Pixel 6, Apple dongle and Truthear Hexa in the streets, Shiit Magni+Modi and Hifiman Sundara in the sheets.
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
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Asklemmy
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For earphones I have a set of KZ ZSN Pro X IEMs for when I'm on the go, when I'm at home I have my Audio Technica ATH-M50X.
On the player side I love InnerTune as a YouTube Music Frontend, while for analog I refurbished my father's BSR turntable and Phillips amplifier, both straight from the '80s
24bit 96kHz FLAC (purchased from Bandcamp & HDTracks) -> JRiver Media Center software player -> Merging Anubis Pro DAC -> Coleman Audio M3PHmk2 passive monitor controller -> Pass Labs X250 class A solid state power amp -> B&W Nautilus 802 3-way floor standing speakers
Or if from vinyl KAB modded Technics SL1200mk2 -> Shure V-15MR cartridge -> Simaudio Moon LP5.3 balanced preamp ->
(in 20' x 14' x 9' room with bass traps, absorbers and diffusors by GIK, ATS, and Auralex)
Download from Deezloader, listen with Lollypop on desktop and Auxio on mobile.
I also transfer all my music to my Hauwei watch GT2.
Edit: not sure if I count as an audiophile.
Buy on Bandcamp, listen with Strawberry.
Buy albums on Bandcamp, Stream from Tidal, get a USB DAC + either vintage amp/speakers (almost anything pre 80 is good) or modern amplified speakers.
PC (MPD with Ario frontend) -> SMSL DO100 -> Rotel A11 Tribute -> KEF Q150. I'm upgrading to KEF LS50 Metas next week, can't wait.
in silence.
I’ve got 3 options currently:
- Sennheiser HD450s for on the go and at work
- Sennheiser HD6XX for my desktop setup
- PC/AppleTV/Turntable > HiFi Berry running Alpine Linux > Yamaha HS8s for the entertainment center
I’m not crazy picky about my digital source as 95% of the audio quality comes from the hardware to my ears. It’s rare I notice a poor quality encode.
The best quality that is convenient.
On the go? Bluetooth headphones from Spotify.
At my desk? Open back sennheisers from the FLAC from the NAS, or Spotify.
PC Spotify -> Schiit Modi -> Schiit Vali 2 -> PreSonus Eris E4.5 speakers.
Or
Pixel 8 Pro Spotify -> "TempoTec Sonata HD PRO" USB DAC -> Meze 99 Classic headphones.
Does anyone think it's worth moving to Tidal for my music?
Also, I'm running out of space on my desk. I can put the stack of Schiit on top of a speaker with minimal effects, right?
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Any sufficiently high quality audio stream from my Plex or Tidal, always set to max volume in app/OS settings -> Topping D30 -> JDS Atom -> Sennheiser HD6XX.
Good enough for me.
Not an audiophile, so bexcuse the ignorance, but what is the logic of max volume in app?
The goal is to send the exact, unmolested digital samples from the file out to the DAC, which then sends its analog signal to the amp where you worry about how much to amplify that signal for listening.
When you set everything to 100% volume in software, you can assume that there is no software doing anything to alter the digital signal before sending it to the DAC (scales each sample by 1.0). But when you're under 100% volume in software, it assumes you don't have any analog control over the volume, so it needs to step in and alter the digital signal so that it shows up quieter to the DAC (ex. scaling each sample by 0.25). Depending on how that's implemented, it can result in losing resolution and thus quality of the signal.
I think this mattered more on older software that's more likely to use a smaller bit depth, but bugs happen, so why risk it and spend those extra cycles on a process that can only result in a worse signal, right?
There’s some confusing stuff in this response so before I get into the weeds, for all the people reading out there: you don’t lose quality by using your operating systems volume control.
Okay, with that out of the way, let’s say you wanted to adjust the volume of a digital stream that’s composed of samples. Each sample represents the original analog signals voltage at that slice of time when it was encoded. The number of slices per second is the sample rate, expressed in kilohertz and the voltage of the original signal is converted to a number, which is stored as a binary value whose length is expressed in bits, each of which can be either a one or zero and is referred to as the streams bit depth.
So you could have a stream whose sample rate is 44.1khz for example and that would mean that it was sampled 44,100 times per second. That same stream might have a bit depth of 16, and that would mean that the original signals voltage level was divided into 65,536 possible values. Depending on some other factors, that stream might just be cdda (a compact discs digitally encoded song information).
Now let’s say you had a computer that was handling that stream and was asked to reduce the volume of the stream by half by a user who can only stand to listen to it at that volume.
One way to do that job would be to decode the stream back into an analog voltage, attenuate it, recode it and then send it on its merry way. That would incur a decoding operation, require routing of that signal to either dedicated hardware to perform the attenuation and send the signal back and an encoding operation to make that now half as loud signal back into a digital stream that can then be sent wherever it’s destined.
Another way of handling that operation is simply dividing every slice of the streams 16 bit component by two, something that computers are very good at doing quickly.
It should come as no surprise then that the latter process is generally how it’s done.
But does that reduce quality or result in worse signal? That’s the question, right?
Well, any variation of one bit or less could be essentially deleted. A person could say “ah hah! The signal has been degraded!” And they’d be technically correct, but it wouldn’t matter.
In our example, the computer whose hands are all over our precious data stream is sending that adulterated information to a dac, which true to its moniker will convert the signal from a digital stream into an analog signal. That analog signal will then be sent to an amplifier with an analog volume control and from there to a set of speakers.
The amplifiers analog volume control is a resistor in the shape of a 3/4 arc with a wiper that can move back and forth across it, allowing anything put in one side to be resisted (or in the case of our ac signal, impeded) a varying amount depending on the users selected position of the knob attached to the wiper.
Okay but what is resisting a signal though? Well, a resistor will reduce the voltage between its two ends proportional to its resistance, measured in ohms. More ohms means more resistance.
For the purposes of our example, let’s assume the user has chosen an amplifier and dac combination such that the amplifiers volume control at minimum setting applies the minimum resistance necessary to completely attenuate the dacs maximum output and is not applying any resistance at its maximum setting. In other words, that it all works as expected and is perfect.
In this case, what’s the difference between sending a stream with data corresponding to a .5V signal that gets amplified as opposed to a stream with data corresponding to a 1V signal that goes through a resistor to bring it down to .5V before being amplified?
nothing
In fact, the digitally attenuated stream will probably sound better (closer to the original) because it’s not subject to the bourns/alpha ppm lottery!
Now.
Don’t let this stop you from listening to music however you like. My ass is itt admitting to using 40 year old record players to make sounds to cook to. But don’t worry about the computers volume control.
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Modded Rockbox iPod with Wolfson DAC and 500gb storage. Around 150gb of CC music.
Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones.
A bunch of old CDs, played on 2 shelf stereos or in car.
On phone, .opus files with Aeropex Aftershockz(average sound) or 2x UEBoom2 paired in stereo(slightly above average)
Spotify -> MOTU M2 -> HiFiMan Ananda non-stealth
"High resolution" audio is completely useless for listening (16 bit 44.1 kHz is the best it gets) and there is little value in lossless encodes for listening purposes too, so I don't get the point of all those "Hifi" streaming services.
If you own lossless encodes, I guess it doesn't hurt to use them even for listening as storage is cheap these days.
Speaking of which, I'd like to switch to purchasing my music though because Spotify will certainly continue on its path towards full enshittification. I want to be in a position where I own all my favourite music before Spotify will be infected with ads on premium plans. Oh and artists are somewhat more likely to be paid a little for their work that way (I hope...)
I plan to use the free YT music for discovery at that point.
Completely full of ads already, I routinely get promoted podcasts and gig ticket and merch notifications despite them being turned off.
I started using Spotify lite on my phone. And thankfully, there's plenty of alternative clients on desktop (such as ncspot). No crap UI elements, just playlists.
I still have my iPod. It works great.
Sadly I have to rely on Windows to continue filling it up with songs. But it sounds better than my phone, even with AAC files (I have quite a lot of ALACs on there but they don't make a difference sound wise).
Really wish that Apple revives the iPod to target it specifically to audiophiles.
Tidal HiFi/medium tier ->Equalizer APO with just a tiny bit of tuning -> a xDuoo stack of USB DAC + hybrid tube amp -> Sennheiser HD560S
Definitely a little bit of overkill. But still overall fantastic budget, and do it all setup. Competitive shooters, movies, and music all sound fantastic.
My next goal is a multibit DAC + tube only amp -> something like a HD 6XX. Or maybe a good solid state -> planar magnetic headphones.
CDs ripped to FLAC and streamed using Emby. I also use Amazon Music. At work I have a pair of ATH-M30x headphones I really like. At home ibhave some Sennheiser HD350, which are ok, but I don't like them that much as they're not that comfy. I prefer going through the hifi - Audiolab 6000A amp, Wharfedale Pacific Evo 40 floor standers and a Wiim mini. I also have a NAD C541i CD player. On my PC I go through a NAD C320 amp and Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 bookshelves.
Ehhh, I'm ballin on a budget, so take that into account.
Generally, if I really want to sink into the music, I'm going with either my lgg7 and my beyerdynamic 770 80 ohm; or whatever device can connect with my usb DAC, a fiio q3.
I do have other options, but that's my main listening because I simply don't have the budget to do a proper system with how little I get a chance to listen to music away from headphones. My computer has a decent sound card, and some klipsch speakers that aren't bad. There's a home theater unit with cd/bluray hooked up, as well as the shieldTV, and the ability to connect via Bluetooth or cable to whatever device I prefer.
My car is decent, but not audiophile level. More bass focused than anything else.
I do have other headphones. Some tin t2s, some sonys, an old set of koss, that kind of thing.
File wise, its flac and opus.
I use poweramp and/or usb audio player pro. I prefer poweramp, but the other does bit perfect, which I do like on occasion, and it's more DAC friendly.
I'm happy with the options I have, all considered. Most of it was picked up either on sale or used. I would save up while shopping, then get the best I could get when I was ready. But the key to me is that when I want to, I can listen to anything I have and hear the nuance of it. The sound is as clean as I can get it on my budget, and in all reality, my old ears can't make use of anything fancier.
You spend almost fifty years living and listening to it loud, you aren't going to get much bang for your buck out of the really high dollar, precise gear. Hell, I can barely tell a difference between lossless files and mp3 om any given listening method. It's there, I can still hear a difference, but it's barely there for me. The better gear helps, but not enough to keep upgrading for tiny changes.
I use the schitt magnius and modius as my DAC amp and the meze 99 classics as my headphones (though im looking on upgrading because my dacamp is overkill)
Spotube is my music player but by necessity im looking for something better if somone wants to recommend 👀
Love the Meze 99 Classics, worth every penny!
Flacs on a server direct streamed to my source. Jellyfin is nice. for on the move I buy sony phones just cause they still have a headphone jack. I prefer to download what i want before i leave but also not a big deal. at home i use moodeaudio attached to my setup or kodi
FLAC's on NAS. Bluesound Node to stereo system, controlled with Roon. PlexAmp when remote.
Tidal is actually giving their lossless plan to their lower tier subscription, just got an email about it. Pretty nice.
Openback neutral headphones. Listen to music the way it was mixed. Obviously higher bitrate is better, but I cave in to the convenience of streaming and am content with minimum 320kbps for casual listening. Definitely lossless for critical listening.
If I want the highest quality streaming, then Amazon Music.
Otherwise, things I've purchased in 96khz or 192khz from ProStudioMasters.com
I work in the audio post industry, so I'm generally listening on my work rig either through Genelec speakers or Beyer DT880 Pro headphones, fed by a UA Apollo audio interface.
NAS -> ALAC, high-res files -> Plexamp -> Sound Blaster's recently top-end sound card (name?) -> Schiit Heretic amplifier -> Sony MDR-1ADAC headphones
Or
NAS -> ALAC, high-res files -> Nvidia Shield (via Plex) -> Yamaha RX-A8A receiver -> Polk Monitor 70 tower speakers
On the go: Truthear Nova IEMs + DAC via Sony Xperia 5 III LineageOS for microG phone or Shanling Q1 DAP (rarely Sony WF-1000XM3 if wireless is a requirement)
At home: Moondrop Variations IMEs + DAC via Moto M2 audio interface (all machines running Linux)
Music from: Bandcamp or Soulseek via Nicotine+, occasionally YouTube for discovery
Not sure if I count as an audiophile but here’s my list o’ stuff I’ve acquired over the years and like the best:
My house had speakers built into the ceiling when I moved in so I have a Denon AVR-S760H amp and play audio through the surround sound with an AppleTV, record player, or whatever other source. (I forget the record player model but it’s just one of the mid-tier Sony ones.) I also have some Sennheiser HD 598 headphones that I love the sound on. They’re open back so not appropriate for travel but if I’m alone and not in the living room, that’s my go-to.
I really like Sennheisers and I eventually splurged on a pair of 4.50 SE over the ear ones for travel. They have noise cancellation and a closed back so they work great on flights or trains. I like them a lot.
I also have some Beats Fit Pros that I use a lot. Most earbuds don’t stay in my ears very well so the little nubbin hook on the Beats Fits is really what prompted that decision but the audio quality ended up being perfectly fine for the form factor. Sometimes, you’re exercising or just listening to a podcast or a work call. They ended up being a good purchase.
Dynaco ST-70 (stereo tube amp, mine is maybe 1960s?), 8Ω tap to either Klipsch Heresy II or Vandersteen 1c speakers.
I've had the Klipschs for 20+ years, so to me they're sort of reference/completely neutral speakers. (I know Klipschs aren't everyone's cup of tea though.)
Not sure if I merit being called an audiophile, but...
Huge collection of mp3s ripped from CDs. Stored locally, currently using a Unihertz Jelly Star as a glorified digital audio player, running BlackPlayer EX, which I like for it being a good mix of minimalist and giving me freedom to customize as much as I feel I need. When I'm using headphones, I want my ears uncovered so I use Shokz bone conduction headphones.
Very loud.
FLACs/Qobuz via Roon. I spend the most time in my office so that’s where my favorite setup is. LS50 Metas + SVS SB-1000 Pro + Peachtree GaN stack.
I also love my HD660s with the Bottlehead Crack tube amp I built.