The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

MikeH said:
Makes sense. I also believe they have some different song libraries. I know Apple Music and Qobuz do. I do find some of Qobuz's new releases to be lacking, but they make up for it in their jazz and other genre collections. I can buy new music that's not on Qobuz or stream it elsewhere.
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personally i'd just wish that spotify had a hifi mode because i love spotifys UI but i know that spotify is for pedestrians who still use MP3s and cant truly hear real audiophile sound quality like lossless files (even though they sound the same and nothing feels crushed or removed or even textured differently at all)
 
duke86fan said:
personally i'd just wish that spotify had a hifi mode because i love spotifys UI but i know that spotify is for pedestrians who still use MP3s and cant truly hear real audiophile sound quality like lossless files (even though they sound the same and nothing feels crushed or removed or even textured differently at all)
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Honestly if you’re on the go and listening on a commute along Spotify is bang on, great UI and AI recommendations. Don’t need past mp3 for commuting. it’s a bit shit on a decent system and I hate that they are basically stealing a living from smaller artists with such disgustingly low royalties.
 
Joe Mac said:
it’s a bit shit on a decent system and a I hate that they are basically stealing a living from smaller artists with such disgustingly low royalties.
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is a laptop with a monolith USB dac connected through USB C a shit setup. yeah i dont have a big desk for a main dac and amp and stuff and i plan on getting a dragonfly for better sound in the future.. but i should be able to hear the difference, unless only having 6-8 gigs of ram is somehow a problem here for sound
 
duke86fan said:
is a laptop with a monolith USB dac connected through USB C a shit setup. yeah i dont have a big desk for a main dac and amp and stuff and i plan on getting a dragonfly for better sound in the future.. but i should be able to hear the difference, unless only having 6-8 gigs of ram is somehow a problem here for sound
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No it’s a separate dac and it will sound different, I was more taking about my iPhone and Bluetooth headphones! I’d say there is more money gone into it than the raspberry pi setup I had before the PS Audio preamp. I’d expect you to hear a difference there. Also I was saying Spotify sounded shit on a higher end system, wasn’t passing comments on systems per se.
 
Joe Mac said:
No it’s a separate dac and it will sound different, I was more taking about my iPhone and Bluetooth headphones! I’d say there is more money gone into it than the raspberry pi setup I had before the PS Audio preamp. I’d expect you to hear a difference there. Also I was saying Spotify sounded shit on a higher end system, wasn’t passing comments on systems per se.
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i just got confused because i admitted i cant really hear the difference between a MP3 and a FLAC file because they both sound the same (nothing is bit crushed, just as dynamic, nothing feels removed, no equalization). so i wondered if you accidentally implied my system was not high end enough to be audiophile
 
duke86fan said:
i just got confused because i admitted i cant really hear the difference between a MP3 and a FLAC file because they both sound the same (nothing is bit crushed, just as dynamic, nothing feels removed, no equalization). so i wondered if you accidentally implied my system was not high end enough to be audiophile
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no not at all, I don’t like to comment on gear I haven’t either heard first, have heard a report from someone I trust second or read a review of last. I don’t know that gear in any of those capacities so wouldn’t comment. I know that I hear small differences between Spotify and Qobuz lossless on my phone and enormous differences on my hifi and the louder you crank it the bigger the differences become!
 
Joe Mac said:
no not at all, I don’t like to comment on gear I haven’t either heard first, have heard a report from someone I trust second or read a review of last. I don’t know that gear in any of those capacities so wouldn’t comment. I know that I hear small differences between Spotify and Qobuz lossless on my phone and enormous differences on my hifi and the louder you crank it the bigger the differences become!
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i dont think my music is too quiet (it was very comfortable but i dunno if that means too quiet or too loud or what).. and i dont think my setup is shit enough to not hear the apparently major difference.. i just kinda wanna understand it and be able to actually hear the difference because tbh i tried those tests and it showed i was an idiot with it and it all sounded the same. its a kinda blow to my music nerd and audiophile cred to not head such a major difference and now i feel lesser
 
duke86fan said:
i dont think my music is too quiet (it was very comfortable but i dunno if that means too quiet or too loud or what).. and i dont think my setup is shit enough to not hear the apparently major difference.. i just kinda wanna understand it and be able to actually hear the difference because tbh i tried those tests and it showed i was an idiot with it and it all sounded the same. its a kinda blow to my music nerd and audiophile cred to not head such a major difference and now i feel lesser
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no sorry you misunderstood. It isn’t that mp3s are quiet, in a lot of senses they are louder because the compression cuts off dynamic range. I hear the difference more as I crank my system up, it exposes the compression and lack of detail on the mp3s, they’re often louder and flatter but distort as you turn your system up whereas better sources sing when you do the same.
 
duke86fan said:
but then im a plebian who has shit hearing


the internet has ruined my life..
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No! Absolutely not! I did not and never will say that! The whole reason that we all enter this hobby is that we love music, it’s the centre of everything, audiophilia, hi res, low res etc are just things. So long as you are enjoying your music and are happy what the fuck else matters?
 
Joe Mac said:
No! Absolutely not! I did not and never will say that! The whole reason that we all enter this hobby is that we love music, it’s the centre of everything, audiophilia, hi res, low res etc are just things. So long as you are enjoying your music and are happy what the fuck else matters?
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i guess i just have a desire to get a higher end laptop setup because i feel like im lesser and im having a bit less fun with music now because of all the press saying that my decisions might be dumb and that maybe i should get this cartridge or this dac or this headphone or this turntable and then i will have a beautiful blissful sound (like im getting double think with people saying "ortofon are best for the price" but then "no those are shit get a grado" and then "grado are awful tracking" or something like "the dragonfly is one of the best dacs around" and then "this 100 dollar DAC is better and the only reason people like it is for the size"), but i dunno how to make something truly pop and feel emotion
 
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duke86fan said:
i guess i just have a desire to get a higher end laptop setup because i feel like im lesser and im having a bit less fun with music now because of all the press saying that my decisions might be dumb and that maybe i should get this cartridge or this dac or this headphone or this turntable and then i will have a beautiful blissful sound, but i dunno how to make something truly pop and feel emotion
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I’m not trying to be condescending but at your age I was a student in dorms and was running a discman with a shitty set of active speakers that cost me £15. The emotion and connection came from the music itself, not any kind of depth or detail from the system. Look for your connection in the songs and albums. As I’ve got older I’ve been able to afford more expensive and detailed systems that have pulled more out of the recordings, which I love, but the emotion and connection still comes from the songs themselves and would still be there if I was listening to them through an old transistor radio,
 
Joe Mac said:
I’m not trying to be condescending but at your age I was a student in dorms and was running a discman with a shitty set of active speakers that cost me £15. The emotion and connection came from the music itself, not any kind of depth or detail from the system. Look for your connection in the songs and albums. As I’ve got older I’ve been able to afford more expensive and detailed systems that have pulled more out of the recordings, which I love, but the emotion and connection still comes from the songs themselves and would still be there if I was listening to them through an old transistor radio,
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im just self conscious and in a way want the best i can for what i can afford.. especially since with the internet and i can find that out easily (if it wasn't for all of the debate over what is better than what because subjectivity is the worst)
 
duke86fan said:
im just self conscious and in a way want the best i can for what i can afford.. especially since with the internet and i can find that out easily (if it wasn't for all of the debate over what is better than what because subjectivity is the worst)
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The best is listening to music and enjoying music and being happy. The worst is giving a fuck what anyone else thinks. I disagree on subjectivity though because: one, objectivity doesn't actually exist; and two, we aren’t all the same, us all being different is the most wonderfully perfect imperfection of the human condition and so why would all our answers to the same subjective question be the same. You be you.
 
Joe Mac said:
The best is listening to music and enjoying music and being happy. The worst is giving a fuck what anyone else thinks. I disagree on subjectivity though because: one, objectivity doesn't actually exist; and two, we aren’t all the same, us all being different is the most wonderfully perfect imperfection of the human condition and so why would all our answers to the same subjective question be the same. You be you.
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sorry i think its more partially frustration over what upgrade path i might do in the future because i do want to spend money upgrade my system more. and having people angry that i constantly wondered about getting an ortofon cartridge because critics happen to like them over the grado i have and then people saying they were too bright and sounded horrible despite the youtube video i used as a test between the had the ortofon sound better and thus making me confused over what i actually want (made worse by the fact that now my turntable is just a bit too bassy). so i think i have a bit of anger over contradicting opinions..

TL;DR reviewers said one thing, forum said another, other forum said another, i dunno what i want anymore
 
duke86fan said:
sorry i think its more partially frustration over what upgrade path i might do in the future because i do want to spend money upgrade my system more. and having people angry that i constantly wondered about getting an ortofon cartridge because critics happen to like them over the grado i have and then people saying they were too bright and sounded horrible despite the youtube video i used as a test between the had the ortofon sound better and thus making me confused over what i actually want (made worse by the fact that now my turntable is just a bit too bassy). so i think i have a bit of anger over contradicting opinions..

TL;DR reviewers said one thing, forum said another, other forum said another, i dunno what i want anymore
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YouTube videos are a poor comparison for phono cartridges because of the recording limitations of the phones that are often used to record them. I wouldn’t touch an Ortofon and love a Grado. Other people disagree and prefer detail. The best way for you to find out is to try both. You have a Grado, listen to a friends Ortofon. Or go into a local dealer and listen to one they have already set up. It’s the only way you’ll know for sure. All the rest is people offering you advice on what you think you want or pushing their own preferences.
 
duke86fan said:
no friends

lives in a suburb with no hifi shops nearby

the closest one is half an hour away, and there is no way i'll have someone to drive me there
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I’m not going to judge you on the first, that can happen to us all, but it’s something you might want to try to remedy. On the second, you’re an adult. I live in the suberbs about half an hour drive from the local hifi store, I can get here easily on my own without my car.

Without solving those two you’re into the world of other people’s views and they’re always going to trend towards those peoples tastes, asking the same question repeatedly isn’t going to magically change the answer to what you and to hear.
 
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