Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I am very familiar with the 8040s and 8030s. Also the Neumann KH-120s, which are also outstanding. Haven't heard the SI Audio A14-Ms yet.

The 8040s have a noticeably 'bigger' sound than the other two models I mentioned, but yes- more expensive. Anyway, you could consider the KH-120s too. I could be wrong, but they might fill that gap between the 8030 and 8040. A lot of great reviews out there.

Anyone know the story behind Adam speakers?

The two Berlin business partners apparently weren't getting on, so one left and began another speaker brand.

Any guesses what he called it? Eve!

So I've been told at least.

When we stepped up the price the sizes also went up... except with the A14s. The KH-120s aren't too excessively large, but still quite ugly to look at. Would've taken the Genelecs if I had the space for them, I clearly like the sound of the Genelecs.

I'd aimed at the £500 per speaker price pretty much because that was the price range that delivered a size that could fit on my desk nicely.

Agree that the sound was bigger with some of the others once the bigger units were involved, but the sound + aesthetic + size was spot on for me in the PSI A14s and the room I have and what I want them for.

Any guesses what he called it? Eve!

So I've been told at least.

https://eve-audio.de/index.php?page=story

True story!

What are you feeding the new speakers? I'd imagine they are rather unforgiving with compression war low bit rate pop.

I get what you are saying about speakers out there being ugly (I mean seriously - why yellow and white cones?? Or silver 'plaques' like Eves? It's quite tacky.

When I want to sit in the studio or location, I don't want to be reminded or even have my work to compete with some speaker designer. I want my work to stand sovereign - and the best way to do that is to have non-entity speakers, black boxes essentially...but really good ones.

The Neumanns don't actually look that different to the A14s from the front, except that instead of a (potentially irritating) yellow light, it has a soft golden and white hazy Neumann logo that is almost alive it's so gentle. It's lovely. Like looking at a bicycle and thinking that it doesnt stand out and is probably nothing special, but then discovering very beautiful and rare lugs. That's what I love about some French bikes - totally minimal, until you come up close or just look at the shape from afar. I'm not saying the Neumanns are the most beautiful examples of audio equipment, just that I like things to be subdued sometimes.

I use the Genelecs a lot because I can use different sizes and that allows me to keep a sense of uniformity. I like them as long as they don't stand out. But they still have that 'designery' look I'm not that convinced about. The sound is great though.

Oh, and another thing I like about the Neumanns - that 'KH' comes from Klein + Hummel or K+H. Legendary studio speakers such as the O 300Ds. Neumann took the company over and that's where much of that knowledge and look comes from. Neumann being of course known for microphones. There's a bit of (silly) aura going there for me, haha.

Recently I found a forum where high-end hifi geeks were selling their absurdly expensive passive speakers to get K+Hs.

Ps. Still prefer wooden-looking speakers for home though.

Very curious now about the A14-Ms. Thanks for the tip!

what's happening with spotify high quality

is anyone using a Pi Zero W for Volumio/a similar streaming distribution?

Yes, works fine with Volumio. I have it with a Plex server and just playing files on a network drive. Not a huge library though.

Cool, thanks. I should have mentioned I'll only be using it for Spotify anyway.

Of the three I originally thought to audition, the Neumann's were kinda least ugly. However, they reminded me way too much of really old and small computer speakers and in some way I mentally couldn't get past that.

ADAMs... somehow too "sharp", they felt odd. They may actually be the closest to perfect reproduction but I'm not sure ribbon tweeters are a thing I could get used to. The looks are also an acquired taste.

Genelecs... sounded great, very balanced at all volumes, clean and transparent for the pieces of music I know really well (was in the studio and have listened to it constantly for 20+ years). So I loved how these sounded, but they also had the look of late 1990s computer speakers, and the larger sibling were pretty large (and heavy, and I was factoring in weight considerations as they're on a sit/stand desk).

Neumann's I thought were pretty damn great, but the Genelecs pipped it for me personally. I didn't quite think the Neumann's remained balanced for very low volumes, the mids didn't remain as present. But they sounded almost on par with the Genelecs when they would get to just shy of softly spoken word at 1m distance volume. I also thought they reminded me too much of computer speakers.

When we bumped up the price, the Genelecs were huge! Wouldn't fit on the desk any longer and would weigh too much... still looked liked PC speakers but much biggerer. The Neumann's sounded great but that niggle from the smaller sibling made me believe I really needed to push volume to get the best out of them and I'm going for the lower volume end. I didn't listen to larger ADAMs.

The smaller PSIs kicked in at this price point though, and they hit every criteria except price. They sound great at the volumes I work at (below spoken word at 1m distance) with a strong but balanced and present mid-range, yet very full and balanced across all ranges.

My use is very mixed, I'm not working in audio but audio features so much in my life. I'm on video conferences most of the day and my mic and speaker set up helps me connect best to the people I meet... I sound present to them, they sound present to me (and yes my peers also have similar mic setups), we tend to all use Zoom with the high-fidelity audio mode enabled. Then I will sometimes record webinars, talks, etc. And when I'm not doing that stuff I listen to music... when I listen it's all FLACs held locally. So my usage is very mixed between broadcast conditions, video editing conditions and just enjoying music.

Oh, and this is the setup: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16140109/incontext/

When we bumped up the price, the Genelecs were huge!

Genelec do have 8331 in their three-way point source series, but those are 2k€ a piece. Personally I can't agree on the PC speaker look, I see them as pleasantly tool-like with a strong "form follows function" vibe, but I guess it's not surprising that everyone won't like them.

Genelec do have 8331 in their three-way point source series

Oh I saw those! I liked the look of them too... but the price scared me away from trying them.

The Genelec point source speakers felt like a life goal / holy grail kind of thing to me when they first appeared, they just seemed so futuristic. But retaining some semblance of rationality I went with the more pedestrian 1032Cs when I finally upgraded my old 8030s earlier this year (I'm not using them as desktop speakers, mind :-)

@Airhead and @withered_preacher so a couple of weeks later and my dad is super impressed with the Marantz cd5005. It has really changed the sound of the system. He was using my old NAD player... That always sounded a little brittle and confused. The Marantz is both smooth, yet clear and and to render the details. He's using the inbuilt DAC and connected to amp via RCA. Very happy.

There has been some leaked ui and promotional stuff recently but I don't think there's a release date/pricing kicking about yet.

Good news. I am pretty happy with mine too, I didn't expect it to be as big an improvement as it turned out to be.

I had reason to open mine up to replace a piece of trim that was broken during delivery (cost £32 delivered new from Marantz, which is great value too). The components have the look of stuff you would specify if you were building something like this from scratch instead of the usual penny pinching look a lot of domestic hifi has, especially capacitors.

would be tempted, were i in the market for nearfield temptation:

https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Neumann-KH310A-Active-Three-Way-Nearfield-Studio-Monitor-Right/138K

Hey Velocio, saw the photos - that's a really nice set up and those speakers look great too! I am very keen to hear them now. My context is in art and have fortunately received some financial support for projects, otherwise all this equipment would not be possible for me. I love the Genelecs, must say. There is something about speakers - all their different sizes, ages and characteristics that I find fascinating. Even the small Genelec 8010s blew me away. I simply didn't expect that kind of sound from such a tiny box. For what I needed them for (voice), they did the job extremely well.

I see we both have a penchant for going into lengthy detail with our writing ; ) It brought on a smile seeing your post, kind of reminiscent of myself. All the best with your new speakers!

Has anyone ever sold their whole system and regretted it?
I realise that I don’t use my set up anywhere near as often as I used to.
Have thought about punting the whole lot and banking the money.

Maybe downgrade to a small integrated amp and small speakers.

Am I talking nonsense?

Depends, what would you be selling?!

Edit - keeping it

Nice that. I follow a few hifi buying and selling groups on FB and complete systems don't tend to sell that well, and if they do its for pretty cheap. Obviously its very unlikely that that exact combo ticks all the boxes for anyone else. PITA I know but you'd be much better off selling each item individually.

Yeah I used to frequent a couple of Hifi forums and it is rare when a whole system goes.

For past couple of years I’ve only really been listening to music via Spotify through the dac.
But do I sell this and get something cheap like an integrated marantz that would do the job? Or keep it and accept that eventually it will start to get the use it deserves again?
I have two young kids and like the idea of introducing them to hifi! But that’s a long way off.

I reckon you’ll regret it if you sell it. I thought I’d never get the use from my kit when the kids were little, and I didn’t, but in the blink of an eye they’re 8 and 10 now and I get to use it loads, mostly while they’re on the PlayStation for a couple of hours. If you sell it and downsize you might always be thinking about how good your old system was and you’ll have to do all the spending again in a few years.