Home Audio System

LaRea

Sirius is okay for sports or talk shows, but I'm picky about music.  Sirius has too much volume compression, WAY too much phase distortion, and not enough bass or treble.  

The best thing about Pandora is personalized music stations.  If Pandora plays a song you don't like, and you click the thumbs-down button, that station will never play that song again.  Over time, you can build up stations that are tailored to your exact preferences.  (Or you can just choose a station and let it play.)

But I digress!  

Handy, it's 2021.  Ditch the CD player and rip all of your CDs onto a computer.  Sync them onto your phone, and play them using a Bluetooth connection to your receiver.  That way, you can also play them on the boat land yacht.

raybo3

I have Sirius XM in my car and it sounds better than any FM station I get. On a scale of 1-10 I give Sirius an 8.5 for music content........ Just say'n

Handymans342

LaRea said:

Sirius is okay for sports or talk shows, but I'm picky about music.  Sirius has too much volume compression, WAY too much phase distortion, and not enough bass or treble.  

The best thing about Pandora is personalized music stations.  If Pandora plays a song you don't like, and you click the thumbs-down button, that station will never play that song again.  Over time, you can build up stations that are tailored to your exact preferences.  (Or you can just choose a station and let it play.)

But I digress!  

Handy, it's 2021.  Ditch the CD player and rip all of your CDs onto a computer.  Sync them onto your phone, and play them using a Bluetooth connection to your receiver.  That way, you can also play them on the boat land yacht.

Dude, I have more CDs than you have Audis. Lol

MarkB

Handymans342 said:

I want to be in the front row of the Van Halen concert when Eddie plays Eruption

Can you get KEF speakers?  By FAR best value for money and quality is outstanding ... coupled with a Yamaha amp ... you will poop your underwear.

LaRea

raybo3 said:

I have Sirius XM in my car and it sounds better than any FM station I get. On a scale of 1-10 I give Sirius an 8.5 for music content........ Just say'n

Sounds better than FM ... that's like saying I'm more handsome than Shrek.  (which is questionable)

Handy, how big or small do you want the speakers to be?  Do you have floor space for a pair of big towers as main speakers?  Or do you need a sub-satellite system with a smaller footprint?

What's the room shaped like?  For the primary TV seating, is there any space behind the seating, or does it back up to a wall?  

Handymans342

@LaRea. Look above at picture I posted. Room is about 
14x20. I have about 350 CDs that I want to put on a thumb drive or three. I don’t have the time to sit in front of my computer to do this. The seats will back up to a wall opposite the TV but there is room in the corners for the speakers. I can run the wires in the basement ceiling. Deck speakers will have to be blue tooth I guess

LaRea

Search google for <CD ripping service>.  The cost to rip 350 CDs to a thumb drive would be around $300.  

davidbrooks

LaRea said:

Sirius is okay for sports or talk shows, but I'm picky about music.  Sirius has too much volume compression, WAY too much phase distortion, and not enough bass or treble.  

The best thing about Pandora is personalized music stations.  If Pandora plays a song you don't like, and you click the thumbs-down button, that station will never play that song again.  Over time, you can build up stations that are tailored to your exact preferences.  (Or you can just choose a station and let it play.)

But I digress!  

Handy, it's 2021.  Ditch the CD player and rip all of your CDs onto a computer.  Sync them onto your phone, and play them using a Bluetooth connection to your receiver.  That way, you can also play them on the boat land yacht.

I think this is the first time LaRea has posted something that i completely disagreed with.  Well partially disagreed with.  Ripping CD's is a waste of time and money.  I have a hard drive of over 13000 mp3's and haven't touched them in 10 yrs.  I pay $5 a month for a Spotify acct and have every song and album at my fingertips.  No longer maintaining songs, filling in the album, Artist or artwork.  Just make a playlist and go.  Connect my phone via bluetooth and i am the DJ.  Most smart TV's can connect an play Spotify as well or Pandora.  If not.  Bluetooth and my phone.

LaRea

No, we're on pretty much the same page!

When I do a serious listening night on the Linns, I play CDs from the Linn CD player (which is amazing).  When I don't have connectivity, or I want to hear an album start-to-finish, I use the ripped collection on the phone.  So the CDs do have place in my music life.  

But 95% of my listening is done on streaming services -- mostly Pandora, but they are all great.  I stopped buying CDs a decade ago.  SO MUCH great music has come out since then!

Handymans342

Thanks David

Cableguy Greg

Handymans342 said:

My Dad used KLH speakers. Sounded pretty good when the Jackson 5 played

My father had Large Advent’s with a Fundamental Research sub when I was growing up. He had a Tandburg receiver with an AudioPulse digital time delay, pre surround sound. Henry Kloss, the K in KLH, designed and produced the Advents after he left KLH. 

I have a Sony ES5100 receiver with custom built speakers and sub. The surrounds are Polk in ceiling speakers. Unfortunately the system isn’t up and running yet in the new place. Too busy pulling out knob and tube wiring. 

Ian

Sirius is great if you want to hear the same thing on the way home you heard in the morning headed to work....

raybo3

Does anybody really listen to 1 station if you have Sirius? That is what they make preset buttons for...lol 

LaRea

Last comment about Sirius vs. Pandora, then I'm done! It's about discovering new music.

A few months ago on Pandora, I set up a jazz station based on the Brubeck Brothers Quartet.  One day, the station played a smokin' hot song by a Japanese artist I had never heard of (Makoto Ozone).  So I created a new station for Makoto Ozone.  That station has helped me discover even more great jazz musicians. 

I would never have heard any of those artists on Sirius, because Sirius only has three jazz channels and they are lame.  C'mon ... only three channels to cover the entire huge universe of jazz music?  

Bottom line:  In addition to poor audio quality, Sirius has limited content, no song skipping and no customization, so I fired them.  

MarkB

LaRea said:

Search google for <CD ripping service>.  The cost to rip 350 CDs to a thumb drive would be around $300.  

How many months of spotify does that pay for?  You can get any music on spotify.

MarkB

If you have a CD rom on your computer, you can just copy the files to a USB directly, and most sound systems can read that format.

Lake_Bum

I've used pretty much every music method out there, and by FAR.....Spotify is the way to go.  Probably 99% of music is available on it, and you can customize your own playlists, share playlists between friends, and if you have Facebook, you can choose the "follow" feature, and share music amongst all of your friend list.  I have over 1200 cd's in my garage, that haven't been collecting dust for years.   I did the whole rip em to a drive game, what a pain!   Spotify for the win! 

RiverRat232

I still enjoy my old school system. Sony amp powering two Bose 701s and two Bose 301s. I would like to change out my amp to one that uses Bluetooth. 

Handymans342

@Lake_Bum so how do I get spotify to play in my truck? Bluetooth from Phone?

RiverRat232

Lake_Bum said:

I've used pretty much every music method out there, and by FAR.....Spotify is the way to go.  Probably 99% of music is available on it, and you can customize your own playlists, share playlists between friends, and if you have Facebook, you can choose the "follow" feature, and share music amongst all of your friend list.  I have over 1200 cd's in my garage, that haven't been collecting dust for years.   I did the whole rip em to a drive game, what a pain!   Spotify for the win! 

I am trying Amazon Music right now. Very high quality sound and I have yet to not find a song I wanted to hear.

69fastback

There are lots of good options out there now. I use a Marantz reciever, which you can’t go wrong with. 

I use these for the rears, which I highly recommend. Fantastic sound out of these. 

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_714C3800C2/Klipsch-CDT-3800-C-II.html?awcp=&awcr=309979060963&awdv=m&awkw=cdt+3800+c&awmt=p&awnw=g&awug=9026823&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxqGH87eY8AIV9Al9Ch2Z5AEyEAAYAiAAEgLSSPD_BwE

I know you said no sound at, but for a clean installation, this also has a fantastic sound. It’s a passive sound bar and much better than a powered one. Good stuff. 

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-NVDpppawMtB/p_714G42B/Klipsch-Gallery-G-42-Soundbar.html

I’m a huge fan of SVS subs. I run this one, you it’s theater quality and will produce sounds you didn’t know existed for movies. It sounds good for music, but it shines in a home theater. 

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-wKoIoUIs019/p_946PB2KPBA/SVS-PB-2000-Pro-Black-Ash.html?XVINQ=GW3&XVVer=6X6&awcp=&awcr=406803248377&awdv=m&awkw=%2Bsvs%20%2Bpb2000%20%2Bpro&awmt=b&awnw=g&awug=9026823&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsISR3LiY8AIVQyGtBh0-RgIoEAAYAiAAEgIOdfD_BwE




I’d steer clear of Bose, personally. All highs, all lows, must be Bose. They seriously lack the mid range for a quality experience IMO....

oscar1

I always own Onkyo receiver with klipsch speakers plus oppo blu ray (expensive but movie play like a theatre ) 

davidbrooks

@Handymans342 yes to spotufy in the truck. Bluetooth from cell to truck stereo.

Lake_Bum

Handymans342 said:

@Lake_Bum so how do I get spotify to play in my truck? Bluetooth from Phone?

You can do either Bluetooth, or plug into the aux jack.  I use both options, depending on the vehicle I'm driving.  You can also download music onto your phone, and play it when in airplane mode, or out of cell service.  Where I go on Lake Powell, has very limited service, so I have all my pre-made playlists downloaded.  Works out great...

Aqua_Aura

If you get a newer head unit in the vehicle you can use Android Auto or Apple Carplay which makes your stereo have all the controls of your phone basically. We use it in all out vehicles and it makes it really convenient for navigation and listening to podcasts or music. 

Handymans342

Aqua_Aura said:

If you get a newer head unit in the vehicle you can use Android Auto or Apple Carplay which makes your stereo have all the controls of your phone basically. We use it in all out vehicles and it makes it really convenient for navigation and listening to podcasts or music. 

I have a fairly new truck so I'm sure it has what I need except a CD player!!!

Ian

raybo3 said:

Does anybody really listen to 1 station if you have Sirius? That is what they make preset buttons for...lol 

True but each music based station seems to do the same thing.

Willhound

I dropped Sirius years ago for that exact reason. Whatever you heard Tuesday morning you'd hear Tuesday night...and Wednesday...and Thursday etc. etc, and repeat a month later.
I tried Google Play for a few years but an annoying thing with them was no volume level compensation from song to song, so volume was always all over the place. Then I found I was buying a lot of stuff from Amazon so took a Prime membership for the free shipping option and also justified it by using the Amazon Prime video and Amazon Music option. I've been happy with Amazon Music for a year or so, but now I find they are getting pushier and pushier about their "Premium" option, to the point that a lot of songs and artists are only available if I cough up the extra bucks for the enhanced membership. So if I'm going to do that, I'll look at other options like Spotify. I've played with Spotify and would say don't even waste your time with the "free" version. Forces you to listen to ads to keep playing, can only skip so many songs an hour, limited play lists etc. It pi$$ed me off so bad that I deleted the app and went back to Amazon for now.
 
Which ever way you go they're all around $9 a month in the U.S. so the way I look at it, about the price of a single CD...(Does anyone even buy them any more?)

Handymans342

What about Apple Music?

LaRea

The way Apple Music works is you play an album, or you choose from "curated" playlists that Apple created to promote specific artists.  It's a music playback service, where Pandora is a music discovery service.  

Pandora works like this:  you pick an artist, say Metallica.  The Pandora software selects music based on "if you like Metallica, you'll probably like these songs."  So it will have Metallica, plus other bands you know, plus bands you might not know.  

You can modify the station so that it plays only Metallica, or only crowd favorites, or only obscure songs, and so forth.  And the station learns about your tastes as you use the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons.