Do You Consider Yourself An Audiophile?

[Jazzooo]

If so, would you mind answering a few questions? I'm getting ready to sign up with an audiophile label and I want to understand their audience a little more.

What is your stereo system worth?

What do you find yourself buying and playing more often:

vinyl, SACDs, high resolution downloads, or something else?

Do you buy music that is not recorded at high resolution as well? Or do you find that the recording itself is the primary thing that drives you to one title or another?

Thanks!

[BeBop]

Audiophile? No. I started buying listening-oriented equipment back in the mid-1970s - Audio Research, conrad-johnson, Linn, Acoustat... It all became pretty interesting to me, so I started working in the high-end stores, mostly in sales, but doing some repair work on valve electronics too. (Day job, while playing.) I still follow the industry, and every once in a while, you'll read some "weird sh*t" I send to John Atkinson at Stereophile, mostly poking fun at the hobby. But, for me, it was never about the equipment or the experience. What the hell is "soundstaging" when you're accustomed to hearing the alto sax on your left, the trombone over your shoulder, and the drums at the left rear? Today, my equipment is good by the standards of some earlier era. I've no money for upgrades to achieve incremental gain, and, at the moment, no home to put it in anyway. Most of my music is recorded at the highest-possible resolution: analog. (LP, 78, 10", open reel, elcaset). Where I live most of the time, we don't have data speeds anywhere near high enough to support streaming.

I own five Zunes.

I know that doesn't directly help you with your question, since I'm definitely cut out of the streaming world by environmental factors, not choice. I'm enough of an old man, that I'm probably wedded to physical media. While I don't associate with the term "audiophile", I do appreciate the value of good recordings. (Note my mention of the elcaset.) So you'll find 'em in my collection at a higher rate than you'd probably find in the market. Compression drives me crazy, especially in jazz and other musics where dynamics are critical.

Good luck jazzooo!

[Jazzooo]

Thanks, BeBop! I'm with you on compression--when I have a finished album to be mastered, my instructions to the mastering engineer always begin the same way: "Apply whatever compression is standard, and then cut it in half, and then subtract another 10%." I've never regretted it.

[jtx]

For me, that is really the only key difference from the consumer side in favor of hi-res recordings: With these recordings, there will generally not be the presence of the compression that is used in the CD mastering process, which can impact the overall quality if done in excess (I like your rule of thumb, Jazzooo, and wish more studios would follow it). Aside from that, since human hearing is not such that 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz or 176.4 kHz or 192 kHz sample rates mean anything useful in terms of audible differences (although they are great for the recording process), I am perfectly happy with 44.1/48 kHz recordings (48 kHz in the event that the original recording is a multiple of 24 kHz), without compression added. I do not spend any time with vinyl because keeping them static free is a royal pain, and the signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range are better on digital recordings. SACDs do not offer any practical benefits to me aside from the above discussion of compression possibly not being added in, but aside from that, there are enough other issues with the DSD format that I'd rather just stick with good old PCM.

On the audiophile question, I certainly consider myself someone who enjoys finding the right equipment and formats to let the music shine as much as possible, but with some practical budgetary constraints enforced, and a resistance to going overboard for diminishing returns. I do not own any pair of headphones that retailed above $200, nor do I own any playback equipment or accessories (speaker cables, etc.) that were astronomically priced. I won't criticize the self-identified audiophiles who will spend $1,000 on a set of speaker cables, $500 on specialty power cables, $3,000 on a CD player or digital music playback device, $200 on an "audiophile-grade" USB or coaxial cable to connect digital source to DAC, or the like, but I do know I won't be joining them on that path.

My primary listening environments are 1) my living room stereo system, which was modestly priced, but configured from arduously researched components (see my old post on this subject), and 2) my portable DAP with matched headphones, also selected after arduous research into all of the options out there before I arrived at the best solution for my needs, which has turned out wonderfully in the end (see my newer post on this subject). I also do non-critical listening through my smartphone, which I selected for having a dedicated DAC chip and a good sound signature, along with the ability to accept a 200 GB MicroSD card, upon which I have placed my entire digital sound library. Poweramp app for Android is running the show smoothly.

[Jazzooo]

Thanks, JTX! That was clear and informative. if I can ask you one other question--are there online stores where you find yourself checking and/or buying new music more often than others?

[jtx]

Hi, Jazzooo. Lately, I find myself on Bandcamp a lot, since it provides about the widest swath of genres and artists out there (and many interesting labels such as Edition Records, Gondwana Records, MoonJune Records and Jumpsuit Records), with much more of the proceeds going back to the artists, and occasionally 7digital, Acoustic Sounds and HDTracks for their pretty extensive collections. I will also peruse the inventories on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, since they often provide the ability to audition the music and they get new releases quickly. (I'll also admit that I price compare between the two, since they seem to price based on market demand or some other algorithm that results in disparate prices between the two for exactly the same content.)

[BeBop]

Thanks, JTX! That was clear and informative. if I can ask you one other question--are there online stores where you find yourself checking and/or buying new music more often than others?

I'm still doing CDBaby for a lot of stuff.

[jtx]

I should add that the places I mentioned above are for digital purchases, as I purchase physical media very seldom nowadays. When I do purchase physical media, they come from Amazon, Discogs, eBay, individual record label or artist pages, or other smaller online retailers. Even Goodwill's online store, which was the only place I could find a recording I was looking for without spending $60 or more.

[Jazzooo]

Thanks, guys.

[Ron Thorne]

To answer the thread question ...Yes.

As a young boy, I thought it was a negative concept. I thought it meant you were spoiled financially. Now I know that's erroneous. I embraced the concept of becoming an Audiophile by the age of 13, when I added a reel-to-reel tape deck along with my 1st stereo component kit. That kit was a REK-O-KUT K34H TURNTABLE and GRADO LABORATORY SERIES CARTRIDGE. I hope to reintroduce those components to 2018. Another stereo kit component was my beloved Harmon Kardon 30-watt amp/preamp, which I also hope to use again.

I continued the Audiophile approach today, with my latest purchase arriving only 2 days ago. My latest addition is a pair of Grado headphones (my 3rd) which are incredible.

Photos will follow.


Schiit Fulla 2 (studio shot)

[Jazzooo]

I love Grado headphones, Ron. Even their lower end products are wonderful.

Ok, so...what format do you find yourself buying these days? LPs? SACDs or regular CDs? High resolution downloads? If the latter, from where?

[Ron Thorne]

I also have 2 earlier Grado headphones (SR60 & SR80)), but my latest purchase is for one of their flagship models, and one I've lusted for for decades ... their Reference Series RS2e. Man, was I right! they weren't inexpensive, but a friend just bought a pair of OPPOs (now defunct) for $1100.00. Mine were less than 1/2 that.

Until I get our turntable operational, I'm using mostly CDs and SACDs, along with DVDs.

[Ron Thorne]

A Special Story:

One of the most wonderful and amazing features of my latest Grado purchase was a recent phone call.
I wanted to tell the Grado story (Lab Series arm & cartridge) which began with me when I was a teenager in high school in Anchorage. I dialed the Grado number and heard a male human voice on the other end. I asked for his name and heard him say "John". I introduced myself, and we talked about Grado, his company, for 1/2 hour. This is the same family, still hand-building all of their products in Brooklyn, NY. What an unexpected, delightful chat with John Grado!

[jtx]

I love Grado headphones, Ron. Even their lower end products are wonderful.

Ok, so...what format do you find yourself buying these days? LPs? SACDs or regular CDs? High resolution downloads? If the latter, from where?

I am perfectly happy with FLAC at CD standard 44.1/16, or the next step up at 48/24 to avoid conversion issues from the studio master, but there is nothing to be heard by the human ear at higher rates, with the added drawback of taking up more storage space than needed, and taking longer to download. Many playback devices that handle SACD/DSD audio do some sort of conversion to PCM in the signal path, thus negating any possible benefit from having bought that version in the first place. The nature of the DSD codec also makes it less practical to edit/compress down to a lossy format for portable use, making it much better for archival or single-use purposes than for flexible listening purposes within a digital audio collection.

Regarding where I buy digital audio these days, I have listed some sources a few posts above. Bandcamp is probably my favorite, as all of their audio is available in FLAC at a minimum 44.1/16, and at prices usually far below those of the major commercial outlets, with much more of the revenue making it to the artists, to boot.