PC Peripherals The High End Audio Thread

B&O make lifestyle products, for people who are much more concerned about the looks, and how the speakers will fit in with their decor. Not that they're bad - unlike bose, B&O actually spend lots in R&D.
But if sound quality if ur only priority, u don't need to spend that much for B&O.
 
anishcool said:
If I can afford it, this is only what I will buy. This is friggin' AWESOME !

Whoa ! Its still a dream :D
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I have never seen any B&O Audio hardware myself but I think B&O would have always won any award for BEST LOOKING Audio hardware - very expensive but I dont think it could be called top audio quality stuff. Dont get me wrong - they make nice stuff but not amongst the BEST. Top Class Audio hardware is unbelievably expensive. I have heard of Amps made with GOLD soldering !!! :O To be a real Audiophile you have to be born very rich or marry the daughter of a Birla or Tata or Ambani. :)
 
anishcool said:
If I can afford it, this is only what I will buy. This is friggin' AWESOME ! I would love to hear Eazy's comments on it ;)

Bang & Olufsen

Whoa ! Its still a dream :D
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Yup. B&O are meant for stunning looks..not that they are bad in sound quality....... but they aint the best.....
If u want the best...go for B&W nautilas series. or if electrostaic speakers sounds good on ur ear...... get the maggies or the martin logans.........
pair them up with denon or yamaha receivers.and u hv got a killer system.

I heard sonus faber and wilson make some of the best speakers ..and they cost a bomb......... upward of $40K
 
Eazy said:
:aww: .... why my name on thread title ? Amol is more of an audio GURU than I will ever be .....can you please change thread title to "Audio Discussion" or something like that ?
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hehe sure , used ur name since you started it ;)
 
sambit said:
Yup. B&O are meant for stunning looks..not that they are bad in sound quality....... but they aint the best.....
If u want the best...go for B&W nautilas series. or if electrostaic speakers sounds good on ur ear...... get the maggies or the martin logans.........
pair them up with denon or yamaha receivers.and u hv got a killer system.

I heard sonus faber and wilson make some of the best speakers ..and they cost a bomb......... upward of $40K
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Hehehehe the nautilus is not meant for mere mortals like us... Its insanely expensive. I'd be happy with a pair of entry level 600 series ones, a denon amp and a nice ASW300 sub and still stay south of 1lac :).
 
Chaos said:
Hehehehe the nautilus is not meant for mere mortals like us... Its insanely expensive. I'd be happy with a pair of entry level 600 series ones, a denon amp and a nice ASW300 sub and still stay south of 1lac :).
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Very true Chaos. High end audio is insanely expensive. :O
One can get a decent system within 1 lac.
But I'll rather put my money in a B&W speakers which will last lifetime rather than putting 40K odd in a 7800GTX which wil be out of date after 2 yrs. Anyway thats my personal preference.
 
My current Hi-Fi sound system.... :D

Panasonic Diskman type CD Player = 2.5k
Pioneer 25W/Channel Amp = 3k (bought from Lamington Road)
K.E.F. BBC Studio Monitor speakers = 1.5k
Telephone wire used for speakers = about 50 bucks

TOTAL cost = 7050/-

Whats your sound system besides the one in your computer ?
 
Well ......right now I have a Sony home theatre ( MHC GN 100D) bought for 30K. Saving for the last two years(since i started working) to buy a decent system . Will go for Denon 3805 receiver and a pair of Maggies(MG1.6):hap2: and will later add a HSF or SVS sub. I will be using this mainly for music, hence a 2.1 set-up. What about others.
 
Hmm please don't laugh but I havent spent too much on Audio...

Main system : Sony MHC-GN90D (DVD Home theater)

Computer connected to the system itself.

Onboard sound for the computer (upgrading to X-Fi in Dec. :D)

Zalman 5.1 Headphones (with gold plated connectors :eek:hyeah: )
 
sambit said:
Will go for Denon 3805 receiver and a pair of Maggies(MG1.6):hap2: and will later add a HSF or SVS sub. I will be using this mainly for music, hence a 2.1 set-up. What about others.
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if u want stereo, why are you going for an AV reciever? A stereo integrated amp from denon/ arcam/ yamaha/ etc would be much better.

I've read that the maggies are greedy for power. You'll need a high current amp.
 
zhopudey said:
if u want stereo, why are you going for an AV reciever? A stereo integrated amp from denon/ arcam/ yamaha/ etc would be much better.

I've read that the maggies are greedy for power. You'll need a high current amp.
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Well...the 2.1 setup is just a intial set up . I'll add the centre and rear chanells as and when I can afford. Though I'll be mostly listening to music I'll watch DVD movies and music videos as well. Hence the AV receiver.

Maggies are power hungry. But I think the 3805 will be enuf to power the initial 2.1 setup. I plan to add a preamp when I add the centre and rear chanells. what do u think zhopudey ?? Or shud i go for some more expensive amp like Arcam and Krell ??? But it will be way over my budget.:huh:
 
Well Here's my setup.... all onkyo cos my dad bought without telling me a year and half ago :p

Receiver: TX-SR500

Fronts: D-307F

Center: D-307C

Rears: D-307M

Sub: SL-107

Total Cost: ~80K. Its very good but better stuff can be had for that amount of money.
 
My audio gear including the pc,because my pc is my dedicated audio listening source.

EMU 0404 coming soon - $100
Sennheiser HD 580 headphones - $200
custom made class A amp for the sennheisers - Rs 3500
Altec lansing MX 5021 ~ $200
Kimber mini - RCA cable - $70
custom made shielded RCA->RCA cables - Rs 600
Approx around - Rs 30k.
 
Nikhil said:
@Ragin_Ice --- The actual model name is Zalman RS6F Theatre 6 5.1 Headphones

@Eazy, Crazy, Zhopudey ---- So, in India, you would say that the best home theatre systems are from Onkyo?? Any other high quality manufrs in India??
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klipsch...period beats the sh*t out of any of those onkyos/B&Ws/ etc

altec is pretty good too in their professional range for theaters
 
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Decadent_Spectre said:
klipsch...period beats the shit out of any of those onkyos/B&Ws/ etc

altec is pretty good too in their professional range for theaters
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Klipsch maybe comparable/better than Onkyo speakers. but in no way is it in the league of B&W/Paradigm/Maggies. As far as the best bang for the buck HT setups in India are concerned, its gotta be onkyo, jamo and jbl.... choose as you like ;). Klipsch is way too overpriced in india. As far as receivers are concerned, its denon/onkyo/yamaha/marantz for best value. Too bad that altec is not a player in the home theater market. Their sound systems in conference halls/movie theaters are absolutely amazing. They make some really good studio monitors as well.
 
I have a good friend who lives in the next building and this person was absolutely crazy about music it was his life - so he checked around for the BEST Audio equipment he could buy in his budget - he was not looking at the BEST of the BEST but of what he could afford and he bought...

DENON CD player
McIntosh 120w/c Tube Amp / Preamp
B&W 801f speakers

He had lots of other GOOOOD hardware too.

BUT ... BUT... all this top quality Audio hardware sounded like Shiiiit at his place !!! He used to come over to my place and cry at how much better my comparatively second quality hardware sounded compared to what he was getting.

He called sound engineers who came with Audio meters and analysers - charged him a lot made a few suggestion of Mods to the positioning and room modifications and the final sound was about the same. He called some heavy duty Interior Decorators who specialised in room accoustics - spend lots of more money and still NADA !! Not much difference. The sound he got from his EXPENSIVE sound setup was never upto the mark. He moved house too and the sound was the same ... no ....no ... not same.... WORSE !! :D

I bought my Luxman Amp and Equaliser from him when he upgraded to the Mac - The Luxman sounded very nice and smooth at my place but was not so nice at his. :)

A few years back he gave up on Audio and he has moved out of this city and got rid of his old equipment.

Moral of this story is that you may have any brand of Audio equipment but it is truly luck dependant on how the combination is going to finally sound in refernce to each other and with the Accoustics of the room.

EDIT: I must mention this - my friend had this fantastic Vinyl Record player (cannot remember its name) that was abs TOP-OF-THE-LINE at its time it looked deadly and he had a Koetsu cartridge attached. This was so up market that my Linn Sondek looked like a Frisbee thrower in comparison - SERIOUSLY !! :D
 
Chaos said:
As far as the best bang for the buck HT setups in India are concerned, its gotta be onkyo, jamo and jbl.... choose as you like ;). Klipsch is way too overpriced in india. As far as receivers are concerned, its denon/onkyo/yamaha/marantz for best value.
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Even more value for money than Jamo would be wharfedale or mission.
A nice stereo setup would be Wharfedale Diamond 8.1 bookshelfs powered by a NAD 320bee. Should cost around 30K. But you have to add other stuff like a good source, speaker stands, interconnects, power cables etc. And you simply cannot forget the most important component of the audio system - Your room.
Like eazy said, unless the room supports the system, even the most expensive stuff will sound like trash.
 
Eazy said:
I have a good friend who lives in the next building and this person was absolutely crazy about music it was his life - so he checked around for the BEST Audio equipment he could buy in his budget - he was not looking at the BEST of the BEST but of what he could afford and he bought...

DENON CD player
McIntosh 120w/c Tube Amp / Preamp
B&W 801f speakers

He had lots of other GOOOOD hardware too.

BUT ... BUT... all this top quality Audio hardware sounded like Shiiiit at his place !!! He used to come over to my place and cry at how much better my comparatively second quality hardware sounded compared to what he was getting.

He called sound engineers who came with Audio meters and analysers - charged him a lot made a few suggestion of Mods to the positioning and room modifications and the final sound was about the same. He called some heavy duty Interior Decorators who specialised in room accoustics - spend lots of more money and still NADA !! Not much difference. The sound he got from his EXPENSIVE sound setup was never upto the mark. He moved house too and the sound was the same ... no ....no ... not same.... WORSE !! :D

I bought my Luxman Amp and Equaliser from him when he upgraded to the Mac - The Luxman sounded very nice and smooth at my place but was not so nice at his. :)

A few years back he gave up on Audio and he has moved out of this city and got rid of his old equipment.

Moral of this story is that you may have any brand of Audio equipment but it is truly luck dependant on how the combination is going to finally sound in refernce to each other and with the Accoustics of the room.
EDIT: I must mention this - my friend had this fantastic Vinyl Record player (cannot remember its name) that was abs TOP-OF-THE-LINE at its time it looked deadly and he had a Koetsu cartridge attached. This was so up market that my Linn Sondek looked like a Frisbee thrower in comparison - SERIOUSLY !! :D
Click to expand...

Very true.!!!!!
acoustics of the room, placement of the speakers, isolation of speakers (in effect reduce the speakers motion/ vibrating with the floor or where ever it is placed or attached), type of flooring( whether carpet or marble / granite)and presence of other sound dampening materials like curtains in the room all affect sound.

majority of sound reaching the ear is reflected sound off the walls, floors etc....

also IMHO,

The golden age of audio was 1970's and early 80's. Both for source material;) and equipments.;).
we dont have that good song writers and players /performers anymore too. previously the songs / music used to actually affect ur mind and soul now sadly it is all about remix and bps (beats per second). That spirit is just not there anymore. Infact regrettably an entire generation (post-1980) has grown up listening to audio in the "loudness ON" mode of the amps.:no:

I have one top of the line Yamaha amp and Klipsch speakers (both bought four years ago), with its thunderous active sub-woofer. but musically it is not upto the mark with my old Sansui amp / receiver (1979) and some no name speakers ( with handmade, passive, cross-over components) of that era.
 
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