The Ultimate Lurker’s Guide to Pinning Yourself to a Cross

Interesting thread!

I am not interested in a basic set up , because when i was looking for one, i was in a boat to a general travel in some upgraditis route going nowhere....And i paid for many pieces of hyped garbage i will not name and this cost me way more than the system i will describe...

I am interested now in vintage underestimated top of the line products which coupled together will beat almost all other contenders , and if not, will represent the greatest S.Q. /price ratio ever...

After 20 years of search, and even a travel through Speakers/acoustic dedicated room installation success, with old age and in the obligation to sell my house and audio room so to speak,i at least discovered the BASIC underrated marvel for a cost ,which including all, was for me 600 bucks for dac, amplifier and headphone...

----Amplifier :

https://audio-database.com/SANSUI/amp/au-alpha607.html
The first alpha model is the last TOTL of Sansui at the peak of his history....It is sold easily around 1000 bucks used now... I pay it 300 bucks 5 years ago.... And the top alpha with the same basic design than mine the AU-07 is sold around 3000 now...



----Dac:

Modest dac but very good dap/dac/basic equalizer and even headphone amp wrapped in one : Hidizs AP 80 pro.... Not TOTL among dac but well enough for me...Anyway dacs are the most overrated audio products with cables in general... The ratio S.Q./price with dac and cables is low....what matter is buying a good one and there is plenty of good choice now...Times change and it is not like 15 years ago to buy a good one was a search in itself...



----Headphone:

Akg K340 modified by myself ( no more plastic grid,new pads, vibrations isolation materials inside) for better result is the most underated piece of audio existing on earth for me.... i pay it 100 bucks.... i listen now 3-d orchestral music out of the head filling the room if the recording is good like for example Bach Brandenburg concertos by Hogwood...That is what i wanted....

I will add that the K340 are able to give good bass extension and bass so deep that i feel them with my feet coming from the floor, or with my chest, an illusion induced by bone/body frequencies transmission... The highs are celestial, because of its electret driver, non fatiguing, the mids range is natural, because this headphone is more neutral than otherwise, the mids are neutral and very natural less " beautiful" mids than my past Stax SR-5 gold for example but way more realistic and natural so much i prefer it to any of my other 8 headphones, which i use no more for a good reason ...



----About the synergy :

The K340 ask for an amplifier able to give volt swings with ease , not an headphone amplifier like the one in my dac....Which by the way is very good with my K701...The K340 ask also for cleanliness, power, and low noise floor amplifier, it is the reason ( cleanliness and low noise floor) why i used the Sansui alpha instead of my other very good Sansui AU -7700... And the K340 ask for a clean and neutral dac, no warm is need....The Hidizs dac is very clean and it is not connected to my computer in any way and powered by an internal battery... I used with my other headphones when they were my only option, the computer as source of my albums files, which is way too noisy now to be the source of my sensitive hard to drive well K340...



What i propose here is by no means a "basic" system you will own only to start , waiting for the money to upgrade it eventually , no; but it is my version of an "end of the game" basic system at peanuts costs, which rival my speakers/dedicated acoustic room and probably most headphones, even costly one because these new hyped headphone are without this astonishing hybrid technology and the 5 passive resonators which are a new tech also even by today standards , which make it an holographic headphone using simple psycho-acoustic internal device Helmholtz small resonators ...

Remember that the K340 was the flagship of AKG 40 years ago, beside the Stax totl cans....They are not a loosing design at all, but only a design very complex which AKG was not willing to invest in furthermore but instead go other route as with his K1000 flagship...But the K340 rival the K1000 for many people, and trust me the K701 which was a past AKG flagship dont hold a candle to the K340 and to the K1000 too...

With a well recorded albums and the K340 the music is no more between my ears nor in my head at all... This was the reason why i never love any other headphone among the 8 i owned compared to my speakers/ dedicated acoustic room......I will not speak about the mid-range, highs or bass and imaging no more etc The K340 lack in no way in any of these counts... Is it the best headphone ? No, not at all to be clear.... But it is the best S.Q./price ratio that exist, and i had no doubt about that.... Very few headphone, save the best of the best, beat a good speakers in a dedicated acoustic room or rival it, the K340 did it for me...

My actual system then has no real and bothering drawbacks for me....It is my endgame one...no frustrations and anyway it is the best i ever listen to in my life and it is then enough for me....

My best to all....

 

I will give an advice to people after my posting experience here in an preceding post..... Dont start with new hyped basic products.... You will end frustrated and in a frenetic course to upgrade incrementally with much and always much expanse to come to create satisfaction ....

Instead study, and look for vintage underrated TOTL of the past like i did.... And you will end with an end of the game product at peanuts costs.... That is the point of my post above....

What is better ? A new hyped headphone coming from an emerging small unknown company without much experience in all of audio, taking a piece of dynamic membrane or planar one, and putting it in a shell cup and calling it a revolution after adding a wood decoration on the cup at high price OR INSTEAD buying the TOTL of AKG the K340 for example in the year 1979, which revolutionize already audio a couple times for decades before with his engineering team, and created an headphone with two complete new technology in the same product , the hybridation of dynamic and electret cells and the creation and use, deduced from basic psycho-acoustic and acoustic principles, of 5 Helmholtz resonators and diffusers creating then a dual shell housing for the cups which will become critical in the creation of a natural atmosphere and a realist timbre experience ?

The price of this used vintage marvel being around 100 bucks for me versus many thousand bucks for some hyped new one headphone with next to zero true innovations, only a variation around an old paradigm, and reviewers will call that a new better "color"....... This old vintage marvel was AKG K340 headphone underated now but always with some " cult " around it for 40 years ...There is other underated headphones for sure...

My advice is do not start with new basic hyped stuff at high price but with vintage underrated marvel of the past .... My audio system, around 600 bucks all in all , is an end of the game one.... No upgraditis....

I want to be helpful to a new comer who will read reviews of the actual hyped products without knowing what to do really....My post is for a budget set up which will be an endgame system... Yes this is possible, i own one....Anyway a budget system which is not an end of the game one is a lost of money, because you will enter in the upgraditis hyped market to compensate your actual system limitations....

Then the task is how did i learn to read about vintage underated product for peanuts costs....Quit reading reviews of new products and study past audio history.... It is very informative....

 

I enjoy vintage gear, my turntable is from the early '80s and my living room speakers from the mid '90s, and I've had older gear before too. While there can be some great bargains, there's also a lot of garbage out there, stuff that never sounded good and still doesn't, stuff that did sound good but different parts have eroded, etc. Yeah, a super hyped headphone from an unknown manufacturer has risks, so does buying a 50 year old piece of gear from a company that was long ago shuttered or acquired.

I would argue there's a middle path--tried and true relatively modern gear from active, established companies. Most of the recommendations in this thread have been for mass market products that are actually obtainable and don't require rolling a lot of dice.

If you know the sound you want and you know what to look for in vintage gear, by all means go for it. But I would not recommend someone starting their journey go that route, as it's fraught with a lot of possible complications.

 

Fair we can disagree...

But if i had go with your advice, and i did it the way you advise it the first ten years of my audio travel , i would have spend a lot of money for nothing at the end.... And i did.... A mediocre new basic amplifier and a mediocre new hyped headphone stay mediocre even if we change it for another "color" as the marketing rhetoric condition the masses to do in this case ....And most basic products are mediocre by design and stay so forever....

And by the way acoustic and psycho-acoustic can teach us what are the basic aspects of a "good sound" and how to create it.... It is not like all marketing teach us or like "reviewers" professionally teach and condition us to be ONLY a question of taste, it is a question of good design first and last ....

Tastes are secondary not primary when we look for a superlative design at low cost in vintage history...Be it an amplifier, vintage or not or an headphone anyway, it is their specific technology and their reviewing long history that decide first and last about our final choices , taste play a secondary role... For example for an headphone, holographical 3-d experience is not a question about taste, it is what a superlative headphone can do or not, and the reason why it cannot did it or why it can did it is important not taste.......

By the way i bought few vintage products i sold at another time without loosing money and the only problem i had with a product come from a new supposed revolutionary mediocre planar which break itself in 2 parts on my head, a very mediocre product hyped everywhere even today......

Read my signature and think about the ratio S.Q./price at 600 bucks all in all for my audio system, with a sound which is better than any amp/headphone at any price or near it or not so much behind it at peanuts costs.... Guess why?

And guess what i will do if my 100 bucks miraculous headphone, i love so much, did not work anymore?

I will buy another one for around the same price.... Where is the risk here?

Is it not better than buying a many thousand dollars headphone lacking in bass deepness and extension or fatiguing, or with no "out of the head" experience or worst with an unnatural timbre, or with no neutrality and a pronounced mids color , or a soundfield in your face with no depth, or .... Imagine all possibilities to be wrong here.... Now imagine a 100 bucks headphone, with a balance between all aspects of acoustic experience without any heavy drawback at all... Guess why and how AKG create it to be their flagship at this time in audio history where research was more important than marketing ?

This is the AKG K340 well driven and optimized by few small mods.... Superior to all the 8 headphones i owned in the past by more than a large margin on all counts.... Viva vintage!
Instead of a Stax Omega or a Raal at high price or a Hifiman.... I prefer an headphone with none of the defects i read about among these TOTL headphone.... If i am wrong because my headphone break i only paid 100 bucks...

Think about that instead of being afraid of a ridiculous low risk you presented as a high dangerosity .... The real danger is the many thousand dollars we risk to throw for a not so better product I dont give a damn at this price about the risk of failure and anyway after trying it i know what i will do if this vintage break , i will buy another one...

I did the same for my vintage amplifier choice which is an unsupassable marvel S.Q. /price ratio at peanuts costs....My amplifier is better to drive my headphone than all basic headphone amplifier sold and hyped at higher price... Take a lesson here instead of saying non sense advice to newcomer because of fear, ...

My advice to newcomers here is stop reading reviewers of new products, study past audio history, pick a very well done design and spare money.... And if you are lucky like me, call it an end game... It is.... I can even explain and justify why in acoustic terms this headphone is an endgame , i bought it not by luck but by studying basic acoustic ......At the end at worst you will buy a vintage product hyped for 40 years at low cost which will rival anything at his low price...

Then before disagriment assignation, we must think....There are my arguments... Where are yours, save fear?
I wanted an end game audio system without being a sheep conditioned by marketing reviewers...I advice newcomers to study audio history and never read new hyped reviews as the way to go buying... Look for an end game system.... Not basic hyped approved mediocrity....Learn how to listen and recognizing acoustic cues and teach yourself how to create your own dedicated audio room at no cost.... I did it with success instead of buying costly materials...Fear is not a good advice....

 

I fundamentally disagree that most modern designs are inferior to most classic designs and that most basic gear is mediocre. In fact, I think we are in an age where basic, inexpensive gear is getting better than ever. The many recommendations in this thread are proof of that. We know with hindsight what the great classic designs were, we don't yet know which of the modern ones will go on to attain classic status. That does not mean one has to rely solely on vintage gear to get good sound.

 

I think this is wonderful advice and, surely, very much SBAF.

It does, though, require quite a lot of work, even, bottom line, if that work is only listening to the advice of others. Some will, some won't. Some will want something more easily off-the-shelf mentally as well as physically.

When I, finding myself living alone and without somebody else's stereo, bought my first kit, I got it from a London outlet that is now quite big, but back then, was full of bargains such as last-year's models, and bankrupt stock. After doing my head in with reviews and specifications in magazines, I took a lot of help from the guys in the shop. And was really very happy for several years.

 

Sorry but i never said what you put in my mouth to make a point...

I was speaking NOT about comparison of NEW and PAST designs "per se".... I was speaking of the ratio S.Q. /price...

A vintage acclaimed TOTL product for 40 years by 40 years of appreciation is fewer risk than a novelty ....Why?

Because of 40 years of proofs...

This does not means that many actual design are not superior, often they are superior, but at which price? But they are not always superior too... In the case of the K340 it is very hard to beat that....In the case of my two vintage low cost amplifiers Sansui , forget it too , to beat them is almost impossible for many reason save at a very high cost...

And yes we live in an audio age where inexpensive product are high end compared to the same product 10 years ago.... The low cost dac in my signature is proof of that and is not vintage...

My post to which you claim to disagree is elementary common sense.... S.Q. /price ratio play in favor of high quality vintage product in relatively mature and well known developed technology like amplifiers and headphones, but for a new technology like DSP i bought a new very good product for sure not a vintage dac of 20 years ago...

Then dont put your words in my mouth...I never claim what you did i claim....

My advice for newcomers reading this thread is study acoustic basics, read audio history, skip reviewers of hype, and go for an end game, vintage flagship if you are poor or contemporary TOTL if you are not, never go for a basic mediocre new products because it is hyped.... For the same cost target, try a flagship of the past in all mature and well known technology like headphone acoustic and amplifications.... For DSP we had no choice at all , the newer is better at lesser cost than what was sold just few years ago....

My battery dac for his price is a new marvel of the last recent technology... It is not the better dac for sure, but what it give me especially with the Sansui alpha and the K340 make me smile, and laugh at the idea to upgrade... This is the goal : total satisfaction at peanuts costs... The rest is conditioning the rats to buy with publicity or planned consumerism ...I am not a rat i think study and act...

In a word, we can came here about the matter of this thread, and you give a business objective wise advice, as you did for sure if i read you without passion, and i came here and resume my own history experience by an advice which has nothing to do with the audio business at all, i did it this way.... We are right you and me....

But for a newcomer in audio targetting an end game vintage past flagship product instead of buying a basic beginner newly hyped component for the same price seems to me a better advice....In spite of the risk of failure, because we speak of low amount of money here anyway...And even if my vintage product fail me, at the price paid which is a low price, i would learn a lesson about the S.Q. quality possible with a flagship, even a flagship of the past, that will be if not a revelation at least a small very useful enlightening experience about a high quality product versus an ordinary one, or a TOTL of the past compared to a mediocre or just enough good contemporary basic component ....

How did i learn what a very good amplifier will do? I did not learn that with the many basic amplifiers i tried at all, tubes one or S.S. one... None was a flagship of a mythical audio company like Sansui was nor contemporary high end at the price paid.... But try a Sansui alpha which cost not so much and compared it to most headphone amplifier under 1000 dollars or to any speaker amplifier of the same price ... Simply no comparison especially for a demanding high quality headphone like the K340 or for very good speakers...There is a Sansui cult for amplifier which are 50 to thirty years old and which are sold at relatively good price even today.... Why ?






I discuss sometimes with too much passion.... Dont take my post personal and be sure that i wish you the best from my heart.... Thank you for your replying.... Sometimes discussion help to be understood better...

My best to you....

 

@richard51 absolutely based

 

What specific amp are you recommending? Sansui Alpha 907? 'Cause those aren't exactly "peanuts" these days. Aside: the problem I find with recommending vintage stuff for anything "entry level" is the VBB culture of HiFi does the same for vintage gear as it does with vintage tubes. $1200 Telefunken smoothplate 12AX7? Sure! Whatever the market will bear, I guess. But that used to be a $120 tube only 8-10 years ago. And quit with the "NOS IS HARD TO FIIIND!". An old crotchety tube guy I work with has a stash of hundreds of smooth plate and ribbed plate NOS Tele diamond glass 12ax/12au7s and he still only charges $75 per tube. But he only takes MOs cause he's old and doesn't do the innernets.

Same goes with vintage anything. Some dupe willing to drop $2k on a TU-919 that's maybe been properly recapped and had the gangs aligned? Great, now every POS Sansui tuner gets a 50% markup on eBay...

 

To your first question no not the top alpha but the first model of the alpha series, the 907 is way more in the radar center, mine with almost the same tech is way lower in price and can be paid around or under 1000 bucks now...I pay it 300,5 or 6 years ago .... By the way they are impossible to distinguish by sound quality, many did the test.... They are the same with some differences like a separable power amp/pre-amp function in one and not in mine for example...

I only mentioned my Sansui amplifiers for an exemple, to illustrate my experience, there is other bargains vintage from other brand at lesser price because they are under the radar now...I buy my 2 Sansui amplifiers 10 years ago when they were under the radar more after a heavy study trust me....The Au-7700 i loved it first so much, that i bought an alleged better Alpha one just in case immediately after i bought the Au-7700 , which alpha is more refined in some aspect and low noise floor than the AU 7700... They are very di9fferent and the 2 are cult product.... I never used for all these years the alpha, i loved the other more with my speakers/ dedicated room... But with the sensitive AKG K349 i needed a more clean amplifier and a top one.... I had it already then .... This is why we must be alert and study without throwing money influenced by hyping crowds about new colors...

In anything we must exert our judgement.... I did not recommend vintage at all cost and i never recommend here only mine in particular, save the K340 headphone which is stupendous and irreplaceable by anything at his low cost used price....This headphone is miraculous for his usual used price when used with the right pads, the right nec essary modifications, the right amplifier etc ...It is a true end game....

I recommend vintage amplifier for an equal value in dollars invested instead of some basic beginners amp and for speakers or headphones alike , choose a vintage under the radar... To know which one to buy you would need to study audio history and not the hyped reviews threads about low cost basic new components of the day .... Sorry...

I made my historical study quiting all hype reading many years ago after much frustration , and it is the best thing i ever did in audio....Now my end game cost me 600 hundred....And trust me it is an end game....There exist a relatively well located quality threshold of minimal or optimal S.Q. price/ratio in this hobby...Look for it....If we want to know about this minimal high quality threshold we must buy TOTL of the past at lower cost or buying today high end at a way higher cost to experience it but discovering doing so what is a great sound... In the same way it is useless to place high end speakers in a bad room with no knowledge of basic acoustic,...

I recommended studying basic acoustic, especially if you own speakers....Forget about any reviews of hyped new stuff and read audio history to buy past vintage .... Target for the next years to come some end game products, some vintage one , for their S.Q, /price ratio , prepare yourself and study many alternatives, and dont buy basic ordinary entry level hyped stuff save if you are in the obligation to do it because you will not have anything to play music if not...

We must begin at some place yes... But we must not upgrade replacing mediocre component with something who pretend to be not mediocre by hype but finally is and stay mediocre...To know the difference we must taste high end vintage one or new one if your purse is enough large.... Mine is not and will not be... I dont mind because i know what good sound is and i have it at low cost....

My best to you from the heart....

 

Damn there be some truthiness being chucked around here. Love me some fierce. Every time I check in on this discussion I get more hopped up to try me some more gear. This question has elicited some passion.

I’m gonna stick to my Schiit stack if the problem statement is “what are you going to get for a friend to get them into the hobby” not “what are you going to get if you need your desert Island rig on a budget”. Cause I think most of my friends want something they perceive as a consumer product and a brand and an upgrade path. That’s sad, but that’s the modern human condition.

 

While I agree that there are some vintage bargains, how many noobs have a clue about what re-capping and re-biasing are? Those vintage amps are very likely highly out of spec.

 

Some tech can do the recap for a reasonnable cost.... I did it for the Sansui Au-7700... and trust me the sound was absolutely gorgeous... The alpha one did not need any recap after 30 years of his existence though ...

But the advice i gave for sure will not be useful for the masses... Consumers dont study audio history and basic acoustic.... It is a shame for them and a big loss, they will never listen to an high end sound before giving a high amount of money and sometimes they will never enjoy it because for example price of speakers never could ever replace a dedicated audio room acoustic controls around them , sorry to deflate some balloon here of people bragging about brand name product plugged and put on a table, thats all there is anyway for them ... I know the difference because i did one for myself, a dedicated acoustic room,at low cost , before going back very reluctantly to headphone listening by the force of events...I am retired now and i must sell my house...

The room acoustic worked so well that none of my past headphones could beat my room... Save the AKG K340... Which are the greatest piece of underrated audio component that i know about...I speak here about his S.Q./price ratio which is over the roof for this headphone, i dont claim that it is the best headphone ever on all acoustic factors but it is surely the best balance of trade-off there is at the lowest possible price ... But we must learn how to use it first... Rapid short reviews all over the net did not spell the story of this headphone ability at all even if they reflect their "cult" status or some negative critics coming mostly from ignorance about the way to use them optimally ... I did not read any review that ever explain exactly why the K340 is so good and can even become better...Think about that, a headphone anybody with luck can buy for 100 bucks... Incredible...

But many people throw it out of the box on any amplifier and think that all is perfect in their kingdom... Not so... It takes me long time to figure out how to give what this headphone ask for to shine optimally... It is not a plug and listen component because of his age and because the designer created a masterpiece yes, but with sligh flaws or lacks we must compensate for in his old age .... After that my gosh! this can beat all that i ever listen to in my life ....

There is 2 reasons why this headphone is so good... Only one is evoked in many reviews and often to be criticized: the hybridation and the "crossover" point at 4 KHZ where the "presence" of human voice, guitar and piano really live, where the air is......

But the main reason why this hybridation is so efficient to recreate holography, timbre naturalness etc is related to acoustic physical science and psycho-acoustic : it is their dual internal chamber shell created by these 5 Helmholtz passive resonators and diffusers.... These 2 technology together create a marvellous result... I will not go further about it here....No other headphone has coupled these two technology before nor after...

After all what a top headphone can do and must do ? it must recreate a natural timbre perceptive experience inside these shell/cup/room yes, but more than just that, it must externalize the original recorded acoustic atmosphere of any album of music OUT OF OUR HEAD in a projected virtual room ideally filling all our physical room... The best headphone make the sound visible so to speak....The K340 did that for me after i learned how to use it......

The important point is that headphones are not just like speakers ... Headphone are completely different technology than speakers... For your ears the shell cup is a "room" like your living room is a room for your speakers and also for your ears... Then a "room" must be acoustically controlled by mechanical acoustical method for your specific speakers choice but also for your specific ears ... A " room/shell" can be destructive of the sound or could be acoustically the more regenerative "tool" it depend on acoustic and psycho-acoustic tools like Helmholtz resonators for example...... And add that the shell of an headphone also vibrate, you must then control vibrations to optimize the headphone like all audio components vibrate too with real negative impact ...Etc...

By the way i am not a reviewer selling products... And I dont gave wise business advice here like some other poster gave some with wisdom, i give the relative opinion of an ordinary person who studied his problem thats all, but who wanted also an audiophile experience at peanuts costs ....Only a dude dreaming about audiophile top experience without money.... Now problem solved for me...Believe it or not...

Then i try to help with a sound advice: study basic acoustic, read audio history and forget all reviews of hyped new products, especially the new one... Target the best ratio S.Q./price possible...Not the basic beginner component nor the costlier one... Think about sound, what it is, how to create it in your room... I begun this way... Put consumerism behind you in this hobby and put acoustic in front of you... I cannot be clearer in my advice...

I will go now to music and wish you all the best ....

 

Yes. But, how many noobs even know that that's a thing to do?

 

Right, and now this "great value proposition" of buying bang-for-the-buck gear for newbs is: don't buy anything until you've religiously studied the annals of hifi history, and then spend the next 12 months dicking around on Hifishark waiting for some $500 class A/B integrated from 1984 that needs recapping and the seller is 74%-chance a complete flake, and a pair of headphones from 1978 that likely has completely worn out pads and smells like feet for the same price as the Drop HD6XX. Then, get everything fixed by some dude for $250 at your non-existant local stereo repair shop, then, only then, shall you commence with a non-consumerist audio/spiritual path to enlightenment. I mean, if that's not some gatekeeper BS, then I guess I don't know what is.

I get it, it's neat to not be trapped in midfi-hell, and Chi-Fi garbage is mostly garbage, but that's not what I think this thread is about. It's about a "winning budget setup."

Schiit Fulla + MassdropxSenn HD58X, or 7HZ Timeless IEM, or y-not-both?

 

Of course there is a fallacy in sir Richard the 51st's advice in that he is old and wise and his advice is to become old and wise without taking the time to become old first. i.e. do your crime without doing the time

at the same time there is much truth in what he says and I wouldn't dismiss it with hyperbole. I do know a lot of young guys going the DIY way, tinkering with old stuff, sometimes taking losses in addition to wins, but on the whole I see them as more satisfied and fulfilled than those who want to buy their way to the top with what the forums consider a 'winning budget setup'. Winning in the approval of your peers rather than true personal satisfaction I guess. The only things stopping more youth from going the same way is fear and laziness, and like sir Richard said, I don't believe fear is good advice. Total disengagement from consumerism is the only path to happiness I'm aware of, not just in audio but many walks of life.

 

Caricaturing my advice and pushing it in a preposterous corner will not hide, your consumerist position, because for you people are too dumb or ignorant to think by themselves and need to be oriented on the right trail of conventional consumerism ?... Are you a seller? I dont think so, then why objecting to common sense and a bit of fun work study and put words i never say in my mouth..?

For sure buying a budget basic system is necessary ONE TIME in our life...My advice is for all people here owning such a system already and who want to really upgrade at the lowest possible cost for the best S.Q. /price ratio....My goal is ending upgraditis or limiting it in myself and in others and buying a TOTL at low price...


I am only an ordinary person interested in good sound advising to read less of this salad of new products you recommend to others as a bible, and i recommend a more fun study of audio history and acoustic...

Your arguments made no sense.... You objected to common sense not to me....I think people reading this post already understand that i never condemn the fact to buy a basic standard new hyped system... Why not? i did it myself in the past... We must learn...We must begin somewhere yes, but after that my advice is: keep your basic system dont upgrade it BEFORE studying a bit of audio history and acoustic basic....

Then what i advise was: to forget someday reading too much publicity and reviewers and and i advise people to begin thinking by themselves too... Audio history and acoustic, objecting to this advice is plain blindness or stupidity or bad faith or business interests ... Pick the reason you prefer for your motives...

I never considered people with whom i speak less intelligent than me then i advise them like i would like to be advised myself....By an appeal to my intelligence, curiosity and thinking power,
with a serious interest to the 2 basic of this hobby if we dont count electrical schemas, audio history and acoustic science...

It seems that you think otherwise... You are enlightened but the "noobs" are not and will never be for you... Then advising to read audio history and about acoustic is plain stupid on my part because i speak to people thinking that people can act intelligently and the 2 last posters think most people are idiots and i am one myself because i think people can think by themselves and read a bit of audio history and acoustic before upgrading with something less than a TOTL product , because wow! the vintage can smell bad or break.... Yes my vintage K340 can break like my Sansui but they smell no shit.... ...

 

Thanks it is a pleasure to be understood by someone who say what we want to say in a better and more direct and economical way than us...And i like people who are not sheep trailing the common road toward unsatisfaction and ignorance....Welcome then....

But i never thought that young people must necessarily commit all sins to learn... It is not necessary to commit them all....

Viva acoustic and audio history....

Yes i am happy in this hobby, i like to communicate and give to others what i learned; study basic acoustic and audio history and dont read most hype....And yes TOTL high end or product not too far from it can cost under one thousand bucks in their vintage state... I know i did it for my audio room ... And after loosing my room i bought a new S.Q. level with an headphone of the past costing 100 bucks unlike the new TOTL sold by publicity.......My surprise was their astonishing high level of S.Q.

I like to give hope and a goal , i dont write review of products many people will never be able to afford... And i dont hype basic budget products others do that better than me...Anyway like i said some TOTL of the past are always TOTL in their own way even today....I say that because very few insist on this important fact...

Sometimes a product like the K340 stay a TOTL product even after 40 years....In spite of the fact their design was no more used now and improved ...Like for the K340 which in his past state is always a stupendous headphone....At a ridiculous low price even now...In my experience it is impossible to beat it with any low price product and it is possible to rival it with only very few high end headphones... Sorry but this is true...

My best to you.....

 

Oh for f**k's sake. No beginner studies audio history!

Anyway, Jesus has arrived, so we can leave him to save the world. Again. Hope he makes a better job of it this time.

 

"Oh for f**k's sake. No beginner studies audio history! "

This argument is the same that some "elite" use to dismiss the intelligence of most people and to break in the egg the democratic ideal.... The masses need the enlightened elite of this audio world and they must buy what they are teach to buy...

Myself i say : Viva audio history and acoustic study.....And viva vintage....

And we are all of us, each of us "Jesus" for one another ....Better to be "Jesus" for someone than being Judas the merchant ...