Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

This is a companion to my post the other day about my philosophy for building a stereo system, aka hi fi rack. I’ve broken it into tiers ranging from $500 to around $3,000. You can certainly spend way more than that on a stereo, but if you’re going to invest that kind of money you really, really ought to test the components out for yourself to see if they work for YOUR taste. $3k is also about where I feel like you start hitting the point of substantial diminishing returns. The system I recommend at $3k is basically the system that I used for a long time, and the only reason I upgraded it was that I got a really good deal on a very high-end amplifier that I’d been coveting for a while. Honestly, I’m not sure it’s much better than the recommended Peachtree, and it definitely doesn’t play as nicely with my turntable. Similarly, my turntable is a substantial price upgrade from the recommended U-Turn, but I think I might actually like U-Turn’s house sound more and at some point I may swap that back in.

Remember my basic rules of hifi!

1. You like what you like. The most important factor in judging an audio system is also the simplest: does it sound good, to you, in your space, and listening to the things you want to listen to? Audio nerds spend a lot of time arguing about objectivity and measurements, and that seems silly to me. Do you like the $5 headphones that came with your phone? Sweet! Enjoy! Do you want to spend $25,000 on a set of Macintosh separates? Awesome, please invite me over to listen (and maybe add me to your will?).

2. Used gear is your friend. Audiophiles spend a lot of time chasing the new hotness, and a lot of their gear ends up in the market used. You have to be a bit careful with used gear from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, but a good hifi shop will have tested and potentially worked on gently used gear they’re putting out for sale, and can talk to you about it. Outside of speakers, most of my new-to-me gear has been used.

3. Components interact in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Even high-quality speakers may sound funny when connected to a particular amplifier or source, and it gets infinitely weirder in a separates-based system.

4. No system is the end-all, be-all. Everything can be upgraded. Nothing is forever. Components break, and some of them can’t be easily repaired or replaced. That’s okay. Embrace the change. Half the fun of audio is figuring out what you can swap in for a particular piece of gear and the changes that doing so can bring.

Let’s build some systems!

I got asked the other day by a coworker about how I go about building an audio system, and I realized that while I’ve been working on this for more than a year, that I never actually posted it. So here it is. A tier list is coming soon.

[Caveat 1: go talk to your local hifi shop about the used gear they have available *after* you’ve thought about the basic questions below. I know the knock on stereo stores is that they’re full of arrogant assholes who talk down to anyone who doesn’t share their expertise, but that has genuinely not been my experience. They can help you figure out something in your budget that will play nicely together, they can setup and let you listen to things you’re interested in, and they know the local market. I’ll recommend some shops where I’ve had good experiences at the bottom of this post.

Caveat 2: all of this gets really complicated really quickly and has a lot of nuance. This is a thousand-foot view of my personal attitude towards hi fi systems. Your mileage, as always, may vary.]

My basic rules for audio gear:

1. You like what you like. The most important factor in judging an audio system is also the simplest: does it sound good, to you, in your space, and listening to the things you want to listen to?[i] Audio nerds spend a lot of time arguing about objectivity and measurements, and that seems silly to me. Do you like the $5 headphones that came with your phone? Sweet! Enjoy! Do you want to spend $25,000 on a set of Macintosh separates? Awesome, please invite me over to listen (and maybe add me to your will?).

2. Used gear is your friend. Audiophiles spend a lot of time chasing the new hotness, and a lot of their gear ends up in the market used. You have to be a bit careful with used gear from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, but a good used hifi shop will have tested and potentially worked on gear they’re putting out for sale, and can talk to you about it. Outside of speakers, most of my new-to-me gear has been used.

3. Components interact in unexpected and unpredictable ways. Even high-quality speakers may sound funny when connected to a particular amplifier or source, and it gets infinitely weirder in a separates-based system.

4. No system is the end-all, be-all. Everything can be upgraded. Nothing is forever. Components break, and some of them can’t be easily repaired or replaced. That’s okay. Embrace the change. Half the fun of audio is figuring out what you can swap in for a particular piece of gear and the changes that doing so can bring.

(more…)

I got a new pair of shoes a few weeks ago. They’re Merrell Nova 3 Trail Shoes* and I love them. They’re super comfy and rainbow colored. Last week someone asked me why I, a cis-het white dude, bought rainbow running shoes.

The glib answer is that these happened to be on sale at REI, and I do appreciate a bargain. The slightly-less glib answer is that they’re really, really comfortable. They’re super light and very stable on my feet, and Merrell is one of the few companies that make toe-boxes that fit my weird-ass feet. The soles are also thin enough that I can feel the clutch pedal in my Subaru (I was unaware of how much this matters, but wow does it). REI only had my size in rainbow, so that’s what I ordered. But the real answer? A little more complicated.

I’m a big white dude with mostly white hair (and who is staring down a near future of having to start shaving my head; thanks, Grandpa Ted!). I have a forearm tattoo in a dead Germanic language; mostly wear Duluth Trading Co clothes, trucker hats, and Oakleys with bright red lenses; and I have a resting expression (particularly while thinking) that’s a pretty close approximation of a scowl. I think most people that know me would say that I’m a friendly, engaging, open, and safe person, but a stranger on the street could be forgiven for not assuming that I am. And I think about that a lot as I move through the world. I always have.

One of my goals for the summer is to get out on the trails a lot more. I don’t yet have a fully developed hiking crew, so I’m probably going to spend a lot of that time either alone or just with Denali. And if you’ve spent even a few minutes on social media over the last few months, you’re probably at least tangentially aware of the man vs. bear discourse that’s been everywhere. It has occurred to me that over the next several months, I’m probably going to pretty frequently run into people out in the woods who might not naturally assume that I’m a safe person to be around. Because, let’s face it, lone white men aren’t always particularly safe to be around, particularly for women and members of marginalized communities.

Shoes won’t change that. They can’t. There’s nothing that I can do to prove to any person, let alone a stranger, that they don’t have anything to fear from me.  But if I can do little things here and there that make me potentially less scary? Hell yeah. It feels like the clothing equivalent of crossing the street to avoid following a lone woman too closely at night, or sitting away from doors in rooms to avoid the perception of blocking egress. Minimum viable manhood. It’s not the only thing I’m going to do to try to demonstrate safety, but it’s a start.

But also, they look cool. Between my coral-patterned rain jacket, my pink Ken-core Hawaiian shirt, and these shoes, I’ve gotten more compliments and thumbs up on clothing choices in the last six months than my entire previous life, and that doesn’t suck either.

So happy pride, y’all.  Here’s to building a safer, more inclusive world (and getting out more to enjoy this beautiful place we live).**

_____________________________________________________________

* Full review in a couple of weeks, probably.

** Is this virtue signalling? I really don’t think so. But even if it was? We live in a country where vice-signalling is a huge part of the culture, to the point where I won’t wear a Portland Thorns hat that I love because it’s red, and at a distance makes me look like an asshole. And if you’re going to use your clothing to signal anything, might as well be tolerance and openness rather than bigotry.

[MSRP $500]

                                            
Scores:

Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis

Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis

Intro. About a year ago, the powered studio monitors that live on my computer desk (Kef LSX) started throwing the flashing red ring of death. Kef is notoriously painful to work with on repairs, so in the meantime I wanted something to live on my desk for playing games or listening to music while I work. I’ve generally not been super impressed with most powered monitors I’ve heard in the sub-$1000 range, and I have a bunch of amplifiers sitting around the house, so I decided to give a pair of passive monitors a chance.

After a couple of VERY expensive recommendations ($2,000-3,000) left me feeling a little lost, I decided to go down to my local audio shop, Desco AV. They usually have a pretty good selection of mid-range speakers, and I’ve been very pleased with most of the stuff I’ve tried there. I listened to a couple of different sets of Dalis, and the Spektor 2 stood out despite the slightly higher price tag than I’d intended to spend.

These sit on my computer desk on extruded aluminum stands to the sides of my right/left monitors. For purposes of this review, they’ve primarily been driven by a PS Audio Sprout 100 that I’d been eyeing for a few years and finally bought when they went on pretty good sale last fall. The amp is connected by USB to my Mac Studio. The speakers are connected to the amp by cheap low-gauge speaker wire that came with my Klipsch outdoor speakers. There is an old Energy subwoofer connected to the Sprout, but it’s turned down pretty low and mostly there for movies.

Sound. These sound great. So great, in fact, that I’ve mostly swapped over to listening to them while I work rather than the much more expensive hi-fi setup in my office. Part of that is because the good hifi is off to my left while the Spektors are directly in front of me when I’m working on my computer, but it’s also due in part to just how good these sound.

Treble: The treble on these is bright, crisp, and responsive, without being harsh or sibilant. They can be a little punishing for some kinds of tracks; for example, the horn fanfares on Brasstrack’s “Intro” can splatter a little, but it’s actually just an artifact of the recording rather than the reproduction of the speakers. Vampire Weekend’s “2021” is my go to for testing if speakers or headphones reproduce poorly mastered treble, and I can hear every wart through this system. Ditto Born Gold’s “Lawn Knives.”

It also beautifully reproduces well-mastered treble. Miles Davis’ muted trumpet comes through perfectly on “Will O’ The Wisp”, with clear separation and bright intensity. Interestingly, they’re also really good at silence; when audio drops out they are perfectly and instantly quiet.

Mid-range: The midrange is really excellent as well, crisp and dynamic. The claps on “Paradise Circus” by Massive Attack are clear and separated and not bothered by all of the other things going on in the mix. Both male and female voices are reproduced reasonably faithfully. Jill Scott’s power and control comes through beautifully in “Call” by Robert Glasper, and Arlo Park’s voice effortlessly floats through “Impurities.” Vessel’s introductory vocals on Sleep Token’s “Alkaline” are incredibly crisp and tight, and you can hear every ounce of emotion in Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”

Bass: For stand mounts, the bass here is really impressive. Not quite up to the level of the Kef LS50, but at a third of the price you wouldn’t really expect them to be. Over time, I’ve turned down the subwoofer under the desk pretty dramatically; I mostly want it for the occasional movie track. “Superpredators” by Massive Attack sounds heavy and imposing, just as it should, and they handle the low-end fuzz on Andy Stott’s “Violence” deftly, even when the bass pours on around 2:30. It’s present, without being oppressive. You don’t get quite as much clarity and depth on “Got ‘Til It’s Gone” by Janet Jackson, but I have heard VERY few pairs of speakers (let alone stand mounts) that perfectly reproduce Q-Tips bass line.

Separation: the stereo imaging on these is pretty incredible in the near-field. I’m sitting with the speakers to either side and about eight inches forward of my sitting position, and the phantom center is almost distractingly good. Especially on tracks like “Love Can Damage Your Heath (Laid Mix)” by Telepopmusik and “So Much to Say” by Dave Matthews Band, you can tell exactly where any given instrument is located, and track them as they move in space.

Overall: These are really excellent stand mounts. I briefly ran them with Schitt’s Rekkr desktop speaker amp and they were fine, but they definitely seem to benefit from a well-powered amp like the Sprout. At some point I’m going to swap them with the LS50s in my main system to see how they pair with my Devialet Expert 140 Pro, a much higher-end, well-powered amp, but it’s hard to want to pull them out of this system even temporarily.

Construction. These are built into a nicely-made faux wood grain cabinets with two drivers (a 1” high frequency and a 5.25” low frequency) and a nice, removable transparent foam cover. For stand mounts they’re relatively small (11.5” x 6.7” x 9.35”) and fit nicely on my desk without feeling particularly intrusive. They’re a little too wide to be used as a headphone stand, but they’ll do in a pinch. They have solid five-way binding posts on the back, easily adjusted and accessed, and a small rear-firing port.

Appearance. I think they look good for what they are. Are they ground-breaking? Nah. They look like the Boston Acoustics I bought as my first speakers in 2003. But fine and not super distracting.

Comparisons. I don’t have anything particularly comparable that would be fair to measure against. They’re not nearly as good as the Kef LS50 that sit in my main system, but they’re in an entirely different price category. They also clearly outstrip the Pioneer Andrew Jones SP-B22-LR stand mounts I used to use for ATMOS, and it’s been too long since I listened regularly to my Boston Acoustics CR32s. The only other bookshelf speakers I regularly use are exterior speakers in my bathroom and on my deck, and these are far and away better.

Maybe the fairest comparison is to the Kef LSX they replaced, with the total cost of the Spektor 2 and Sprout 100 pretty comparable to the LSX. I had the LSX on my desk for … four years? And I rarely used them for anything other than playing video games or watching videos on my computers. By comparison, I’ve had the Spektor 2s running most of the time that I’ve been in my office for the last six months, which tells me that I prefer these by a wide margin. I’ll be curious to do some A-B testing when I get the LSX back from being serviced.

Value. $500 isn’t cheap for a stand mount speaker, but these are serious, audiophile-grade and -focused speakers and by that measure they’re relatively inexpensive. At least in my limited testing they seem to benefit from a properly powerful amp, so you’ll need to take that into account if you want to give them a shot. I’ll be curious over the next few months to try running them from a couple of other of my amps to see how they perform.

Overall. I love these speakers. They’re perfect for my near-field use case, and they sound far larger than they are. I probably wouldn’t use them as my primary audio system in a large room, but in the near-field or for a small room they’re pretty excellent. I really have no complaints about them, especially for their category.

#reviews #speakers #dali #spektor2 #psaudio #near-field #computeraudio #Kef #lsx #2024