What audio system do you have, or plan on getting?

[Valentino]

@Mandryka again, sorry.
Being an active system its 100W for the tweeter, 250 W for the midranges and 250 W for the basses per side: One nCore 250MP and one 100HF "hanger". Nothing big, it just adds up.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I've read and heard that from audiophiles for decades.  I'll assume in your case it is true.  Most of the time it is not.  The way one can tell is how vehemently audiophiles insist that their superior hearing allows them to detect even the tiniest discrepancies in audio performance and declare that the artificial sound reproduction they fancy is more realistic than some other gear.  Never mind that they can't physically hear it or that there is no audible difference to discern, such as with digital cables.


I recently had to buy some cheap wired earbuds for travel.  (I nearly lost my wireless pair.)  The frequency response is clearly different from the wireless pair, rolled off both high and low, and the clarity does not match my open back full size headphones, but for certain types of music, the lower fi, midrange rich sound works splendidly. I'd love to have Beyer T1 level performance everywhere, all the time, but that just is not in the cards, so adjustments must be made, and it's easy to do.

Are the Beyer T1s wired or wireless?  And how do you like to use them?

My hearing is far from perfect. Maybe that's why some components, including cables, sound better to my ears than others. Of course, I am not an audiophile, it is important to me that the sound of music does not have too much noise of various origins and serious distortion.

I agree that price is not decisive. At one time I used at the same time regular wired iPhone earphones in turn with a very expensive set of Noble earphones with Chord DAC. Both variants sounded very different, but it didn't stop me from enjoying music in each scenario.

I hadn't heard of Noble before now and so googled them.  Wow they are gorgeous!  How did they sound though?  I did see some very good reviews.

PD

[AnotherSpin]

I hadn't heard of Noble before now and so googled them.  Wow they are gorgeous!  How did they sound though?  I did see some very good reviews.

PD

I had Noble Encore. Super resolving at the same time natural sound. Double Helix Cable from Peter Bradstock was a huge upgrade. Even better resolution and more of everything. Those are the pluses. Minuses: unforgiving for bad quality recordings, need for an matching quality external DAC. Whether such a high price is justified is a matter of debate and personal preference. I've had the standard models. If you go to that level of spending, it probably makes sense to consider a custom model with a custom body made to fit your ears.

I've listened to the Noble wireless earphones too. They are not as good as the wired ones. Comparing the wireless Noble with the top wireless Sennheiser earphones, I decided on the latter. Being less pricey than the wireless Noble they sounded on the same level except for the bass, but more neutral and delicate.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I had Noble Encore. Super resolving at the same time natural sound. Double Helix Cable from Peter Bradstock was a huge upgrade. Even better resolution and more of everything. Those are the pluses. Minuses: unforgiving for bad quality recordings, need for an matching quality external DAC. Whether such a high price is justified is a matter of debate and personal preference. I've had the standard models. If you go to that level of spending, it probably makes sense to consider a custom model with a custom body made to fit your ears.

I've listened to the Noble wireless earphones too. They are not as good as the wired ones. Comparing the wireless Noble with the top wireless Sennheiser earphones, I decided on the latter. Being less pricey than the wireless Noble they sounded on the same level except for the bass, but more neutral and delicate.

Are these the ones to which you were referring?  https://majorhifi.com/noble-audio-kaiser-encore-review/

PD

[Harry]

Since we are are talking about headphones, I am in the market for Electrostatics. In the far past I had Stax, and have good memories of it, but that  was almost 40 years ago.
Anyone know what could be an option?

This model I started with, the SRS-3100 Earspeaker System (SR-L300 + SRM-252s)
https://staxheadphones.com/collections/stax-bundle-set/products/srs-3100

This of course an upgraded version from the one I had, but it looks the same.

[AnotherSpin]

Are these the ones to which you were referring?  https://majorhifi.com/noble-audio-kaiser-encore-review/

PD

Correct. I looked through the article. Almost everywhere the description matches my impressions. Considering that I used a much better cable than the standard one and listened to classic and jazz mostly. I guess Noble doesn't bother much with cables, knowing that most buyers will upgrade anyway.

[AnotherSpin]

Since we are are talking about headphones, I am in the market for Electrostatics. In the far past I had Stax, and have good memories of it, but that  was almost 40 years ago.
Anyone know what could be an option?

This model I started with, the SRS-3100 Earspeaker System (SR-L300 + SRM-252s)
https://staxheadphones.com/collections/stax-bundle-set/products/srs-3100

This of course an upgraded version from the one I had, but it looks the same.

I have no personal experience with the top line of electrostatic headphones, but I'll still give the opinion of one person whose opinion I trust a lot. He believes that two models, Audeze CRBN and Stax SR-X9000 are leading in this segment today, with Stax SR-X9000 being the absolute winner for listening to classical music.

[Harry]

I have no personal experience with the top line of electrostatic headphones, but I'll still give the opinion of one person whose opinion I trust a lot. He believes that two models, Audeze CRBN and Stax SR-X9000 are leading in this segment today, with Stax SR-X9000 being the absolute winner for listening to classical music.

That is most helpful my friend, and I will check this out. Thank you for this swift reaction.

[Todd]

Are the Beyer T1s wired or wireless?

Wired.  I use them hooked up to a headphone amp while sitting in a recliner.

[Atriod]

I'd like try active speakers sometime, Genlec or Neumann - but I'm not sure how maintainable they are.   

@Spotted Horses

I was pretty close to auditioning Genelec's largest "The One" speaker, spoke to a gent at Vintage King and was ready to pay for the in house trial but then we started seriously discussing moving across the country and moving two speakers that are 70 lbs each (for a bookshelf!) did not sound appealing. Among the big three with Kii 3 and D&D 8c they have solved the vertical directivity issue because of the concentric drivers. Still, there was one comment on ASR Amir's review that had me pausing where he said they do not sound like full size loudspeakers which he attributed to them not radiating sound from floor up like his Salon Ultima 2 (Toole also uses at home). I have LSR 306 MK2 in my office with two subs, rear one in anti-polarity to the front and it always sounds like listening to bookshelf speakers. For the $150 I paid for each JBL that isn't a problem but at $10k that is a major issue. Purely by measurements those Genelecs are about as SOTA as it gets.

There is a dealer in London, Purite Audio, that I believe is happy to audition the Kii 3 and D&D 8c. My impression (of course I'd clarify that with him) is he is fine with auditioning them even to people that don't have an interest in buying just so people can hear these new kind of speakers.

[DavidW]

Okay, let us please make this thread only about the stuff you enjoy and not how you choose it.  You may find the debate thread here

[Bachtoven]

I recently bought a Roon Nucleus Plus Music Server. I had one before, but I didn't like that I couldn't organize by musical periods (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, etc.), plus it froze after an "update," so I returned it. I since investigated other ways to manage my library, and while I still can't use musical periods (without assigning a period to each recording by editing its file information), I can now use the Focus and Bookmark features to separate recordings into instruments and musical forms (guitar, piano, violin, cello, sonata, concerto, symphony, quartet, etc.) I still had to rename recordings that didn't include the key word, but that was maybe 200-300 files instead of nearly 5,000! So, I am quite happy with it. No more computer problems and noise...just great sound, super fast performance, and it's blissfully silent. It's not much to look at, but it does its job flawlessly. (And it sounds better than either laptop.)

[Valentino]

Here's a couple of pretty pieces of audio equipment I enjoy:

[DavidW]

Valentino and a couple of others had on topic posts buried in the 12 page mess, I've finally taken them out of the mess and moved them back here.

Many interested posters might have missed them before, so please take a look.

[DavidW]

I replaced my smsl dac with a denafrips ares II a few months ago.  I have to say that was the right choice.  The Denafrips has this warm, inviting quality to it that the smsl doesn't have.  I finally sold the smsl recently.

Funny enough I have a cheaper smsl dac that I use with a matching headphone amp in my office that I don't think sounds as dull.

I also replaced my Cambridge Audio streamer with a Bluesound Node a few months ago.  I frequently had issues with Cambridge's app, and only once did I have an issue with Bluesound's app.  SQ is the same since I just digital out to the dac, but I've had a much better time with the Node and have also sold off my Cambridge.

[Harry]

I replaced my smsl dac with a denafrips ares II a few months ago.  I have to say that was the right choice.  The Denafrips has this warm, inviting quality to it that the smsl doesn't have.  I finally sold the smsl recently.

Funny enough I have a cheaper smsl dac that I use with a matching headphone amp in my office that I don't think sounds as dull.

I also replaced my Cambridge Audio streamer with a Bluesound Node a few months ago.  I frequently had issues with Cambridge's app, and only once did I have an issue with Bluesound's app.  SQ is the same since I just digital out to the dac, but I've had a much better time with the Node and have also sold off my Cambridge.

Thats a fine streamer David, I had it many years.

[Atriod]

@Mandryka if you do hear Genelecs please post. Now that they have the W371a I'm interested in them again. Though I still need to do some research about if this will extend the cardioid radiation even lower.

[Bachtoven]

I replaced my smsl dac with a denafrips ares II a few months ago.  I have to say that was the right choice.  The Denafrips has this warm, inviting quality to it that the smsl doesn't have.  I finally sold the smsl recently.

I'm intrigued by their DACS, especially the Pontus or Venus. I've read reviews that basically say they smooth out "digital glare." Does that result in a loss of detail with your Ares? The inability to return it if I don't like it is a bit of a turn off! I'm happy with my Chord DAC, but an even more analog sound is very appealing.

[Holden]

From what I can gather, while a DAC makes a big difference, the more money you spend on one gives you only minor returns. I have a Schiit Modi3+ and someone let me use a much more expensive DAC as a comparison. While it did make a very modest difference, the price difference made it a no brainer.

The Modi did what it was supposed to do with my system and the more expensive item did basically the same. I'm using reasonably high end headphones (Ananda Stealth) connected to an Asgard 3 with the Modi sitting in between the amp and my PC. I'll stick with what I've got as I am happy with what I am hearing.

[DavidW]

I'm intrigued by their DACS, especially the Pontus or Venus. I've read reviews that basically say they smooth out "digital glare." Does that result in a loss of detail with your Ares? The inability to return it if I don't like it is a bit of a turn off! I'm happy with my Chord DAC, but an even more analog sound is very appealing.

No loss in detail, no audible distortion, flat frequency response.  I can't explain it, but it definitely sounded better than my previous dac in a way that is difficult to describe.  Like better soundstage, more laid back presentation but I can't say it where it comes from.  I guess resistor ladder dacs just sound different from the chip based.