What was your best Audio Purchase of 2015?


Thanks Mike.
Yes indeed, the Nagra sounds awesome with the Stella's, I first auditioned the Nagra classic amp when I visited the Nagra room in the Munich show this year and this room was one of my favorites.
 
Hello to everyone and Mary Christmas!

My best audio purchases was: T + A V (valve) series D 10-2 SACD player plus P 10-2 preamp and Argento Audio - Flow Master Reference speaker , power cables plus XLR and RCA interconnects.

Thank You for such a useful and positive audio forum, Georgi!
 
Amr said:
Hello every One, This is my first post, I have been silent since I joint this forum but very much attached to the valuable and balanced opinions from the members here. It is time to show up and wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Well , I am just done last month with breaking-in my new Focal Stella Utopia EM and the new Nagra classic amp. and looking forward to upgrade my digital front end next year.

Amr.
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Welcome to Audio Shark, Amr. And Happy Holidays to you too! It sounds like you have a wonderful system. It must be a joy to listen to.

Best,
Ken
 
Thank you so much Georgi. Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining.


redgogo said:
Hello to everyone and Merry Christmas!

My best audio purchases was: T + A V (valve) series D 10-2 SACD player plus P 10-2 preamp and Argento Audio - Flow Master Reference speaker , power cables plus XLR and RCA interconnects.

Thank You for such a useful and positive audio forum, Georgi!
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All the amazing HD and DSD downloads. Unlike the few who don't hear a difference, I hear an amazing difference and consider them probably the best investment I have made in this crazy hobby :)...

I keep four back up copies of every one of these amazing files!
 
My best purchase was the Aavik u-300 amp and a nice upgrade from an Ortofon cadenza bronze cart to an EMT jsd P6.0. The EMT is just wow.
 
Randy Myers said:
All the amazing HD and DSD downloads. Unlike the few who don't hear a difference, I hear an amazing difference and consider them probably the best investment I have made in this crazy hobby :)...

I keep four back up copies of every one of these amazing files!
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BlueFox said:
Lol. I also have four separate identical drives, one of which I keep in my car trunk.
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Ah good, It is good to have a solid back up methodology and it's another thing to make an entirely complex and costly issue for music that never was recorded in "high resolution."
 
o0OBillO0o said:
Ah good, It is good to have a solid back up methodology and it's another thing to make an entirely complex and costly issue for music that never was recorded in "high resolution."
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Dude, we get it. You think high-res downloads are a waste of money. However, I am not sure how backing up files leads into your rant.

As a follow up to an earlier post of yours that I didn't bother to respond to regarding the scam of downloads, I have this example based on personal experience. Sorry for the thread derail.

I bought the CD (44/16) of The Pale Emperor by Marilyn Manson, ripped it, and loved it. HD Tracks had the 44/24 version for around $8 more than the CD. My initial thought was that no way could this version be $8 better than the CD. However, for whatever reason, I finally downloaded it, and was amazed at the improvement. It is both quieter and louder than the CD. I ended up deleting the CD ripped files, and play this version all the time.
 
Bud- Yes, HDTracks sold as "high resolution" are a waste of money.

There is no clear provenance or evidence to where these recordings come from or who manipulates them. Simply where is the evidence? Why is "The Pale Emperor" different - what process was done to the album? I know the album your referring to, and from what I can find it was released by Hell Etc.. aka Marylin Manson's own label.

The fact that its 24bit/44KHz is not the indicator to why you like it so much. What you are describing with "quieter" and "louder" is the mastering. The files have been altered from the CD release.

Try this: Dither your 44/24 version down to 44/16. Take your favorite track and run it through the ABX plugin with Foobar or shuffle a playlist of the songs and see if you can ID the 24 bit and the 16 bit versions with a greater than .6 probability of correctly identifying the right track.

The fact is, it's a better master, not "high resolution."

To the group:

Find evidence to form facts, that built a truth.



For those interested in Back ups Methodologies

http://blogs.unitrends.com/3-2-1-backup-sucks/
 
Someone-is-wrong-on-internet.png
 
Hegel H30/P30.
The end of years making lateral moves.
Also the McIntosh headphone amp and the hifiman HE1000.
Great year in audio for me.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
 
So Bill, just so I'm clear, do you believe that all HD Tracks is doing is taking the 16/44 file and upsampling it to 24/96 or 24/192?

Who does the upsampling? Does HD Tracks just take the 16/44 file and run it through JRiver and upsample it to 24/96 or 24/192?

I've compared the 16/44 of Carol King's Tapestry to the HD Tracks 24/196 version and it's night and day.

Do you subscribe to HiFi News? They actually compare (measured analysis) of the 16/44 version to the HD versions of albums and yes, in some rare cases, the 16/44 measures better (Natalie Merchant's latest for example).
 
Harbeth Super HL5+
Pass Labs INT60
Lumin D1

WOW...I love the living room system.
 
For me it was the Aavik U300 - MainzD8 and Ceramic loom that improved the SQ of the Raidho D2's. Hopefully next year it will be a Ansuz DTC power cord.
 
I go by one indicator... my ears....

With a few exceptions everything I have bought from HDTracks and Acoustic Sounds are considerably better. The higher level I buy the better they are, within reason. Of course the original has to be of good quality. I try to discriminate as to what I am buying, and get music that is important to me. Acoustic Sounds does go through the engineering process on most all of the DSD offerings. I have specifically not bought some that I did not like how they were engineered. For example, Roger Waters was listed as originally being recorded at 192kHz and converted up to DSD through a very specific processor. I choose to stay with the 192kHz version. Some Norah Jones albums were listed as being created from the original master. These I bought and they are amazing. Some others were listed as originally being record at 44.1, etc., and converted up. These I did not buy.

To each his own for sure....
 
For me, an entire system:

1. Pioneer S-1EX speakers. I plan to keep these until I can afford TAD Reference series speakers.



2. New Preamp. I'm not sure preamps get much better so I plan on keeping this indefinitely, or until I think I can build something better... ;)



3. An Odyssey Stratos Amplifier with Kismet black PCB and all upgrades possible.



4. Source is the same as last year/other system, a Sony HAP-Z1ES. I still have my EL34 SET and Omega single driver speakers too.
 
DaveC said:
For me, an entire system:

1. Pioneer S-1EX speakers. I plan to keep these until I can afford TAD Reference series speakers.



2. New Preamp. I'm not sure preamps get much better so I plan on keeping this indefinitely, or until I think I can build something better... ;)



3. An Odyssey Stratos Amplifier with Kismet black PCB and all upgrades possible.



4. Source is the same as last year/other system, a Sony HAP-Z1ES. I still have my EL34 SET and Omega single driver speakers too.
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That Sony rocks

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
 
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