Puzzled-Background-5 t1_iugki0a wrote on October 31, 2022 at 3:53 AM

There are a few people who tend to get obsessive about the equipment and want to try all of it that they can afford; I suspect fear of missing is a primary motivation there.

Then, we've got the confidence artist who fool the less knowledgeable into believing all sorts of lies in order to enrich themselves. And, this drives people to acquire more and more equipment that doesn't actually enhance their listening experience.

For me, the music is the obsession - Ex. I've downloaded at least 10 new albums and DJ mixes in the last week alone.

I did go through a period of auditioning every music playback and server application I could find - I'm a software engineer and, of course, that fascinates me. I wasn't chasing sound quality, though. Why would I when all of that software presented a bit perfect, if I wanted, data stream to my DAC? Rather, I was after the best user experience for my needs. I found Logitech Media Server to be the best solution for me, just in case anyone is curious.

Back to the equipment, I settled on that ~5 years ago when I was doing a refresh and my systems will remain the same for at least a decade as a result. I've four in total: 2x speaker based, and 2x IEM based.

Sure, I still regularly read about new equipment; almost daily, in fact. However, I've no desire to purchase any in the foreseeable future, as I shopped right the first time and I wouldn't gain anything in terms of fidelity by doing so.

If I wish to experience a different sonic signature, DSP is a miracle worker on that front.

TraceTheSpark OP t1_iugmvnl wrote on October 31, 2022 at 4:17 AM

Thank you for sharing! I hope so day I can achieve that sort of contentedness tha5 you've found in your setups.

I am curious what your speaker setups look like, if you're willing to share.

Puzzled-Background-5 t1_iugtvat wrote on October 31, 2022 at 5:43 AM

Oh, it's nothing special. I've got 2 pairs of bookshelf speakers from the last Infinity Reference series, aka "Baby Revel's", and inexpensive, but transparent, Class D amplifiers. One is used in an AV setup, although mostly for music, and the other for a desktop system.

People refer to the last Infinity Reference series as Baby Revel's because, both Infinity and Revel are owned by Harmon International, and they share design philosophy and technology to a certain extent.

One, the Infinity Reference 162, is comparable in performance to the Revel M16. They just can't play as loud as the latter without audibly distorting. However, they're clean up to ~85 dB and I never, ever play them that loud under normal circumstances.

The other, the Infinity Reference 152, which I use for my desktop, is comparable in performance to the Revel M105, with the same limitations as I've mentioned for the 162.

Both pairs are frequency response corrected and tuned to my listening environment via DSP.

All the best... 😎