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Posted: 9/30/2007 8:41:02 PM EDT
[#1]
Bump to see if there are any other speaker builders in the house.
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Posted: 10/1/2007 5:56:49 AM EDT
[#2]
I've built a whole lot of speakers over the years, as hobby projects.
Some were good, some were bad, some were so-so. Designed and constructed my own 2-way and 3-way and 4-way crossover networks, and hand built them. Built various types of cabinets also. Designed sealed enclosures, ported enclosures, horns, and transmission-line enclosures. It's interesting hobby work. I use stereo for my music listening system. I have a small commercial 5.1 surround system for movies and TV. My current peaker system is a set of modified Voigt pipe enclosures that I built myself, using Lowther EX3 fullrange drivers. It's a high-efficiency system, and I drive them with a 2-watt per channel Single-Ended-Triode amp. It's the best sounding package that I've tried so far. I think I'm sticking with this setup for my 2 channel serious listening. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 6:15:19 AM EDT
[#3]
There is nothing inherently wrong with some of the better Bose speakers - you can just do SO much better for the money.
Being snobby about 10,000 speakers is not going to impress someone who is drawn to Bose. Show him a basic infinity or JBL (same company, really) set-up with the same or better sound compared to the Bose - but half the price. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 6:35:39 AM EDT
[#4]
Unmolested Linn Sondek LP12 w/Akito arm on a Sound Design wall shelf.
Linn Klyde cart. EAR 324 Phono amp. McIntosh MX110 Tuner/Preamp. McIntosh MC 2105 Amp. Revox A77 R/R. Maggie SMG B's, updated by Magnepan on Sound Design vertical stands. Auralex Studio Foam treated room. 4000+ vinyl albums (Yes kiddies, albums used(still) to come on vinyl discs). I listen exclusively to vinyl in my small dedicated listening room. Rock (Metal to Pop), Jazz, Classical, New Age (Enya, etc.) Alternative, Christian. No friggin' Rap or that twangy country crap though.... I DO own about 15 CD's..... They are for the car.  CPO SWCC US Navy (Retired) |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 6:42:18 AM EDT
[#5]
If pedophiles molest children, what to audiophiles do to audio?
 I have EXCELLENT hearing. I'm proud of it, and you know what? In my experience, most self proclaimed audiophiles (I ain't talking about you fellers) and those who profess to have a "golden ear" are douchebags. If a speaker review (or my favorite sign of douchebaggery - a wire review) reads just like a wine review, the guy that wrote it is a douchebag. A fool and his money are soon parted. I can't belive the bullshit some people will swallow. And yes, Bose is a rip off. You can buy better stuff at half the price. The thing is, this is true for a good 80% of the market. Many of the same people (again, not you fellers necessarily) who dismiss Bose customers as being duped by marketing, have - in my opinion - been duped just the same. If you suspend your speaker wire off the ground, because it "layers the soundstage with creamy lows, and a textual mid-range", you're a douchebag. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 6:45:45 AM EDT
[#6]
Subnet - you might not be able to build a workbench worth a shot, but you're OK in my book. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 6:50:39 AM EDT
[#7]
I'll have you know that workbench held an 18HP Briggs.  (Dad came by and fixed it for me). 
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Posted: 10/1/2007 6:53:12 AM EDT
[#8]
Anyone have Focal home speakers? I wonder how good the home ones are since I had some Focal separates in my car and they kicked ass.
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Posted: 10/1/2007 7:30:47 AM EDT
[#9]
I did a LOT of research and got loads of opinion on the AVS Forums as well before pulling the trigger on my new surround sound system, DVD player, Receiver, and speakers. Was more than willing to spend a load of cash, but was very happy to find great deals.
Went with a HK receiver, OPPO DVD player, and SVS speakers and Subwoofer. The SVS gear was brand new (the speakers - they had just started making them) while the Subs have been around for a long time. They are quite amazing, and the price was about half of what a comparable set would have cost. Very happy with them. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 11:15:36 AM EDT
[#10]
I found the key with the Klipsch ProMedias was having a good sound card for them - you hook them up to onboard audio and they will sound like shit - but they sound pretty good for some sub-$200 speakers when I hook them up to a Soundblaster X-Fi card.
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Posted: 10/1/2007 12:59:56 PM EDT
[#11]
How 'bout the green pens to color the edges of your CD's. Concerning the speaker wire I for one don't buy into it, but that being said as with anything there are some truths to speaker wire that the manufacturers try to con you with. Skin effect, capacitance, resistance, etc. are all real properties of any wire. Can you and I hear the difference between Radio Shack lamp cord and some esoteric $1000+ cables? Probably not. But I can not deny that people that listen in a dedicated engineered room on a high-fidelity system may hear a difference. "Stereophile" magazine themselves list Radio Shack's rip cord or lamp wire as a good choice for low-end speaker wire. Yeah I remember seeing advertised some speaker cable mounts that elevated the cables off the ground. I believe one reviewer said they were nothing more than painted PVC pipes and felt that you could build yourself for a whole lot less. IIRC the reviewer did hear differences when using the cable elevation system. The differences were some good and some bad, i.e. colorations. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 1:44:00 PM EDT
[#12]
So if it weren't for music sharing you never would have been exposed to music that you're not going to buy anyways? RF |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 1:52:25 PM EDT
[#13]
Best speakers that I could afford was PARADIGM Monitor 11(Fronts), Atoms (Rears), CC290 (Center), and a PS-1000 Sub. Denon receiver and Denon DVD/CD player
www.paradigm.com/ |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 2:27:22 PM EDT
[#14]
Right, many of the artists for that genre of music (Goa Trance, Ambient, Psy Trance) allow you to download straight from their websites. Since I was not exposed to this type of music on the radio, friends, etc. I would have never known about it. What I've done in the past is browse peoples' music on the peer-to-peer forums. If I see some music I like I then take a listen to some artist they might have that I have not heard of before. Found many different artists this way that I enjoy (Shpongle, Paul Oakenfold, Amorphous Androgynous, FMOL, Psytrain, Photek, Underworld, Astral Projection, Infected Mushroom). |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 2:28:54 PM EDT
[#15]
i see someone else has good taste! except for jokenfold!
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Posted: 10/1/2007 2:31:26 PM EDT
[#16]
Audiophiles are retarded. I appreciate good sound but am not anal about it.
At home I have a pair of Paradigm Atom Monitors driven by an Onkyo 504 receiver. They sound great although if I were to do it over again I'd buy some Monitors or Titans instead of the Atoms. Some day when I'm not a broke student I'll add a decent subwoofer to fill out the low end. I have to say that for $260 a pair they do sound quite fantastic though. On the smaller side of the world of audio, I have primarily used headphones for listening. Currently I have a pair of Shure E4C canalphones for portable use and a META42 headphone amp and some Grado SR-225s that need recabling since I've tripped on the cord one too many times. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 2:54:35 PM EDT
[#17]
Well if it was for Paul's music on the Swordfish soundtrack I would have never started down this path, so there is something to say for the "pop" side of Trance. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 2:56:20 PM EDT
[#18]
The nice thing there is much quality hi-fi equipment to be had on the used market. Let someone else by the huge price. The good thing is when you buy quality gear it can last a very long time. Look at the Adcom 555's they still retain much of their original value. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 3:00:08 PM EDT
[#19]
You know you have truly arrived at the "AUDIOPHILE STATUS" when you have a few of these bad boys...!
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Posted: 10/1/2007 3:01:46 PM EDT
[#20]
The cheapest Martin Logan beats anything else from anyone else. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 3:07:27 PM EDT
[#21]
WTF!!! You don't believe in the "red brick on top of tube amps" for...
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Posted: 10/1/2007 3:21:49 PM EDT
[#22]
...and midrange is pretty bad too. The thing with Bose, it's not that they use shoddy construction and that happens to sound bad. They intentionally give their speakers that extreme M-shaped frequency response. It's just a psycho-acoustical trick to make you think they sound better than they do. And once you realize that they really don't have thunderous bass and sparkling detail then the trick doesn't work. |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 3:23:05 PM EDT
[#23]
Those speaker systems are all ridiculous.
Get yourself the best headphones you can afford. No one else wants to hear your music, especially not your thumping subwoofer - NO ONE! |
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Posted: 10/1/2007 6:28:23 PM EDT
[#24]
Home built cabinets can sound better than their factory counterparts because the self-builder can put in extra-bracing that the factory won't put in, and sometimes the cabinets are built on the smaller(which results in less bass) to help sell to people with restricted living spaces. |
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Posted: 10/2/2007 7:40:07 AM EDT
[#25]
When comparing anything, I only consider it valid if it was a double blind listening test. The levels need to be matched (people frequently associate a slightly louder volume as being "better" without realizing it) and the switching between the two items under comparison needs to be random, and unknown to the listener. It's really funny to lie and say "Now listen to this one" when you haven't changed anything, and the guy hears a difference. The placebo effect is very real, and seldom accounted for by reviewers. Wire does have very real properties that can be measured, but provided the wire is of a sufficient gauge for the power and length required, I'm telling you no one will hear the difference in a comparison setup the way I described. People "think" they hear a difference in their dedicated engineering rooms listening through $20,000 amplifiers, but they don't. I maintain that it's a placebo effect. If the two types of wire (or anything being compared, really) can be switched *at random* (levels matched) AND the listener can identify each component being evaluated accurately each and every time, then I'll consider it valid. Otherwise, it's all in his head. |
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Posted: 10/2/2007 7:59:27 AM EDT
[#26]
Monster sells lamp cord?
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Posted: 10/2/2007 8:22:55 AM EDT
[#27]
 generic Cat5 ethernet cables > generic lamp cord I find that soundstage has more of a smoky afterglow with Cat5, and it gives transients an epic wingspan with just a hint of oak. With mere lamp cord, notes bloom in a completely unsatisfying way. Mysterious cryogenic voodoo treatment is a vast improvement to either. Purchase them from a ridiculously overpriced Japanese cable boutique if you want them to have an appropriately authentic hint of terroir. |
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Posted: 10/2/2007 8:35:36 AM EDT
[#28]
Not reading this thread for fear of all the audiomolestors talking about "danceable" $7250 Pear Cables and other similar retardation
 I'm quite fond of our ADAM S3As, but they can be a bit too revealing for casual listening. The Apogee converters help too. ETA: As far as headphones are concerned, I like Grado and Ultrasone. But again, I'm not an audiophile... |
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Posted: 10/2/2007 8:48:52 AM EDT
[#29]
You sir, and your $7,250 cables... are the SUCK. BEHOLD, 25 foot speaker cables for $43,000 Yes, i am Serious, CLICK HERE Ok, now... seriously..... So I was looking at some Polk Monitor 70s and a center channel CS2 so I could finally have some Home thearter, even though it would only be 3.0, it would be nice. And I am looking at the $399 per speaker price, and I am thinking, "man, that's a LOT of money." Now, I read this thread... and I am a bitch. |
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Posted: 10/2/2007 9:34:48 AM EDT
[#30]
Yes. J/K'ing if you don't buy the overexpensive stuff who will? You should try rolling your own center channel. |
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Posted: 10/2/2007 9:46:24 AM EDT
[#31]
Here's a thought that just popped into my head:
There surely must come a point, where the equipment you have in your house actually surpasses the quality of the gear that made the original recording in the first place (this isn't very hard to do incidentally, depending on what kind of music you listen to). You know, I really love sound. A great recording is something of a mystical experience to me. I really do enjoy listening to my favorite records on GOOD equipment. But at some point during my never ending quest for audio ecstacy, it occurs to me that the musicians had the amps cranked to 11, the producer was hung over, and the engineer was doing a line off the console. They put some thought into it, and they came up with something great, but they didn't put THAT much thought into every nuance. Now and then I actually like to listen to the song itself.
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Posted: 10/2/2007 9:48:31 AM EDT
[#32]
Since I have a shitty soundcard I'm settling for just decent headsets.
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Posted: 10/2/2007 9:56:03 AM EDT
[#33]
Yeah, a lot of people still swear by vinyl since they feel the digital sources are too advanced and thus - reveal flaws in the original recording that the 'warm' sound/and 'crackling/hissing' from vinyl covers up.
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Posted: 10/2/2007 10:00:32 AM EDT
[#34]
Very valid point that I've also considered when buying gear. At one audio shop the salesman must have had a slow day because he knew I was not the client that could afford any of the gear but he took me to every room and let me listen to whatever I wanted to. I brought a bunch of CD's with me and when we played my Van Halen "5150" CD he didn't even have to point out how compressed the soundstage was. He then let me listen to a recording that was noted for the engineer more than the singer and band. Wow what an experience, I actually had goosebumps. I could "see" the female singer's head rising up as she started the song. I could "see" the guitarist's fingers sliding along the strings, there was a distinct enough spatial difference that I could "see" it. This was 2-channel with solid state amps (not Krells either). |
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Posted: 10/3/2007 8:58:47 PM EDT
[#35]
I haven't started suspending my speaker wires yet but maybe I'll buy these. Speaker Towers And probably these to go with it Gold Contact Enhancer Iron Suspension Stand Some $800 diamond encrusted wooden resonators And some $400 gizmo to zap CD's |
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Posted: 10/3/2007 11:07:39 PM EDT
[#36]
LOL...
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Posted: 10/6/2007 10:58:21 PM EDT
[#37]
.
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Posted: 10/6/2007 11:06:21 PM EDT
[#38]
I thought that I would plug some audiophile gear that really works:
www.vibrapod.com/ If you want to reduce vibration, use what research scientists looking for a cheap fix use -- rubber feet. Not sexy, not like magic rocks, they don't hav eblinkey lights, but they isolate pretty well. Sometimes that helps with analog gear, although I have never heard any difference with CDs. They cost a few dollars, that's it. And they actually work. Almost criminal to call them "audiophile products", isn't it? It should say something about their audiophile audience that their FAQ specifically says not to microwave. Yes, really. |
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Posted: 10/7/2007 2:43:53 PM EDT
[#39]
Yes, and it's not that hard to do. Now with a pair of $1200 Dynaudio speakers you can hear better than the speakers used to record most albums, but... Your own listening environment will be the limiting factor. Even if your speakers sound great, your room will effect the sound enough that you can't hear it properly. Room acoustics become very important in critical listening. If you really want to improve your listening experience, you should add some drapes and acoustical dampners to your room. It's a total waste of money to spend thousands on speakers and listen to them in a square plaster room. Propper control rooms have to be designed to sound good. |
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Posted: 10/7/2007 2:58:05 PM EDT
[#40]
there is this:
http://www.calaudiotech.com/index.php?action=mbx and everything else
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Posted: 10/8/2007 4:24:49 AM EDT
[#41]
It seems to me like a nice set of headphones would take care of all that, and at a reasonable price, by comparison. I love sound, but I've got to draw the line on remodeling rooms in my house to improve it. That's me though. You're right of course, since there is actually a lot of science behind the size and shape of a room, and it's effect on sound. |
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Posted: 10/8/2007 2:37:42 PM EDT
[#42]
The problem with headphones are they don't have the same depth as two-channel speakers. Some of the higher end companies use an outboard processor to recreate that 3D effect. So using this processor now adds artifacts to the material and that is in itself a no-no to an audiophile. |
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