Does Your System "Wow" or "Amaze" You? Looking to upgrade? Tell Us About It....

[MattHooper]

I moved my speakers about 20 years ago, and was amazed as the sound was sounding like it was coming from a meter beind the wall.
The Mrs said, “They look ugly there, plus they do not even sound right… I cannot hear the speakers themselves, and it just sounds like the music coming form outside the house.”

Oh man that had me laughing out loud (as did the rest of the dialogue).

 

[Tassin]

Very simple setup here:

Lyngdorf TDAI-1120
Acoustic Research 312 HO

The AR 312 HO are 25+ years old now, but I am very reluctant to replace them (though it would please my wife are they are quite 'present' in the room). I'm still amazed by how weighty bass is even at low volumes and how warm male voices sound. Soft top-end, no risk for fatigue. Very sensitive as well (± 94 dB).

Would like to add one or two subs. The ARs go deep and can play very loud, but fast high quality subs would be better.

 

[thegeton]

I've been working toward this system for what seems like forever. I've swapped components/speakers in and out but feel I'm very close to done. I'm an engineer and project manager so everything needs to fit a tight budget yet perform very well, both on paper and in person. I've only purchased a few items new; most are used or open box deals.

On the Analog side: a U-Turn Orbit Theory + Ortofon 2m Bronze + Schiit Mani 2, on the Digital side: a Bluesound Node 2i + Audiolab 6000CDT => Schiit Modius E => Schiit Freya S => Buckeye Purifi 1ET400A => KEF R3 Meta + SVS SB-1000 Pro.

Ultimately, I'm looking to add room correction, most probably a miniDSP solution + REW.

I love this setup. It sounds absolutely amazing and even the wife is impressed, which is normally very hard to do. Typically, the only thing that impresses her regarding my hobby is the cost. Which is kind of funny given her quilting gear is just as expensive.

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Dirac Live DDRC24
Chromecast Audio
Spotify
Yamaha P7000s amp
Infinity Kappa 8.2ii

The sheer wall or sound scares me when I turn up the volume. The chest bumping bass is intoxicating and the precision from the Emits are to die for.

I can get both scared and emotional from listening to this rather simple but immensely powerful system. Haven't touched on the dynamic limit on either speaker or amplifier power yet. -Can't imagine I will. I won't ever be replacing anything at this point unless something dies. (Or I stumble over some Kappa 9.2i's)

 

[MarkS]

I have the same type of criteria, that "transported to the concert hall" on occasion. It certainly takes the listener's imagination meeting the illusion part way, but
it's great when it happens.

A friend once said to me (in a completely different context), "You have a low threshold of happiness."

And it's true! I do have a low threshold of happiness! So I have no problem "meeting the iliusion part way"; the illusion just comes to me all on its own.

Now, if I could instantly transport myself back and forth between my living room and the concert hall, I'm sure I would hear huge differenes. And then I would think, "OK, I guess my system is not all that realistic after all ... "

But luckily I can't do that! So I remain happy!

But I do also often think that maybe I should get "better" ASR-approved™ speakers. (I bought the Goldenears before discovering ASR.)

But that would require a lot of time and effort, time that is IMO better spent just listening to and enjoying music.

More generally, I feel that it's an absolute and amazing blessing that anything that even remotely resembles the sound of live music can be produced in our homes.

 

[MattHooper]

Thanks everyone. I'm really enjoying the insight in to your systems. It's been fun googling some of the equipment listed too.

 

[MattHooper]

I've been doing the audio hobby for 60 years now with occasionally high material turnover and have a corresponding wealth of experience, which I've also shared with other audio friends at meetings and invitations.

High-end can no longer inspire me at all today. I look at things rather soberly at the moment, and also no longer consider it necessary to spend a lot of money on hi-fi audio. The only extravagance are my self-built tube amplifiers, which reflect my latest design ideas.

Wow and amazement? It's basically all about the music - and that everything works well.

(bolding mine)

Just so I understand: When you say it's basically all about the music, do you mean you don't really care about sound quality anymore?

(Because plenty of people love music, but audiophiles are usually distinguished as not only loving music, but having a particular enthusiasm for sound quality).

 

[Mart68]

. It's been fun googling some of the equipment listed too.

Yeah I've been doing that.

Seems to be a lot of well thought out systems so far.

 

[MattHooper]

A friend once said to me (in a completely different context), "You have a low threshold of happiness."

An audio reviewer friend says one of the reasons he can do his job is that he isn't as picky as I am. He can listen to a wide range of systems and still enjoy it, while I love
listening to different systems out of sheer fascination, but the number of speakers/systems I could actually live with (that would make me want to sit my butt in a chair and only concentrate on the music/sound) are vanishingly small.

On the other hand...

And it's true! I do have a low threshold of happiness! So I have no problem "meeting the iliusion part way"; the illusion just comes to me all on its own.

I hear you. In that sense I'm the same - I pay very close attention to the real life sound as one benchmark of sound quality, and that's one criteria against which I judge sound systems, but once I've gone as far as I can, always to fall short, I let my imagination take me the rest of the way.

More generally, I feel that it's an absolute and amazing blessing that anything that even remotely resembles the sound of live music can be produced in our homes.

Totally!

I have a different approach...perhaps a bit more old school...than most on the forum. I take most here to be looking at achieving good sound through technical accuracy, the goal being to know they are reproducing the source with technical accuracy (or, at least using certain specs as a guide to their goal). And if that's the case...job done.

Whereas I am trying to achieve a certain sound, one in my mind's eye, that both pleases me and reminds me of the real thing. That's why I fiddle with speaker set up, adjusting room acoustics (and also to my mind, I like the effect of my tube amps in helping me to my goal) etc. What I try and achieve is a gestalt of what I hear from live sound sources - a richness, a sense of body, an unforced, un-hyped natural clarity and detail, and a spatial quality where the images are easily located but have the sense of existing in "free space." I find in most systems, the imaging and recorded (or added) acoustic tends to have a similarly hardened, artificial tightness and reductive quality. Both the acoustics or reverb and the recorded object sound hardened, the recorded acoustic being tightly constrained within the soundfield, like it too is embalmed around the object.

When I hit my goal, the object sounds like it's obviously surrounded by the acoustic in the recording, but it isn't "hardened/squeezed in space" but "relaxed" - open - without obvious hard borders, giving me more the sense of "peering through a real acoustic space, listening to the object."

My wife had some guests over yesterday and as they were chatting on the other side of the room I closed my eyes and listened (as I often do). It had exactly the qualities I am looking for and it hit me again "That's it! THAT is what I'm hearing from my system - that same open, relaxed "happening in real space" quality, and the same sense of "happening right there" tonal quality.

Sometimes I wonder if this is utterly subjective and idiosyncratic - that only I would think it sounds the way it does. But when I play the system for guests they have the same reaction I do. My audio reviewer friend, who regularly reviews super pricey gear (he's listening to $65,000 Estelons at the moment) listened to my system recently and had an involuntary look of shock, shaking his head and said "How did you do this???" So I guess it isn't just me

 

[Holmz]

Oh man that had me laughing out loud (as did the rest of the dialogue).

But it is totally true.

IMO it doen’t really matter what the components are, other than that they need to make the speakers disappear.

And sometimes… like almost always… where the system sounds like it disappears, is not the WAF friendly place.

 

[Steve Dallas]

My systems are much more modest than many posted on this site. But both of them wow me.

The first time I was wowed by audio was when I visited my best friend's house in the 6th or 8th grade. His parents were wealthy and had one of the first CD player models. I believe his father had a Yamaha integrated amp and JBL L100s to go with it. Coming from 8 track, cassette, and LP on a cheap Realistic (Radio Shack) receiver that my family had, I could not believe what I was hearing. The clarity was mesmerizing. I would make excuses to visit him, and sometimes they would have to throw me out so they could have dinner. I remember once CD I would load was something by David Sanborn. And, I didn't even like jazz yet back then. I was a metal head.

Anyway, here are my systems, and yes, they sound amazing to me in different ways.


Home theater and listening room:

Home office:

 

[Bugal1998]

System is:

Blusound Node II>JBL SDP-75>Various Crown I-tech amps>JBL M2 L/R, (4) Stereo Integrity IB-24s for infra sonics, (4) corner placed JBL 5628s for main sub duty.

Much of the gear purchased used, or at wholesale if new.

System located in a dedicated, sound isolated, and professionally engineered room.

How do you like your system and why?

Love it. Every recording creates a unique acoustic space or has its own character. I find the bandwidth, output, dynamics, low noise floor, tonality, refinement, scale, and envelopment captivating.

I also appreciate the ability to access bass and treble tone controls via BluOs on my phone to occassionaslly adjust the tonal balance of mediocre tracks.

Is it doing "it" for you, whatever you were seeking?

Yes. Though I'm still curious if I would prefer the Salon 2, Kef Blade, or similar speaker if they were fully optimized in my room. Would they offer more envelopment without trading off any of the other traits I currently enjoy?

Does it ever wow?

Definitely

Leaving you shaking your head with amazement at the listening experience?

More so early on, but yes, I have literally shook my head on amazement. Now it's more likely to leave visitors shaking their head in amazement.

Does it merely satisfy you?

Also yes, because having experienced what's possible, if it did anything less, I wouldn't be satisfied!

What are you getting out of your system?

Relaxation, enjoyment, pleasure, an opportunity to play with technology and optimize a system, exposure to and appreciation for a wider range of music and genres, and a means to share new sensory experiences with others. It's an amazing luxury to have access to musical art reproduced so compellingly and pleasurably in ones home.

 

[Chrispy]

That I can have very good audio reproduction in my house has always been exciting. The recordings that really bring it home the most. The gear? Meh. Especially the silly adherence to vinyl "sound" or "tube" sound or other hardware fetishes outside of transducers that seem to be so popular among "audiophiles".

 

[Mrpinortiner]

I'm wowed and amazed every time I get a session in my room. I've got no plans of upgrading anything as it currently sits, besides replacing carts as they wear. It's been a long 40+ year journey to get to the level of reproduction I currently enjoy now, and I'm happy as hell.

Gear list:

PrimaLuna Evo 300 preamplifier-Vintage Mazda CIFTES in center position

Van Alstine DVA 600 SET monoblock amplifiers-
600w @ 8 ohm

Focal Sopra N°3

REL Acoustics S3/SHO-
Stereo pair subs

Rega RP10-
with Rega Aphelion MC cart and Washi slip mat

Herron Audio VTPH-2A phono stage

Revox B77 MKII reel to reel-
Restored by "Reeltoreeltech.com" in 2022

Nakamichi ZX-7 Cassette deck-
Serviced by Willy Hermann in 2021

Rotel RCD-855 CD player-
With TDA1541 dac chip

Marantz SA8004 Sacd player

Bluesound Node 2i streamer

TeddyPardo MiniTeddy lps-
Linear power supply for Bluesound Node 2i

Rega DAC

Creek Audio T-43 Tuner

Van Alstine DVA R2X-
Single to differential converter (balanced)

Furman Elite-15 PFi-
Power conditioner

Pair of APC voltage regulating transformers for incoming power

Mogami Interconnects-
2497 from the Herron to the Primaluna preamp and out from the Primaluna to the Van Alstine converter
2964 for the remaining interconnects.
Eminence locking connectors
Mogami Gold balanced cables to the monoblocks

Canare 4S11
3 foot speaker cables

Bluejeans Cat 6 cable from gateway/router

GIK Acoustics Bass traps, gobos, clouds

Vito Acoustic Diffusion panels

Herbies audio lab Tube dampers

Isoacoustics Isopucks

Hea Chinese 10 awg power cords

Herbie's Audio Lab Fat Gliders

VPI 16.5 record cleaning machine

Home brew ultrasonic record cleaner

 

[Bleib]

With the right material. Although...most recordings are not that great.

 

[Axo1989]

System is:

... JBL M2 L/R, (4) Stereo Integrity IB-24s for infra sonics, (4) corner placed JBL 5628s for main sub duty.

Damn.

 

[jsrtheta]

Right now I have a small listening space and a small budget.

System is:

Tascam CD200, used as a transport only, for no good reason
SMSL M6 dac
Coustic HEQ7005 analog ten-band equalizer
Little Dot mk.ii headphone amp/preamp run as preamp only
Sonance S260 power amp
Monitor Audio Bronze BX6 speakers (on stands)
Dali SW8 subwoofer

This is the cheapest and, likely, oddest system I've ever had, and I love it. I have no illusions that it is neutral and it is far from an "ideal", but it still amazes me at times and surprises me often, always in a good way. After 30 years of buying, selling, and obsessing about gear, this rig is like an old friend, always welcome, never obnoxious.

 

[Dustyc]

Yes it does. No it doesn't.
All depends on the source material.
No upgrades planned.

 

[MattHooper]

That I can have very good audio reproduction in my house has always been exciting. The recordings that really bring it home the most. The gear? Meh.

Curious: You are excited by good audio reproduction, but not the gear? When you experience very good audio, how do you separate out the
gear's contribution? Isn't that the point of having good gear, and why someone would hang out in a forum devoted to gear?

One doesn't have to be a "fetishist" to appreciate the contribution of the gear to achieving good sound, right? (If so...everyone one here is a fetishist.)

 

[Chrispy]

Curious: You are excited by good audio reproduction, but not the gear? When you experience very good audio, how do you separate out the
gear's contribution? Isn't that the point of having good gear, and why someone would hang out in a forum devoted to gear?

One doesn't have to be a "fetishist" to appreciate the contribution of the gear to achieving good sound, right? (If so...everyone one here is a fetishist.)

You may put more importance into the slight differences among the hardware from what I've read. I use a variety of gear, happy with it all rather than get too nerdy with some particular combination. The ability to have good gear has been around a long time, too. I'm always interested in what's around for a variety of reasons other than some super quest for "audio quality"....personally your gear doesn't sound too interesting to me as an example. I think if you have well recorded music and have a good system to the capabilities you desire and enjoy the results there's not a lot beyond that.