#cheap audiophile
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Gear.
I was trying to explain how different brands of audio equipment stack up to my son-in-law. I related it to cars. He knows about cars. Each brand and model has certain features and capabilities and quality.
Some car companies have incredible engineering and others just competent. The Best Engines are probably in BMWs but they are really complex and almost frightening to maintain. The best Chassis are Porsche as they make nothing that does not handle well. The Engines are pretty good too. The Best build quality is Rolls Royce but it is only a middling performance sedan. Toyotas and Nissans and Mazdas and Hondas are all very good and arguably make the best all around vehicles you can buy.
My S-I-L knows cars so associating an audio brand with a car brand encodes a lot of secondary information that takes a long time to communicate otherwise.
It started by me describing my Audio Research equipment as like BMW. Brilliant design, high quality, but following a specific flavor of high performance. Nothing is less than very good, but occasional explorations of design did not turn out as expected.
"Who is Porsche?"; he asked. (He owns a Porsche GT3.) I thought about it and came up with Yamaha. Great engineering design, excellent build, but with quirks.
What about Mercedes? That was easy, McIntosh. Old and established with a very focused vision of who they are. They adapt to new technology, but there is something to always remind you that they were around at the beginning. They make respected Tube electronics and even the transistor stuff has output transformers. A person I knew a long time ago described Mercedes as German Taxi Cabs.
What about the Toyota or Hondas? Any Japanese brand is good. Technics, Denon, Pioneer, Kenwood, and of course Yamaha. In general Japanese companies have a real sense of pride. It is a country that values the skill to make samurai swords by smelting iron bearing sand with charcoal then forging the metal into a weapon with no real modern purpose aside from pride of workmanship.
He was obviously thinking about performance so ordinary less expensive brands were not considered.
Rolls Royce was also not considered as who wants super expensive extreme build quality, but only performance that any Toyota or Honda could match. (RR is owned by BMW but they aint BMWs) There are many brands you could link to RR most of eye-watering expense, often pretty, but no better than far more common brands.
My knowledge of cars and electronics is not encyclopedic. I can confidently work on either when necessary up to a limit. This lets me judge things on a more sophisticated level than the average.
He is buying a new house with space for a system. He wants to have speakers like mine as he loves the sound, as do I. But the rest is up in the air. He can afford new high end stuff, but my mantra is shop the old stuff. If its still around it has proven itself. He can start with most of my spare system until the speakers are built. Then replace the bits with better stuff as it comes available.
I want to insulate him from salesmen at the local Audio Boutiques. They have to sell to survive. We do not have to buy to survive.
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#audiophile#review#reviews#hifi#technology#audio#tech#listen#stereo#new#sounds#turntable#vinyl#analog#analogue#buying guides#buyer#buy now#cheap#low cost#budget#Hints#tips#help
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anyone know a good but cheap set of bluetooth speakers.
#keyword CHEAP . like 100$ max.#im not an audiophile as long as its not fuzzy im happy#for my american followers 100 dolars means about 70usd
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audiophile with a youtube channel and reddit account who has never listened to a song in his life: owning a crossley cruiser is a CAPITAL SIN. it will DISINTEGRATE your records in SECONDS. instead of spending on modding a crossley like an IDIOT DUMB BABY you should buy this cheap £7000 sound system instead
girl in the 60s with more music trivia knowledge than every single audiophile in the world combined: do you think i can listen to this cardboard monkees record i cut out from a cereal box on my plastic beatles brand turntable
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Someone was having trouble getting decent sound in his living room and instead of recommending a room treatment or better speakers this person just casually suggests PUTTING AN ADDITION ONTO THE HOUSE.
Trying to get advice on audio forums is often a challenge because a lot of these dudes just have *so much* disposable income. And they just assume everyone else is wealthy too. You can even tell them you have a budget and they'll be like, "You should save up longer and buy this thing that is three times your budget."
And it's not like there aren't wonderful options that are more affordable. I think I may have about $3000 worth of home theater equipment that I have collected over the last 20 years. They will spend that on a single speaker and suggest you do the same.
The people in these forums would have a fit if they knew I had a single subwoofer. Apparently, the cardinal audio sin is having only ONE subwoofer.
Your room could have NULLS!
NULLLLLLS!!!
Seriously, they will lecture you anytime you mention having a single subwoofer. "Your seat-to-seat response is going to be inconsistent!"
I also saw a guy say that a 15" subwoofer was "tiny" and "pointless."
My 70-pound, 12" subwoofer is currently vibrating items off the shelf in my house ever since I moved it upstairs and don't have concrete floors like in the basement. I'm going to have to buy special subwoofer feet to decouple it from the floor. I can't imagine what a 15" sub would do to my house. It might collapse on top of me.
So you can only get a sub that is at least 18" and you need a minimum of 2... but 4 is much better. Actually, 4 is the minimum. 2 is garbage. 2 in front and 2 in back.
And, of course, you have to get a Rythmik or PSA subwoofer. Don't cheap out on the brand!
You have to build an addition to the house AND buy $8000 worth of subwoofers and then MAYBE your sound will be somewhat listenable.
But only if you calibrate the subs with a MiniDSP and the proper UMIK calibration microphone.
Wait, do you have a regular AVR with built in amplification? That won't do. What you need is an audio processor with individual external amplification.
You'll need a 9.4.6 configuration for the proper surround sound experience. That is 9 ear-level speakers, 4 subwoofers, and 6 atmos ceiling speakers.
So 2 of these.
1 of these.
3 pairs of these.
6 of these... plus professional ceiling installation.
And an individual amplifier for each speaker.
Do you really need a 600 watt amp for the ceiling speakers too?
OF COURSE YOU DO!
DO YOU WANT A LOW NOISE FLOOR AND NO DISTORTION OR DO YOU WANT GARBAGE?
Comfort is important too. So you'll want a Valencia leather power recliner with LED cup holder.
And... by far... the most important home theater component...
The power cable.
This will assure that only the highest quality electrons are delivered to your audio equipment.
Don't think about it too much.
Don't think about all of the janky powerlines that deliver electricity to your house.
Or all of the generic power cables inside your wall.
This cable magically negates all of that and turns the last few feet of electricity into pure, audio-grade power.
Guaranteed to drastically improve your sound quality... somehow.
It can't be nonsense, otherwise someone would have never written such beautiful prose about a power cable in a review...
"I was smitten by the piano’s extra depth in its nether regions. I’m not talking about what some audiophiles like to refer to as testicular bass, but rather, a rich and absorbing presentation."
$14,000 for rich and absorbing testicular bass? WORTH IT!
So that's roughly $65,870 for all of that and between $50,000 and $100,000 for a 500 square foot room addition.
A small price to pay for a room that is not junk for listening to music.
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Thirty minutes and 9 paragraphs into an excited list of alternatives to Spotify's monopoly re: music, videos, podcasts, audiobooks, for weenies like me who are nervous about pirating, and my app crashes.
Well now I'm on a laptop and I swear to god if this crashes too I'm calling it a conspiracy.
LEGAL ALTERNATIVES TO SPOTIFY:
Music: There are virtually limitless options here. Buy music directly from the musicians/band! If they don't sell mp3s directly from their site, they almost certainly have CDs for sale, so buy those and rip the mp3s to your computer (if your computer doesn't have a CD slot, you can buy an external one for fairly cheap). Go to a new/used music store, they still exist!, and buy albums there. Buy old albums from ebay! Go to goodwill or other thrift stores and browse there collection of cast-off music for cheap, you never know what you'll find. Hell, browse their cheap vinyl if you prefer their sound and get a vinyl-to-MP3 conversion device if you like. They even have conversion devices for cassette tapes, if you find a treasure that was only ever released on tape. Once upon a time I would have said Bandcamp for MP3 or even physical albums (I once upon a time got an AUTOGRAPHED TO MY NAME CD of Lauren Ruth Ward's Well Hell album), but they recently union busted and a lot of artists pulled their stuff from them. I don't really know anything about 7Digital's business practices, but they are another seller of MP3 music, as well as MP4, FLAC, and WAV.
Music DEVICES: If you just want to manage everything on one device, your phone, get the free VLC app! It's open source and is absolutely wonderful. I only ever used it for music, but it's capable of much more than I realized, and it's open source and ad-free! And the audio files are tiny, even when I was running out of room on my sixteen gig old phone, I still had a substantial music library on it before before I got a dedicated music player.
Which brings me to my next point: MP3 PLAYERS STILL EXIST! I own two! My first one is a twenty-dollar SanDisk Clip Jam (an established and sturdy brand), my current is a thirty-dollar Phinistec Z6 (that just came out of nowhere it seems). Each have their pros and cons, and there are so so so many options out there. Some are smart, some don't even have wifi (neither of mine do). Some have expandable card slots for even more music. Some are extremely basic, some have a plethora of features. Some are cheap but still decent in sound, some are high-end for that true audiophile experience. Some have touch screens, some have buttons, some have no screens at all. Some only use wired earphones, some only use bluetooth, some (like the Z6) can use both! There are so many brands out there even in Twenty Twenty-four. Even the random brands cropping up online are some really good shit, and I bought both of mine used bc I have concerns about the lithium industry. Oh, and some are regular battery powered. And you don't need iTunes or anything, I just use the basic Windows Media Player to rip my CDs or put mp3s music on my player. In fact I've been avoiding Apple players because I'm worried they'd brick older devices, especially ones with wifi. But there are so many options out there, it's impossible to name them all.
Audiobooks: YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE AUDIBLE! Libro.fm has a similar business model (an optional subscription fee with a free credit every month, or the option to buy book without a subscription for a little bit extra price), and you can direct the profits to the indie bookseller of your choice! I have mine set to go to Baltimore's anarcho-feminist bookstore, Red Emma's. How to listen to the audiobooks you buy? Libro has an app you can listen to directly from! AND they have the option to directly download from the site (meaning no program you have to install) the book in non-proprietary mp3/mp4 files so you can listen to it on any device that can use those files! THAT INCLUDES MP3 PLAYERS! Almost every music player on the market now not only plays audiobooks, but has sections on the device specifically for them! Some, like the Clip Jam, are even proprietary audible-compatible if you still use or already have books there (check audible's site, and you'll have to go thru a registration process). I was listening to audiobooks on both my CJ and the Z6 (the Z6 doesn't have a section for them, but still played them), but I recently bought an e-ink/e-paper (meaning no backlit LED screen causing eye strain or insomnia) ereader, a Pocketbook Touch HD 3, and that is mp3/mp4 capable for audiobooks, and is easier to maneuver books with since it's meant for books. ALSO: the library apps Hoopla and Libby also have audiobooks you can listen to via phone or computer/browser, depending on your library's catalog. Some ereaders can even have the apps for them, and if they have audiocapabilities you can use the ereader for that too.
Podcasts: There are so many apps for this. I have Podcast Addict (I don't remember off the top of my head if it's on apple, I use android, but there are still so many apps). Literally I only had to sacrifice one podcast when I stopped using spotify, PodcastAddict has everything else I've ever listened to or want to listen to in the future. You can download them for offline use on your phone, and, you guessed it, MOST MP3 PLAYERS HAVE PODCAST SECTIONS TOO. MINE DO! There are still ads at the beginning and end, but I usually skip over them without care.
Video: This one is a bit trickier as YouTube is also a monopoly, but what I do is just watch yt on my phone's Firefox browser with UBlock Origins adblocker installed. Sometimes yt gets into a hissy fit with adblocker, but UBlock usually gets ahead pretty quickly thus far. And if in the periods Origins is losing, I just find something else to do. I'm sure someone else has recommendations for videos, they're just not a big part of my life right now.
Anyway, don't let the horrid beast that is spotify monopoloize the audio industry OR your time! There are options, and even if you're not a luddite like me that hates having everything on my smartphone bc I'm worried about privacy or companies yoinking their stuff off my devices via wifi (like Amazon did once with their copies of, of all things, Nineteen Eighty-four about a decade ago) at the whim of corporations. You HAVE OPTIONS! YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL YOUR MEDIA AND REJECT MONOPOLIES!
#i'm very passionate about this#ily physical media#for a certain definition of physical media since it's all mp3 and such. but I have the power and can hold the device it's all on in my hand#and I own everything on it and they can't take it away from me#spotify#music#audiobooks#podcasts#monopolies#edit: bolded the beginnings for ease of browsing/reading
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okay I made a post about this last yr but tumblr sucks so i can’t find it. JLAB Go Air wireless earbuds. i bought a pair TWO YEARS AGO and im only now having to replace them and even then theyre still serviceable. and I use these babies every single day for most of the day. i’ve dropped them and the case so many times. and theyre like. $25 dollars and often cheaper. and im not an audiophile but i am still a little picky about quality and these have been great for me. not a #ad I just love it when cheap things are good.
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ok fucking
so i have a shitty little telly. bought it only a few years ago, bout a hundred bob, say. and it does its job adequately, 1080-60, everything i could ask for video. but the audio’s tinny horseshit. you can’t make out dialogue proper, and music sounds like limp spunk. and the telly doesn’t have a 3.5 so there’s no plugging in my 3.5 speakers. but that’s all ok because i use a shitty little streamer to connect to a bluetooth speaker, but it’s the streamer sending the audio, not the telly. because the telly don’t do bluetooth either
but the new xbox doesn’t have bluetooth. it doesn’t have fucking bluetooth, so you’ll be prodded to get ol’ Billy Gates’ fancy ass proprietary headsets. so theres no way of getting the xbox audio to the bluetooth speaker. and of course, the xbox doesn’t have a 3.5 either. gejakdkxodhsksksk
do you know how much a fucking dac costs. it costs a fucking lot is how much it costs lemetelye. i’m not gonna be forking out sixty bob morethan for the privilege of giving me telly a 3.5 jack. that price is for audiophiles, the typa person who deserves getting bullied in the street. all i want to do is hear. but there’s adaptors aye, adaptors between digital-optical and 3.5, but they’re all fucking male-male. i need my 3.5 to be female because my speakers are male and i am not going to buy a new pair of female speakers or a fucking D-O soundbar for the privilege of hearing me telly godsabove. and because life is beautiful i found a D-O to female 3.5 adapter for a very reasonable price, but “this is not a digital-analogue converter” so it’s a fucken worthless piece of plastic then innit
i fucking happened upon a real shit cheap dac after so fucking long searching. tenner for it, and comes with a D-O wire in the box. the fucking hoursssss i spent tryna find anything to get the audio to these little shitty speakers without breaking the bank. i just wanted to fucking hear, not pay massive audiophile prices. i feel like my loaf’s gone bloody mouldy
answer me this do we live in the type-C promised land where video, audio, data and power all share the same cable? and everything can be connected to everything with a simple clunk clunk of our oval overlord? no we fucking do not. so until that beautiful, simple day where 3.5 and hdmi and D-O and ethernet and type-a and everything else have been thanked for their service and retired, we fucking, FUCKING, need to do everything for compatibility. why the pissing FUCK wouldn’t you put a 3.5 on a telly
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Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who still remembers and loves CDs. Vinyl records have made a comeback and are now considered cool among certain varieties of hipster and audiophile, but CDs haven't had the same treatment.
And like, to some extent, I kinda understand that. CDs aren't cool. Records are cool. They're big and textured and elegant and they're objectively old enough to feel vintage rather than dated. They're not exactly durable but they make up for their fragility with their other positive qualities, and you could certainly argue that warping and scratches add exactly the kind of character to a record that we've lost with digital music and therefore crave from physical media. A slightly damaged CD pretty much always just becomes totally unplayable.
So I get it. And I'll readily admit that the biggest reason why I like CDs is simply that I grew up with them and have fond memories of them. But I do also think it's objectively true that there are certain positive features unique to CDs. I will never tire of the experience of giving and receiving mix CDs. You can't do that with a record. (I mean, I don't think you can? Not easily, at any rate.) And it's not the same as a playlist! It's not the same. When you make a mix CD, you not only curate the music for the recipient, you burn the disc, you decorate it, you make the sleeve or pick the jewel case and make the paper insert for it, figure out how to wrap/package it. I mean, obviously you don't have to do all of these things, but the opportunity is there for a lot of creativity and love. And in the end the person gets both the physical object as well as being able to make digital copies of the songs on their computer (which also allows them to use those songs in their future mix CDs, continuing the cycle!).
The mix CD is just so unpretentious, wholesome, and kind. It gave the average person unprecedented power over how music was curated and shared. (I mean, of course mix tapes did something similar, and maybe they deserve more credit than I give them, simply because they're from before my time; but I kind of have to assume that CD mixing is a much simpler and more efficient process.) The mix CD creates a loving context for experiencing music. Here, I made this! Special from me, for you! I think context is one of the things which we most desperately miss in this modern age, where we're fed our newest songs by the goddamn algorithm (whether that's Spotify, TikTok, YouTube, or whatever). The mix CD is personal, human, earnest and sweet.
(And yes, to some extent, playlists do this as well, and they have their own advantages. But I think the shareability of playlists, while making it possible for many more people to experience your creation, has ended up discouraging the intimate act of making something just for one other person and instead promotes the idea that what is most desirable is to have your work seen by the greatest possible number of people.)
I started thinking about this because I saw another post talking about the removal of CD/DVD drives from computers and it really does make me sad thinking that this may be the final nail in the coffin of the mix CD. I've had to depend on external disc drives to make my mixes, and I'm sure that for most people, CDs have passed totally out of their awareness.
I'm not saying the mix CD is the end all be all of sharing music. There are already lots of other ways to share music and I would quite like to think that we will continue to invent new ways. But I do find it very sad that the art of the mix CD is dying, and while the mix CD itself may be doomed, I really hope that we don't forget its virtues, and find a way to keep the spirit of the thing alive. Physical object as well as digital copies that can be shared with others, permanent ownership of the music (rather than just streaming/renting), the burning and reading of this object being cheap and accessible, personal touch/high customizability (not being limited simply to song order, a single cover image, and a short description), intimacy. These are what I don't want to lose.
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wait Atlas you collect vinyls I can ask you this! I trust you as a source! I'm trying to save up and potentially get a record player and start collecting vinyl as I finally have space to do stuff like that but I have no clue what kinds of record players are decent/what kind of setup I would even need or where to start. do you have any advice??
haiiii lu omg love answering questions about vinyl stuff i am abt to ramble so much jfkdfn so sorry but!! so exciting that u might be getting a record player and starting a collection!! so, with record players it's my belief that like. it is better to go for the more expensive ones, cheaper ones have poorer audio quality (if you're planning on listening to your records a lot this is. obvi very important) and aren't great for your records either (cheap needles can damage a vinyl). it feels a lot easier to say what to Avoid:
- the brands crosley and victrola specifically (notoriously cheap and low quality record playersi had a crosley as my first player and it just. wasn't great)
- portable/suit-case style record players (cheap needles, horrible speakers)
- honestly anything $100 or under just doesn't feel trustworthy to me
it might feel like a big investment/a lot to save up for for one over $100, but if youre planning on collecting for a long time and listening to a lot, it's worth the price to get a more expensive one! Here's a few i found that i think are good examples of what to look for/get (at varying prices):
- angels horn H019 (record player)
- fluance RT85N (turntable)
- orbit basic (turntable)
- wockoder (record player)
for a record player, all you need truly is the space to put it, so it doesn't require much set up because the speakers and everything is built into the turntable. As for turntables, I myself have a record player and have no experience with them (though i want to. so badly fsdjknf), i Do know they require a lot more set up from putting together the turntable itself to buying speakers to amplify what the turntable does (as it is essentially Just the thing that turns the vinyl, typically they need additional support to amplify the music). So, generally i'd say turntables are more for very serious vinyl collectors/audiophiles, starting with a record player is my advice!
(also, highly recommend investing in a good vinyl holder that you can grow into, a collection can grow Fast and it's obvi good to have them contained somewhere. There’s a lot of good ones on amazon! no specific recs here bc you cant Really go wrong w any)
#i hope this helps you find a place to start!! it can be kinda daunting but theres a Lot of record players out there that are good ones#literally as long as you stay away from suit case style ones even if its under $100 its a Great place to start!!!!#and i am here if u have anymore questions :3#asks#lu 🫶
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Looking around for clues.
A While ago I mentioned that site that sold "the best records" by buying stuff from all over, playing it, and making judgements. They sell the selected best for a significant mark up.
Better-Records.com.
The have built a successful business out of it. The whole thing depends on their self described very high end system. One thing they say is if you do not have a truly great system you will not appreciate their selections. Also that if you have a colored system you may prefer "bad" recordings. Theirs being clear and neutral and accurate of course.
So I am looking for clues as to what their system is. One of my basic principles is that advice and opinion on a particular item is really only valid for taking into account ALL the other stuff in the chain.
Now after a bit of digging I found a partial description of their system on another site they maintain. Ontherecord.co
They admit to using a VPI turntable (very nice), a Dynavector DV17 moving coil cartridge (a MC dear me), with an EAR 324 phono preamp (pretty damn good). They also disclose that they use Legacy Focus Speakers with some tweaks. They do not disclose what control preamplifier or what power amplifier they use. They describe both as vintage with the amp at 35 Watts per channel.
They go on about clean power and there is what I think is a disturbing photo, (if its real) showing speaker wire draped around the room.
Is this a real picture of their "shop"?
Recall that I think that a given amp or any audio device should have a power supply that deals with AC wall socket issues. If fiddling with wiring and appliances turned off or unplugged helps, the problem is in power supplies. Draping speaker cables may help in suppressing RF in an unstable amplifier but otherwise, do I hear the placebo effect mentioned? Oh and that thing on the left sure looks like a basic extension cord.
I can just hear wives saying, "get that out of my house!"
I really wonder about the amps. The preamplifer has a huge impact on the system voice, only exceeded by the amplifier. They remain a mystery. It is pretty obvious to me that their system has a voice as all equipment does. I suspect it is not very neutral.
They do go on about "tubey magic" so one drifts to tube amps. But most of those are very colored. ARC units are considered about the most neutral of all the glass beasts and they have some 70 Watt stereo amps. Are they hiding ARC gear under the towel? An SP11 perhaps?
Even ARC put things in the air that is not on the recording. Very nice things to be sure.
All speculation this is. It would not hurt for them to come clean. Every audio reviewer discloses what they got.
I doubt their opinions. A lot. They are openly hostile to heavy vinyl and gourmet reissues. Originals or death! There are good pressings and bad it happens in manufacturing all the time. So they weed out some of the bad stuff. Much of what they say is at odds with the community consensus, but hey you clear out a niche and run with it. The business model is working, they are having fun.
Of course the first reason to buy any album is the music. We still do not have the abundance of choice from 40 years ago. I have bought most of my purchases on-line over the last few years. I do not think I will buy anything from these people.
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hi this is santa :^)
i didn't know christian vander at all, although he's french :o he seems like a very peculiar man and his music sounds really interesting
oh wow brian eno made windows system sounds?? so coooool i didn't know either
what's your fav pink floyd album? i didn't ask you :^) is it the wall since it's the first cd you bought?
yay muse! i kinda like their music, not everything but some songs are very very good. the two biggest concerts i've been to are the who and the rolling stones, i had a good time but to be honest i don't really like BIG concerts. a concert much more intimate in a smaller concert hall i've "recently" been to was for pokey lafarge and i loved it. surprisingly, i'm soooo much more touched and moved by live jazz/classical music than by rock concerts. the times i cried during rock concerts was during tribute songs to late members while the times i cried during jazz and classical music concerts was because the music went deep down my guts and brought the tears to my throat (weird sentence but that's basically how it felt like ahahah) i also once cried during a berlioz concert in a church because the acoustic was phenomenal and there was a brass entry from the upstairs balcony ; i didn't expect it at all and it resonated inside, it was amazing
have you ever cried to music simply for its musicality (aside from sentimentality)?
see you later, have a good day/night :^)
Hi!! How are you doing? :D
Christian Vander is a very peculiar man indeed haha. His music, especially his work with Magma, is very unique. I can’t think of another band that really sounds like them!
When I was in middle school, The Wall was my favorite Pink Floyd album, and even though it still holds a place in my heart, I’d definitely have to say Animals is my favorite now! :]
Yeah, I can definitely agree on liking smaller concerts. The Yungblood concert was especially bad, not only because I’m not really a fan of that kind of music, but the large crowd kinda removed any intimacy that comes from the live music experience. People were screaming and recording on their phones the whole time, and it just wasn’t my thing at all. Some people enjoy that kinda environment, but it stresses me out and makes it hard to listen to the music. The Muse concert was a little better because it wasn’t standing room only, but it still felt very distant.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to go to any jazz/classical concerts, but from how you’ve described them I think they’d be something I would enjoy :D If you could see any musician, perform live, who would it be, and are there any songs in particular you’d want to hear them play?
My whole life, I’ve never really cared about audio quality. After lurking on audiophile subreddits, I caved and decided to get some good quality headphones. When I first listened to Watcher of the Skies by Genesis with them, I cried. I thought it was a beautiful song before, but after being able to hear it with more clarity I was overwhelmed with just how good it was. I’ve never been able to go back to cheap headphones after that, they just make the music sound so flat.
I hope you have a good day/night! :D
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I have a weighted keyboard. People have offered me real pianos (because my gift from the gods is that when people in my life want to get rid instruments they COULD sell for money they instead offer them to me for free because they know that is a fast and easy way to get rid of them, which is how I got one of my guitars, one of my banjos, my mandolin, and my violin which I can't really play but I have one anyway) and I have turned them down because I am not an audiophile, I care a minimal amount about sound quality, I like to plug my cheap headphones into my digital piano and bang away on it in the middle of the night in my apartment building where people would otherwise be justifiably angry
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@formosusiniquis my reply got way too long so here we are but! that was like my number one issue with trying to research is there felt like no in-between from [absolute beginner] to [dave and his hi-fi set-up he's been curating for 35 years] my biggest recommendation would be to decide what exactly you want from your vinyl experience and go from there bc otherwise it becomes way too overwhelming. but the right table opens up so many avenues!! the debate on automatic vs manual is a long one and i dont pretend to be an expert but i can say personally i definitely went from super casual to a bit more involved after my upgrade much to my delight since i went from (semi)automatic to manual (though i still wouldnt consider myself an audiophile because i unabashedly love a bit of crackle in my vinyl.) i think the biggest difference is what kind of albums you're trying to play, which is most of what i mean when i say decide what you want from your vinyl experience.
automatics tend to be the right choice if you're playing brand new albums or really high quality vintage because the arm is fixed, so any scratching or slight warping is going to cause disruptions in playback whether it be skipping or catching since the pressure the needle is exerting over the grooves is constant and can't be amended. that can also wear out the needle much faster, which becomes a whole other can of worms. however a lot of people enjoy the hands-off parts of an automatic and appreciate the bluetooth capabilities you can find in a lot of them. they also tend to be a bit more compact which is great if you dont have a lot of room to dedicate.
a manual is good for all of the above as well as "lower" quality vintage, since the tone arm isn't fixed, meaning it can move with most changes in the vinyl, rise and fall with a slight warp without damaging your needle, and power through most superficial scratches with a tiny pop or some crackle but no skips/catches. there are definitely some albums in a condition that even a manual can't accommodate for and will still skip, but in my 300+ album collection and the case of 45s i have i can only think of a half dozen or so that don't play straight through where they would have been unlistenable on my old player. the ability to be able to adjust the counterweight on a manual is a lot of the reason i went that route, in addition to the fact that they can grow with the user (parts are much more easily swapped than on an automatic, which are usually pretty much hardwired, though i know some have the capability for swapping cartridges/etc), and because i prefer the more hands on approach of physically setting my needle/etc. though they tend to cost a bit more to start, you ultimately save money in the long run because you learn very quickly what kind of condition albums it can work with and so you have the option of grabbing a cheap vintage copy or a 35 dollar repress, depending on what you want and not what your table can handle
all in all i'm a huge advocate for physicial media and vinyl in general and i think it's a fantastic hobby for anyone, so i don't really judge how people interact with it, but my steadfast rules that i tell anyone that'll listen are
- do not get a table with built in speakers (commonly referred to as a suitcase player). combining the downsides of the fixed aspects of an automatic + the vibrations from the speakers moving up into your albums all at once is one of the most dismal sonic experiences and will more than likely fuck up your albums or needle or both
- and make sure you get one with a full platter, since the natural weight pulling against the outer reaches of the album that hangs over the side of smaller platters can cause warping and theres more room for potential debris to land
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turns out Richard Dawson has the right vocal range to get banished to the Shadow Realm by whatever the fuck is going on with specifically my laptop's audio socket, this adapter, and these headphones as well. using these headphones with my laptop is an absolute no go for sure, been trying to figure out if I prefer them vs my normal headphones for my PHONE where they dont play up as much and it's just *shrug* idk.
logically I need to do research into this to figure out if I got ripped off with a dogshit audio adapter or if shit is just always like this when using an adapter in which case I will have to sell these lovely beautiful headphones cus they are completely and utterly useless to me if I can't use them for devices with normal fucking headphone sockets (Audiophile ShitTM has the Big Fucking Headphone Sockets compatible with these but I don't have nor ever plan to have any of that!). I don't Wanna do Research into this kind of thing though I frankly seriously cannot be bothered right now. maybe another day I'll feel better about this. the audio jack adapters are cheap as chips even for the most expensive ones (mine was like £5 and the most expensive I saw was around £9) so I don't mind having to buy another one to try if I think it might be worth it, the headphones are worth £300 new after all
I really really hope I can get them to work with my stuff one day not just bc of the sentimental value of them but MAINLY bc My God They Are So Fucking Comfy. it's like a warm cloud hugging my head but with my current setup the fucking sound is garbage
#draco speaks#ALSO I will check if my amp/radio has a Big Fucking Headphone Socket in it#JUST in case it does not to use it but to see what these things SHOULD sound like without the adapter#actually the amp downstairs that dad bought is more likely to have it... they're similar though#hmm...
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There is a YouTuber called Cheap Audio Man and I was a fan of his for a long time because he always found cool audio gear that didn't break the bank and helped people figure out how to put together audiophile systems without a huge investment.
But lately, he has been talking about how speaker wire and power cables can improve the quality of your sound and I am just... really disappointed. It is now making me question a lot of his content. He has tainted all of his audio advice.
Expensive wire and cables are basically snake oil that uses the placebo effect to dupe audiophiles with too much money or beginners who don't know any better. Changes in sound can easily be measured by equipment much more sensitive than our ears and there is no evidence that changing your cables can make an audible difference. The only exception might be if you have speaker wire or a power cable that is too thin and cannot handle the amount of power your system needs. And honestly, you do not want your wire to change the sound. You want it to faithfully deliver the signal from your components to your speakers without alteration.
Pushing this narrative can make it easier for audio newbies to get scammed by these overpriced cables when they could improve their sound much more dramatically in other ways. Some of these wires can cost hundreds to even thousands of dollars. (See AudioQuest)
I think I am particularly sensitive to this because when I worked at Best Buy as a teenager, my bosses used to make me push gold printer and USB cables to customers. They would tell us to make up advantages like how it would speed up your printing or make your prints more vibrant. Nonsense like that.
I just don't like people getting screwed because they are trusting the expertise of someone who claims to know better.
I would recommend Audioholics because they always back up their claims with science and objective measurements. Unfortunately their idea of a budget speaker still costs over $1000. I suppose in a relative sense that might be considered "budget" to some. But for gear under $1K they are not a wonderful source.
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