Varnish connoisseurs

[thegreathopper]

I knew someone did, still never met anyone who likes the Eagles.

[SuperPang]

The SUTs in my Luxman do a good job but it's hardly a gain monster. My cheap Project phono stage actually went louder.

[thegreathopper]

But Joe, does it sound better or just louder.

[SuperPang]

But Joe, does it sound better or just louder.

The Lux is in a different league. I just wouldn't pair a very low output MC cart with it.

[NASguy]

My setup has changed drastically over the years. From humble beginnings collecting CDs during the '90s, to Minidisc in 1997, to downloading 128k mp3s over Napster to 4gb/8gb Sharp portables to using an iphone exclusively for years. Currently found a nice balance between the physical and the digital. Still have every CD I've ever bought, and have been hunting down more vintage discs than ever before grabbing the best masterings, really seems like a great time to hoard most CDs as I get them for a pittance. As much as I want to collect vinyl sometimes, I missed the boat and it's not for me.

My digital setup is an Intel Mac Mini with Roon networked to my entire life's collection on SSD. I have a stack coming off that into either my speaker system or a pair of Beyer T1s. I also have a metric ton of SACD ISO rips I hardly listen to but can play them in Audirvana just fine natively.

For physical discs I still only mess with Compact Discs, I have a Yamaha and Sony 5 disc changer both hooked up, one is running on analog and the Sony is optical. I also started collecting portable units a few years ago, have about 7 (downsized from 15) they are surprisingly cheap if you stay away from the collector bait, I stopped using most of them (lol) but my favorite units are a 1994 Panasonic MASH unit, a Sony D-465, Sony D-12, and had a D-777 until recently but sold it due to having to run the external battery pack all the time, Sony really **** some of those units with the flat batteries.

I think it's a great time to be into audio, you can basically spend as little as you want and have a better setup than most people had at any point. Or you can still get scammed buying snakeoil.

[TheRedKnight]

I have an old (circa 2008) Thinkpad running Linux connected to a pair of Yamaha NX-50s* to listen to FLAC files. It's my sensible budget and space limited solution. Decided to scrap my vinyl setup and play music from the same station I play games on. I have my PS-Q7 up for sale, but not selling the records yet.

I also listen to FLACs on my late 2015 MacBook Pro using Sony MDR-7506s headphones. It's nice. Good enough for me.

Tried to get into Discmandems in November-December, but it's not easy to find a guaranteed working specimen of a nice model (with a PSU) within a reasonable price range. I wasn't limiting myself to just Sonys either. Not completely given up hope, though.

*they're actually ace – tested with organ music CDs

[o1s1n]

I have an old (circa 2008) Thinkpad running Linux connected to a pair of Yamaha NX-50s* to listen to FLAC files. It's my sensible budget and space limited solution. Decided to scrap my vinyl setup and play music from the same station I play games on. I have my PS-Q7 up for sale, but not selling the records yet.

I also listen to FLACs on my late 2015 MacBook Pro using Sony MDR-7506s headphones. It's nice. Good enough for me.

Tried to get into Discmandems in November-December, but it's not easy to find a guaranteed working specimen of a nice model (with a PSU) within a reasonable price range. I wasn't limiting myself to just Sonys either. Not completely given up hope, though.

*they're actually ace – tested with organ music CDs

Have you ever tried a nice pair of IEMs? I've always been a headphone kind of person but after picking up a Sony NW-WM1A recently I thought I'd try upgrading from my MDR-7506s to something a bit different. Bought a pair of Aful Performer 5s and the sound is absolutely amazing for the price. (think they were only a little over €200)

[TheRedKnight]

Have you ever tried a nice pair of IEMs? I've always been a headphone kind of person but after picking up a Sony NW-WM1A recently I thought I'd try upgrading from my MDR-7506s to something a bit different. Bought a pair of Aful Performer 5s and the sound is absolutely amazing for the price. (think they were only a little over €200)

Nice pair? No. I'm quite happy with the 7506. I've stopped listening to music on the go too. It became somewhat of a bad habit during the pandemic.

Right now the only audio equipment I'm willing to invest any money into is a nice double DAC'd 666 times oversampling portable Kompakt Disk player with a lineout port in the back.

[Pete]

A mate gave me a pair of B&W DM602 S2 over 20 years ago for free & I've happy ever since.

[NASguy]

My headphones: Beyer T1 (mains), Beyer DT-1990 (retired for T1), Senn HD800 (old model, bought used), Audio Technica M40x (CD portables, DJ deck).

I also have a random collection of vintage over ear/in ear headphones that came with portables. The most curious pair I have is the pair that came with the D-465 which is also the same as the D-777 in that it only works on Sony remotes of that era with a dumb custom audio jack that you cannot source, though they sound nice on the players they work on. By far the best sounding pair of these old phones are the Panasonic ones that came with their Mash players, I put some new Yaxi pads on mine and they feel great if you are in the mood for that flat portable sound, though they have a bit more bass than the others.

I also wanted to try a really old pair of HD600 from the '90s

[TheRedKnight]

PS-Q7 sold. I've had bad memories associated with that thing for ten years so I was glad to see it go.

Maybe I will use the funds to get some these: https://store.deutschegrammophon.com/p30-i2698

[SuperPang]

Tidal are dropping their price drastically from next month. Lossless, High Res and Atmos for the same price as Spotify.

[emphatic]

Cool.

[thegreathopper]

Tidal are dropping their price drastically from next month. Lossless, High Res and Atmos for the same price as Spotify.

I may have to move back, dropped Tidal and started Qobuz last month but there is loads of stuff missing.

[NASguy]

What playback software do you use? I was an iTunes user forever, before I became accustomed to finer things. I still use iTunes for library management, but I moved to Audirvana for some years, then had my eyes opened with Roon and now only use Roon. Audirvana does SACD ISO playback, so it has a small use to keep around. I also have Colibri installed for kicks especially on laptops. For ripping and encoding it's XLD and dBpoweramp.

[thegreathopper]

I use Roon too, very pleased with it. I didn’t splash out on a Nucleus but have a Nuk that I set up next to my router.

[SuperPang]

Very happy with Aurender's bespoke software here, and Tidal is well integrated. I can combine albums from Tidal and local storage in the same music library.

There are rumours that Roon support is on the way, but I don't want to add a computer or NUC to the chain and I'm not sure I need all the added fluff anyway. I just like to collect and play albums.

[thegreathopper]

Anything good I tend to buy on CD, which is another great way of listening to music. Also it tends to make me listen to the whole album rather than jumping around.

[SuperPang]

New Kim Gordon album out today. Streamed on Tidal until I had the chance to download it from 7digital and drop it onto my streaming server. Limited edition vinyl with signed poster in the post. That's generally how I roll with new releases.

[thegreathopper]

Ahha I think it was your recommendation that I bought her last one, which is great.

I buy my albums at the original Rough Trade, it’s the same type of music geeks working there since my first visit in the 80’s, Will pickup this weekend if they have it in.