navybsn

Pretty much nailed my feeling on it. Mid-fi is great because you get good sound with the type of music we all lean towards without the unbelievable costs. I don't want some fancy jazz or classical to sound amazing on my gear at the expense of the other stuff I listen to more often. I want everything to sound good no matter what I'm playing. Maybe one day I'll have a dedicated listening room with proper acoustics and dampening. I'd probably put a crazy system in there somewhere around the 10k range. Still budget for the serious guys, but all I'm really willing to tolerate. I listen in the living room and my office. I like to hear music throughout the house. I stream to those 2 and the bedroom. I do laundry, cook, clean, and work around the house with the tunes going. Or like now, I have it cranked and I'm sitting on the porch drinking a beer. That's not a job for 10k speakers much less 100k speakers. Hell, I felt guilty spending 1k on a set. Both my setups sound perfectly fine for what I do. Would I like to upgrade? Fuck yeah, but I'd be assed as to what I would get. Tube gear is cool, but I think the best thing for rock/metal is a tube buffer or preamp with a bypass. All the benefits with the ability to go straight if you need to. My little FX Audio buffer sounds great and cost $35. Pairs nicely with the detailed Allo Boss DAC and the Marantz 2240b. Takes less than a minute to pull out of the system. You don't have to spend a lot of dough to get good sound and get to play around. My next upgrade will be a new purpose built streamer and a server upgrade. I'm in the middle of the server upgrade now, reripping my entire collection and putting it on a fresh drive. NUC Intel guts. Maybe even wire the whole house with CAT6. Eventually, I'll build a streamer along the lines of the Hi-fi Rose I saw yesterday. Can't bring myself to spend 5k on something like that I could build. NP: Opeth - Live at Royal Albert Hall Iron Maiden - Senjutsu Hum - Inlet

This morning: In the Woods - Diversum The Secret French Postcards - Life Got Claws Hangman's Chair - A Loner Now: Scolex - Torn From Beyond Rush - AFTK Rush - Different Stages Torche - Meanderthal

So I went to a fancy pants legit Hi-Fi store today. Hifibuys in Atlanta. Super nice folks. Listened to an unobtanium system (D'Agustino, Audio Research, Wilson Audio speakers, and some crazy turntable with an optical/light cartridge) spec'd out around 500k. A second system that I really don't remember the setup other than the KEF towers spec'd about 50k. And a third tube setup (Primaluna) with Vandersteen speakers and a Hi-Fi Rose streamer that came in around 20k. To be honest, I was most impressed with the last one. I could never see actually spending that kind of cash on a system, but it was still really cool to experience them. Dude asked me what kind of music I listened to and I kinda chuckled. I said generally poorly recorded rock and metal. I just let him drive. Jazz on the crazy system, Dire Straits on the second, and Tool on the third. Have to say that I would have loved to hear Archgoat or Blood Incantation on one of them, but it probably would have gotten me kicked out. Anyway, now that I'm home, I'm listening to Tool to compare my stuff to the system I really liked. Tool - Fear Inoculum Tool - 10,000 Days Btw - for those wondering, my 1 minute review of each. 1) 500k system - obnoxiously sterile. Analytical to the point of being unenjoyable. I never knew what exactly people meant by analytical, but I do now and I don't like it. Give me some fuzzy warmth. Sounded like the band was in the room about 20 feet away. Could see it being ok with well recorded jazz and classical. 2) 50k system - better, but nothing special. I knew I was listening to a stereo but a really good one. Dire Straits sounded amazing, but lacking punch and a little forward although the music choice could be the culprit. Maybe even a touch bright. I think blues would be best suited. 3) 20k system - more along the lines of what I could do. Good sound, punchy, zero distortion. A 2 channel setup I could deal with every day. Listening to the same music now however, it's not worth the money. There isn't 18k difference between my stuff. I could probably spend another 5k on my own and achieve the same sound. I don't listen audiophile-like though, so it would be rather pointless.

Well, last planned show of 2022 is in the books. 19 shows this year. Good rebound catching up from our collective forced exile from live music. Took the wife to see our favorite acoustic speed metal (bluegrass) band. I've now seen them twice as many times as any other bands and almost as many times as I've walked out on Eyehategod. Trampled by Turtles - Burn For Free Codeine

I thought Five flavored fruit punch was AI generated by the bro-est bro-puter known to man.

Totally not my normal thing, but I do enjoy this album.

New Satanic War master on the way. Album is titled Aamongandr.

I'd say Body Count is metal-adjacent, at least from what I've heard, but M-A does have a seriously wonky system of who gets to belong. Mortiis is on because of the association with Emperor and dungeon synth is a "loosely" related genre. If we say BC is crossover, which I could see an argument for, then they should be included too. I think the problem is "where do you draw the line?" and that's where M-A (and most metalheads) fail to come up with a clear answer.

What do you think? I bought it kinda randomly. Just picked one of the five they released this year. I dig that they do lots of different stuff on each release, but I think I'm at critical mass with my KG collection. Out of the 6-7 albums I have, I'm still unsure that each new one really adds anything new to the conversation. Don't get me wrong, I like them and they're phenomenal live, but it's past the point of overload with the volume of new music they release. I'd say the same for OSees (OC's, Thee Oh Sees, whatever they're going by next) but they seemed to have slowed down their output in the past couple of years whereas KG just seems to be getting ramped up.

Nailed it. They are remarkably unremarkable. I do enjoy this one tune by them every time I've seen them live.

70% bs/30% real up to a point and then the percentage of bs increases drastically with the cost. Same for most things in hi-fi, but hey if it's what people want to spend their money on... I just want good possibly great sound without mortgaging my retirement years, so I'm a mid-fi guy for life. If I can get 90% of the sound for 25% of the price that means more $$$ for music and shows which are actually more enjoyable than just playing the same 5 albums on a grail system IMO.

That's a pretty good deal on a very respectable set of cans. Give them a chance to break in and look into the Brainwavz earpad upgrade to make them a tad more comfy (improves the bass and midrange some too). I've always thought they sound great straight from the source (no amp) but ymmv. And they are definitely built for life. Can't understand how they can sell them for so little money. I'd really like to try some of their other cans, but alas the prices increase exponentially and I just can't imagine that much of an upgrade for the amount I actually use them (headphones in general) being worthwhile. I use both but have to agree. If OTE's weren't impractical for most of my uses, I would never have another set of iems.

I'm getting a little Motorhead in there too. Meh, it's ok. Death Magnetic and the last one had enjoyable moments, but nothing to rekindle the past. This won't either, but at least it's passable and better than what any of the other legacy thrash bands have put out in recent memory. I'm sure they'll sell a billion copies.

Yeah different chick than the picture GG posted. I thought it looked weird, but hair color aside angles in photos can make it difficult to tell sometimes. And Jamie Lee is hot, but that Rick is the real eye candy in that shot.

Attention attention...we have a @Hungarino sighting. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. Everyone man your stations. Good to see you drop by shipmate! Hope all is well!

Detherous - Unrelenting Malevolence - respectable Demolition Hammer worship. Not quite as good as the real deal, but solid.

Ayima A07. Gets pretty good reviews around the web. Swappable opamps. Will handle a 48v power supply. Rated at 300x2, but I would doubt that is accurate. My guess would be closer to 150x2 into 8 ohms. They have several well reviewed amps under roughly $175. The A08, T9, and the pro versions of all 3 would all be good choices for a small bedroom/office system or a backup whenever your main amp is out for servicing. Products (aiyima.com)

If you do, let me know and I'll try to meet you there

Crippled Black Phoenix - Banefyre Hangman's Chair - A Loner

It's not so bad. Already done it twice this month and one more go next week. About 5 hours at a leisurely pace. Was in Buckhead at Fantasyland Records at noon and home eating dinner at 5:30. Luckily dodged all of the traffic backups on the way up and back. It's there, NOLA (3.5 hours), or Birmingham (3.5) for decent shows in the area, so you get used to it. Least I had good company to idle the time.

Ton of CDs on my trip to Atlanta for WASP. I did buy a small amo on Amazon on Thursday for a future small hi-fi rig. More of a fun little hobby amp but one that gets excellent reviews and was only $60, so worth a go. CDs: Killing Joke - S/T (both), Hosannas, and Absolute Dissent Miles Davis - Jack Johnson Dokken - Breaking the Chains The Cure - Paris The Moody Blues - Days of Future Past Al Di Meola - Kiss My Axe Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and Paco De Lucia - Passion, Grace, & Fire Violent Femmes - Add It Up

Currently listening to the cheesiest cock rock playlist ever in the hotel room post WASP/Armored Saint gig tonight. Both were pretty damn good. Most of WASP's was likely piped in, but it was still pretty awesome. Never thought I'd get a chance to see WASP, so it was pretty cool. Only complaint was they played 2 medleys which would have been way better had they played the full songs, but otherwise both sets were solid. And John Bush is fuckin awesome live. Can't believe that guy still sounds that damn good.

Funny, that's the one medication I take. It's for neuropathy related to the 47 gallons of chemo I had and resulting nerve damage. If I don't take it, I can't walk or even tolerate socks. But I have 1) taken too much on accident and know exactly what you mean about not feeling like you are in your own body and 2) gone through withdrawals more than once. Fucking never again. Felt like a heroin addict short of dope. I absolutely hate the stuff, but it's a necessary deal with the devil to function normally.

Pink Floyd - Pulse Saw this tour live. Wouldn't exactly call it a concert, more like a religious experience. Tampa stadium, May 1994, about an ounce of solid skunk weed. I remember most of it.... Fuck, it was 28 years ago. Surely that's the reason for my sketchy memory.

You are certainly welcome to frolic in my beanfield at any time you like. She exiled me to my office about halfway through Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick which was fine by me. I was tired of pretending to like hanging with family anyway. Wife, dogs, cat...cool. Everyone else, well at least they're not sleeping here. Now it's just Geddy & me listening to New Order in the dark because we're the cool ones. NP - Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures