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What Did You Do Today in the World of 2-Channel Audio?

227K views 3K replies 356 participants last post by  TheFactor 
#1 ·
What Did You Do Today in the World of 2-Channel Audio? This can be as simple as buying a new CD or as elaborate as buying new equipment. Share your hobby with others.

To start off, I purchased a used copy of Steely Dan - Two Against Nature on CD. I also cleaned several used CD's I purchased over the past week and replaced CD cases as needed. Lastly, I purchased two new micro-fiber towels from the Dollar Store to clean CD's with since my old ones are getting worn.
 
#2 ·
gonna run a few rew tests shortly as i made some trim adjustments recently and moved one of my subs. dont expect any changes, but will find out soon enough. need to go buy some wine and steaks first tho :)
 
#4 ·
Found a 2 channel Bryston power amp yesterday for a decent price, and did some gentle WAF probing this morning to gauge how much crap I can expect to catch when I buy it.
 
#10 ·
Ordered a Cambridge 851N network streamer pre/amp to pair with my recently acquired Parasound A23 amp. Both units arrive Tuesday and unfortunately, or fortunately, I will be at the Capital Theater in NY catching Phil Lesh on his 76 (I think) birthday. Probably won't get to play until Wednesday.

I am beyond excited to get my hands on the 851N as I didn't yet have a pre amp (was using the outs on my AVR) and wanted to move away from SB touch. Hoping the 851N lives up to the hype and I can get down to 2 pieces of equipment and put my cds away in a closet forever.
 
#11 ·
Promoting simple 2C setups ( integrated amp & cd player ) with friends that have a home theater room, but want to sit back an discern the music as the artist intended. currently have 3 2C rooms, and working on transforming my theater room into a forth via dual amp to 1 set of speakers......2C greed is good. :D
 
#16 ·
I listened to 2ch/stereo ..... everyday! Mostly jazz and rock.
 
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#18 ·
Had a listening party today. Did some cable comparisons at the party between MIT, Cardas, and Goldmund RCA's. Walked a customer through the use of a Fozgometer. Mounted a Transfiguration Proteus. Drank some beer (at the party) :p... listened to some great music :D

I can only hope next weekend is as much fun!!!
 
#19 ·
Had a listening party today. Did some cable comparisons at the party between MIT, Cardas, and Goldmund RCA's. Walked a customer through the use of a Fozgometer. Mounted a Transfiguration Proteus. Drank some beer (at the party) :p... listened to some great music :D

I can only hope next weekend is as much fun!!!

"MIT, Cardas, and Goldmund RCA's"


Tell us what you thought.
 
#31 ·
Went through a bunch of best produced and best imaging lists, listening to what I had on hand, thankfully quite a bit. Helped that I was alone in the house, so I was able to crank it at will. Mostly hi-res Flac ripped from vinyl>Squeezebox Touch>Anthem MRX 500>Salk Supercharged Soundtowers + Vandersteen sub





=
 
#32 ·
Went through a bunch of best produced and best imaging lists, listening to what I had on hand, thankfully quite a bit. Helped that I was alone in the house, so I was able to crank it at will. Mostly hi-res Flac ripped from vinyl>Squeezebox Touch>Anthem MRX 500>Salk Supercharged Soundtowers + Vandersteen sub

=
I use spotify, listen to songs if i like it i go buy the .flac from bandcamp.com Since flac sounds better than spotify & it's local media for my Denon NAP, then im happy..
 
#33 ·
OK. The Bryston is hooked up in my cave.

Had to have a rethink as to how I was going to use it. Discovered that the zone 2 pre outs on the Yamaha do not give variable output, so it's either flat out or silence. Luckily, a few seconds of flat out did not damage my speakers. Those Martin Logans are built tough, it seems. Although I can vary the volume on the PC, I figured I value my hearing too much to entrust it to an errant mouse click. I'd rather have a hardware solution.

So the 7.2 and 2.0 systems are completely separate, using my Cambridge Audio DACMagic Plus as a preamp, being fed by an optical digital signal from my PC. I have never had need for balanced cables and don't possess any, so I've hooked the DACMagic and the Bryston together with an unbalanced cable I happened to have laying around.

First thing to note is that bad recordings sound terrible. I never realized just HOW terrible. Unfortunately, I have some recordings that I will not be hearing much of in future. That became apparent in very short order. But I'm certainly hearing detail I never heard before, such as a flautist drawing breath on Bolero (Reference Recordings RR-92CD). This has been one of my go-to albums for a while so to hear detail of which I had previously been unaware is quite impressive.

I played Rick Wakeman's "Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" earlier. There is some deep bass on Merlin the Magician that I wanted to check out. The kick in the chest from the Martin Logan's 8" woofers, being properly driven, was pretty spectacular. Again, this is a recording I've been listening to for years; at least 25 of them. I was relieved to note that the recording is extremely good, with no noise that I could hear.

It appears that everything I've read is true. The ML electrostats DO benefit from decent amplification. At lower volumes, the sound seems fuller, and the urge to turn up the volume to crazy levels is diminished somewhat.

At some point, I'll switch out my electrostats and check out the Motion 40s and Motion 20s just for the hell of it.
 
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#38 ·
Well, today I visited the Crutchfield retail store in Charlottesville, VA. I always wanted to check it out. I never managed to because it is a 3 hour drive from home but today I was in Charlottesville for a doctor's appointment at the University of Virginia Medical Center and I thought I would stop by and see what all they had. I was shocked to see only four 2-channel units on display and those units were all hooked up to the same pair of Cambridge Audio SX-60 bookshelf speakers laying sideways on the floor under the table. They had a Onkyo TX-8160 Receiver, Marantz PM6005 Integrated Amplifier, Yamaha A-S501 Integrated Amplifier and a NAD C 316BEE. Even if I were interested in one of these units the demoing situation was abysmal. I left after less than 10 minutes in the store. It was a big letdown after looking forward to going for years.

So, in short, I had a bad day shopping for my next receiver and CD player upgrade. :(
 
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#39 ·
Next time I'm in the local hifi store , I'll take some photographs. They'll make you feel better, I promise. Wall to wall 2 channel.
 
#40 ·
@Pacodutaco

Here's one to be going on with. The equipment in use was the BC Acoustique I just mentioned. 80 wpc Class A.

We were listening to Rush - Hemispheres on vinyl. Good times.

 

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#41 ·
@Pacodutaco

Here's one to be going on with. The equipment in use was the BC Acoustique I just mentioned. 80 wpc Class A.

We were listening to Rush - Hemispheres on vinyl. Good times.


You have more 2-channel gear in that photo than Crutchfield's had in their entire retail store.
 
#51 ·
Found that my cables were restricting my equipment placement, so I bought a pair of XLR cables, which at 20' should give me a few options.

Not strictly a two channel thing, but I found Rush's R40 Live and figured that it had to join my collection. 2 BluRays and 3 CDs for $35. Can't be bad. I'll be digging into that shortly.

Other than that, I've been playing with my Cambridge Audio/Bryston/Martin Logan setup, throwing as much at it as I can. Sound is awesome. I'm hearing detail I never knew was there. Somehow, the soundstage presented by the Theos has lifted. It seemed to me that the sound was coming from too close to the floor, and was probably at least part of the reason I felt something was missing. Now, the sound is coming at me from a more realistic height. Bass has tightened considerably, and is a lot less directional than it was when power was being supplied by the Yamaha.

 

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#52 · (Edited)
Found that my cables were restricting my equipment placement, so I bought a pair of XLR cables, which at 20' should give me a few options.

Not strictly a two channel thing, but I found Rush's R40 Live and figured that it had to join my collection. 2 BluRays and 3 CDs for $35. Can't be bad. I'll be digging into that shortly.

Other than that, I've been playing with my Cambridge Audio/Bryston/Martin Logan setup, throwing as much at it as I can. Sound is awesome. I'm hearing detail I never knew was there. Somehow, the soundstage presented by the Theos has lifted. It seemed to me that the sound was coming from too close to the floor, and was probably at least part of the reason I felt something was missing. Now, the sound is coming at me from a more realistic height. Bass has tightened considerably, and is a lot less directional than it was when power was being supplied by the Yamaha.


You also tilted them back if I recall correctly? And now you get an accurate height perspective. Piano pedals from near the floor. Piano soundboard from about 3' high. Trumpet from up high. Baritone or bass sax from down low. Vocalist higher than the guitar they're playing, etc.


There's SO much more to this than just flat frequency response. That's a small part of the game. Getting the realism is the tough part.
 
#55 ·

Yes, we should probably conceal things a bit when the quoted post is exceptionally huge. It can make the thread a touch more readable.
 
#56 ·
searched around the internet for a decent deal on an 10-20 yo audio research preamp. Finally found a unit that was perfect for my needs and budget (ls16), only to find out it had just been sold :( .

So the search continues for an ARC pre with tubes, remote, and balanced inputs for around 1500$. I had an ARC ls 7 in college which I sold about a decade ago and I am feeling nostalgic for some toggle switches and handles!
 
#58 ·
I picked up a couple of CD's to add to my collection today. I also have a line on a couple of old Wharfedale speakers I'm hoping will be in great shape. I'm hoping to go check them out over the next day or so. (Fingers Crossed)
 
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#59 ·
Home at last.

Listening to Enya - Watermark

Vinyl rip to FLAC.

Being perusing CanuckAudioMart for some preamp ideas. Looks like a very handy source for such items.
 
#64 ·
Today's 2 channel moment provided by Rush and Rick Wakeman.

Just finished ripping the 3 CDs of R40. Seems something went slightly awry, and I ended up with .WAV versions instead of .FLAC, but it's all good.

While I was waiting for one PC to turn out the rips, I was listening to Rick Wakeman's "Arthur", ripped to .FLAC by moi, from Rick's 25th Anniversary 4 CD set.

Following that up with Rick and the New English Rock Ensemble - Out Of The Blue.
 
#65 ·
Today I had some time this afternoon. I decided to spend it out shopping my favorite spots for used CD's. I ended up with 16 new to me CD's to add to the collection. I found some selections from Rush, Queen, Mark Knopfler and Lindsey Buckingham to name a few. Not a bad haul for $20 and about 1 hour's time. Hopefully in the next day or two I will get the chance to go over each one following my usual methods. First, I clean the case inside and out replacing parts as needed, then I clean both sides of the CD and polish any scratches out if needed restoring the CD to like new condition. Finally, I place the CD's in a stack next to my stereo ready to be played at my leisure and I add them to a spreadsheet I keep in my car to prevent purchasing the same title twice.
 
#66 ·
Finally, I place the CD's in a stack next to my stereo ready to be played at my leisure and I add them to a spreadsheet I keep in my car to prevent purchasing the same title twice.
I do the same... got to clean and listen before you file.

And I keep a list online of the LPs I have. I got frustrated when I'd come home from a road trip and find I bought a title already on my shelf. So now I just check my online list on my phone when I'm at a record store.

I have a stack of duplicates to sell. Silver lining is I get to pick the best of the two.
 
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