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Calling all audiophools

2K views 36 replies 9 participants last post by  Soopahmahn 
#1 ·
I was just wondering if anyone else in here has a penchant for hi-fi? I was bit by the audiophile bug around the same time I got interested in playing guitar, and I love the heck out of my home stereo rig. My next GAS will be for an upgraded turntable.

I'll post a picture and my signal chain and if anyone wants to talk gear, albums, debate the merits of vinyl, please chime in. :D

Technics SL-BD10 w/Grado Green cart
Oppo BDP-105D universal optical disc player (CD/SACD/DVD-A/network streaming)
Rotel RC-1070 preamp
Rotel RB-960BX power amp
JMLab/Focal Electra 906 monitors
Velodyne FSR-12 subwoofer

All signal cabling handmade by my old man :metal:

Forgive the general messiness, I just finished a DIY project converting a set of Ikea LACK tables to make a wall-mount for the disc players. Pretty excited how my audio den shaped up after it was assembled! And fortunately the liquor cabinet is right there for late night listening sessions. ;)

Picture frame Table Interior design Computer desk Bookcase
 
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#21 ·
Shit, this. I DGAF about vinyl and just have a bunch of Sonos pods around my place for listening, but that's a great looking room. I applaud your use of dark colors. :yesway:
 
#5 ·
Pro tip if you do: it's a very dark color, so if you are coming from anything other than a very dark color, start with two coats of custom-tinted base primer. Any decent paint store will do that for you. If you skip this step, the paint won't be as dark or even as it should be, even if you do like four coats. And although you can get that color copied anywhere, I highly recommend Benjamin Moore Aura paint.

This thread is now about paint. :lol:
 
#9 ·
I've been wanting a good home stereo system for a long time. Now, if I could only stop moving... :lol:

My stereo rig currently consists of a pair of JBL studio monitors and my Focusrite 2i4orwhatever. It sounds great when I'm running my guitar with the Torpedo Live, but as you can imagine, general listening is with MP3's and Pandora radio, so the quality is LACKing.
 
#11 ·
Forgive the general messiness, I just finished a DIY project converting a set of Ikea LACK tables to make a wall-mount for the disc players.

View attachment 26476
George Washington didn't cross the Delaware so you could buy shitty furniture. Buy the wood and make your own shit.

Mine is a work in progress. I was fed up with cramped interior rooms, considering I've always used huge vintage speakers, so I just relocated my audio/guitar shit to a large woodshop room. I still use it as a shop too. So it's kind of multi purpose. Lots of space for modding/setting up guitars/soldering too.

I need about $400-500 more in acoustic foam to finish the walls, perils of a big room. Even with affordable foam it gets costly. Wall mounting all the monitors was also a bitch. The main one is a store bought mount, but the auxiliary ones mounted in the shelves I had to think up myself.

I have audiophiles in the family, so I've actually been into hi-fi shit as long as I've been listening to music. :lol: I fucking hate powered speakers. Old school that way. Passive or GTFO.

Main speakers are 1972 JBL L220 far fields I've had forever and have an immense amount of sentimental value. The foam surrounds actually disintegrated last year, so I replaced those. The glue that came with the kit wasn't great though, so they need re done. There's a 5.1 polk thing I have on the mounts not wired up yet too.

In terms of receivers/amps I mainly use a Teac. I've got a nicer Denon one , but it's more of a specialized 5.1 thing and I prefer stereo. I've also got some cheap vintage silver one that someone was using as a beater shop stereo that I actually like the sound of.

I'm actually looking to get a more powerful one, because I use those speakers as monitors, and receivers/amps for passive monitors are different than hi-fi ones.





In general I've always been into tinkering and experimenting with equipment/placement/etc. so signal chain varies.

I have an uncle who is absolutely crazy about hi-fi shit who passes gear on to me sometimes too.

Brand wise I also like Technics. Got a CD player by them with a nice optical out.
 
#12 ·
I also recently did a bunch of wall mount storage things for holding microphones/tubes/guitar tools/etc, as well as a temperature/humdifier combo. Super quick to make. Just put some danish oil on nice pieces of wood and some drilling and they are done.



Not sure what I'm going to do with the walls. On one hand, it would look good painted/spackled/whatever. But on the other hand, it is still a space where projects and power tools and shit happen.
 
#14 ·
ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY LEON, I DID CLEARLY SAY "WORK IN PROGRESS"

I haven't even started on the part of the project I call "PHASE HARDWOOD".

There is more Hardwood than you can handle.





Look at all that unfulfilled potential.

The back walls are actually going to feature diffusers, I haven't decided what kind I want to build yet.

I wanted to buy diffusers originally, but they are expensive, Probably not that hard to make. We'll see.

Not as popular as absorbtion in terms of room treatments used in rock/metal, but diffusers are cool in bigger rooms. Lots of intricacies though, room modes and all that. Standing waves.

 
#16 ·
What kind of plebian throws on Marvin Gaye without lushly oiled dense walnut diffusers?

I don't speak for Marvin Gaye, but I am 99% sure the procedure for Sexual Healing involves dense hard woods.

What do you think the "It" in "Let's get It On" refers to?

That's right. Home made diffusers. You won't be getting anything on if standing waves are fucking with your shit.
 
#19 ·
Garrett I'm going to chop up all the IKEA table legs I didn't use and convert them into diffusers. Thanks for the idea! :idea:

Seriously I love the vibe of those big ass floorstanders. And it's great that they hold sentimental value for you.

If I had a pile of money laying around I would get a second set of speakers meant exclusively for loud ass rock, like Klipsch Heresy IIIs.



or

 
#22 ·
I've not put a huge amount of time and money into my hifi-system but I think it's pretty ok for the price. This is what I've got

Amp: Harman Kardon HK3390
Speakers: Acoustic Energy floor speakers
Vinyl: My grandpa's old Technics SL-DD3 (which is in need of repairs currently - for some reason the needle doesn't touch the disc)
CD-player: My grandpa's old Technics SL-PG380A (I don't know if it's placebo, but music does sound better from this than from my PC)
 
#25 ·
Never had enough room to get a stereo setup but dabbled with random bits of gear for them here and there lol. Got a yamaha aventage preamp feeding my krks which is pretty nice, going to upgrade the speakers eventually since they have that goop that kills the amps. Used to have tons of minidisc stuff lol.
 
#27 ·
As far as gain staging from a computer goes I usually set the volume in the media player at 50% and the system volume at 50%. Rather than run them both maxed.

Depends on your set up though. It is very possible though that if your media player volume is maxed and the system volume is maxed the gain staging is less than optimal.
 
#35 ·
Cool!

I got my Technics SL-DD3 restored so now everything works, including the auto-stop and return that hadn't worked before.
Excellent! This Pioneer is semi-auto as well, it returns and cues down the tonearm at the center of the record, and the platter autostarts when you move the needle over the lead-in area. Love it.

Looking good!

Nothing as high shelf but I've recently started helping my dad assemble some stuff to listen to his old records and picked up a Pioneer PL-960, new Audio Technica cartridge incoming. I've fiddled around with some garage sale gear, and this is my first direct drive turntable.
Which AT cart did you select? Those old Pioneers seem like a pretty good deal to me at this point.
 
#34 ·
Looking good!

Nothing as high shelf but I've recently started helping my dad assemble some stuff to listen to his old records and picked up a Pioneer PL-960, new Audio Technica cartridge incoming. I've fiddled around with some garage sale gear, and this is my first direct drive turntable.
 
#36 ·
I know fuck-all about turntables or repairing them. Needle was branded Pioneer but 10 minutes of Googling seemed to indicate the cartridge is a rebranded AT, and the AT85EP came across the screen looking correct, so that's it. Mounting and the pins looked the same, anyway.

Stereo has been a garage sale/CL hunt so far. Receiver is a Technics SA of some sort, I don't recall the model number. Speakers are Fisher 3-way floor speakers. Basically trying to get something comparable to what he was using in the 70s/80s and swap/upgrade as needed. So far the weak point is going to be the records themselves moreso than the gear.
 
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