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How do you listen to music?

cleanshaved

I’m stumped
Sitting in my living room...

I recently recapped a pair of Norman Model Eight speakers and am amazed how good these simple 2 way, late '70s vintage boxes sound. Driving them with a Luxman 505u amplifier through a PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC. Music source basically is my CD collection ripped (AAIF) to iTunes on my MacBook Pro.

We have Sonos too, for the TV, but do play music through it too from time to time.

Edit, here's a vid I shot after the recap...

Cool looking old speakers and good you could breath new life into them.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
I've ripped all my CD's to FLAC and gave up on vinyl decades ago. I use BlueSound Node2 in the family room and home office and a Pulse in the living room where my wife spends most of her time. All the music is on a NAS. Family room is my newer system with a NAD C 375 BEE amp and Axiom bookshelf speakers and sub. Home office has my ever suffering NAD 3020A. I subscribe to Google Play music as well as Spotify. My collection has been uploaded to Google and the software I used mirrored the FLAC files in mp3 that I carry on my cell phone . . . etc. etc. etc.

I've never liked in ear for walking or doing outside work but if I need to seal myself in for real concentration at the office there really is nothing better. New music and other folks playlists usually through Spotify moods. I very much like Radio Paradise who somehow largely fit my musical tastes. User supported and I have contributed.
 
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I listen to music the same way I shave; the old fashioned way.

Vinyl or CD rips on a Proton AI 3000 system from the 80's
 
I have been into stereos since the 70’s. Over the years I have had a lot of equipment. In the pass 5 years I have downsized my foot print to a Vincent bybrid tube preamp, a glow tube amp and KEF 50LS speakers and could not be happier. My little 15 watt tube amp and KEFs blow away my previous Acuris 200 watt pre amp and solid state amp connected to B&W speakers.
 
In my car SiriusXM #TIGDH and Classic Vinyl are some of the faves. At home actual Vinyl or CD are likely. Also lately I’ve enjoyed Apple Music with a free trial.
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
Loud. As long as it sounds good.

I listen to .flac, SPDIF out of an old X-FI sound card to my B 'n K 5.1 with upgraded capacitors and a reference pre amp section.

IMG_3041.JPG


Mirage OM 7 fronts with matching surrounds but I rarely use it for movies anymore. Subwoofer is a Mirage BPS-400 that has a conservatively rated 400w Class A amp, two 12" drivers wired out of phase so when one pushes out the other pulls in. That cancels all vibrations from the sub itself. It will go all the way down to 18 Hz so everything else shakes lol.

Sub and right front. The OM 7's are 45"s tall.

IMG_3044.JPG


The OM 7's have the same drivers on the front and back of them so they can be a little bright. Most of my files have been ripped from vinyl on a Linn LP12 but I have a Banco de Gaia CD that was ripped from an Oracle table. The vinyl warmth is still there.

B 'n K is pretty good stuff, with the reference pre amp section most of my .flac files sound as nice as vinyl. Its not tiring listening even at absurd volume levels.

I bought this system in August 2000 with an Arcam Alpha 6SE CD player that I dont use anymore and put back in its box. I had the B 'n K upgraded in 2010. It still puts a smile on my face every time I listen to it.

I had a Sim Audio Moon W3 on loan with a Musical Fidelity A-308 CD player. Streaming .flac sounds just as nice as the Musical Fidelity CD player did, which was very nice indeed but at the time I couldnt justify the $4000 for it over my Arcam.

The Moon W3 I couldnt justify the $4000 for either. My B 'n K sounds just as good and the W3 was only 25w per channel more so it didnt stay either.

If I was buying again, and I'm glad I'm not, it would be Sim Audio and B&W.

For those that may be buying or thinking about buying, eMotiva is based in Franklin Tennessee, has some very nice gear and its not that expensive. Their forum is here: Home | The Emotiva Lounge
 
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Having previously gone down the path of high end stereo kit (core consisting of a Marantz receiver, Linn CD player, Paradigm speakers) and around 2000 CD's I realized something....I'm no audiophile. Now it's lot simpler, Google Play for content, either a PC or iPad/iPhone for management and a decent bluetooth speaker. Family room and basement den are both a Bose Soundlink, work office, home office and workroom are all the same Antec.
 

Having huge acoustic suspension speakers and massive amps with coke can capacitors is fun. However, if I had the money to play with right now, I'd go with high efficiency drivers and valve amps. Actives like JBL M2's are impressive but kinda boring.
 
Usually through the amps I build myself. All directly heated triodes - 26 in SIC diode bias into PSE 4P1L in filament bias. Massive choke input supplies for both stages and filaments, amorphous core plate chokes and OPTs. Source is a Mac Pro and iTunes plus TV, YT etc.

In my music room where I do songwriting I have my keyboard rigged up to my Mac and that goes through a more music-instrument setup.
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
Having huge acoustic suspension speakers and massive amps with coke can capacitors is fun. However, if I had the money to play with right now, I'd go with high efficiency drivers and valve amps. Actives like JBL M2's are impressive but kinda boring.

Your user name made me think of these lol.

36462bbb98cdc56c603e37038640b1e3.png


Nautilus: The Ultimate Loudspeaker | Bowers & Wilkins

A wee bit out of my price range but with SimAudio monoblocks...whew.

My ears have a $25,000 threshold lol. I need to spend more than 25k to achieve a noticeable difference from what I have. Linn came close but at just under $25,000 for the system I just couldnt do it. The 10k I did spend was still too much but, buy it right and buy it once.

Now if I had a spare $250,000 or so...

A friend bought a really nice system just before I did. Martin Logan electrostatics with a Hafler pre and a Meitner amp. The Hafler pre with Meitner power is a match made in heaven.

I've been really content with what I have so I havent been looking at audio gear for years. I have no idea whats out there these days but from what I see looking around, its impressive.
 
Your user name made me think of these lol.

Years back I was praising those (heard them with the original Per Abrahamsen amps), which got another audiophile forum member triggered because I was being an obnoxious fanboy. He finished his 10.000 words rant with "Those should've been named Naughtilus". :biggrin1: I had to use it as a nickname.
 
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Usually through the amps I build myself. All directly heated triodes - 26 in SIC diode bias into PSE 4P1L in filament bias. Massive choke input supplies for both stages and filaments, amorphous core plate chokes and OPTs. Source is a Mac Pro and iTunes plus TV, YT etc.

In my music room where I do songwriting I have my keyboard rigged up to my Mac and that goes through a more music-instrument setup.

Cool! I can barely solder a headphone jack. :lol:

"The 4P1L is an inexpensive small Russian made DH pentode for military use, yet well- built."

Look at this amp's square wave. Wow!
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
Years back I was praising those (heard them with the original Per Abrahamsen amps), which got another audiophile forum member triggered because I was being an obnoxious fanboy. He finished his 10.000 words rant with "Those should've been named Naughtilus". :biggrin1: I had to use it as a nickname.

I listened to the B&W 802 Nautilus with Bryston pre/power quite a bit. The Musical Fidelity CD player I had on loan came from that system. It sounded really good, but Bryston to me always sounded a bit cold or clinical. Bryston power needs to be properly matched to everything else.

I almost bought Rosewood Linn Keilidhs,

20190216113500Linn K.jpg


with the Rotel 5 channel amp but I couldnt find the right surround processor for the right price at the time for DTS. I needed DTS and still do to a point, for movies. Music is always in 2 channel for me. B 'n K power really works well with my Mirage speakers. It gives a very warm sound, so the Mirage speakers arent as bright as they might otherwise be. The Mirage BPS-400 is a very musical subwoofer too. No comparison at the time with Velodyne which I didnt find musical at all. My Mirage is very gentle when it should be and an absolute powerhouse when I want it to be.


Must viewing...

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I'm glad I never caught the bug that bad, but I almost did. Back when I was shopping there was a guy in Woodstock that owned Blue Circle Audio. Custom made tube amps and they wernt what I'd call inexpensive but they were very nice. There was a full tube system system at Target HiFi here in London they were asking $110,000 for with Mission speakers. I dont remember who made it but we spent a lot of time upstairs in that listening room.
 

Esox

I didnt know
Staff member
What speaker cables are you using?

:devil:

My fronts and center are biwired and I can tell the difference which surprised me, but the cables themselves are just generic off the roll London Audio used to use for installs, $2 a foot way back when.

I did swap around interconnects but didnt notice much difference from what I have. I tried Toslink too instead of digital co-ax but didnt like it at all. I cant remember what kind of interconnects I have but they wernt cheap.
 
My fronts and center are biwired and I can tell the difference which surprised me, but the cables themselves are just generic off the roll London Audio used to use for installs, $2 a foot way back when.

You are using double the gauge in a high power application. Shouldn't surprise you.
Is it CCA or pure copper though?
 
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