beeman458
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2010
- Posts
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- 22
realmassy wrote:
I sold it two weeks ago
But, as I stated a few post above, it's due to the fact I'm probably not a 'audiophile'. The Ref.5 is a great dac, but it's too polite for my taste.
Ya gotta love it when the swamp......gets swampier. On a positive note, you're more of an audiophile then you realize. For you, music enjoyment is paramount as opposed to being about advancing the minute technical aspects (details) of the sojourn.
It's very revealing of (bad) recordings, and I have many of them, especially classical and jazz from '50 and '60.
I was spending too much time with audiophile recordings (you know, Linn, Chesky etc etc) because they really sounded perfect. But I have many old recordings, way superior from an artistic point of view. More than 200 Blue Note cds that I couldn't listen because the recording is very bright.
Was ironic is your above, pretty much mirrors me and my wife's conversations on this matter. She's a realist is that she's in it for voice and being able to listen to the music. But when a system is so good, it picks every recording apart, like your experience, what ever happened to just kicking back and enjoying the music piece being queued up?
Also, the whole Audio-GD rig (Roc + Ref.5) was so 'fragile', not consistent, due to their revealing qualities, so every cable change or different software used to play files from my Mini was affecting the quality. Initially it was funny, but in the long term I simply didn't enjoy my music. And I always wanted to get more, because I could hear the differences!!
In my case, the more transparent or revealing a system is, a dichotomy develops regarding enjoyment that goes something like this:
(After the system's had an hour to warm up, of course.)
"Aaaaaah yes, now that's what I'm talking about. What's that vibration/buzzing sound in the bass line? Aaaaaaah, much bettter. What the hell was that? What kind of instrument makes that kind of sound? Wait, there it is again. Did the audio engineer even know this was going be on his recording? Ahhhhh, much better. What's that distracting ticking sound?" Is that a stick on the rim of the snare? And the dissection of the music piece in question, continues. Where's the enjoyment?
I'm using now a Valab nos (as a temporary solution) and a Earmax headphone amp (I'm waiting for a Woo3), and I'm enjoying the smooth and laid back signature, and all my music library
The Valab is technically inferior to the Ref.5 (and probably to the DacMagic and the V-DAC I used to own), no doubt about it: the soundstage is narrow, instruments separation almost non-existent... but those are not the qualities I'm after.. OK, probably head-fi is not the right place for me!!
This thread, in it's own way has become revealing of the technical/musical dichotomy that exists when looking for a proper DAC to fill out your rig with:
When is good enough, too good?
When does esoteric begin and now you're just throwing your money away?
When does it stop being about the music and becomes about the DAC?
At what level does a DAC leave most recordings behind in the dust of a recording session?
At what point does technical overtake enjoyment?
Then we come full circle to contemplating navel lint again when the question; "Who are we?" once again, needs to be answered.
"Who's on First?"
For my needs, believe it or not, I've come to minor conclusions as I wade through the varied and endless possibilities but none of these minor conclusions answer the question sufficiently, to answer the OP question.
Let's see, who am I?
First and foremost, what am I? I'm definitely an audiophile or I wouldn't be here.
What am I not? What I'm not is a true gearhead. Although, I guess nobody gets to this point who's not a gearhead. Okay, I guess that makes me an audiophile who likes a mean looking rig that puts out killer sound.
What do I want? I want tight bass, a wide soundstage, uber smooth highs and nothing more......oh, and I want a system that won't in the process expose all the CD's in my collection for the bad recordings they are. Is that asking too much?
So far, when the system is warmed up, for me, I'd have to describe the current listening experience as compelling because I don't want to shut the music off and just want to keep adding more tracks to be listened to; "Don't make it stop." But I find myself wanting more out of the listening experience; tighter bass, wider soundstage, sweeter highs, yet again, I don't want the system to destroy the sound track in the way swirl marks destroy a fine auto polish detail job.
Yesterday evening my wife and I were discussing the finer points of just listening for the sake of listening and discussing when does the equipment overtake the listening experience? We're like you, we're in it for the music or the overall sound quality of the event. What we're not, is in it for the gear. Now, how to find that Goldilocks moment?
???
I sold it two weeks ago
But, as I stated a few post above, it's due to the fact I'm probably not a 'audiophile'. The Ref.5 is a great dac, but it's too polite for my taste.
Ya gotta love it when the swamp......gets swampier. On a positive note, you're more of an audiophile then you realize. For you, music enjoyment is paramount as opposed to being about advancing the minute technical aspects (details) of the sojourn.
It's very revealing of (bad) recordings, and I have many of them, especially classical and jazz from '50 and '60.
I was spending too much time with audiophile recordings (you know, Linn, Chesky etc etc) because they really sounded perfect. But I have many old recordings, way superior from an artistic point of view. More than 200 Blue Note cds that I couldn't listen because the recording is very bright.
Was ironic is your above, pretty much mirrors me and my wife's conversations on this matter. She's a realist is that she's in it for voice and being able to listen to the music. But when a system is so good, it picks every recording apart, like your experience, what ever happened to just kicking back and enjoying the music piece being queued up?
Also, the whole Audio-GD rig (Roc + Ref.5) was so 'fragile', not consistent, due to their revealing qualities, so every cable change or different software used to play files from my Mini was affecting the quality. Initially it was funny, but in the long term I simply didn't enjoy my music. And I always wanted to get more, because I could hear the differences!!
In my case, the more transparent or revealing a system is, a dichotomy develops regarding enjoyment that goes something like this:
(After the system's had an hour to warm up, of course.)
"Aaaaaah yes, now that's what I'm talking about. What's that vibration/buzzing sound in the bass line? Aaaaaaah, much bettter. What the hell was that? What kind of instrument makes that kind of sound? Wait, there it is again. Did the audio engineer even know this was going be on his recording? Ahhhhh, much better. What's that distracting ticking sound?" Is that a stick on the rim of the snare? And the dissection of the music piece in question, continues. Where's the enjoyment?
I'm using now a Valab nos (as a temporary solution) and a Earmax headphone amp (I'm waiting for a Woo3), and I'm enjoying the smooth and laid back signature, and all my music library
The Valab is technically inferior to the Ref.5 (and probably to the DacMagic and the V-DAC I used to own), no doubt about it: the soundstage is narrow, instruments separation almost non-existent... but those are not the qualities I'm after.. OK, probably head-fi is not the right place for me!!
This thread, in it's own way has become revealing of the technical/musical dichotomy that exists when looking for a proper DAC to fill out your rig with:
When is good enough, too good?
When does esoteric begin and now you're just throwing your money away?
When does it stop being about the music and becomes about the DAC?
At what level does a DAC leave most recordings behind in the dust of a recording session?
At what point does technical overtake enjoyment?
Then we come full circle to contemplating navel lint again when the question; "Who are we?" once again, needs to be answered.
"Who's on First?"
For my needs, believe it or not, I've come to minor conclusions as I wade through the varied and endless possibilities but none of these minor conclusions answer the question sufficiently, to answer the OP question.
Let's see, who am I?
First and foremost, what am I? I'm definitely an audiophile or I wouldn't be here.
What am I not? What I'm not is a true gearhead. Although, I guess nobody gets to this point who's not a gearhead. Okay, I guess that makes me an audiophile who likes a mean looking rig that puts out killer sound.
What do I want? I want tight bass, a wide soundstage, uber smooth highs and nothing more......oh, and I want a system that won't in the process expose all the CD's in my collection for the bad recordings they are. Is that asking too much?
So far, when the system is warmed up, for me, I'd have to describe the current listening experience as compelling because I don't want to shut the music off and just want to keep adding more tracks to be listened to; "Don't make it stop." But I find myself wanting more out of the listening experience; tighter bass, wider soundstage, sweeter highs, yet again, I don't want the system to destroy the sound track in the way swirl marks destroy a fine auto polish detail job.
Yesterday evening my wife and I were discussing the finer points of just listening for the sake of listening and discussing when does the equipment overtake the listening experience? We're like you, we're in it for the music or the overall sound quality of the event. What we're not, is in it for the gear. Now, how to find that Goldilocks moment?
???
