Audioish Podcast

The Beginner Audiophile Journey for Jeff has begun and Episode 7 of The Audioish Podcast is checking in to see how it’s going.

In this episode Jeff and Mike discuss Jeff’s beginner audiophile journey and where he is today. After starting out with a pair of Philips Fidelio X2HR’s and a Dragonfly black that Mike loaned Jeff, he’s made some rapid improvements to his kit. Listen in and follow along as Jeff goes down the rabbit hole 🙂

Here’s a complete transcript to this episode of the Audioish Podcast – The Beginner Audiophile Journey. Transcription was performed by Otter and it may not be perfect but it was free!

Mike 0:22
Welcome to the Audioish podcast. I’m your host, Mike. And today we’ve got a special guest, because Pete is not going to join us today. But Jeff, who I spoke about in our last episode is here Jeff wants to say hello. As you go, Mike. It’s going great, man. So, we we’ve been talking about quite a bit of audio over the last probably six months or so I think it’s probably been about six months. You’ve gotten into it.

Jeff 0:50
Yeah, but six months of, you know, me go into the Jerry’s store and buying the stuff with you. And you know, yeah, that was a start. Pretty much.

Mike 1:00
So, in the last episode, I talked a little bit about I know you had a chance to listen to it. But I talked a little bit about your two channel system, and kind of told the audience already some of the steps that you take in and like, like p started out with headphones. We started out with the fidelity O’s. And then we went to the 565 C’s. And then in the episode, I couldn’t remember what folk folk owl had headphones you bought. So why don’t you go ahead and tell us what you got?

Jeff 1:34
Yeah, so I started with the Fidelio. I really like them, you know, with with the cables that you gave me. And we ended up I ended up getting the 565 C’s which was a really good headphone however, the one of the pads, the the cushion pads ended up coming off, so I returned it. I didn’t have it very long. I think I had it for a couple weeks. Right. And I had seen a really good deal on the full cowl alleges no say I think they were being discontinued at at the time. So got a really good deal on it and bought the headphones, you know, try them out with the audio quest dragon fly red, which at the time, you know, I had purchased and it was fantastic music coming out of the forecasts.

Mike 2:29
Yeah, yeah. And I had a chance to listen to them as well, when they’re, they’re very impressive and I had a different experience with the M 565 C’s than you. I’ve had mine now for probably, I’m gonna say at least a year, and they’re there also, and I still listen to them. I now listen to them almost daily. I was using Fidel Leo’s. At night. I’ll listen to title in bed when I’m getting ready to go to sleep and I’ve switched over to the 565 C’s as kind of my daily headphone they’re not as comfortable as the Fidelio goes. But you know, the wife next to me is not listening to my music. Almost as loud as as I hear it. It with the 565 because they are closed back and the Fidelio is obviously being an open back or a lot louder outside of the headphone so

Jeff 3:20
right yeah, I kind of have the same situation. You know, sometimes my kids end up coming to sleep and I don’t want them to necessarily not fall asleep because of the headphone so I end up listening to the vocals more than the Fidelio is when the Fidelio is the because it’s an open back I think the soundstage is much bigger and you know no question I feel the bass more in that also.

Mike 3:43
I would agree I think being a planner magnetic headphone the M 565 C’s may not go as low in terms of bass or the response may not be as good when it’s down low. As the as the Fidelio is our I think they they definitely there is more bass at the bottom for me anyway. But I think that’s kind of the design of a planner magnetic. I think its speed, its accuracy. Those are the things you pick up right in that mid range in the planar magnetic is just spectacular, but that’s just my impression.

Jeff 4:20
Yeah. Yeah. So you know, those are the headphones that I have. Like said I don’t have the 565 C’s no more. But we started with a Cambridge Audio. AxR Axr85 is the Amp it’s my first answer

Mike 4:37
you bought from Jerry.

Jeff 4:38
Yep, yep. And that was paired with a JM labs focal chorus 725. They had. I want to say there was two woofers one mid range and tweeter

Mike 4:52
Correct. Yeah, I thought there were the 726 is but but you reminded me there were 720 fives.

Jeff 4:58
Yeah, it was it was a nice setup. I mean, the speakers are fantastic. You know, it sounded really phenomenal but you know, like you’ve covered in the the other episode, when I took them home, they it just did not sound right at all. There was some some sort of the highs were right on point. Right mids were right on point. And there was something going on with the bass there was like a muddy bass issue of some sort. And you quickly pointed out that I had one of the cables connected incorrectly. Right. Once we fix that, it was it was way better, but there’s still a bass issue that was going on. So try to play around with it a little bit. Um, you know, I played around with the settings the Cambridge Audio has bass and treble, correct? Yeah, you can, you can adjust them. And that really didn’t solve the problem either. So I ended up going back to Jerry and purchased a used subwoofer. It was a I want to say was a yamo for 10. Sub that he had and put that in there that that corrected most of it. And I was able to take the the base out of the the equation on the amplifier. So right,

Mike 6:18
yeah, and you and I talked about this at that time. That’s not how you want to correct right system, you know, changing the bass and treble on the amp. I mean, maybe to fine tune a tiny little bit. But if you’re turning the bass all the way up to try and get some bass, there’s there’s a problem. there’s a there’s a problem somewhere else,

Jeff 6:36
right? Yeah, so it was, I don’t know if it was to speakers, it was just not a good mix of amp and speaker combined. I’m not really sure what was going on. But I had the system for a little while. And then I ended up going and trading the Cambridge Audio. And the and the speakers on to full cowl speakers that were a lot newer. I mean, they were brand new. So when I when I got those, they are floor standards, and I think they’re clora 820 sixes. Yeah.

Mike 7:19
Yeah. And I know you went with a pretty high end isolating rack for beginner audiophile, which I talked about in the last episode.

Jeff 7:27
Yeah, it was, it was a company called sound nations. They make these custom audio racks. And this is like the entry level of the racks. I mean, they have racks going to, you know, five $6,000 right. Mine was $1,000 I spent on it. It’s it’s red, it’s painted red, the wood portion of it, I’ve

Mike 7:50
seen it, it’s beautiful.

Jeff 7:52
Yeah, it’s it’s the wood portion of it is made, I think hand carved the the rest of it is not but you know, it looks very nice and has a lot of isolation, you know, whatever they might remember the rack being

Mike 8:08
each of the shelves were like a thick class as well. So there’s a lot of weight in the in the rack, which is important when when trying to isolate them, you know, the heavier the rack is certainly the better sound deadening or isolation.

Jeff 8:24
Yeah, and it has the spikes on the bottom as well. So at the same time, I had done some room changes and gotten a much thicker carpet in the room. So I think that that’ll help them in the end anyway. Sure.

Mike 8:39
Yeah. And you know, in the last episode, I was touching on room correction, speaker placement and when I came over to your house and listened to your your setup, I think we played around with the speakers a little bit more in a orientation of angle I think that instead of back wall front wall placement, but right, I think we did change the angle a little bit.

Jeff 9:04
What was it that I didn’t have them tilted in? Enough? Correct?

Mike 9:07
I think when we played with it a little bit, I think moving them in slightly seemed to sharpen the imaging a little bit. We didn’t lose any soundstage and and I think we just found a better overall placement for them. Right.

Jeff 9:22
Yeah, so you know, just to get a background of you know, how I got involved, you know, my interest into audio is in I’ve always been interested in audio and electronics and I’ve built amps and stuff before but I never realized that there’s a whole nother area to this. That’s the you know, the high end audio like I’ve never heard music like that. I mean, I can design an AMP and you know

Mike 9:49
Yeah, and you know you and I’ve talked about this before and I’ve talked about this in some of the previous episodes my my experience in in audio started when I was a kid My dad had a very high end system and I was into electronics as well and adding together Heath kits, and you had a similar childhood where you were putting together kits of different types and building, you know, small transistor radios and other electronic circuits. So, right, you know that that’s something that we both share. And then audio for me, I was exposed by my friend ej and then I think unfortunately for you, I exposed you to high end audio, and now you get the you’ve got the bug, so

Jeff 10:30
definitely got the bug for sure.

Mike 10:32
Yeah. So and I did mention in the last episode that you now have trouble listening to satellite radio or any other lower quality streaming.

Jeff 10:44
Yeah, it satellite radio just doesn’t sound right at all.

Mike 10:47
No, it’s too compressed.

Jeff 10:49
Now it’s and then what’s funny is that, you know, you’d be talking about Bose speakers and I you know, before I really thought that Bowsers was the you know, it sounded fantastic. But it no longer does.

Mike 11:02
Yeah, you know, Pete and I had these conversations. And I don’t remember if we talked on this podcast at length about Bose in general. But I felt the same way at one point, and I’m not talking bad about Bose. They just don’t any, they don’t sound good to me any longer. And I know prior to being exposed to really high end audio, I thought they were great. And have a lot of marketing behind them. They’ve got a lot. I know they’ve done a lot of research. And I know their stuffs not inexpensive. But to me today now, I don’t like the way Bose speakers or products for that matter sound in general. But I’m not taking anything away from them. It’s just not my taste.

Jeff 11:44
Yeah, it’s it’s a completely different world. You know, even with the setup that I have, which I don’t think is a hi fi setup, per se, I think it’s more of a mid fi.

Mike 11:55
I think we would classify mid fi now. Right? You’re now it’s probably a good time to talk about the AMP that you have. Because that’s something that I didn’t talk about, because at that point in time when I recorded that you didn’t have this amp that you have today. So why don’t you tell us what you’ve got, once you tell us what your system is today?

Jeff 12:11
Yes, so I have the full cowl clora 826 is I have I actually have two sets of speakers in the front, even though it’s a two channel system, and I have a speaker switch that does the A and B, right. I have the foundation’s rack I for my main amp, I chose to go with a Macintosh. It’s a Macintosh. Want to say it’s a 6300 ma 6300 which is a integrated amp. It has only one obviously one set of set of speakers that’s coming out of it. It has all the pre ends, you have the option of isolating the integrated amp. So you can use it as a main amp.

Mike 12:59
Sure, a power amp

Jeff 13:00
power amp. Yep. And it’s 120 watts per channel. And I want to say it’s about 10 to 15 years old. Okay, but I got a great deal on it again. And you know, I got it with the original shipping box and instructions were never opened. And you know, somebody had it in a closet basically. And cool. Really liked the amp.

Mike 13:28
Yeah, they’re awesome, iconic, those, those VU meters on the front are an iconic signature for a Macintosh amp. And I have had a chance to listen to it. And it’s what you would expect. It’s It’s awesome.

Jeff 13:43
Yeah, it’s it. I really like the music that it produces. And I think the between the speakers that I have and the AMP it I think it’s a pretty good match. You know, I want to say,

Mike 13:56
yeah, I think we would call your system mid fi. But I think that, you know, you’re certainly above your average consumer grade. You’re not talking about you know, monoblock tube amps and, you know, crazy source stuff and high super high end DAX I mean, you don’t have $100,000 system, but right, you’re definitely way above a consumer grade system. So I would call it mid-fi. Absolutely. What about your source? What are you using for source?

Jeff 14:27
So currently, I’m going from title on the computer into a audio quest dragon fly cobalt, right. To a set of cables that you had made for me crap that are I think they’re

I don’t

Mike 14:43
they’re they’re pure silver. Correct? Yep. They’re, they’re balanced in their 3.52. RCA.

Jeff 14:50
Yep. And then it’s going straight into the amp. And that yeah, that’s the source that I’m using right now. Yeah.

Mike 14:58
And I just want to back up real quick. For anyone who’s not familiar with what an integrated amp is an integrated amp means that the preamp and the power amp are in the same chassis. So you can take source go directly into an integrated amp. And you’ve got the ability to power set of speakers where a preamp would take the source, but it wouldn’t have enough power to drive a set of speakers typically. And you’d have to have a separate power amp. But you know, technologies is where it is today. Integrated amps are awesome. And I’m currently running an integrated amp as well.

Jeff 15:33
Yeah. So what do you have for an AMP on my,

Mike 15:38
my integrated amp is a sim audio moon, i three, which is probably at least 10 years old, and still one of my favorite amps, and I’ve certainly had plenty, but it just does a whole lot of jobs all at once. It’s got plenty of power, and it has the ability to isolate the or to remove the preamp section. So I can use two preamps. Which, which I do at times. It’s just very versatile.

Jeff 16:09
Yeah, and I’ve listened to your system and sounds fantastic.

Mike 16:12
Yeah, I’m pretty happy with with my current setup. But I’ve had so many different setups over the years that this one is, is aesthetically pleasing to the spouse. And it’s, it’s acceptable for me, and I don’t have a dedicated listening room at this point in time, at least not in this house. So until that happens, I probably won’t go crazy with equipment again. But who knows, maybe maybe somebody out there listening will send us some equipment one day show me some equipment manufacturer that we can test out.

Jeff 16:47
Right. So

Mike 16:51
I just wanted to while we’re talking about the the source I got the the audio quest, dragon fly black first. Really enjoyed that. With I think I started out with the 565 C’s and then went to foot eleos. And then Pete not I started Pete down the journey handed him the dragonfly black handed him a pair of headphones. And then he had my DAC and I missed it so much. I went and bought the red. So I had the audioquest dragonfly red. fell in love with that. I think I loaned you the red. Yep. Did you? You couldn’t do without the red. I think you bought a red

Jeff 17:35
and bought myself one.

Mike 17:36
Yes. And then you went from the red to the cobalt, which is a whole nother level. And then you you came in and raved about the cobalt and how great it was over the red, which didn’t seem possible to me because the red i thought was such an improvement over the black. But I will say I don’t think I can listen to the black anymore. The red still does a nice job. But the cobalt was such an improvement over the red even that I’m still surprised that how great a job the blue does. And the blue only goes to 9600 or 90. Yeah. 96k 96k. Yep, yeah. Which is really pretty amazing. But in such a compact little unit to take up so little space, basically the size of a thumb drive. I’m impressed. And I’m going to do a an article on our website reviewing the cobalt, because I did an article and there’s a there’s basically a review on our website of the red, which was a glowing review because I really loved it. So now I’ve got to write about the cobalt.

Jeff 18:50
Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s very different. I mean, if I’m listening to the headphones, you know, blue versus red, there’s a huge difference on the blue. Same thing with the with the Macintosh and the full Cal’s. And if you can clearly hear the difference. And you know that $300 or whatever it is, it’s fully worth it. In my opinion.

Mike 19:12
Yeah, and I would say I mean, I’m not saying that $300 is not a lot of money, because it is to a lot of people. But if you’re even considering one of these days, at least from our experience, don’t buy the black. And if you can afford to buy the cobalt go right to the cobalt. Because if you if you get the black, you’re going to want the red and then after you’ve had the red for a little while, which I think is $200 you’re going to end up getting the cobalt. So yeah, if you can just get the cobalt get it over with go right to the cobalt. And there’s other options out there. This is this is the only you know, portable DAC like this that I’m aware of that, that I’ve actually owned. So I’m sure there’s other ones out there that just as good or possibly better but This is all I know in the world of portable DAX

Jeff 20:04
Yeah, you know, talking about DAC, we, I have also purchased a Cambridge Audio dacmagic 100. You know, which is, which goes up to 196

Mike 20:19
kilohertz, 196 or 192?

Jeff 20:21
I’m sorry. The problem is, I couldn’t I haven’t figured out how to get it to that high rez on my computer because it just goes to 96 and it stays there. So I haven’t really played around with it a whole heck of a lot. But at 96 even between that and the dragonfly, cobalt, there’s a huge difference. And you know, cobalt being better.

Mike 20:44
Yeah, I think did I loan you the tabletop deck that I had? I have the MX six. I believe it was

Jeff 20:53
no I have

Mike 20:54
really inexpensive DAC I bought from parts Express. I think they had it on sale. It was it may have been $40. So I don’t know. It was really reasonable. Same thing, I think it goes to 192 might even go higher than that. I’m gonna I’m gonna look real quick while while we’re talking. I think it might go a little bit higher than that. But my laptop doesn’t have that option for the in Device Manager. So I don’t right. I think that’s what was holding me back. But we’ll have to work on that maybe somebody out there knows. Some some way to help us out.

Jeff 21:32
Yeah, so you know, for the for the rest of the setup. I have a I purchased a paradigm v 10 subwoofer that that I have placed, you know on the left hand side of my my whole rig setup of audio equipment. It is a 1010 inch subwoofer. The interesting thing about this particular subwoofer is it only has one control in the back of it, which is the volume, it does not have a face adjustment. Nor does it have a frequency adjustment. It just says that’s all done

Mike 22:09
on your on your app,

Jeff 22:11
right? Correct. And it uses so you download the app on the phone on the iPhone and it you know when you go through the setup process it produces a sound and you’re supposed to go to different places that you would normally sit and adjust the face accordingly. And it actually surprisingly did a really nice job of it. There was you know the the places that I sit at normally would be you know it has a really good bass I ended the subs not really pumping bass out it’s just breathing on the setup essentially. Right. So yeah, I have a the subwoofer. Then I have two other speakers that I purchased their elac debut reference DBR 60 twos. I also purchased them and I have it on the A B switch. And I’m not really sure why I did that. But it it’s I guess I wanted to have a comparison between floorstanders and a subwoofer and or and bookshelves and a subwoofer plane. And they sound very different. The full cows are a lot more area, they’re they’re the soundstage is very wide. Not that the relaxer bad or it sounds, you know, bad or anything like that. It just it’s a very different sound that these little speakers produce.

Mike 23:45
Sure, yeah. And I think I’ve mentioned this in the previous episode that that you had gotten a pair of slacks. And you and I’d had some conversations about how not having Wolfers in the cabinet. allow those bookshelf speakers to be a little more open or not as affected by the lower frequencies and your sub is taking care of that separately and probably doing a better job. You know it as long as it’s crossed over properly. And certainly completely different sound. Right get in a full range floorstanding Speaker

Jeff 24:21
Yeah, and the LX and also the forecast their front ported. So it allows me to utilize a lot more room. I mean, I can essentially push these things way up against a wall and not have a sound that’s booming. Yes. That’s what I was looking for.

Mike 24:41
Yeah, yeah. I think the last time you over my house when we were in the garage, I had those D threes that I’ve made years ago. Yes. And if anybody’s interested in taking a look at those, I can put a link in the show notes as well but on parts Express which they provide a lot Have components to make your own speakers, which is something I was into for quite some time. There was a project and it’s still there in their project list, with all the specifications to make something that somebody had submitted. It’s kind of like Instructables, somebody had submitted this mid tweeter mid configuration, it was called the D three. And I built those and you came over and they’re out in the garage. And it’s not at this certainly not a good environment for like a listening room and you’re like, wow, that those sound really good. Now, to me, the bass is a little booming because they’re rear ported. And because it was in the garage, they were close to the back wall up on a bunch shelves. But they, they actually sound really good. And I listened to them for quite some time when I when I completed them, so but everything in those crossovers were all super high end. Right, all the components, I use the coils, the resistors all that stuff was really high end stuff. Now what

Jeff 26:02
kind of amp is paired up with that?

Mike 26:04
That’s an old Onkyo that I had. So certainly, I’m gonna say at least 20 years old, maybe 25 years old, good. Good garage amp, love that thing. had it for a long time bought a brand new, and it just does a good job for the garage. That’s that’s nice job. And I’m looking all over the internet here trying to find this exact DAC, so I’m gonna have to, I’m gonna have to get back to everybody on that one. Because I can’t find it.

Jeff 26:32
Oh, the dacmagic 100.

Mike 26:34
No, oh one that one that one that I bought? Yeah, I can’t remember if I the things that look close to it, or an FX audio DAC x six. But that’s that’s not exactly it. So I’m gonna have to do a little more research. I know it for beginner audiophile use.

Jeff 26:47
I think you might have said that you bought it at Amazon possibly.

Mike 26:51
Or it’s it is possible. I did buy an headphone amp from parts Express, a tube headphone amp from parts Express. So maybe that’s what I was thinking. But I’m gonna have to do a little research and figure out what exactly that DAC is it actually works pretty well for as inexpensive as it was. So I’ll get that info for everybody for the next episode. Awesome. So you’ve heard now that we’re talking about making speakers, you’ve made some speakers,

Jeff 27:20
I’ve made some speakers from parts Express. I’ve made two sets. Actually one of them I know what it’s called. It’s called a samba. I don’t know exactly what model it is. And I also made another set of smaller speakers. Again, I don’t remember what the model numbers are. Maybe we can put that in the comments.

Mike 27:40
Yeah, I can put that in the show notes later. After I get this thing uploaded. I can put it on the website as well with some you know just some notation so everyone can go track this stuff down but I know the last time I was on the parts Express website that the D threes were still there had to dig around a little bit. But it is still a great sounding MTM. And if anyone’s interested in building a speaker that thing is from scratch though, I mean had I cut the MDF you know measuring and you know you need some tools. Yeah the new router and you got to cut the the openings for the speakers and everything that but to make it easier on everyone, especially if it’s your first setup and I think this is what you did parts Express sells kits that have the cabinet’s cut

Jeff 28:29
it’s pre cut a just put the pieces together and you know just purchase a glue I mean any any type I mean, I can go to Home Depot and buy the the wood glue, which I got the high grade one. Yeah, I don’t know what the difference is but it goes back together. I mean, you need some plants to pull the pieces of wood together. And then you can paint it whatever color you sanded and painted and that’s really the only messy part of it essentially. Everything else comes with it. So yeah,

Mike 29:00
I think the first set that I ever made from parts Express they were called the br ones and they were a bookshelf I think bookshelf reference ones and the the cabinets came done they weren’t finished right but the MDF was already assembled they came the boxes were complete the cabinets were complete you had to wire the crossover and install the crossover and cabinet and put the stuffing in there and and you know mount the speakers and then finish the cabinets themselves. But it was it was another step closer to being done and then what you put together at least you didn’t have to glue anything. It was mostly just assembly right? But that was my entry into making speakers in my beginner audiophile days.

Jeff 29:48
Yeah, these things sound very good actually the summer set again like I said, I don’t know what the model number is but they sound fantastic. You know I put them against the the LX And they’re not as good as the LX. But they the the basis there and the ports the I don’t know what it’s called, but I guess it’s important in the back is adjustable so you can get area and depending on the distance, it will vary that the base that it produces.

Mike 30:18
absolutely sure. Yeah, that Yeah, yeah, it will have a really big impact on it. When you’re designing a speaker, there is a there is an optimal length for the deport. And I’m not sure why they I know, I know. There’s other ones that have adjustable ports as well. Right. I guess it’s hopefully to correct for room or, you know, speaker placement type stuff. But from any of the research I’ve done, there is an optimal length, you know, based on the cabinet and the the excursion of the woofer and so on. But I do know there’s adjustable ones out there,

Jeff 30:56
right. Yeah. So that that’s probably going to end up being a garage speaker at some point. You know, I painted them red, and it’s like a Ferrari red. It looks really cool.

Mike 31:07
Yeah, my favorite car. So we’ve, we’ve gone over our black, red and cobalt, DAX, we’ve talked about some the fact that we both use title. I’m a big fan of title. So you’ve started listening to another streaming audio source? Correct?

Jeff 31:29
Yeah. So I got a, I think it was on Facebook, I got served an ad for kobus, which is also a streaming service, which I downloaded. And I used it for their trial period, which was, you know, which is really good. The The only thing that I noticed with kobas is that the search function was a lot more friendlier. And it actually found a lot more songs, then title title search function doesn’t seem to be very friendly.

Mike 31:59
Yeah. And you know, you and I were talking about this yesterday, I’ll be the first to admit that titles, user interface is not the best, right? I mean, I love the quality of the sound, it is a little cumbersome to navigate, it is a little difficult to find the things I’m looking for at times. But the playlists work well. And, you know, once I had the playlist kind of set up the way I wanted, it started building mixes for me of music and thought that I would like which is, which is really kind of handy. I do listen to those occasionally. Right. And I mentioned this to you yesterday, I have built my top 10 audio file recordings list. And it’s, it’s been a challenge, because like I was telling you yesterday 10 songs is not enough, right. And what I’m trying to do is is to keep it to what I think a beginner audio file would we should be listening to right. But it’s tough because not everybody likes Steely Dan. So I can’t fill the the list with Steely Dan songs and tracks that I know are very well recorded and things that people should listen to. Because if they don’t like the music, it’s not, it’s not going to be helpful to them. So right. So I’ve got a pretty good mix in there. They’re, they’re all tracks that most audio files have heard of, or been exposed to. But a good list of tracks for that beginner audio file and certain what to listen for notes have started to put an article together for the website, which I’ll try and get up in the next couple of weeks. But that’s, that’s something that I’ve been working on. And I’m kind of excited to have. I have the list complete Finally, I’ve just got to get it written up for for everybody. And but that’ll be on our website

Jeff 33:50
soon. That’s awesome. Yeah, I mean, you know, I’ve been talking about beginner audio file units, it’s one thing that I used to do before is that, you know, even when I get into a car, I would take the bass and treble and take it all the way. Right and now since I think a lot of people

Mike 34:05
still do that,

Jeff 34:06
right and then now since I’ve come through this journey, and that’s exactly the opposite that I don’t do I always bring it right in the middle. And there’s no exaggerated highs or exaggerated bass at all.

Mike 34:21
Yeah, well, you know, those, the end game for any audio file is to try to get to where the you’re sitting in the studio with the engineer, listening to how he intended to have it recorded or, you know, played back and coloring the sound in any way shape or form, whether it’s the cables, the speakers, unnecessary components, or changing bass and treble. You’re impacting what was originally what it was supposed to be. Right. So, so I agree I generally try to affect everything is literal as possible, right? If I can,

Jeff 35:02
yeah, definitely. It’s very relaxing to listen to music. I find some days, when you have a hard day at work, you go home, put some music on and you just sit on the couch and relax. And it’s, amazing. It’s very beginner audiophile

Mike 35:16
therapy out with a glass of bourbon. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely zoom here. Alright, so, we’ve touched on the headphones that we listen to. We’ve touched on some DAC’s, we touched on your two channel system. Do you want to do what I did with Pete next episode, by sharing a shared playlist, I made a playlist for Pete. And you know, he listened to that we talked about it, he made a playlist for me. I listened to that. We talked about that. So maybe we’ll do something like that. Or maybe I’ll share this top 10 list with you. And some of the tracks you’ve already heard before this, maybe we’ll do you know, I’ll do that for the audience. And you and I will do a couple playlists for each other. Yeah, now they’ve been into this a little bit more. I’m sure you’ll have. I know you made a playlist for me before. Earlier on and I did for you as well. But right, you know, now that we both know each other’s tastes a little bit more more. I’m sure we would come up with different playlists this time.

Jeff 36:20
Right. Well you know, we talked about it before where I went in and I spent a lot of time in the car. So I went in and upgraded the speaker system in the car.

Mike 36:33
Oh yeah, we can talk about that. Yeah, definitely.

Jeff 36:36
Yeah. So you know, I have a 2015 BMW three series, which has the basic sound system that came from the factory. It does not have Harman Kardon or anything like that. And I went with a company called Bav Sound which produces speakers specifically for BMW’s and minis. And I want to say some of the Toyota’s also.

Mike 36:59
Yeah, I know they’ve been around for a while.

Jeff 37:01
Right, and it transformed the car audio experience hugely. It’s the speakers are very nicely made. Installation was pretty simple.

Mike 37:16
Yeah, I think there were all plug and play right. All the connectors, every one of them was

Jeff 37:19
Yeah,

Mike 37:20
it came with that I had a chance to listen to it. It was I was very impressed. And I think it actually in my opinion was probably better than the Harman Kardon upgrade from the factory as well.

Jeff 37:30
I think so I think I’ve listened to a few of the different Harman Kardon ones and this one sounds fantastic. I want to say that I know some of the BMW has come with bang and Olson I think.

Mike 37:43
Yeah, yeah. sixes, sevens, some of the higher end BMW’s. You can get the Bowers and Wilkins

Jeff 37:50
Bowers and Wilkins. That’s what I meant. Yeah, yeah. And they decide think it sounds better than that. It’s pretty amazing what it did go from, you know, Bluetooth audio. And I don’t have Apple CarPlay or anything because the car is an older car, Bluetooth audio going into the factory sound system. I don’t have an upgraded amplifier or anything. It’s just replaced the speakers. And that was that was it speakers and the two subwoofers that go on to the seats. So very,

Mike 38:22
yeah. I mean, it was a noticeable improvement in, you know, in my opinion, right.

Jeff 38:29
So yeah, that’s, that’s all the stuff that I’ve done. So far,

Mike 38:34
but All right, cool. Well, we’re creeping up on 38 minutes here. So I do want to address one thing before we before we wrap it up. Pete will will be more of a guest on the on the podcast going forward. Pete and I talked the other day about how you know, we’ve been a little sporadic with our recording, it had a lot to do it. I mean, I have a busy schedule, as well, but Pete’s schedule has gotten considerably more busy recently, and I think we talked on one of the earlier episodes that Pete’s got some contracts with Major League Baseball, professional basketball, and so on. So he’s, he’s doing artwork for specific athletes, like professional athletes. And his he’s got very little free time. And at now has some contracts, I think with Nike and some of these other speak, sneaker manufacturers and stuff. So he’s just got a lot going on. It’s really hard to catch him. So Jeff, and I will be doing a bunch of episodes here coming up. And when Pete does have time, he’ll be jumping back on and maybe you know, all three of us will do an episode here in the future. But I just wanted to let everyone know what’s going on with Pete. He hasn’t left the podcast. He’s just just too busy. But he’ll be back.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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