tonyb
Guns
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Post by tonyb on Sept 13, 2014 6:43:40 GMT -5
You have hair ?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2014 13:24:37 GMT -5
I'm 38...yes I have hair...lots of hair...glorious flowing hair...Fabio type hair...lol
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2014 22:15:57 GMT -5
chirp chirp...a few months after acquiring the Audioquest Evergreen ICs and the Transparent Audio bi-wire cables, my rig is settling down quite nicely. Sound quality has gone up, way up as noted by a newish audiophile friend who's heard the rig sporadically over the weeks and months. I've noticed changes in a few key areas, bass output has gotten stronger and more pronounced (a GOOD thing). The tweeters are definitely not blown now but there's no brightness to the sound package, it's nice, fluid and never gets in your face screeching. Overall, I'm in lust with my own system! Sure I've got some dirt cheap deals in this thing including the used amp but folks, you don't need to go to the poorhouse to get good sound.
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tonyb
Guns
The 5 Star General
Posts: 2,662
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Post by tonyb on Oct 29, 2014 8:12:09 GMT -5
, I'm in lust with my own system! Sure I've got some dirt cheap deals in this thing including the used amp but folks, you don't need to go to the poorhouse to get good sound. See....we keep telling people that. Choose your pieces wisely and look for deals, spend the rest on vacation.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2014 21:04:12 GMT -5
Yaknow Tony man, in the last few months I've gotten my ears on some high priced gear...the stuff that would require a mortgage to buy and I'll be honest, most of it disappoints my ears. The sound package is lacking this or that and some combinations are just aweful to me. I'll say this right now, I've heard Focal Grande Utopia EM speakers...yes those Focals with a stack of Bryston gear feeding them and my reaction was and still is "eh nice but not my cup of tea".
Sure one can assemble a system with money no object and have it sound good, the challenge is to get great sound on my beer budget. One of these days I'll do a post here of what I spent versus normal prices cause in my rig, there definitely are some killer deals and I know this, aside from my phono preamp EVERYTHING was locally purchased!
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tonyb
Guns
The 5 Star General
Posts: 2,662
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Post by tonyb on Oct 31, 2014 10:28:54 GMT -5
Everyones idea of what constitutes good sound is always going to be different. That's why we have such a variety in audio gear. Audio gear while being able to last decades, it's only software that needs to be updated constantly. It also isn't the best at retaining value, a W4S dac1 now sells used for 600 bucks. I won't buy new ever again, it's kinda like buying a new car and as soon as you drive it off the lot you lost a few grand. Things like speakers, amps, pre amps, dacs, cables....buy used or demo's and save yourself thousands of dollars. Let someone else take that hit.
Audio thrives on driving the "I gotta have it" mentality much the same way Apple does with their Iphones. Gets people spending money. Look at receivers....you had dolby digital, then dts es, then dts hd master audio, then all the HDMI versions and now Atmos. They don't want you holding on to your gear for 20 years, much the same way appliance makers don't want you holding on to the same Fridge for 20 years....the same way phone companies want you buying a new phone every year.
The analog crowd though, is not held to such nonsense. A good turntable, amp, pre and dac, speakers....can last decades. That's why now you have soo many different file formats and resolutions to get you to buy your music over and over again if your into digital. Different dacs too that can decode different types of files.
Regardless if your into analog or digital, buy quality pieces used and don't fall prey to the next best greatest higher rez file wars. You'll spend less time chasing your tail and enjoying your music while retaining some cash in the wallet for other things that may interest you.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2014 19:28:35 GMT -5
Ok, here's the list, what I paid and what the normal price is in stores in brackets like this, $1 ($2)
Ok, the sources save for the game consoles as they are fairly price fixed where ever one goes.
Marantz CD6004 $270 ($550) Mac Mini $550 ($750) I also upgraded the memory on this thing for another hundred to go from 4Gb to 16Gb Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Turntable $350 ($500)
AVR Onkyo TX-NR717 $500 ($1,050)
2 channel Amplifier Parasound HCA-1200II $400 used, have no idea on new price for this unit, if anyone has an idea, feel free to let me know
Speakers RTi A7 $350 ($640) each RTi A3 Bookies $300 ($500) pair price CSi A6 $250 ($500) Single, of course Tannoy TS12.2 Powered subwoofer $300 ($700)
Speaker cables Transparent Audio Musicwave Biwire, 8 footers bananas all around $160 from zingo used. No idea on new price but man they sound great Canare 4S11 going to the center, using half of what I bought a while back $16 for this piece, in bi-wire to the center 14 gauge bulk stuff going to the rears. bought a 50 foot roll for $40 and used maybe 45 feet of it
Interconnects Audioquest Evergreen 2M $35 ($45) 2 of them, CDP to AVR, AVR to Amplifier, a third 2M Evergreen was a bonus with the piece below, that one is phono pre to AVR
Phono Preamp Parasound Zphono, received from voltz over on CP as a gift, a gracious offer for a great little piece of technology.
So by my 2nd grade math, going for sale prices, used and a gifted piece, I think I assembled something stunning for a reasonable cost. Proof one can put together a nice rig and not go broke doing so if one knows where to look and what to jump on.
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