Audiophiles - Post Your At-Home & Portable Setups and Music Collection

[sartrekid]

Disclaimer: (I am a complete audiophile novice, please don't take offense)

I used to be an avid collector of live concerts, mainly sound board recordings/bootlegs of bands such as Pearl Jam, Audioslave and the like. I kept all files as .FLAC on my computer and the originals on CDs.

At some point it did get a little out of hand as I had accumulated nearly 800 live concerts that translated to nearly twice as many CDs. At that point I had decided that it was time to let go of this hobby and so I got rid of all but my favourite concerts. I had also concluded that it's not worth listening to master recordings, CDs and Vinyls, that compressed audio would do just fine. That was more than ten years ago.

Fast-forward to the present. I have fallen in love with music again. And with that, I've also equipped myself with some audiophile-graded gear.

With all that said...

What's your "at-home"/desktop audio setup?

What's your portable audio setup?

What music genres do you like the most?

Do you have specific gear for specific genres?

Do you use streaming services?

And finally, have any tipps you want to share?



My current "at home" gear:

- Audeze LCD-2 Classic Planar Magnetic (open back) Headphones
- iFi Micro iDsD Black Label DAC/Amp

My current portable gear:

- Venture Electronics Monk Plus

- NuForce EDC in-ear

My portable equipment is quite mediocre, but it's done its job adequately for what it is.

Current Streaming Services: Tidal, Spotify (will cancel it shortly)

Speaking of streaming services; I've been a long-time Spotify user. I tried out Tidal yesterday for the first time. I wanted to find out if my ear could truly make out a difference between Spotify's highest quality .mp3 versus Tidal's Hi-Fi master files and, lo-and-behold... I definitely could make out a difference.

Favourite Music Genres: (alt) Rock, Classic, EDM

Your turn! =D

 

[Internet Enzyme]

I too have the Audeze LCD 2C—got em for $599 during the holiday sale. I listen to them through my imac via usb into a pretty bog standard schiit modi schiit magni dac/amp setup, but hey: they’re cheap, sound good and look pretty nice on my desk. I also have an Audio Technica ath-m50x which ive had for a few years now and they’re pretty decent, but now that I have the lcd 2c im realizing how sibilant the m50xs are. I have bose soundsport free earbuds that definitely do reproduce the frequency spectrum pretty well but aren’t fantastic headphones. They’re the best earbuds ive ever heard tho. I also have a speaker setup that my macbook would connect into via hdmi in to my tv and then the tv passes it thru toslink, to my onkyo a9010 stereo amp that drives a pair of elac b6 bookshelf loud speakers. In terms of source, I of course like to get as high of quality i can, which is usually a cd rip. But the vast majority of my library consists of 320kbps mp3, and honestly i dont think theres much of a perceptible difference in quality there. So yeah, not to fancy across the board. The elacs and onkyo integrated amp were like $500 together and the audeze lcd 2 c and schiit stack were $800 total but i think i got some good value for my buck

 

[invisibleshoes]

Main (at home):
B&W PX

Portable:
B&W C5 Series II

When I'm sweating it out at the gym, I usually have the Bose QC35's on.

Streaming:
Spotify

My genres:
Blues, Jazz, Alt. Rock, EDM

Those LCD-2's of yours sound amazing. The bamboo finish is simply beautiful in person. I'm researching my next big purchase soon - they will definitely be wired cans.

Edit: Whoops, kinda did this wrong. Fixed!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

View attachment 823604

Main (at home):
B&W PX

Portable:
B&W C5 Series II

When I'm sweating it out at the gym, I usually have the Bose QC35's on.

Streaming:
Spotify

My genres:
Blues, Jazz, Alt. Rock, EDM

Those LCD-2's of yours sound amazing. The bamboo finish is simply beautiful in person. I'm researching my next big purchase soon - they will definitely be wired cans.

Edit: Whoops, kinda did this wrong. Fixed!

I'm an enthusiast for the headphones of Bowers & Wilkins, too.

When travelling, I tend to use the P5s, but also have the P7s.

 

[JagdTiger]

I would like these.

https://www.klipsch.com/products/hp-3-headphones

 

[MattG]

This is my living room setup.

- Yamaha R-N803B Receiver (145W x 2)
- Pro-Ject Tube Box S Preamp
- Pro-Ject Turntable
- Fluance Tower Speakers and Subwoofer

I've got two other turntables setups scattered around the house as well. I've got around 850 titles on vinyl now, though I do sometimes use the AirPlay feature in this receiver and stream direct from my phone when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to flip records around.

I don't have any portable gear at this point but I've been tempted lately to get some Sennheisers for at-home listening...

 

[Mefisto]

Really not an audiophile, but here goes.

At home I do my listening on a Yamaha R-N402D receiver and CD-S300 CD player. Speakers are Dali Zensor 1's. No turntable at the moment, then again not that many LP's at the moment either. As the poster above me said, the AirPlay functionality on the Yamaha is a nice addition, although I rarely stream my iTunes library as I'd rather put on the CD. Who knows why. It's more useful for when there are guests that want to stream their libraries.

Out and about I still refuse to put music on my phone, and rather carry my trusted iPod Classic 160GB loaded with most of my CD's. The headphones are by Sennheiser, the exact model number escapes me at the moment. Got them as a gift a while back, and while they do sound really good, I actually never really disliked Apple's EarPods either.

Pretty basic setup, but it get's the job done!

 

[hawkeye_a]

Home lounge listening Grado GH-1


And Apple Earbuds for on the go.

Most of my music is loaded on my iPhone6S in Apple Lossless format.

Long live the headphone port!

I’ve reverted to buying CDs instead of digital because of the quality, flexibility(can convert to any format and listen on any device), availability(rare and old albums) and price(usually cheaper).

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Long live the headphone port!

Amen to that.

I’ve reverted to buying CDs instead of digital because of the quality, flexibility(can convert to any format and listen on any device), availability(rare and old albums) and price(usually cheaper).

I never stopped buying CDs - mostly for the reasons you mentioned.

 

[Internet Enzyme]

Oh yeah, I didnt post pics.

 

[Internet Enzyme]

Amen to that.



I never stopped buying CDs - mostly for the reasons you mentioned.

For me I think Tidal is a suitable replacement for CDs, and you can essentially rip Tidal by downloading Soundflower, setting it as system output and then having audacity input it as a microphone. Thats tedious because it goes in real time and you have to fill in all the meta data but you have ownership of your files and you can do it for any music you want without having to order a physical cd and I’d say the legality is about the same as ripping a CD

 

[maxjohnson2]

I was a user on head-fi.org back in the days and was really into it, using all the brands from AKG, AudioTechnica, BeyerDynamic, Sennheiser, Grado, Etymotic, Shure. I had various KEF and a Magnepan MMG speakers, and NAD amps. I just lost interest, especially between relocations.

Now I just have a BeyerDynamic DT770 headphone and some hifi earbuds called Blox Earphone. And some old E-MU 0202 and 0404 USB Audio interface.

I was considering these Swan T200 active monitors for a long time, owning the cheaper models. It was originally $700 before they put their products on Amazon. Too bad it seems the review said they are unreliable. I'll probably buy a Magnepan speaker again someday, the clarity out of those ribbon speakers are like nothing else.

 

[boodle]

Mobile rig:
iFi xDSD + FiiO M9 + balanced quad-driver Nuforce HEM8

Headphones and IEMs
Sennheiser HD 820
Focal Elex
Sennheiser HD 6XX
Sony MDR-V700
Sony MDR-605
NuForce HEM8
Shure SE420

Headphone Amps and DACs
Sennheiser HDV 820
iFi xDSD (2x Burr Brown, SE and s-balanced)
FiiO M9 (2x AK4490EN, SE and balanced)
NI Traktor Kontrol S4

Source
Synology DiskStation 918+
(2x 128GB NAND cache + 16GB RAM + 4x 4TB Hitachi Red)
Tidal HiFi - FLAC/MQA
Vinyl + CD

Other
Monitors: Event 20/20 BAS
Turntables: Technics SL-23 + Ortofon Red, Audio Technica AT-LP60-USB
DJ Controllers: NI Traktor Kontrol S4 + Feena FMDJ9303
Keyboard Controllers: Yamaha KX88, Novation ReMOTE 49 SL
Discrete Recorder: Sony MZR-R70 MiniDisc
Analog Mixer: Mackie 1202-VLZ
Microphones: AKG C1000S, Shure SM58
Apple PowerCD

Are music genres even a thing anymore? There's so much crossover these days!
Historical and contemporary classical composers, opera, IDM, EDM, darkwave, new wave, lyrical and melodic hip-hop, classic jungle, experimental and avant garde, standards jazz, math rock, shoegaze, vaporwave, glitchcore, witch house, industrial, ambient, downtempo, classic electro, minimal techno, prog rock, boundary-pushing indie anything. Starting to experiment with pop music but still find most of it offensive.

Music-specific equipment?
I definitely use different gear for different music but for listening enjoyment it depends on what mood I'm in. Technical listening that requires a big sound stage and maximum extension and speed will always get the HD 820 or Elex. The HD 6XX is super light and an amazing all-rounder. I often wear them while working on various non-audio projects around the house or in the studio because I won't have a heart attack if they get bumped but they still do well on almost everything.

The HEM8 IEM is "good enough" for commuting and flights but I'm eventually going to get something like the Campfire Audio Andromeda.

Current lust:
I'm pretty endgame except for the IEMs. Might add the iFi xCAN soon.

Future tech:
I have a feeling Apple is going to drop an innovative personal audio bomb in the next couple of years, possibly coming out of their Augmented Reality research. The 10-microphone headphone patent is very interesting to me.

 

[upandown]

Portable:

Kimber Cable - AG ($150) > Headamp Pico DAC/Amp ($500) > Whiplash TWag V3 ($400) > JH16 Pro ($1250).



At Home:

AudioQuest Carbon Optical Cable ($250) > AudioLab mDAC ($1000) > Balanced XLRs > TC Electronic Level Pilot X ($70) > M-Audio DSM3s. ($650 for the pair, a steal as they were being discontinued)

Both systems are extremely detailed, transparent, and balanced. They have very good separation and play ALL frequencies with extreme ease and they never mix or distort.