Mainstream audio is getting afraid

[wiimamp user]

Good gear is very important that's what I know for sure when enjoying music.
It really is.... No doubt about it.
Wiim gives you very good quality for a unbelievable price. On the amp even sub and hdmi support. On a app that is very mature and very well developed.
Think about the support they are giving their customers.
Praise and respect to Wiim...hifi still alive..

I even dont listen to my headphones anymore.Wiim convincing me a hifi set van easily be on that level or even better( my opinion).
Music listening is exciting with good gear can bring emotion..

 

[cooky560]

Listening with speakers is always nicer I find than headphones, the sense of space really helps with listening to music.

In other news I am testing another audio myth today, I have got hold of some better speaker cable, and I am keen to see what difference it makes!

 

[wiimamp user]

I never had expected it could give me even more pleasure when listening to a good headphone.
But the amp definitely gives me more pleasure..
I don't use the headphones anymore I prefer the amp now

Listening now to calexico again. I feel excitement,emotion..it's wonderful.
The natural sounding of the instruments, instrument separation, details you're hearing.. excellent. Brings joy listening to music.

Edit to be honest the wiim amps sounds better than any headphones I tried.
Yes with good cables and dac..the Amp sounds even better.

 

[MKUltra]

Music is harder to come by now unless you're into pop etc ...music to simply listen to is getting rare in my opinion. I find myself looking for new and interesting music but it's pretty difficult.

Here's a band that became quite popular as of a couple of years ago, but they're still unknown to many people.

Try to get lost in the sound. It's something very, very different.

 

[BowsAndArrows]

Up until recently, I owned a 22k system that sounded great. I decided to downsize after moving to a new condo and sold everything.
I replaced it with high end ADAM Audio monitors, a quality preamp and DAC along with WiiM Pro.
To be honest....I much prefer the sound I have now! It's great.
Music is harder to come by now unless you're into pop etc ...music to simply listen to is getting rare in my opinion. I find myself looking for new and interesting music but it's pretty difficult.
All this to say....I paid too much before and like I said....those professional monitors are fantastic.

hmm.. you can't be serious about the lack of quality music out there?? i find there's TOO much and only so much i can explore with the limited time i set aside for music enjoyment...
the barriers to entry in the industry have dramatically dropped in the last few decades with people now able to produce exceptionally recorded albums from home studios! the industry has consolidated (as every other one has) into an oligopoly and they are trying their best to use the algos etc to direct us consumers to their offerings. but if you skip past that BS and dive into discovery yourself or look at human curated playlists like Qobuz offers, then you get the sense of just how much quality is out there

also, i feel like the (ultra) high end of Hi-Fi has never been healthier - just look at the attendances at the recent Bristol Hi-Fi show and i'm sure the next High End Munich show coming soon too! i do agree that there has been (disappointing) a shift in most regular people's homes towards sound bars and mono bluetooth "smart" speakers etc. instead of a classic separates rig. but again, this is where videos like this one are actually valuable - reminding people what you can get for $250 if you look past the insta/google/youtube ads...

btw as a side note, i expect the prices of beauties like @Fender 's dragon are gonna way beyond initial purchase price (controlled for inflation). just look at the high end walkman market

 

[cooky560]

Listening with speakers is always nicer I find than headphones, the sense of space really helps with listening to music.

In other news I am testing another audio myth today, I have got hold of some better speaker cable, and I am keen to see what difference it makes!

Well consider me converted! The new cables made a difference!

 

[cooky560]

Up until recently, I owned a 22k system that sounded great. I decided to downsize after moving to a new condo and sold everything.
I replaced it with high end ADAM Audio monitors, a quality preamp and DAC along with WiiM Pro.
To be honest....I much prefer the sound I have now! It's great.
Music is harder to come by now unless you're into pop etc ...music to simply listen to is getting rare in my opinion. I find myself looking for new and interesting music but it's pretty difficult.
All this to say....I paid too much before and like I said....those professional monitors are fantastic.

There is a point where quality is already reached, and you buy based on what you like having in your listening room, and I find that anything above $2000 per component does start to have diminishing returns.

Due to different pieces sounding different, different rooms sounding different, and different pieces sounding different in different rooms, when you reach a certain price, you are best just listening to the gear in your listening room, and if you like it, well it's the system for you.

That said if you can afford a $20,000 system, you should probably look into room treatment, as you'll able to make massive changes, and still order that $2000 system and have it sound better than imaginable before the acoustic treatment.

 

[BowsAndArrows]

Well consider me converted! The new cables made a difference!

wait, what? are you just pulling out legs on this one??

please expand: which cables did you replace? what were the new ones? what did you notice?

 

[cooky560]

I went from some amazon basic cables (no idea what they were) to those cables brantome mentioned on another thread, the difference was small, but it was certainly there!

To avoid the flowery words most the mags use, everything just felt more pronounced, the bass was bassier, the treble more clear. But the difference wasn't night and day.

I would certainly recommend cables in the sort of $40 range over the amazon basic ones. But I still don't believe the $2000 cables have any difference.

 

[Brantome]

I went from some amazon basic cables (no idea what they were) to those cables brantome mentioned on another thread, the difference was small, but it was certainly there!

To avoid the flowery words most the mags use, everything just felt more pronounced, the bass was bassier, the treble more clear. But the difference wasn't night and day.

I would certainly recommend cables in the sort of $40 range over the amazon basic ones. But I still don't believe the $2000 cables have any difference.

Which ones I mentioned? Don’t recall that. Only thing I recall having mentioned would be the chord coax cable I use which I got as a freeby when I updated my amp.

 

[cooky560]

Which ones I mentioned? Don’t recall that. Only thing I recall having mentioned would be the chord coax cable I use which I got as a freeby when I updated my amp.

Perhaps it wasn't you, but it was a thread on here. Anyway, going back through my amazon history it seems the main change is from CCA to OFC, this is probably why I can notice a change.

 

[harkpabst]

Anyway, going back through my amazon history it seems the main change is from CCA to OFC, this is probably why I can notice a change.

I'm very sure that this is one of the rare (?) occasions where subjectivists and objectivists come together in peace, harmony and universal love: CCA is crap.

 

[harkpabst]

There is a point where quality is already reached, and you buy based on what you like having in your listening room, and I find that anything above $2000 per component does start to have diminishing returns.

Due to different pieces sounding different, different rooms sounding different, and different pieces sounding different in different rooms, when you reach a certain price, you are best just listening to the gear in your listening room, and if you like it, well it's the system for you.

That said if you can afford a $20,000 system, you should probably look into room treatment, as you'll able to make massive changes, and still order that $2000 system and have it sound better than imaginable before the acoustic treatment.

If you ever get the chance to do so, make sure to listen to any speaker system made by Avantgarde Acoustic.

Home - Avantgarde Acoustic

For more than 30 years, Matthias Ruff and Holger Fromme have had a common dream: "The best loudspeakers in the world".

avantgarde-acoustic.de

Usually, whenever I go to HiFi shows of any kind, I come back home and feel reassured that my main system (far less then 20.000, bot more then 10.000 in total) sounds at least as good or usually clearly better than anything I just heard. Avantgarde Acoustic system are the one exception from this rule. Too many horn speakers are crap in the end, but not those. It's just one of may unique aspects of their products.

 

[BowsAndArrows]

Perhaps it wasn't you, but it was a thread on here. Anyway, going back through my amazon history it seems the main change is from CCA to OFC, this is probably why I can notice a change.

thanks for sharing... yeh it's pretty clear that OFC copper lowers the overal impedance of cables (which can be easily measured). both cables will still measure the same on a freq response curve tho!!

interestingly alpha audio recently did a massive test of analog interconnects and they are measuring all kinds of crazy things that we wouldn't have thought of even a couple of years ago. there are some patterns starting to emerge in the data with regards to how the cables sound characteristics differ, but the results mostly agree with your impressions. they're gonna be doing speaker cables next - will be interesting to see what they find!

 

[BowsAndArrows]

I'm very sure that this is one of the rare (?) occasions where subjectivists and objectivists come together in peace, harmony and universal love: CCA is crap.

lmao, exactly! but don't forget there are some that say it's not a CCA vs OFC thing - they swear by the cryogenically treated virgin copper mined by naked monks in the mountains!

 

[eByGum]

Must admit I'd not heard of the term "Chi-Fi" before. I must live under a rock. Not sure what it really means though when you look at companies like Wharfedale, Monitor Audio, KEF, Cambridge Audio, Audiolab, Castle, Mission, etc. etc. that all manufacture in China to varying extents. Even good ol' US brands like JBL are made in China and are ultimately owned by Samsung. Using "Chi-Fi" as pretty much a derogatory term seems misguided. Never did like the Andrew Robinson reviews.

 

[Malkie]

There is a point where quality is already reached, and you buy based on what you like having in your listening room, and I find that anything above $2000 per component does start to have diminishing returns.

Due to different pieces sounding different, different rooms sounding different, and different pieces sounding different in different rooms, when you reach a certain price, you are best just listening to the gear in your listening room, and if you like it, well it's the system for you.

That said if you can afford a $20,000 system, you should probably look into room treatment, as you'll able to make massive changes, and still order that $2000 system and have it sound better than imaginable before the acoustic treatment.

I had a dedicated treated room etc.... I just prefer the sound of a studio monitor. It's very analytical and clean. To say it's better....no! But define better. I've been doing this hobby for 25 years and diminishing returns is definately true. I believe I just stopped looking at gear and realized all the bling I had was fantastic but sound and pleasure along with listening to the music instead of the electronics made me a better audiophile. Kind of hard to explain.

 

[harkpabst]

Not sure what it really means though when you look at companies like Wharfedale, Monitor Audio, KEF, Cambridge Audio, Audiolab, Castle, Mission, etc. etc. that all manufacture in China to varying extents.

More precisely: that are owned by Chinese companies in more cases than not ...

 

[MKUltra]

Must admit I'd not heard of the term "Chi-Fi" before.

It refers to the new wave of manufacturers that produce small and often cheap audio gear, such as amplifiers, phono preamps and DACs, and they are "unknown" (to the general public) brands such as Loxjie, Topping, SMSL, etc...

And the term is extremely derogatory and racist, so please don't use it.

 

[Fender]

May be ban the "hi" and name it CFi. Everyone can read in his favor.
Colossal Fidelity
Chip Fidelity
Cheap Fidelity
Crap Fidelity
and the political incorrect can secretly still read it as related to China ;-) the warriors for political correctness.