Top brands that have no respect

More from Japan deserving of some chatter:

47 Laboratory: (their Midnight Blue series is incredible).

Sparkler Audio, the S301B diva: these speakers sound belie their size, specs, and visuals...
Both companies products are handmade and exude the craftsmanship and simplicity.


European goodies:

Piega SA: their speakers, especially the TMicro series are incredible bargains...

ASW out of Germany: their “budget” speaker line (Genius) is/was a super bargain.

Canada:

Reference 3A, specifically the Dulcet, another gem of quality and sound.

Thanks for checking this out.
Cheers.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
LostnAmerica said:
Canada:

Reference 3A, specifically the Dulcet, another gem of quality and sound.

Thanks for checking this out.
Cheers.
Click to expand...


I have the top monitor from Reference 3A, the Reflector, and am super happy with it. My dream speaker for my mid-sized room (24 x 12 x 8.5 ft), in combination with my dual JL Audio subs. I think I'm done with speaker searches, this one is it.
 
Polk. I have heard the L800's and they are killer speakers for the price.
 
Wilson Benesch - advanced technology; positive comments in the press and from users, but distribution in the US appears to be limited.
 
Why even worry about it?

At the end of the day, all that matters is that each person's preferences/needs/requirements are equally valid.
 
Top brands that get no respect on the used market are the only way many of us will get to experience those products. T&A, Chord, Tidal, Kharma, etc beautiful products even dealers struggle to invest in are really difficult for any non 1% income bracket to justify. I recently Listened to a pair of $65k estilon's driven by an MSB amp and after talking to the shop owner awhile he inferred (correctly) it wouldn't help his pitch to tell me how much the MSB amp cost.

There's a pretty strong online movement seemingly trying to convince the world a pair of f208 or R11's paired with a benchmark amp is as good as it gets and everything else is snake oil, speaking of no respect.
 
Al M. said:
I have the top monitor from Reference 3A, the Reflector, and am super happy with it. My dream speaker for my mid-sized room (24 x 12 x 8.5 ft), in combination with my dual JL Audio subs. I think I'm done with speaker searches, this one is it.
Click to expand...

That was so 2019.
 
HiDiamond - incredibly built to excessive specs and best-sounding cables I’ve had in every position I’ve tried them in, except, oddly, speaker

Zu (cables and power) - best speaker cables I’ve had, and solid PCs, good people to deal with

Aerial - the 7Bs were made like a tank and sounded fantastic. they looked dated and I simply couldn’t move them around anymore, or I might still have them

Audio Note - most natural-sounding, incredibly musical DAC I’ve heard. Individual instruments and vocals sound as I know them to be for real, soundstage is excellent. I don’t use mine anymore b/c the DAC chip of the one I bought years ago is limited to redbook, and sadly it sits on a shelf b/c somehow I’m loathe to part with it. But imo the SQ of this DAC has been unbeatable. I put this on the same level as my Boulder amp, as the 2 best components I’ve owned.
 
jmusica said:
Audio Note - most natural-sounding, incredibly musical DAC I’ve heard. Individual instruments and vocals sound as I know them to be for real, soundstage is excellent. I don’t use mine anymore b/c the DAC chip of the one I bought years ago is limited to redbook, and sadly it sits on a shelf b/c somehow I’m loathe to part with it. But imo the SQ of this DAC has been unbeatable. I put this on the same level as my Boulder amp, as the 2 best components I’ve owned.
Click to expand...

We have some users with Audio Note DAC. You can use it with Lumin even for Hi-Res streaming or DSD files.

With X1, connect a 1.5m BNC to RCA coaxial cable from X1 to the DAC.

In X1 settings, change output to SPDIF. Set SPDIF Re-sampling setting as follows:
DSD / 352.8 / 176.4k / 88.2kHz - > 44.1kHz
384 / 192 -> 96kHz

(The X1 SPDIF resampling settings are distinct from X1 Analog output resampling settings, so don't worry about it affecting X1 analog output.)

If you do not use a preamp, be careful with volume adjustment before playing anything, and power off the amp before you make any connection change.
 
jmusica said:
HiDiamond - incredibly built to excessive specs and best-sounding cables I’ve had in every position I’ve tried them in, except, oddly, speaker

Zu (cables and power) - best speaker cables I’ve had, and solid PCs, good people to deal with

Aerial - the 7Bs were made like a tank and sounded fantastic. they looked dated and I simply couldn’t move them around anymore, or I might still have them

Audio Note - most natural-sounding, incredibly musical DAC I’ve heard. Individual instruments and vocals sound as I know them to be for real, soundstage is excellent. I don’t use mine anymore b/c the DAC chip of the one I bought years ago is limited to redbook, and sadly it sits on a shelf b/c somehow I’m loathe to part with it. But imo the SQ of this DAC has been unbeatable. I put this on the same level as my Boulder amp, as the 2 best components I’ve owned.
Click to expand...

I owned some 7B's back in the day. Very good (and heavy) speakers indeed.
 
jmusica said:
HiDiamond - incredibly built to excessive specs and best-sounding cables I’ve had in every position I’ve tried them in, except, oddly, speaker

Zu (cables and power) - best speaker cables I’ve had, and solid PCs, good people to deal with

Aerial - the 7Bs were made like a tank and sounded fantastic. they looked dated and I simply couldn’t move them around anymore, or I might still have them

Audio Note - most natural-sounding, incredibly musical DAC I’ve heard. Individual instruments and vocals sound as I know them to be for real, soundstage is excellent. I don’t use mine anymore b/c the DAC chip of the one I bought years ago is limited to redbook, and sadly it sits on a shelf b/c somehow I’m loathe to part with it. But imo the SQ of this DAC has been unbeatable. I put this on the same level as my Boulder amp, as the 2 best components I’ve owned.
Click to expand...

You should listen to your inner self and try putting your beloved Audio Note DAC back in your system and give it another listen. Are you really hearing 'better' sound with your 'hi-rez' DAC over your Audio Note? The implicit bias is that hi-rez files must sound better than 16/44.1 RBCD.

I find that 99% of my streaming is listening to 16/44.1 files because I simply find them better sounding than the majority of hi-rez files. Far too many hi-rez files sound like they have had the life sucked out of them compared to the 16/44.1 files. If one automatically assumes hi-rez files have to sound better than 16/44.1 without comparing back-to-back, you will never know.
 
mep said:
Far too many hi-rez files sound like they have had the life sucked out of them compared to the 16/44.1 files. If one automatically assumes hi-rez files have to sound better than 16/44.1 without comparing back-to-back, you will never know.
Click to expand...

I read claims elsewhere that some newer Hi-Res or remastered releases applied more compression than their older 16/44.1 releases, so this may be a possible reason.
 
wklie said:
I read claims elsewhere that some newer Hi-Res or remastered releases applied more compression than their older 16/44.1 releases, so this may be a possible reason.
Click to expand...

You would like to think that can't be true because it inherently doesn't make sense they would apply more compression, but something is clearly going on.
 
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