Stereo system

[daocat555]

I have just ordered the Q Acoustics Concept 40 floor standing loudspeakers and a Denon AVR-X250BT A/V Receiver.  I will have a 2 channel stereo set up with a HDMI cable from my computer to the Receiver, and will use it mainly for watching YouTube Videos.  

 

I ordered from Stereo House and the cost was 43,400 baht.

 

http://www.stereohouse.co.th/index.php?lay=show&ac=order_view&sorttype=&viewtype=1&subform=none

[KittenKong]

Are you looking for setting-up advice or congratulations or commiserations or something else entirely? I'm not sure.

 

Anyway, you have done the right thing by spending much more on the speakers than on the amp. But it seems to me that your equipment may be better than your source material (YouTube) deserves. You might like to look for better quality sources that will do your equipment justice.

[daocat555]

Thank you for your post, kittenkong.  My computer has a CD/DVD player.  Is that good enough or should I buy a component CD and/or DVD player?

 

I did some thinking on what 5 CD's I would buy if I could only buy 5.  That was fun and I invite other people to post their favorite CD's.  Tentatively I would buy:

 

Tony Bennet, Duets II

 

The Last Waltz

 

I Thought About You (A Tribute to Chet Baker)

 

Benny Goodman Complete Recordings 1941 - 1947

 

Disney's Greatest

 

I don't have a ton of money but listening to music is a big pleasure of mine.  I will go about shopping for a CD/DVD component and get a few on a future buy agenda, unless you think that the CD/DVD of my computer is good enough.

[KittenKong]

7 hours ago, daocat555 said:

My computer has a CD/DVD player.  Is that good enough or should I buy a component CD and/or DVD player?

Your existing CD player will be fine. No need to spend money on anything else.

 

7 hours ago, daocat555 said:

I don't have a ton of money but listening to music is a big pleasure of mine.

If you dont have much money then buying CDs is going to cost you quite a lot and you may get bored with the few you can afford.
You could consider getting a Spotify subscription. In Thailand this only costs 130B/month, and it gives you access to several million recordings, at fairly high quality. Not a bad deal if you can afford 130B/month. They also have a free option with ads and lower audio quality.

Another option might be to listen to internet radio. The BBC puts out a lot of programmes with the sort of music you might like (I expect you would like Moira Stewart, Don Black and others) and they also broadcast at fairly high quality. You can listen to them for up to a month on BBC iPlayer. If you want to record those radio programmes for future listening beyond one month you can use something like get_iplayer. https://www.squarepenguin.co.uk/downloads/

Have a look here also: https://tunein.com/  as some Tune-in stations broadcast in quite high quality.

Also here: http://radiobit.50webs.com/

 

[daocat555]

Thank you again.  Very helpful stuff and I will look into all of your suggestions.  I decided to buy Eliane Elias Tribute to Chet Baker ($11.98) and Tony Bennet Duets II ($5.99) on CD from Amazon, and I'll get them shipped over with some other stuff I bought from Amazon which I send from Amazon to Shipito and then to me in Thailand.

 

I looked at component CD players and they were like 10,000 baht for the lowest end (well healed audiophile stuff I guess), and then I looked at DVD/CD players and they were like 1,000 baht.  So good, I'll just use my computer's DVD/CD player.  I'm on purchasing fire as I also just bought a 40 x 80 x 75 cm wooden table to put the Denon A/V receiver on.  So I am really looking forward to setting up the speakers and receiver and next week getting the CD's.  Weoooo!

[daocat555]

I got the sound system set up this morning.  The rate limiting factor was the housekeeper in my complex who took days before she would clean my room and she finally did it.  Then the maintenance men set up the system and it sounds good. 

 

I want to say that Stereo House had by far the lowest prices on my components, and I will tout them now.

 

http://www.stereohouse.co.th/index.php?lay=show&ac=cat_show_pro_detail&pid=316075

 

The A/V Receiver that I bought has clips for the speaker connectors on the back which I think is disgraceful.  I am not a big monster wire kind of effete audiophile but I prefer Banana plugs for speaker wiring, then screw posts and clips I do not like.  But all audio equipment is more expensive in Thailand and I went with a minimum, acceptable, A/V Receiver so I could put the money into the Concept 40's, which I really like.

 

Ten years ago when I set up my first good sound system in Thailand I had Mordaunt-Short Carnival 6 speakers (still available in Thailand for 19,200 baht/pair) and an inexpensive Sony receiver; which had a nice sound.  I considered Yamaha NS-555 speakers (20,000 baht) and Q Acoustics 3050 speakers (29,000 baht at HiFi Center; not a friendly price).  If I could have gotten the Q Acoustic 3050i in Thailand for the $799 that Amazon sells them for that would have been tempting (if wishes were horses beggars would ride for getting US prices in Thailand).  

 

Then I joined the free Spotify which is nice. I haven't downloaded get_iplayer yet, as I'm kind of tired so that's on my to do list as is BBC internet radio.  Since you say that the free Spotify has lower audio quaility than the pay version I will also be considering the pay version.

 

So thank you, again, kittenkong.  I post a lot in the Mobile Forum and there seems to be a lot of activity there.  Too bad the Audio/Video Forum seems fairly inactive.  I sure learned a lot researching my purchase and from kittenkong's posts..

[robblok]

17 hours ago, daocat555 said:

I got the sound system set up this morning.  The rate limiting factor was the housekeeper in my complex who took days before she would clean my room and she finally did it.  Then the maintenance men set up the system and it sounds good. 

 

I want to say that Stereo House had by far the lowest prices on my components, and I will tout them now.

 

http://www.stereohouse.co.th/index.php?lay=show&ac=cat_show_pro_detail&pid=316075

 

The A/V Receiver that I bought has clips for the speaker connectors on the back which I think is disgraceful.  I am not a big monster wire kind of effete audiophile but I prefer Banana plugs for speaker wiring, then screw posts and clips I do not like.  But all audio equipment is more expensive in Thailand and I went with a minimum, acceptable, A/V Receiver so I could put the money into the Concept 40's, which I really like.

 

Ten years ago when I set up my first good sound system in Thailand I had Mordaunt-Short Carnival 6 speakers (still available in Thailand for 19,200 baht/pair) and an inexpensive Sony receiver; which had a nice sound.  I considered Yamaha NS-555 speakers (20,000 baht) and Q Acoustics 3050 speakers (29,000 baht at HiFi Center; not a friendly price).  If I could have gotten the Q Acoustic 3050i in Thailand for the $799 that Amazon sells them for that would have been tempting (if wishes were horses beggars would ride for getting US prices in Thailand).  

 

Then I joined the free Spotify which is nice. I haven't downloaded get_iplayer yet, as I'm kind of tired so that's on my to do list as is BBC internet radio.  Since you say that the free Spotify has lower audio quaility than the pay version I will also be considering the pay version.

 

So thank you, again, kittenkong.  I post a lot in the Mobile Forum and there seems to be a lot of activity there.  Too bad the Audio/Video Forum seems fairly inactive.  I sure learned a lot researching my purchase and from kittenkong's posts..

Seems like you got a great set, the spotify paid for version is not that expensive here in Thailand and for me its the best thing since sliced bread. No longer do i have to save audio somewhere but its all there on spotify. I believe i pay only a few 100bt per time and i pay through my mobile phone operator (dtac)

[KittenKong]

17 hours ago, daocat555 said:

Then I joined the free Spotify which is nice. I haven't downloaded get_iplayer yet, as I'm kind of tired so that's on my to do list as is BBC internet radio.  Since you say that the free Spotify has lower audio quaility than the pay version I will also be considering the pay version.

Before trying get_iplayer, which is quite complex, try the regular BBC iPlayer website which allows you to play back more or less all their broadcasts over the previous month in fairly high quality. It's easy to use.

 

Try the other internet radio websites I linked to also.

[CarlBkk]

Well worth spending out a bit and getting some decent sounds in the house.  Q Acoustics are getting a very good name for themselves offering quality and fairly low prices.  However, I'm not an advocate of buying new equipment because if I'm going to spend my maximum budget, I'd rather get equipment which originally cost 3 times that.  Biggest bang for the buck.  In addition, if you're not a real A/V high tech aficiondo, equipment from 10-20 years ago can be just as good and occasionally outperform modern-day builds.

 

I found all my equipment in these places:  bahtsold, facebook marketplace, Fortune town second hand shop, Thai shops operating on facebook selling second hand high end audio.

 

Always consider room acoustics which probably offers the largest upgrade over any component, and with the common Thai tiled floors in condos, lack of soft furnishings/curtains and lots of windows, sounds can be harsh.  

 

Finally, download the BBC radio app where you can stream some really good music shows through your system.  I use a Logitech Squeezebox to do this.

[wgdanson]

Or go onto extratorrents or kickass, look for what you want in flac format. I know it's illegal, but do Paul & Ringo really need more royalties from The White Album?

[daocat555]

I agree that getting older, second hand equipment is one good way to go.  It's not my way.  I have another hiccup along my way.  I don't like a bass heavy sound and I never had a sub woofer before.  I thought, going by the reviews of the Concept 40's, that their sound would be right for me.  But it turns out that I find the sound doesn't have enough bass.  So when I get my check next month I am going to add a sub woofer.  I narrowed the field of sub woofers down to 3.  

 

The big (12", powerful (500 Watts) JBL; 11,290 baht.

 

JBL SUB12 Venue Series 12-Inch 500-Watt Subwoofer | Lazada.co.th

 

The smaller, but tighter sounding Yamaha, 12,150 baht.

 

http://www.stereohouse.co.th/index.php?lay=show&ac=cat_show_pro_detail&cid=55665&pid=251180

 

Or, gasp, the even smaller, less powerful, Q Acoustics, 14,850 baht.

 

Q Acoustics 2070Si Subwoofer

 

I will most likely go with the Q Acoustics 2070Si, which puts me clearly over-budget for the set-up.  Oh well, had I gone with the Yamaha NS-55 speakers, surely I would not have wanted a sub woofer and I would have brought the set-up in well below budget.

 

http://www.stereohouse.co.th/index.php?lay=show&ac=cat_show_pro_detail&cid=55651&pid=253451

 

I hope my end product will have a good tight sound across the frequency range.  I hear you about solid floors and a harsh sound.  I am lucky that my room has a soft ceiling and a wall of curtains, so that I think my room acoustics should be pretty good in general.

 

I upgraded my Spotify account to the pay version.  I think that Spotify has much better fidelity than YouTube, and although I cannot really tell the difference between the Spotify free or paid in terms of fidelity, the price is  small enough and I am glad to be add free.  I like the Spotify radio stations.

 

Thank you everybody for your comments.

[jvs]

I have an old but very nice component system (in my mind anyway)and i hav downloaded a lot of music over the years.I listen to some classical but mainly older pop/rock and blues.

They say that you have to be a very good listener to be able to tell between mp3 and flac.I believe this is true,special when you get older.

I have downloaded the full version of a little program called DFX

and it makes a lot of difference to the sound.It has all kinds of options and it is free.

I just sold a pair of Yamaha ns 777 speakers,good sound but i got my old system and that sounds even better to me.

[wgdanson]

When we get over a certain age, the high frequencies cannot be heard. I cannot hear over 11 kHz. Download a signal generator and check yourself. 

[wgdanson]

6 minutes ago, jvs said:

I have an old but very nice component system (in my mind anyway)and i hav downloaded a lot of music over the years.I listen to some classical but mainly older pop/rock and blues.

They say that you have to be a very good listener to be able to tell between mp3 and flac.I believe this is true,special when you get older.

I have downloaded the full version of a little program called DFX

and it makes a lot of difference to the sound.It has all kinds of options and it is free.

Enjoy your sound.

It's OK using DFX type processing programs. But Brian Wilson once said the reason he wanted HIS music going out in mono was so that no-one could f+c+ around with it. Listen as it was intended.

[jvs]

Daocat555 before buying a sub you should experient with the placement of your speakers.Maybe just a little closer or further away from the wall?Play with your settings and see what DFX can do for you.Many help on the net.Also check on youtube channels about your speakers.

[jvs]

9 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

It's OK using DFX type processing programs. But Brian Wilson once said the reason he wanted HIS music going out in mono was so that no-one could f+c+ around with it. Listen as it was intended.

Yes that is ok of course but what kind of equipment did Wilson have in mind that is good enough for his music?Taste and sound experience is different for everyone and th days are long gone when i bought new stuff because of a raving review.We all learn and usually the hard(expensive) way.

[metempsychotic]

54 minutes ago, daocat555 said:

I agree that getting older, second hand equipment is one good way to go.  It's not my way.  I have another hiccup along my way.  I don't like a bass heavy sound and I never had a sub woofer before.  I thought, going by the reviews of the Concept 40's, that their sound would be right for me.  But it turns out that I find the sound doesn't have enough bass.  So when I get my check next month I am going to add a sub woofer.  I narrowed the field of sub woofers down to 3.  

 

The big (12", powerful (500 Watts) JBL; 11,290 baht.

 

JBL SUB12 Venue Series 12-Inch 500-Watt Subwoofer | Lazada.co.th

 

The smaller, but tighter sounding Yamaha, 12,150 baht.

 

http://www.stereohouse.co.th/index.php?lay=show&ac=cat_show_pro_detail&cid=55665&pid=251180

 

Or, gasp, the even smaller, less powerful, Q Acoustics, 14,850 baht.

 

Q Acoustics 2070Si Subwoofer

 

I will most likely go with the Q Acoustics 2070Si, which puts me clearly over-budget for the set-up.  Oh well, had I gone with the Yamaha NS-55 speakers, surely I would not have wanted a sub woofer and I would have brought the set-up in well below budget.

 

http://www.stereohouse.co.th/index.php?lay=show&ac=cat_show_pro_detail&cid=55651&pid=253451

 

I hope my end product will have a good tight sound across the frequency range.  I hear you about solid floors and a harsh sound.  I am lucky that my room has a soft ceiling and a wall of curtains, so that I think my room acoustics should be pretty good in general.

 

I upgraded my Spotify account to the pay version.  I think that Spotify has much better fidelity than YouTube, and although I cannot really tell the difference between the Spotify free or paid in terms of fidelity, the price is  small enough and I am glad to be add free.  I like the Spotify radio stations.

 

Thank you everybody for your comments.

Check your Spotify settings to ensure that you are set to highest quality. The difference is significant to my ears. 

[metempsychotic]

43 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

It's OK using DFX type processing programs. But Brian Wilson once said the reason he wanted HIS music going out in mono was so that no-one could f+c+ around with it. Listen as it was intended.

Brian Wilson was hearing damaged in one ear......

 

However I agree that a well balanced system is far better than one that you have heavily manipulated the sound on electronically. 

 

I have only found such processing necessary when a part of the system is seriously limited. 

[KittenKong]

2 hours ago, metempsychotic said:

Check your Spotify settings to ensure that you are set to highest quality. The difference is significant to my ears.  

This is true. Only the pay version has this option and it is very well hidden.

[marcusarelus]

I use Deezer.  Can't remember why as long time ago.  16-bit 1,411 kbps CD quality, lossless audio.

 

Had my ears checked at hospital and cleaned on the way home listened to Beatles White album 3 CD downloaded on Jabra Elite 65T active.  Trippy driving Thailand industrial area (lights sparks gas flames welding and so on) at night in a taxi listening to White album.  Rocky Racoon.........

 

Japra also controls my TV from the headset.  My wife is not too into my loud music so have a sound bar and three different headsets for different sounds. 

[KittenKong]

4 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

I use Deezer.  Can't remember why as long time ago.  16-bit 1,411 kbps CD quality, lossless audio.

I tried that once. The sound quality is good but at the time they had very little content that was to my taste, and I found the price to be very high for what you got. That may have changed since.

[marcusarelus]

24 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

I tried that once. The sound quality is good but at the time they had very little content that was to my taste, and I found the price to be very high for what you got. That may have changed since.

White album 6 CD downloadable.  How many times can you listen without being considered obsessed?

[marcusarelus]

Deezer has 28 million hi-definition audio files and these audio files are encoded in FLAC.

 

The highest audio quality available on Spotify is 320kbps in OGG which shaves off the parts of the audio.

 

Deezer now has more choice than Spotify and I believe the same price. 

 

So if you really want to hear your music I guess choose Deezer.

[daocat555]

I got Deezer on the free version to try out.  Interesting, thank you marcusarelus.

[wgdanson]

7 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

I use Deezer.  Can't remember why as long time ago.  16-bit 1,411 kbps CD quality, lossless audio.

 

Had my ears checked at hospital and cleaned on the way home listened to Beatles White album 3 CD downloaded on Jabra Elite 65T active.  Trippy driving Thailand industrial area (lights sparks gas flames welding and so on) at night in a taxi listening to White album.  Rocky Racoon.........

 

Japra also controls my TV from the headset.  My wife is not too into my loud music so have a sound bar and three different headsets for different sounds. 

Hasn't Giles done a great job. I am hearing things I never knew existed in 1968. And it verifies the fact that Ringo wasn't such a good drummer after all.....he was great, except on USSR, But he DID get to play it....  and DO IT IN THE ROAD...Macca.

One of my all time favourites is I WILL, when Macca sings the bassline.

 

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, marcusarelus said:

Deezer has 28 million hi-definition audio files and these audio files are encoded in FLAC.

 

The highest audio quality available on Spotify is 320kbps in OGG which shaves off the parts of the audio.

 

Deezer now has more choice than Spotify and I believe the same price. 

 

So if you really want to hear your music I guess choose Deezer.

As I mentioned, the quality on Deezer is indeed better but the choice as far as I know is not. Spotify apparently have 40 million tracks available but above all when I tested it I found that Deezer had a lot of new tracks but not so many older ones. I am not interested in anything new at all so Deezer was fairly pointless for me. This may have changed and clearly it will depend on the individual.

 

The price is indeed now the same for both (129B).

[KittenKong]

5 hours ago, KittenKong said:

The price is indeed now the same for both (129B).

Actually that's wrong. Deezer costs 258B/month (some limited offers are available) for their "hifi" version, which is the only one that is lossless. The regular 129B Premium package seems to be similar in quality to Spotify Premium.

[CarlBkk]

On 1/14/2019 at 7:12 PM, jvs said:

I have an old but very nice component system (in my mind anyway)and i hav downloaded a lot of music over the years.I listen to some classical but mainly older pop/rock and blues.

They say that you have to be a very good listener to be able to tell between mp3 and flac.I believe this is true,special when you get older.

I have downloaded the full version of a little program called DFX

and it makes a lot of difference to the sound.It has all kinds of options and it is free.

I just sold a pair of Yamaha ns 777 speakers,good sound but i got my old system and that sounds even better to me.

What's your system JVS?

 

I can definitely tell the difference between MP3 and Flac/Wavs, but then again MP3s can be between low and medium resolution.  Harder to tell the difference between CD and Flac though, but on my previous system I think Flacs just edged it.

[CarlBkk]

On 1/14/2019 at 7:00 PM, daocat555 said:

 I narrowed the field of sub woofers down to 3.  

 

 

 

 

Out of those mentioned I'd go for the Q Acoustics, but none really have a super reputation.  Many others available such as Elac, Rel, Velodyne and B&W within your budget.  I have an M-Audio subwoofer for sale if you want one...excellent reviews and value for money.  In time I'll get an SVS instead.

[jvs]

5 minutes ago, CarlBkk said:

What's your system JVS?

 

I can definitely tell the difference between MP3 and Flac/Wavs, but then again MP3s can be between low and medium resolution.  Harder to tell the difference between CD and Flac though, but on my previous system I think Flacs just edged it.

JBL ti 5000 speakers,Adcom gfa 555,a little modified,Adcom pre=am pfp 565,Sony cdp cx 200.I play cd's from the cd player and mp3 and flac from my hard drive.I also listen(watch)a lot of music video on Youtube and Dailymotion and such.I have a lot of dowloaded music mostly flac just to keep the original recording intact.I tried to hear the difference between the different kinds of replay but i must be getting old.Sometimes i think flac sounds a little fuller but maybe just wishful thinking.

And your system?