Hey, from the vinyl vs cd thread I realized that there are a few other audio enthusiasts here and I'm quite interested to see who uses what for equipment and, in general, who is into audio as I am.

Starting off, I'll post the rig that I built last summer and then sold to a friend in preparation to buy the S2000.

Source: Computer - Apple lossless rips, 320kbs AAC mostly
The soundcard I used is highly regarded as one of the best soundcards available, the EMU 1212m.


This was run through a pair of custom Cardas-terminated Audioquest Copperhead interconnects to my amp, the Creek 4330, a very nice and ballsy British integrated amp. This thing could drive the piss out of any small speaker I could find, I was VERY impressed with it for the price.


From there, it was through a pair of Audioquest CV-6 speaker cables


and into my favorite piece of the system, Rega R1 monitors. For $500 monitors, these things absolutely floored me. The sound was very endearing and accurate. The soundstage was deep and realistic with adequate separation (when experimenting with a TriVista DAC, the separation improved exponentially). The monitors took very well to being heavily cornerloaded as well, producing great amounts of bass for their diminuative size. The softdome tweeter was absolute butter - vocals and stringed intruments were the strongpoint of the rig, in my opinion.


That system was a nice budget build and came together astoundingly well once I set up my room correctly and put the R1 monitors on some decent speaker stands.

I also am a fan of headphone rigs, but haven't bought much of my own. Currently, my favorite can is the Sennheiser HD600, with the Grado RS-1 being a distant 2nd. I have experimented with Etymotics and Shure canalphones, testing out the ER4p, ER4s, ER6i and then finding my favorite of the bunch, the Shure E3c.

Currently, I'm looking for a set of Beyerdynamic DT-770 (80ohm) or a nice Sennheiser HD-600 and amp combo.

So, what are you guys fans of? What rigs do you have or have you had?

 

Any one have the yamaha 1000 w sub?

Nice sound card by the way.

 

Amp: Forte Model 1A 50W per channel pure Class A, bench tested at 67W per channel before clipping @ 8ohms, 128W per channel before clipping at 4ohms
Preamp: Forte Model 1B pure Class A
Turntable: "The AR Turntable" (Yeah that's the model name)
CD player: Currently none.
Tuner: Yamaha Model (?)
Speakers: Mission Argonauts (4ohm impedance) Bi-Wired
Wires: StraightWire LSI and better, throughout the system.

Audio system not used with TV.



BTW my wife allowed to me to buy the speakers because I bought her a 3/4 carat Pear shaped diamond, at the same time.

 

Nice setup! I'm trying to get most of the hi-fi bug out of me before a wife starts factoring into the decisions. Apparently it is another one of those things that they just "don't get".

 

Technics SL1600 Turntable
PSIV A Phono Preamp
Cal Audio Labs ICON MK II CD Player
Acuras ACT 3 Preamp
ATI 1505 AMP
Plus a lot of other stuff

Speakers Under Construction
Morel MDT 33 Tweeters
Audax HM130Z0 Mids
Audax HM210Z0 Woofers
Ist order Xover

In storage
B&K ST 202 Plus Amp
Adcom GFA 535 Amp
Akai M8 reel to reel
B&K Pro 5 preamp
Plus a lot of other stuff

Set up as AV, but tweaked for stereo.

 

Sorry if this is unrelated, but the home made setup got me thinking. Do they still sell those kits where you make your own high end amps and stuff. You know, they just give you a kit with all the parts and you put it all together? I forgot what they were called.

 

Wrong! Don't go there. My wife knows what sounds good. She even used to go to events at local audio shops, but it seems that even that is going away, the events not the wife. We would go together and listen to different equipment, and had I had the money at the time she would have let me buy a whole new system based on Cary tube amps.

 

Awesome! I hope I have as good of luck. I'm sure there are plenty, but of course they aren't the ones that you hear stories about on the audio forums.

 

It's not just about the equipment, it's about the room too. Just thought I would grab some quick pictures on my cell phone this morning. This is my lab's Anechoic Chamber, Reverb Chamber and the associated rack system for the Anechoic.

The Anechoic Chamber is 2.5 stories tall. Mesh wire flooring with an acoustically transparent catch screen below. The door is roughly 400 pounds with a support beam which through the base of the chamber. The unit is essentially a box. It does not come in contact with the building itself, other than it's steel foundation which rests on top of the 8th floor. The chamber runs through the 9th-10th and out through the roof of our new facility.


This is a pretty standard rack mount system. TDT based equipment with a few odds and ends. A fairly archaic but extremely functional patchpanel as well


The RTS60 for the Reverb Chamber is about 4 full seconds without any dampening. Right now it's set up for 700 msec.

 

Room makes all the difference in the world. My rig went from "oh that's nice" to "holy shit!" when I finally dedicated myself to setting up the room properly.

What do you do, ImportSport?