High Fidelity anyone?

J

Jack The Knife

It Wandered In From the Wastes
Just about everything is discussed on NMA, so why not Hi-Fi.
I am sure I am not the only one with an above normal interest in audio and music here.

I thought we could post what kind of equipment we use, to what use it is put (music genre, home theatre etc.),
how it holds up to your preferences, and upgrade plans/suggestions.

I've always had a great passion for music, namely hard rock and heavy metal, but I never could afford a decent stereo before now.

Up until now I used an old, cheap JVC receiver with a pair of cheap, old (though, fairly big) Genexxa speakers,
and a 30 something year old Thorens turntable.

This May I finally invested some money into a fairly decent stereo and suddenly became sort of an audiophile.
I hold in no way any expertise on the subject, but one has to start somewhere, right?


This is what I ended up with:

NAD C555 Turntable
NAD PP-3 Digital Phono Preamplifier
NAD C355BEE Stereo Integrated Amplifier
And a pair of Norwegian made Patos Basic 510 Mk III (web site currently down)

I know this is not the most expensive high-end system to be found, but at 18000 NOK, (equivalent of £1750/$3150) it is a bit of an investment.
(At least for me)
Nonetheless, I am very happy with the result. I think it sounds great and it has made listening to music an even better experience.

I collect LP's so it was more important for me to get a good turntable than a cd-player.
For cd's I use the PS3. It is actually not so bad, but the weak link here are the crappy RCA-cables that came with it.
And because I chose a completely analog stereo system, I can not use a digital connection between them.

Not until the Cambridge DacMagic hits the market later this month.

I am really looking forward to this (affordable) D/A converter as it means I can use a digital toslink to connect the PS3 to the DAC,
and high quality RCA-cables of my choice between the DAC and amp, effectively cutting the PS3 out of the loop.

I also play wave-rips from an external HD connected to the PS3. When I get the DacMagic I can leave the whole process to Cambridge
in stead of the PS3, hopefully making a bloody good hi-fi solution for playing wave (especially), cd's and when watching movies.
It also have a USB connection which means it can basically be used as an external sound card.



So... what have you got, and what's yer fancy?



(expensive equipment nor great knowledge of audio technology needed for contributing, obviously)
 
I really enjoyed 'High Fidelity'. John Cusack is awesome in it, and Jack Black really knows how to trigger a genuine laugh. The most memorable scene, for me at least, is when that new boyfriend of John Cusacks ex-girlfriend steps into the music store and you see what could have happened at that moment. Hilarious to the extreme.

Seeing, however, that this thread is not about the very enjoyable movie called 'High Fidelity', I will say this:

although I am a real music freak, I stopped wasting money on expensive audio equipment 4 or 5 years ago. Reason: cd players don't last very long if you are a smoker (them laser lenses are sensitive things, so it seems). So I manage with one of those 30€ portable cd players that I can move around the flat (bathroom -> kitchen -> writing room -> etcetera). When it's broke, I just hand it in at the local audio/video/multimedia vendor and buy a new and preferably even a cheaper one.

Same goes for my dvd player. It cost me 25€ and was made in a sweatshop in Thailand. My tv is a Philips which I got when I moved out of my parents' house. It has a built-in video player that stopped working 3 or 4 years ago. Reason: it swallowed a video cassette and refused to spit it back out again. It's still stuck in there. And yes: it is porn. More precisely: it is "Anal Traffic", an awesome and genre-defying movie starring my beloved Niky Rider (Vica Ryder). I felt bad for two years about losing the video, but recently I found the dvd version which features many extras. So yeah, I'm over it.

Most of the time, though, I use my trusted 8GB Sony mp3 player to listen to my favourite music. It's an NW-A1200. It's been working like a charm for about 2-3 years now, but recently it's been acting strange. If it breaks, I'll go back to the old school thing called 'whistling'. 'Whistling' is free of charge, as far as I know.

That is all.
 
I consider myself a bit of an audiophile, but really the only thing I've invested in are my $500AUD (back then) Logitech z-5500 speakers. Bass is a bit muddy, but otherwise it's pretty damn awesome.

I once put computer, speaker and amp volume to max and my glass of whiskey fell off the table. Best thing is though, the music still sounded clear if I turned down the bass.

I've recently been thinking of getting some new speakers, but haven't found anything that really compares to my price range and has a remote.
 
Well, I only have a 3-4 year old Creative 5.1 setup, but it still rocks as far as I am concerned. LCPM 5.1 like on Flags or our Fathers Blu-Ray, and the HD audio on the Rambo movie rock hard. I supposed it would be even better with a proper setup.
 
I bought me a Sony 8gb mp3 player myself. Great thing as it has long battery life and plays .wav, which is my main digital sound source.
I chose mine for the radio for some reason. I never use it... yay.
Got a pair of Denon AH-C551 to use with that.




Specialist said:
I've recently been thinking of getting some new speakers, but haven't found anything that really compares to my price range and has a remote.
Click to expand...

Speakers with remote?
 
Logi-SPEAKER-Z5500-f1.jpg


That's what I currently have, it's worked well for me so far but it is starting to show signs of wear and tear.
 
3 years of heavy use mean the volume knob doesn't spin very easily, the bases of two speakers are broken and the wires are aging. It'd all be pretty replaceable if Logitech had a spares center somewhere in Australasia, but they don't so...
 
I recently converted my Nikon D200 saving account into a Bose Lifestyle 48 saving account.


That machine is like heaven, only in a box.
 
alec said:
Most of the time, though, I use my trusted 8GB Sony mp3 player to listen to my favourite music. It's an NW-A1200. It's been working like a charm for about 2-3 years now, but recently it's been acting strange. If it breaks, I'll go back to the old school thing called 'whistling'. 'Whistling' is free of charge, as far as I know.

That is all.
Click to expand...

Cool, I had the model that came before the NW-A1200
The NW-HD5 worked perfect for years, had great sound until the buttons/software went bat shit crazy. I didn't go back to whistling (I suck at that) and bought the new NWZ-A820 which has excellent sound. :clap:
 
Jebus said:
I recently converted my Nikon D200 saving account into a Bose Lifestyle 48 saving account.


That machine is like heaven, only in a box.
Click to expand...


Looks like a good choice. I am a sucker for harddrive solutions myself.
I have an old thingy called Rhapsody RSH-100 with a regular 320gb 3,5'' IDE hard drive.
It plays just about everything, despite the great variety in codecs.

It has now been replaced by connecting a 320gb Western Digital Passport to the PS3 due to rotten handling of the digital audio signal.
But this will hopefully change with the second coming of Christ... eh... Cambridge DacMagic.
'Bet yer life I don't need religion!'*

Allegedly Swiss made, but I'm not so so certain...
The web site is even written in excellently engrish. Fun read, though.
"New world for the media fun who are up to date!"


How did the auto-calibration work out by the way?


*Lemmy
 
Ey, I'm still saving. Hence it still being a saving account.

It's not necessarily 'bout the hard drive, too. It's the sound.

You could never understand what I mean without hearing it, but I swear to god - it's the best I ever heard.
 
Time to resurrect this thread.

Now, after 2 months of waiting I have finally gotten the Cambridge DacMagic.
It was delayed from production, and because we have had an economic crisis since the sales price estimation,
they will have to raise the price a bit. I was lucky to get the old price because I ordered it very early.

Anyway. It works like a dream.
I feel it gives my rig a bit more edge. A tad tighter in the lower frequency and a little more copious in the middle
(I have no idea how to correctly term this in english, so feel free to guide me)

It has 2x toslink and coax inputs and USB

Outputs are regular RCA, balanced XLR (have not tried) and toslink (unprosessed signal. Might come in handy)

The USB input makes it work like an external soundcard which does not require a driver installation.
And the sound is great.

I have it connected to the PS3 via a van der Hul The Optocoupler Mk II toslink cable and QED Performance 'sumthing' 2 RCA cables.

Besides the slight improvement in sound quality, it had an unexpected side effect.
While playing Call of Duty 4 on the PS3 I found it even easier to determine where noises came from.
I.e easier to locate, sneak up on and stab enemies in the head. Yay!

This is still stereo mind you.
 
I'm into high end audio as well but I'm more of a headphone enthusiast, I like their presentation more than speakers'.

I've got a pair of Sennheiser HD650s amped by Meier Corda Cantate out of an Auzen Prelude sound card. I've hit a point where every small upgrade costs a ton of money so I've slowed down a bit, I still have plans for new equipment though.
 
That sounds like an excellent rig for headphones.
Never had any experience with them headphone amps.
I just use the output on my stereo amp.

And as I don't really care what my neighbours think of me, I only use headphones when away from stereo, or while playing COD4 on the PS3.
The Denons together with the DAC really pinpoint where noises come from. Huge advantage.

But then again, I have never tried headphones in the quality range of the HD650.

As for the every little upgrade costing a hell of a lot now, I feel the same.
But one has to have plans, right? It it is always possible to improve the rig.
 
im still a fan of studio nearfield monitors plus subwoofer. works well if your entertainment room isnt too large. right now, i dont have any speakers at all, i fuxxored them up a year ago and bought me a cluster of cheap-ass active computer speakers. sucks a bit tho, since i have to make mixdowns via spektrums instead of just listening to the sound.

btw: i somehow distrust people who spend a lot of money on this stuff. they seem to me like bibliophiles who buy some erst-ausgabe with the authors signature BUT never actually read anything from that writer. believe me, duesseldorf is full of this subspecies.
 
Heaphone lover here too, got me a Beyerdynamic DT770. Attached to Maya EX7 USB soundcard (7 mono channels over RCA).

It's a good setup for the laptop too, to take it along for parties etc. Combined with my collection of 15000+ of digitized songs, there is no other way.

I'm connecting a new soundcard next week: Soundscape Mixtreme, originally $500. It has embedded DSP and 16 channels I/O. With a TDIF cable to a Tascam 19" converter, I finally got XLR as a starting point for audio. Now the right amp & speakers...
 
horse said:
btw: i somehow distrust people who spend a lot of money on this stuff. they seem to me like bibliophiles who buy some erst-ausgabe with the authors signature BUT never actually read anything from that writer. believe me, duesseldorf is full of this subspecies.
Click to expand...

I see your point.
But i'm not like that at all. I promise! I have never even bragged about my rig :look:
 
Oh look, I have an account here. For some reason I've never posted before, only lurked on occasion. Hello!

(I hope this isn't considered necromancy.) Within the past two or three years I have begun to appreciate the sound of music played through HiFi audio equipment. My current setup is as follows.

Source: Rega Apollo CD player
Preamp/Amp: Marantz SR8001 Receiver. This sounds pretty good for an all-in-one receiver. I want to upgrade to separate components soon.
Main Speakers: LSA1 Standard Monitors
Signal Interconnect Cables: Blue Jeans Cables
Speaker Cables: Right now I'm using shitty zip wire. Will soon have some fairly high performance DIY cables ready to go.
DVD Player: Oppo 981HD

For the past couple of years I have put a lot of effort into researching high quality products that offer good performance for relatively low cost. I think I have put together a nice sounding system that wasn't too terribly expensive. I hope I can help someone with this info.

If you are looking for high quality RCA or HDMI cables, you might want to check out that Blue Jeans link. They offer a FANTASTIC price to performance ratio. They are as good or better than almost anything costing several times the price. Also, if you want a very high quality DVD player with near-audiophile quality music playback ability then you should look at one of those Oppo universal players. I guess those are my two biggest "bang for the buck" recommendations, though all of those other components are very good for the price.

Once the economy shows signs that it is pulling out of its nosedive, I might be getting a pair of Monarchy Audio SM-70 Pro amplifiers. Based on all I have read, finding an amplifier with the same characteristics for a lower cost is very very rare.

So anyway, I hope I have helped to save someone out there a little money and research and also helped to point out some worthwhile equipment.
 
has anyone experience with low-end studio/dj headphones? (behringer etc). i dont want no headphones that boost the sound to hi-fi, but headphones that do as little as possible to the input.
 
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