Video Tour Of Extreme Audiophile Mansion...

[MakeMineVinyl]

Thanks. I see your point of view and I'm not surprised ;-)



I was trying...and I guess I could have made it more clear...to simply suggest a scenario in which one found himself in a situation to be able to hear those systems.
As in "The systems are right there in front of you; is it interesting enough to give it a listen? Or are you so uninterested in gear like this that you'd give such an opportunity a pass?"

I didn't want to get in to "will it insult the host" stuff or whatever, which aren't the question I was trying to get at.

Personally if I were invited to such a home knowing those systems were there, I'd jump at the chance. Just as I have many times before with other audiophile set ups.
I've never not had an interesting time, no matter how eccentric the set up.

Also: it's interesting that a common theme among audiophiles who attend audio shows is possibly being impressed by one or a few systems, but generally coming home to be all the more satisfied with their home system. It helps hearing mega buck systems that "aren't all that" to put things in perspective.

I'm afraid I'm just not that impressed with stereos - any stereos - to want to jump at the chance to hear them. I very much enjoy futzing with my own system, I enjoy designing the gear which make up the systems, and I enjoy helping other audiophiles with getting the best out of their systems, but no, I'm just not impressed enough with even the most elaborate or expensive systems to feel the need to jump to hear them. I already know what they sound like.

 

[MattHooper]

I'm afraid I'm just not that impressed with stereos - any stereos - to want to jump at the chance to hear them. I very much enjoy futzing with my own system, I enjoy designing the gear which make up the systems, and I enjoy helping other audiophiles with getting the best out of their systems, but no, I'm just not impressed enough with even the most elaborate or expensive systems to feel the need to jump to hear them. I already know what they sound like.

I can feel that way after spending days at an audio show, or if I've been on a long speaker-auditioning binge. Basically burned out from the whole thing.

But after a while I seem to enjoy it again. (I'm in a bit of a burnt-out phase at the moment, actually, having done lots of comparisons in my home and now sick of it).

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I can feel that way after spending days at an audio show, or if I've been on a long speaker-auditioning binge. Basically burned out from the whole thing.

But after a while I seem to enjoy it again. (I'm in a bit of a burnt-out phase at the moment, actually, having done lots of comparisons in my home and now sick of it).

I don't want to give the impression that I'm burnt out with audio, its just that in my position I've basically seen and heard it all, so there's nothing out there that impresses me except in a pejorative sense like the massive waste of money and effort as in that picture I posted from the T.H.E HiFi show. The money could have been put to much better uses if indeed audio quality was the goal rather than just bling for bling's sake. Any rich idiot can do that.

 

[Apesbrain]

Skip the 11 minutes of introduction:

 

[MaxBuck]

Ok fair enough. I understand this forum is a place where lots of people go to escape the audiophile lunacy aspects of high end audio.

I'm curious though. Does that mean if you happened to be invited to a house like that, that it would hold no appeal whatsoever to sit down and take a listen to any of the systems he has put together?

Not particularly. But I'd certainly listen to whatever he wanted me to listen to; I'm not a churl.

 

[MattHooper]

For me, it would depend on my read of his intentions of wanting me to hear the system. If he is a typical rich dude who just wants to see people ooh and aah over his 'rich tastes' - and when I was working in film in Hollyweird I was unfortunately in the presence of many such people - I would just say no and get on with whatever the business was that I was at his house for. If I sensed that he was honestly interested in audio and I could see that he put some of his own effort into assembling the system - as opposed to just throwing huge sums of money at some custom installer - then yes, I'd be more than happy to enjoy the system with him.

As an aside, I was in town visiting the my employer's facilities this weekend and spent Saturday at the LA T.H.E. HiFi show. Maybe I'm getting old and jaded from working in the audio industry but I was totally unimpressed with every system I heard, even the megabuck ones. They all sounded 'like stereos' to me - some bigger and some smaller, but all undifferentiated. I didn't get tears in my eyes, I didn't get goose bumps or any of the other things you hear the writers in Stereophile scream about. Just room after room of stereos.

So yeah, I don't think I'd be terribly impressed with that guy's system(s). I certainly wasn't impressed with the one below.

View attachment 212418

I just realized that's full of the Triangle Art turntables.

The turntable on the right, the Triangle Art Anubis, is one of the few turntables I lust over.

I just think it looks cool!

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I just realized that's full of the Triangle Art turntables.

The turntable on the right, the Triangle Art Anubis, is one of the few turntables I lust over.


View attachment 212464

I just think it looks cool!

What can I say.....

 

[MattHooper]

What can I say.....

And some people here even love the look of Genelec speakers.

Like I said..there's no accounting for taste.

 

[tomelex]

I totally get that!

So if you are trying to understand why someone may have a different experience:

I actually gave a go at weaning myself off the tube amp colorations (at least of my preamp) by buying the Benchmark LA4. Whenever I A/B'd the sound (level matched) I could hear a bit of distortion stripped away by the more accurate LA4. I lived with just the LA4 for months, really enjoying it, and then I put the tube preamp back in wondering if I'd now be sort of allergic to the distortion (like you suggest). But, no, I just found "wow, no wonder I have enjoyed this preamp in my system for so long." It just added some things I really like.

I think that one reason I don't end up with the reaction you do is that I'm not seeking "pure accuracy" per se, but something that can at least remind me of the real thing, even if imperfectly. So for instance, I just came back today from doing what I often do: listening to some live street musicians playing - stand up bass, banjo, trumpet, tenor sax. As I always do I closed my eyes to question "what are the characteristics I'm noticing most, and like most about what I'm hearing in the live music." And what always strikes me is a sense of size, density, warmth of timbre, roundness and richness, clear, yet "relaxed."

Against that criteria, I find all systems colored to one degree or another. Even the most neutral systems depart from reality in a way that I find an overall coloration, and once I've heard a system for a little while I know how it will sound with practically everything.

So then it becomes for me a "pick the coloration you can live with" and it turns out I keep tending towards a slight tube coloration. Many of those characteristics I observe in live music are precisely the aspects I find added by some tube distortion (subtly). Example: Yesterday I listened to some of my favorite old R&B recordings with the LA4 and what I hear is a very pristine signal, it sounds like a really excellent recording. But with the tube pre-amp in the chain, I can hear a little "burr" of distortion added, but it's sonic effects, to my ear, are that the horns become more solid and dense sounding, a bit more tonally forward, more filled out and round, like real objects moving air, and there is a slight exaggeration of presence giving a sense of "it's right there" clarity, yet at the same time a bit more "relaxed" and "timbrally warm" sounding. All these aspects mimic what I tend to enjoy in real instruments and voices. (And this is all a *subtle* coloration, not some hit you over the head stuff, but for me even a subtle nudge towards what I like is subjectively significant).

Anyway, I hope that helps explain an alternative perspective. Back to the Audiophile Mansion. (And, boy I'd get a kick out of hearing his stuff. It's even just interesting to me to hear what people like, and why. I have friends who do reviews, especially one good pal, and we don't always like the same gear, but it's so interesting to hear it nonetheless).

I understand how you feel about your audio. I call it MY-FI, and it means what do I like to hear.

Too many folks forget that plain old stereo is a poor attempt at bringing the original sound to your home. It is so flawed, in so many ways, and you maybe only get about 5% of the actual information that you would have heard at the original event, that well, it needs help for many. No one in their right mind would argue with someone's personal preferences.

The thing about ASR is looking for the most accurate reproduction of the signal lifted from the source, whether analog or digital, and given the amount of BS spewed out everywhere this place is the shining example of attempting to uncover all the types of distortions encountered in extracting info from the source.

Anyway, try this experiment sometime, listen to your system in mono for a week or so, then shift back to stereo and let me know how stereo sounds to you (don't worry, your ears will adapt back to the weirdness of stereo soon enough). I am not advocating that mono is the only way to go, just that plain old stereo (or mono reproduction) is so fragile and lifeless that we can not take it too serious.

You have found what you like, that is better than being on the road to audio hell in constant pursuit of trying to make a flawed concept meet expectations of reality.

I enjoyed the video, and yes I would enjoy listening to those different systems. More power to the guy for enjoying his hobby, but my wife would have me buy another house to pursue my hobby the way he does, ahaha, and she would be correct.

As far as M. Fremer is concerned, even thirty years ago he gushed over the highest distorting BUT highest priced tube amps out there, even when he had some sort of range of I assume more accurate hearing, he has tastes for lots of "gushing and meaty sound" as his preference. I would not argue though that vinyl weaknesses can make plain old stereo sound more interesting, a happy accidental mistake of the whole vinyl process.

 

[MattHooper]

Anyway, try this experiment sometime, listen to your system in mono for a week or so, then shift back to stereo and let me know how stereo sounds to you (don't worry, your ears will adapt back to the weirdness of stereo soon enough). I am not advocating that mono is the only way to go, just that plain old stereo (or mono reproduction) is so fragile and lifeless that we can not take it too serious.

I couldn't do it. Just couldn't.

At this point I've come to the conclusion that I really need soundstaging and imaging to make me want to sit down and listen to a system. Mono bores me.

That doesn't mean I need soundstaging/imaging to enjoy music. Far from it. I can enjoy music on anything, including mono recordings (I listen to quite a few). But in those cases I'm listening to it "while doing something else," e.g. in my car, my kitchen, doing something in the house (or listening via youtube videos). So I don't need stereo and imagine to enjoy music. But for me, sitting down to listen to a great stereo system is about the whole shebang - tone, dynamics and definitely soundstaging and imaging which adds to the entertainment. It's a "music PLUS" experience.

(And from this, you can infer that I don't agree about stereo being so lifeless. I don't expect it to recreate perfect reality, but it's important to me).

 

[tomelex]

I couldn't do it. Just couldn't.

At this point I've come to the conclusion that I really need soundstaging and imaging to make me want to sit down and listen to a system. Mono bores me.

That doesn't mean I need soundstaging/imaging to enjoy music. Far from it. I can enjoy music on anything, including mono recordings (I listen to quite a few). But in those cases I'm listening to it "while doing something else," e.g. in my car, my kitchen, doing something in the house (or listening via youtube videos). So I don't need stereo and imagine to enjoy music. But for me, sitting down to listen to a great stereo system is about the whole shebang - tone, dynamics and definitely soundstaging and imaging which adds to the entertainment. It's a "music PLUS" experience.

(And from this, you can infer that I don't agree about stereo being so lifeless. I don't expect it to recreate perfect reality, but it's important to me).

I hear you,

However I would suggest that those new audiophiles, do my experiment, to help understand what "stereo" is and more importantly what it is not. It will help them more than thousands of folks describing imaging and depth and width via written words. They will better understand the limitations of stereo and perhaps be better able to enjoy the music, listen through the music, as it might be. Mono for a day or two is enough to get the brain adapted and be ready for listening to stereo again, does not have to be a week.

Binaural recording (using headphones) does a much better job of bringing you TO the concert space than plain old stereo does bringing the concert TO your room. Oh my what a miss that binaural did not ever take off.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

You look at something like this or watch those house tours Enes Yilmanzer does, or watch the Yacht tours the Aquaholic does and you realize how little of value money can buy past a certain point.

 

[Axo1989]

Too many folks forget that plain old stereo is a poor attempt at bringing the original sound to your home. It is so flawed, in so many ways, and you maybe only get about 5% of the actual information that you would have heard at the original event ...

This makes sense for people who listen to recordings of live performance, perhaps. We certainly see multi-channel devotees like Messrs Rubinson and Toole himself declare congruent musical systems and tastes. But for me, not so much.

I know your 5% is rhetorical, but certainly > 95% of the music I listen to originates in a studio, assembled from close-miked vocals and instruments, synthetic sounds, samples and effects, all layered using the normal tools of production. Sometimes that is mixed to multi-channel (which we may see more of with Apple's efforts) but generally the "original event" is a composite of events assembled into a stereo mix. Which we can reproduce effectively using a stereo system, give or take the usual vicissitudes of equipment and room.

 

[egellings]

Binaural never took off because it is heard via headphones only, and not everyone enjoys wearing them. With headphones, though, it's excellent.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

Binaural never took off because it is heard via headphones only, and not everyone enjoys wearing them. With headphones, though, it's excellent.

That's changing because earbuds and AirPods also work and spatial audio exists for that market.

 

[sq225917]

Well that's ten minutes of skipping through video I'll never get back

 

[MattHooper]

Well that's ten minutes of skipping through video I'll never get back

What were you expecting? Rooms full of Genelec, Revel, Kef and JBL speakers hooked up to Amazon Basic cables?

 

[syn08]

What were you expecting? Rooms full of Genelec, Revel, Kef and JBL speakers hooked up to Amazon Basic cables?

No, but something that makes sense, other than the obvious "because I can".

Other than being rather cheap, what are the issues with AmazonBasics cables that makes you despise and belittle them?

https://www.amazon.ca/AmazonBasics-14-Gauge-Speaker-Wire-Oxygen/dp/B0758CSSDN/ref=sr_1_15?crid=2XGS1ZIFWU4CL&keywords=AmazonBasics%2Bcable&qid=1655329926&sprefix=amazon%2Bbasics%2Bcable%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-15&th=1

Sounds like "audio racism" to me.

 

[MattHooper]

No, but something that makes sense, other than the obvious "because I can".

That would probably have been an unrealistic expectation given what "makes sense" to many ASR members is very unlikely to be found in such a video. That's why it's posted for fun.

Nothing wrong with voicing negative opinions about the gear, though.

Other than being rather cheap, what are the issues with AmazonBasics cables that makes you despise and belittle them?

It was a joke. The point was of course that you could bet the farm you'd be seeing some insane cable stuff in such a video, not something most people here recognize as sensible.

My gazillion posts about audio skepticism, especially the audiophile cable racket, attest to my view. E.g.

Message to golden-eared audiophiles posting at ASR for the first time...

On the other hand, the Totaldac-d1-six goes for a little less than $14,000, performs only slightly better than the Dragonfly and much, much worse than the Topping E30. Just to confirm, you recommend the Totaldac-d1-six over the Dragonfly.

www.audiosciencereview.com

Amir's reviews are hopefully enlightening many people about the bogus claims made in the audiophile cable world.

Personally I use good ol' Belden cable for the most part for my 2 channel and home theater speaker runs, and a mish-mash of old stuff I've had for decades for interconnects.

Sounds like "audio racism" to me.

Whoa.

The ways people are finding to work in the word"racism" these days is...really something.

I think it's better to dial down such rhetoric, rather than ratchet up the moralizing tone in these conversations, don't you?

 

[syn08]

The ways people are finding to work in the word"racism" these days is...really something.

You misunderstood, I guess: discriminating and despising cables based only on the AmazonBasics brand (or any other in the same price range) is "audio racism" in my book.

What were you expecting? Rooms full of Genelec, Revel, Kef and JBL speakers hooked up to Amazon Basic cables?

Call me dense, but I find hard to identify what you call "jokes", starting from the OP in this thread. You now claim you posted in jest, but then you are spending tons of electrons defending the perpetrator(s).