How Long Has Your Journey Been - Are You There Yet ?

[paulf-2007]

Only in my imagination...I have heard systems that do different parts of the what I am after. The trick is to assemble them all in one place.

And yes, I know what you're thinking, and you're right.

i did wonder if it was in your head, would be too easy to hear it, but then it would probably be out of reach money wise.
I've never thought of a sound I would be looking for, just buy and try and got what I like now, the differences are so small it just gets harder to get an improvement.

[Macca]

i did wonder if it was in your head, would be too easy to hear it, but then it would probably be out of reach money wise.
I've never thought of a sound I would be looking for, just buy and try and got what I like now, the differences are so small it just gets harder to get an improvement.

There were some JBL 4365 speakers doing the rounds of the shows a while back, with Mark Levinson amplification. I don't know if you heard them? They would do me. They sound exactly like I want/expect an 'ultimate' speaker to sound. But I can't afford them (£10K) and I can't be arsed to do the massive amounts of extra work it would require to get the money to buy them.

[alphaGT]

Back in the late 80’s at a local stereo shop, I heard what then cost about $25,000, a system that taught me what a stereo was capable of. My present system comes very close, but I still lack the deep soundstage, the detached from the speakers sound, almost a 3D effect of the music hanging in space between the speakers. It could just be placement, the real life limitations of where I can place my speakers and other furnishings? But I am very close and I do have occasional glimpses of my Holy Grail.

Russell

[macspur]

It's taken a long long time to reach what I've got now, but I remember years ago having an Onyx amp on loan while my Cyrus was in for repair and paired with my old B&W CM2's and a Marantz CDP it had everything.... depth, separation soundstage etc and I've never quite foundthat sound again.
Mac

[Gazjam]

All started for me hearing Tubular Bells and Wish You Were Here wafting out my neighbours window of a Sunday morning back in, oh, 79/80?
My next door mate’s big brother was into his hifi and as a ten yr old I thought I want some of that...
My pal was a couple of years older than me, and had the family radiogram in his room, so after school we’d listen to the Clash, Adam and the Ants, Floyd and lots more.
So just south of 40 years here, reckon (as Grant says) I think Im finished chasing the hifi kit.
Have a nice 2nd system for the Office with leftover bits so happy with that.

Nowadays its more about the music, The systems more than good enough but if I was honest it DID take to getting to a certain level to get me there?
Over the years dipped my toe in various kit, nowadays I’ve all the formats covered pretty well I think.
Reckon I’m done system wise, I may get the SME V arm silver rewired at some point but apart from that no desire to change.
That said, with the new Dac Im listening to vinyl a lot less so who knows.

Puts on Rose Tinted Glasses...

My First ‘system’ was my Dads radio cassette he got for his 40th which I pilfered, got some Solavox speakers from the local Comet and hard wired them in.
Felt like a proper audiophile though when I got my first seperates system, Amstrad Receiver, cassette deck with the Solavox speakers.
Lovely.
Remember rubbing shoe polish into the bass driver of those speakers, my mate said it stiffens the cone and makes them sound better - happy days.

[mikeyb]

Have you heard the sound you are after

Yip, in my living room right now

[Lurch]

My journey has been 31 years and counting. It all started in 86 when I heard my first proper separates system (Rega 3, A&R A60, Warfedale diamonds) at a neighbours. Bought my own rig in early 87 (Manticore Mantra, Rotel 820, Celestion DL6) changed to a Cambridge C50/A50 pre power a couple of years later, THEN added a Technics CDP in 95 and changed speakers to KEF Cresta 3s in 01. Nothing changed for the next 15 years, then I got an inheritance so decided to head back down the rabbit hole.
This saw me spending 3 months buying various items to throw together using my mid 80s knowledge of what was supposedly the dogs danglies. I then made the mistake of holding a bake off as I thought I had a shit hot system (OL deck & arm, Hana SL, IA PS1.2SE & LA4 PRE, 4x Tag Maclaren 125Ms & B&W 683 S2s) oh dear, how wrong I was.
However 18 months and several thousand pounds later, with only the deck/arm/cart, CDP & DAC still in the system from that 1st bake-off in late 2016 I am damn close to where I want to be. I could happily live with what I have and the sound it produces, for the next twenty or so years.
So YES, my hifi journey should be over, but in reality I know I will end up investigating better carts & TTs and make said purchases at some point in the future.

[Macca]

. I then made the mistake of holding a bake off as I thought I had a shit hot system (OL deck & arm, Hana SL, IA PS1.2SE & LA4 PRE, 4x Tag Maclaren 125Ms & B&W 683 S2s) oh dear, how wrong I was.
.

What went wrong there, then? It does look pretty good on paper.

[Tim]

My interest in music and a means to play it started in earnest in 1974.

Not had many systems, (1) Pioneer PL12D, Trio KA-3300 and JR149 speakers started me off.
Next an all Mission system when I moved away from LPs in the early 80's (2) Cyrus One, PCM II CDP, 763 speakers. I sold this when I moved to the Caribbean in 2000. When I came back I had nothing and was offered a complete system by a friend who moved to China in 2005. (3) Musical Fidelity CD/AMP and Monitor Audio GR60 speakers. It wouldn't have been my first choice, but I had nothing and was really pleased to be able to listen to music when I didn't have any spare cash to buy much more.

I was never totally content with the MA sound, finding it harsh and too detailed for my tastes, it sounded like Hi-Fi not real music to me, if that makes any sense? I would often journey to shows and retailers to try alternatives out, but normally found them to be not that different within my budget. I wasn't prepared to change anything until I found something I knew I could be happy with long term. I knew what I wanted, a natural live music sound, I just couldn't find it.

Then I joined AoS in 2011 looking for a headphone DAC and advice regarding the dissatisfaction with my sound. I bought a Beresford DAC primarily for headphone use and by accident stumbled across file based audio. I had an old netbook and put foobar2000 on, ripped a CD to FLAC and whacked the lot into my amp via Stan's DAC. I was very puzzled to find it sounded better than my CD player and you can still read the posts here about my discovery. I wasn't totally convinced so took it to a dealer and plugged it into a high-end system, both myself and the dealer were surprised how good it sounded and I was converted to file based audio.

My next system from recommendations here was a (4) Rega Amp/DAC and Harbeth SHL5 speakers. Without boring folk who have heard this before, when I heard the Harbeth sound I knew that was it, that's what I'd been looking for. All was fed by a custom built music server and file based audio was here to stay.

I moved to China myself in 2016 and again sold most of my system, so at the moment I'm kind of in limbo, with a stop gap system as I know I'm going to move again. I hope to move this year and when I do I'll get the Harbeth's back and a turntable to go with the music server for system 5, which for me is intended to be it until as Jerry puts it, journeys end

Never say never and if anything breaks I'll need to replace it, but I don't intend to be searching very much, just enjoying the music. So I'm not quite there yet due to all the moving, but I know exactly what I want in my next system - I just need a permanent home to put it in

[Lurch]

What went wrong there, then? It does look pretty good on paper.

People brought all manner of exotic things along (aurorasound Vida phono, Modwright 36.5, Modwright integrated, Reference 3a Veenas etc etc) which made me realise there was more to a good system than buying well reviewed boxes and wiring them up in the correct order. Whilst the sound I had was way better than my old Mantra/Cambridge/KEF setup. It was a million miles from the musical reproduction/landscape the kit I was introduced to that day could produce. Luckily I still had money left from my inheritance to bring me to where I am today. Skint but reasonably happy.