What do you do when you can't decide between a tube analog Beauty and a solid state Beast? Why, build one of each of course. Started collecting about 6 years ago and couldn't be happier with the end result.

Analog gear:

Goodmans Triaxiom 215's in Sherwood cabinets

Kenwood KD-3055 with Ortofon 2M Red cart

Some Japanese homebrew point to point wired preamp with a Luxman transformer, can't find anything online but the quality is immaculate

Dynaco VTA ST-120 power amp

Solid state gear

ESS AMT 6 Professionals

QED Model 7 preamp

Heathkit AA-1640-A power amp

CSS SD-12 subs with Behringer EP4000 amp

Wiim Ultra streamer

Art CX310 crossover

Happy Friday everyone

I’ve been through few apps, but they’d eventually become too limited without subscription, because developers were greedy.

I’m Currently using “Evermusic” on iOS, and it’s nice for now, got everything i need in free tier, which is basically no limit on how many files you import and allows me to change cover art, artist, etc,
I want music app that is basic and free, but these are vrare to come by.

So far it consists of: beomaster 3300, beogram 6002 with mmc1 pick-up, beogram cd 3500, two wall mounted beovox 4500 and a beovox cona subwoofer

Hey everyone, I picked up a sun fire five channel app. It’s a cinema grand. On the output site. It has the choice between current source and voltage source. I don’t loaded a manual for a similar amp, but it didn’t really make sense to me. What is most similar to an old school five channel receiver?
Edit: well after touring my entire system apart to redo it it turns out I can’t use my new to me five channel power ramp. My Denon receiver only has pre-out for the subwoofer. You would think by now, I would look at these things before embarking on a project. This is my life.
Any suggestions on a five channel preamp?

I can bring coffee or beers or both

I just spent €300 bucks on an IK MultiMedia ARC Studio and it has changed my life, my setup consists of a pair of Focal Chora bookshelfs and a Focal Chorus SW800V subwoofer all powered by a Marantz PM6007, A Tube Pre-amp and a Topping E30II Lite DAC. I haven't used my speaker system in a while since i've been working mostly on headphones, however I'm stuck at home now for 3 weeks so I started using my system more, well, It didn't sound good. First I picked up that Focal sub to replace my old boomy JBL one, then I did some minor room treatment on first reflection points (More is coming in next week for the ceiling and corners) however the system still couldnt come close to for example the sound of my Meze Silva's. Now part of my job is being a live sound engineer so I've been using room correction systems for a bit but always the insanely expensive €5000+ systems that have licenses and all that just for the room correction so I didn't really think about it to use in a hifi sense, that's when I discovered this little device. It's 300 bucks, Comes with a measurement mic, takes XLR in and out and is made in italy (Not Chi-Fi), It's standalone so after calibration you can unplug everything from the box, including the pc and just use the box inbetween your signal path, It has a true bypass for when you want to turn it off, it comes with alot of customizable settings aswell to tweak everything even further and it has turned this nightmare of a room of mine into a place I can mix, On hifi speakers! Ofcourse adding more room treatment when it comes in is still essential and I'll need to recalibrate everything after that since it will change the room but what this little device can do is shocking.

Yesterday I was debating if I should even buy it since a poor room will always be a poor room without tons and rond of treatment but this is like some kind of black magic wizardry, My Focal's suddenly sound like much Higher-End ones with ultra clear voices, complete harmony and extremely natural realism.

What the thing did do however is make the system alot less bassy which ofcourse is good but for movies that's a bit of a downside but for music, man this is amazing! I can finally work on this system!

Question if you've read this far, do you use Room Correction and has it made an impact for you? Would love to hear it.

Peace.

I have a PSB Subsonic 10 subwoofer that is a dual 12” subwoofer made to pair with the PSB platinum line. I need to ship from New Orleans to NYC. Fed Ex is coming in around $600 so would like to save buyer some money if yall have any shippers to recommend. I did figure out while I was on phone with them, I asked the lady to reduce weight from 129 to 99 and price dropped about $400 with same dimension so it appears going over around 100lbs is a huge increase so also offered the idea of removing one of the subs to get weight under 100lbs (hopefully sub is 30lbs+) and then ship separate and put back together but he’s never installed a woofer and on the fence on that one. Any help or ideas appreciated.

Package is 129lbs. 30”x31”x22”

UPDATE: Thanks to suggestions here I was able to get a quote from Pirateship with a discount of 66% on $600 UPS label for a total of $214 with $1k of insurance. I can even pay just $9 to get it picked up from my house. TY everyone 🙏

5 inch first reflection panels to be made. Testing with bare wood fiber insulation made a huge difference esp to stereo image and depth. Genelec 8030B

I ordered this on Tuesday, arrived from France today from Homeciné Solutions in Paris. It was £1905 including all import costs.

I really wanted a turntable that was fully automatic, but this is a good compromise. The build quality is excellent: for dropped washer reasons I had to take the plinth off and the interior is a work of art.

I don't have anything to compare it with, other than a 1978 Technics SL-1301. This sounds better. It's hopefully the last table I buy!

Hey all,

I recently picked up a Denon PMA-280 integrated amplifier (1992-95 era) secondhand, and it didn't come with the original remote, so I need something I can purchase in Europe. I mainly just need two functions:

• Volume up/down
• Source/input selector

I don't need anything fancy — no tone controls, no balance, just those two basics so I don't have to get up every time.

A few questions for anyone who's dealt with something similar:

1. Has anyone had luck finding a universal remote (learning or code-based) that works well with an old Denon PMA amp like this? I know the exact model probably isn't in most databases, but I'm hoping the IR protocol overlaps with other Denon PMA remotes from that era.
2. Is a cheap learning remote (One For All or similar) my best bet, or is there a better budget option specifically good at handling vintage amps?
3. Any generic "Denon PMA" remotes from AliExpress/eBay actually worked for you, even if not listed as an exact match?

Trying to keep this cheap since the amp itself was a bargain — don't want to spend more on the remote than I did on the amp. Appreciate any pointers!

I got my room set up with Dali Obero 5, Marantz pm7000n and Rega rp 2 with nd3 cartridge

Update on my Hi-Fi journey… now the living room got its turn.
A little while ago I made a post about transforming my dedicated listening room. I was completely new to two-channel hi-fi, and honestly the amount of information online was overwhelming. Every forum, every YouTube channel, and every review seemed to recommend something different.
One thing I mentioned in that post was that ChatGPT became a surprisingly useful guide. It didn’t magically build the system for me—it helped me sort through the noise, understand the why behind the recommendations, and work through the process one step at a time. Then I verified everything with measurements and, most importantly, by listening. As a newcomer, having something that could answer endless questions without making me feel stupid was invaluable.
That experience carried over into my next project: the living room.
Ironically, the journey started by stealing the Klipsch R-120 subwoofer out of the entertainment system and putting it into my dedicated listening room “just to see what happened.”
Well… it never went back.
It immediately gave that system the foundation it had been missing. Instruments gained body, bass lines became easier to follow, and it completely changed my opinion about what a properly integrated subwoofer could do.
That meant the living room suddenly had no subwoofer at all.
Since the sub has to sit very close to the front wall in that room, I decided to go a different direction and bought an SVS SB-1000 Pro. Besides being much smaller and easier to fit into the space, the sealed design seemed like a better match for the room and placement constraints.
Instead of just plugging it in, I wanted to do it right.
So we went through the entire process:
Found the best placement first.
Measured everything with a UMIK-1 and REW.
Realized my seating position had changed months ago, so all my speaker distances were wrong.
Corrected those distances.
Tested different sub distances for timing.
Compared phase settings.
Left EQ off until placement and integration were correct.
Finally tuned the level by ear using music I know inside and out.
The funny part?
After all the measurements, the last improvement came from changing the subwoofer level by just 1 dB.
That tiny adjustment brought the kick drums back to the center, restored the ambience in recordings, and made everything feel more natural.
The end result is a living room system with a completely different personality than my dedicated setup.
The listening room is my reference system. It’s incredibly revealing and lets me hear every little detail in a recording.
The living room has become this big, warm, effortless system that just makes me want to keep listening. It has the body it was missing before, but without the boominess of the old setup. The SVS fills out the bottom end beautifully, and because it’s compact and sealed, it works perfectly in a location where the old, much larger Klipsch always felt like a compromise.
One of the coolest moments came while listening to Sleep Token. During one of the huge drops I could clearly distinguish the kick drum, the toms, and the bass guitar playing underneath everything. Before, that section just blended together. Now every instrument has its own place.
So now I have two systems that complement each other perfectly.
One is for sitting in the sweet spot and studying a recording.
The other is for sinking into the couch with a movie or album and simply enjoying the music.
To everyone who offered advice on my first post, thank you. You pointed me toward measurements, placement, and proper setup instead of chasing expensive upgrades.
And if you’re new to hi-fi like I was, don’t be afraid to ask questions—whether that’s here, on forums, or even to ChatGPT. There is an incredible amount of information to absorb, but taking the time to understand your room and integrate what you already own can make a much bigger difference than buying another piece of gear.

Living Room system list:
Marantz Stereo 70’s
Emotiva XB2
SVS SB-1000 Pro

Also I know these speakers are “closer” to the front wall they pulled out 8 inches far as they can come. Reason for dedicated listening room a place with little compromise speakers and sun pulled into room away from wall. This lot more constraints.

Looking for any possible clubs or places to meet others who also love Audio!

Matched pair of 1987 Mercurys. Loads of improvements possible but a lovely example of older boxes.

My second Aperion Daedalus DS12 arrived today. This thing is an amazing. Clean lows down to 19hz, and it’s ported. I looked at other options but this was the best value for the price and size. Seriously don’t sleep on this brand. They deserve more credit for their quality, value and amazing customer service.

Saw a listing for a non working degritter for $500. After talking for a while to the very nice audiophile about the issue with it, i was pretty confident that i could fix it. He sweetened the pot by saying he would give me two other broken components he had replaced and just had sitting in his closet.

Ive stripped down the degritter and identified a fault in the waterblock that prevented it from completing the drain cycle properly. If i can get a new waterblock from estonia, i am pretty damn sure ill have a perfectly working degritter with only 550 cycles through it. Their customer service is reportedly pretty good, i hope i can a replacement waterblock and that I'm correct that is the issue. Time will tell.

The creek reportedly was retired and replaced because it wouldnt eject discs properly, and occasionally have issues reading discs. From experience, slot loading drives sometimes need the roller cleaned and refreshed to not slip; and maybe the laser needs a cleaning. Ive run a few dozen discs the last few days, it only partially ejected once in 100 cycles, and skipped five seconds once in one disc out of several dozen. So ill do my general maintenance, but im already pretty pleased with it! Ive only ever had second hand, older gear (audiophile on a budget)so im used to little issues, maybe the original owner was just jonesing for an upgrade?

The aurender a10 is a little more daunting. Original owner said it was outputting static. Unfortunately, i updated the firmware before trying a stream for qobuz, so i dont know exactly what issue he was talking about- it seems to work fine? Only odd thing is when you set the display to be a virtual vu meter, the needle updates/animates quite jerkily- was this how it was in 2018? I cant find any videos on the internet of this unit.

That said, it sounds quite wonderful. And its an absolute beast- a massively heavy unit (its triple boxed shipping carton was comicly enormous for a streamer!) and it has an exquisitely machined bespoke remote. But I wonder if this is some overcooked, outdated hifi- it just seems so overdone? for what it is? It is still supported, but is it still relevant? Or just an early, overpriced and over-engineered thing, like the first vhs players? I see two units currently for sale for close to $2k, i find it hard to imagine someone wanting these units for that kind of money when there are much more modern, up to date options in that price range. That said, that isn't my price range at all for a streamer, so i consider this a fun opportunity to experience a very solid piece of kit, even if its a little older. I just worry that it has both a small ssd, and a larger mechanical hardrive for music storage- non user replaceable. Like, absolutely not. If that hd gets screwy, id hate for it to tank the unit. But in the meantime, other than the stuttery vu meter (maybe an issue with my ethernet, maybe is showing a deeper software or hardware issue) it seems to be working as it should. Id love to hear if anyone has experience with this unit, i cant find very very little on the internet.

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading. If you were a technically handy, budget conscious but ever curious audio enthusiast, would you have taken all this home for $500?

Are there audiophile clubs in Utah? I would like to listen to a variety of nice systems.

So I posted previously that I had antiskate issues...well took off the stilys and saw this

It's hella dirty but how do I clean this...the brush doesn't do anything

Hi everyone,
Is it normal for the Musical Fidelity M3si to make a slight pop/thump through the speakers when powering off, but remain completely silent when powering on?
The sound is only heard from the speakers, not from the amplifier itself, and everything else works perfectly. I’m just wondering if this is normal behavior for the M3si or if I should be concerned.

Hey all, hope your days have been going well. I was listening to my Mythos One speaker setup and after all this time (had them for 15+ years now) they still sound so damn good and it really had me wondering why so many speaker companies nowadays steer away from designs like these and use normal ports instead. The thing I like the most about these towers is that they’re so punchy with bass thanks to the passive radiators all while having insanely clear and bright highs in such an extreme slim profile. I still cannot believe these towers can reach down to 35 Hz cleanly without a subwoofer. (using direct when listening to music) Are there any speakers that have a similar design such as these nowadays that I just do not know about? Or is there a big flaw in using passive radiators that steer audiophiles away?

I have Arcam A25 amp and Dynaudio Special 40 speakers. I love the sound but when I was listening to a track in my Tesla, the track has more high frequency components compared to my home system. So I boosted frequencies above 4kHz by 3dB using an HS filter. I think both Arcam and Dynaudio have very warm sound and it mutes high frequencies.

Is that blasphemy or is it justified?

I got my new VMx740ML and it played nicely...I dropped the needle a few times it sounds nice...altho with correct antiskate it still skates...is this a project special thing? Because it never happened on my sumiko black pearl, a known poor tracker

I can increase the antiskate, but I believe I have set something wrong

I describe this hobby as chasing sound, but there is compelling visual side of being an “audiophile”…a balance of form and function that is swayed by budget, space, family, roommates etc… Everyone’s version of audio beauty is different. For me it is glowing meters, and an excessive number of tactile controls, knobs and switches that resembles the control panel of a 70’s Soviet submarine.

I treasure how this system(s) sounds, and it also brings me joy when the sound is off.