DSJR
Major Contributor
Thirty years ago, I lapped all this stuff up. A colleague had got into Krell and Apogee (Duetta Signature speakers) and from there we diverged somewhat. He went onto D'Agostino and huge Martin Logan speakers when his Apogee ribbons were so loose they nearly fell out and his FPB400 went wrong (Noooooo.....) and I reached a pinnacle of larger ATC active monitors (this pair DID measure pretty well flat and were measured twice in my custodianship of them!!!) before getting married and severely downgrading.
Today, I'm becoming so damned cynical, yet still I try on other forums and Facebook groups to help people who frankly are beyond help. Nothing life threatening, but they go down their particular route and nothing will remove them from that groove. Objective proof is dismissed as irrelevant and if snake oil appeals, that's the way to go before the next big thing comes along. Apologies folks, but I can't watch these subjectivist vids for long now before I hear the bullshit starting and I start shouting at the screen!
Weights on gear? I do recall some chips being a bit microphonic (apparently). the old dirty TDA1541 dac chips I believe and I remember the first generation already sturdy Arcam JMJ CD player and amps 'liking' a decoupled-shelf rack we began to sell (a Something Solid 'XR' rack with suspended balsa shelves for our UK readers). A colleague once took his UK made CD player with slightly rattly case and bonded two 1" thick slate slabs pre-cut to size and swore he heard a sonic improvement, but we're talking thirty odd years ago now! Unless someone's done research, I'm surprised a neat little £120 dac with pretty solid metal case would respond like this and adding a massive lump like that is something only an audio masochist would do, right?
Said colleague and now old friend, waxed lyrical to me about the 'amazing value' new Transparent Audio mains cable at a mere £750 and later, the ever more expensive range of mains conditioners (I think they're beautifully dressed mains filers rather than full regenerators, but could be wrong). Apparently, you only use two of the four available sockets and have to double or triple up for a suitable expensive system (these filters cost over ten grand each I believe for the basic one). He chuckled when I mentioned my home made IEC to 13A mains cable that cost me less then a tenner in parts and the Roxburgh 6A mains filters I still use on my geriatric CD players at forty quid each (i probably don't need to here on the coast, but at a previous house, they did seem to help so bad was the mains).
Maybe I'm on the way down and out where audio gear is concerned and Darko and his followers are still climbing the greasy pole. Some audiophiles talk endlessly about resolution without the faintest idea what is actually going on in the recording or production (as mentioned in posts above). S'cuse the bleat, but I feel I'm done with 'High End' stuff that sells on looks and price with placebo high qualities..
Today, I'm becoming so damned cynical, yet still I try on other forums and Facebook groups to help people who frankly are beyond help. Nothing life threatening, but they go down their particular route and nothing will remove them from that groove. Objective proof is dismissed as irrelevant and if snake oil appeals, that's the way to go before the next big thing comes along. Apologies folks, but I can't watch these subjectivist vids for long now before I hear the bullshit starting and I start shouting at the screen!
Weights on gear? I do recall some chips being a bit microphonic (apparently). the old dirty TDA1541 dac chips I believe and I remember the first generation already sturdy Arcam JMJ CD player and amps 'liking' a decoupled-shelf rack we began to sell (a Something Solid 'XR' rack with suspended balsa shelves for our UK readers). A colleague once took his UK made CD player with slightly rattly case and bonded two 1" thick slate slabs pre-cut to size and swore he heard a sonic improvement, but we're talking thirty odd years ago now! Unless someone's done research, I'm surprised a neat little £120 dac with pretty solid metal case would respond like this and adding a massive lump like that is something only an audio masochist would do, right?
Said colleague and now old friend, waxed lyrical to me about the 'amazing value' new Transparent Audio mains cable at a mere £750 and later, the ever more expensive range of mains conditioners (I think they're beautifully dressed mains filers rather than full regenerators, but could be wrong). Apparently, you only use two of the four available sockets and have to double or triple up for a suitable expensive system (these filters cost over ten grand each I believe for the basic one). He chuckled when I mentioned my home made IEC to 13A mains cable that cost me less then a tenner in parts and the Roxburgh 6A mains filters I still use on my geriatric CD players at forty quid each (i probably don't need to here on the coast, but at a previous house, they did seem to help so bad was the mains).
Maybe I'm on the way down and out where audio gear is concerned and Darko and his followers are still climbing the greasy pole. Some audiophiles talk endlessly about resolution without the faintest idea what is actually going on in the recording or production (as mentioned in posts above). S'cuse the bleat, but I feel I'm done with 'High End' stuff that sells on looks and price with placebo high qualities..
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