The Audio Board's Recommended Gear

[Wolf_Lbh]

1 minute ago, Kamjam21xx said:

My dad actually picked up a $50,000 pair of 60's EV speakers and 2 30" speakers for $150 bucks at a garage sale once. 

 

But ive never had an issue with anything ive bought. Just tap the cones and twist the pots.

I wouldn't plan for luck like that in your budget. And I'd say that is certainly a case where someone died and their idiot relative hawked their stuff. Also by the time a situation like that occurs with valuable equipment it is probably out of date enough where you could get the same sound for not nearly as much.

[Kamjam21xx]

1 hour ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

I wouldn't plan for luck like that in your budget. And I'd say that is certainly a case where someone died and their idiot relative hawked their stuff. Also by the time a situation like that occurs with valuable equipment it is probably out of date enough where you could get the same sound for not nearly as much.

70s hifi is superior to todays hifi, the only advantage to modern hifi is materials. 

 

You get better dampening, frequency response, slew rate, build quality, lower 3rd and 4th order harmonic distortion, and more out of 70s hifi particularly. 

 

Real audio research companies kindof died off with the cheap japanese stuff. 

 

So id have to say 70s hifi is better than modern hifi. Especially from experience.

There is the exception of INSANELY priced stuff in the $10,000+ a piece range. 

 

Edit: oh theres also... servo subs, they have accelerometers to measure and correct things like dampening and harmonic distortion. Velodyne makes one i think. 

 

Some companies servo tech -> http://www.rythmikaudio.com/technology.html

[Wolf_Lbh]

8 hours ago, Kamjam21xx said:

70s hifi is superior to todays hifi, the only advantage to modern hifi is materials. 

 

You get better dampening, frequency response, slew rate, build quality, lower 3rd and 4th order harmonic distortion, and more out of 70s hifi particularly. 

 

Real audio research companies kindof died off with the cheap japanese stuff. 

 

So id have to say 70s hifi is better than modern hifi. Especially from experience.

There is the exception of INSANELY priced stuff in the $10,000+ a piece range. 

 

Edit: oh theres also... servo subs, they have accelerometers to measure and correct things like dampening and harmonic distortion. Velodyne makes one i think. 

 

Some companies servo tech -> http://www.rythmikaudio.com/technology.html

I have a hard time believing that audio technology has moved backwards over the past 50 years.

[Kamjam21xx]

1 hour ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

I have a hard time believing that audio technology has moved backwards over the past 50 years.

Thats okay. 1968 is when development slowed down but was still very much around, the 90s and early 2000s had a small hump back up for hifi with dolby doing stuff. 

 

Mass produced, cheap, japanese electronics is what killed the market and made a lot of these companies go under.

 

Hifi shops still exist. But they are very rare and hard to find. Theres only 1 real hifi shop in the entire state of michigan, and hes close to retiring. He said the housing market greatly impacted his business, from when the government manipulated the price to make homes artificially cheaper.

 

But ya. my system has such minimal noise that the louder i turn it up, the more detail i hear. All the way up until you can clearly hear it through the walls outside of the other side of the house. My best speakers are all from the 70s.

 

There is still some great companies left behind, such as... 

 

Martin logan

Marantz

Magnepan

B&W

Mcintosh

Krell

Audio research

Paradigm

Klipsch

Primaluna

Denon

Yamaha

 

Im not sure if klipsch still makes high end stuff like their heresy or lascalla II anymore, but still.. all are on the list for different reasons, but point is.. they still exist, unlike many others.

 

Edit: I guess its not really that it moved backwards. Just that consumer and professional audio has moved backwards. New hifi is for the well off enthusiasts,  and filthy rich now.

 

 

 

 

[Taf the Ghost]

@Wolf_Lbh @Kamjam21xx

 

Kamjam isn't wrong. What happened is the middle of the market got murdered. You see this in a lot of tech, actually, where "does enough" wipes out all of the middle-level products. Before the normalization of the Japanese-US Dollar trade, the Japanese producers could have offered 50% of the quality for about 80% of the price. This drives most domestic producers out of the market, as there is no way they can sell enough volume to make up for the assault on their margin.

 

My parents still have a set of "bookshelf" speakers (more like end-table sized these days, but they're in that class) from the 70s. We priced out are replacement at similar quality a couple of years ago. About 3k USD, and these were just well-chosen products from their time. If that type of market had survived, they would probably be about $800 USD or so to replace. However, it didn't, so producers either left the market or went upscale, until the digital music revolution hit.

[Kamjam21xx]

11 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

@Wolf_Lbh @Kamjam21xx

 

Kamjam isn't wrong. What happened is the middle of the market got murdered. You see this in a lot of tech, actually, where "does enough" wipes out all of the middle-level products. Before the normalization of the Japanese-US Dollar trade, the Japanese producers could have offered 50% of the quality for about 80% of the price. This drives most domestic producers out of the market, as there is no way they can sell enough volume to make up for the assault on their margin.

 

My parents still have a set of "bookshelf" speakers (more like end-table sized these days, but they're in that class) from the 70s. We priced out are replacement at similar quality a couple of years ago. About 3k USD, and these were just well-chosen products from their time. If that type of market had survived, they would probably be about $800 USD or so to replace. However, it didn't, so producers either left the market or went upscale, until the digital music revolution hit.

Its not that new speakers dont pump out music that sounds good and is great to listen to, because they do.

 

I think people really have to listen to the difference, especially closing youre eyes and doing it. It becomes clear as day. My dad makes his money buying and reselling the stuff. Ive heard ALOT of the old hifi gear. 

 

Edit: also people become use to the distortion and artifacts their speakers produce, and the music gets created for that now days. 

 

Even techno and dubstep sounds better on old 70s hifi though. Got a carver amp paired with ns10ms and you can hear an insane difference in how things like saw waves are produced by the speaker.

[Taf the Ghost]

6 minutes ago, Kamjam21xx said:

Its not that new speakers dont pump out music that sounds good and is great to listen to, because they do.

 

I think people really have to listen to the difference, especially closing youre eyes and doing it. It becomes clear as day. My dad makes his money buying and reselling the stuff. Ive heard ALOT of the old hifi gear. 

I think for size constraints, at a per-physical-volume level, the quality in the pricing spaces has improved over the last 2 decades, but the mid-range market died a rather long time ago. Everyone is just used to either really cheap or really expensive, so the cheap stuff has gotten a lot better, relatively. Truthfully, you can spend 50USD per speaker and you'll be fine, which is why the industry is in the state it is in.

 

We also have to mention the other issue that cropped up: Tapes. Tapes going mass market meant a pretty step audio quality drop off from LPs. This puts a 20 year patch where source quality was significantly down from the period before. CDs take off in the early 90s, but quality DACs just did not sell for a long, long time. Then the 120 kbps mp3 revolution. You have to get to the late 2000s before source audio quality had actually returned to the old standard. (Yes, you can hear the difference between the sources with even moderate sound system.) Amazingly enough, this also kicked off the return of LPs.

[zrmaxwell]

Hi everyone. I would check out the Brainwavz B400 IEMs for $200. They are said to be very neutral.. almost reference sounding.  

[zveer]

I hate EU, Audio-Technica ATH AD500X which you got in $50 to $100 range are $199 for me. 

I'm now looking at:

AKG K52 for $45
AKG K72 for $51

Superlux HD681 for $26

 

I see that you got Superlux recomended but I'm wondering if the AKG are worth it next to them.

[Wolf_Lbh]

Mod mic just came out with a wireless mic for $119: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KQF165L
While obviously a wired mic would be better quality if you don't have a mic input in your setup/want to deal with another cable wrapped around you or need to be mobile then this is the best you can buy. They use the aptX Low Latency bluetooth standard for an average latency of 2 frames (at 60fps) and the highest quality of any wireless mic currently on the market. Pairing process was painless (note on win10 you need to enable apps to access your microphone in microphone privacy settings because win10 considers all programs "aps" now.) and after that it just worked. Slightly tinny sounding but much better quality than other wireless mics I've tried. Not even a contest.

[vanished]

On 1/1/2019 at 10:55 AM, Wolf_Lbh said:

Mod mic just came out with a wireless mic for $119: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KQF165L
While obviously a wired mic would be better quality if you don't have a mic input in your setup/want to deal with another cable wrapped around you or need to be mobile then this is the best you can buy. They use the aptX Low Latency bluetooth standard for an average latency of 2 frames (at 60fps) and the highest quality of any wireless mic currently on the market. Pairing process was painless (note on win10 you need to enable apps to access your microphone in microphone privacy settings because win10 considers all programs "aps" now.) and after that it just worked. Slightly tinny sounding but much better quality than other wireless mics I've tried. Not even a contest.

I'm no expert in this field but right away I can't help but think this is far from the best wireless mic you can buy.  I'm pretty sure there's professional solutions in excess of $1000 that offer more for the price than just a brandname

[Wolf_Lbh]

7 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I'm no expert in this field but right away I can't help but think this is far from the best wireless mic you can buy.  I'm pretty sure there's professional solutions in excess of $1000 that offer more for the price than just a brandname

You would think that but you would be wrong because this is the first mic made using this wireless standard. So even if other mics have higher quality and cost 10x as much they still won't be sending the data with as much quality preserved. I mean maybe you could spend 10x as much and have the loss of quality even out to sound about the same or possibly even slightly better but if you don't want the extra $900 that badly I'll take it.

[vanished]

4 hours ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

You would think that but you would be wrong because this is the first mic made using this wireless standard. So even if other mics have higher quality and cost 10x as much they still won't be sending the data with as much quality preserved. I mean maybe you could spend 10x as much and have the loss of quality even out to sound about the same or possibly even slightly better but if you don't want the extra $900 that badly I'll take it.

Professional solutions would use their own proprietary radio frequency I would imagine, not bluetooth, so while this might be the best consumer one, I dont think it's even relevant in the grand scheme of things.

[Wolf_Lbh]

3 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Professional solutions would use their own proprietary radio frequency I would imagine, not bluetooth, so while this might be the best consumer one, I dont think it's even relevant in the grand scheme of things.

I don't think a solution costing over $1,000 is relevant in the grand scheme of things to someone looking for a gaming mic. Even for most streamers or youtubers that option would be a waste of money that could be better invested elsewhere to make a more significant improvement.

[vanished]

48 minutes ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

I don't think a solution costing over $1,000 is relevant in the grand scheme of things to someone looking for a gaming mic. Even for most streamers or youtubers that option would be a waste of money that could be better invested elsewhere to make a more significant improvement.

I'm just throwing out a random number since I'm sure some do cost that much, but idk what's typical.  Regardless the condition was never a gaming mic, it was just anything "mobile", as in, "[if you] need to be mobile then this is the best you can buy".  I'm still just speculating though so I'd very much welcome anyone who can link some examples of what actually exists and how their tech compares to this.

[Wolf_Lbh]

22 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I'm just throwing out a random number since I'm sure some do cost that much, but idk what's typical.  Regardless the condition was never a gaming mic, it was just anything "mobile", as in, "[if you] need to be mobile then this is the best you can buy".  I'm still just speculating though so I'd very much welcome anyone who can link some examples of what actually exists and how their tech compares to this.

And how many audio professionals that spend thousands of dollars on wireless mics do you think are browsing this thread so they know what gear to buy? I'd be very surprised if that number was above 0. Pretty sure the only people looking at this thread will be gamers/streamers/youtubers. Oh yea and a few trolls that will say they work in Hollywood but have no idea what they are doing just to mess with me now that I've said that kind of person doesn't exist here.

[vanished]

Just now, Wolf_Lbh said:

And how many audio professionals that spend thousands of dollars on wireless mics do you think are browsing this thread so they know what gear to buy? I'd be very surprised if that number was above 0. Pretty sure the only people looking at this thread will be gamers/streamers/youtubers. Oh yea and a few trolls that will say they work in Hollywood but have no idea what they are doing just to mess with me now that I've said that kind of person doesn't exist here.

idk, not really important imo.  You said that is the best wireless you can buy and I highly doubt that.  This thread is about making (accurate) recommendations, so a claim like that is going to need a bit of proof.

[Wolf_Lbh]

4 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

idk, not really important imo.  You said that is the best wireless you can buy and I highly doubt that.  This thread is about making (accurate) recommendations, so a claim like that is going to need a bit of proof.

It's ridiculous to expect me to cater to an audience that doesn't exist. But because I have better things to do than debate you about the relevance of providing information for a scenario that doesn't exist I'll add a caveat just for you:
In the event you are working with a professional film studio budget and for some reason don't know what mic to get yet have a thousand or more dollars to invest in it then you can probably get something better and should do additional research. Everyone else just get the wireless mod mic.

[vanished]

1 hour ago, Wolf_Lbh said:

In the event you are working with a professional film studio budget and for some reason don't know what mic to get yet have a thousand or more dollars to invest in it then you can probably get something better and should do additional research. Everyone else just get the wireless mod mic.

Thank you that's all I was looking for.  Unless you know objectively for certain that something is the best, it's not accurate to present it as such.

[Turretgaming]

Why aren't the tin t2 in under $100 IEM

[KaminKevCrew]

On 3/21/2019 at 5:42 AM, Turretgaming said:

Why aren't the tin t2 in under $100 IEM

Because SSL hasn't logged in in some time, and the thread hasn't been updated in forever.

[Turretgaming]

On 3/22/2019 at 7:51 PM, KaminKevCrew said:

Because SSL hasn't logged in in some time, and the thread hasn't been updated in forever.

ah i see. But for the record do you agree they totally belong on that list. (Non pro version since the pros have in my opinion zero difference except more treble but to the point of annoyance.)

[KaminKevCrew]

On 3/24/2019 at 12:41 PM, Turretgaming said:

ah i see. But for the record do you agree they totally belong on that list. (Non pro version since the pros have in my opinion zero difference except more treble but to the point of annoyance.)

I haven't listened to them, so I have no opinion.

[Wolf_Lbh]

Recently picked up the Moondrop Kanas Pros and my thoughts are that with a replaceable wire and solid metal enclosure protecting them they are extremely well built so you won't have to be afraid to be active with them and they sound great. At $180 they are a little on the pricey side for what I'm willing to spend on iems(I'm very active so mine fall apart often) but considering the build quality I'm willing to risk it. Also I'm using Comply foam tips with them which increases comfort and noise isolation (which is already great)

 

[kokakolia]

Ugh! The Superlux HD 681 is still on the recommended list! Personally, I have found that this is the absolute worst headphone I have ever used. You get horrible ergonomics and the absolute worst treble. The treble is so loud and abrasive that it induces headaches. You say that they’re balanced. Well, think again because that treble will make you deaf. Around $50, just get the AKG K52, K72 or K92. They’re probably not the most detailed for the price. But they sound enjoyable without any harshness and the comfort is on point.