Hacker News Reader

Comment by TacticalCoder | Hacker News Reader

> CDs were already seen as inferior to records quality-wise, and speakers had to be huge if possible

Doesn't sound very scientific to me.

> How does the audio quality compare?

Why compare with an old system from the 80s? I got to hear a friend's friend's modern audiophile setup. A dedicated room with Wilson Audio speakers (totally overpriced but amazing), high-end DAC, high-end amp... It was bliss. One of these $50K+ setup but bliss. This is nothing like a laptop, a soundbar or a Sonos.

> Or do the new multi room systems play in the same league as the old system that were used by enthusiasts?

I wouldn't be suprised they'd actually be better than these old systems. But they don't play in the same league as actual modern audiophile setups.

View on HN

>Doesn't sound very scientific to me.

From my experience with them, you kind of just summed up the HiFi/audiophile core. I've spent waaay too much time with audio engineers, recording engineers, etc from edit bays to sound stages. Yes, there are now things that I can hear because they pointed it out to me, but until then, I was perfectly content with my head in the sand of not-knowing. However, while I agree there are certain things that can make a difference, the tendency for the absurd always seems to take hold.

> Why compare with an old system from the 80s? I got to hear a friend's friend's modern audiophile setup. A dedicated room with Wilson Audio speakers (totally overpriced but amazing), high-end DAC, high-end amp... It was bliss. One of these $50K+ setup but bliss. This is nothing like a laptop, a soundbar or a Sonos.

To be fair you can have a similarly great experience on significantly more affordable setups around 10k.

DAC and amplification above a certain price range is basically good enough to become indistinguishable from one another. The largest part of your budget should go into speakers. And don't underestimate the effects of proper room treatment and correction. Solutions like Dirac Live have made this much more approachable.

Anything above that will provide very marginal gains. There's a lot of costly prestige above that threshold which doesn't always translate into real audible benefits.

What would be a modern audiophile setup?

> What would be a modern audiophile setup?

What do you mean? What's the difference between an audiophile setup from the 80s GP was mentioning and one from today? Today you'd have a DAC, for a start. Maybe some DRC (Digital Room Correction software). Then amps have progressed tremendously. And so did speakers (newer materials).

As for the setup I listened to: I'm no pro, I don't remember the details. I know the speakers were Wilson Audio but I don't remember the DAC nor the amp(s) brands: all I know is it was high-end stuff costing money I'm personally not willing to put in an audio setup. But it did sound very good.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com