Quebec audiophile shows off his new Hi-Fi system, very expensive set up

[Mr. Widget]

Boy am I with you on this!

Those Revel speakers are just brutal, visually, IMO. I find myself so distracted by the phalanx of blaring white drivers. Not only distracting for movies, but for me distracting for listening. When speaker drivers are shouting for attention visually I can't help but map the sound to the drivers. That's why I prefer grills on speakers.

My speakers sound really good with grills on, but a little bit more open with the grills off. Fortunately in my listening room I have fine control over the spot lighting, so I have a lighting "mood" setting where the spot lights are not hitting the front of the speakers, and even with the grills off I don't see the drivers.

Agree 100% with both of you on this one.

If a guy likes his stereo to feature big bright blue meters and sparkly racks with massive power cables etc. I don't think it is my place to tell I think it is hideous looking, but for a home theater, and especially a room with projector where light control is key, having a pile of crap around the image is pretty lame.

The image below is a proper home theater.

 

[antcollinet]

ASR is not the place.

ASR is exactly the place. If not here, then where?

There are many new members here every day - many or most already of the mainstream-yet-faulty viewpoint. If we don't fight the good fight here, they will then believe that viewpoint is based in science - because, well, it is stated as such here (by new people who know no better, or by videos linked in here) and no-one challenges it.

 

[Mr. Widget]

ASR is exactly the place. If not here, then where?

There are many new members here every day - many or most already of the mainstream-yet-faulty viewpoint. If we don't fight the good fight here, they will then believe that viewpoint is based in science - because, well, it is stated as such here (by new people who know no better, or by videos linked in here) and no-one challenges it.

Maybe I'm wrong, but to me it seems like screaming in an echo chamber. This sort of thing is hardly not challenged here... it is like a mantra.

Believe me, I am not disagreeing with the message, but it feels like the message being shared at a company pep rally instead of hiring a marketing firm to explain to an ignorant public the virtues of the company.

 

[antcollinet]

This sort of thing is hardly not challenged here

Correct - yet we still get many posts each day which need challenging. Imagine what this place would be like if they weren't challenged : It would look just like all the other forums where subjectivism is embraced.

Believe me, I am not disagreeing with the message, but it feels like the message being shared at a company pep rally instead of hiring a marketing firm to explain to an ignorant public the virtues of the company.

And yet it is always in response to people believing the nonsense. It is not a repeating echo of people posting the same thing to each other (that is an echo chamber). It is informing people who post the opposite.

 

[sigbergaudio]

If the cables had something to do with the high fidelity playback perhaps, but they don't. They're simply jewelry at best, and harming the signal at worst, which if that's what you like, great, but to me has little to do with being an audiophile, more a tweakophile at that point. YMMV.

I personally do not purchase expensive cables, but it's a bit elitist to find some random dude on the internet that has purchased gear you do not agree with and then disqualify them from being part of the hobby.

 

[FrantzM]

I personally do not purchase expensive cables, but it's a bit elitist to find some random dude on the internet that has purchased gear you do not agree with and then disqualify them from being part of the hobby.

Was going to reply something similar. I won't pile on the owner of this YouTube video. I wish he would come here, with open mind, to get educated. I sincerely wish him so...
because...
Speaking about me, I could have been "him"... Despite being an EE (not Audio): It took me many years, >40 to not equate price (and reputation) with performance ... it took ASR for me to see the light. to welcome Science in my Audio world.. To change... Many will not and that is OK.
Let them be..

Great audio performance no longer need cost a lot... no longer cost a lot.

Parting shot: It is interesting to know, one can build a superlative audio system, most likely (as in 99.99999 %) better than the one in the video, by any objective and subjective (if knowledge is removed, perhaps), metrics for the price of one of his amplifiers: a pair of D&D 8C? or Neuman KH 420? Or Genelec 8361? Granted the resulting system would look much different but ... ?

Happy holidays!

Peace.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Was going to reply something similar. I won't pile on the owner of this YouTube video. I wish he would come here, with open mind, to get educated. I sincerely wish him so...
because...
Speaking about me, I could have been "him"... Despite being an EE (not Audio): It took me many years, >40 to not equate price (and reputation) with performance ... it took ASR for me to see the light. to welcome Science in my Audio world.. To change... Many will not and that is OK.
Let them be..

Great audio performance no longer need cost a lot... no longer cost a lot.

Parting shot: It is interesting to know, one can build a superlative audio system, most likely (as in 99.99999 %) better than the one in the video, by any objective and subjective (if knowledge is removed, perhaps), metrics for the price of one of his amplifiers: a pair of D&D 8C? or Neuman KH 420? Or Genelec 8361? Granted the resulting system would look much different but ... ?

Happy holidays!

Peace.

To be frank I find this post a bit elitist as well. You're convinced that he has made wrong choices, and the he is uneducated about the hobby somehow. The products he has purchased (disregarding the cables etc) aren't inherently bad products. They may appear expensive compared to many other things, but they are built well and have a certain look that he may enjoy.

Your goal may be the best possible sound quality for the least amount of money. His goal may be entirely different.

To many people the total experience of a sound system also includes build quality and how it looks. He may not want to be caught dead with something looking like Neuman or Genelec in his living room, why does that make him any lesser? Why do we automatically assume that people who have chosen differently than us are ignorant?

 

[bodhi]

It should be a very simple rule: anyone can buy and enjoy whatever they like without getting roasted (well meaning jokes allowed) as long as they are not claiming that their choices would make sense to someone else. Or claiming that their equipment (or any equipment whatsoever) have some sonic properties that cannot be proven or should not exist according to science.

It's a thin line and very easy to cross, even accidentally.

 

[Multicore]

It should be a very simple rule: anyone can buy and enjoy whatever they like without getting roasted (well meaning jokes allowed) as long as they are not claiming that their choices would make sense to someone else. Or claiming that their equipment...

If you go to the trouble to make a youtube video bragging about your new, very expensive xyz then you are inviting public comment. We are the public and we comment.

Similarly, our comments are public and therefore also subject to public comment. We can call out the mean spirited and the hypocritical etc. if we choose.

That's how it works, iiuc, and long may it remain so, says I.

And by the same rules you are free to try to lay down the law about what is roast-worthy and what's off limits for roasting and I am free reply: pish-posh.

But because it's Xmas morn I won't. Instead I'll go for a walk with the dogs. Merry Xmas one and all!

 

[Killingbeans]

I personally do not purchase expensive cables, but it's a bit elitist to find some random dude on the internet that has purchased gear you do not agree with and then disqualify them from being part of the hobby.

I don't think anybody is disqualifying him from anything. On the contrary. If there was a world championship in the current state of audiophilia, he'd at the very least get points for effort. Altough the judges would deduct points for not using cable lifters, magical pebbles and all other kinds of nonsense.

He's not the problem. He's just doing what the community has defined as intelligence and sensibility. The hobby itself is the problem.

It's just sad to see every person, who's finally in a position to put together their dream setup, being lured into spending a truckload of cash on snake-oil under the guise of "quality".

 

[FrantzM]

To be frank I find this post a bit elitist as well. You're convinced that he has made wrong choices, and the he is uneducated about the hobby somehow. The products he has purchased (disregarding the cables etc) aren't inherently bad products. They may appear expensive compared to many other things, but they are built well and have a certain look that he may enjoy.

Your goal may be the best possible sound quality for the least amount of money. His goal may be entirely different.

To many people the total experience of a sound system also includes build quality and how it looks. He may not want to be caught dead with something looking like Neuman or Genelec in his living room, why does that make him any lesser? Why do we automatically assume that people who have chosen differently than us are ignorant?

Hi.


The title of his video is "Sonic bliss". I can safely assume that there was a search for good sound.. He then (thus?) went through a laundry list of HEA cliches, starting with the streamer that copper chassis that "isolate" meanwhile running with your smartphone attached you get the bits.. perfectly... No isolation required; then he proceed to the "reference' SACD, where he extolls the specs; from there to the control amplifier/preamplifier until he goes to the bottom of the stack where he was, again, extolling the virtues of the power conditioner, can we assume from this knowledge? He is conscious of his choice but.. Let's continue: then he moves to the speaker cables and ...

I am not sure watching this and similar videos that the goal wasn't the search for better sound... He chose to follow the usual HEA path... He is educated to the extent of repeating what the HEA says and that can be proven for the most part to be wrong: Do Power conditioners work? Or speaker cables ? Or expensive streamers? or????

Another question perhaps off-topics: Are these in your opinions the right choices to achieve "Sonic bliss"?

Happy holidays!

Peace.

 

[sigbergaudio]

(..)

I am not sure watching this and similar videos that the goal wasn't the search for better sound... He chose to follow the usual HEA path... He is educated to the extent of repeating what the HEA says and that can be proven for the most part to be wrong: Do Power conditioners work? Or speaker cables ? Or expensive streamers? or????

Another question perhaps off-topics: Are these in your opinions the right choices to achieve "Sonic bliss"?

Happy holidays!

Peace.

Personally I would not purchase power conditioners, expensive speaker cables or expensive streamers, nor recommend them to others.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Just because you have the right to comment doesn't mean you should.

Especially on other peoples motives.

 

[Ken1951]

He may not want to be caught dead with something looking like Neuman or Genelec in his living room

I would be with him in this. I wouldn't want them in my room either, no matter how they sound.

 

[Multicore]

It's just sad to see every person, who's finally in a position to put together their dream setup, being lured into spending a truckload of cash on snake-oil under the guise of "quality".

Do we know that this is what happened in his case?

 

[Killingbeans]

Yes? I don't see any other reason to spend $2500 on each power cable. Can't happen without a huge incitament to disregard basic logic.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Yes? I don't see any other reason to spend $2500 on each power cable. Can't happen without a huge incitament to disregard basic logic.

There are so many things that we just don't know. But it isn't too far stretched to imagine he got an "all in one" offer where the cables were included and there was made a "total discount" on the lot.

 

[Killingbeans]

I guess. But in the video he doesn't say "I got it for free, so why the hell not?". Instead he talks about "having done a lot of A/B'ing".

 

[Natal]

His $200,000 system is probably financial peanuts to him. He's fulfilling an audio desire and I wish I could but unable owing to financial constraints and spouse. I'd say he's a lucky guy and appears to be enjoying life.

 

[SCollie]

The man has spent a lot of coin and is proud of his system but all those blue meters would tip me over the edge. McIntosh is the Master of Marketing.
$40,000 for B&W 801 when you could have a full-range pair of Sound Lab ESL’s and have some change to spare.