Relative newbie has a question about higher end speakers & amps

[AcuDefTechGuy]

There's no point arguing with condescending people who believe that they are just right and everyone else is just wrong no matter what you can prove.

You might tell him, "Man, your system rocks, but your bass kind of sucks. I highly recommend to add at least one subwoofer or even two. They can even be Wilson Audio subs."

 

[Pandaman617]

There's no point arguing with condescending people who believe that they are just right and everyone else is just wrong no matter what you can prove.

You might tell him, "Man, your system rocks, but your bass kind of sucks. I highly recommend to add at least one subwoofer or even two. They can even be Wilson Audio subs."

Hahaha right on man! It seems to be the general consensus amongst my group that he’s exactly that way. One of us has a beautiful 11 channel Axiom Audio setup with their insane DSP powered center channel and towers (I’ve long wanted this exact setup and am currently considering financing it) and it’s been unanimous that it sounds amazing yet here comes Grumps pointing out how the little native Atmos and DTS:X content there is hardly justifies having that many speakers and how he could have spent that money on a pair of speakers like his instead of the Axiom setup. I’ve seen quite a few home theater/two channel setups over the last few years and I always keep in mind that what I’m looking at is what this person likes and what they think sounds good as well as possibly being the best they could afford so I try to offer genuine compliments or constructive feedback. I’ve never understood just bashing someone’s system.

 

[slipperybidness]

The first big thing to understand coming into this hobby (and most hobbies) is that big $ do not necessarily mean High Quality Audio!

$1-2k spent in the right places, and waiting out for good deals, will get you audio quality better than 95% of everybody out there!

On the flip side, $10k spent on snake oil cables is just a waste of $9.9k!

A regular around this site has a quote, but I don't remember who it is, that sums this up perfectly.

To paraphrase that quote, "I spent a whole lot of $ on audio to learn that I don't have to spend a whole lot of $ for GOOD audio".

You are certainly dealing with a Grade A Audiophool!

 

[slipperybidness]

Hahaha right on man! It seems to be the general consensus amongst my group that he’s exactly that way. One of us has a beautiful 11 channel Axiom Audio setup with their insane DSP powered center channel and towers (I’ve long wanted this exact setup and am currently considering financing it) and it’s been unanimous that it sounds amazing yet here comes Grumps pointing out how the little native Atmos and DTS:X content there is hardly justifies having that many speakers and how he could have spent that money on a pair of speakers like his instead of the Axiom setup. I’ve seen quite a few home theater/two channel setups over the last few years and I always keep in mind that what I’m looking at is what this person likes and what they think sounds good as well as possibly being the best they could afford so I try to offer genuine compliments or constructive feedback. I’ve never understood just bashing someone’s system.

Axiom doesn't get much love around here.

I think it has to do with "they are not the value that they used to be", and I think they take some flak for running some drivers without a proper crossover (i.e. they let the cone run into the breakup mode).

With that being said, my Bro in Law has had the Axiom M80 mains and matching CC for probly10+ years, and I always thought they sounded pretty good to my ears. That CC is pretty much the same size as the towers, just on its side!

 

[Pandaman617]

Axiom doesn't get much love around here.

I think it has to do with "they are not the value that they used to be", and I think they take some flak for running some drivers without a proper crossover (i.e. they let the cone run into the breakup mode).

With that being said, my Bro in Law has had the Axiom M80 mains and matching CC for probly10+ years, and I always thought they sounded pretty good to my ears. That CC is pretty much the same size as the towers, just on its side!

I love the M80’s! I’m actually looking at a pair with the CC this weekend. The guy is willing to trade me them for my pair of OM-10’s and I told him in no way shape or form am I willing to give up my OM-C2 so he said he’d take the Omni CCB1 which I could honestly care less about. I got the OM-C2 new old stock from a storage unit in Groton, CT for $50. The guy listed it on Craigslist, had no idea what it was as the listing literally said “Mirage Speaker single speaker for sale brand new in the box not sure what happened to the other one” it was posted for 9 minutes before I bought it haha.

 

[Pandaman617]

Hi guys, weekend update here. We did the double blind test with quite a few FLAC tracks, Dolby True HD movie bits as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 and 320KBPs MP3’s and what everyone knew all along proved to be true. Our “expert audiophile” couldn’t determine a quantifiable difference between the cables using the same power and audio source. Ironically the few times he would say “Now see here I can tell that’s the silver cables as the highs are actually imaging properly” when in fact it was either the cable I use or the crap ass CCA cable. Not once did he hear his own cables and make a comment. This. Was. Awesome. Upon showing him the results he informed me the amp we were using (we couldn’t use my Denon x3300 for stereo as he said it didn’t approve of it so I borrowed a two channel Parasound amp that I thought was great! As did everyone else) was too low of quality to truly make the silver cables shine. It was than that I realized this is a dead issue, we proved our point, even in the face of irrefutable evidence he won’t sway but I was happy to make a point and I do believe he’ll hopefully stop giving others horribly incorrect advice.

 

[Pogre]

Hi guys, weekend update here. We did the double blind test with quite a few FLAC tracks, Dolby True HD movie bits as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 and 320KBPs MP3’s and what everyone knew all along proved to be true. Our “expert audiophile” couldn’t determine a quantifiable difference between the cables using the same power and audio source. Ironically the few times he would say “Now see here I can tell that’s the silver cables as the highs are actually imaging properly” when in fact it was either the cable I use or the crap ass CCA cable. Not once did he hear his own cables and make a comment. This. Was. Awesome. Upon showing him the results he informed me the amp we were using (we couldn’t use my Denon x3300 for stereo as he said it didn’t approve of it so I borrowed a two channel Parasound amp that I thought was great! As did everyone else) was too low of quality to truly make the silver cables shine. It was than that I realized this is a dead issue, we proved our point, even in the face of irrefutable evidence he won’t sway but I was happy to make a point and I do believe he’ll hopefully stop giving others horribly incorrect advice.

HA! I only wish I had been there! It's still fun reading about it vicariously through you tho... lol

I was going to suggest doing it with his own system but guys like that will always try to find some way to wiggle out of it. It's pretty hard to accept that your $1000 a foot cable doesn't perform any better than a coat hanger, lol.