faetal on 20/9/2015 at 13:56
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Jesus, this thread. Audiophiles really like the sound of their own voices, don't they.
Only on vinyl.
PigLick on 20/9/2015 at 14:02
Analog compression and distortion cant be beat.
Sulphur on 20/9/2015 at 16:25
The only sound I want to hear is the warm pop of ZB's vacuum tubes making love to an analogue stream of the original HHGttG radio play.
Gryzemuis on 20/9/2015 at 20:54
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Jesus, this thread. Audiophiles really like the sound of their own voices, don't they.
Says the guy with 20000 posts here.
Pyrian on 20/9/2015 at 23:42
Quote Posted by Gryzemuis
Says the guy with 20000 posts here.
In fairness, few of them are longer than a line or two.
heywood on 22/9/2015 at 20:42
Quote Posted by froghawk
Whoa, heywood - that post was epic! If you don't mind me asking, what's your background? You seem to really know your stuff...
My degrees are in electrical engineering, specializing mainly in electromagnetics and advanced signal processing for such things as spread spectrum communications, navigation, radar, and image processing. My grad research was in computational electromagnetics. So I have some educational background related to audio, but despite some interest I did not specialize in audio engineering in school because it was kind of a dead research field and I was bored by circuit design.
Regarding how I got into audio... I was exposed to a lot of music growing up, especially classical. Going to concerts, church, listening to family members playing at home, listening to records. There are a lot of musicians in my family, but when it was my turn to learn an instrument I was all thumbs. Tried the piano and guitar but didn't really have the coordination to progress beyond simple pieces, so I was more into music listening. I was also into mechanics and electronics as a kid; hobby projects, meccano, those 100 in 1 electronics project kits from Radio Shack, working in my grandfather's machine shop, wood working, Heath kits, radios, generally taking everything apart to see how it works. So not surprisingly, I was pretty fascinated by stereo equipment, and I was attracted to good sound quality from as early as I can remember.
Despite the interest, I didn't really have disposable income to spend on audio until I turned 30. I put my first decent stereo system together in 2003-2004, a small system maybe one notch above the entry-level of high-end audio. Visiting audio shows and high-end dealers started to put me on the slippery slope of audiophilia. I did some buying and selling on the used market but I never really got on the equipment merry-go-round like a lot of audiophiles do, trying every cable or DAC under the sun or whatever. Instead I got really into acoustics, room treatment and room optimization, DSP-based crossovers and equalization. And in 2008 I used some spare space in the basement to build a dedicated listening room, with thorough built-in room treatment and all. I measured things every step of the way and learned a lot. Then I essentially put the hobby on hold in 2010 when I moved into a small apartment in Sydney, and only got back into it again last year. These days, I am all into streaming: from my own library on a home server accessible via DLNA, from Tidal, Qobuz, internet radio, Airplay. I'm not really interested in spinning discs anymore, neither the silver nor the grey kind.
