[spacemanspliff]

I have a very modest system $$ wise. My computer is fast and cost me 3X more than my audio. In other words, pc gaming took precedent over music to me.

That might be changing. I just got a new piece that truly brought the music out of the box and let it dance.

My system

Winamp lossless w/ Ogg-Vorbis encoder add-on> Trends Audio UD-10 usb to optical(soon coax)>Sony 1000esd digital pre > Sony n110 stereo amp(45x2 of excellent solid state)>SRD-7 stock>Stax Lambda normal(slight bass tweak of removing foam.)

Well, I have had some pretty decent equipment before. Cost a lot more too. I believe that this current setup cost me $560(barring the PC lol).

I hear things I did not before in every cd I have. Damn. This has happened before but not like this. Detail is.....unreal. Better than live? Sometimes. Certainly clearer.

For the first time, I am considering selling my pc for a higher end Stax amp and dac lol.

Stax owns if you like the detail level all the way off the damn chart.

Wow.

 

[TheRealBigMeat]

since you already have a nice computer, and a nice set of headphones, which you are saying sound better than anything before, why dont you just be satisfied with what you have? computer value depreciates so fast, like the way that i bought a $300 CPU and a short while later you could get them dirt cheap. just be cautious.

 

[Duggeh]

Getting out of PC and into audio was one of the best hobby changes I ever made. I'm still using my 5 years old PC. And the bits that make up my hi-fi were (mostly) available five years ago as well. Ones worth a damn site more of its original value than the other.

Someone should adapt the "Boat: A hole in the water into which you throw money" phrase for PCs.

And congratulations on the Stax, you've skipped all of the unnecessary mucking around with dynamics and gone right to the right place!

 

[ueyteuor]

i have to agree, stax is truely great. i bought a stax lambda pro with a srm-212 and am sticking to it...

 

[AudioCats]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duggeh /img/forum/go_quote.gif "Boat: A hole in the water into which you throw money" phrase for PCs.

true, but the pC hobby will impress the young nerds around you, while the headphone hobby will scare them away..... you still want to be popular among the mortals, don't you

 

[erikzen]

I think that for the money electrostatics give the best bang for the buck. I have a stax headphone and amp that I paid $600 for and trying to find a dynamic headphone and amp at that price, that will come anywhere near the same sound quality, is nearly impossible.

It's true that there is a certain amount of -for lack of a better term - impact that seems to be lost to dynamic headphones, but it is not completely accurate. It's not exactly like you're trading punch for detail but it's something like that. Electrostatics just can't be quite as punch as dynamics at this budget level.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by erikzen /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have a stax headphone and amp that I paid $600 for and trying to find a dynamic headphone and amp at that price, that will come anywhere near the same sound quality, is nearly impossible.

I'm still new to the STAX world, but if the last two weeks impressions with the same setup holds....x2.

 

[-=Germania=-]

Actually, audio is just a better investment than is your PC. In most cases, you will not need insane amounts of power. In my own case, I need the extra storage and processing power because of the rather high requirements of my casual use.
Still, what I have is a silent Antec p180 case ( very good cooling too), dual core processor (2 years old), ATI x1800, 2GB Ram, 500GB storage, Sound with SPDIF outputs, 21" display (hp f2105), Logitech wireless laser mouse, and a an old serial keyboard ( just sooo much more reliable... serial ports were deigned for keyboards IMO).

Now, my computer cost me about $1700 a little over 2 years ago. Realistically, what it is worth now....probably $1k.

In audio, you can loose some money- but usually not much. If you put 1K into audio now, it would most likely be worth $900 two years later. Sometimes, you can actually make money!

Personally, I really want to get some Stax (SR-Lambdas * one of the pro-biased*). It just doesn't make much sense in a dorm room because of the tempurature variations and high humidity; not to mention the bumps and bruises that happen in dorm rooms.

I would really like to get stax, but I would be just too worried about them.

 

[ludoo]

The only thing for which you might need to spend serious money on a PC is gaming. I have been an IT professional for the past uhm 13 years at a fairly high level, and spend most of my spare time programming Open Source software or developing commercial apps (wearing heapdhones ofc), and my main personal systems are

* a 1.8Ghz PIV I bought 2 yeras ago off ebay for 90 euros, and fitted with some more RAM and a faster disk, total spent 200 euros

* a 1.2 Ghz PIII Thinkpad X30 I bought used from the company I work for, paid 150 euros for it, and fitted it with a faster drive, total 250 euros

You don't need anything more, unless you are a hardcore gamer or develop in .Net/J2EE. Audio is much more expensive...

 

[ueyteuor]

psh, i have a $300 computer.. i don't see no use for the fancy overpowering stuff today... and i just use it for music, and internet

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -=Germania=- /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually, audio is just a better investment than is your PC. In most cases, you will not need insane amounts of power. In my own case, I need the extra storage and processing power because of the rather high requirements of my casual use. Still, what I have is a silent Antec p180 case ( very good cooling too), dual core processor (2 years old), ATI x1800, 2GB Ram, 500GB storage, Sound with SPDIF outputs, 21" display (hp f2105), Logitech wireless laser mouse, and a an old serial keyboard ( just sooo much more reliable... serial ports were deigned for keyboards IMO). Now, my computer cost me about $1700 a little over 2 years ago. Realistically, what it is worth now....probably $1k. In audio, you can loose some money- but usually not much. If you put 1K into audio now, it would most likely be worth $900 two years later. Sometimes, you can actually make money! Personally, I really want to get some Stax (SR-Lambdas * one of the pro-biased*). It just doesn't make much sense in a dorm room because of the tempurature variations and high humidity; not to mention the bumps and bruises that happen in dorm rooms. I would really like to get stax, but I would be just too worried about them.

Perfect opportunity for an SR-003 and a small pro bias amp, or the SR-005 with phones and amp as a package. It will deliver great sound that is every bit as detailed and enjoyable as the SR-5 gold or Lambdas normal and signature that I have, except for the soundstage being somewhat smaller.

I have stopped recommending the SR-001 unless you mod it like Audiocats, because the SR-003 from my SRM-1 Mk2 Pro is simply better than a stock SR-001, while the modded SR-001 puts up a good fight for SQ.

 

[ak40ozKevin]

I recently bought a Stax system and I'm starting to feel the same way. I used to spend so much on videogames and computer equipment but now it's gone to audio equipment. It's hard to balance life around too many activities though. Listening to music is a hobby in itself let alone fussing with all this audio equipment just to make it sound the way you want. Leaves no time for games or other things I enjoy.

 

[Meloncoly]

Although I have not jumped into the world of Stax (but I plan to in the future), I have given up my PC enthusiast building days for audio as well. I have spent so much on PC equipment, and what really propelled me to quit was a power supply that fried on me on power up which fried my motherboard. I had spent most of my money on it, so I couldn't get any replacements, that was about 1.5k down the drain...but with audio...I don't like it, I sell it for not a lot of profit loss...but with computer parts, it becomes obsolete too fast...to a point where it's not worth it to sell it. Hell, I should just spend 1.5k on a nice audio system and music collection! But unfortunately, I'm still trying to recover from that loss. I'm on a Compaq EN now (quite old but runs XP exceptionally well)...which isn't actually too bad...but that's cause PC gaming has lost my interest and console games are just much better for me now. Hope I will own some Stax like you soon!

 

[progo]

I have a grand or two in my computer. And it's all got antique by now. Good thing I changed to linux so I don't have to worry about the game performance.

The audio hobby has been on ever since.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

In our house we have 1 iMac, 3 Mac laptops, and 3 desktop PC and 2 Tablet PC. My wife uses the iMac, I have a Macbook, and the 3 kids share a Macbook and iBook.

[rant on]

NOBODY in the house uses the PC's anymore, but I can't sell them for 1/10th of what I have in them. The PC's are all dogs now, and even the two with 2Ghz Celeron aren't up to the task anymore - they spend all their time updating the OS and antivirus that when we switch them on we can't get ANY work out of them. While the 500mhz Celeron tablets are only good for the kids to type and illustrate school papers with drawings on the screen (and check email or research the web for school papers), at least their Win 2K pro is so much faster to get up and running than XP most of the time. I have a fresh 1 year-old un-used copy of Vista Business that I can't install on any of the 5 PC's, and the 2ghz Dell is only 2.5 years old.

Three of our Macs are 2Ghz and higher Core 2 Duo with 2gb RAM each, and are no slouches (iMac and two Macbook). The oldest is 1.5yr old and the newest is 3 months old. However, the surprise contestant is the 5 year old 600Mhz G3 iBook with 640mb RAM, 40gb HD and CDRW/DVD that is running OS 10.4.9 (or higher) and is more usable than ANY of the Windoze computers. That ancient iBook gets used daily, without a problem, and keeps on going with what was until recently the latest version of OSX. Sure, it started with 128K ram and OSX 10.1, with plain CD ROM and 20gb HD when it was new; but with the extra RAM, CDRW/DVD and upgraded HD it has been able to keep up better than any PC we have.

I am thinking were are about done with PC's and Windoze. The longer you use them, the slower they get, even when you don't install games or anything else but MS Office. The two higher Ghz ones I can't even figure out how to wipe them from the restore partition and see if they can get some spark back in them or not when fresh - cheapskate Dell and HP don't give you restore disks with them.

Bah!!!

[/rant off]