[Bowmoreman]

I am certainly capable of making those decisions and much of my gear has been heard in blind studies by others who record similar responses. Now mind you some of the listeners have young ears but I always found that to be a good thing. I do not rejects opinions of anyone it is just more fun to hang out with some.

Whenever I design and build something I try to be objective since no doubt I could be biased. When others such as Bill, Ripper, Sam, ImagesbyMurray, Orange5o and my local group give me positive feedback, perhaps my assessments are ok.

I am happy with my home gear yet it is a twelve minute drive for me to systems in the $100k range. Everything is relative. Sometimes you buy what you can afford and do the best you can.

Yep! I’m just happy and thankful at this point. To have such.a system, library, and most important of all: a true desire, appreciation, and lifelong (since age 10 or so) appreciation of good music; of most sorts… Marilyn Manson, not so much…

Blessed by connecting with adventurous and fellow travelers in the journey. And, thankful for so much live acoustic (Jazz, and Symphonic) music experience in the 70’s, 80’s and into mid ‘90s (we then had kids, and, boom…).

Seriously, blessed and thankful about it all; most especially now as my deteriorating hands make my other passion/hobbies (Astronomy/astrophotography, photography, and gardening) ever more challenging. Don’t need muh hands for listening. Don’t ask about the costs of getting joint-by-joint steroid injections in one’s hands.

One thing re-confirmed in yesterday’s session with @bagwell359… for me the proper soundstage for Jazz or Classical orchestral is mandatory. 3d staging… point source imaging is nice, but (for me), it’s the sound stage.

All personal preference.

PS: I am jones’ing for Stjarna… in our catching up, we reminisced about our ARC days… I’m rather certain at this point, that a tube phono pre is exactly what I need to end-game on/with

 

[Ripper2860]

Happy Thursday!!

 

[bcowen]

My tipple this evening, along with Dame Bassey...

The perfect libation for cruising around the neighborhood in your new car.

 

[earnmyturns]

I keep the manuals handy on my iPad. The hieroglyphics are impenetrable and idiosyncratic, but like you, I just ignore them and bring up the manual for the infrequent times that I need to do something and require a translation.

Suggestion for @ArmchairPhilosopher: for each forked device, have master file of icons, corresponding physical descriptions, Forkbeard "address," and their descriptions. Then use that to generate the relevant parts of the manuals and UI elements, with automatic long press to get description. This could also be a foundation for accessibility features.

 

[Paladin79]

Yep! I’m just happy and thankful at this point. To have such.a system, library, and most important of all: a true desire, appreciation, and lifelong (since age 10 or so) appreciation of good music; of most sorts… Marilyn Manson, not so much…

Blessed by connecting with adventurous and fellow travelers in the journey. And, thankful for so much live acoustic (Jazz, and Symphonic) music experience in the 70’s, 80’s and into mid ‘90s (we then had kids, and, boom…).

Seriously, blessed and thankful about it all; most especially now as my deteriorating hands make my other passion/hobbies (Astronomy/astrophotography, photography, and gardening) ever more challenging. Don’t need muh hands for listening. Don’t ask about the costs of getting joint-by-joint steroid injections in one’s hands.

One thing re-confirmed in yesterday’s session with @bagwell359… for me the proper soundstage for Jazz or Classical orchestral is mandatory. 3d staging… point source imaging is nice, but (for me), it’s the sound stage.

All personal preference.

PS: I am jones’ing for Stjarna… in our catching up, we reminisced about our ARC days… I’m rather certain at this point, that a tube phono pre is exactly what I need to end-game on/with

I will have the luxury of hearing several tube phono preamps for comparison purposes. If I am most impressed by the Stjarna, so be it. Plenty of time to be patient and listen. Proper tubes can have an impact and I want time to try those that have been used in specific products. It was that case with the Freya +. Some tube types offer less choices especially if Chinese or Russian made.

Those of us that spend time rolling tubes understand that some gear lets you hear tube differences better than others and that of course can vary with the amount of tubes we have listened to. IMHO.

 

[bagwell359]

What’s the underfloor beneath the W2W? Lay down some proper wood + area wool rugs doable? Or not possible? Looking forward to hearing them! (Hate W2W… got the whole first floor ripped out and replaced with 5” oak, but still have the stairs and 3 bedrooms/hall upstairs to do same… <shudder>)

PS: we’re planting the JA’s tomorrow! (And putting in the last of the snow plow stakes, alas). I’ll RIP that one demo CD with the insane bass for when I next see you… that was wild (even after totally unloading the room).

Yeah I'm plotting - maybe blue slate under - or thick oak under the speakers... worse comes to worse I'll stick em on the old ones for company and revert for safety when not. I have two other folks scheduled to come - a retired professional musician friend and @Cat Whisperer Bob.

 

[Verde And Black]

This is the way.

I’ve only dabbled with a small amount of treatment. A friend has heavy treatment in a studio. It can get pricey but it makes a big difference. It’s that WAF in a living room setting that’ll get ya (me) every time.

That’s why I dedicate a portion of my mad money to original art on canvas as needed.

Support local artists, a couple pieces have appreciated (a lot) in value over the decades. And all of them double as acceptable treatments while actually looking good. I’m sure there’s a compromise there, but it’s a worthy one.

 

[earnmyturns]

Since UX is my passion, I humbly submit that any text added to the hieroglyphics in the Forkbeard app should be in Comic Sans font.

No, to be historically appropriate they should be in Younger Futhark.

 

[Paladin79]

That’s why I dedicate a portion of my mad money to original art on canvas as needed.

Support local artists, a couple pieces have appreciated (a lot) in value over the decades. And all of them double as acceptable treatments while actually looking good. I’m sure there’s a compromise there, but it’s a worthy one.

A wise move, I invest in property, stocks, vintage audio tubes, small companies and art as well as vintage audio gear. crazy as it sounds the vintage tubes are doing the best on gains and I get to hear them.

 

[tin-ear]

I find all of the icons intuitive. Maybe it's just me? The gain icons are bar graphs, inputs look like their connectors, the Lyr+ MOSFET icon is a transistor. Sometimes they can be hard to see with my glasses off in dim lighting, but so are a lot of other things.

What percent of the population do think knows what "connectors", "MOSFET" and "transistor" refer to? Or look like. Clue, it is much lower than people visiting head-fi know.

 

[sixergixer]

The perfect libation for cruising around the neighborhood in your new car.

A+ post.

 

[artur9]

It's intelligibility of voices at very low volumes that is the standout among many traits - like no midbass when there isn't any.

I had them on a 26.5" stand that was spindly, got a beefy 22" stand but w/ wall to wall the mids are getting swallowed, even tilted up to listening position. Shart. I'll figure it out.

I have them on 22" walnut stands on spikes I got made by Tyler Acoustics a few years ago. They are hollow so I filled them with about 30-50lbs each of stainless steel sandblaster beads.

Then I put them on these isolation feet on top of the stand. I used the feet because I'm trying to keep their prodigious bass from going into the bedroom downstairs*. It may be imaginary, but after putting them on the feet the bass got more precise and the imaging tightened up a bit. Well worth the double sawbuck.

P.S. I think the tweeters are at the same level as my ears. I have a thick rug on top of the wall-to-wall. It could also be Linn Space Optimisation helping out.

* fool's errand - the sound is traveling through the heating ducts

 

[Bowmoreman]

I will have the luxury of hearing several tube phono preamps for comparison purposes. If I am most impressed by the Stjarna, so be it. Plenty of time to be patient and listen. Proper tubes can have an impact and I want time to try those that have been used in specific products. It was that case with the Freya +. Some tube types offer less choices especially if Chinese or Russian made.

Those of us that spend time rolling tubes understand that some gear lets you hear tube differences better than others and that of course can vary with the amount of tubes we have listened to. IMHO.

I’ve no doubts you are correct. My tube days were a hella long time ago, and ended in 1990…

 

[sixergixer]

I tried giving my AudioEngine A5+ speakers to my daughter but she could not yet figure out a setup in her cramped bedroom and it was not a huge priority for her at this point in time so I moved them into a small nook / seating area on the upper floor that I am converting into a personal listening space. Moved the little Schiit stack up there, too, with the Magni+ acting as pre- into the A5s with streaming from my phone and a Sony SACD player as sources. These speakers excel at near-field listening but man oh man oh man did the addition of the Loki improve everything. Dialing in a little extra on the right two dials and just a touch more bass didn't just change frequencies, it expanded and lifted the entire sound field - both wider and taller. Marvelous result!

Pretty decent blended malt in the glass and music from Animal Collective's Deakin jammin' the grooves. Nice!

 

[Paladin79]

I’ve no doubts you are correct. My tube days were a hella long time ago, and ended in 1990…

If I am wrong Cowen will tell me, he is like that.