What setup(s) do you have at home for just listening to music?

[Steve]

Any of you using anything fancy?

 

These days I do almost all of my listening via a PC hooked up to a Yamaha CRX-N560D and some Q Acoustics Concept 20 speakers.

 

I've got some wireless Sennheiser headphones, so I often just use them, even though they don't sound that great. They're convenient though, and as I live in an end terrace house with thin walls between me and my neighbours, I can listen to music without pissing them off.

 

I do kinda miss having a bunch of hi-fi separates set up. I still have some pretty decent Aiwa separates that I bought in the early 90s, which cost me about £700, but they've been packed away for years cos I never really listen to tapes or CDs unless I'm playing them to rip them.

 

I still like looking at old school separates on YouTube. Stuff like this: -

 

 

 

 

If I ever won the lotto I'd end up spending a small fortune on stuff like that, just so it can collect dust, lol.

 

So, yeah, what are you guys rocking?

[mfsop]

Amp: Denon PMA 510AE - very satisfied

Speakers: Some cheap Phillips ones - I might replace them with something different. I had some nice and small Quadral Maxi 50 speakers before.

[Deft]

Everything I listen to is still running from my PC (Denon DS-1 Serato interface, through to Rodec Scratchbox and then Mackie MR5 mk2 active monitors).

It's a DJ setup, not a purist one and the speakers are placed stupidly in the room but it sounds good enough for listening to electronic music.

I feel like I'd need a better space and layout to bother spunking serious cash on something significantly better.

[JHouse]

I keep it super simple and efficient...I just use my 55" TV that's mounted to my wall, about a foot away from the footer of my bed. I have Pandora installed and it works a charm.

[Mike-L]

For home listening its more about accessibilty than audiophile or retro for me: I have one 1210 in the living room for listening to wax (and for 5 minute scratch sessions if circumstances allow!).The TV is linked wirelessly to all my devices, so can access all my digital library from there & I have small blue tooth speaker for kitchen/bathroom/wherever.

[savwar]

Can i just admit to buying What Hi-fi magazine about 3 times in the past, and being enthralled by the richer sounds catalog

 

"separates"

[Steve]

Man, for guys of my age, it was all about lusting after those separates and turning your nose up at the shitty Amstrad "midi hi-fi" bullshit, even if you couldn't afford either, haha.

 

It was the same with boomboxes and Walkmans. You'd scoff at shit like this even if it's what you ended up having to use: -

 

 

There's no way that guy rocking that Sanyo was smiling inside.

[TBearOne8III]

well, the dj set up is running thru a kenwood preamp that my father in law got from a thrift shop. i got some old shitty emerson shelf stereo speakers on that and 1 stereo speaker on the floor. i have no clue what brand that speaker is. its almost 30 years old. but we pretty much have some sort of listening station throughout the house. my old panasonic stereo is also in the basement with me. I got the tv running thru that and a line in to rca hook up so you can plug in your phone or mp3 player. in the kitchen, i got a sony receiver with the other 30 year old speaker on it. I got that tv running thru the receiver and another line in hook up. the living room has a cheap ass surround sound, also with the line in hook up for your mp3 player. the bedroom has another sony receiver with 2 big stereo speakers. the tv is running thru that and the line hook up as well. and the kids have a cheap sound bar in their room. plus we got random computer speakers all over that you can plug your phone or whatever into. im the king of retro-fitting stuff. so i found these optical to rca converter boxes that i used to run the tv's to the stereo receivers. they work great. most of the stereo's are 20 to 30 years old but they still rock. those converters only cost like $15 on amazon. so fuck buying new surround sound systems.

[Wax On]

Man, for guys of my age, it was all about lusting after those separates and turning your nose up at the shitty Amstrad "midi hi-fi" bullshit, even if you couldn't afford either, haha.

 

It was the same with boomboxes and Walkmans. You'd scoff at shit like this even if it's what you ended up having to use: -

 

 

 

There's no way that guy rocking that Sanyo was smiling inside.

I think my gran had that Sharp boombox

[Jam Burglar]

Having a turntable in the living room has been huge for me as far as listening to records outside of DJing. I picked up one of those Line Phono turntable stands from Turntable Lab. Turntable is hardwired to my Denon receiver, which handles the TV, video game consoles, etc. I have some Definitive Technology floor standing speakers in there (part of a surround setup for TV and movies). The Denon also wirelessly feeds to a Heos shelf speaker in our kitchen/dining area. Nowhere close to a nice, dedicated setup with a preamp but still pretty good.

 

Honestly, we get the most use out of the Heos speaker because I can put on records when we eat. I agree with Mike-L. Making it accessible is what counts.

 

Wouldn't mind a nice tapedeck. I did just recently get a Sony DDIII Walkman for my car. Damn that thing sounds good.

[savwar]

Man, for guys of my age, it was all about lusting after those separates and turning your nose up at the shitty Amstrad "midi hi-fi" bullshit, even if you couldn't afford either, haha.

 

It was the same with boomboxes and Walkmans. You'd scoff at shit like this even if it's what you ended up having to use: -

 

 

 

There's no way that guy rocking that Sanyo was smiling inside.

 

And Yellow was the International symbol for 'Sports'

[Jam Burglar]

My new joint

 

 

 

 

 

[Steve]

Nice! It looks to be in great condition too.

[djdiggla]

I have a pretty cool living room setup that I frequently use.

 

Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2 Bookshelf speakers

Sony STR-DH199 Receiver

Sony CDP-CX571 50+1 CD changer

Sony MDS-JE480 (type “s”) minidisc player

Pioneer CT-M50R six cassette changer

Technics SL-D202 turntable

Sumiko Pearl phono cartridge

I used to have a Nakamichi... not a Dragon but still a very nice one. I liked the Pioneer tape changer so much more that I switched and never went back.

[TBearOne8III]

 

And Yellow was the International symbol for 'Sports'

 

 

 

i used to have this exact same walkman. it was splash proof. LOL!!

[Jam Burglar]

Nice! It looks to be in great condition too.

These direct drive units are great. All metal, high quality heads. No auto reverse. All quality. Kind of like the Technics 1200 of walkmans. The only thing is the main gear was made out of a material that shrinks and cracks. In the past few years a guy has come up with a replacement gear.

[Steve]

 

 

And Yellow was the International symbol for 'Sports'

 

 

 

i used to have this exact same walkman. it was splash proof. LOL!!

 

 

It's so you can roller skate around a fountain wearing leg warmers and a skin-tight "Frankie says Relax" t-shirt without fear of water damage.

[Steve]

 

Nice! It looks to be in great condition too.

These direct drive units are great. All metal, high quality heads. No auto reverse. All quality. Kind of like the Technics 1200 of walkmans. The only thing is the main gear was made out of a material that shrinks and cracks. In the past few years a guy has come up with a replacement gear.

 

 

Yeah man, I have lusted after WM-DD9s many times, but the price is just too much! A good example of your model is £250+ in the UK.

 

It's something else I've added to my "will buy when I win the lotto jackpot" list, cos that's definitely going to happen one day...........

[Flexinoodle]

Just gave away my Yamaha amp and JBL speakers, my set up is now a NAS, the rest is there to encode stuff from vinyl and cassette to put on the NAS.

[Wax On]

When i was younger, Nakamichi was the hi fi equivalent of Neo Geo - scarce, expensive and amazing (in reputation)

[Jam Burglar]

 

 

Nice! It looks to be in great condition too.

These direct drive units are great. All metal, high quality heads. No auto reverse. All quality. Kind of like the Technics 1200 of walkmans. The only thing is the main gear was made out of a material that shrinks and cracks. In the past few years a guy has come up with a replacement gear.

 

 

Yeah man, I have lusted after WM-DD9s many times, but the price is just too much! A good example of your model is £250+ in the UK.

 

It's something else I've added to my "will buy when I win the lotto jackpot" list, cos that's definitely going to happen one day...........

 

 

Yeah, those DD9s are going for a grand or so. Supposedly they don't suffer from the cracked gear syndrome and the amorphous head sets them apart from all the others. A lot of people are nuts over the Boodo Khan but the "bass amplification" doesn't interest me all that much.

[mfsop]

Yeah, those DD9s are going for a grand or so.

What?!? Why???

Does anyone use them for sports or do they sit in a glass cabinet?

And I feel silly for debating spending 200€ on a used Thorens or B&O turntable...

[Jam Burglar]

 

Yeah, those DD9s are going for a grand or so.

What?!? Why???

Does anyone use them for sports or do they sit in a glass cabinet?

And I feel silly for debating spending 200€ on a used Thorens or B&O turntable...

 

 

It's crazy man. I doubt they're used for "sports" but more likely as just portable listening devices. You basically have the equivalent of a high-end tape deck in your pocket. You get these audiophile guys who will record to high-quality tape on their high-end home decks, then play the tapes on portable players, using nice headphones. The sound quality is really damn good, but whether it's worth the money depends on the person.

 

That's not at all what I'm doing. I just have tapes from back in the day, ... LOTS of DJ mixtapes, but also other tapes. I'm not about to spend hours and hours converting them to digital files. I mainly listen to them in my car. Last year I got rid of my old 2004 VW which still had a tape deck. My new car has no tape deck but it DOES have an auxiliary jack in the console. So, it's 1000 times more convenient to buy a walkman than to convert the tapes to digital. When I dug out my old belt-drive walkmans they were all wonkey. None of them worked right or sounded good. So, I scooped the DD-III and it probably sounds better than the tape deck in my old VW. So, the flossing continues. I was listening to DJ Infamous "Secular Humaniods" this AM instead of some old bullshit on satellite radio.

[cutdisco]

My studio has always been in the livingroom, so it's where my setup is, studiomonitors is where i would listen to when streaming some stuff.

2 tannoys reveal and some M-audio speakers to switch in between

When sitting on a couch, i'm staring to a 48ch. console :-)

[djdiggla]

 

Yeah, those DD9s are going for a grand or so.

What?!? Why???

Does anyone use them for sports or do they sit in a glass cabinet?

And I feel silly for debating spending 200€ on a used Thorens or B&O turntable...

 

 

I have a B&O. Speed got wonky so I bought that Tech... It looks nice and functionally was great (prior to the belt issue) but where you gonna get a replacement needle? Nowhere.