My Insane DIY HiFi Audiophile Setup 

Thanks!! We’re a bunch of weirdos and most audiophiles are morons but yolo amirite?

@@snazzy That's right, baby!

@@snazzy I'm the reverse: I like HiFi audio, but I am not into audiophile culture, due to many of the reasons you mentioned in this video

@@snazzy DIY audiophile for the win!!!

@@snazzy but what are you listen too?

TIK TOK FUN What DAC u use? old Diskman, Russian tech science!

TIK TOK FUN that’s cute but I just look a loan on a pure gold cable from space. It was only 1.2 million but a fair price to pay for better sound quality off my $100 Fluance speakers. Wife took the kids but hey, at least I have the cable coming in from a Prince in Nigeria.

TIK TOK FUN 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽Bravo, for your first step in joining our community. I must say I admire your zeal. I currently use the same to wrap my Vibranium cableage & as foil to have my ear Butler clean my ears before listening to each track. Should you ever have a need for contact information, I’d be most pleased to have your assistant call my personal assistant’s assistant’s assistant for contact information to the vegan mineral mine I bought for the red LED on the rear of the case signifying the power is off.

@@paulthomas5860 LOL, I must hire an ear butler too, I always forget to clean my ear wax before listening to my cds made from gold, remember to use gold cd, because it is never decay.

TIK TOK FUN Lol!! You do get the originality award for the pure Siberian wind power though...nicely done.

😉

That put a smile on my face, for sure :)

It's the hippest name drop ever ;-)

You have to tell people you use it. I am sure its part of the license agreement to use pacman :-p

I was shocked

Dankpods has some good guides of getting good audio for cheap. If you want nice headphones on a budget try the grado sr60e headphones.

Just get a headphone amp.

Honestly tho... I love playing chip tunes through my rigs. Do you need a HiFi setup to enjoy 8-bit tracks (or any music)? Of course not. Does it sound better, even with 8-bit? You bet.

@@asplmn being weird is what being an audio nerd is all about.

If you have a setup like this, you're not listening to 8 bit music though.

Not to mention the listening position. Corner booming. Stereoless image.

Not to mention studio monitors>any hi-fi speakers

I was thinking the same thing, but then again he made his speakers and thinks they are great with two subs to boot.

Exactly my thought.. Big window right in between the speakers? Does he care at all? Made me skeptical for the rest of the video

I noticed the absence of room-treatments too ... right after I noticed that his chair was in the freaking corner. :P

Make friends with an audio retailer and buy b-stock with cosmetic defects. Nice!

@@snazzy ah, touché!

With dealer-distributed gear, you should never be paying the "normal" price, which is inflated so salespeople can "cut you a deal"

Snazzy Labs true, always make buddies with your gear guy:)

The one lie you tell to your wife! LMAO

Hey, the ramones sound better on my hifi than on most other hifi's, so it still works!

I listen to lofi hip-hop and chillhop on my HiFi setup, it sounds way better than any Homepod or Bluetooth speaker or ear bud.

cashnmillions no. It doesn’t. If your setup is good, lofi and badly engineered songs sound double shit. So either your setup isn’t good or your ears are shot anyway.

LMAOOO

@@user-jt6xh2ln9z That's why med fi speakers a muffly. They handle the shit recording better if they are muffly.

Plenty of people can't appreciate good audio, or at least that's my understanding of the people who prefer to spend more on a Crosley than a cheaper, used TT with decent cart and stylus. Oh, and they then need to get a new one one their total POS TT dies and proves unrepairable (well, usually not unrepairable, but it costs more to repair than to buy another Crosley, since techs actually charge real money for their services)

Def Hi-Fi on a budget.. would love to see that.

The Soekris r-2r dacs are some of the best standalone DIY options there is. The DIYAudio forum is also a great start for anyone wanting that $20k sound for

He should do a video on actually telling the truth.

@@carlosoliveira-rc2xt you okay there Carlos?

And the power cords on the headphone amps. TBF he probably figured it out along the way. I used to swear that vinyl was more accurate than digital, an opinion that is objectively false.

BINGO!

@@TheJPhutchins You confuse songs and records. Some people chose the format, the support for the audio and work on it. Or chose to not care. Whatever, but you tell you know better how it has to sound lol. Are you fascist ? Objectively true/false means nothing btw. You are totally a fascist of sound.

@@jeandubois2754 A fascist of sound lol. Wow, someone having a bad day?

@@mikeclark7429 That s just sound reproduction. So yes, sound fascism.

Indeed... My HiFi set up would be $15K+ at retail prices when they were new...I spent just under $2K and that included shipping of an amp that I also had recapped (Adcom GFA 5500 for $100 plus $100 shipping and about $160 to have recapped, but still a huge bargain for what it is) Aside form speakers, my most expensive component is a phono preamp that I got for 25% of retail price though an industry friend. I never pay full price for anything. Never. And that includes things outside of HiFi as well.

OK, so say youre a manufacturer with dealers. As you say the ever demanding customer will not pay full price as just a blind policy. No consideration if the products may actually be worth retail, most are not, i get it but some are. Do you not think for a second that there is a possibility that we inflate the retail price to "fake retail" for the sole purpose of the dealer making a "fake discount" so in the end the piece is actually sold at full normal retail price ? I'm sure youve noticed an uptick in prices across the board ? exactly. Rather than using your own knowledge of how to value a HiFi product, you are simply dependent on discount and it is very easy for us to hyper inflate price for the fake out. ... I would personally rather forget the stroke job part, have Integrity, and simply sell at a fair price reflecting value.

@@OCDHIFiGuy This is consumer advice, not retailer advice. The consumer should use their head and decide whether they are being played in the way you describe. There are at least alternatives to most types of new products that are sold on the used market. A person who wishes to use their wealth to separate them from others with audacious purchases, and/or has a great deal of wealth to throw around so that costly hi-fi gear is not a large part of their life (so they won't experience a big financial hit from the depreciation) and has a desire to own new hi-fi gear can certainly go out and do that. My advice is to average-joe hi-fi buyers who would like to own a "good" system to entertain themselves rather than showing off to others. The new gear will continue to be sold (because showing off or the hedonistic pleasure of owning new hi-fi gear will continue to remain common motivations for buying) and those with more limited means will have access to that gear as it enters the used market. My equipment is all pre-owned, B-stock, employee purchase, or value-level new purchased gear. I have Thiel CS1.7 speakers, an Aragon 2004 amplifier, a Rega Planar 3 turntable, and an Emotiva DC-1 DAC currently in my system. I also have a Mark Levinson No.38 preamp, JOB 225 amplifier, Emotiva XPA-2 amplifier, and a Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 preamp all in storage, not currently used. You can do very well on used gear.

@@Acoustic_Theory I could think of much cooler things to buy to show off than audio gear. I don't think this practice is as prolific as you make it sound. Wealthy guys buy everything at luxury level as its thier lifestyle. So who cares about them. The point I'm indirectly making is that advising people to never buy anything at full retail may not be good advice and that attitude about myst have a discount to buy has hurt our industry and misleads the uninitiated into believing all hi fi is a hustle. It's not though. Some of it is worth the premium. If it's still to high then your problem is with buying from a dealer due to his margin. I get that. I split my 40 points with the buyer. So I hear and feel your gripe. I have it as well, but we need to educate the newbies about how or why and the delivery of the message is important. Like saying " lucky for us there are dealers that dont abide by making high margins as well." Thetes gotta be some hope there with the message.. Cheers

​@@OCDHIFiGuy If there's a positive angle for dealers like yourself, it's that a vibrant used gear market keeps prices of new gear from deflating. You won't miss a meal because I decide to buy B-stock speakers or a used power amp, or because someone without the means to buy a new $20,000 preamp decides to buy a $2000 used one instead. They weren't going to spend the $20 large anyway. But someone with that money to spend is more likely to spend it if they think their gear won't lose as much value over time as it might if no one were buying used hi-fi.

And as a pedantic correction, there is a class of loudspeakers popular with a very small subset of the DIY crazy club that don’t require crossovers - i.e. “full-range” drivers. They of course have significant compromises in terms of bass response to name just one performance metric, but that can easily be compensated for with the addition of subs. That said, looks like a great rig, Quinn, and stumbling across this video answers a question I posted in your recent review of the AirPods Max. And thanks for your reality check on the snake oil that has predominated the audiophile market since the late ‘70s.

for only 1500,- and probably a bunch more :)

I build some DIY speakers (I also have an IcePower amp module I put into an enclosure so maybe that's a DIY amp too), but unless you build published designs like the Linkwitz Lab ones, or others by Jeff Bagby, John Krutke, Paul Carmody, Curt Campbell, and other designers who publish, you are essentially creating a new design from whole cloth. This is also the case if you like "most" of a published design but want to re-design the enclosure, pick different drivers, use different crossover components, or a different baffle layout - those things all affect the outcome. To do that properly, you need to have a measurement microphone (with free software like REW or commerical software like OmniMic or ARTA) and an impedance measuring device (like DATS) to collect data, then you need to teach yourself what to do with it. The work that goes with DIY speaker design brings me joy because of satisfying my curiosity about how speakers work and my desire to make something great to share with others, but it is about 100 hours of work at least. It takes me about a year to be really happy with a speaker design, and all that time is worth it - believe me, you can tell who hasn't put in the time fine-tuning their designs. If you are ready for that kind of investment, then great, get started.

@@Acoustic_Theory Agreed. Built myself a pair of troels gravesen 3 way Mk2. Ready made design with crossover parts and speaker elements in a kit. With home tools and pre cut 21mm marine plywood, most certainly took 100h. Mighty fine speakers for about 1300$ in the end, spent 300 on the finish. If you have a summer and some tools, why not. Cant beat the bang for the buck.

Did you see the speaker column wobble when he tapped it! There'll be lost energy and precision from the sound...maybe needs floor spikes or something to improve. Forget the 'snake-oil'...good sound comes from good basic engineering principles.

Bingo!!!!

One doesn't rule out the other, right? :)

@@rollingtrollI genuinely have not come across an “audiophile” who truly gave a shit about music. The community is mostly sickening

@@HARTYNMUGHES you just found one. And I know a few more because I also am deeply invested in the music scene. But it's a bit of a rarity, sadly.

And in case you want some 'proof'. I actually do have a 'what if I have to sell my audio becuase I really need money?'- setup in my head that's a couple of hundred bucks. I don't have a 'which records shall I sell when I get poor?'-list in my head. I just won't. The records are staying. And any money that's left is going to concert tickets :D.

I thort exactly the same and a power conditioner🤔.I can't say anything I've got diy power cables an rca's

Yes! you got the right point that's the hobby I love music also love the nice and big scale of sounds so I must have a good sound room to be able to get the maximum performed of the gears The room can + 40% or - 40% of the sound with the same equipments

Exactly. I'm on a strict budget so I'm running vintage gear that belonged to my dad back in the 70's. For listening in the basement I have a pair of Dayton Audio speakers that are on the small side of things but because of how I have them placed, I get great sound out of them despite the fact that I paid $26 for them brand new. Sure, there's much better gear out there, but these speakers would have still been a bargain at $150.

Became aware few months back about compression (not the file size shrinking) and other stuff that happens at the recording/mastering stages. It has been an eye-opener. For the first time i can see that investing in bigger and pricey equipment cannot offset the decisions of recordist. I now try to find better mastered versions of songs for evaluating audio gear. Wish there was a benchmark list of good recorded tracks...

Hey Frederic, Not all audiophiles are created equal. all the rigs I build, start with room first then Grounding and AC Power. By virtue recording is coloring . So trying to make things accurate.. to what as a reference ? Live concert using sound reinforcement line arrays ? no effing way. The way the "engineer" wanted you to hear it ? does he publish spec ? no , and we are not in his control room with his midfield setup. at the end of the day absolutely all of it is BS other than are you having fun and enjoying the music .. I'm going to listen right now i think.. Cheers !

Good points.

Use equalizer APO to make your PC sound badass

I bought the iPad Pro instead of the air for da speakers

A D I O Fil

@@tylerebowers is hard not to, is an iconic design piece

If it’s a genuine Eames, could be another DIY piece

Fr my grandpa has one 😂

​@@dylanwhite6957 nice

@@Johanniscool it doesn't lool DIY, but even if it were, making such a good looking chair is no cheap either... not 5k expensive, but maybe 1k atleast

Utah

he’s going to literally moan.

He's not an audiophile though, he's a collector :).

and what kind of security system he has

@@rollingtroll Yea he wouldn't see the use in spending $4,000 on a turntable, and rightfully so.

I actually know this channel because of a video he did on taking care of vinyl. One of the few videos on that subject that actually makes sense.

That's not a lot if they sound 2x or 3x more expensive.

Clicked off so quickly

@Dog Mutt I know. Got anything else to add?

If you stopped there, you missed the part where he goes over his $4,000 turntable and $1300 turntable cartridge.

$1500 wouldn't cover the power cables on a high end system.

From my limited experience of using powered studio monitors in my hifi setup for over 10 years is simply that studio gear is better and hifi gear is just over priced.

That would apply to only extreme setups. Recording studios use DAC's that cost several thousands of dollars and so on.

I used to mix audio for a living, the set up I saw from some audiophiles where just absurd. Specially considering the loss of frequency with age ... you speaker play it cool, but its science old man you dont hear that anymore.

@@NoMoreRadioMyths Not to even mention the cost of the console or microphones.

Because the monitors used in music production are monitors to monitor. Not speakers to enjoy music. Studio monitors are super flat. The idea behind that is: if your music sounds great on studio monitors its not because of the speaker but because of the quality of the music itself. As a music producer you want your music to sound great on as many devices as possible. Not only on expensive set ups. That why.

Same here tfz t2 and soundcloud yikes

May we see it?

Vintage Marantz?

Radio Shack?

The "stink pipes" aren't just stands. They are the cabs for the woofer, too.

@@46wireboy Well, that's even better then.

Are they to help with 'brown outs'?

It's only an indexing service and only for filthy rich folks :D.

LOL

He isn’t married because he isn’t stupid

@Quincy Breed Nerds earn a lot of money usually, get all the "chicks" as you would call them...

Quincy Breed he seems like an ok bloke

Quincy Breed i know my life was not so great at his age. he seems to have his head screwed on pretty well id say, a 40k hifi in a nice clean room, relatively high quality video etc, also think he tries to be ironic about the cost of things and fully appreciates the 'elitism and or snobbery , or pointlessness in the pursuit of the perfect sound, hell, you have been doing it since before he was born. i think he has made a good effort in the hifi game and good luck to him , i hope he enjoys his music. as for other critics commenting on him in terms of how attractive he would be as a female suitor, thats just plain stupid. women are a huge burden , and if he chose to spend his life making hifi a priority and not women, then good luck to him also, perhaps he enjoys peace quiet and freedom that a single life can give, having a 'hot chick' on your arm is not all its cracked up to be.

i would say this is a a setup that is on the upper echelon of hi-fi audio. honestly, "hi-fi" is kind of a misleading term anyways because like 90% of modern day music isn't even recorded well enough to be considered "hi-fi." I'm sure if you were to listen to your average pop music on his systems you would be harder pressed to enjoy them as you would simply hear a lot of the flaws in the original recordings of the music as compared to listening to music that is actually well recorded. so, because of that i think you should absolutely disregard this video if you are looking to get into hi-fi. there's a HUGE influx of new products that are being labeled as "mid-fi" by a lot of audiophile snobs which are honestly as "hi-fi" as you will ever realistically need. i recommend checking out people like Z Reviews (he's my personal favorite reviewer), Joshua Valour, or DMS on youtube. they give honest opinions and avoid a lot of the snake oil commonly seen in the community which is nice. they also don't typically recommend (especially in the case of Z Reviews) gear that costs thousands of dollars. if you want to get into high-end audio you could do it sub $500 with like a Schiit Modi/Magni stack and a pair of Sennheiser hd600 headphones and i promise you that you'll be happy for the rest of your entire life. there's no realistic need to take audio further unless it becomes an obsessive hobby (like it does for many people). Anyways, i really hope you're not scared off from hi-fi stuff because of this. a lot the gear Quinn showed in this vid is completely unnecessary and simply there because he's a big ol' nerd who likes to invest lots of money into his hobbies.

You can get into hifi for like $200 if you buy used. Look on fb marketplace and craigslist for a slightly dated av receiver (this will be your cheapest entry for driving speakers), and some quality old tower or bookshelf speakers. Nice thing about tower speakers is they seem to be more readily available in the used market and you can hold off on buying a sub for a while as many towers will play the full range for music just fine. For movies you'll prob want a sub straight off the bat. Check out the budget audiophile subreddit, there's tons of us cheap audio folk out there. Even if you buy new you can get a perfectly serviceable set up for $200-300 that will be the best system you've ever heard, at least for now.

jeremiah mitchell johnson necessary? Yes Overkill ? yes Cool? Yes!!

that,s a uni pivot arm, I don't like them, and Vpi its known for not so good tonearms, if it was me i would just have gotten a used SME 4 or 5.

there is nothing great in this video, except maybe turntable.

Hey I’m rocking a audiotechnica lp60xbt and a Bose solo 5 lol

mileslemon does It make you happy? Yes? Then you already have great equipment

That's what I was going to say! lol

Straight away! I had one and found it really uncomfortable!

Yea, peak chair design

Stunning! Not sure why he is worried about DIY speakers and stuff with an Eames lounge chair

@@Mooza1 it might not be original, clones can be found for tenth of the price, the original is a ripoff compared to them

@@BoKKeR111 it would be a very good ripoff. Notice the four legs for the ottoman, and five for the chair. Also, no visible screws, etc.

Made you feel like a stack of schiitt right? Same here bro. At least we don't act like our schiitt stack don't stink.

Yes. I immediately saw the arm wobble too. Looks like that is adding a LF signal to the arm... about 2 HZ(-ish). that cannot be right. My old (now) Sonndek/Ittok looks like a rock of stability by comparison.

Zeos of Z Reviews has some good videos of inexpensive gear ($50) all the way up to higher end consumer ($1000+). I personally am saving up for a $110 Micca OriGen G2. Check out his review. It sounds like a decent headphone dac/amp and speaker pre-amp if that's the sort of budget you're looking at.

😂 all for show tho. Thanks man!

That’s an excellent combo.

Snazzy Labs As a fellow Zreview supporter, this is all I can do 😎

@@hehexd69420 L😹L

Hopefully not the last! Cheers.

Well you can go cheap and find stuff at Goodwill. You probably get something altogether for 500.00 or less.

You have to do better than say you have a "modest" budget. What does "modest" entail? Under $500? Under $10K? Modest means different things to different people.

Thiago Souza Well alright playa!!!

Isn't that an oxymoron?

@@supercrazpianomanaic not quite, it's high definition but not high-end. Kind of bang-for-buck system

@@supercrazpianomanaic Not at all, high fidelity can be acquired for a pretty low budget. $200 is enough to handle all of your headphone listening needs, and if you aren't running super high impedance or low sensitivity headphones, you can get away with spending about $130 for an amazing DAC/amp combo.

It is definitely high end

@@antonhelsgaun $150 dollars isn't high end. $1000+ is high end

I'm also with Edifiers on my desktop. At first I was skeptical, but now I really like them.

Stick an Audioquest dragonfly in between the notebook and speaker and that'll get that set up really singing

Edifiers are mess of distorted port chuffing sound.

@@ianjohnhorwood2605 mine aren't.