Share your system. And HELLO!

[Eidie]

I know there is an hello thread. Haven’t been able to find it. Am happy to be directed.

Hello! I’ve been lurking for months. Signed up a few weeks ago. After years of tolerating “sound” from my system I’ve recently rejoined the fray. Worth mentioning that I’m in rural Tasmania. Availability of product is poor...

Pursuing “neutrality” I have a new system:

RME-ADI DAC 2
March Audio P451 x 2
Speakers gets complicated...

I tried Theophany Psuche bookshelf. Great imaging, lovely mids and highs. Couldn’t handle the bass.
Back to Krix KDX. They handle the bass, but not deep. Everything bleeds into one bass note.
Awaiting delivery of Acoustic Energy AE520s. Fingers crossed

I remain on a journey...

Audirvana sounded great. UI not so much. Subscription model definitely not so much.
JRiver sounds great. UI terrible.
Ammara Luxe unstable.
Roon...Too costly.
Music Bee works, but....

Glad to meet you all! And yes, there are female audiophiles!

 

[AnalogSteph]

Welcome!

And yes, there are female audiophiles!

Shock, horror!

Bass problems? Sounds like a UMIK-1 (or equivalent), REW and Equalizer APO plus PEACE should be next on the shopping list. (As you're mentioning JRMC, I guess you're on Windows.)
I am not familiar with any of these speakers, but the product description for the Psuche bookshelf says

A surprisingly large cabinet allows them to extend very low and sound like a floor standing speaker. With Bass that goes as low as 31Hz and highs that extend through to 30k with the use of our lovely german silk tweeter these speakers are engaging and exciting to listen to.

With speakers going down this low, you're probably hitting some major room modes along the way. (Not like a bookshelf going down this low is a very good idea in many setups... level handling would be compromised. You pretty much need a Purifi level midwoofer to pull this off outside of nearfield.)

I'm one of those swearing by Foobar2000, the "Swiss Army Knife of Windows audio players". There's definitely a learning curve associated with it, and getting it set up exactly like you want it can take years, but when installing it in portable mode you can just copy the application directory and easily take the complete configuration and playlists with you this way. There is little in the way of commercial streaming integration (though there is a YouTube plugin available if you need that, and it will play internet radio streams and the like), but for a local collection it's hard to beat. I'm a streaming pleb who's just using the Amazon Music app when needed... System-wide EQ is taken care of by Equalizer APO, and I'm not bothering with anything more than the now-standard WASAPI shared mode output in Foobar since I have some crappy old soundcard drivers to contend with that work best this way.

A similar approach is taken by multi-platform open source player Quod Libet. I imagine it would have more CPU overhead than the very heavily optimized Foobar2000 though (which can pull off 1-2% playback load including resampling by the SoX resampler plugin available on a Core 2 Duo).

 

[Eidie]

Why thank you AnalogSteph!

Whilst the Psuche were in many ways lovely speakers (I really liked the elegant, rather than brute force, solution to cabinet resonance) what I think was happening was the crossover attenuation slope was too shallow below 30Hz. I listen to a lot of very bass heavy electronica (lots of energy below 30Hz) which, even at moderate volumes, was causing the mid/woofer to break up. It’s a theory and I’d be delighted to be corrected!

A calibrated mike and REW are definitely on the cards, but....the UMIK-1 is $200AU ($150US) in Australia! I’ve been trying to find a second hand one, as yet no joy.

Foobar2000 is next on the list to try. Very soon. Music Bee just isn’t doing it for me.