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Being Satisfied in this Hobby

painttoad said:
if you want the real satisfaction then invest in tools and knowledge and design and build your own speakers.

ditto with repairing gear.

there is nothing more satisfying to me than sitting back to a 100db jam with gear i repaired,restored,designed and built.

not everyone can do this but if you can, it is the way to go.

i lied. there is another level: when you invite people over to hear it and they are blown away. :biggrin:
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i read that u have killer speakers, what r they? homebrew?
 
Satisfaction is different for everybody.

I know music lovers content with a pair of earbuds.
People for whom 2 rooms devoted to hifi still isn't enough.
Some that have only 1 system and continually look to improve.
That's the beauty of a hobby...it's whatever you want it to be.

I think if it's your only hobby then you're more likely to be chasing it.
 
Build specs cab,drivers woodworking part are what interest me... along with if one uses some special mics and such to test.

But don't take this the wrong way. your speakers are heard through mine.. so I will never know how they sound!
They do sound like I am hearing a great recording :)
:beerchug:
 
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my goals in this hobby for the rest of time?
building speakers, acoustic panels, audio furniture in no particular order. Have to save $$ for the speaker components. Would be crucial I think to firure out a workable Mic setup.
And have to delve way back into My old broken into two pieces Weems as a starter, then perhaps Bullock as best I can. Getting Bass Box Pro was a good idea I think. So far just playing around it. Like it.
Its a greater challenge than finding a modern replacement transistor. to me speakers are quite the black art.
Have only ever created, built 2 pairs. one pair always in use. Speakers are my last semi-doable frontier. created vs designed. I had help.

#1 of course getting healthy enough again to do all these dreams.

Have only ever created, built 2 pairs. one pair always in use. Speakers are my last semi-doable frontier.

Now my job is mon-thur. 10h. so three day weekend. That is a full day and evening to get down and do something.
All my CC debts are gone. (medical coming up tho). just have to play my cards right.
Still be limited to mid fi drivers.
thats ok... recall I can only hear to 5khz haha.


But I can most truly hear great sounding music via some of these mid fi's like the infinity CS3007's.

Made a good start to the wood/speakers:
New Jet cab saw, two Amana Blades. New for under the table Bosch router. Fixed my Bosch Random orbital sander. New Jointer (should have bought used) New tires, wheel bearings and a set of Carter guides to upgrade the 14" bandsaw. its fun, very very excited!

Right now all I can do is sit in this dang recliner. Two weeks until they pull this tube out of me. uggh
 
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I have to admit; My electronics workbench is not Amplifier size friendly.
and without furniture improvement, living room layout "upgrades", then adding another amp would just add to the general disarray, not to mention captain chaos. :) and speaker selection managment.

the lists just go on and on, do they not ? :music:
 
I’m very satisfied with my main system and even with my other systems, although another set of Altecs wouldn’t hurt ;)

Then there’s my curiosity, I’d like to try a $3k to $10k cart…are they worth 3x or 10x more than my $1k cart? The answer is probably no, but they will most likely outperform my current collection and I’d be happy to compare :thumbsup:

It’s more of a judgement call, just because it’s within my ability to make a $10k cartridge purchase doesn’t mean I will….rather keep the money in the bank, but then I’m still curious :whip:

VR
Andy
 
I saw those GRS Mach one 15" replacements on Parts Express

first dumb idea was put them in (gasp) 15" By no one Fisher air pressure changers. (attractive cabs tho)
nah.

went on my bizzness.

while later looked at them again. What do I need these for ? they might be suxxyy.

forward an hour.

look at them again!

BUT WHAT IF THEY ARE DECENT AND SELL OUT AND NO MORE ARE EVER AVAILABLE!!??

Arrived today. lol. Please to provide my Noun kind Sirs.

PS yes I know Xmax is a sad value.
 
adnick said:
I’m very satisfied with my main system and even with my other systems, although another set of Altecs wouldn’t hurt ;)

Then there’s my curiosity, I’d like to try a $3k to $10k cart…are they worth 3x or 10x more than my $1k cart? The answer is probably no, but they will most likely outperform my current collection and I’d be happy to compare :thumbsup:

It’s more of a judgement call, just because it’s within my ability to make a $10k cartridge purchase doesn’t mean I will….rather keep the money in the bank, but then I’m still curious :whip:

VR
Andy
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If I were going to drop that kind of cash in my analog setup, I would at least consider this one:

www.theabsolutesound.com

Review: The DS Audio 003 Phono Cartridge - The Absolute Sound

Review: The DS Audio 003 Phono Cartridge - Tom Martin reviews the DS Audio 003 Cartridge and Phonostage System. He talks its competitive price point, the nature of optical cartridges, and why the 003 is his current favorite cartridge.
www.theabsolutesound.com www.theabsolutesound.com
 
Did I read that right? You tried an Amp 100 and that rules out separates? That would be like me saying I drove a Citroen 2CV and that rules out stick shifts for me.

C'mon man.
 
About twenty years ago, I bought a Sansui 1978 G9000DB for $600 and scored rough (I cleaned them up) 1984 Klipsch Cornwalls for $60. Since, I've had the Sansui's power supply rebuilt and purchased two modern subs (RSL Speedwoofers) for $800. So, I am in for about $2K.

Satisfied? I don't even know how to define that. I do know I have no idea how to get better sound for under two thousand dollars. So, here I am.
 
Gigantic said:
Dissatisfaction is built into the very roots of this hobby. most of the marketing is driven by fostering a sense of discontentment, that only new gear can solve. whether it's cables, amps, preamps, software, crossovers or DACs, there's always an area that can be improved and we all come here wondering if our systems can be in any way improved.
I came back into the hobby a couple years ago after I was given a turn of the millennium Onkyo receiver, a subwoofer and about 7 or 8 outdoor speakers that were an improvement over the Bose wave radio that I'd had in my living room to play music and audio from the projector that I used to watch movies and stream a handful of shows. that quickly snowballed: the receiver was DOA, which I upgraded to an upper tier Denon receiver, which I found to be dull and settled on an entry level Marantz AVR, which did the job well enough. I was also inspired to restore a pair of 1971 Klipsch H700 Heresy that I had stashed away in a carriage hose, that I couldn't even give away. After restoring them, I still found them dull, flat and lifeless, so I modded them, replacing the woofers and tweeters and porting the cabinets. That in turn inspired me to build new boxes to address perceived deficiencies and to put the H700 back to stock, which I then sold for a princely sum. Along the way, I added another subwoofer, then replaced them both; I picked up a turntable and within a year, I'd replaced that too. Ditto for the disc play that I picked up. Naturally, I needed an outboard DAC for streaming from my iOS devices and laptop, within a year, that got replaced as well.
Before too long, I'd built a pretty decent system that the average person might be satisfied with, but I'd gone off the deep end. The revealing speakers I'd built left me wondering if my AVR could be improved with a dedicated 2 channel setup, so I got a preamp and pulled a power amp from my recording studio. That led to bi-amping and I picked up another power amp and switched them to bono blocks. I also became curious about tubes and picked up an inexpensive valve amp, that naturally, I soon modded first by rolling tubes, then replacing electrolytics and film capacitors, as well as adding a bypass cap. it was great! still dissatisfaction lingered... I veered off on dual tracks, one, wondering f I could make my speakers better, so I designed a cabinet extension with a passive radiator, in search of better bass extension; the other path led me down the rabbit hole of active, DSP crossovers, so I got an affordable 4x8 DSP unit, a measurement mic and downloaded REW.
That speaker experiment worked well, but guess what? I still wasn't satisfied with speakers that went from 32Hz to 20kHz with a reasonably flat response and I began planning my next build. as I was finalizing my design, I chanced upon a pair of 70's Klipsch LaScala and despite their flaws, I was taken with the sound. It wasn't too long before I started wondering if I could apply elements for the design I'd been planning and apply them to a pair of horns based on the venerable LS design. Simulations suggested that I could and with WAF buy-in, i retired to the woodshop and started making sawdust. of course, once I started tuning the end game speakers that I'd built, other aspects of my system revealed their deficiencies: ably, my preamp, a Schiit Saga+ seemed lacking, so I upgraded to a Freya+, which further revealed noise floor issues with my DSP and the limitations of single ended interconnects. from there, I upgraded my DSP to a quite, more flexible pro unit and began building my own XLR and single ended cables.
The upshot is that I can see an endgame in sight, or at least a plateau of relative satisfaction with my 2 channel setup that will allow me to go back to other hobbies, or perhaps dwell on what's lacking in my AVR, which could use better speakers and a more detailed AVR, but frankly, I'm less into my home theater than I am into my 2 channel setup, so I could also let sleeping dogs lie. at any rate, dissatisfaction led me from zero to the system in my signature in just under 2 years.
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I'm long past being swayed, I'm more about curiosity. I don't buy new either. I have reached kind of a "groove", I like to play inside that groove. Its fairly cheap, but very satisfying
 
hopeless said:
I'm long past being swayed, I'm more about curiosity. I don't buy new either. I have reached kind of a "groove", I like to play inside that groove. Its fairly cheap, but very satisfying
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Similarly, I’ve gone the bang for the buck route, with a large amount of used and/or diy gear. It feels good to listen to speakers or an amp and say “I made that.”
 
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