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Minimalism or stacks of equipment?

Hendrix416

Hendrix416

Nice Buzz/Good Tunes
Since downsizing my equipment to just an Onkyo TX-8011 stereo receiver, Pioneer CT-F6262 deck and an RCA LAB-1200 turntable (not bad for a plastic TT by the way) ONE pair of speakers (Realistic Optimus 1000s) and no EQ or processing, I've been pleased with the overall sound of my music, especially with my analog recordings. Has this been a similar experience with those who has or had the stacks of equipment and speakers? I think I am starting to become somewhat minimalist with my stereo system. The music sounds much more natural that way.
 
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I've never actually had more than a minimalist system, as I've only just recently gotten into the stereo game. As of now, I think everything sounds great. If I had the money for lots of complicated gear, I'm sure I'd go that route. As of now, I'm glad my system is simple, I know that the more I add, the more I'll try to fiddle, and the less I'll know if I enjoy the music.
 
STACKS AND STACKS My main system currently has 21 units connedted to one amp.
9 are sources.
 
I have a lot of systems very neatly arranged, and each one is fairly minimal without a lot of extra stuff around. I hate clutter, but you can really get a lot of stuff in one place if you arrange it all very tastefully. Vintage gear blends in with vintage furniture, for example. It just looks like part of the theme.
 
Lots of pieces. but no tone controls other than the volume controls on my crossover. the only ones I touch are the subwoofer settings.
Regards,
Jim
 
Sometimes I wish I had all the money I spent along the way, for a great simple system, but I incrementally upgrade as I go along, spending dribs and drabs of money to pick up little deals along the way, as I try out different stuff, and can't get it together to sell anything. So although I sometimes regret I don't regret the education I'm giving myself.
I do have too much stuff stacked in my sister's place, and will have to deal with that soon.
 
Designdweeb said:
Sometimes I wish I had all the money I spent along the way, for a great simple system, but I incrementally upgrade as I go along, spending dribs and drabs of money to pick up little deals along the way, as I try out different stuff, and can't get it together to sell anything. So although I sometimes regret I don't regret the education I'm giving myself.
I do have too much stuff stacked in my sister's place, and will have to deal with that soon.
Click to expand...

I often think about the same thing, but if I didn't go through the process of buying, listening, selling, buying, collecting, uncollecting..I wouldn't know where to begin. I think I've learned a lot in the 3 years that I've been in this hobby (yeah, only 3 years), owned more stereo gear than I ever thought I'd own in my entire life, and learned so much that I have a really good idea what I'd do if I ended up with a million dollars to spend on audio gear. It's all a journey..and I've even been getting rid of things lately, as the minimalist approach is very appealing.
 
I've got a buncha gear, and I am working to incorporate it into two systems, one for the living room, and one for my main listening room (bedroom).

the LR will most likely be a receiver, single pair of speakers, turntable, R2R, and maybe a cassette deck...to me, that is pretty minimalist.

However, the main listening room will have many many R2R (4-6 or more) decks, cassette decks (3-4), probably 2 turntables, multiple tuners....just a whole pile of gear connected through a custom made RCA patchbay that I found (96 patch points). I hope to biamp the speakers that I am going to be using, so either two or three amplifiers (thinking about monoblocking JBL 6230's for the LF). All of it will be wonderful gear, so it's not like I am keeping a bunch of crap in my system, a lot of is close to TOTL, or TOTL.

So for me, it just depends on the application, and how much effort and time I want to put into the system, and what I want to do with the system. Oh, I like having lots of gear all wired up for use. :)

Plus, some video gear, like a 3/4" deck, and a SVHS editor, plus the usual DVD player and composite output from my computer.
 
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Most of my systems are (to me) minimalist, but others might not think so. I do like to have at least one dubbing system where I can easily record any format to any other format. That system has:

Plasma video monitor
CRT video monitor
Power conditioner
UPS battery backup
Control system
Pro-logic/stereo tuner/preamp
5.1 decoder/DAC
Parametric & graphic EQs
Six channel power amp
Stereo power amp
Powered sub
5 surround speakers
2 stereo/music speakers
PC for video streaming, video recording/editing, and ProTools multi-channel audio recording
DAT
8mm
S-VHS
LD
DVD
CD-R
TiVo with DVD-R
Stereo cassette
4-track cassette
8-track cassette
Turntable & phono preamp
MP3 player
A/V feeds from multiple music servers
Stereo feed from recording studio control room

...and probably some other stuff I'm not remembering.

je
 
Minimalist. One solid state, one tube amp system, just a pair of speakers each system. Like Designdweeb, I simply replace with improvements. I still hunt, but if what I find doesn't enhance the sound, it gets sold again. If it's better than what I have, the replaced unit gets sold. Works out great- no muss, no fuss and no clutter!
 
My problem is that part of the attraction of this hobby was the opportunity to fix stuff. I knew I would have some things to learn, but I kept on picking up projects. My basement/mancave looks anything but minimalist. At least some of the work on speakers has allowed me to send a few out the door.

Regards,

D-Ray
 
I got both... very minimal in the garage, minimal in the living room.. and STACKS in the basement.. each has a different purpose..
 
I had piles and piles of stuff.

Simple is so much easier... bur for some reason it's costing me more than piles and piles of stuff.
 
Here's my take....people with buco-bucks have a tendency to have new minimalist systems of ultra high-quality.

Normal people have a tendency to jam racks with vintage gear with maybe a new piece here and there thrown in.

Me??? I jam about as many mostly black boxes onto a chrome 6 shelf, 4' wide by 6' high bakery style rack that I can. I also like adding goofy stuff like expanders, EQ's and have even experimented with reverb processors from time to time. That's the way I like it....seems more of a hobby as I'm always jerking around with the way it sounds.
 
I just dismantled a system that had about a dozen pieces with receivers, amps,expanders, reverbs, processors, you name it.
I currently have just a pre-amp, a tube power amp, a phono stage and turntable, DAC & CDP.
It looks much nicer to me, and I think it sounds better too.
 
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