While I rarely post in this forum, I am a true DIY audio hacker. I've dabbled in stereo for 35 years or more. While my systems have included pedigree names like Conrad-Johnson, Infinity and the like, I confess that in recent years my Stereo has included the name Bose. In fact, for the past few years my system has contained no less than 5 units being the dubious name Behringer 
.
That candid admission aside, I * have * done several DIY projects, usually to disappointing results. Perhaps my most successful was obtaining a beat-up pair of Yorkville Unity U15 and making them active. This necessitates active EQ, and with a pair of rickety homemade subs, I have 8 channels of active. My "source" is a sub-$200 PC running JRiver.
I have basic equipment and skills to do audio testing with REW or similar. My system is dialed in with custom EQ and much less precise delay timings. And therein perhaps is the "problem".
I am satisfied with my system. I have hardly made any changes in months. On occasion I "tweak" a setting but to no avail. Have I lost the audio bug? Am I doomed to years of simple enjoyment of my system with little hacking, building of new gadgets, or what have you?
Is there no hope?
. That candid admission aside, I * have * done several DIY projects, usually to disappointing results. Perhaps my most successful was obtaining a beat-up pair of Yorkville Unity U15 and making them active. This necessitates active EQ, and with a pair of rickety homemade subs, I have 8 channels of active. My "source" is a sub-$200 PC running JRiver.
I have basic equipment and skills to do audio testing with REW or similar. My system is dialed in with custom EQ and much less precise delay timings. And therein perhaps is the "problem".
I am satisfied with my system. I have hardly made any changes in months. On occasion I "tweak" a setting but to no avail. Have I lost the audio bug? Am I doomed to years of simple enjoyment of my system with little hacking, building of new gadgets, or what have you?
Is there no hope?
Perhaps in light of other priorities you find it not worth the trouble.
Perhaps you lack talent despite 35 years of effort.
Perhaps your hearing is going.
Perhaps the rest of us are misguided and insane.
Perhaps luxury audio brands serve more as symbols than as true vehicles of quality to the end user.
Perhaps the end user’s enjoyment correlates far more with their state of mind than the quality of their kit.
All options are plausible, simultaneously or in isolation.
Of course, I hope the more unfortunate options are not true in your case.
This thread will likely not end well, but I’ll venture my experience: Imho there’s nothing wrong with behringer or inexpensive gear. A clever man with cheap gear can get much farther than fool with deep pockets. Also, it’s surely possible to enjoy music on even the rustiest and mangled of boomboxes.
Perhaps you lack talent despite 35 years of effort.
Perhaps your hearing is going.
Perhaps the rest of us are misguided and insane.
Perhaps luxury audio brands serve more as symbols than as true vehicles of quality to the end user.
Perhaps the end user’s enjoyment correlates far more with their state of mind than the quality of their kit.
All options are plausible, simultaneously or in isolation.
Of course, I hope the more unfortunate options are not true in your case.
This thread will likely not end well, but I’ll venture my experience: Imho there’s nothing wrong with behringer or inexpensive gear. A clever man with cheap gear can get much farther than fool with deep pockets. Also, it’s surely possible to enjoy music on even the rustiest and mangled of boomboxes.
Is that a "doom"? Or have you found your own nirvana?
_I_ have not touched my hi-fi in 15 years. Just top-grade commercial integrated(!) amp and medium-grade consume speakers. This replaced a very hacked-up extreme system (beryllium diaphragms, and woof-box bigger than a large dog-house) which mainly served to show-up my hearing loss. So despite decades of cleverly using low-price and DIY recording gear to exceed what well-heeled recordists got, I'm sunk in my contentment.
I'm kinda there, too. Built the big horn system, the SET amps, had the ultimate listening room (the lava cave). These days I'm happy with the big warm and woolly vintage console in the living room. Do I miss the high end gear and acoustics? Yes, sometimes - but I enjoy just having some decent sounding music playing. Or fooling around with all the crazy settings on the Yamaha 7.1 amp I bought for $20.
Do we get satisfied, or does the flame burn out?
Do we get satisfied, or does the flame burn out?
It's not that bad. Sometimes we just change priorities or lack inspiration for some time. Further more I believe that there are up's and down's in a hobby - just ask anyone that work on cars, like I do reguarly
I had the same system for years, until I got inspiration from PA-systems, to build some kind of hybrid. I tried all the things with tweaks, measurements, different hifi-drivers and layouts.
And after I tamed most of the problematic acoustics and reached a near perfect result with filters/measurements - I simply enjoy my system for everything. I see movies, surf the net, listen to music when making food and also just fall deep into my sofa, when listening to some old known music, with everything else turned off.
What next? Well I think I need to polish the systems aesthetics and I still have some kind of small tweak to be done with the area around 100 to 200hz, thats tends to "bloom" a little - mostly with modern music. But for now I control it a bit with the presets I have build into my DSP.
Maybe visit some people, who do it totally different than you, but still get nice results. This might inspire you to keep your hobby going
I had the same system for years, until I got inspiration from PA-systems, to build some kind of hybrid. I tried all the things with tweaks, measurements, different hifi-drivers and layouts.
And after I tamed most of the problematic acoustics and reached a near perfect result with filters/measurements - I simply enjoy my system for everything. I see movies, surf the net, listen to music when making food and also just fall deep into my sofa, when listening to some old known music, with everything else turned off.
What next? Well I think I need to polish the systems aesthetics and I still have some kind of small tweak to be done with the area around 100 to 200hz, thats tends to "bloom" a little - mostly with modern music. But for now I control it a bit with the presets I have build into my DSP.
Maybe visit some people, who do it totally different than you, but still get nice results. This might inspire you to keep your hobby going
I think the OP will be quite amused at what some of the posters here have for kit.
Maybe he thinks we are all up to our ears in Shindo?
There are no rules. You are in the driver’s seat.
The most knowledgeable here have pretty spartan / unassuming setups from what I’ve seen. Of course, that’s not to say it doesn’t sound great. It’s just generally not what you might find on the stereophile recommended components list.
Maybe he thinks we are all up to our ears in Shindo?
There are no rules. You are in the driver’s seat.
The most knowledgeable here have pretty spartan / unassuming setups from what I’ve seen. Of course, that’s not to say it doesn’t sound great. It’s just generally not what you might find on the stereophile recommended components list.
It's clear sign you are loosing the grip when you start listening through a wwhole CD instead of jumping up and down adjusting the speakers' toe-in, balance or swapping to another signal cable with a different signature and constantly listen to the same 37 seconds of your favourite CD over and over again.
I was recently doing some measurements of my speakers to get data for a new crossover. My Mother in law asked why I was doing it because they sounded so good already. The answer I gave was that I knew that they could be better.
The current crossover I've had for the last 8 years. There has been a change in that time in that I introduced a new active crossover to cross to 10" woofers for the bottom end, but from 270Hz up has remained the same for 8 years. I guess the need to make changes varies. With me it is that I've learned a few things over the last 8 years that means that I feel I could do a better job now than I did back then. It's not that I don't like the sound of my speakers at present, but I'm pretty sure that they could be better, and I think that I now have the ability to make them better. I guess I will find out eventually (I tend to be slow with any of my projects )
edit: and by BTW the only thing in my system that I didn't build myself ( I don't count the TV) is my DVD/CD player. A marantz DV18 Mk II.
Tony.
The current crossover I've had for the last 8 years. There has been a change in that time in that I introduced a new active crossover to cross to 10" woofers for the bottom end, but from 270Hz up has remained the same for 8 years. I guess the need to make changes varies. With me it is that I've learned a few things over the last 8 years that means that I feel I could do a better job now than I did back then. It's not that I don't like the sound of my speakers at present, but I'm pretty sure that they could be better, and I think that I now have the ability to make them better. I guess I will find out eventually (I tend to be slow with any of my projects
) edit: and by BTW the only thing in my system that I didn't build myself ( I don't count the TV) is my DVD/CD player. A marantz DV18 Mk II.
Tony.
Last edited:
I have done the same thing, by going through some piece of equipment to the best of my knowledge/hearing/abilities, then maybe after a measure of time, going back to revisit things based on increased capabilities.
I have three systems; headphones at work, a pretty good sounding car setup, and the home system. While pleased with certain aspects of each arrangement, I’m not sure I have fallen into a glowing state of euphoria or anything.
I have three systems; headphones at work, a pretty good sounding car setup, and the home system. While pleased with certain aspects of each arrangement, I’m not sure I have fallen into a glowing state of euphoria or anything.
If the brands listed below fit in, than I'm a victim too.
Sorry didn't understand the meaning of the topic.
Sony
Philips
LG
Samsung
Grundig
Blaupunnkt
Alpine
Focal
DBX
Yamaha
Behringer
Eighteensound
Eminence
Acústica (Portuguese manufacturer)
Beyma
Ibiza Sound like trade marks
Self made stuff...
Sorry didn't understand the meaning of the topic.
Sony
Philips
LG
Samsung
Grundig
Blaupunnkt
Alpine
Focal
DBX
Yamaha
Behringer
Eighteensound
Eminence
Acústica (Portuguese manufacturer)
Beyma
Ibiza Sound like trade marks
Self made stuff...
Your problem is you're clearly not spending enough money. Put thousands of dollars into cables, tens or even hundreds of thousands into speakers, several tens more into amps and turntable or DAC, and your head will force you to think it MUST be sounding better!
Or maybe you've just noticed that, other than people on a few forums, no one really gives a damn about stereo systems these days...
Or maybe you've just noticed that, other than people on a few forums, no one really gives a damn about stereo systems these days...
I was not happy with my "modern" configuration for years. Something was wrong there. There was no discernible distortion in "normal" volumes, but the sound was colorless, dull, lifeless.
I lacked that feeling I had heard in my first steps in audio, with large Karlson cabinets and amplifiers with tubes of low watts ...
The home audio system went from being monophonic to stereo, oh, now we had a feeling of space!
That was very good, but I was still very dissatisfied.
What had happened then? Progress was not synonymous with improvement? The advent of the solid state and the slow but steady increase in watts at lower costs produced the mess, the debacle of auditory pleasure.
The commercial products of massive consumption, the classic brands, competed in designs of amps and decks of cassettes with large knobs and beautiful fronts, illuminated and hypnotizing needle vumetros, red LEDs twinkling, (more boring) all the designs entered through the eyes. Marketing dominated the world of audio.
The speakers of those times delivered powerful bass, yes, but on a single note, the means and treble were acceptable in some cases, in others strident, in other off, anything less similar to the real sound. The voices, without nuances or details. Listening to the inflection of a singer's voice was almost impossible. But innovative designs were incorporated in the fronts, (trend exacerbated today, wow, speakers with lights that follow the rhythm of music, that's an advance, friend) what was inside the boxes were components of poor quality.
I think the most fortunate were the turntables, there was not much to modify there. Until now they have also resurfaced, and designs for young people are seen with striking plinth colors.
But, without haste but without pause, the vacuum tube reappeared, and I began to internalize myself nevamente of that world that I had left in search of a substantial improvement and it had turned out the opposite. .
There I fell into the account, the mentioned technological advance was not such! The well-known refrain did not help me overcome my frustration:
" Evil of many, consolation of fools "
No sir, I decided to go back to my origins, and I went for a box horn, a recognized design, and a PP valve amplifier, 38 watts per channel.
Music again had dynamics, life, presence, finally I felt like when I was a teenager. Speaking of music, of course.
I do not intend to start any controversy here. For me, the solid state was an undeniable revolution for miniaturization, computers, cell phones, etc.
But not for the pleasure of recreating music in its most approximate state of reality.
I lacked that feeling I had heard in my first steps in audio, with large Karlson cabinets and amplifiers with tubes of low watts ...
The home audio system went from being monophonic to stereo, oh, now we had a feeling of space!
That was very good, but I was still very dissatisfied.
What had happened then? Progress was not synonymous with improvement? The advent of the solid state and the slow but steady increase in watts at lower costs produced the mess, the debacle of auditory pleasure.
The commercial products of massive consumption, the classic brands, competed in designs of amps and decks of cassettes with large knobs and beautiful fronts, illuminated and hypnotizing needle vumetros, red LEDs twinkling, (more boring) all the designs entered through the eyes. Marketing dominated the world of audio.
The speakers of those times delivered powerful bass, yes, but on a single note, the means and treble were acceptable in some cases, in others strident, in other off, anything less similar to the real sound. The voices, without nuances or details. Listening to the inflection of a singer's voice was almost impossible. But innovative designs were incorporated in the fronts, (trend exacerbated today, wow, speakers with lights that follow the rhythm of music, that's an advance, friend) what was inside the boxes were components of poor quality.
I think the most fortunate were the turntables, there was not much to modify there. Until now they have also resurfaced, and designs for young people are seen with striking plinth colors.
But, without haste but without pause, the vacuum tube reappeared, and I began to internalize myself nevamente of that world that I had left in search of a substantial improvement and it had turned out the opposite. .
There I fell into the account, the mentioned technological advance was not such! The well-known refrain did not help me overcome my frustration:
" Evil of many, consolation of fools "
No sir, I decided to go back to my origins, and I went for a box horn, a recognized design, and a PP valve amplifier, 38 watts per channel.
Music again had dynamics, life, presence, finally I felt like when I was a teenager. Speaking of music, of course.
I do not intend to start any controversy here. For me, the solid state was an undeniable revolution for miniaturization, computers, cell phones, etc.
But not for the pleasure of recreating music in its most approximate state of reality.
As long as your room acoustics isn't given a priority, yes, it's doomed and there is no hope.Am I doomed to years of simple enjoyment of my system with little hacking, building of new gadgets, or what have you?
Is there no hope?
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.