Second “Thoughts”

[Apollo16]

Or just realizing electronics' contributions are vastly overrated in the high-end? The ART phono stages have measured well, tho. What is a musical amp, tho?

With preamps it's hard to quantify. I'll give you an example though. Between a high quality streamer or TT and the active JBLs lies either a passive preamp or another audio interface. The JBLs containing a mixture of quality transducers, power amps and DSP are extremely revealing. The JDS Labs product sounded sterile - I wanted to press pause almost immediately. Whereas with the Linn preamp or the Art Accessories I wanted to carry on listening to album after album. A good audio interface or good passive preamp doesn't remove the musical enjoyment - it ought to add to the fun!

 

[lovinthehd]

With preamps it's hard to quantify. I'll give you an example though. Between a high quality streamer or TT and the active JBLs lies either a passive preamp or another audio interface. The JBLs containing a mixture of quality transducers, power amps and DSP are extremely revealing. The JDS Labs product sounded sterile - I wanted to press pause almost immediately. Whereas with the Linn preamp or the Art Accessories I wanted to carry on listening to album after album. A good audio interface or good passive preamp doesn't remove the musical enjoyment - it ought to add to the fun!

I'm familiar with the 305s, have a pair. The amps are nothing to write home about, typical class d, and isn't even that sophisticated in that they supply the same power to mid-woofer and tweeter (and much modern music has gone thru a variety of adc/dac conversions too). I use high quality streaming (pretty easy to do), and have a high quality tt (well as far as that goes with vinyl). I've not had electronics interfere with my enjoyment of music....and I've got quite a wide variety hanging around. Your comparison methods are what particularly?

 

[Apollo16]

I'm familiar with the 305s, have a pair. The amps are nothing to write home about, typical class d, and isn't even that sophisticated in that they supply the same power to mid-woofer and tweeter (and much modern music has gone thru a variety of adc/dac conversions too). I use high quality streaming (pretty easy to do), and have a high quality tt (well as far as that goes with vinyl). I've not had electronics interfere with my enjoyment of music....and I've got quite a wide variety hanging around. Your comparison methods are what particularly?

For me the quality of the implementation of the components matters more than the class of amp for example. I've a house with considerably more HiFi than I'll ever require. Along my audiophile path I've encountered two or three products that failed to deliver sound that accurately reflected the source information or that conveyed the music with the emotional impact it ought to have. I listen carefully using reference tracks plus familiar and unfamiliar music. Each change that I make is recorded with clips before and after which are shared with a small group of friends.

 

[mariettacaldwell]

I started my “Thoughts” thread with a question about a particular system that I saw for sale that I was intrigued by. I was also realizing the appeal was having “all in one package” for sell so I wasn’t so overwhelmed.

I greatly appreciate the input though maybe a better method is what I’m after.

The catalyst of my search: My wife and I traveled to visit family last week and 2 of the family members have nice systems (one listens to vinyl and the other plays digital off of an iPod). I was impressed by the clarity and richness of the sound (much better than our Bose SoundTouch 30 downstairs or our Audioengine B2 in my upstairs office). I found the system that I posted about online while on vacation

All music right now is via Spotify Premium which indicates 360 kbs though I now realize I’m only using iPhone to stream so need to try laptop instead. During work it’s blues or Jazz. Also love rock as mentioned (AC/DC, Pink Floyd. Talking Heads)

My wife is fine with Bose downstairs so I am looking for an upstairs system to replace the Audioengine. Room is posted in “Thoughts “ thread.

What I don’t want: I already have many many thousands in motorcycles so don’t want another extremely expensive hobby. I am wanting to limit to $1000 or under. Also don’t want to get over engaged in time spent on this which I habitually did with my motorcycle enthusiasm (as a note.. now down to only 2 motorcycles.. wife is happy!!! Had $2000 in the stereo of one of the bikes but fewer choices in that niche market).

So…best bang for $750 to $1000 based on above and Thoughts thread ?


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Starting my "Thoughts" thread with a question about a specific system I stumbled upon for sale was a bit of a revelation. I found myself drawn to the idea of an "all-in-one package" that could simplify my audio setup without overwhelming me. After seeing family members enjoy their impressive sound systems—one with vinyl and the other playing digital music from an iPod—I was struck by the clarity and richness of their audio experiences, far surpassing our Bose SoundTouch 30 and Audioengine B2 setups.