If you haven't heard the story of "One Red Paperclip," please look it up. It explains my journey perfectly.
I started with some Polk Monitor 7's that I bought at goodwill for $5. I sold those for $100, and put $30 of it toward some bose cubes that I found on Craigslist (sonic downgrade, financial upgrade.) I sold those for $100, which I put toward some used NHT 2.5's that I picked up used for $170. As of July 2007 I have traded the NHT's for the Thiel CS 2 2's. Which brings me to my first taste of high-end audio.
Right now I'm getting a really musical, visceral, powerful sound. I listen to a wide range of music, so it's important to have a system with versatility with an emphasis on accurate vocals.
I've lucked into some great pieces but I know I have a lot to improve on, so help me out!
These are by far the best speakers I have ever owned, and they are very nearly the best speakers I have ever heard. They throw images like nobody's business, and are extremely well crafted. They are engineered to be listened to with the grills on.
McIntosh MC-2100
I lucked into this one on Craigslist. I'm still new to high-quality audio components, and to be honest I didn't believe that amps made that large of a difference until I hooked this into my system.
Technics SL-1200 mkII
before this I had a Linn Basik. The pacing is just so much more accurate on a good direct drive, and the Technics SL-1200 mkII is a very good direct drive.
Dynavector DV-10X5
This is an amazing cartridge for the money. It has this impeccable ability to throw any surface noise to the background and bring it's musical presentation to the front.
Arcam DV88 Plus
This is the first DVD player I've owned that I can use a stand-alone CD player as well as a DVD player. It gives the music weight without adding that hard digital edge.
Onkyo DTR 6.4
Home theater receiver when watching DVDs and playing video games, preamp when listening to 2-channel sources (CD, Vinyl, Digital.)
Microsoft Xbox
I modified an original Xbox to act as a streaming media server.
Velodyne CT-120
It does a good job of laying the foundation for my music. Deep and rich.
TruthCable Premium
These are absolutely the best cables you can get for less than $1,000. True and open sound, amazing build quality.
N H T VT-1C
I'm still using this as the center channel even though I've traded the NHT fronts for the Thiels. It does the job for now, but I'm taking recommendations for a better match.
Trichord Dino
I needed a little more flexibility in gain as I was considering a low-output MC cartridge. I ended up with a high-output MC cartridge, and this phono stage can handle it beautifully.
Room Setup
This is how the room looks right now. It definitely needs some treatments, but there are enough soft things (upholstered couch and chairs, bookshelves, etc) to keep the sound tame.
Valab NOS DAC
This DAC is non-oversampling. I'm not a techie, so I'm not really firm on what that means, but I know this component upgraded my home theater PC into an audiophile grade device.
System edited: I traded my NHT 2.5's along with the NHT AbsoluteZero set for a pair of Thiel 2.2's. I'll need to get some more surrounds eventually since this system doubles as a home theater. I would appreciate comments from anyone who has ever heard a Thiel speaker. They are crazy good.
I could take pictures tonight and put them up, but I'll hopefully be picking up some different speakers on Saturday to replace the NHT 2.5's. I found someone willing to take my 2.5's along with some NHT AbsoluteZero's for a pair of Thiel CS 2.2 speakers, which I think is a hell of a deal.
If the plan goes through this weekend then I'll take pictures of the new stuff, and if it doesn't go through then I'll take pictures of the old stuff.
System edited: Totally revamped my analog system. I'm now using a Linn Basik table with a Linn Basik Plus tonearm and Dynavector DV-10x5 cartridge. I have the output passing through a Trichord Dino phono stage. I think I might be having alignment and tracking issues on a few albums, but the majority of my album collection is sounding VERY good. I'm glad to be taking my first steps toward a serious analog setup!
While I agree about iPods, it should be stated that AAC files, even at the highest bitrate, are far from lossless. The only lossless codec that iPods support (without additional software) is Apple Losseless, and these files are roughly four times larger than AAC files. The AAC format is really not much better than MP4. However, at the end of the day, computer music offers a lot more convenience than do CDs, just don't think that iPods offer high fidelity sound!
Haha, i hear you on the rich sound. I actually EQ more into them!! Linearity is often overrated, and generally doesn't sound right to an individual's unique ears.
DK, I totally agree with you about the casual listening. When I just want some good tunes around the apartment, this setup is perfect. I like to stick to at least 256 bps so my speakers aren't exposing TOO much data loss. Using the dock connector out from the iPod also helps because the music doesn't have to pass through the volume adjustment circuitry as when you use the headphone jack.
And yeah, let's hear it for NHT! They are definitely a little richer than neutral, but that's exactly what I want: a full rich sound.
I'm a big iPod fan as well. I keep a CD player around though for critical listening because i have a mini so i have to comrpess the files. Even then the only knoticeable difference is a slight loss in Immaging and i think dynamics suffer ever so slightly, but even that can be minimized as long as you rip and compress the song from a CD and not the 'net. For casual background listening, i aggree that the difference is unknoticeable. I think that many audiophiles have never heard an iPod on a respectible system and then they probably have a lot of songs that have been compressed and extracted so many times the music is allmost unrecogniseable. Either that or they heard it 10 years ago when ALL formats were complete crap (my dad was that way until i forced him to listen to my iPod with a respectable set of headphones... he now has a nano he uses on every business trip, and i've even caught him listening to music on his computer at home). Oh, and as a sidenote im also a BIG NHT fan, truely great stuff for not alot of money, even if you buy new.
Thanks Linnie! I'm glad not all audiophiles turn their noses up at iPods. With 60GB of music at my fingertips, I can always keep my music selection fresh and unexpected.
I could not agree more about the ipod. Files in itunes AAC format sound great! I really do not understand the prejudice among audiophiles towards ipods. Sure, if you listen to MP3 files, it sounds like crap. But not the case with AAC and other lossless files.
I love playing my ipod in the shuffle mode through my system all day long. It's better than the best radio station I've ever heard. Enjoy!!!
