Offtopic - Music gear

[Zwill]

I have no illusions that man pingpang-golfers have an acute sensory repertoire, be it visual or acoustical. ( Meaning I have no fcking clue why players are so skilled, be it eyes, brain power, muscle type, bones structure, in many cases it's hard to tell, OK?)

I know of my self that I rely on my senses, be it visual or soundwave or hand feel.

I love music a lot and I want to enjoy music at best possible quality. OFC best possible quality is to listen to it live. There's no FLAC or whatever format, or Senny, Audiotechnica or whatever condenser MIC that will capture all the live detail. Forget it. There's no engineer or AI or any wizardry that will give back live details, forget it.
(I do appreciate sounds engineers who try to restore old spinnig disks or tapes to FLAC quality. It's an art, and I have a lot of respect.

But I wonder what most people are looking for. ------I myself am a fairly reasonable and science-oriented guy who has perfect vision and pretty fckng good hearing too. I'm no Batman, but I can make a difference between 256kb AAC and FLAC confidently with good gear.

Anyway, I really do love science and I believe the best tech speakers are planar speakers. Be it actual bookshelfs or earphones. They are just so fast I don't see how dynamic speakers can compete. For my earphones I use 7hz Timeless planat IEM for a few years and I yet to find anything that is better. It's a Chinese IEM that tuned sounds to my liking for about 200USD and since then I can't find better. Planars scale so well.

Until now I used as DAC an Apple USB-C to 3.5mm dongle which I think has a standard 16bit 42khz Cirrus Logic DAC and some AMP that is not too bad. For 10USD I think this is the best DAC one can get and I really do despise Apple a lot.

Recently I bought on taobao a DAC-AMP which has double CS43198 chips form Cirrus and damn that is just amzing and the brand of the DAC-AMP is insignificant, called Keysion and besides 3.5mm jack they have 4.4 balanced and it transformed my 7hz planar form being amazing good ot fucking musical. Music doesn't sound accurate, it sounds musical too. Musical as in playful and smooth and more enjoyable too.

At home for my desk setup I have a Nakamichi Stasis PA-5E AB class amp which is beautiful in every way and doubt there's much better out ther to today. My speakers are Teac LS265 which are 2 way 5inch bookshelfes. They really sound so nice... but are they as nice as coaxial KEFs? I think not, but with good placement pretty fcking close.

For wireless, I have Soundcore Liberty 4NC which are also quite good for all their limitations.

I am really curious what people use and like, especially the underrated and undervalued stuff.

 

[Tyce]

Not that deep in the rabbit hole, but I keep finding myself lately thinking that the quality I used to have 20 years ago was much better than anything I have now. Better earbuds (on a discman) better car audio, even my old stereo had much better depth, details, balance despite being a mini tower thingy.

 

[Zwill]

Not that deep in the rabbit hole, but I keep finding myself lately thinking that the quality I used to have 20 years ago was much better than anything I have now. Better earbuds (on a discman) better car audio, even my old stereo had much better depth, details, balance despite being a mini tower thingy.

No joke... My Nakamichi amp is from 80s, 40+ years old. I dare any brand to release better in mass production. (they can, but the price will be hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

 

[Lazer]

I’m quite happy with my Gibson 63 customer shop SG special reissue and my 61 original (almost) brownface deluxe…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Yuomay]

Ah yes I’m still quite happy with my Sandberg VM 2007 4-string bass. Probably one of two pastime activities I do better than table tennis

 

[Zwill]

I forgot about instruments, but good call. I have an Ibanez Jem 777 desert yellow with the pyramid markers on the fret.

 

[thisisit]

once you hear a DML setup with a cuttoff at ~80Hz + a decent woofer. it's hard to like anything else.

 

[ajtatosmano2]

I don't have expensive gear and can't tell the difference between FLAC and 320kbps mp3 (can however between 256 and 320).
For me the biggest game changer was to use a fairly detailed eq on every platform...music player app, PC...fine tuning my cheap equipment elevated experience tenfold.

 

[Double_Trouble]

I’m quite happy with my Gibson 63 customer shop SG special reissue and my 61 original (almost) brownface deluxe…

Cheers
L-zr

That is a great combo mate. Brownface has that „something“.
Went down that route many decades ago, many guitars and amps came and left, now have a decent collection that work for me and my taste. Certainly my skills on the guitar are light years better than my table tennis skills.
If I would have to stay with one guitar and one amp, it would be Landau CS 68 Strat and Two Rock. Can do pretty much anything I need with that. And yes OP, I have ears to distinguish good sound from the bad, as subjective as that may be.

 

[Lazer]

That is a great combo mate. Brownface has that „something“.
Went down that route many decades ago, many guitars and amps came and left, now have a decent collection that work for me and my taste. Certainly my skills on the guitar are light years better than my table tennis skills.
If I would have to stay with one guitar and one amp, it would be Landau CS 68 Strat and Two Rock. Can do pretty much anything I need with that. And yes OP, I have ears to distinguish good sound from the bad, as subjective as that may be.

I definitely would stay with an SG, very light weight and a great sound. Just got my second SG.
I managed to get ahold of one of the last Gibson SG tributes in the country... Perfect no bindings, dot inlays and the unnecessary plastics gone... Replaced the electronics with 2 Lundgren heaven 57 and a 50´s circuit. This is now my workhorse.

As for amps, I just have too many, the brownface deluxe is a little quirky it has a mind of its own and the grounding makes me a bit uneasy cause I get occasional electric shocks, but when we are in the mode its unbeatable... Its a toss up between the brownface and my Hughes & Kettner edition tube 20. This one is more in Blackface territory but a bit tighter, probably due to a closed box. I also have a 1972 Marshal JMP 100 super lead, unfortunately not an original cab... This never gets any use, its just too loud... Then I have a bunch of 5 watters too.
One I really like is WHT 5 watt head. It was dirt cheap something like 200 euros and it has a "movable ceiling". This means you can get overdriven output with low volume.

Something I recommend if You don't know about it is Tonex One. Its a pedal with a built in amp modeller that You can upload tons of models too. It has models for just about anything. Pedals, complete amps with or without cabs you name it. Check it out... its was a low volume gamechanger for me....

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Double_Trouble]

I definitely would stay with an SG, very light weight and a great sound. Just got my second SG.
I managed to get ahold of one of the last Gibson SG tributes in the country... Perfect no bindings, dot inlays and the unnecessary plastics gone... Replaced the electronics with 2 Lundgren heaven 57 and a 50´s circuit. This is now my workhorse.

As for amps, I just have too many, the brownface deluxe is a little quirky it has a mind of its own and the grounding makes me a bit uneasy cause I get occasional electric shocks, but when we are in the mode its unbeatable... Its a toss up between the brownface and my Hughes & Kettner edition tube 20. This one is more in Blackface territory but a bit tighter, probably due to a closed box. I also have a 1972 Marshal JMP 100 super lead, unfortunately not an original cab... This never gets any use, its just too loud... Then I have a bunch of 5 watters too.
One I really like is WHT 5 watt head. It was dirt cheap something like 200 euros and it has a "movable ceiling". This means you can get overdriven output with low volume.

Something I recommend if You don't know about it is Tonex One. Its a pedal with a built in amp modeller that You can upload tons of models too. It has models for just about anything. Pedals, complete amps with or without cabs you name it. Check it out... its was a low volume gamechanger for me....

Cheers
L-zr

57's are great pair for an SG. Even LP sounds killer with 57.
I always favored LP until I realized my favorite Gibby is ES335.
Brownface probably just need some quick love from someone that can check and if needed fix the internals.
Yep, old 100w and 4x12 are these days way too much. Sold everything above 40w.
Have Marshall SC20, JTM45 and Two Rock for those rare occasions when venue allows.
The only amp I am still occasionally tempted to buy is Super Reverb. But I do not want to lug that around so...
Otherwise, mostly Helix with FRFR and to the PA. Ampero 2 as a backup (in some ways like it more than Line 6).
I have Tonex and sound is aces but just not a fan of the software and need to be able to adjust better on the fly. For that I am used to L6 and Hotone.
However, Fractal AM4 looks like a decent toy, I need to try it.

 

[Lazer]

I have Tonex and sound is aces but just not a fan of the software and need to be able to adjust better on the fly. For that I am used to L6 and Hotone.
However, Fractal AM4 looks like a decent toy, I need to try it.

I know, its a pain to hook up the PC and change module and settings, but after that's done its a breeze.
I have more problems with my Mooer GL100 looper (its Chinese and buggy as hell)

One thing I don't like is that with some models you loose o lot of guitar tone control, but I can live with that as long as I have fast access to a good tone with just a pedal board and a small and light transportable amp.
My to go domestic setup:
(Pedal board a small electronics case (in brackets))

Guitar-> [MXR analogue chorus -> MXR phase 90 ->Tonex One -> MXR carbon copy -> Mooer GL100 ] -> VOX 4Watt analogue mini amp

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Double_Trouble]

I know, its a pain to hook up the PC and change module and settings, but after that's done its a breeze.
I have more problems with my Mooer GL100 looper (its Chinese and buggy as hell)

One thing I don't like is that with some models you loose o lot of guitar tone control, but I can live with that as long as I have fast access to a good tone with just a pedal board and a small and light transportable amp.
My to go domestic setup:
(Pedal board a small electronics case (in brackets))

Guitar-> [MXR analogue chorus -> MXR phase 90 ->Tonex One -> MXR carbon copy -> Mooer GL100 ] -> VOX 4Watt analogue mini amp

Cheers
L-zr

Yep, small pedalboard and low wattage amp happy days. But it seems everything is too loud for venues these days and we have to live with mfx to the front of the house.
Ut to tell You the truth after so many years I realized almost noone cares, people just want to have fun, and tonex, neural, l6 and Squire/Epiphone etc. are good enough. if you tell people how much that SG or some custom shop cost, they would not understand why… even younger guitar players. Sea of T style guitars with young folks these days (guess T looks cool to them since it does not look like stereotypical guitar slinger arsenal which is of course false) and some Orange transistor amp or mfx. But hey as long as they can be creative and express something all good in my book.
Chasing tone is now for us older farts, I guess.
Cheers.

 

[Lazer]

Yep, small pedalboard and low wattage amp happy days. But it seems everything is too loud for venues these days and we have to live with mfx to the front of the house.
Ut to tell You the truth after so many years I realized almost noone cares, people just want to have fun, and tonex, neural, l6 and Squire/Epiphone etc. are good enough. if you tell people how much that SG or some custom shop cost, they would not understand why… even younger guitar players. Sea of T style guitars with young folks these days (guess T looks cool to them since it does not look like stereotypical guitar slinger arsenal which is of course false) and some Orange transistor amp or mfx. But hey as long as they can be creative and express something all good in my book.
Chasing tone is now for us older farts, I guess.
Cheers.

Yep, I’m happiest with a 5w valve amp. That’s loud enough for most private parties and it can be miked if not. And when I play at home I use my Tonex one and a transistor amp turned up to 1.
Who needs to go to 11

Cheers
L-zr