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Introduction from a Newb and Polling " Does size Matter?"

 Greetings music lovers! My name is Richard and I am a 69 year old, semi retired commercial photographer living in Brooklyn. Until a year ago I was happy with my Klipsch 600 M speakers and a small NAD amplifier. Now with a little more time on my hands I have decided to devote a portion of my time to what I call Audio enthusiast; for some reason I don't like the term Audiophile. In addition to being a photographer I've always been an amateur musician. I had a garage rock 'n' roll band when I was in the sixth grade. Now I just play acoustic guitar and my other passions include cooking, collecting affordable outsider art, interior design mixing different Period furniture to create a unique look. I also like to collect music; mostly fine recordings on vinyl.  My primary source of listening to music is vinyl and my secondary is streaming high res music through Tidal  while I am cooking or doing dishes.  I embrace both analog and digital and I look forward to experimenting with Dirac Live which came with my new NAD M10 integrated amp. 

I joined this group to find like -minded folks who love music and want to share their sonic journey.  I am a complete Newb. I am not an expert on anything so I am looking for a place to ask ignorant questions about things that I don't know about.  It all started a year ago when I had a turntable that needed service and I found myself standing in a high end stereo shop and they were playing music through a pair of Sonus Faber Lumina II's, Wow! Speaker design has changed a lot in the last 50 years!  If you've read this far I want to start a thread on what others think about the 17"x 13" chassis format ? To me it seems this size was created in the early days of HiFi when the component had to have room for tubes, large circuits and transformers. I live in a NYC apartment which is not huge so space was my general concern. I saw the Pro-ject line and Class D amps. I thought how cool it is to have this big sound coming from a component the size of a shoe box !

My main setup does not have any Pro-Ject gear in it but even my NAD M10 is on the small size. 

I know its probably a frivolous topic to start with. In the scheme of things the size of gear has nothing to do with sound but I was curious if anyone else thinks that micro components are a cool feat of engineering?

 

Richard

richardnyc2
richardnyc2 OP
35 posts
 

@kerrybh 

 

Horses. Yes I am all for things that combine being outside and being creative. I'm not good photographing horses and I think most people dont understand what it takes to be good.  There are techincal tricks like dragging the shutter and panning as one woould with race cars; but like most good photography knowing the subject matter is key. If you know and appreciate horses you will see things with your creative eye people like me will miss. I was born in Texas ( dont hold it against me it was not my choice!) and horse lovers were a thing. In grade school some of the prettiest girls had horses so I would hang out at the stables and pretend like I knew about them.  Once you photograph them is there a forum or someplace you show them ?

richardnyc2 OP
35 posts
 

@parkergetdean

 

Yes I was referring to components and like anything I'm not a " all or nothing" type of guy.  If I heard something that complimented my system ; sound quality would win over size.  It's just that there are so many choices these days.Size preference is just something that accommodates my limited space or should I say gear that fits what I've allocated to a stereo.

   This leads me to a recent " sonic journey".  So getting my turntable fixed I heard a pair of Sonus Faber Lumina II speakers and was amazed at the mids and especially the high frequencies. I was accustomed to my Klipsch 600M's which had a ribbon tweeter ( maybe it was a horn I don't recall.) These Lumina's had this wonderful high end that seemed magical . I got them home and immediately missed the bass and mid bass.  So I added a subwoofer. The result was all highs and lows and nothing in the middle. So I added another smaller sub. The big one was 10" and the small one 8". I crossed the 10" to 80 hz and the 8" sub to 120 hz.  You can guess the result; it did not work. So I wanted bigger speakers to capture the mids and mid bass. I thought rather than look at all speakers within my budget I decided that since I like the sonic signature of Sonus Faber that perhaps I should limit my search to that brand since I liked the sonic signature of the Lumina II's. However I was still stuck on small footprints. I was only looking at bookshelf speakers in the Sonus Faber range that were bigger. Long story made longer I bought a pair of SF floorstanding speakers. They are great; mission accomplished!

  This is what I mean about " Sonic journey" . I found that I liked something better than what I had and now I am tweaking it to match my other considerations : space, budget, visual preferences and of course sound.....

richardnyc2 OP
35 posts
 

@Larsman

Thanks for the reply. Yes I used to shoot concerts for fun. It was great to combine two different interests.  I was doing it about the same time period as you but up in Seattle. I shot some of my favorite musicians including BB King in a small venue.  ISO 1600 in Rodinal ?

richardnyc2 OP
35 posts
 

@mike4597 

That seems like a great system; I bet it sounds amazing.  Rega makes good stuff. So I like that yours are mixed sizes with sound being the criteria.  I admire what the guys at Schiit are doing. They are definitely thinking outside the box. The only component I have of theirs is actually one of their larger ones : A shiit Stjarne phono preamp. It was the tube phono preamp that I found which was all tubes and not a hybrid of tubes and solid state. My understanding is that tubes for power and output make a difference but I am not an expert.  Another great feature is that it has the power to be a preamp for MC carts should I ever go down that rabbit hole. 

kerrybh
690 posts
 

@richardnyc2 No, I don't show my photographs-I'm sure they are not of that quality. My photos adorn a few office walls around town-likely more popular for price (0) than artistry. Lots of horse farms here in the Bluegrass and I enjoy hanging out on the turn for home and shooting horse races. So, plenty of subjects. I've never seen anything prettier than a horse race.

You have received a lot of good advice and there are lots of good choices that will meet your needs. For what you are looking for, I hope you get a chance to hear some of the latest generation class Ds. Far ahead of Class D from even a few years ago.

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