My Swan M200 speakers sound like crap :(

[yhelothar]

Just brought my U2 Joshua Tree CD to my neighbor's $15k setup. I felt like I was at a live concert. The soundstage was soo present. Then when I went home and listened to it again on my Swan M200s, it felt like I was listening to elevator music on a telephone 🙁.

He just got a new sonic frontiers II tube pre-amp to go with his two boulder monoamps(one for each speaker), and his $1500 sony SACD player. All connected with $800 silver cables :Q

Pic of my setup
Sorry no pics of his setup..

 

[TitanDiddly]

Fixed link

 

[FrustratedUser]

No kidding! $15k sounds better than $179? 😉

 

[cerebusPu]

i hurt my neck trying to look at your pic.,

$800 cables..geez

 

[thawolfman]

But atleast you have half a boob on your desktop~ 😉

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I don't care what you say, tube amps and uber-expensive cables are gimmicks to sucker people that have too much money into thinking they're better than everyone else.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Exactly.

The first $1,000 or so you spend on speakers makes a huge difference, after that diminishing returns set in very fast. With receivers, even before that unless your speakers are inefficient need the extra clean power. Expensive speaker wire offers zero improvement as long as you use the proper gage for your speaker impedence and cable length.

I'll probably spend about $3K total on speakers and a receiver when I get around to buying a house, anything above that is 99.9% placebo effect.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Um, while I'm sure it did sound better, I think that the source would have to be much better than a CD for it to really show much of a difference.

I wonder if there'll be Blu-Ray audio discs? Of course it would probably go well beyond the diminishing return area.

 

[raptor13]

You know, having your speakers at the same height is a good thing but doing it by setting one on top of a plastic CD spindle case isn't really the ideal solution. Your speakers could sound much, much better with better placement. Of course, your neighbor's setup will still rape yours but, well, you have to move in steps. 😉

You probably knew that but it's still a valid point.

 

[nsafreak]

$800 in silver cabling? God talk about overkill. I bet I could hook his speakers up via proper gauge oxygen free copper cable and he wouldn't be able to tell the difference as long as it was a blind test.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: nsafreak
$800 in silver cabling? God talk about overkill. I bet I could hook his speakers up via proper gauge oxygen free copper cable and he wouldn't be able to tell the difference as long as it was a blind test.

I don't doubt that, especially when his hearing is subpar. Heh he showed me the foam lined wooden case it came in. A pair of RCA cables.
It still sounds unbelievably nice though 🙂

Um, while I'm sure it did sound better, I think that the source would have to be much better than a CD for it to really show much of a difference.

I wonder if there'll be Blu-Ray audio discs? Of course it would probably go well beyond the diminishing return area.

You'd be surprised. CDs are very high quality, and definitely won't hold back speakers in the $10k range.
He showed me a few SACDs though, I couldn't really hear a difference in quality.

I'll probably spend about $3K total on speakers and a receiver when I get around to buying a house, anything above that is 99.9% placebo effect.

Please show me what $3k setup could give you a clean transparent sound.
An amp itself costs $1.5k :roll:, not to mention the speakers, preamp, cdplayer, and accessories.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Just brought my U2 Joshua Tree CD to my neighbor's $15k setup. I felt like I was at a live concert. The soundstage was soo present. Then when I went home and listened to it again on my Swan M200s, it felt like I was listening to elevator music on a telephone 🙁.

He just got a new sonic frontiers II tube pre-amp to go with his two boulder monoamps(one for each speaker), and his $1500 sony SACD player. All connected with $800 silver cables :Q

Pic of my setup
Sorry no pics of his setup..

Why not convert it to MP3? Should sound the same as your neighbours setup then....

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Just brought my U2 Joshua Tree CD to my neighbor's $15k setup. I felt like I was at a live concert. The soundstage was soo present. Then when I went home and listened to it again on my Swan M200s, it felt like I was listening to elevator music on a telephone 🙁.

He just got a new sonic frontiers II tube pre-amp to go with his two boulder monoamps(one for each speaker), and his $1500 sony SACD player. All connected with $800 silver cables :Q

Pic of my setup
Sorry no pics of his setup..

Why not convert it to MP3? Should sound the same as your neighbours setup then....

Conga line behind me is politely asked to aid me in forming a giant "?"

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
I don't care what you say, tube amps and uber-expensive cables are gimmicks to sucker people that have too much money into thinking they're better than everyone else.

Tube amps aren't really gimmicks. They are not better than normal amps though - they are different, usually warmer - perhaps too warm sounding.

800$ cables for 15K$ system is a gimmick. 800$ cables for 75k$ system is more like it cause at this level, the equipment can make use of the better interconnects.

 

[Analog]

Most of it is the speakers. Amp / Cables, well - he's not using a cheap integrated setup.

 

[fs5]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Tube amps aren't really gimmicks. They are not better than normal amps though - they are different, usually warmer - perhaps too warm sounding.

800$ cables for 15K$ system is a gimmick. 800$ cables for 75k$ system is more like it cause at this level, the equipment can make use of the better interconnects.

exactly..

althought the $800 cables probably have a mark up of 75%.

 

[Red Dawn]

I like music but not enough to spend 15K on a stereo. 5K would be really pushing it for me.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Just brought my U2 Joshua Tree CD to my neighbor's $15k setup. I felt like I was at a live concert. The soundstage was soo present. Then when I went home and listened to it again on my Swan M200s, it felt like I was listening to elevator music on a telephone 🙁.

He just got a new sonic frontiers II tube pre-amp to go with his two boulder monoamps(one for each speaker), and his $1500 sony SACD player. All connected with $800 silver cables :Q

Pic of my setup
Sorry no pics of his setup..

Why not convert it to MP3? Should sound the same as your neighbours setup then....

Conga line behind me is politely asked to aid me in forming a giant "?"

Surely you remember the "128kbit MP3s sound the same as Audio CDs! There's no difference" thread?

 

[Xionide]

Dude put your computer on the ground in that gap.

 

[Xionide]

I HAVE THAT SAME SONY PHONE!!

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Just brought my U2 Joshua Tree CD to my neighbor's $15k setup. I felt like I was at a live concert. The soundstage was soo present. Then when I went home and listened to it again on my Swan M200s, it felt like I was listening to elevator music on a telephone 🙁.

He just got a new sonic frontiers II tube pre-amp to go with his two boulder monoamps(one for each speaker), and his $1500 sony SACD player. All connected with $800 silver cables :Q

Pic of my setup
Sorry no pics of his setup..

Why not convert it to MP3? Should sound the same as your neighbours setup then....

Conga line behind me is politely asked to aid me in forming a giant "?"

Surely you remember the "128kbit MP3s sound the same as Audio CDs! There's no difference" thread?

Yep I can't hear the difference.. I guess all those years in band made sounds above 17KHz inaudible for me. And from the last poll I made, over half the people here can't hear a difference either.
The CD was actually 192kbps mp3's converted to a CD.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Yep I can't hear the difference.. I guess all those years in band made sounds above 17KHz inaudible for me. And from the last poll I made, over half the people here can't hear a difference either.
The CD was actually 192kbps mp3's converted to a CD.

Oh. My. God....

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Yep I can't hear the difference.. I guess all those years in band made sounds above 17KHz inaudible for me. And from the last poll I made, over half the people here can't hear a difference either.
The CD was actually 192kbps mp3's converted to a CD.

Oh. My. God....

😕

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Just brought my U2 Joshua Tree CD to my neighbor's $15k setup. I felt like I was at a live concert. The soundstage was soo present. Then when I went home and listened to it again on my Swan M200s, it felt like I was listening to elevator music on a telephone 🙁.

He just got a new sonic frontiers II tube pre-amp to go with his two boulder monoamps(one for each speaker), and his $1500 sony SACD player. All connected with $800 silver cables :Q

Pic of my setup
Sorry no pics of his setup..

Why not convert it to MP3? Should sound the same as your neighbours setup then....

Conga line behind me is politely asked to aid me in forming a giant "?"

Surely you remember the "128kbit MP3s sound the same as Audio CDs! There's no difference" thread?

Yep I can't hear the difference.. I guess all those years in band made sounds above 17KHz inaudible for me. And from the last poll I made, over half the people here can't hear a difference either.
The CD was actually 192kbps mp3's converted to a CD.

All those years in orchestra had the opposite effect on me....😉

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0

Originally posted by: Dopefiend

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Yep I can't hear the difference.. I guess all those years in band made sounds above 17KHz inaudible for me. And from the last poll I made, over half the people here can't hear a difference either.
The CD was actually 192kbps mp3's converted to a CD.

Oh. My. God....

😕

you just pwned yourself.