Stereo Systems: What do you have ?

[Commander Wallace]

Over the weekend, I discovered my Sony CD and DVD player had developed an appetite for my CD's. Thankfully, the CD's were homemade. The DVD's were not so lucky. I found heavy scratches on My DVD's as well.

Being sometimes able to Work from home has it's benefits. I was up very early, not being able to sleep and dug out an older and yet superb Yamaha AV receiver. It has many cinema modes as well. I pulled out a Yamaha CD player to pair with it as well. They are both part of the Yamaha " Natural Sound " series. I put the setup together with a pair of AIWA 150 watt speakers. I also have large Fisher speakers that stand better than 3 feet tall. They look like they have 15 inch Woofers. I also have a pair of high end Kef 102's. I also have 4 very old Zenith Allegro speakers that sound great.

The natural sound series of Yamaha audio products sounds superb. Natural sound is a good terminology for what I am hearing in the Yamaha system. What the setup lacks in an overwhelming bass response, it makes up with a clear crystalline sound that brings classical music to life. That's not to say that the bass response isn't good on this system, just balanced. The only thing that I have heard that sounds a bit better is a McIntosh Amp / Preamp setup. However, these systems can easily be $ 6000-7000 dollars. That doesn't include peripherals like speakers.

I have also heard lesser receivers and stereo's that present a cluttered sound that isn't able to differentiate or separate signal paths. As a result, you get a " wall of sound " that quickly fatigues the ears. The lesser stereo systems reminds me of the bad " garage rock bands " I knew growing up.

I spent part of the day throwing Ella Fitzgerald and Whitney Houston to Bad Company, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd and Lynyrd Skynyrd as well as classical at this system. It all sounds fantastic. I didn't get all that much work done but it's been a fun day. :) :yep: Tomorrow is another day.


I was wondering what, if any, stereo systems people are listening to. I also wanted to know what kind of music everyone is putting through them and their impressions and opinions of their respective stereo systems.

[mapuc]

In my hobby room I have and old ghettoblaster with analog FM radio and cd-player.

In my living room I have a DAB+ radio with cd-player

Some years ago I had what you called a stereo rack, with record players, radio, amplifier and double cassette player and two loudspeaker.

What kind of music I hear...I listen mostly to Classic FM. Otherwise it's ELO, Mike Oldfield, jean Michel Jarre and ABBA

Markus

[Commander Wallace]

In my hobby room I have and old ghettoblaster with analog FM radio and cd-player.

In my living room I have a DAB+ radio with cd-player

Some years ago I had what you called a stereo rack, with record players, radio, amplifier and double cassette player and two loudspeaker.

What kind of music I hear...I listen mostly to Classic FM. Otherwise it's ELO, Mike Oldfield, jean Michel Jarre and ABBA

Markus


Ghetto Blaster ? Did you really just say that ? You know Markus, I think you are really getting the hang of American slang phrases. :haha: :yep:

Good music though, Markus. :yep:

[Skybird]

An old-fashioned hi-fi system from the 90s in my living room, but hardly ever used. Rich CD library, all scratch free, I don't understand why so many people complain about scratches and CDs only live a few years - what do you do with your discs? Do you use them as frisbees or what?

I have Samsung blutooth NC "ear beans" as well as an NC blutooth headphone of the Bigger type, which I use a lot now with a tablet or smartphone, having mostly digitised my old tapes or CDs many years ago. I also use a duo of two Soundcore blutooth speakers in the kitchen (true stereo), their sound quality the way I set them up is unbelievable for 2x40 Euros.

I rarely listen to the radio, too much babbling and strange noise that they misleadingly call "music", but sounds like heavy machines doing work at a building site. I like my CDs and internet radio with theme-based stations without talking. The older I get, the more I feel the need to get away from this crazy world and its crazy people, sometimes I find it really hard to bear people now. I am becoming allergic to and aggressive from media, especially mainstream media.

While they invent many new sound standards and True sound and Natural Sound and whatever it is called, to me these usually are only tricks to boost sales newly, anmd spacious sound tehcnolgies often sound distorted and artificial to me. Despite its bad reputation: stnadard Stereo, 2 channels, if you have a good music sample well recorded and then have it turned into an MP3 with a real high bit rate - I promise you that the overhwhelming majority of people and experts would be unable to reliably note a difference to a CD, no matter what speakers or headphones are being used. And my ears are still top: I could listen to bats, and during an accoustic test just a few years ago was told I had the perception characteristics line of a 15-20 year old. My father even had the so-called absolute hearing/ear, now at high age he lost it.

For archiving I prefer hardware CDs. For everday use, I prefer digital interface and blutooth speaker/headphones, its more comfortable. Also, I am a bit sentimental for my old CDs. They make me remember the time when CDs were new and players were expensive and time was still good.

[Rhodes]

Never had a hi-fi system from the 90s. Have a Rotel CD-player and a Cyrus One amplifier plus two home made speakers ( built by a electronic professor, colleague/friend of my father).
My father was more vinyl and had a Thorens player. Sadly i have not room to have that assemble and connected.

But I might have if a discard some stuff around here...:hmm2::03:

[Rockstar]

I have a table top Klipsch The III. It’s a wireless speaker that I think has pretty good sound for the price and size. I can play my Spotify tunes, podcasts, pretty much anything and everything via blue tooth 4.0 from any of my devices.

https://www.klipsch.com/products/the-three


https://d2um2qdswy1tb0.cloudfront.net/product-images/The-Three-New.jpg

[Skybird]

How is the bass in that thing^? I read its too excessive, but else the sound is described to be extremely good.

Could one place a small disc player on top of it without interferences of any kind, and connect it via cable??

I'm thinking about getting rid of that big component HiFi system of mine. Takes a lot fo room, plus two boxes, and then I only rarely use it.

However, I feel I am no ready to give up on my double tape deck, although I do not use that that much anymore, too. But I simply love tape cassettes. And I also recorded a lot back in the days.

[Catfish]

We built a Klipsch horn in our twenties, with cupboard dimensions. "Impressive" does not quite describe it, it was just about loudness and bass. They also had one in a disco, protruding some 8 feet into the room :D
But Rockstar's new Klipsch device seems to have gone through a lot of develpment, i am really interested in the quality and frequency range of this thing.
I have an older (30 years now?) english NAD amplifier with NAD CD player, an NAD vinyl player and an old Kenwood tape deck, playing over AE loudspeakers. I recently switched to a Pro-ject stream box and with the quality provided by this the old HiFi setup sounds like crap :haha:

[Rockstar]

I’m no sound or music expert, my caveman opinion is “me like”. It has an 8 x 10 inch area of space on top to place a small disc player. Analog 3.5 mm AUX, Left/Right RCA jacks and Digital Audio USB are in the back and I believe the sound quality improves when hardwired. But wireless sound is in my book still impressive and quite convenient.

[Commander Wallace]

The NAD systems like Catfish is talking about were excellent and had great sound qualities. Likewise, Klipsch always built fantastic speakers and sound systems. The setup Rockstar is talking about is awesome in what they can do. For the living room, we bought an Onyko TX-NR 535 a number of years ago. It is Blutooth and Wifi enabled. It sounds Ok.

To date, we have never used those features. It's an AV receiver. I have it tied in to the TV and can do theater things with it. However, that's dependent on speakers
placements and acoustics as well. We have really only used that a few times as well. It has Dolby and DTS formats as well. Since I have many CD's, we do like the five disc CD / DVD Carousel player that we have paired with the system.


https://www.intl.onkyo.com/products/av_components/av_receivers/tx-nr535/i_main.jpg (https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.intl.onkyo.com%2Fproducts%2F av_components%2Fav_receivers%2Ftx-nr535%2Findex.html&psig=AOvVaw20NetxFD7_qjbqVk6SD8Yu&ust=1677070652652000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMDewpXVpv0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE)

It also has a USB port. I have music on a 128gb memory stick in various sub music folders and put that in a big music folder and plug it in. It literally could play for days. The bad part is that all settings have to be done on the TV through the remote control.

Skybird had mentioned recording CD's and no loss of quality. I would say that's dependent on the software suite. The software I have used in making CD's creates very " sterile " examples as the software wasn't able to differentiate between anomalies in the recordings and the subtle nuances originally in the songs itself. This might help explain why there is a resurgence in people going back to vinyl albums and turntable production. I have turntables and albums as well.

I believe if you have good pieces of equipment with low signal to noise loss ratios and harmonic distortion levels, it hardly matters how old the equipment is. Pair that with good speakers and you're in business. I know a number of Audiophiles that use analog equipment and get great sound out of their systems. The only other consideration is the space available, needed and used, as Skybird said.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, everyone. :yep:








(https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.intl.onkyo.com%2Fproducts%2F av_components%2Fav_receivers%2Ftx-nr535%2Findex.html&psig=AOvVaw20NetxFD7_qjbqVk6SD8Yu&ust=1677070652652000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMDewpXVpv0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE)



(https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.intl.onkyo.com%2Fproducts%2F av_components%2Fav_receivers%2Ftx-nr535%2Findex.html&psig=AOvVaw20NetxFD7_qjbqVk6SD8Yu&ust=1677070652652000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMDewpXVpv0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE)

[Skybird]

Skybird had mentioned recording CD's and no loss of quality.
(https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.intl.onkyo.com%2Fproducts%2F av_components%2Fav_receivers%2Ftx-nr535%2Findex.html&psig=AOvVaw20NetxFD7_qjbqVk6SD8Yu&ust=1677070652652000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMDewpXVpv0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE)
Recording tapes I meant, cassettes. ;)


However, I burnt a couple of MP3 on audio disc as well. And I said that most people will not recognise the difference between a CD and a MP3 file at high kbit/s setting. If the MP3 had a low rate set at creation, then it might be something different. Below 100, you can hear it, even easier so when knwing what to pay attention for. From 196 on I fail to realise the differences reliably. 256 and higher is fail safe, imo. 300 and more is overkill. I did my MP3 library at 196 and 256, therefore, even if 368 was available. Costs only space.

So I challenge everybody to reliably discriminate between a CD and a 300+ kbit/s MP3. The overhwelming majority of people will fail, promised. Amongst them many insiders, sound accoustic professionals, musicians.


What I always found hard to tolerate is a scratchy record, and the typical "by-noise" you got from record players (as long as they did not cost deeply in the 4 digit range...) when listening via headphones. Alsol overdonbe Dolby on tapes. Dolby B was good, Dolby-C to me always was more distortion then quality improvement via noise reduction.