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Welcome New Members to ASR, introduce yourself here.

sushi2020

Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2021
Messages
62
Likes
70
Location
Japan
Hi,

I came here last year looking for information on better DAC/headphone amp.
After learning here, I purchased Topping E30 and L30. I'm very satisfied with them.

Now I'm a little disappointed that there are so many subjectivists in my country.
So, I'm vaguely thinking of introducing ASR to Japanese people on my blog.

I will continue to learn from you. Thanks!
 

zoran-grbic

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
25
Likes
21
Location
Belgium
Hi All,

have been lurking for some time here without presenting myself. I'm sorry for that. Probably because I almost lost my appetite for good sound while navigating the audiophile jungle. I was amazed about how colonizing die-hard audiophiles were in their approach: There is only one truth and a different opinion is nipped in the bud. It was the latent, verbal violence that shocked me most.

I wanted to take my time and make sure Audio Science Review wasn't yet another source of exquisite snakeoil. What a relief that it is exactly the opposite! In a very short period of time it helped me "find my sound". Not an easy endeavor since my reference was stuck in the late 70's and early 80's.

My father was a jazz musician and had what to me was probably the best sounding equipment I ever heard and probably would ever hear: Sansui AU-919, a TU-919, Revox A77 and the Acoustic Research AR-90.

I don't know what happened, but my focus changed, I got busy with other things, started working as a war-photographer and one day my father passed away. My stepmother eventually either gave it away to friends or sold it (don't really remember) and what looks like centuries later I just have my eyes to cry with (=a popular, Dutch saying).

I still have that faint memory of the amp making noise while it pumped itself full of electricity and a dry, mechanical click to announce it was ready to party. And those AR's! My God, what a sweet, full sound they had. And those low's!! For a kid, it was like it came from the center of the Earth.

So, I guess at 56 I decided to go look for that same feeling I had when I was a kid and listened to countless Count Basie vinyl records with my father.

Thank you all for having this peaceful audio haven in the midst of the jungle.
 

001

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Joined
Oct 21, 2020
Messages
538
Likes
947
I wonder how many of us have our parents to thank for our interests in music/making music. I remember mine fondly.
Hi All,

...........My father was a jazz musician and had what to me was probably the best sounding equipment I ever heard and probably would ever hear: Sansui AU-919, a TU-919, Revox A77 and the Acoustic Research AR-90.........
 

eric-c

Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Messages
58
Likes
60
Location
Toronto, Canada
Been lurking on this forum for the past year. Kind of getting back into audio forums. I was addicted to AVS from 2001 to 2011 spending hours a day on it <got married, had a kid> then got back to forums in 2019 as I finally rebuilt my theatre in the new house. Been super impressed with the level of technical and engineering expertise from the members on this forum. Also refreshing to see the majority of the post relating to the science and measurements vs "whats the best $300 speaker". Not knocking those type of "best" threads, just saying the posts on ASR are much more focused with a different audience.

Learned a tremendous amount in a short time. Been a lifelong "audiophile" and where possible bought what I thought was well engineered, simple to use and domestic products like Bryston, Magnum Dynalab, Oracle. Amir may see an odd donation amount in $USD since I made the donation in $CDN eh!
 

gsp1971

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
May 26, 2021
Messages
471
Likes
821
Location
Europe
Hi from Athens, Greece as well.

I have also been following this forum for a couple of months but never took the time to introduce myself.

I enjoy music and I have decided to join ASR (the only forum I have ever joined) for three reasons: (a) because I believe that music is art but audio is science, (b) because I am a banking analyst and my job is to prove my point with analysis and numbers (so ASR fits my mindset perfectly) , and (c) because in this forum there are quite a few knowledgeable people who are willing to discuss, argue, provide advice, etc. without ever bragging that they know everything or that their audio system is the best. Well done guys.

After enjoying my B&W MT-25 home cinema system for about 15 years, I have decided to switch to 2 channels for good and I am in the process of assembling a 2.1 system. I will keep the Oppo BDP-105D and the sub from my home cinema system and soon (funds permitting) I will be adding a pair of speakers and an amp (waiting for a Hupex or Purifi integrated).

Since this is likely to be my last upgrade, it took me a little longer to do my research and thank God for that because I stumbled onto ASR! I have learnt so much in such short time through ASR and the associated material I have discovered about Harman research and a lot lot more.

I can now confidently throw away all the silly paper / internet product reviews I had collected because they are absolutely useless.

Thanks to you @amirm for your great work and to everyone involved here for their knowledgeable contributions.
 
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Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
31
Likes
10
Location
Ireland
Hi all, from Ireland.

I've been heavily using headphones listening to music on my computer.
Now it's time I upgrade to a DAC, Headphone AMP, Headphones, and then further down the line to Turntable and Phono stage.
A lot planned to improve my music experience.

Thanks.
 

gsp1971

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
May 26, 2021
Messages
471
Likes
821
Location
Europe
I wonder how many of us have our parents to thank for our interests in music/making music. I remember mine fondly.
Count me in that group.
Saturday night was the night when we gathered around the living room Hi-Fi (an old B&O with active speakers) to listen to music from the turntable and chill out.
 
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D

Deleted member 32819

Guest
Hi

I suspect I'm not the only one who skims over graphs etc. to get to the conclusions, but this place really is a breath of fresh air. It stuns me the extent to which the 'audiophile community' enthusiastically wolfs down the snake oil administered to them, and it's great to see a whole site devoted to, essentially, the science of it.

I've had a couple of different amps delivered this week, the Aiyima A07 and the Loxjie A30, both on the back of this site's reviews, and both of which have really delighted me. I just hope I can stop there..

Thanks!
 

kaizer.espada

New Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2021
Messages
3
Likes
4
Hello all,

I'm new here... I love music and am fascinated in audio gears such as headphones, IEMs and speakers.

I have been reading quite a number of reviews from here in the last couple of weeks. As noted by several posters before me, the objectivity in all of the reviews is refreshing. I learned so much, please keep doing what you guys do best!

Jay
 

Toto77

Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2021
Messages
6
Likes
10
Location
USA
Hello : ) ,

After a few months of lurking, I'm excited to join the forum and start participating. I really appreciate what Amir does for all of us consumers as historically, hifi has been overly subjective and I found a lot mainstream writing too vague.

I am planning on my first big speaker purchase (based on an ASR review) in the coming weeks and can't wait. Thanks to everyone here at ASR!
 

GD Fan

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
932
Likes
1,699
Location
NY, NY USA
Hello : ) ,

After a few months of lurking, I'm excited to join the forum and start participating. I really appreciate what Amir does for all of us consumers as historically, hifi has been overly subjective and I found a lot mainstream writing too vague.

I am planning on my first big speaker purchase (based on an ASR review) in the coming weeks and can't wait. Thanks to everyone here at ASR!
Right on, hopefully you'll share the results and a photo or two once you get the new equipment dialed in.
 

Pastequo

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2021
Messages
6
Likes
13
Hello, I’m an actor/script writer from Paris France. I’m in my 30s. regarding audio I listen to stream only as it’s way more convenient for and offers almost infinite choice. My hifi kit is connected to my home cinema. As of today I’m using Kelinac 914mg and lyngdorf tdai 1120.
 

BelgianJoey

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2021
Messages
30
Likes
67
Hi all,

As kind of a Corona-project I started a journey of upgrading my music playback system last year. I nearly lost my mind in trying to find out for myself what is good and what is not.
As the rationalist I’m trying to be I typically don’t believe in big conspiracies. Yet, in the audio world, at least something is going on.
Manufacturers make the most outrageous claims only to be confirmed by a vast horde of ”independent” reviewers. Only to be confirmed by happy customers welcoming the next opening of the soundstage and improvement of the highs and the all important transients …
My ambition was to have a system that was revealing enough to hear the difference between (compressed) Apple Music and CD and beyond.
As a lot of those reviewers clearly hear the difference (lifting of the veal) between 200€, 2000€ and 10000€ interconnects surely I must be able to tell the difference between lousy compressed and delicious high res and/or incredible MQA?
I was in real danger of wasting a lot of money! My skeptical nature and scientific education kept me from making really big and expensive mistakes. At one point though, I was convinced that all I needed to hear the difference between compressed an lossless is a DragonFly Cobalt. It didn’t work. Not with Tidal, not with Qobuz, not with Roon … every time I heard something “new“ in a well known song it was there in the compressed version too.
And than I stumbled upon ASR and everything fell back in place. Thanks for saving my mind!
I got myself a real good DAC (RME), I built myself a Hypex Class-D amp and got a Umik mike. With the help of REW I got rid of the booming of the basses in my room and my system never sounded better or more revealing.
Yet, I now can live with fact that I will never hear the difference between (high quality) compressed and lossless.

Another danger lurks here too though … my hypex is an UCD but the measurements of the NCore are clearly better … worth the upgrade? And look at them Purifi’s …

So I’ll be around!
 

Capitol C

Active Member
Joined
May 21, 2021
Messages
164
Likes
189
Location
Washington, DC
Hi. Glad I found this place. Background is I love music. Did lots of playing in my youth (anything from punk rock bands for beer to playing in a symphony). Now it's my kids' turn.

Nice to see a forum that cuts through the snake oil.

Math (science) is the language of God, music is his (or her) voice...

--j^j
1624384783350.png
is quite nice, I salute you!
 

roog

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 13, 2020
Messages
369
Likes
397
Location
UK, Keynsham
Hi, I am based in the UK and I joined because I have been interested in what makes HiFi 'tick' since before I was a teenager. I am an amateur electronics /audio designer who by default needs to know how his designs fair, the answer being usually quite badly!

I was wowed by a fancy Naim HiFi set up when I was about 19 years old and had wanted one ever since, 35 years later I could finally afford a Naim system and have been tinkering with it ever since, I often wonder what I was thinking and have come here to find out the truth about 'Stereo's' !

I am looking forward to assembling a sensible well-performing system before my hearing deteriorates much further and makes the exercise even more futile. I look forward to learning something here and hopefully benefiting from the experience of those more knowledgeable than I in putting together an excellent Stereo without being blinded by the brands.
 

ouimetnick

Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2021
Messages
26
Likes
19
Hi guys, I actually found this site while researching DACs. I currently still use macOS Mojave with iTunes since I'm not a fan of the replacement Music app. I have several albums from HDtracks, and my CD collection was ripped using iTunes with the AIFF encoder. I know that ALAC is more space efficient, but with 128GB on my old crusty iPhone 6s Plus and 512GB on my iPad and iPhone 11 Pro Max, space isn't a concern.

I'm hearing impaired, moderate in the left, severe in the right. I've always had a passion for audio gear since I was in elementary school and got into the DIY field in high school. An engineering teacher gave me his old Hafler DH-200 & DH-101, and that kicked off my interests in diy.
As of now, my current listening amps and equipment (everything gets mixed and matched once in a while) Hafler DH-101, DH-100, DH-120, XL-280 (I replaced the driver boards with Musical Concepts ones 10 years ago) XL-600, DH-200, FX Audio TUBE-03. All of the Hafler gear has been recapped and some wiring was cleaned up on the DH-101.

Speakers include Boston Acoustics VR-M90, VR-M60, VR-40, Micro90x, CR9, several Boston subs. I also have a pair of Ohm C2s, Earthworks Sigma 6.2 monitors, and some ancient EV Aristocrat cabinets with Knight KN-800 speaker drivers installed. I also have multiple HomePods. They don't compete with the real speakers, but when configured as a stereo pair, the sound state is larger than one would expect from such a small speaker. I live in the next town over from Peabody where Boston was located for many years. Boston Acoustics used to be in Lynnfield, them Peabody, and some other part of Massachusetts before fading into history. They made their tweeters and woofers on automated assembly lines in Peabody. I was able to talk to a former employee that worked on numerous projects, and even after the woofers and final assembly was done in Asia, the tweeters were still produced in Peabody before being shipped overseas. Eventually that stopped though and the Peabody facility was just administrative offices. They closed it down entirely 8-9 years ago.

It's difficult to pin point differences in 256kbps AAC from iTunes and CDs at 16 bit/44.1kHz, but there's a difference on some tracks. I can also hear (I think) a slight difference on some tracks from 16 bit/44.1kHz and 24 bit/96kHz. It's a challenge because when you are focusing on such small minor details, you aren't enjoying the music (at least for me I don't). I bought a gently used DacMagic 100 and recently a new Fiio Q3. I haven't had time to do A/B comparison, but the DacMagic's output is super high. I have it connected to a cheap FX Audio TUBE-03 and the stepped volume control is super touchy, just 3 clicks from minimum volume and the sound is uncomfortably loud. The Fiio Q3 does have a volume control which is nice. I ordered a Topping E30 DAC to play with, and that has a volume control as well. The Fiio and Topping can be powered from the computer's USB port directly eliminating another wall wart, and the Fiio is also battery powered as well since it's designed to be held to the back of the phone/source with included rubber bands.

I've been trying out Apple Music on a family member's iPhone and it works seamlessly with both the DacMagic (with the lightening camera connection kit) and the Fiio Q3 (cables included)
 
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