All I did was choose some speakers. My goal was simple: if Queen's 'You Take My Breath Away' brought a tear to my eye, they were good enough. I'd been given a Marantz SR6009 AVR as a wedding present, well, technically, we had, but my husband has his classic car as a hobby and the hifi was to be my hobby, being as I'm fussy about my listening pleasure. There was money to spend, also wedding present, so I went shopping.
After many false starts, research had pushed me towards Monitor Audio, as being a suitable match for the AVR, and I started listening in the ideal price range, the Bronzes. A wonderful depth of sound, easy on the ear, I hate a harsh bass. But, something was really not good about the treble, a sharp tinniness. OK, no go, try the Silvers. Ugly boxy things, I didn't like them from the start, and although they handled the treble better than the Bronzes, they sounded generally less capable of handling the music. No tears, bring on the next.
Gold 200. At last, floorstanders that were neither ugly boxes nor super-modern trash design, but elegant. Queen began to do their stuff, and, oh, my goodness, the depth and richness of their music exposed was a revelation. I wasn't sure which I needed from my hand-bag first, tissues or cheque-book.
It wasn't that easy, of course. They were way over-budget. I chose them in England but we live in France. In France they are even more expensive! But the problems were sorted out, and I placed an order with the shop I'd heard them in, as I hate showrooming. Then a nice man in a white van brought them down for me, 1000 miles, but still way cheaper than buying locally.
And then the problems really started! They sounded awful. Worse then the car-boot-sale speakers they replaced. After a while, I deduced that the problem was my CD player not being up to scratch. But I couldn't afford the level of transport (see how I learn the jargon?) I needed for this system, and anyway, I have very few CDs. I beleived I could fix both problems by subscribing to TIDAL and streaming FLAC. Little did I know of that murky world of geekdom I was about to enter. If you had told me then that I would soon be able to roll terms like UPnP protocol and Bubble servers off my tongue, that I would know about thing called Linn Kazoo (sounds more like a country and western song!), Kintsky, Quobuz, renderer, DAC, control point, ROON end point, I would have run a mile! However, bit by bit, I learned, and, bit by bit, the sound improved, and in the end surpassed the level I'd heard in the showroom. And I found out that in fact, my choice of Queen for the speaker test had been a less-than-perfect one: their recordings are all actually poor on dynamic range and clarity.
So, here I am, accidental geek audiophile. Still struggling: a Windows 10 upgrade knocked out my primary streaming route via PC, leaving me messing about with my phone: it works, but it's frustratingly slow. I am looking into how to stream from Unix Ubuntu and I need to learn how to set up a playlist or TIDAL, which seems to be tricky. I also need to find out how to store TIDAL content offline as I lose internet connectivity most early evenings. Work in progress: I hope to find out a few answers here.
Eleanor
After many false starts, research had pushed me towards Monitor Audio, as being a suitable match for the AVR, and I started listening in the ideal price range, the Bronzes. A wonderful depth of sound, easy on the ear, I hate a harsh bass. But, something was really not good about the treble, a sharp tinniness. OK, no go, try the Silvers. Ugly boxy things, I didn't like them from the start, and although they handled the treble better than the Bronzes, they sounded generally less capable of handling the music. No tears, bring on the next.
Gold 200. At last, floorstanders that were neither ugly boxes nor super-modern trash design, but elegant. Queen began to do their stuff, and, oh, my goodness, the depth and richness of their music exposed was a revelation. I wasn't sure which I needed from my hand-bag first, tissues or cheque-book.
It wasn't that easy, of course. They were way over-budget. I chose them in England but we live in France. In France they are even more expensive! But the problems were sorted out, and I placed an order with the shop I'd heard them in, as I hate showrooming. Then a nice man in a white van brought them down for me, 1000 miles, but still way cheaper than buying locally.
And then the problems really started! They sounded awful. Worse then the car-boot-sale speakers they replaced. After a while, I deduced that the problem was my CD player not being up to scratch. But I couldn't afford the level of transport (see how I learn the jargon?) I needed for this system, and anyway, I have very few CDs. I beleived I could fix both problems by subscribing to TIDAL and streaming FLAC. Little did I know of that murky world of geekdom I was about to enter. If you had told me then that I would soon be able to roll terms like UPnP protocol and Bubble servers off my tongue, that I would know about thing called Linn Kazoo (sounds more like a country and western song!), Kintsky, Quobuz, renderer, DAC, control point, ROON end point, I would have run a mile! However, bit by bit, I learned, and, bit by bit, the sound improved, and in the end surpassed the level I'd heard in the showroom. And I found out that in fact, my choice of Queen for the speaker test had been a less-than-perfect one: their recordings are all actually poor on dynamic range and clarity.
So, here I am, accidental geek audiophile. Still struggling: a Windows 10 upgrade knocked out my primary streaming route via PC, leaving me messing about with my phone: it works, but it's frustratingly slow. I am looking into how to stream from Unix Ubuntu and I need to learn how to set up a playlist or TIDAL, which seems to be tricky. I also need to find out how to store TIDAL content offline as I lose internet connectivity most early evenings. Work in progress: I hope to find out a few answers here.
Eleanor
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