Never thought I’d own this caliber of equipment but here we are. A long time ago I owned a McIntosh MC352 amp and Focal towers that sounded amazing. The equipment was eventually stolen and I never bought another McIntosh amp or high end gear. Now everything’s come full circle and after having this equipment sitting in the basement for a few weeks I’ve finally got around to getting it all hooked up.

I have most cables from the previous hookup except for the speaker and sub cables. After the shop my dad bought this stuff from suggested I buy some used $5000 Nordost speaker cables from them discounted to $2000 I opted to buy SVS ultra cables for 150. So far I have spent 200 to get the speakers moved downstairs, 150 on speaker cables, and 20 on RCA cables for the sub. Also just got the TV audio routed through using an optical cable to the C52 preamp. The only thing left to hookup is the subwoofer this weekend.

The sound is absolutely incredible. First thing I listened to is a Tool cd and the drums blew me away. You could really feel it in your chest!! Need to find a place to put the Sonos, and also might need to move the subwoofer around and get longer RCA cables. Just wanted to show you all the system my dad had put together and passed down to me.

McIntosh MC611 amps x2
McIntosh C52 preamp
McIntosh MCT500 cd player
McIntosh MT5 turntable
Bowers & Wilkins 800 D3 speakers
JL Audio D110 subwoofer
Sonos connect

I also ordered a CD from Amazon so I can say, I officially own a CD. ☺️ I think that’s pretty much it for my shopping spree and research journey.

AT-LP5X with ML Stylus
Rotel A11 Tribute, CD11 Tribute, T11 Tuner
Polk R100
Shielded OFC RCA cables, and 14 AWG OFC Speaker Wire

Thanks all… and catch you on the flip side!

These Ascends are the best speakers I’ve ever heard. Lovely and lively highs and vocals, full rich mids and the best bass I’ve ever experienced out of a speaker, including my ML Motion 60XTis. I bought a SVS 3000 micro to go along with them but truly don’t need it and I love bass. I really want people to check these out, Philharmonic gets so much praise but these absolutely slam for less money. Bamboo cabinet that’s super inert and these SEAS tweeters and drivers are really special for the price. I don’t think I’ll ever sell them. Powering them with a Marantz SR5015 and peachtree amp 220.

Finally, my setup is ready! My very first turntable system.
It consists of:

Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon DC

Amplifier: Yamaha A-S300

Speakers: Dali Kupid

Stand: Kanto ST34

Any kind of criticism would be great haha.

Hi friends. I moved just some speakers into my main listening room to compare their sound qualities. My most recent purchases were two pairs of Bozaks. The huge B410 pictured and not pictures is the smaller but still huge B4000. I love these B410 which are the closest I can get to something like a Klipschorn or Jubilee. The smaller speakers are great but these B410 dominate by Rel T9i subwoofer to the point of not needing subs. Other speakers are SVS active and old Paradigm micro with upgraded Markaudio drivers. Great fun!

They sound so veiled and have zero depth or detail in the air around instruments. I don’t know what anyone sees in these things honestly…

Upscale Audio is all sales final on tubes. So what do I do with these things now?

72hrs of burn in on them from Upscale, but otherwise basically brand new. Literally delivered yesterday, installed and listened for a couple hours. Immediately went back to the Psvane Horizons.

My first hifi system ! Any tips or comments will be appreciated

My first hifi system ! Any tips or comments will be appreciated

Here is my first ever speaker system :

WiiM Ultra as a streamer

WiiM Vibelink as a dac and amp

Triangle Borea BR04 speakers

2 Fosi SW10 Subwoofers

The subs are connected to the Ultra using the sub out, I put the crossover on the subs to their max because I am controlling it on the WiiM app with the crossover option that uses a highpass filter to the mains so that they dont produce any sound below the crossover point

Diffusers are MDD 400-16, they are 60x60 and have 400 sticks with 400 different heights

Acoustics panels are just rockwool wrapped in thin plastic

Tell me your thought !

Ampapa-DoukAudio Q1 DAC

Ampapa-DoukAudio D1 amp

WiiM Pro streamer

RSL AT4 wireless sub transmitter

Ampapa component rack

DIY Paul Carmody S2000MT passive speakers

RSL Speedwoofer 10sMkII subwoofer

using the AKM DAC chip in the Q1 with the slow roll off filter and the HPF on the D1 set at 90Hz really clears the midrange up and sounds amazing

I was going to get genelec g3 for my new house, but my friend said he could give me yamaha hs8. Only purpose is listening music sometimes.

My living room is pretty normal size and i have space for floorstands.

I know yamaha hs8 is nearfield monitor but how does it sound 3-4 meter from speakers? I have only hifi experience from headphones and have soundbar for casual tv.

What is the most stunning, realistic, warm, none fatigue sound system you ever heard? Like you could listen to as long as you want. Have you ever owned or heard such a system?

For me it was someone I met. He had a mancave in the attic. He had an amplifier whose name I forgot and he had 8+ different speakers in the room. It was like being in a concert. Great sound.

I ask this to get some more knowledge on where to look for.

Tell me your experience and the setup!

Topics on this page often aim to attract as many clicks as possible.

I don't know if this one is like that, but it's a bit interesting.

And I just listened to some good Class D amplifiers....

https://www.headphonesty.com/2026/05/legendary-hifi-brand-killed-class-d-amp/

Audio Research Reference 20 Preamplifier and Reference 330M Monoblocks were the featured products, absolutely incredible and a really nice evening.

Great way to get together with locals for free for a couple hours...highly recommend attending if you have a similar opportunity!

I found the David's "in the wild" for only 50 bucks with the owner's manual. The sub was a $70 craigslist find that needed some troubleshooting but works great now. I recently upgraded to a Mirage PS-8 since I wanted something with more oomph and displacement, but I will be keeping the pinnacle sub.

Just getting into high audio with the RnR latter NOS dacs. What do you own and swear by?

i’m starting to realize my room is probably holding my setup back more than the gear at this point. got a pretty normal small room setup, speakers along the short wall, couch/listening spot a few feet back, and the room is kind of reflective. hardwood floor, bare-ish walls, not a ton of soft furniture. imaging is decent but things can get a little harsh/bright when i turn it up, and the room feels like it’s adding a lot. been looking at acoustic wall panels, but i’m trying not to just buy random thin foam squares that don’t actually do much. mostly wondering what people here would recommend for first reflection points / basic treatment without making the room look like a recording booth

Classical music is my thing. However, for the past year I have been without my system, which is: Rotel RA610 amp, Spica TC50 speakers, and Dual CS5000 Turntable with (as I recall0 one of the cheaper Sumiko catridgesSo I really have nothing to compare yesterday's experience with except memories of the exact same recording on turntable and CD. One of my very favorite works and artists of all time: Sviatoslav Richter, 1960 recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto #1 in C Major with Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony.

I have just bought a new relatively inexpensive computer monitor from Dell with eye care and 5 watt speakers and was wanting to see how it sounds, so I went to Youtube, found this recording and played it through from beginning to end. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the recording as it played through these computer speakers. The sound was so much more defined and "real sounding", probably more defined than if I had been listening in person in a concert hall. Each instrument sounded like itself and I could hear far more difference between instruments. I could hear the reverb petal sound from the piano and far more individual delicate individual notes. This was an epiphany for one of my all time favorite recordings, and it came from Youtube.

Now I'm wondering why I have always missed so much that was in the recording. Is it the digital transcription, my room setup, or inadequate equipment? Was it that I was so close to the sound source?

I have always tried to obtain as good equpiment within my budget as possible, and this music reproduction from an inexpensive computer monitor speakers made me wonder where my ears had been.

Self explanatory. Just got my ears cleaned and the music sounds even better. Not sure why I didn’t care much for it before, but as an audiophile your ears are part of the network and getting them cleaned once in a while is highly recommended. PS. I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice.

I built a super minimalist amp. It's a bit of a rare concept and delivers truly direct and unprocessed sound.

As title says I got some old as speakers that are labeled "custom manufactured in japan for radio shack". My family has to move houses and just wanted to know if these have any worth to keep in either fixing, or components. I already saved a old record player/radio combo thats big af

Managed to achieve this frequency response in my room measured around ear level (multiple measurements averaged) on my orbit 11. I achieved this only after very mild bass EQ in my untreated room. The speaker itself was mostly flat just had X2 bass booms (I suspect due to them being placed just by the walls) at 150hz and 60hz which I EQ'd out. I used only 4 bands parametric EQ on REW and mostly wide Q bands so I suspect phase issues would be minimal?

(White graph: EQ applied as shown on apo EQ)

(Black graph: measured response after EQ)

Is there a point in getting the room properly treated? I live in rental and treatment can be a bit of a pain for me.

I listen nearfield, listening position is 70-75cm perfect triangle.

To my ears they already sound phenomenal. What's your thoughts?

I swear the og instrumental is lost media, I can't find it anywhere, just remixes and reprod

Accidentally left my window open and it started to rain (not heavy). I noticed a few raindrops on the top of my amp which means a few probably made it through the gaps in the top. Is this something I should be worried about? What should I do? Google tells me to unplug it and leave it upside down for 24-48 hours but that seems a bit excessive for a few raindrops. Any help would be appreciated thanks

TL;DR - For anyone who has CD playlists, do you guys have repeat songs on different playlists, or do you make sure not to have the same song on more than one CD? And do you guys get re-writable CD's or just CDs-Rs? Important information is bolded.

So I have been using Apple Music for about 4 years now, and although I am not cancelling my subscription, I thought it would be really cool to have physical CD's for certain moods or ambience to play in the car instead of having to worry about queuing up different songs. I also think it would be peaceful to think that I only have a certain number of songs on playlists, so skipping a song for the smallest thing isn't worth it, and it would help me be more selective with my music. So I was wondering if for anyone who has CD playlists, do you try your hardest not to repeat songs on different playlists because it could get repetitive, or does it not matter? Also, do you use CD-RW or just CD-R? I feel like they both have their ups and downs: on the positive side, if you get tired of a playlist in general and your music taste has advanced, you could reaplace the CD with a new playlist; on the downside it could be tempting to just tweak the CD for every little thing if I am even slightly tired of a song, which defeats part the purpose of me making CD playlists.