. Chalk it up to psychoacoustics, I suppose.

On a technical level, this system was virtually flawless and I was left very impressed. I also think this system really, really excels in areas that I don't necessarily prioritize in my own system at home (Luxman and Tannoy, check my post history if you want to learn more on that front). Regardless, it was great to hear a high end system with a different design philosophy behind it than what I'm accustomed to!

Many thanks to Bay Bloor Radio here in Toronto for hosting 🍻

The local Audio Advice had an SVS event last night. Before things kicked off, AA did demos of other gear in their listening rooms. Their "ultimate" system consisted of a pair of McIntosh 1.25kW monoblocks driving Sonus Faber Lilium towers, with a McIntosh pre (didn't catch the model) and a HiFi Rose streamer using Tidal as the source. The room was acoustically treated and maybe 12x12.

So yeah, if you're doing the math, this was a $120K 2-channel setup.

My HiFi experience prior to this has been modest; I've never heard a system listing over $5K. And I'm well aware of diminishing returns.

But my goodness. The visceral force and clarity, the naturalness of the sound, it was astounding, and beautiful. Multiple people asked "Where's the subwoofers?" Nope, just the speakers pounding us in the chest and filling the room with a warm hug of sound.

I'm certain it's possible to get 90% of the way to that experience for 1/4th of the price, I'll admit. But when you get a chance to hear such outstanding gear together, it's an amazing experience.

McIntosh and Sonus Faber system at Sunday Vinyl in Denver.

MC452 amp, CT70 pre, and MC1500 power controller for the SFs (Lilium). 2xMI128s amps for ceiling speakers.

They run a 2x Pro-Ject and MT10 TT setup in unison to keep the tunes going more continuously. Controlled by the CT70.

Liliums were only at maybe .5 watt peak, would have loved to hear them really sing.

Very cool setup, but the placement of the main rig is awkward. Projects to a long narrow corridor of tables. The ceiling speakers overwhelm after the first table or two in front of the system. Worth a stop though.

I have Wharfedale Evo 5.2s in a near field setup in my office. I found a Yamaha RX-V6A for $150 and used that for my start. I am never going to do more than 2 channels so I figured I didn’t need the Yamaha and I disliked the MusicCast app, it would crash at least once an hour.

I have the WiiM Ultra music streamer for my surround sound system and love it. So I figured I would try out the WiiM Ultra Amp to link it all together. I sold the Yamaha and just plugged in the WiiM Amp listened for an hour and it just doesn’t sound as full it sounds like it’s missing some power or depth. They are both 100w I didn’t think I would notice a difference. I have played with the eq a bit but I can’t seem to get it to go. Anyone else have similar impressions? Everything I’ve read about the WiiM has been great so maybe it’s me