I have been an avid music lover since the age of 10. I believe that for the money my bedroom system sounds fantastic. Granted I didn't spend 25,000 dollars on it. But who really cares, it sounds good to me and that is all that matters.
Bought this for 20 dollars off ebay with a blown transformer. Luckily for some odd reason I had a spare laying about.
Rega Planar 2
This is actually a frankenstein P1. I bought a modded rb250 with a origin live vta adjuster from a gentleman from France for a fraction of what I see them usually sell state side. With a glass platter, stainless steal counterweight, ortofon 2m, and a diy isolation stand it sounds pretty fantastic.
cord company cobra
fantastic budget ic's
atlas equators mk II
fantastic budget ic's
Monitor Audio Silver 5i
Got these from ebay. Seller was pretty sure that they were not working correctly. It turns out the speakers were not hooked up to the internal crossovers correctly. 5 minute fix for a great deal on some solid speakers
Much like your living room system your bedroom system is simple and lovely. Appears to be a system for a music lover, not a gear head. I prefer your kind of system any day. Cheers!
System edited: Received a new isolation stand for Christmas that my father specially designed using a combination of mdf, veneer, and solid wood trim. I have to say that it is awfuly sexy!
I could not agree with you more Soundsbeyondspecs. One of the most troubling things that I have found with this hobby is that so many will purchase things simply on the basis of specs and a good review. I was at a local hifi shop that had quite an impressive setup in their primary listening room. It was comprised of totem winds, Marantz Reference Series MA-9S1 monoblock amps, along with a Marantz Reference Series SC-7S2 preamp to top things off. I had not yet in my life had a chance to listen to 20k plus system. And to be quite frank, I was excited. The usual overproduced audiophile recordings were being played to show off the attributes of this pricy system. Tired of not hearing anything that I was remotely familiar with, I grabbed some cd's from my car. Here is where the disappointment set in. To me, this system sounded terrible. No musicality, nothing at all. Sure it sounded pretty good with a certain (remains nameless) bass solo. Last I checked, that is not what music is about. It is about the piece as a whole.
Emotional musicality and dynamics is the real magic. Common speaker measurements like 93 dB/2.83 volts at one meter is way overblown. Our ears measure sound differently at all common listening distances. Of course, the exception is at one meter. About three meters/yards is a very common home listening distance. You're probably pressurizing the smaller room correctly, too.
To me, dynamics at 3 meters or so is the real test. I'd be very interested in comparing speaker's tested at 1 meter verses measurements taken at the truer listener's range. Lab tests are often way overblown. IMHO, meeting that one meter referencing spec is helpful - but overrated like THD was the buzz years ago. It's a helpful, standardized lab spec before we personally listen for magic musicality playback and dyamic performance.
I've found many "great" full range or near full range speakers with dazzling 1 meter measurements often sound "choked off" or anemic at 3 or so meters. To me, great musical dynamics is best graded like you did - purely subjective listening tests using real world listening distances and environments.
Bravo for going beyond lab specs by using your own ears' to judge that special musical MoJo. Specs are a good starter. No specs, even well standardized, can overrule the MoJo impressions of real world listening dynamics.
