High-End Audio / Audiophile Gear Question???

Buy yourself some nice Schiit. All that gear you mentioned isn't "vintage", it's obsolete, except maybe the amps.

A $99 Modi DAC is the best money ever spent. I power my Vidar amp with an Asguard 2 headphone amp/pre. The Vidar powers KEF Q350s, a steal for what they are. Speaking of vintage, the new Magnepan electrostatics are pure gold.

Shying away from digital is a fools errand until you try a legit high end DAC. My advice is to throw together any system you have available, with the Modi DAC and go from there. The nice thing about the Modi it's a USB DAC, so it plays streamed content....my YouTube singles sound great. 3 inputs, plug it into your PC, TV and any old disc player, even a DVD/BluRay. If you use a power amp, there's a passive volume controller for $49 and a tone control unit for $49 too, but I would just get the Asguard 2 with a Modi DAC.

Asguard 2 from closeout stock is a steal at $119, it's an older better design than the Asguard 3, and it can work with the power amp you already have. People wouldn't think a good pre would make a such big difference, but it does.

Modi 3 -. Asguard 2 -> Vidar -> speakers of your choice. Schiit is the new ADCOM, trust me. I have my 30 year old ADCOM 545II still. it works great but no point in messing with an old unit. Speaking of amps, I have a Nakamichi STASIS receiver in front of me at my winter house. It's so smooth it's crazy. Acoustic guitars sound like nothing else....but it's old and possibly obsolete.

www.schiit.com...

www.schiit.com...


www.magnepan.com...

www.whathifi.com...

Thanks for all the responses!!

Great input!

Please add more as appropriate.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Anyone who's into high-end audio or considers themselves an audiophile has heard of names like Mcintosh, Kipsch, B&W, Cambridge, Denon, etc.

Today, even a single component from one of these manufacturers can cost several thousand dollars. A high-end audiophile 'system' can easily set you back $100,000 dollars or more.

Many of these same systems exist today, things like tube amplifiers and preamps, spectacular analog equipment and the list goes on.

Here's my question...

Back in the day (late 60's, 70's and 80's) we had things like virgin vinyl, reel to reel tape decks and laser discs to use as a 'source' for our fantastical music listening systems. Today, it's almost impossible to find full-bandwidth source audio, what with compression techniques and CODECs like MP3 and many others. Source audio is a fraction of what it used to be 'back in the day'. I'm not talking about the music itself, or the genre, but the quality of the source (i.e CD, old vinyl, etc.). Frankly, much of the source material is complete garbage, to put it bluntly.

So, while technology today is better than it has ever been, even with legacy tube technology reinvented, how could anyone ever justify spending that kind of money on a true audiophile type system when there's no quality source audio to run through the system? It's all noisy, digitally altered garbage. Where would a person go about finding good quality, audiophile grade, source material, yes, in analog format, to use on one of these systems today?

Just wondering because I used to have mountains of excellent quality gear many moons ago. Much of it I've gotten rid of over the years. Recently I contemplated getting back into it though. I don't mind spending the money, but then I ran into the question of...well, what would I listen to on it?

Thoughts / comments welcome!

This is up my alley, love audio gear, love music, not sure I'm technically an "audiophile" but, I have lots into my systems, tube, and solid state. Speakers is where your money is spent. For source, vinyl, cd, and digital lossless. Here is where I figure Im more music lover than audiophile, things can still sound pretty good, even with some compression.

But really, lots of vinyl out there, there are still people buying reel to reel decks, cassette decks, I hang at a vintage audio shop, I see some really cool stuff. I promise you, a good system, with a good recording/mix(more important than bitrate..imho) can sound very magical!

I would agree, it's hit or miss sometimes..I think the quest has always been for good recordings/mastering

Flyingfox pointed out something essential, concerning digital..a DAC, I have some pretty good ones, tubed ones and solid state. I use them with my laptop, cd player, PS4, cable box, blue ray player..anything with a digital output.

originally posted by: jtrenthacker
I listen to vinyl probably 25% of the time. The rest is from my huge 40k+ song lossless digital library. A majority of those tracks are standard redbook 16/44.1. I do have several hundred "high definition" tracks that are anywhere from 24/96-24/192. You can purchase them at sites like HDTracks. Honestly, I can't hear to much of a difference from high bitrate compared to standard CD. My system does reveal flaws in low bit rate MP3's. Vinyl tends to be warmer with better dynamics as expected.

All in all, I am perfectly happy with my lossless digital collection. I think the biggest factor is the mastering of the material.

Exactly, all in the mastering!

CD's can produce signals up to 22kHz yet most peoples ears in middle age cannot hear above 14kHz so think limitations have more to do with nature of recordings rather than the technology. I have 50yo ditton 66 speakers powered by decades old Nad c360 amp that are doing far better than my ears.

But eh its your money. Sharing is caring.

There's a lot more to sound than specs.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Jason79

It's called "compression", in its various forms.

The full bandwidth of the music is basically hacked off in order to favor the louder elements of the song. It's essentially the same technique they use with advertising, and why advertisements seem louder than regular programming when in actuality they are not (dB wise anyway).

Daft Punk stuck a fork in the Loudness Wars a few years ago...

en.wikipedia.org...
wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

R.A.M. is now considered the gold standard for sound engineering...

www.youtube.com...

www.uaudio.com...
/www.uaudio.com/blog/artist-interview-mick-guzauski/

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
So what are you looking at, new gear, or pulling stuff out of storage? you can do pretty good on the used market. I could never have put together what I have at new prices.

And lots can be said about matching components, particularly speakers and amp, I like single ended tube amp for instance, they require a certain kind of speaker(efficient) I also have some demanding speakers that do better with some real power.

So much cool stuff out there, lots of audio gear youtube channels to check out.

a reply to: vonclod

Well, it's probably a little of 'all of the above' honestly. I 'm a gearhead, so getting my hands on the gear isn't really an issue for me. I actually get more enjoyment out of trying to create the perfect set up, but it's not easy and it's often not cheap.

I'd just hate to go through all the effort and expense and then only be able to prove its value by running test sweeps and recording results from testing instrumentation. It would probably be interesting to me (coz I'm a dork about stuff like that), but probably boring and nerdy as hell for anyone else! "Hey, look at this spectrum analysis chart with (x,y and z) parameters!! Isn't that KEWL???" 'Hello?? Hell"?? Anyone still awake, or even there at all???"

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: vonclod

Well, it's probably a little of 'all of the above' honestly. I 'm a gearhead, so getting my hands on the gear isn't really an issue for me. I actually get more enjoyment out of trying to create the perfect set up, but it's not easy and it's often not cheap.

I'd just hate to go through all the effort and expense and then only be able to prove its value by running test sweeps and recording results from testing instrumentation. It would probably be interesting to me (coz I'm a dork about stuff like that), but probably boring and nerdy as hell for anyone else! "Hey, look at this spectrum analysis chart with (x,y and z) parameters!! Isn't that KEWL???" 'Hello?? Hell"?? Anyone still awake, or even there at all???"

I'm a gearhead myself, so much stuff, Im trying to thin the herd, but it's hard to let go I rotate stuff in and out. Tubes in the winter, solid state in the summer(amps) There are always some tubes involved, phono preamp full time, if running a pre and amp, always a tube pre, I generally have 2 dac's hooked up, ss, and a tubed unit..interesting to compare. Speakers are fun, I run Avantegarde with my single ended tube amps(20w class A), and Wilsons with the bigger power solid state, the Wilsons still do well with 100w of tube goodness. I live for this stuff! I don't do the kind of testing you do, I appreciate it though..I just let my tired old ears decide what works together. This reminds me. I actually have a pretty cool spectrum analyser, need to send it to Seattle for a mic and calibration..where the heck is it..lol, buried here somewhere!

Any particular brand you are looking at?