The HiFi and Home Theater thread...what gear are you listening to?

[Samanator]

Get some dealer recommendations and then go and listen would be my advice.

Forums tend to lead people in as many directions as there are contributors.

Googling Home Audio I'm not really finding anything locally that looks that promising.

[chuckmiller]

This place has been around for 38 years, are they in your general area?

https://audioadvisors.com/

[mlcor]

You might want to talk to Walter, he's been in the business for decades. The stuff his company makes is super high end, probably overkill for you, but he probably would have some very good recommendations.

[Samanator]

This place has been around for 38 years, are they in your general area?

https://audioadvisors.com/

Thanks I saw them in the search, but did not know where they were. Might be a nice drive on a day off. Like that they have preowned. Might be a good option.

[Samanator]

You might want to talk to Walter, he's been in the business for decades. The stuff his company makes is super high end, probably overkill for you, but he probably would have some very good recommendations.

My hope is he would chime in. To be honest I've never heard of some the brands he worked for. I've had ML in a few of my Lexus, but the rest are new to me.

[Rdenney]

Step 1 is to set and state a budget. You can get a decent system at just about any price, but there’s also no limit to how much you can spend.

Sorta like watches.

For me, older stuff was the route I took—Thorens turntable from the late 70’s (and the time and effort to just about rebuild it), a TOTL (ca. 1990) Adcom preamp, B&K amplifiers from the mid 2000’s, and a TASCAM CD player.

The new CD players use computer transports not designed to deliver real-time audio performance. They are price-point commodities, not the rugged Philips or Sony transports used back in the day. Those older models will require new belts, but usually that’s all they need.

I used more modern stuff to integrate audio with a computer.

Speakers are tougher. Those old big acoustic-suspension boxes seem to be no more, and the makers seem to think that everyone will use a sub-woofer so no need to serve signal down to 24-30 Hz. They are all small and ported, and these days, 6” is a big driver. I couldn’t find anything on Planet Affordable like my old Advent Loudspeakers, so I refurbished them.

And I went through a pile of stuff before settling where I did. But still I stayed within budget—less that a quarter of one of the beautiful amps sold by Walter’s company. Still, he blessed my choices, bless him.

Rick “listening a lot again” Denney

[chuckmiller]

I love the idea of a top quality sound system but honestly my high and mid frequency hearing has degraded so much I know it would be a waste. About 20 years ago I had Klipsch floor standing speakers and they were known for how "bright" the sound was. Any time I was home alone I would enjoy them.

[mlcor]

Trust me, the brands Walter has run are top notch. Out of my price league. Personally my system is more modest, although not cheap. I have a simple Rotel stereo amp and a pair of very nice Focal speakers, FWIW.

I’m sure if you PM Walter he’d be happy to chime in.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[skywatch]

I think speakers are the weak link in almost any sound system. I generally don't like the small modern speakers that try to get extra bass with ports and internal amplification. Unfortunately the larger speakers usually sound better, but then people have trouble moving them. It's hard to cheat physics, unfortunately. Usually I recommend that people look on used audiophile gear sites like Audiogon and find some of the older companies' products that have lost their luster among trendy audiophiles. My personal favorite speakers were made by John Dunlavy up until he retired around 2004, and they can usually be found quite affordably (under $3000 for SCIIIa for example). These are typically very tall sealed towers with D'appolito symmetrical speaker arrangements, and felt damping around the tweeters for phase linearity.

[tribe125]

Yes, I’ve found that speakers are the key. Get some good ones and then get something half-decent (doesn’t have to be expensive or prestigious) to run them.

Robert wouldn’t like mine, though - PMC transmission line.