Why Don't Audiophiles Add a TV to their HiFi System?

[3db]

a few years back while in Scotland and enjoying the 5 distilleries I toured I took note of the tasting rooms as well as some of the local pubs, eye droppers in vessels of spring water. So a wee dram has even a wee'er drop of water !

Which distilleries did you go too? Where they all Speyside or did you go to the various regions?

 

[3db]

a few years back while in Scotland and enjoying the 5 distilleries I toured I took note of the tasting rooms as well as some of the local pubs, eye droppers in vessels of spring water. So a wee dram has even a wee'er drop of water !

In my experience, it Depends on the Scotch. Some open up with water, others become evil tasting.

 

[3db]

Back to the topic at hand.. there are some very talented new artists out there that dont produce pop. Eli de Mon springs to mind but thats beside the point.

If all one listens to is CD or vinyl, I see no value of adding a display. Thats just a use case example. However from an audiophile perspective, I see Gene's point in that somehow a display pollutes the room and causes all kinds of nasties inducing unwanted noise into their pristine 2 channel layout and severely messing with room acoustics. Good luck getting the audiophile to buy into a display when they believes cables and their lifters help tighten bass, fleshout the midrange and brings sparkle to the highs.

 

[mono-bloc]

Only psychos watch movies in two channel.

There must be a hell of a lot of Psychos in your part of the world.

 

[Kvn_Walker]

My system revolves around a PC. Kinda have to have a screen for that. ‍

 

[mono-bloc]

a display pollutes the room and causes all kinds of nasties inducing unwanted noise into their pristine 2 channel layout

This only applies if you fail to use cable lifters, which as we all know will allow all the nasties to travel under the cables, there-by keeping them free from impending viruses,
and other air born pollutants

 

[BMXTRIX]

....I think the front projector system is on its way out.

It is not.

This is brought up once every couple of years, and is simple silliness.

Front projection, especially in homes, seems to be growing overall. The introduction of high quality ultra short throw projectors has actually opened up front projection and 120" diagonal screens to a whole new set of people.

Until ultra large flat panels actually are affordable, then we will still have front projection. As much as I love my 85" flat panel display, it isn't anywhere near what my 161" front projection setup is like.

That said, the day I can replace my big screen with a flat panel of similar size for under $5,000 (or so) then I will do so. But, at this point, the 100" class of television is still in the $10,000+ price range. Typically a lot more. And the size is still well under what I currently enjoy.

There is absolutely no indication that front projection is going to disappear anytime soon. Quite the opposite in fact.

 

[panteragstk]

And once, a long time ago, yes, I let a friend talk me into a scotch and coke.

Once. And never again.
That was before I was experienced at drinking whiskey.

That sounds horrible

 

[3db]

This only applies if you fail to use cable lifters, which as we all know will allow all the nasties to travel under the cables, there-by keeping them free from impending viruses,
and other air born pollutants

 

[3db]

Some do, but would you add a dram of Scotch to a glass of Coke?

I have cheap local whiskey that I bought just for friends who want to mix coke with their whiskey. No way are they allowed to touch my good stuff and mix it. That's sacrilige!!

 

[ryanosaur]

I have cheap local whiskey that I bought just for friends who want to mix coke with their whiskey. No way are they allowed to touch my good stuff and mix it. That's sacrilige!!

I’ll happily mix a cocktail for my friends, or pour them neat whiskey. The only mixer I allow is sparkling water. I do enjoy, on occasion, a good Irish Whiskey highball.

 

[panteragstk]

Audiophiles love music, not movies, that's why they're AUDIO-philes.

 

[jhaider]

I would say most audiophiles are adding video displays to their systems nowadays. Only the guys who are so stuck on older physical media are eschewing video displays, since displays would not add much to the experience of vinyl or CDs or whatever.

Not necessarily. For example, we intentionally don’t have a TV in our formal living room (which does have 2 main speakers and 4 small subs) because…we don’t want TV in that room. It’s a space for interacting with humans, not staring at a screen. Besides, there’s an immersive setup (with TV) in the family room down the hall.

While there is a turntable in the room - again, social aspect - the primary source for that is AirPlay streaming from iPhones, which brings up a second reason not to have a TV in a social room system - control becomes a PITA. Instead of easy, universal control - select AirPlay zone, hit play in the Apple Music app you use for all your music, and the streamer/pre turns on, triggers the power outlets for DSP controller and amps, and plays music - you have to mess with remotes or even worse juggle apps on your phone just to use the thing.

I suspect many people are similar - one room for immersive audio with screen, maybe a 2-channel system with nice speakers in another room that’s either a relatively public facing space or a private retreat in a spare room, and some sort of zone audio setup for other rooms.

 

[Androski]

I'm very late to this party but would like to share my own personal perspective. When I'm "watching" something, I'm unable to focus on the sound and so, when I listen to music, I prefer not to be distracted by any visual stimuli. After all, I'm a guy and I can't do more than one thing at a time. For home theatre, which I do enjoy, sound quality isn't that important because I'm unable to simultaneously process both stimuli. The visual takes precedence, so audio is secondary. And vice versa. So, for me, if I'm listening to music, I just want unadulterated music. If I'm watching a movie, I still like to have immersive sound, but the quality is not that important since I'm much less likely to notice it unless I can't hear what is being said. For those who can do both, more power to them! Let them enjoy it. Let them eat cake! But for me, I just want bread.

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm very late to this party but would like to share my own personal perspective. When I'm "watching" something, I'm unable to focus on the sound and so, when I listen to music, I prefer not to be distracted by any visual stimuli. After all, I'm a guy and I can't do more than one thing at a time. For home theatre, which I do enjoy, sound quality isn't that important because I'm unable to simultaneously process both stimuli. The visual takes precedence, so audio is secondary. And vice versa. So, for me, if I'm listening to music, I just want unadulterated music. If I'm watching a movie, I still like to have immersive sound, but the quality is not that important since I'm much less likely to notice it unless I can't hear what is being said. For those who can do both, more power to them! Let them enjoy it. Let them eat cake! But for me, I just want bread.

Yet it's easy enough to turn off the display when listening to music if there's no relevant video information at the moment.....but harder to do the reverse (i.e. when no display is available)...

 

[sterling shoote]

The most satisfying means to recorded music I have discovered is from a Sony UBP-X800M2 Universal Player, playing DSD from stereo SACDs via HDMI to a Marantz NR1200 2.1 Receiver used in preamp/DAC role. This arrangement requires a monitor to control playback. I also need a monitor to enjoy some OPPO-205 functions. I do not get any pleasure from the monitoring requirement. It's a hassle and in fact, as I recall, to enjoy music copied from FLAC purchases to flash drive requires about 16 operations to begin listening to the music, which does nothing to preserve my mood for whatever music I want to enjoy. At any rate, mostly these days, I enjoy Apple Music via usb connection to a Parasound Preamplifier/DAC. A monitor is needed for this means to music but enhances pleasure, aiding navigation to desired music from iMac, or iPhone used as a remote.

 

[ETgoogleHOME]

Hi everyone, first post here. Apologies for my lack of knowledge on Scotch.

I'm 40. I'm a single teacher and it has taken me a long time to get to a financial situation where I can think of splitting up HT and 2-channel stereo, and for me it's been about finding the compromises one has to make in order to incorporate both systems into one room unnecessary if you have the space.

I like big, boxy speakers to bang out my hip-hop, electronic, and more high octane music. I went and auditioned the Cornwall IV speakers, and had a rather religious experience just listening over Bluetooth over a Cary Audio DAC/streamer (streaming DAC?) to the Cornwalls. I haven't had that kind of experience listening to more traditional tower speakers for music, but I do love my JBL Studios for home theater and occasional, more casual music-listening. Which room gets which setup will depend on the rooms in my house, including the basement. Also, audio is not the primary concern in watching a film for me. I'm interested in sound design, but the audio and literary elements are far more interesting to me than the score or soundtrack.

But the thing that sort of bugged me about this post was that it spoke some strange "truthy" statements like

Television content is better than the movies and creatively more important than today’s popular music. Try arguing with that when playing the new Lady Gaga record over watching the season finale of Billions. I know, you can’t make that argument can you?

I'm a huge movie fan/cinephile, and take an exception to the idea that TV content is better than the movies. To me, the best movies are the ones you really have to seek, similar to music, and have to possess a sense of patience and empathy to receive the best rewards. The best are often projects put together by auteurs who work in a synergistic way with familiar casts/crew members, and use these same groups to further explore the human experience in different ways. I do not see the artistic merits of any TV show rivaling the best films, though a lot of the arguments in this piece come off as just trying to "tell it like it is", the quality of the content be damned.

 

[MrBoat]

I use my desktop pc as my audio control center. Video games and everything are right here. When I listen to music though, most I have up is the track selection and the buttons to work it. Basically, a grand desktop 2.1 system in practice. I have always listened up close to my gear.

The center image from 2.1 is pretty convincing while playing games or watching movies. At least with the waveguide types I use.

 

[lovinthehd]

Looked at this title again and was more like how come audiophiles can't do a lot of things....

 

[Alex2507]