Listening Pleasures

[Opet]

Something I wish to ENHANCE.

I'm on the verge of purchasing !FINALLY! a nice sound system for myself and I wanted to step into the store with advice from as many sources as possible. Once the sales person gets you in their sites

you're done for!

I was hoping someone would share some info on what they'd get if they were buying something new. I want a duel tape deck for starters for copying CDs for the car. Any tips on picking one out? I want to get a nice turntable too. Do any brands come to mind as STAY AWAY or something that you can't live without if you buy one?

Help me out here, metal friends. I'm most interested in what you think of speakers. GOOD SPEAKERS dammit. I've been listening to Opeth from the same crappy old speakers since day one in my house.

And finally, does anyone else find that each of the Opeth CDs require different settings? (bass, treble...and all the other slides that I have no idea what they really do!)

Where else do you learn these things other than asking around and trial and error? Unfortunately, I'm not loaded enough for the trial and error one.

That's all...thanks for listening.

 

[Oysterboy72]

Hey, Opet. I feel that you should really get a CD player for your car and a CD-R for your computer (instead of the in-car and dual tape decks). Get one of the new Yamaha CD burners...they kick ass.

Just want to offer you an alternative to the cassettes.

 

[Opet]

Yeah, my car could use a musical overhaul. I know what you're saying though. It's probably 10x better than a tape in the car, but that'll be considered greatly down the line. For now, I'm concentrating mainly on the home system.

 

[lumen]

I don't know much on this topic, but...

I like my own system - Cambridge Audio CD player and amp, and Energy speakers. It's a very basic system, low on trinkets and fancy options, but without all the fancy stuff I can get a really good sound for a relatively low price.

You can go really high end with the turntables, but I think Technics actually makes some pretty good ones, some of which are more affordable.

My tapedeck is Technics too, and it's not bad but I inherited it so I didn't do any comparison shopping. I think that getting a double-deck you have to sacrifice a little quality to keep the price down. (It's kind of the same for CD-changers too. You can get a higher quality single-CD player for the same money.)

This is all just opinion, though.

My advice is to go listen to some systems. Take some of your favourite CDs to play on them, and start out at the low end. Then keep moving up the price-scale as far as you can afford to go until you find something you can be happy with.

 

[Obyeybyeogone]

I use my computer to play music. I have pretty good speakers and a subwoofer, I just put my CD's in the computer drive and play. I bet this is a shitty sound compared to a real system *TEAR*

 

[bleed for me]

tape deck? get a cd-r or an md system in your car...i reccomend md coz you can erase and re-record stuff on it so you won't have a but of md's lying around

and turntables are a waste of money in my opinion, cost ALOT for the whole thing and it cost ALOT just to replace the diamond tip which can break quite often....and then you have to find your fav. discs in vinyl which will cost alot too

 

[bleed for me]

get bose, hands down the best speakers in the world....you won't believe how powerful they are and how good the quality they are....if you can't afford those go with good ol' sony or kenwood

 

[Heliologue]

AIWA's a very good brand for stereo's: i would pick them even over names like Sony. i got mine (3-disc, dual-tape, AM-FM) for about $120.

As to speakers, well, i have three-foot motherfuckers, but they're cheapies.

but yes, definately get a CD-RW drive. Of course, if you don't have an internal one, you'll get stuck buying a silly 4x USB burner, unless of course you have a FireWire/i-Link port.

if you're willing to go the distance on a burner and even get it installed, do get a Yahama, at least a 16x, providing your computer is fast enough.

 

[Opet]

Good idea, llamaura. I didn't give that a moments thought. Bring a CD to the store with me and crank it!

I am buying a turntable. The one I had is totally junked and I just bought Orchid on vinyl. I'll go nuts without ever hearing it, you kidden me? Bose I heard are great speakers. They're on the top of my list. I want some tall ones man. I'm not messin' around this time.

The name that I'm most impressed with so far (after some browsing last weekend) is Aiwa. Their speakers are pretty damn cool and a system I looked at was priced fair. I'm getting a new tuner too and I heard the name Yamaha is one of the best out there.

Still looking though. This weekend I'm off to Circuit City. Thanks for the suggestions/comments.

 

[Jozxyqk]

Marantz, I haven't better sound out of anything else.

 

[Duvall]

Get a surround system. You can usually find a dolby digital system with 5 speakers and subwoofer for under $500 canadian - some good mini-systems support surround as well (but you might have to buy new speakers)

If you don't already have one, a DVD player is ideal - when more and more music will start coming on DVDs with surround encoding, you'll be patting yourself on the back.

DTS is another option, but it tends to be more expensive and not as widely supported as Dolby Digital (the two main kinds of surround encoding)

I also recommend BOSE stuff - always had that in my house and even the wee lil speakers knocked your socks off. Look at the Acoustimass system, but I'm not sure how much it costs these days..

Good luck! Make sure you use good speaker cable (Monster or Zipcord, if that's the real name..)

 

[Obyeybyeogone]

How much is a decent BOSE system? I know they are pretty expensive, I am getting a job soon and could use a nice stereo.

 

[Duvall]

Oops.. looks like the Lifestyle systems are upwards of $1000..

that's kinda pricey.