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Are you satisfied with your home Audio System?

Are you satisfied with your home Audio System?


  • Total voters
    333
OP
RayDunzl

RayDunzl

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I'm a bit surprised by the poll results so far.

Maybe the dissatisfied folks are too dissatisfied to vote.

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D

Deleted member 65

Guest
In our summerhouse with spouse & cat enjoying my DIY Swans speaker after boattrip, room has incredibly good acoustics. So yes, happy with sound in summerhouse.

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Edit: Sorry, forgot to include the Cat.

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Last edited by a moderator:

westyjeff

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Monroe, WA
I am very happy with my current system, Matrix Audio Element X as my source, DBX PA2 for room correction, March Audio P701 mono block amplification, Magnepan 3.7 speakers. Now the only thing I could ask for is a larger room.
 

Sal1950

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Archsam

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Thank goodness cartridges are (relatively) cheaper than speakers.

Whenever I get a hankering for a different transducer flavor, I just switch carts.

Upgradeititus is an incurable disease, and can lead to repeated and controllable self-harm behaviour.

I am a sufferer, but fortunately I am developing immunity (more on this later). I want to share my experience on my battle against this disease. I hope it will help others to find a way to deal with this horrible condition.

At least once a week I will come down with the following symptoms:
  • Log on to ASR and read the latest reviews on gears, usually by Amir. A good example is the Revel M105 review published today (17.07.20)
  • Study the frequency response graph and see how flat it appears.
  • If said graph is flat, I will Googled said product and look for more information.
  • Click on 'shopping' tap in Google and begin looking for the best deal.
  • Log on to Ebay and repeat the last step.
  • Click 'buy' on the best deal found. This is when I developed elevated heart rates and sweaty palm.
  • Review shopping basket contents. At this stage I will usually flip between the ASR review and the shopping basket, convincing myself that 'this is going to make your system's sound elevate to the next level. Just look how flat the frequency response is, and how easy this is going to integrate into my room!
  • This cycle will sometimes last for 30 minutes.
  • Finally, I click on 'check out', and arrive at the payment page.
Fortunately this last step will almost always trigger a reflex response, and I will log on to my phone's online banking app and review my accounts. Very soon after that I will:
  • Close all the open taps on Chrome.
The cycle then repeats a few days later.
 

bobhol

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Nov 28, 2017
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Ever since I was given a pair of AR9 speakers and bought some amps to power them I've been very happy and content.
 

Soundstage

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Jan 10, 2020
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When comparing my HD650 headphones with the Kef LS5, I have noticed that the piano recordings sound wrong on the Kef. On the mid and treble sections, the piano the high keys are not correct.
Now is it the room or the speakers or the chain?
I will try DSP soon, but I am disappointed because I thought I would only need DSP for bass.
I think it could be because of the large windows in my room. But when I took frequency response with the UMIk micro, I did not see a difference with and without curtains. But maybe I need to look at multi tone indermodulation distortion test.
 

JohnBooty

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I'm a "Yes, but..."

I like my systems. Mid-fi at best by ASR standards but very enjoyable and I'm very grateful.

Lots of room for improvement. I'm at a point of diminishing returns, though.

Chasing down that last 5% or 10% of enjoyment would require probably doubling or tripling my current investments. It's not worth thousands of dollars to me at this time.

Besides, I'd... really need a bigger, better listening room which is definitely not happening without a major home renovation or a new home. I don't see that happening in the next decade or two. :)

TL;DR: Satisfied, basically.
 

Aerith Gainsborough

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The limiting factors for me are living conditions: room, size, sonic isolation (or rather lack thereof) not the electronic devices I have acquired over the years.

That being said: yes I am content. Outside of impractical subbass, when I switch between Clear and Speakers, everything is still there.
With my old system I was always a bit sad when I had to take off the cans.

Until something breaks down I don't anticipate any changes on the equipment front.
Time to dump some of the disposable cash into content to feed the technological terror I have constructed. :D
 

MattHooper

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I continue to be thrilled listening to my system. I use it every day. And it always amazes me.

With one recent exception: We have been suffering a bad heatwave which is, of course, exactly when our air conditioning decided to break down.
It was too damned hot to do anything but sit in front of a fan, and adding more heat with my tube amps turned on was a no-no. (One of the liabilities of tube amps ;-))

Air con was just fixed, time to spin some more tunes....!
 

Alexanderc

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I'm a "no but...." I could upgrade almost all my gear to improve measured performance or add functionality. The "but" is that what I have sounds reasonably good and far better than any system I've ever owned. I want to spend $8k-$9k to buy the last system I'll ever want (ok, probably not really ;)), but so far it hasn't made financial sense. Losing out on summer work due to COVID-19 hasn't helped, but I try to keep perspective and I'm in no real position to complain.
 

Sal1950

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With one recent exception: We have been suffering a bad heatwave which is, of course, exactly when our air conditioning decided to break down.
It was too damned hot to do anything but sit in front of a fan, and adding more heat with my tube amps turned on was a no-no. (One of the liabilities of tube amps ;-))
Been there, I loved my VTL monoblocks, except on the hottest summer days. After a couple hours they could turn my room into a oven, AC or no AC.
When I moved to FL I knew they'd be a no no and sold them. :(

My current multich rig with 5 Adcom stereo amps isn't much better. LOL
 

Koeitje

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Went for "Yes, but...", because I'm pretty happy right now but still want to sort out the low end a bit better with an extra sub + Anti-mode. But that's more the cherry on top :D
 

tuga

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...I need a bigger room, would then buy bigger 3-way speakers and perhaps a better amplifier.

What's wrong with the speakers?
Off-axis flare produces bump at around 4kHz, port tuned too high at 40Hz. Would buy ≥3-way, preferably sealed.

What's wrong with the DAC?
Not as good as the best measuring competitors.
 

Feanor

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Yes, but ... Actually two 'yes buts'.

First, my system is good enough to say that crappy recordings are my biggest problem. As a Classical music listener, I'm fed up with a few things:
  • Lack of resolution
  • Lack of "air", let's say lack of instrument separation and anything resembling a rendition of real space
  • Poor rendition of, especially, orchestral violins and large-choir voices
  • Close-in perspective or as in chamber music, in the midst of the ensemble vs. a fourth row audience seat.
Secondly, I'm still interesting in exploring new or less familiar technologies that might have advantages, e.g.
  • Class D amps that don't need extended warm-up periods to sound their best
  • Tube or other equipment the colors the sound, (deliberately or otherwise), such as tube equipment, in a way that may compensate particularly for deficiencies in recording quality.
 

FrantzM

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Hi

I am with my HT, that consists of 3 JBL LSR 308, 2 LSR 305, 2 Bose 161 (Atmos ceiling speakers) and 3 Parts Express 15" Powered subwoofers, those Ray Dunzl call "cheese-woofers_:).. Denon AVR-X3400H .. and a Front PJ. This system took longer than I expected to get to the point I wanted but it is most satisfying... I am, pleased. For movies, it is better than I expected. It does the "pressurization" trick with regularity... Your ears feel a wave pressure of low bass and your body register it , strongly, yet everything else remains under control, clear dialogues, great effects... All that for the price of a middle-line Audioquest pair of Interconnects... :D Very, very satisfied... for movies

For music on this system, not so much. There is a general rawness to its sound that bothers me. I am constantly reminded of it when I switch to headphones (Hifiman HE-6, 560, Stax 007) ... Something seems to be missing, or added.. Imaging is not that good either... maybe it is the room, maybe it's in my head ...
I plan to move to a different system for music and soon ;). The HT system remains
 

Zedly

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I am happy with my system, even though I know it is suboptimal in many ways. I mostly use it for movies (70%), but also listen to music on it via Spotify at 320kbps. Since I have a 5.2.4 Atmos setup, my budget had to stretch to include all 9 speakers plus subs. Klipsch ended up being in the sweet spot for price/performance. My room is far from optimal, so I'm not sure whether the benefit I'd get from better speakers would justify the much greater cost. Also, my ears are not as trained, so I'm afraid some of the nuances higher-end speakers bring out would be noticeable to me. Probably the best thing I can do is work on better EQ, but nevertheless, I am pleased with the sound and can enjoy it even with its limitations.
 

Sal1950

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I'm very surprised by the high number of Yes votes.
I think many may be fibbing a little bit.
I've never met an audiophile that was completely satisfied and not dreaming of some upgrade. :D
 

Dimifoot

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No plans for upgrades, I am totally satisfied with the sound.
The projector will be replaced by a 92+ tv hopefully next year, if and when they get widely available. I hate it’s fans.
 

Hipper

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Yes, but...

Yes

In 2003 at the age of 50 I first got access to the internet. Until then I'd bought equipment with a modest budget based on magazine reviews and what was available locally, usually upgrading every ten years or so. The internet opened up a wider world of equipment availability and advice. I learned particularly that changing speaker positions can alter the sound so I experimented. This lead to dissatisfaction with the sound I was getting from speakers and a desire to do better with them. At first though it caused me reject speakers for headphone listening (I'd always liked that anyway and tried to buy good headphones).

In 2004 I came into some money and at first decided to invest in a good headphone set up. After a while though I wanted to explore speakers again so I set up what I had in a dedicated room and with careful placement (using test tones and my ears) thought I'd done OK. However I wanted better speakers and amp. I found a local dealer I got on with and went round his house to listen. I selected two speakers to try and he brought them round but we couldn't get them to sound decent at all. He suggested room treatment may help. I investigated this and bought some foam products, and also discovered digital equalisers, specifically the Behringer DEQ2496. With all this I was able to improve things.

Over the next ten years I've learned a lot more, from the internet and books like Floyd Toole's 'Sound Reproduction'. Now I reject the foam room treatment and use absorbers from GIK, mostly bass traps, and I use REW to measure everything. Except for the amp (I got a class D one a couple of years ago) I still use the same gear including the Behringer. My set up and measurements have remained the same now for three years.

..but...

Unless anything breaks there are no immediate plans to do anymore except listen.

However, above 180Hz on the frequency response graph there are still anomalies which I could adjust via the Behringer's GEQ. It's just that I like the sound as it is so don't yet feel the need to do anything about this. Also I've often thought I'd like to check out electrostatic speakers........
 
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