New Members - Introduce Yourself

Greetings from NJ. A Metalhead who loves Jazz and K-Pop.

 

Hi all,

New member here, but I am basically a deep lurker, mostly following audio trends of this forum from four years ago. I have read every post on the two HD 800 threads. I listen to Senns, the 600 / 650 / 800 and am looking to build a system around them. I purchased a used Torpedo III built by thomb for the above headphones at the recommendations of this forum after listening to them through the headphone out of the Hugo 2. I think I like the Sennheiser 600s the most of the three.

I am currently trying to figure out how to get the Apogee 24 to work with the Mojo 2. I know people here don't like the Chord products as much, despite the recent Dave revival, but they're the DACs I've used so far. I haven't tried any of the Schiit gear but may try that at some point.

I don't really care about trends and so probably am stuck in some old fashioned tube amp + Senns hole.

As for music I listen to lots of classic rock and classical.

 

Welcome, professor. I look forward to learning from you.

 

You can use the optical out from the Apogee to feed the Mojo. You’ll need a toslink cable.

 

Finally got it working. Had the toslink cable and everything but Roon needed "system output" to be running through system output rather. Now no more Chord digital sound.

 

Hello everyone! I have been lurking for a while now and decided to make an account recently. I love learning everything about audio and I find that reading the threads here makes me lose track of time sometimes.

 

Hello all! Old punk rock guitarist that can butcher a song like nobody's business. I'm into mid-fi products because I definitely can't see spending that kind of money for resolution that exceeds my ear's ability to tell the difference. I'm all about a balanced perspective, whether it's music, politics, equipment, whatever...

 

Your band has to be called Special Ed and the Slow Learners.

 

Or first tour will be called, The Short Bus Tour! LOL!!!

 

My second choice was ...and the Short Bus Kings.

 

Hi Y’all. New here (duh), but lurked (mostly perusing Schiit-related threads for a while) for a bit.

Background: long time “audiophile” who was blessed enough to come into sufficient funding (back in 1990) to build a rig that I told myself I’d keep forever. Turns out I *did*. And almost all of it still works and gives much pleasure to my now 64 year old (and not as good as they used to be) ears/hearing.

My journey into good/ever-better sound at home started, quite literally back in college, when I scored a pair of STAX SRX-5 electrostatic headphones. I found they were amazing (clarity, transparency) for the music I loved then (and still love today): namely progressive rock (Rush, ELP, Pink Floyd; the list is LONG). I bought in EARLY to the *concept* of “Measurements matter, but must be in service of clarifying what and why I hear what I hear”. (I was an Electrical Engineer, but only ever did software since college in 1980, so “conflicted”). I knew what I was hearing from mainstream gear was Scheit, but it measured “good” - why? I also know what I thought MOST sounded like the live music I frequented in those days in the 80’s; namely live Pink Floyd, or Rush, or other rock, all the way through small combo Jazz (live), and live symphonic music with the Boston Symphonic orchestra, whether at Symphony Hall, or summers at Tanglewood. I’ve lost track of all the live events over the years, but some were EPIC (e.g. RUSH R40 tour - or heck, ANY Rush concert, Pink Floyd - The Wall, Animals, WYWH, Division Bell, etc.), or the many concerts at BSO or Carnegie Hall, or the Vienna StaatsOper…

It was always about Vinly/LP for quite a while (more on that later)…

I became passionate about reproducing what I was hearing. And the journey began. In 1980, my then Onkyo Receiver didn’t cut it (I had hand built/custom speakers - by today’s standards crap, but they were “ok”). So first “system investment” was Nikko Alpha III MOSFET amp with Nikko Beta II Preamp, a Rega Planar 3 turntable. Speakers at first were Boston Acoustics 400’s (IIRC).. I acquired one of the first Sony CD-players when they first came out, and started diving into CD… except… the same recordings on CD sounded like shit compared to the LP versions? WTF? So, I got as far into early digital as using the original Theta Data transport with a Theta DAC… but prices were getting NUTS…. At that point the Amp was a Superphon DM-220 (still have it), driving Vandersteen 2c’s. Very nice system, but had the bug by then…

Anyways, when I came into that money, I splurged on the best $15K (approx) system for LPs I could find. The result was Sota Star Sapphire III, SME 309 Arm, and an AQ7000 MC, driving a Classe’ DR-6R/Classe DR-9 feeding Apogee Duetta Signatures. I still have, use and LOVE it all (moved on to other, alas, less expensive ‘coils when the AQ wore out.
Subsequently amassed over 2000 LPs…

You could say I was addicted to planar sound (still am)

So, 35 years (almost) on, and I’ve been slowly getting back into digital. I enjoy my Cambridge Audio Azure 851 CD player, which sounds quite excellent into the above mentioned “rig”.

Let’s face it, streaming and digital are just super CONVENIENT. And, digital sound these days doesn’t suck like it did in those early “WTF is Jitter?” Days, when designers just didn’t KNOW. So, I’ve got a fair number of CD’s, SACD’s, DSD’s, etc., to augment the Analog/Vinyl rig.

So why getting active on fora again? Here’s why:

Just complete what my wife and I hope is our LAST house move, and I now have a well nigh on perfect main listening room (17’ wide by 26’ long, with 7.5’ ceilings; totally symmetric, especially at the end where I put the Apogees…
Well, in that system, the caps just went in my DR-6 preamp; the phono section still works, but alas not the line stage. So I picked up a cheap/used Proceed to use in interim (I run balanced interconnects to the DR-9), to “get me through”, and then started looking at Pre-amps. I’m going to get the DR-6 fixed, but its failure prompted me to do a “what if the DR-9 fails? What the heck do I do THEN? (And now, I’m fortunate that the foam seals on my Duetta’s are still good; I know THAT is also coming at some point).
Well the search for: a) what can I used as a cheap/temp preamp when I ship the DR-6 off for re-capp[ing, led to b) what AMP would I use if the Classe’ fails, led to c) heck I’ve got a set of Paradigm Reference studio 20’s I’ve got setup in my work from home office and that Superphon, why not setup an office rig?

So I did. The office rig (currently) is a CAL Delta CD transport driving a Schiit Modi+, a Schiit Sun, and into the Superphon.

But now, my son (also an engineer, albeit mechanical) has my Vandersteen’s, and will shortly have my Superphon, he’s going to drive that with a Schiit DAC and likely a SYS. he’s ONLY digital.
Anyways, that means I need a new amp for my Paradigms… since I’d already found Schiit, and appreciate the Modi+ and Syn thus far…. I ventured over here to SBAF via the Schiit Aegir review thread. I need an office “rig” and it will be ONLY digital.

And I liked the community I saw here. I liked the moderation (I’ve previously been a mod on a well know Astronomy website for many years and know all too well the challenges about passionate communities and members…). I liked the (tasteful) irreverence. I liked the (general) humbleness and approach)

Hence joining.

The TL;DR version? I like high quality sound, I know what live, unamplified music sounds like (and love it), and have a generally sound grasp of engineering principles; certainly enough to filter through TODAY’s “High end” unobtainable bullshit. That said, measurements are NO guarantee; I consider them (the right ones, that is) to be necessary but not sufficient. I have heard (in my system, and still do) differences between things like bi-wiring (I know lots here think it doesn’t matter, but they’ve likely not experimented with Vandersteen’s or Apogees). I’ve heard differences in cabling. But, I don’t, can’t, and won’t succumb to the “spend $1000 a foot”-type nonsense

Now, for a bit of “controversy injection”: I passionately believe that - in the right room with the right gear and source material - planars are superior speakers for the sound I personally value. The “I am THERE” experience. No, they don’t do that last bit of “slam” that I love on certain music, nor do they have the “etched in crystal, point-source imaging”. But (for me) that has never been what I hear at concerts, whether a Jazz Trio, or a full-on Symphony (or Rock concert).

FWIW, I *still* think my Apogees kill anything even remotely close to their price range (in today’s dollars). Yes, I’ve visited the hoity-toity” high end shops with their $100K an up “statement systems”. I think they are not even remotely close to better enough to even consider. Chasing the sound dream is an asymptotic process wrt money. And those folks (now) are, IMHO simultaneously over-wealthy, and insane. YMMV

Happy to have FRIENDLY debates on that last one… <grin>
Look forward to participating and contributing whenever possible

 

Hi all,
New here. Just a humble music lover and songwriter. Listen to anything with good production, both digital and analog (LPs)
Mostly Jazz (traditional, soul jazz, hard bop, fusion, funk), Classical (+movie score), some Pop and Adult Contemporary.
I play Electone and used to teach at Yamaha Music School.
Into headphones since 2005. The ones that stays with me are Sennheiser HD 800, Fidelio X2 and HD6XX
Listening with RME ADI-2 DAC + Bottlehead Crack
Glad to be able to join here and learn more from you all.
Cheers

 

Howdy,
I'm beginning to re-enter the audio game after an eight year hiatus due to a plethora of factors, mostly career related. I have a set of ZMF Eikons and a set of Atriums, the latter of which I find myself unable to put down. I'm mostly interested in DAC and Amp tech, as I'm an electrical engineer by trade. Excited to interact with everyone and immerse myself in the hobby once again!

 

Hi there

Former user at ASR, got banned for a debacle that IMO was a miscommunication between the mods and me.

I was an active participant and I've learnt a lot and also helped people a lot so I'm actually very much disappointed about the harsh moderation.

So. Here I am. Lurking about to starters.

EDIT: I'm a fan of PA amps and especially Yamaha. I have a couple of Infinity Kappa 8.2i's paired with a a Yamaha P7000S, MiniDSP DDRC-24 and a Chromecast Audio. My journey has been long with lots of experiments with different speakers, sub integration, tons of REW measurements, Rephase and finally Dirac Live. I listen to all genres of music excl. jazz and classical.
In my sparse spare time I buy and repair amps even though I am no expert or EE. I have too many amps in my storage, mainly Yamaha.

/H

 

Cocaine? Amphetamines? Heroin? SINAD?

Welcome to the other side.

 

Been lurking a bit, but wanted to join now.

I'm excited to learn more for you all here!

As far as my system goes I have:

Listening room speakers:
Altec 1003b horn s with 288 drivers
JBL077 Tweeter
Altec 416 in the Jospeh Crowe mini onken box

Office Speakers:
Lynn Olson Arial 2 transmission line

Turntable:
Rek O Kut t-43 with a Karamdon arm and a Denon 103 rebuilt by Soundsmith ( Ruby option)

DAC:
Abbas 4.0 gold
Abbas 2.0 kit
Audio GD Master 7 Singularity ( Office system)

Power Amps:
6a3 SET built by a local guy here
Will Vincent St-70
Oliver Sayes Korneff Clone 45
JA Burgess PP 45

Phono:
Van den hul - The Grail

Volume:
Remote controlled Transformer volume control with Dave Slagle windings

 

Welcome Limberpine. I recognize you from HiFiHaven forums. Impressive gear collection btw.

 

Thanks!

 

Lately been appreciating this forum more and more. Appreciate the honesty (or BS) and vendor involvement. Seems to be a solid in-between amongst the other forum options. Trying to graduate out of the "haven't heard it-gotta buy it for myself" phase to the educated connoisseur phase that only experience grants you. Armed with all the Schiit (from Yggdrasil OG to Piety and most things in between), a Drop starter pack (4XX, 6XX, 8XX, Aeon ClosedX, Elex, Dekoni Blue) and a set of LCD-3's. Definitely enjoying the journey. Currently listening to URD>Gungnir>MJ2 waiting for the MJ3 to drop. Looking forward to making a contribution in both dollars and sense.