Feeling bad about spending too much on audio

[MRC01]

There's a lot of BS in high end audio, but it's not necessarily all BS. There is pure BS, and there's over-engineering gear that makes it measure or perform better even though the improvements might not be audible. I see these as 2 different things and don't mind paying for the latter, to a reasonable extent.

For example, fully balanced operation, fine grained stepped attenuator volume controls, symmetric class A operation, using AD797s instead of NE5532s, super clean overbuilt power supplies with more than adequate ventilation, running dual DAC chips each in mono mode instead of a single in stereo mode, high quality pro quality robust connectors. These are all engineering changes that make it more expensive with improvements that may or may not be audible, but at least they're objectively more transparent. One could say that it was engineered to a higher standard, which is entirely different from snake oil.

 

[pozz]

There's a lot of BS in high end audio, but it's not necessarily all BS. There is pure BS, and there's over-engineering gear that makes it measure or perform better even though the improvements might not be audible. I see these as 2 different things and don't mind paying for the latter, to a reasonable extent.

The question is what determines reasonability, because that really varies across the many kinds of camps in audio.

I mostly started this thread to talk about the norms of knowledge and judgment in the industry, and how they end up affecting people. As in most things, that it's difficult to see a straight path from the amount you spend to the amount you receive. Some companies claim that both have infinite ceilings—which is true in in principle but is a very irresponsible way to put things, given how some people have been affected (I posted a few examples of heavy neurosis and money loss early on). There isn't much concentrated effort to help guide someone who finds themselves in the midst of all this.

The only tenable position I find myself able to take is to buy from manufacturers that go out of their way to disclose the performance of their products in detailed specs and testing.

 

[garbulky]

I need a transcript.

Youtube has transcrips. If you use a PC click on the dots next to save and then transcript. I use them a lot for tthese kinds of video reviews.

 

[garbulky]

Andrew Robinson spends his days (and many nights) as a brand manager for numerous tech and creative companies the world over. He founded the boutique, Austin-based advertising and branding firm, Robinson Creative in 2017 after spending nearly 15 years in advertising as a creative director working in Los Angeles. His passion however is music and movies, and his advertising work has taken him behind the camera as a director and director of photography for several commercial and online spots over the years.

Brand manager. Full disclosure: AR is the kind of used car salesman huckster that probably cannot do honest full disclosure to his own self. Until he knows how he can spin it or it can be spun he doesn't know what he thinks.

Though I don't know Andrew personally he was invovled with Emotiva and would talk to us forum users. Having followed his channel and comments, here's some of my takeaways.

1. He is surprisingly honest and sincere. He's never comme off as someone who has an agenda to the detriment of the truth. .Never would I think of him as being a liar.

2. He has different views than most reviewers out there. He doesn't seem like he is trying to fulfill the status quo. Sometimes I think it may be in his interest to be "flashier" and use a few more showmanship tactics. But I don't think that's really him.

3. He's also subjective. He is interested in what clicks for him. I'm not sure if the audio quality is also everything to him. He clearly wants some of it. But I think he is also very interested in the vibe , the look, the lifestyle element - the visual aesthetic, the "idea". As he mentions in his video it's about "am I enjoying the experience. Does it enrich my life?" He's not kidding! He likes stuff from cheap Crown amps to pretty expensive B&O gear. It's what clicks for him.

I think he is giving his genuine thoughts. He's always came across as a good guy, never a d**k.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Not far off the mark. Andrew Scheps has mastered some material on built-in laptop speakers. We're talking famous names.

It sounds like it too. Adele 21 for which he won the Grammy, has a DR7. Some tracks are only DR5. Parts of it are unlistenable purely due to the extreme compression. Someone with a beautiful voice like Adele and he decides to obscure it by compressing everything including that voice into near unrecognizable form. In fact I would think he could have, and maybe would have mastered it without using any speakers. Saved his hearing a bit that way. It is depressing that he won an award for this, and that the album was biggest selling of that year. If I were on a jury, in a case where he was sued for his work I would award the highest possible amount for damage he had done.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Though I don't know Andrew personally he was invovled with Emotiva and would talk to us forum users. Having followed his channel and comments, here's some of my takeaways.

1. He is surprisingly honest and sincere. He's never comme off as someone who has an agenda to the detriment of the truth. .Never would I think of him as being a liar.

2. He has different views than most reviewers out there. He doesn't seem like he is trying to fulfill the status quo. Sometimes I think it may be in his interest to be "flashier" and use a few more showmanship tactics. But I don't think that's really him.

3. He's also subjective. He is interested in what clicks for him. I'm not sure if the audio quality is also everything to him. He clearly wants some of it. But I think he is also very interested in the vibe , the look, the lifestyle element - the visual aesthetic, the "idea". As he mentions in his video it's about "am I enjoying the experience. Does it enrich my life?" He's not kidding! He likes stuff from cheap Crown amps to pretty expensive B&O gear. It's what clicks for him.

I think he is giving his genuine thoughts. He's always came across as a good guy, never a d**k.

Just means he's a really, really good salesman.

I suggested Emotiva to people, some of their gear is good and a bargain. Others not so much. Anyone want a like new UMC 200 Emotiva Pre/pro. Just contact me. Works perfectly.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...d-measurement-of-emotiva-umc200-pre-pro.3504/

 

[RayDunzl]

Youtube has transcrips. If you use a PC click on the dots next to save and then transcript. I use them a lot for tthese kinds of video reviews.

Ugh...

Spoiler

00:00
as you all know by now especially if you
00:02
watch this show sound United will be
00:04
acquiring Onkyo Integra and pioneer and
00:07
subsequently whether it's related or
00:09
it's not related myrrh ances long time
00:13
golden ear is leaving is leaving
00:16
European operations we don't know if
00:18
it's truly because he's retiring if he
00:22
just saw this as an opportunity and
00:24
ultimately it doesn't matter because
00:25
what I wanted to address today was a
00:27
common thread that I noticed in the
00:30
comments which was that moves like this
00:33
are inherently bad and I don't think
00:37
that that's true I don't I do believe
00:40
that anytime that you are kind of impro
00:44
Qing or encroaching upon monopolies that
00:46
is inherently bad and sound United after
00:51
the acquisition of Akio Integra a
00:52
pioneer will control a majority or large
00:56
portion of the specialty AV marketplace
01:00
especially as it relates to AV receivers
01:03
and components in that kind of segment
01:05
that does not necessarily always mean a
01:08
negative outcome and the reason I say
01:12
that is because I think we need to kind
01:16
of get over something really quick and
01:18
something that I'm going to be
01:20
addressing pretty heavily on this
01:22
channel as we move forward and that is
01:25
that either you have to spend a certain
01:29
amount of money to get quality or
01:32
inexpensive equipment can't possibly be
01:35
good I think a lot of people that read
01:38
the sound United News look at well
01:41
either one of two or three things is
01:43
going to happen all of the products are
01:45
gonna become the same which is something
01:47
that I argue is likely going to happen
01:49
parody will become much more commonplace
01:52
in this type of an environment but that
01:55
doesn't mean that if you have a platform
01:58
that is good and you have a platform
02:00
that works and performs well at a price
02:02
point that more people can afford well
02:05
who cares if it is spread across
02:07
multiple brands that gives these people
02:10
access to owning said good quality
02:14
so parody isn't a bad thing it's not
02:17
necessarily a good thing it's just kind
02:19
of a thing and it's something that in
02:21
today's marketplace we just have to sort
02:23
of accept now as far as well this will
02:27
allow sound united through their brands
02:29
to dominate the market and thus either
02:32
jack up prices or decrease prices to the
02:36
point where other brands not owned by
02:39
sound united can't compete thus maybe
02:41
driving them out of business or driving
02:43
them to the point where maybe sound
02:44
United could later acquire them as well
02:47
well that's just kind of frickin
02:50
business you know and I don't love it
02:53
personally but I also don't hate it it's
02:56
just the kind of the nature of the beast
02:58
and ultimately if they fix the prices
03:01
they're not likely gonna go up because
03:03
there's only so much money people are
03:06
willing to pay for these brands and that
03:08
has been established over time if they
03:11
go down well crap I mean it means that
03:14
the Denon receiver you were able to buy
03:16
in 2018 or 2019 may cause less than
03:19
twenty twenty or twenty twenty-one in
03:21
which case good for you the consumer
03:24
right let's face it a lot of consumer
03:26
electronic purchases are emotional not
03:30
necessarily spur of the moment but they
03:32
are immediate gratification type
03:33
purchases and if you can buy an AV
03:35
receiver for $100 less than you did the
03:38
year before people are going to do that
03:40
so getting upset over oh but this could
03:45
mean this and that could be met at the
03:46
end of the day it's going to benefit you
03:50
the purchasing consumer so let's not get
03:54
too hung up there and and and start you
03:57
know citing the end of the world
03:58
scenarios the third thing is that if in
04:02
fact this means there's parity and if in
04:04
fact this means that prices go down that
04:07
ultimately means that quality also
04:09
suffers and that's really the third
04:11
topic that I want to focus today on this
04:14
is going to be a bit of a rant I suppose
04:16
because I'm so sick and tired of this
04:21
mentality that cheap products and I mean
04:25
cheap as in inexpensive
04:27
wize can't possibly be good that just it
04:32
annoys me as time progresses as
04:35
technology advances there's only one way
04:38
for prices to go and that is to get less
04:42
expensive because it becomes cheaper to
04:45
manufacture things you're talking about
04:47
quantities of scale there are so many
04:50
more factors that go into something
04:54
being able to be made inexpensively than
04:57
just oh they're you know they're making
04:59
crap hypothetically at least from my
05:03
perspective I don't know of anyone
05:05
present company included that wakes up
05:07
on a daily basis
05:09
looks themselves in the mirror and says
05:11
you know what I'm going to do today I'm
05:12
gonna make pure unadulterated
05:15
no one does that no one does that in any
05:18
company that did do that honestly
05:20
wouldn't be in business so let's just be
05:24
okay with the fact that some things are
05:27
gonna get more affordable or become less
05:32
expensive and that's okay I hear a lot
05:35
of you and I'm not disparaging you but I
05:37
hear a lot of you and you leave comments
05:40
like oh well I guess that means you know
05:42
vintage this and and and and secondhand
05:45
that and I agree I agree there are a lot
05:49
of benefits a lot of perks to buying
05:52
secondhand buying used buying vintage
05:55
equipment you know metal work might be
05:57
better tactile field you know
05:59
point-to-point wiring things of that
06:01
nature may all be very appealing and may
06:04
be something that you want and yes
06:06
things are not built that way but they
06:10
were built that way back then because
06:12
that was state-of-the-art for the time
06:14
and we have advanced so let's not let's
06:19
not mince words here there are a lot of
06:22
designers who've made products in the
06:23
70s and 80s that wish that wish they had
06:28
access to the types of technologies
06:30
platforms manufacturing capabilities
06:33
that brands have today and there are a
06:38
lot of brands today that have to make
06:40
things a certain way that wish they
06:42
could probably offer you metalwork or
06:45
chassis design and things of that nature
06:47
that they their brands may have even had
06:49
back in the day look at Akio is a
06:52
perfect example
06:53
I'm sure if Akio could they would come
06:56
out with a line of products and they've
06:58
kind of done this a little bit but they
06:59
would come out with a line of products
07:00
that speaks to that that heritage or
07:04
that that that nostalgia vibe that
07:08
everyone's kind of cashing in on and
07:09
like I said they have done this but
07:12
they've had to do it within the confines
07:14
of what people just are willing to
07:16
accept from a brand with a badge that
07:19
says Onkyo you know you you you have a
07:22
Marc Levenson product Marc Levenson
07:24
throughout the history of its life has
07:26
been expensive
07:28
people go into that product knowing I'm
07:30
going to spend money
07:32
it's like Ferrari Porsche you're just
07:35
you know you're gonna spend money yes
07:38
will a Honda Civic get you down the road
07:40
yeah absolutely well they're both cars
07:43
but there's just certain brands where
07:46
people accept the luxury the luxury tax
07:49
if you will and other brands like Onkyo
07:52
that that you simply will not or you
07:55
won't to that extent we have to move
07:59
past this argument where things were
08:01
just better then and they're crap now
08:03
and if you buy it at a Best Buy it's
08:05
crap
08:06
but but but because we have to kind of
08:09
remember where we all came from and we
08:12
also have to remember what's important
08:15
in what we're trying to accomplish here
08:17
a lot of you behind the scenes have
08:20
leveled with me and you're in your your
08:22
legit looking for solutions that are in
08:25
an affordable price point and I got to
08:28
tell you so am I so am I because I will
08:33
come out full disclosure I am a
08:37
recovering audiophile I don't consider
08:41
myself an audiophile I am a recovering
08:44
audiophile because I have spent tens
08:49
upon tens upon tens of thousands of
08:53
dollars on equipment and I'm not talking
08:56
about over the course of my career I'm
08:58
talking in one sitting I mean at one
09:02
point I had a I had a custom installed
09:04
home theater in my house that was
09:06
probably nearing a six-figure price tag
09:09
and I know that it was because I took
09:11
out a home equity line of credit to
09:13
build it and that is arguably one of the
09:18
dumbest financial decisions I have ever
09:22
made and that was a big eye opening
09:26
experience because up into that point I
09:28
had been chasing this ideal that
09:32
everything has to be dedicated
09:34
everything has to be purpose-built blah
09:36
blah blah to the point now where
09:38
I look at all of that and I go okay I
09:41
want something that enhances my life I
09:45
want something that I'm able to enjoy
09:47
that enriches me and it's not about the
09:50
specs
09:51
it's not about am i hearing the perfect
09:55
high frequency response am I getting the
09:58
absolute just textural bass it's about
10:01
on a hole from the time that I decide
10:04
I'm going to use this product from the
10:06
time that I decide I'm going to listen
10:07
to this record am i enjoying the
10:11
experience and then in in that process
10:14
is it going to be relatable to you and I
10:18
think that's where we've kind of lost
10:20
the thread is that the one thing I will
10:24
say about sound United and decisions
10:26
like this and brands like this and
10:28
business like this is the one thing that
10:32
they make the one thing sound United is
10:35
doing and doing well with the brands
10:38
they are acquiring and aligning
10:40
themselves with is they are staying
10:42
relevant to you they're making it
10:45
possible for you to move upstream
10:47
without just demolishing your bank
10:51
account and so we have to allow for the
10:56
market to do what the markets going to
10:57
do and we have to just stay focused on
10:59
what this is and what we're about and
11:02
what we're about is just enjoying
11:04
ourselves and getting the most out of
11:06
our source material and for me it's
11:09
about enjoying myself and getting the
11:11
most out of my source material without
11:12
going broke doing it and so while I will
11:16
admit that yes I can hear the difference
11:19
between a ten thousand dollar XYZ and a
11:22
ten dollar XYZ that doesn't mean that I
11:26
can justify for me personally that I can
11:29
justify the difference between ten
11:30
dollars and ten thousand dollars I can
11:33
make you aware and that is up to you but
11:37
for me personally I likely will never be
11:40
able to justify that so this is why when
11:43
I get comments from people like oh he
11:45
can't possibly know what he's talking
11:46
about look at that turntable in the
11:47
background it's only a $200 turntable
11:49
yeah it's only a $200 turn to
11:52
because I spend the bulk of my money on
11:54
records and if I buy a $5000 $10000
11:58
turntables doesn't leave a lot of money
12:00
for records in the purpose of owning a
12:02
turntable is to listen to damn records
12:04
and I can sit there and say that my
12:07
turntable at a roughly two hundred
12:09
dollars gets me ninety ninety two ninety
12:12
three percent of the way to a five
12:14
thousand dollar table and so is that
12:17
extra four thousand and change worth
12:21
that five percent a difference and for
12:23
me it's not you have to make that
12:25
decision for yourself but we have to let
12:29
go of this narrative that if something
12:30
is inexpensive or affordable it's
12:32
somehow can't possibly be good and it
12:36
goes it's not just turntables it's
12:37
everything it's absolutely everything so
12:42
that's my that's my spiel that's my rant
12:45
not so much news I guess but you know
12:48
hey just something I had to get off my
12:51
chest and share with all of you another
12:54
piece of new news I know some of you who
12:57
follow Christy or myself on social media
13:00
probably have seen some posts especially
13:03
stories where we have been asking you
13:05
questions not only about your AV budget
13:07
but what kind of streaming services
13:10
music streaming services you use and
13:13
that is for a reason because we are
13:15
going to be diving headfirst into
13:17
digital music playback and streaming
13:21
here very very soon we've been working
13:24
behind the scenes on a couple of
13:26
concepts ideas and videos and those are
13:29
coming very soon so my analog friends my
13:32
vinyl friends we got you we got you this
13:35
is the place you're gonna want to stay
13:37
tuned but for my digital a digital fam
13:40
out there that's like man I find you
13:42
entertaining I like your content I like
13:45
this I like that but boy you just aren't
13:47
talking to me stay tuned we hear you and
13:51
trust us when we say we've got a lot of
13:54
digital content digital streaming music
13:56
based content coming because full
14:00
disclosure
14:00
despite the channel and myself and
14:04
cristy being very big in the vinyl
14:06
community and love digging and and and
14:09
doing that kind of a thing the way we
14:12
discover new music and the way we become
14:14
fans of music and ultimately then decide
14:17
if we're going to become fans enough to
14:19
buy that band's records is through
14:22
digital streaming and so we're going to
14:25
talk about it you heard it here first
14:27
we're going to talk about it and that's
14:29
coming very soon so what do you think
14:32
what do you think in this episode let me
14:33
know in the comments below I really do
14:36
love the dialogue and I would really
14:38
appreciate and love to hear your
14:40
thoughts on today's noise complaints /
14:43
Andrew just went off on the world's
14:45
largest longest tangent but anyway thank
14:49
you guys all so very much for watching
14:51
let me know what you think in the
14:53
comments below and until the next news
14:56
story breaks happy listening thanks for
14:59
watching and we'll see you next time bye
English (auto-generated)

 

[AndrovichIV]

It sounds like it too. Adele 21 for which he won the Grammy, has a DR7. Some tracks are only DR5. Parts of it are unlistenable purely due to the extreme compression. Someone with a beautiful voice like Adele and he decides to obscure it by compressing everything including that voice into near unrecognizable form. In fact I would think he could have, and maybe would have mastered it without using any speakers. Saved his hearing a bit that way. It is depressing that he won an award for this, and that the album was biggest selling of that year. If I were on a jury, in a case where he was sued for his work I would award the highest possible amount for damage he had done.

Great now we know who to thank for that horrible mastering

 

[pozz]

It sounds like it too. Adele 21 for which he won the Grammy, has a DR7. Some tracks are only DR5. Parts of it are unlistenable purely due to the extreme compression. Someone with a beautiful voice like Adele and he decides to obscure it by compressing everything including that voice into near unrecognizable form. In fact I would think he could have, and maybe would have mastered it without using any speakers. Saved his hearing a bit that way. It is depressing that he won an award for this, and that the album was biggest selling of that year. If I were on a jury, in a case where he was sued for his work I would award the highest possible amount for damage he had done.

There's a few important things to consider.

• Preference for reproduced audio centers on timbral accuracy/fidelity. Francis Rumsey has done important testing on this topic in relation to spatial audio. See this lecture.
• Dynamic, frequency response and power limitations of now-ubiquitous small drivers built into laptops, cellphones and other small electronics (which scream peaky midrange). I would include into this category the drivers built into the backsides of televisions, which are again small and use nearby walls for room gain and spaciousness.

I'd say the first point is not obvious, especially for experienced or detail-oriented listeners, while the second is. With these in mind, let's say you want to bring out low-level detail in an important recording. The obvious answer is heavy compression.

Scheps has said that he understands his role as service to the listener in their specific conditions—which falls into a very narrow context. There is little regard in the end product for other listeners or speakers systems down the line. It ends up being a question of who makes up the main consumer base at the moment, and what they can buy, and what they end up buying and why, and so on.

Musically, heavy dynamic compression has a very weird effect. You hear the nuances of the vocals/instruments fading away, or sustained variations or gyrations, but without the fade. They end abruptly. That's not very obvious even on a good system for anyone who isn't familiar with the technique. I'd add that having everything at one level is somewhat psychedelic. If we equate dynamics with distance, it's equivalent to bringing the mic or ear mathematically nearer/farther to the source in lock with its level, kind of like auto-zoom. I'd say a lot of people really go for this effect. It makes even uncomplicated digital synths and percussion sound very interesting, and realigns at least one of the considerations in mixing, dynamic structure, in favor of timbre.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Scheps has said that he understands his role as service to the listener in their specific conditions—which falls into a very narrow context. There is little regard in the end product for other listeners or speakers systems down the line. It ends up being a question of who makes up the main consumer base at the moment, and what they can buy, and what they end up buying and why, and so on.

I can sympathise with this approach in theory, but at the same time, I don't think Scheps does a good job of this style of production (at least not on 21).

Compare, for example, the opening track on 21 ("Rolling in the Deep") with the opening track ("Soothing") on Laura Marling's Semper Femina (produced by Blake Mills).

In both cases, we have similar heavy compression (you describe it very well in your final para in fact). However, whereas the Laura Marling track still manages to sound quite full, rich, larger-than-life, IMHO the Adele track sounds strained, edgy, flat.

Excluding the intros, both tracks have a DR of about 8, FWIW.

 

[pozz]

I can sympathise with this approach in theory, but at the same time, I don't think Scheps does a good job of this style of production (at least not on 21).

Compare, for example, the opening track on 21 ("Rolling in the Deep") with the opening track ("Soothing") on Laura Marling's Semper Femina (produced by Blake Mills).

In both cases, we have similar heavy compression (you describe it very well in your final para in fact). However, whereas the Laura Marling track still manages to sound quite full, rich, larger-than-life, IMHO the Adele track sounds strained, edgy, flat.

Excluding the intros, both tracks have a DR of about 8, FWIW.

I know what you mean. The Marling track stands out because it's somewhat emptier, and the instruments/vocals (particularly the percussion) occupy different spectral areas. Adele's track is midrange-focused and kind of busy, with layered elements.

 

[andreasmaaan]

I know what you mean. The Marling track stands out because it's somewhat emptier, and the instruments/vocals (particularly the percussion) occupy different spectral areas. Adele's track is midrange-focused and kind of busy, with layered elements.

Yes, I should have acknowledged that production choices (quite separate from engineering decisions) play a role here. But even just focusing on the two central vocal tracks, I think there are relevant differences in the quality of the two mixes.

 

[pozz]

Yes, I should have acknowledged that production choices (quite separate from engineering decisions) play a role here. But even just focusing on the two central vocal tracks, I think there are relevant differences in the quality of the two mixes.

Yup—I was in full agreement. What I meant was that that spectral focus of Adele's track, as a mixing decision, is the main detractor. The vocal feels squeezed even when it's on its own, and fights to emerge when sounding with others. It must have taken a lot of work at the desk to balance all that.

 

[jeffbook]

I've been involved with trying to achieve good musical reproduction in my home as a hobby for 46 years. I wandered between a variety of systems and products until 2002. That was when I met Siegfried Linkwitz at his Corte Madera, CA home and listened to his Orion design. I had discovered his website several months before my visit and was intrigued by his no BS technical approach to music reproduction in the home.

As as result of my visit, I built the Orions and updated them as Siegfried discovered improvements. The last time I had the opportunity to meet with Linkwitz at RMAF 2015, he demonstrated his incredibly inexpensive LXmini system, which performs better in smaller rooms than his Orions, and nearly match the LX521's in sonic performance. I solved the main LXmini design shortcoming of insufficient bass in the lowest octave by integrating the dual dipole woofers from the Orion with the LXmini.

All of this has flown in the face of the audio industry establishment design of using passive crossovers inside of sealed or ported box speakers that are driven by ever more expensive two channel amps with high priced front end equipment fed by the inevitable distorting and grossly expensive vinyl playback systems.

This year, I have discovered ASR. Amir, along with Archimago, by their objective measurements of both higher priced equipment along with lower cost equipment, have opened my eyes about ways to improve the line level performance of my system at a relatively low cost.

In my opinion, Fremer and his ilk are basically legalized con men leading the blindly obedient to an alleged promised land at exorbitant cost. Linkwitz opened my eyes to a way to achieve excellent music reproduction in my home at a very reasonable cost. He did this by deviating from the establishment's way of thinking and used sound engineering analysis that has led to improved audio performance in the home environment. Siegfried freely shared his information with anyone who took the time to reads his website. ASR is doing the same.

 

[fulffy512]

Going by the transcript, I no idea what worse than he wilfully ignored allot of fantastic stuff in mid tier priced area or that it took him this long to catch that he just wasted money?.

Sounds like the subjectivist audiophiles i see allot who get very upset at trying a ER4 or a HD600 and realising how little gap is between totl gear.

 

[jsrtheta]

I've been involved with trying to achieve good musical reproduction in my home as a hobby for 46 years. I wandered between a variety of systems and products until 2002. That was when I met Siegfried Linkwitz at his Corte Madera, CA home and listened to his Orion design. I had discovered his website several months before my visit and was intrigued by his no BS technical approach to music reproduction in the home.

As as result of my visit, I built the Orions and updated them as Siegfried discovered improvements. The last time I had the opportunity to meet with Linkwitz at RMAF 2015, he demonstrated his incredibly inexpensive LXmini system, which performs better in smaller rooms than his Orions, and nearly match the LX521's in sonic performance. I solved the main LXmini design shortcoming of insufficient bass in the lowest octave by integrating the dual dipole woofers from the Orion with the LXmini.

Peter Aczel had a lot to say about Linkwitz: http://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/audio_critic_web1.htm

 

[yodog]

Intense thread.... going to have a cigarette now.... and I quit smoking a year ago.

 

[raif71]

Intense thread.... going to have a cigarette now.... and I quit smoking a year ago.

Very intense and interesting thread. My current AVR setup will go into upgrade exercise if I upgrade the TV to 4K. The receiver will definitely need an upgrade to get 4K/HDR support. Perhaps then slowly the media player and bluray player will get replaced. Currently I don't see a need for a change but my TV is already 7 years now and when I switch off the set, sometimes I see white bands appearing across the screen.