• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

giving up your stereo setup

B

biko

New Member
anyone think of giving up your hifi setup?

sometimes the setup gives me pleasure but sometimes with awful album or tracks, it just break apart.

or is it CD that is the culprit? to avoid bad pressing / recording, i go to the extend of buying a XRCD / blu-spec / SHRM Japan press, even with these CDs sometimes the hifi stereo gave me junk sound

i kept the setup because it would be painful to get back to hifi again and to current status again...
 
Register to hide this ad
just drink more.
the "beer goggles" concept works with audio, too.

:P

ps I guess I should add "just kidding"...but maybe not....
 
Last edited:
As AnalogDigit has said- if we know more about your system we might be able to help.

Its common 'wisdom' that you should build a system for the ultimate in detail and transparency- but you don't have to do that. There aren't any rules, and if your setup has made a bunch of albums unlistenable, you can go another route.

My personal suggestion is that it probably is an issue with the source component. I wanted to dump it all once and it turned out that I just had source components that weren't up to the rest. I thought the speakers were at fault. Nope- it was my CD player and turntable. Improvements in both made a lot of things I thought were unlistenable, sound fantastic.
 
JohnVF said:
As AnalogDigit has said- if we know more about your system we might be able to help.

Its common 'wisdom' that you should build a system for the ultimate in detail and transparency- but you don't have to do that. There aren't any rules, and if your setup has made a bunch of albums unlistenable, you can go another route.

My personal suggestion is that it probably is an issue with the source component. I wanted to dump it all once and it turned out that I just had source components that weren't up to the rest. I thought the speakers were at fault. Nope- it was my CD player and turntable. Improvements in both made a lot of things I thought were unlistenable, sound fantastic.
Click to expand...

i get boomy track or overwhelm bass even though i pull out my speaker.

at times the CD plays very nice music but on bad album it sucks

oh, so you have changed CDP and TT? i'm using a Marantz SA11-S2
 
biko said:
i get boomy track or overwhelm bass even though i pull out my speaker.

at times the CD plays very nice music but on bad album it sucks

oh, so you have changed CDP and TT? i'm using a Marantz SA11-S2
Click to expand...

I upgraded to the SA-11s2 (and a Meitner CDSA) as far as digital. That Marantz unit is about the perfect balance of forgiving and fidelity- I can't imagine that your problems lie there, its a fairly well regarded player and the bass is not boomy from it here. Speakers, speaker placement...anything in the chain can do this really. What speakers are you running? Have you spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best placement? The SA-11s2 is not bass-shy. But I find it to be accurate in what it does, and my speakers sounded a bit boomy with it at first as I simply had everything arranged according to my VPI, and the SA-11s2 just had more there on the very bottom end. Moving my speakers around cleared everything up. I really do find it to be about the most forgiving component that I own. The Meitner CDSA is the opposite- detailed to the point of driving you crazy chasing down ways to make everything work (but in the end, its worth it).
 
as your stereo gets a little better, it is less forgiving of poor recordings - not the stereo's fault, it is just reproducing what it is given.
My system isn't all that, but while I have relegated a bunch of music to mainly background music as I did not care much for the recordings, I never thought about down grading my system to make the recordings sound better.
I would rather have the good recordings sound a whole lot better then having the bad recordings sound ok - just me tho

Would help to know what the rest of the gear is.
 
I'd like to add that I did this once - gave up the stereo.
Bought a huge JVC boombox and just used that for several years.
I was in a new relationship at the time, which meant more "together" time, which meant watching more TV versus listening to music.

The stereo was simply using up too much room in a 750 sq ft house compared to diminished amount of joy I was getting from it. I had nice old speakers, JBL's - L-40 and L-100's and a decent int amp - 80's JVC class A, and a Dual 1229 turntable, as well as a CD player. I think the speakers were tired though, in some kind of way.
And at that time I didn't realize what a huge difference the "source" could make. Whether the media or the player (TT not set up correctly, badly pressed vinyl or badly mastered or mixed CD, etc)

It took me good 10 years to get back to even making an effort with a component sound system.

It's a struggle when you can't figure out exactly why something sounds like roadkill, when you could swear you have your ducks all in a row and all should be blissful.

This FORUM has been extraordinarily helpful as far as that, as I learned other people on here have been likewise disappointed in the sound from a particular album.

So, it can be a great relief sometimes to learn that it's not just YOU. That from time to time in the history of music, a few really great albums have been either recorded or mastered or pressed or otherwise "produced" rather stinkily. So it's good to be able to commiserate on those things.
 
Not giving up mine anytime soon. While purist's may disagree, mine's a large/powerful set up with deep bass extension, and no way I'd ever run a system like this without an equalizer. If the recording's crappy, tweek a few setting's, as that's what it's for. Cant do anything about modern highly compressed, bass boosted messes though. I'd really like to buy some of these releases, but they're unplayable on my system.
 
Don't underestimate the importance of system synergy. I'm finally at a point where, it seems, all the different components complement each other. You can throw all the money in the world at a system, and still not achieve the result you want. I find that synergy is realized through much trial and error, at least that's how it has been in my own system. I was literally hours away from listing everything on BT and CL, when it all "fell into place" for me.
 
If your hi-fi set up is too revealing on some poor sources and driving you crazy - how about a secondary mid-fi system that will be more forgiving and still allow you to enjoy the music? May take the hobby in a new interesting direction too.
 
always good to have at least two systems...one for your best recordings and another just for fun regardless of fidelity..between them you can mix and match components new and old and still find a happy medium for both lo-fi and hi-fi enjoyment of music
 
The last stereo I gave up on was a crappy Aiwa all-in-one mini system from the 90s. Anyone who owned those back then, including the TOTL units, the CD players would crap out in a few years.
 
Some pretty good points here. My main living room system is very revealing. Have a pretty decent family room HT set up, and good for the purpose. Play Sirius satellite radio on my home office PC 2.1 set up in the background, and sounds pretty decent. No way I'd be wanting to be playing all this compression on my main music system though.
 
tiga said:
If your hi-fi set up is too revealing on some poor sources and driving you crazy - how about a secondary mid-fi system that will be more forgiving and still allow you to enjoy the music? May take the hobby in a new interesting direction too.
Click to expand...

+1
I use the secondary system to listen to records that don't sound great. Its just a simple Pioneer turntable and receiver setup paired with a nice Audio Technica AT95 and kabuki speakers.
 
JohnVF said:
I upgraded to the SA-11s2 (and a Meitner CDSA) as far as digital. That Marantz unit is about the perfect balance of forgiving and fidelity- I can't imagine that your problems lie there, its a fairly well regarded player and the bass is not boomy from it here. Speakers, speaker placement...anything in the chain can do this really. What speakers are you running? Have you spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best placement? The SA-11s2 is not bass-shy. But I find it to be accurate in what it does, and my speakers sounded a bit boomy with it at first as I simply had everything arranged according to my VPI, and the SA-11s2 just had more there on the very bottom end. Moving my speakers around cleared everything up. I really do find it to be about the most forgiving component that I own. The Meitner CDSA is the opposite- detailed to the point of driving you crazy chasing down ways to make everything work (but in the end, its worth it).
Click to expand...
good to hear that sa11-s2 is a decent gear. my speaker is an SHL5 from Harbeth. i dunno the root of the problem. sometimes i recckon that 90% of the prob lies with the album. as some album sounds so nice in my system
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom