totally disgusted with my headphone setup

[lengcm 0]

I went over to my friend's place to listen to his speakers for an extended period of time, and am now totally disgusted with my own headphone setup.

 

http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/prd_1p1.html

 

this were the speakers that did the job, paired with a dac 1, a mark levinson player and tons of other alien looking gadgets in a sound proof room. the speakers are giantic, standing at around, or over 2m tall.

 

this setup kills anything i have ever heard anywhere, be it hifi show rooms or friends setups. Gigantic bass, crystal clear vocals, super huge soundstage, unbelievable highs, it was as though the musicians were playing right infront of me. total cost of his setup as quoted from him is 400k.

 

i am seriously considering letting go of my entire setup as its extremely disheartening to listen to anything right now. 

 

anyone of u guys experienced something similar?

Yes I do. Very similiar experience. Hence I have more or less retired from head-fi.

Edited February 6, 2006 by lengcm

[neutralzz 0]

arnie nudell's design

 

20+ years ago he designed something similar for infinity.

[Stereo_Electronics 0]

Arnie Nudell designed the first high end speaker for infinity in the 1980s call the Infinity Reference Standard or the IRS in short.

 

People remember it because it was one of the first speaker with ribbon tweeters, ribbon midranges in a dipole configuration AND it also had a total of TWELVE 12-inch woofers controlled by dedicated servo amplifiers.

 

Even if you strike this week's toto, it'll take more than the average room for this babies to sing.

[papaya86 0]

he has a dedicated powersupply to power the genesis speakers i think, very huge powersupply with rows of gigantic black capacitors, the biggest ive ever seen, 2-3 times the size of my fist. until now i still cannot forget the sound. Hes one hardcore audiophile.

Edited February 8, 2006 by papaya86

[Username 0]

Listen to the music, not the system. It's a cliche phrase, but it still holds true, not many people have that kind of money to blow on such a system (more power to whoever can afford one). However whatever an artist wants to convey thru the audience musically is not loss just because it is badly recorded/mastered.

 

For many people, the best that they can afford to spend is a decent pair of headphones and they are still rocking out to the tunes.

[neutralzz 0]

Arnie Nudell designed the first high end speaker for infinity in the 1980s call the Infinity Reference Standard or the IRS in short.

 

People remember it because it was one of the first speaker with ribbon tweeters, ribbon midranges in a dipole configuration AND it also had a total of TWELVE 12-inch woofers controlled by dedicated servo amplifiers.

 

Even if you strike this week's toto, it'll take more than the average room for this babies to sing.

my IRS still alive.. currently residing in my living room

 

mine the smaller one though.. 3 ribb twits, 3 ribb mids and 2 x 10 per side..

 

the IRS 1, which is quite similar to the genesis was like 6 x 8" per side, and probably 10 ribb mids and 6-8 ribb tweeters.. those days dam ex heard that there are 2-3 sets in singapore only and not many in the world

 

the other IRS you refer to is the flagship of infinity back then.. 6 x 12" per side and probably 12 ribb mids and probably 9-10 ribb tweeters lol

[afbug 0]

Wah mark levinson player! Not cheap! Thats why whenever i see this kinda setup or one with monoblocs, i run far far away without listening to it. I been to hi-fi expo at Le Meridian before, They got some scary looking setups on demo.

 

But you gotta afford the space and $$$ to get a setup like this. If not, headfi or lower end hi-fi it is!

[fishball79 0]

In regards to needing big rooms for big bass/sound, i disagree. Here's something to chew on...

 

One might not have space for the dipole midrange design but the line array bass can be easily integrated into any rooms. A pair nearly as tall as the room placed 1/2 room width from one another an 1/4 room width from the sides, against the back wall (the wall you face when listening to speakers) theorectically cancels almost all room modes. You dont need a sweet spot to get the best bass.

 

An alternative placement would be in the midpoint of opposing walls. If the bass arrays were against the wall, they are as intrusive as mere columns that sometimes jut out of walls in some houses. Paint them to suit decor and they are nearly invisible visually.

 

So what you really need is to make sure the wall don't have built in furniture. Also, with that, you can try all sorts of speakers with alot less worry of bass or speaker placement as you'd cross it over from 100hz down. Power requirements is more than halved as the amount of power needed to reproduce 20hz to 120hz is equivalent to that of 120hz to 20000hz. We are less sensitive to quality of bass than we are to midrange and highs, line arrays are by nature efficient and you could even get away with subwoofer plate amps. Single ended amplifiers with small bookshelfs whose midrange you love? Sure.

 

For a more modestly sized, higher WAF fullrange (ish) dipole design, the linkwitz orion works just as well as the bass is dipole as well and more forgiving when closer to walls.

[Rameish 0]

S$400K!!!

 

Was at Music By Design at Adelphi today and saw some genesis speakers and amplifiers. I must say that MBD has some serious kit that can be had at below 400K. The new Vienna Acoustics range is quite good at more mundane prices starting from around S$1.7 k upwards (dont quote me on the price it's from my memory bank which was never very good to begin with). I fine the Vienna Acoustics Mozart to be an excellent speaker as well that does not fuss about what amplifiers I even tried i with the Rotel RB-1050 power amp and it sound very good. They (MBD) also have some nice CEC amplifiers (just launched a new range with improvements made). Also listened to Cary Audio's solid state offering and it had good synery with the Vienna Acoustics Mahler.

 

Tomorrow I'm gonna listen to the Stirling Audio LS3/5A with Cary SLI-80 signature and the Veinna Acoustics Mozart with the new CEC amplifiers (if time permits).

 

 

[lengcm 0]

S$400K!!!

 

Was at Music By Design at Adelphi today and saw some genesis speakers and amplifiers. I must say that MBD has some serious kit that can be had at below 400K. The new Vienna Acoustics range is quite good at more mundane prices starting from around S$1.7 k upwards (dont quote me on the price it's from my memory bank which was never very good to begin with). I fine the Vienna Acoustics Mozart to be an excellent speaker as well that does not fuss about what amplifiers I even tried i with the Rotel RB-1050 power amp and it sound very good. They (MBD) also have some nice CEC amplifiers (just launched a new range with improvements made). Also listened to Cary Audio's solid state offering and it had good synery with the Vienna Acoustics Mahler.

 

Tomorrow I'm gonna listen to the Stirling Audio LS3/5A with Cary SLI-80 signature and the Veinna Acoustics Mozart with the new CEC amplifiers (if time permits).

Guess the VA speakers are quite an easy match with SS amplification?

[wil 0]

Ramiesh!

 

I heard the Strilings with the rocket88. sounded quite nice.

 

Give the Zu Druids a listen while you're there....

[Rameish 0]

Yeah will the Striling Audio LS3/5a are indeed a very nice match with both the Cary rocket 88 or the Cary SLI-80 Signature intregrated.

 

By the way they (MBD) now have the Grace 902 headphone amp. Once the amp is burnt in I have a listen and report back. To say it's a headphone amp is playing it down a bit. It has a built in DAC as well as Crossfeed designed by none other then Dr. Jan Meier!!

 

Also had a brief listen to the brand new Genesis 6.1e and even though it's just burning in I must say it got my feet tapping. It would be an ideal if your listening room is a bit on the small side to fit in a Vienna Acoustic Mahler or Strauss. Well I better hold my tongue as both the Grace 902 and Genisis 6.1e are not run in yet.

 

Yeah the Zu Druids are also very nice with the Resolution Audio Opus 21 CD player and Amplifier. Very good synergy.

 

Just goes to show system synery is everything and buying based on reviews only can lead you astray.

 

I think the guys at Music By Design are having a hard time deciding what sound better with what so I better lend a hand ;-) being a nice guy n all LOL

 

Will update when I have the time - right now too busy listening to music.

[aaron-xp 0]

In terms of headphones, I'll go with the U10 from UE with the HeadRoom Max Balanced Amp. Throw in an E-MU 1820M soundcard and play directly from the computer, in a quite room preferably. $5600+ "only". When compared to the 400K system, this is peanuts.

[gfgfmoses 0]

U10, Balanced Amp, what could expect more....

[aaron-xp 0]

Too bad, only one can experience it, unilke the speaker system. Only you get to enjoy the U10 (custom made), so there's no showing off for the sound quality.