any audiophiles here?
 

I just currently started trying to build my "dream" audio system. I started with a pair of Pioneer HPM 100 speakers which many consider to be one of the best from the "golden age" of high fidelity '70 thru mid 80's.

I first started my search for a quality stereo receiver. After a lot of time spent on the audiophile type forums, I settled for a early 90's Pioneer VSX D1S A/V receiver--good decision. If you look up the specs on this receiver it's what some consider the last of a breed. Heavy, overbuilt and quiet power--lots of it.

I'd love to hear about others systems. What do you like about your current setup? What would you change? I'm needing to add a turntable, so would love to hear what others have.

JBL L112 speakers. Arguably some of the best speakers they put out before slowly going down the sink hole. I had a set, had them re-coned in 2001 and sold them for $1000 when I decided to totally revamp and get into a DAW.

If I were going retro, as for amps. I would go with a tube kit amplifier along these lines. Not necessarily this one but something similar. http://www.ebay.com/itm/6550-KT88-Cl...-/400760423649.

I'd look for something around 40W per channel and < 0.1% THD. I like the warm sound of tubes. I'd actually be inclined to purchase schematics and source the parts myself and beef-up the transformers and main storage caps.

EDIT: If you decide to go with a tube kit, go with a push-pull type instead of a single-ended type. There will be a couple more tubes but, you'll get lower THD and higher power. Here's one with decent specs: http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAQIN-MC-13S...YAAOSwGWNUYWNW

Ray

I have a 65 watt per channel JVC receiver, dual cassette deck, cd player and equalizer with a technics turntable, pushing 2 Cerwin Vega AT-10s and 2 AT-8's.

My dictionary defines the term, audiophile, as: "a hi-fi enthusiast". Wikipedia defines it as: “a person enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction.”

In that sense, I am an audiophile as my goal is reproduction of recorded music that is as highly faithful to the original as reasonably possible.

Presently my system consists of a Carvin preamplifier and a pair of mono-block power amplifiers I built myself from SWTP kits which, at the time, produced some of the lowest distortion figures available at any price but I never confirmed that mine met the claimed specifications. My speakers are a pair of B&W 802.

I have a Sansui setup. I have a good collection of vinyls and old reel to reel's I've collected in the past 2 years.

Good to see it back and the interest that others have.

My current setup is a Vinnie Rossi LIO Amp/DAC/Phonostage, Joseph Audio Pulsar speakers, iTunes/Audirvana running ALAC files, and a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon turntable, which I think comes standard with an Ortofon 2M red cartridge. :)

In the 80's, I had a nice setup and it stayed active until 2000. I was too busy then and also wanted to down-size the speakers because they were taking-up too much room. Anyhow, it was two JBL L112 and two JBL L150 speakers, an SAE dual stereo output amp rated at 150W per pair, a Gerrard turntable (don't remember the model) and a Pioneer pre-amp with a built-in AM/FM tuner. Various cassette and CD players came & went over the years.

My recorded music is mostly CD's. Once CD's became ubiquitous, I purchased (once again) all the music that was "essential" to me. The area I live has terrible radio reception so I don't have a receiver anymore. For background sound, I play Pandora or my own CDs.


Right now, I'm a really big fan of Studio Monitor speakers and have two sets of Yamaha HS8. One is upstairs in my wife's "woman-cave" and the others are downstairs in the make-shift family room "recording studio".


Speakers are a very personal thing but, I really like these Yamaha HS8's. Music gets piped from the computer over USB to a Focusrite 18i20 mic panel and the XLR outputs from that send signal to the powered studio monitors or headphones. Very simple, clean and decent sounding setup...

Ray

So Far, Matthewpatrick is the the king of audiophiles :D

Guess I'm a little bit of an audiophile. Nothing beats good-quality sound. Most of my stereo system is now Linn... love it!

Years ago I heard recorded music through a McIntosh tube amp. Wow! I don't remember what the speakers were, but the whole setup sounded so realistic.

Of course, there is nothing that can truly capture the sound of a great live symphonic orchestra in a theater with beautiful acoustics. What a pleasure! Ultimate audiophile delight!

Back around '76, after a fair bit of research including A/B-ing systems, I settled on a Yamaha CR1000 receiver (100w rms/ch, only had a FM tuner) and a pair of ADS L810 speakers. I still have this system but haven't had it set-up for quite some time. It may not compare to other high-end equipment, but as I recall, it was pretty good. I also had a high quality Yamaha turntable and cartridge (can't recall the brand), but I sold that a long time ago. I'm going to have to set up that system again.

My current rig is a 35 watt tube power amp from Ideal Innovations in Canada. Good amp for not a lot of money. Also a Vacuum Tube Logic preamp and Celestion S6Si speakers and a cheap CD player and Bluetooth receiver to play from my Apple products. Sources could be better, but I am more into convenience than making my hair stand up and getting goosebumps.

I am am audiophile in recovery. I have the tinnitus to prove it. :(

I had Yamaha NS1000 monitors (3 way, with 12 inch woofers, beryllium dome tweeters) a Yamaha 100 watt receiver, several different spiffy turntables, a Nakamichi cassette deck. All purchased in the late 70's and early 80's. It was all thunderous and clean and had very bright highs. Got tired of the pursuit of perfect reproduction...I know what instruments sound like, and using my imagination to make things sound "right" took up less room and less money than trying to find the optimal equipment. I got rid of all of it long ago...

Maybe...

Home system:

Rega P1 -> Bottlehead Eros pre-amp -> Bottlehead Stereomour amplifier -> Klipsch Heresey's, original version purchased in the 70's, still going strong.

Office System:

Raspberry Pi running Raspyfi -> Aune T1 DAC -> Bottlehead S.E.X amplifier -> Blumenstein Orca's w/Dungeness sub

D

I'm a semi-audiophile. When I moved to Texas I got a combo hifi/home theater system with consideration of a large room with a 14' hip tray ceiling and openings to a foyer and breakfast area, I needed dispersion and went with bipolars.

I went with a Denon receiver, Rotel power amp and what was at the time the flagship DefTech speakers; center w/sub, main towers with separate subs, surrounds and rears, all with the same speakers but in different configurations. All told 16 6-1/2" drivers, 11 tweeters, 3 subs and 3000 watts, more HT than HiFi but music sounds great.

I know folks with serious systems, Krell and Martin Logan, Meridian and Wilson Audio, six figure systems...they do sound amazing.

Not really an audiophile but I did take some care when putting my system together a few years ago. Rotel preamp, Sunfire amp powering these Dunlavy speakers that were made in Colorado Springs. When we downsized (home, not speakers obviously ;)) I wasn't happy with the sound in this room and added a Klipsch subwoofer.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...ps6hykiv3h.jpg

This past December, I decided to buy my first "real" stereo of my entire life. I had never owned a stereo before then, and man, have I been missing out!

Before I get into the specs, the only thing I'd like to change out is my receiver. While it sounds amazing, the L/R fader is scratchy and sometimes one side goes out a little and isn't as loud as the other side. I opened up the front and top and tried to spray contact cleaner, but everything's so sealed up, it's pretty much impossible to get to. I did the best I could, and while it works better than it did, it'll still act up every once in a while. Otherwise, it's an amazing system. My record collection is starting to look somewhat respectable.

Below are not actual pictures of my equipment (except for the last picture), but these are the same make/model of the things I bought.

Pioneer speakers circa 1974 (CS-701A)
http://www.oaktreevintage.com/web_ph...eakers_Web.jpg

Onkyo R1-7530 receiver WITH ORIGINAL WORKING REMOTE!
http://www.hifi-wiki.de/images/f/fb/Tx7530.jpg

Yamaha P-220 turntable (circa 1987). My turntable was only $25, so I spent much more on the cartridge. Worth. Every. Penny. This is a great turntable: adjustable weighted tone arm, anit-skate, a really heavy-duty platter, rubber slip mat, and now it has an amazing cartridge.
http://img.usaudiomart.com/uploads/l..._turntable.jpg


http://cdn.shure.com/product/main_im...mg_m97xe_l.jpg



Here's what it all looks like in my basement (I didn't have the turntable hooked up yet). It couldn't fit any better than it does. It sounds so good, I've had two friends buy a turntable and a third one is in the market.


https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...54&oe=57B195BE

Those remind me of the Sansui SP-3500s that I have hooked up to the turntable in my bedroom :)

I still have most of my system from 1981. The Pioneer receiver bit the dust, had it repaired once but when one channel went again I started over with a Kenwood. I still have my pioneer equalizer, processor, and sansui reverb. My cassette deck gave out as well and it is replaced with a pioneer CD deck. I gave all of my albums (over 300) to a friend in Kentucky who was an avid vinyl collector when I went to CD's. I was tired of moving them all over the world. (big mistake but I know they are being taken care of)

I don't have all of the nomenclatures for my equipment with me right now. I sold off my old 777 and 888 Kenwood speakers and bought a pair of Bose acoustimas speakers paired with a pioneer sub.

I have another system in the sun room similar to this one and my Bose wave radio sits in the garage. I have a denon system in my camper. The system I had in my media room (wife boxed it up for some unknown reason) is sitting in boxes in the basement.

So yeah, I have more stereo equipment than I need.

The joke in my family when someone enters a room is "where is the stereo"

I don't recall the nomenclature for my old pioneer turn table but the arm moved on rails straight across the album instead of angled, if that makes sense. back in 1981 I think it cost like 400 bucks by itself. In the military you can get real high end equipment, that is not sold in the US because of the high cost, in other countries through the PX system. I was told by a Pioneer rep back in the eighties the line I have was built specifically for that market and was one of the highest end systems of it's time. True? I have no idea, but it sounded cool.

Yup I agree..........mine very similar

"Audiophile" is a word that carries so much baggage of snobbery that I sometimes hesitate to identify myself with that word. However, I love good music, I love good recordings, and I love to hear good music and recordings on good equipment enough to have gone into recording engineering and production as my vocation. Because of this, I spend a large portion of my life sitting in front of a $10,000 monitor system in a $100,000 architecturally designed recording control room. When I go home, I confess that the last thing on earth I want to do is listen on a crappy system. I dreamed for years of a particular listening system I wanted for home but it would take a miracle...

But a few years ago, through the combination of two circumstances (a lightning strike on my home that destroyed virtually every piece of consumer electronics in the house and stumbling across a pair of the very recording monitors I wanted in excellent condition, really just broken in, at literal fire sale prices) I now have my dream system. The receiver is a nice Denon and the speakers are Urei 811Cs, the little brothers of the speakers in my control room. They were built right after JBL took over UREI and improved their designs. Each speaker has a 15" woofer with a coaxial, time-aligned tweeter horn.

http://www.in2guitar.com/stereo/stackl.jpg

Because they are really designed to be soffit mounted in a control room (and aren't), each one is stacked on top of a Sony subwoofer. It helps that I have an extraordinarily tolerant wife with those beasts in the living room. It also helps that they sound marvelous, and that I integrated them into a home theater system to allow her to see movies even though she is chronically ill and can't go to movies at the theater.;) They live in a great room that is 30'x15'x18', so they can develop some really, um, reasonable bass.

So, I consider myself lucky to be able to go home to a system that really sounds as nice as the one at work. The tweeters on these are one revision beyond the ones at work and sound a bit nicer and I've tweaked the crossovers so that they sound pretty, rather than simply accurate.

Bob

I guess I sort of qualify: Naim Audio Supernait integrated amp, Rega Apollo CD player, Dune HD hard disk music server, Fidelity Acoustics RFM-2 floorstanding speakers and REL subwoofer. Speaker cable is Naim's NACA. The REL sits on a Subdude II aurelex pad and the speakers on Fisual feet -- made necessary because of the peculiar resonances associated with ancient Italian masonry construction (the building is 500 years old).

I'm lucky enough to have a huge listening area -- about 650 square feet -- with 13 foot ceilings. With my current system, I am (audiophilically speaking) a happy camper.

Being a "gearhead" expands to meet disposable income. I learned a serious life lesson from an uncle of mine who had to declare bankruptcy twice while he kept his state-of-the-art stereo system updated every two years.

I'm with you here.

When I was looking around at stereos, I found it really difficult to research due to the snobbery out there. I found that actually talking to real people about stereos was a lot better than searching online. I think the only thing I took from everything I read was to never buy one of those Crosley turntables (which was helpful), but still, it's a little difficult to navigate.

Sums it up nicely

As in all other electronics there are many reasonable good value alternatives to the highest priced "state of the art" type equipment, that certainly can be as good as gets, but also can carry the snobbery for the mere sake of ownership and 'Look what I have" mentality.

Back when I was selling Hi Fi I still could only afford the reasonable alternatives like NAD integrated amp and the smaller Magna Pan spk's. Thorens turntable, and Nak 1000 cassette deck.

Nowadays I have my studio system with Avid Omni interface and converters and Amphion Amp 100 and One 18 monitors.

And I have a home theater type system with and NAD T747 receiver and SVS 7.1 surround speaker system.

Both snobbery and notions not based on scientific evidence are a problem for anyone seeking advice on stereo systems.

Some of the components, particularly speakers, demonstrated at RMAF or AXPONA are like Bugattis. European, exceedingly rare, unlimited volume, and a budget that would make NASA blink. :)

"O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad taste in music." --Bill Rattlesword. :)

Not an audiophile, in fact I didn't even know what that meant not so long ago... but I appreciate nice sounding equipment.

One time I was in the market for headphones and found a forum that was for headphones. I didn't realize it was a audiophile specific forum. I asked some questions on what headphones I should buy , between the few I had narrowed it down to. Heh.... I pretty much got "run out of town".. guess they didn't like what I picked out for myself, lol. That is when I learned what being an audiophile meant... probably not the nicest way to be introduced to that culture, lol

PS,
Just took a look and I still had the page bookmarked. This was the site:
http://www.head-fi.org/f/

Don't think this counts, but it sounds tremendous at most of the listening dynamic range: I have a Yamaha receiver that gives 80 watts a side RMS, a Yamaha 5 disc carousel CD player, Yamaha dual well cassette deck with Dolby B/C. A pair of lightly used 1979 JBL 4311 control monitors.

;)