Audiophiles?

[Boston Joe]

I am so not an audiophile.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good sounding stereo, but I'd rather spend my money on sound PRODUCTION equipment, rather than sound REproduction equipment.

Mostly I listen in my car, or from my phone. At home, I've got a little UE mobile boombox bluetooth speaker in the bedroom and in the living room, I use my TV's sound bar (don't remember the brand or model). At the gym, I use a pair of Bluebird wireless earbuds.

It all sounds pretty good. None of it sounds amazing. But I don't really care for a couple of reasons. 1. I've got tinnitus, so no matter how good my audio gear is, it's always going to have that eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee all over it, and 2) I can hear what I want to hear, which is the music itself. I may miss a nuance here or there, but it's not like I'm a teenager listening to my ultra crappy record player with built-in speaker again.

But you know what does sound amazing? My Ibanez through my Dr. Z. That's where my money goes.

[stevus]

No problem, these are valid reasons. For me it is both, good sound in the living room, mediocre sound in the rest of the house, the car or elsewhere. Music production is important too, of course. If the house would burn down I would save my guitar before the audio. (Oeps! I forgot my wife! She comes first!)

[sgosnell]

I tend to stream almost all my music. I either listen through headphones via my phone/laptop, chromecast through my TV/amp/Bose 901 speakers, or from my desktop through a DAC/amp/old Fisher hifi speakers. I use the Bose and Fisher speakers because I have them, and may as well use them. I just don't want to spend the money for anything else.

[Doctor Jeff]

In a week or so I will be reunited with my system from the late 80's: Nakamichi receiver, Onkyo turntable with an Audiotechnica cartridge, and Bose 301 speakers.

Oh, and my 800 records. Including a ton of old Blue Note and Impulse records.

[coolvinny]

I don't consider myself an audiophile but I won't buy lousy audio products. Quality audio products last a very long time if you take reasonable care of them. My last set of speakers cost me $160/year of ownership....and I only upgraded because newer models sound as good but are much smaller and free up floor space. And great audio sounds can so good it'll make you wanna cry...what else'll make you want to cry? Per hour of pleasure, quality (not absurd stratospheric) audio is cheap.

[Doctor Jeff]

Got my records and my stereo stuff back last night--it's in the garage, waiting for me to find a place to put them...

I might have to upgrade the cartridge...Ortofon maybe?

[destinytot]

what else'll make you want to cry?

Onions - and coconuts, if you're a Shy Guy :

[cristo]

Old simple but good equipment.
1980's era Polk 10a speakers
Soundcraftsman eq just to clean up the room response a little.
Harmon Kardon receiver
Yamaha tape deck
Phillips 877 turntable with Shure V15 V5 cartridge that will track anything and will let you walk across the wood floor or even stomp a little without any drama.
NAD CD player.
relatively plain interconnects and speaker wires.

[Gabor]

Just curious how crazy my fellow jazz obsessed guitarists are about their stereos

I used to be obsessed, now those times passed. Now I am just listening. I bought my amp 8 years ago, after a serious research, (previous was a NAD 3020) now I have to go to the living room to see exactly what is it. I bought my last speakers 6 years ago after serious research (previous was Heybrook HB1) now I have to go to the living room to see exactly what is it. (literally going to the living room)

Now I am back, here is the result:

- Rotel RA-02
- Q Acoustics 3020

I am so satisfied, that hifi upgrade, experiment, change, blind test era is closed, and I literally forget about the equipment, just listening the music. Can recommend to all.

***

Some history. Once there was a bi-monthly magazin here, called "HiFi Magazin". The authors were serious guys, really. This was the 80s. A bit later the advent of CD happened. I must thank for them the idea of the NAD 3020 and HB1 which served me well and was (although with big effort) available for my wallet.
They did blind tests also to compare products (this was the LP era, so they used Jazz at the Pawnshop, and some very good quality reference recordings).

...then they did more extreme blind tests. For example cable tests twist vs straight and they do hear the difference.

...then something went wrong...

They did some really extreme blind tests (not joking)

- A twist vs straight cable test, where phone line in the room was twist versus straight. Remember there was wall sockets for the phone, and a cable went from the wall to the phone :-) So we are talking about a wire what has nothing to do with the hifi equipment. (I am not talking about using phone cables as audio cables, the only thing they changed in A vs B was the phone cable).
...and they heard the difference, and also described it in detail in the article

- A blind test on the wall color of the room. (well, the guys were either dead serious or early Monty Python fans, because this clearly would be a Monty Python sketch idea) I do not remember the actual colors, and also not sure the result. Even they concluded not hearing the difference, this is insane.

***

Then I concluded not to go further on this path. I am a happy music listener now,

(Jesse Van Ruller rulez and also Jonathan Kreisberg, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gilad Hekselman (and all my favourite 3000+ old records))

[DanielleOM]

I have a pair of B&W CM1-CM2 speakers from the mid 90s. I never did get an upper end amp to drive them with. I currently use them with a Denon receiver. I have to admit I think they sounded a lot better at the store when they did a demo for me using a Krell system. For curiosity they did a comparison for with the top of the line B&W 801 speakers. Other bass response, I found it difficult to tell the difference.

I must admit for various reasons I have not got a lot of use out of them. Lived in a lot rental places where I could not really use them. I have a home now where I can use them, but I seem to spend all of my time at a desk with a small set of powered near field monitors.

[DanielleOM]

I found one of my favorite CDs for listening tests was the CD for the musical "Showboat".

I found with a poor system that the various vocals tended to almost merge together. With good system I found you could hear enough detail to hear separate vocals and lyrics.