Post by sethboy on Dec 6, 2016 21:40:04 GMT -5
Hello, Seth here. I'm pretty much completely new to the world of home audio. I'm "upgrading" from a component system I purchased back around 1998 I think it was, which was supposedly high quality (according to the audio store - and there wasn't Google back then) with JVC equipment, a 5.1 RX-1024V receiver, an XU-301 3-CD player (with mini-disc, because I clearly had no use for it and was a clueless fresh meat for the audio salesman I guess). I had a tape deck, a VCR (ha!) and a DVD player. The output was a pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors (the original v1 version) and a center channel speaker. Some pretty "cool" Monster cables and bare speaker wires connected everything together.
Well, all of that has been sitting in the closet for years and years (my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 computer speakers functioned well enough for playing mp3s and such, and they in turn replaced a beloved ancient pair of Altec-Lansing computer speakers I'd had since 1995 and absolutely loved). One of the speakers has a hole in the rubber, the other has an ugly scratch on the cone - so, being completely irrational and impractical and impulsive, I immediately decided I would need new speakers.
Suffice to say, I've not heard any really good audio since my younger years in dance clubs touting Phazon sound systems, which we were certainly deafeningly loud at least).
A few months ago, I decided I was absolutely NOT going to be at all trendy and start collecting vinyl records (of which I own exactly zero) (and no I'm not a hipster). So I started looking at turntables. (Confession, a scene in the Amazon television series "Bosch" must have sparked my interest. The eponymous character [also in the novels originally by Michael Connelly] is a jazz loving audiophile with some really impressive looking turntable and tube amplifier (McIntosh, natch) gear).
So, once I realized, I will buy a turntable (and then spent days and weeks reading audio blogs and discovering things like $100,000 dollar turntables) the only thing I recognized was a Technics SL-1200MK that my DJ friends had used.
Suffice to say, I had the bug. Now I needed a turntable with a belt drive. And discreet this. And isolated that. Cushioned in zero-gravity with..... you get the idea. (I finally settled on a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon DC with the better cartridge and platter).
Naturally, I then realized I would need those new speakers. Another round of research. Phono pre-amp needed. Oooh, "monoblock" amps those sound important. Yikes, 6,000 dollars? It must be balanced XLR. It must make coffee. Does that come in green or only in a solid block of titanium hand-milled by a blind amputee? Cables, well I know the 10K ethernet cable is a joke.... but what about this brand? That system? Separates? More more more. I'm sure you know how it goes.
For the record, I did more research, and finally decided, I will start with a 2 channel system, adding a subwoofer for my next shopping spree in the near future. I'm not a huge movie fan, I don't need 27 left channels of speakers, 75 coming from on top of my head, and an Atmos subwoofer up my *bleep* for maximum enjoyment. I have little use for a home theatre receiver, in other words. HDMI is almost a foreign concept to me. (Well, I do have one of those little Google Chromecast thingies and I must say I love it). I don't need blue ray, red ray, x ray, 8million pixel resolution, Dolby DTS-X or QWERTY upsampling.
So..... at long last, and without further ado, I purchased a pair of Elac Uni-Fi UB5 speakers, and both an Emotiva XPA-2 GEN3 and a XSP-1 unit from Amazon. Mogami Gold Studio XLR cables.
Next on the list, is a subwoofer and amp to power it (I'll either need to add a channel to the XPA, or I'm thinking of an Outlaw Audio M2200 monoblock amp) with proper cables.
Then, I'll need something like the Stealth DC-1, because I realize, my current audio collection is all electronic (mp3) and a few CD's I haven't sold off. Plus, with things like Pandora (my favorite) and the as-yet unexplored world of hi-def audio, FLAC files and so forth, I'l need some sort of DAC to take all that in, and put out analog to send to the XSP-1.
Now, I'm also obsessing over power conditioners.
When does it end?!?!?!?!?!
I might as well be broke for the next 20 years or so, right? At least I can listen to my music loudly enough to drown out the knocking of the repo men and the bankruptcy clerks, I hope.
Well, all of that has been sitting in the closet for years and years (my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 computer speakers functioned well enough for playing mp3s and such, and they in turn replaced a beloved ancient pair of Altec-Lansing computer speakers I'd had since 1995 and absolutely loved). One of the speakers has a hole in the rubber, the other has an ugly scratch on the cone - so, being completely irrational and impractical and impulsive, I immediately decided I would need new speakers.
Suffice to say, I've not heard any really good audio since my younger years in dance clubs touting Phazon sound systems, which we were certainly deafeningly loud at least).
A few months ago, I decided I was absolutely NOT going to be at all trendy and start collecting vinyl records (of which I own exactly zero) (and no I'm not a hipster). So I started looking at turntables. (Confession, a scene in the Amazon television series "Bosch" must have sparked my interest. The eponymous character [also in the novels originally by Michael Connelly] is a jazz loving audiophile with some really impressive looking turntable and tube amplifier (McIntosh, natch) gear).
So, once I realized, I will buy a turntable (and then spent days and weeks reading audio blogs and discovering things like $100,000 dollar turntables) the only thing I recognized was a Technics SL-1200MK that my DJ friends had used.
Suffice to say, I had the bug. Now I needed a turntable with a belt drive. And discreet this. And isolated that. Cushioned in zero-gravity with..... you get the idea. (I finally settled on a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon DC with the better cartridge and platter).
Naturally, I then realized I would need those new speakers. Another round of research. Phono pre-amp needed. Oooh, "monoblock" amps those sound important. Yikes, 6,000 dollars? It must be balanced XLR. It must make coffee. Does that come in green or only in a solid block of titanium hand-milled by a blind amputee? Cables, well I know the 10K ethernet cable is a joke.... but what about this brand? That system? Separates? More more more. I'm sure you know how it goes.
For the record, I did more research, and finally decided, I will start with a 2 channel system, adding a subwoofer for my next shopping spree in the near future. I'm not a huge movie fan, I don't need 27 left channels of speakers, 75 coming from on top of my head, and an Atmos subwoofer up my *bleep* for maximum enjoyment. I have little use for a home theatre receiver, in other words. HDMI is almost a foreign concept to me. (Well, I do have one of those little Google Chromecast thingies and I must say I love it). I don't need blue ray, red ray, x ray, 8million pixel resolution, Dolby DTS-X or QWERTY upsampling.
So..... at long last, and without further ado, I purchased a pair of Elac Uni-Fi UB5 speakers, and both an Emotiva XPA-2 GEN3 and a XSP-1 unit from Amazon. Mogami Gold Studio XLR cables.
Next on the list, is a subwoofer and amp to power it (I'll either need to add a channel to the XPA, or I'm thinking of an Outlaw Audio M2200 monoblock amp) with proper cables.
Then, I'll need something like the Stealth DC-1, because I realize, my current audio collection is all electronic (mp3) and a few CD's I haven't sold off. Plus, with things like Pandora (my favorite) and the as-yet unexplored world of hi-def audio, FLAC files and so forth, I'l need some sort of DAC to take all that in, and put out analog to send to the XSP-1.
Now, I'm also obsessing over power conditioners.
When does it end?!?!?!?!?!
I might as well be broke for the next 20 years or so, right? At least I can listen to my music loudly enough to drown out the knocking of the repo men and the bankruptcy clerks, I hope.
But...uh yeah it doesn't end! But it's sure enjoyable!! Welcome! BTW all your chocies are great! If you like you could lose the XSP-1 and use the DC-1, use the RCA outputs to a pair of subwoofers, and xlr outputs to the bookshelf. Blend the subs using the controls on the back of the sub. 
