I'll never be an audiophile :(

[musicoverall]

Thanks. That's exactly what I did last night. Kicking back and let the music play.
As I write this I am in my Study and the music comes from a Teac Mini system through Wharfedale 9.1 Speakers. Sounds damn fine.
I totally understand musicoveralls point. It's the music that comes first and high equipment price does certainly not equate with emotional connection of the music and you.
When I am ready to buy I audition and then audition some more. If I could only afford a 2K system I would not enjoy the toones any less. Hell I am listening and singing along (on my own mind) in my car.
I have no doubt that a very decent sound can be adchieved for little outlay, as long as the compromises aren't getting in the way of the enjoyment. And there are compromises. No perfect this or that exists yet.
I have been at this for over 30 years and have made some costly mistakes and can hopefully prevent someone starting out repeating these.
One more point. I have absolutly no interest in HT or surround sound and to my mind a sub has no business in a 2 channel music set up.

Peace

Bernd

What it boiled down to for me is that I can't serve two masters - one of them has to be cut back. When someone tells me that he is going to estate auction off a massive number of old LP's - Blue Notes, Prestiges, New Jazz, El Saturn, etc - along with a boatload of rare jazz 78's but I get first crack at them, well.... the gear had to be sold for me to come up with the $15K. I bought the whole shebang. This was a major find. The decision took me all of about 3.4 seconds and I've never regretted it for one second.

My system now consists of a Denon PMA-2000 integrated amp and the matching CDP, my Marantz PDR500 CD recorder, Sota Time Domain 1 loudspeakers (before the turntable company was bought by Kirk, they made speakers - reasonably nice ones), Tara Prism 22 I/C's and Kimber 4PR speaker wire. This was my second system. The new VPI will fit in quite nicely. Oh, I also have an NAD cassette deck that I haven't used in awhile. This is all decent gear, but it puts my more expensive stuff to shame because it's playing an insane amount of music that the other never had the opportunity to play.

Hey Joe! I'm bragging about the LP's! And I feel great! See? - it's ok! LOL!

[JoeE SP9]

What it boiled down to for me is that I can't serve two masters - one of them has to be cut back. When someone tells me that he is going to estate auction off a massive number of old LP's - Blue Notes, Prestiges, New Jazz, El Saturn, etc - along with a boatload of rare jazz 78's but I get first crack at them, well.... the gear had to be sold for me to come up with the $15K. I bought the whole shebang. This was a major find. The decision took me all of about 3.4 seconds and I've never regretted it for one second.

My system now consists of a Denon PMA-2000 integrated amp and the matching CDP, my Marantz PDR500 CD recorder, Sota Time Domain 1 loudspeakers (before the turntable company was bought by Kirk, they made speakers - reasonably nice ones), Tara Prism 22 I/C's and Kimber 4PR speaker wire. This was my second system. The new VPI will fit in quite nicely. Oh, I also have an NAD cassette deck that I haven't used in awhile. This is all decent gear, but it puts my more expensive stuff to shame because it's playing an insane amount of music that the other never had the opportunity to play.

Hey Joe! I'm bragging about the LP's! And I feel great! See? - it's ok! LOL!

I would sell my gear in a hot minute for a deal like that. The gear is replaceable a collection like that is not.

[JoeE SP9]

Congrats. That is a fine TT and a great arm. I used to have the RB600. A couple of tips to raise the performance. Get a Michell counterweight and dump the stock Rega one. Also dissable the spring loaded VTF. Then re-wire the arm with the Incognito set. You will now have a giant killer.
Have fun.

Peace

Bernd

I've done just about all of that except the re-wire. My TT is ~20years old so I've had plenty of time to do mods on it. My current RB300 is the second Rega arm that has been installed on it. Without a sub my ESL's just don't have enough bass. Having one crossover at 85hz means seamless sound everywhere else especially in the midrange. I consider it a small price to pay. Plus I get floor shaking, pants flapping, door rattling bass if I want it. All I have to do is turn the bass level up on my crossover. All music is played strictly 2 channel unless it is mixed for multi channel. I only have 2 CD's mixed for multi. One is a sampler.

[Bernd]

Yep, a collection like that would be the winner every time. A no-brainer. That is one hell of a find musicoverall. Congrats. How many records were there in total?

Joe I understand why you use a sub. My ART Emotions however have such clean deep bass that I have absolutly no need for a sub. So no integration issue.

Peace

Bernd

[musicoverall]

Yep, a collection like that would be the winner every time. A no-brainer. That is one hell of a find musicoverall. Congrats. How many records were there in total?

Joe I understand why you use a sub. My ART Emotions however have such clean deep bass that I have absolutly no need for a sub. So no integration issue.

Peace

Bernd

I counted them once but now have forgotten the count! Somewhere in the 3000 range, all told. About 800 of them were 78's. I still have not listened to them all. Some of them are dupes of what I already owned but I wasn't allowed to cherry pick. All in all, I got more than full value for the cost(s).

The funny thing is that this guy was a neighbor of mine - lived about half a block away - and I never knew him, and certainly didn't know what a diehard jazz fan he was. When he died, I asked his widow if I could help her in any way and the first thing she said was "Gosh, I don't have any idea how to get rid of all his old records!".

Hey, I was happy to help! That's the kinda guy I am!

[musicoverall]

I've done just about all of that except the re-wire. My TT is ~20years old so I've had plenty of time to do mods on it. My current RB300 is the second Rega arm that has been installed on it. Without a sub my ESL's just don't have enough bass. Having one crossover at 85hz means seamless sound everywhere else especially in the midrange. I consider it a small price to pay. Plus I get floor shaking, pants flapping, door rattling bass if I want it. All I have to do is turn the bass level up on my crossover. All music is played strictly 2 channel unless it is mixed for multi channel. I only have 2 CD's mixed for multi. One is a sampler.

I'm familiar with enough of it to believe that it plays music well and I'm sure you're getting a hell of a lot of enjoyment from it.

Eventually I'll drop in the new counterweight but I'll probably skip the Incognito wiring thing. I'm going to take this opportunity to kinda drop out of the equipment upgrade race and I have this feeling that replacing ANY kind of wire is going to bump me right back in there!

[Bernd]

Incognito, Incognito, Incognito.......once the seed is planted. Well you know....

No but seriously this will help you to keep the RB600 for a long time.I know what you mean about the upgradetitis. I owned a perfectly great Michell Orbe with Technoarm A and NC powersupply, but I wanted (not needed) to own an SME TT and arm. I don't think I will change that. I am very happy with my set up and it plays the toones exactly how I like to listen to them. So money well spent.
I think you have got a great deal on the Vinyl. I am not envious, honest, no I am not.
Have fun sorting them all. Have you got the new TT?

Peace

Bernd

[superpanavision70mm]

That is one serious collection and indeed a great deal. Sometimes it's a cool thing to get duplicates for several reasons. 1. It allows you to choose the better condition of the two and 2. it gives you the power to either sell one or use it for display. 3. You can play one to death and still have one kept in good condition.

[musicoverall]

That is one serious collection and indeed a great deal. Sometimes it's a cool thing to get duplicates for several reasons. 1. It allows you to choose the better condition of the two and 2. it gives you the power to either sell one or use it for display. 3. You can play one to death and still have one kept in good condition.

One of the first things I did after I went through and sorted by artist was to pick out his copy of Jackie McLean's "One Step Beyond" and play it. Mine always had noise on a couple of tracks that I could never clean off. His is pristine - quiet as a tomb. On the flip side, his copy of Sonny Rollins' "Volume 2" looks pretty tuckered out and mine is mint.

Most of his look and sound very well maintained. I asked his wife how he cleaned them and she said "Oh, I never had any problem getting him to do the dishes because after they were done, he'd start washing his records in the sink". No vac cleaner or fancy audiophile solvents, just Dawn, I guess. But apparently he was quiet anal about it, as he would clean his records for his Thursday night listening session on Wednesdays, and so forth.

[musicoverall]

Incognito, Incognito, Incognito.......once the seed is planted. Well you know....

No but seriously this will help you to keep the RB600 for a long time.I know what you mean about the upgradetitis. I owned a perfectly great Michell Orbe with Technoarm A and NC powersupply, but I wanted (not needed) to own an SME TT and arm. I don't think I will change that. I am very happy with my set up and it plays the toones exactly how I like to listen to them. So money well spent.
I think you have got a great deal on the Vinyl. I am not envious, honest, no I am not.
Have fun sorting them all. Have you got the new TT?

Peace

Bernd

Yep, got the new table. Can't wait to try it out. And mark this post, because if a year from now it's been upgraded to Mk IV status, I'd like you to shoot me!

Dig jazz, man!

[JoeE SP9]

Yep, got the new table. Can't wait to try it out. And mark this post, because if a year from now it's been upgraded to Mk IV status, I'd like you to shoot me!

Dig jazz, man!

Congrats! May you keep yours as long as I have kept mine. I can't do anything else to my TT. Re-wiring the arm just hasn't been that important to me.

[JoeE SP9]

Yep, a collection like that would be the winner every time. A no-brainer. That is one hell of a find musicoverall. Congrats. How many records were there in total?

Joe I understand why you use a sub. My ART Emotions however have such clean deep bass that I have absolutly no need for a sub. So no integration issue.

Peace

Bernd

The crossover for my subs is the only crossover. Every other speaker has crossovers somewhere unless it's a full range ESL. Any crossover at all means an integration issue. That lack of crossover is one of the things that make ESL's so good!

[spacedeckman]

If your goal is to get the best sound for whatever your budget is, you are an audiophile. If your goal is to improve the sound you have in any fashion, you are an audiophile. If you want to buy an amplifier because it has 10 more watts than your current one, you are NOT an audiophile.

Audiophilia is not about budget, it's about creating a system that satifies you while meeting your own personal criteria.

[3-LockBox]

The electronics geak in me would love to play with some high end gear, but the piece of me that is just looking for listening pleasure is happy with the $30 t-amp.

I derrive a lot of pleasure in spending as little as possible on my set-up, though I did spend $100 bucks on my Super T amp. It was worth it. I build my own speakers, so I save a ton there. You're not the only one happy to just listen to a T-amp.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/t-amp_e.html

[JoeE SP9]

For me it's never been about the cost/price. There has only been one question I ever ask. Will it make my system sound demonstrably better? Nothing else matters.

[spacedeckman]

For me it's never been about the cost/price. There has only been one question I ever ask. Will it make my system sound demonstrably better? Nothing else matters.

For many, budget doesn't matter, however, I was referring to those trying to build a system on a budget, but refusing to consider themselves "audiophiles". I've heard some sub$1500 systems that were amazingly satisfying. Heard one a couple of months ago where the hardware was under $1k (barely), but WOW, it was doing a whole lotta stuff right.

Space

[JoeE SP9]

Saving for what I want is how I do it. My system has been capable of playing music since 1967. From that point on I have been on the upgrade path. Sometimes I don't buy any gear for several years. When I get the urge I save for what I want. Like everyone I have budget constraints. Paying $2500 for a used preamp is a process that may take me six months, 2/3 of that time saving. Although I am in that process now I'm not a fanatic about it. I'll never own a pair of Apogee Grand's but what I have is very satisfying to me. There are only two reasons why I'm looking at preamps. Remote control and theater input bypass. My ARC has neither.
When I'm asked how much for "good" sound? I usually say. "For $1500 you can get sound that I consider fairly decent." That amount is close what people see when they're in circuit city looking at their best rack systems. Of course that's for 2-channel audio. For those who are the least bit handy I recommend speaker kits. You get a lot more sound for your money if you're able to do a little assembly. For those who are willing I'll recommend used gear. There's not much in the way of multichannel at reasonable prices on the used market. I would not recommend or buy a used receiver from any of the majors. That stuff is worth diddly next year. Most of the used high end multichannel gear is too expensive even on the used market. I'll just wait for the prices to come down.
I started with a Fisher KX-90 tube amplifier kit, Benjamin Miracord TT/Pickering cart. and a pair of AR 2's. It has been a long steady journey since then.

[PHiX]

I am not an audiophile at all, enthusiast yes.


I'm perfectly happy playing cd's on a dvd player and have my receiver do the d/a processing.

I'm glad too, because I dont have the money to spend grands on audio equipment. Sure, I'm sure that many people here have better systems, but the difference in price to get a little gain in audio quality just is not worth it to me.

I like nice gadgets, but I won't buy top of the line unless I win a lottery.

[hermanv]

...edit... If you want to buy an amplifier because it has 10 more watts than your current one, you are NOT an audiophile ....edit...

It's not the ten watts, its that way cool machined aluminum panel and that blue LED.

No wait, there the one with the wood inlay, wait there's the tubes in plexiglass, wait, see through windows with mirrors behind the vacuum tubes, no, no, no, argh!

[JDavenportBriggsIV]

Agreed. You will never be an audiophile.

JD Briggs
Maine

[JoeE SP9]

Agreed. You will never be an audiophile.

JD Briggs
Maine

What makes you think you are?