[slmckay73]

Hey Head-Fiers. 
 
Here's a question from a newcomer to the headphone hobby. I see people talk about their home hi-fi setups all the time. I understand the importance of a good DAC/amp combo for a high end, high impedance pair of cans to really sound their best, but is that what people mean when they speak of a "source," or is the source where the music actually comes from, like a desktop or something? What types of sources do people with really high-end setups normally use? Or does where the music comes from matter at all as long as you have a good DAC? Thanks for any input. 

 

[KG Jag]

There is no "normal" although what is most commonly used probably varies by age.
 
Many of us, especially those who are long in the tooth, primarily listen to vinyl, CD's, SACD's, DVD-A, Blu-Ray audio any other physical music media.
 
Those who are younger use computer based files or streaming.
 
Equipment used in the audio chain will naturally vary, at least in part, depending on on the music format.  Analog media, such as vinyl, don't need a DAC.  Various quality disc playing decks have quality built in DAC's, some of which can be used with computer based files as well.
 
The one almost universal point of agreement is that almost all believe that you need a better quality of musical format that that delivered by standard MP3's.

 

[slmckay73]

Thanks for the reply; that clears things up. I would just always hear people mention their setups but never specify any of the components. So I guess there are hi-fi CD players and turntables? 

 

[KG Jag]

  Thanks for the reply; that clears things up. I would just always hear people mention their setups but never specify any of the components. So I guess there are hi-fi CD players and turntables? 

 
Except for turntables, strangely enough, most disk playing equipment is considered to be passse by many--especially the "youts".
 
There are a number of excellent SACD, CD and muliti-format disc players by folks like Oppo, Sony, Teac, Onkyo, Cambridge, NAD and others.

 

[Shaffer]

Hey Head-Fiers. 

Here's a question from a newcomer to the headphone hobby. I see people talk about their home hi-fi setups all the time. I understand the importance of a good DAC/amp combo for a high end, high impedance pair of cans to really sound their best, but is that what people mean when they speak of a "source," or is the source where the music actually comes from, like a desktop or something? What types of sources do people with really high-end setups normally use? Or does where the music comes from matter at all as long as you have a good DAC? Thanks for any input. 

LPs and tape.

 

[billybob_jcv]

LPs and tape.

So - you live in 1978? Please tell my younger self to dump his girlfriend, she's gonna break his heart in 1980.

 

[Shaffer]

So - you live in 1978? Please tell my younger self to dump his girlfriend, she's gonna break his heart in 1980.

I'm sorry you're unfamiliar with the [home] high-performance market.

Edit: here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PbIb3w2Vks

 

[billybob_jcv]

Can you still buy tape for that Tandberg or Nakamichi reel-to-reel?

 

[Shaffer]

Can you still buy tape for that Tandberg or Nakamichi reel-to-reel?

I don't recall ever seeing a Nak RTR. Yes, tape is available.

 

[KG Jag]

Can you still buy tape for that Tandberg or Nakamichi reel-to-reel?

 
Replace Nak with Teac and/or Ampex.
 
Nak made excellent cassette decks.

 

[billybob_jcv]

You're right - it's been too long, and most of those brain cells were destroyed in the 1980s.

I might have been thinking of the big Technics units. I recall it being something Japanese...

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Thanks for the reply; that clears things up. I would just always hear people mention their setups but never specify any of the components. So I guess there are hi-fi CD players and turntables? 

 
And now music servers - basically CDPs with a hard drive instead of a CD transport (the disc mechanism), or a transport (a CD transport with no digital to analogue decoder that only sends out a digital signal) that uses an HDD instead of a CD transport.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Or, since one can just output digital audio to a hi-fi decoder anyway, then any device that can do so can be used: like a desktop computer, a laptop, or even smartphones and tablets.
 

 

 

[Shaffer]

High-End music servers, in many ways, remind me of the high-performance Home Theater market. Once the interested parties bought their setups, the market essentially died. I can see it taking off on the low-end; most of the folks who are interested in quality still like flipping sides. We'll see if I'm right.

From a personal perspective, I cannot even imagine the time and effort it would take to transfer 6,000LPs and 2,500CDs onto a server and to what end? I'm not interested in digitized analog - at all - nor is most in our community. Yes, there are some who use music servers. Typically, they're new to all this and have limited collections.

Edit: All this being said, I do have a 2TB HDD plugged into my Oppo105. Gotta have a place to store files. Times do change.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

From a personal perspective, I cannot even imagine the time and effort it would take to transfer 6,000LPs and 2,500CDs onto a server and to what end? I'm not interested in digitized analog - at all - nor is most in our community. Yes, there are some who use music servers. Typically, they're new to all this and have limited collections.

 

I see the pointlessness of doing that for LPs (since any noise from wear on the LPs or badly maintained tonearm would just get picked up anyway), but it's a lot easier with CDs. Anyone who uses CDs and listens with portable players copied their CDs, and as I do, backed them up in FLAC in portable HDDs. If anything happens to my house while I'm at work, I still have a copy of all my music with me as I have one of those HDDs in my bag at all times.

 

[Shaffer]

I see the pointlessness of doing that for LPs (since any noise from wear on the LPs or badly maintained tonearm would just get picked up anyway), but it's a lot easier with CDs. Anyone who uses CDs and listens with portable players copied their CDs, and as I do, backed them up in FLAC in portable HDDs. If anything happens to my house while I'm at work, I still have a copy of all my music with me as I have one of those HDDs in my bag at all times.

Are you in the market for a $20,000 High-End sever? No, right?