ASR-style Setup at Audio Show

[Mart68]

These are the systems I most enjoy. There is something about getting a system together for the price of 2 tickets to a movie theater.
It's exciting to me.

Can you describe what's in this $100 system? It has my interest.

. It comprised a Pioneer CD player, Cambridge Audio P50 amplifier and some RAM 2 speakers. £100 GBP not dollars, so about $125 USD at the time.

 

[Jinjuku]

Hi

I am interested in this idea. Can we define a budget for components? Some boundaries.. Say $1000, $2000. Room volume would have to be considered. Protocols> Are the items covered or not, etc? No room treatment except for regular, can-be-purchased-at-Walmart or Home Depot drapes ..
I'll play
2 x JBL LSR308 $550.oo
2 x Dayton Audio SUB1500 $550.oo
1 x miniDSP Flex $600.oo
Raspberry Pi3 streamer $100.oo (?)
Speaker Stands $75.oo
Cables $100.00

Some knowledgeable persons to set-up the system with REW, MSO and Dirac.
Total: Less than $2000.oo, for a very good audio system that will wipe the floor with many HEA systems in the show, costing from twice to 10 times and beyond...

Peace.

This is close to my setup:

LSR308MKII
LSR310 subs X2
Pi3 running Ropiee XL
SMSL balanced DAC
JRiver doing the convolution and running back end on my server.

My cost all in is ~$1500.

 

[Digital Mastering System]

Peter Walker commissioned James Moir & Associates to run blind tests involving various luminaries from the HiFi industry, using the Quad II (2 of them bridged), the 303 and 405. Results statistically analysed showed no better than guessing as to which was which.

At the Scalford show, Pluto of this parish demonstrated how bit depth and dither could make even 12 bit audio indistinguishable from 24 bit, with the exception of noise just noticeable between tracks. Of course we were accused of cheating when the Golden Ears brigade who thought even 24/96 was barely acceptable couldn't hear the difference!
We even went down to 8 bit, although at that point, even old Cloth-Ears (me!) could hear the difference.

S.

It's true. Well dithered 12bit can sound darn good. It's technically on par with analog tape and even better re wow and flutter. It's just a wee bit noisy. I heard this demonstrated by Stan Lipshitz, or was it J. Vanderkooy?

 

[Putter]

I'd have put in empty toilet paper rolls as cable risers.

It seems like full rolls would work better both for greater sturdiness and for greater absorption of stray electromagnetic fields, oops I meant as sound absorbers.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

It seems like full rolls would work better both for greater sturdiness and for greater absorption of stray electromagnetic fields, oops I meant as sound absorbers.

But full rolls might exceed the total budget!

 

[Digital Mastering System]

Peter Walker commissioned James Moir & Associates to run blind tests involving various luminaries from the HiFi industry, using the Quad II (2 of them bridged), the 303 and 405. Results statistically analysed showed no better than guessing as to which was which.

At the Scalford show, Pluto of this parish demonstrated how bit depth and dither could make even 12 bit audio indistinguishable from 24 bit, with the exception of noise just noticeable between tracks. Of course we were accused of cheating when the Golden Ears brigade who thought even 24/96 was barely acceptable couldn't hear the difference!
We even went down to 8 bit, although at that point, even old Cloth-Ears (me!) could hear the difference.

S.

12 bit perfectly dithered 50k Samples/sec sounds better than state-of-the art analog tape IMHO. Much better (perfect) time-base and perfect frequency response. Both things are very hard to get right on analog tape. Noise is about the same. Some hiss. So what, really. Now we have dead silent 24bit digital streamed to out damn near perfect cheap Chinese DACs. Life is good.