From what I’ve read and seen on YouTube, 4” panels are probably too thin to do much attenuation of bass frequencies, which are very long wavelengths. Corner bass traps are probably the only effective method available.

No, of course not.

Here’s a live album recommended, I wish I could remember which thread, that’s an awesome mix: “Jeff Beck Performing This Week… Live At Ronnie Scott’s”.

Vinyl.

Dua Lipa is awesome! I don’t listen to her often, but when I do I always enjoy.

I can’t stand Country, but damn. Some of it legit qualifies as audiophile in my book. So while it’s not my taste, I can totally respect that choice.

Get better gear that you won’t need to upgrade, obviously! 😊

Amp quality is Snakeoil? Well I guess my story might support either side of that argument.

I’ve got four very different amps, Fosi Audio BT10A ($50 class D), Nobsound 6P1 (all tube point-to-point wired single-ended-triode no global feedback, with upgraded caps class A, $386), ACA mono blocks (Nelson Pass designed common-source MOSFET single-end class A, $ 672 a kit), Hypex Nilai 500 Stereo DIY, (Hypex’s state of the art brand new class D design, $1279 as a kit).

I have passed a blind A/B between the Nobsound and the Fosi Audio (barely and at lass than 100% consistently). However, I definitely prefer listening to the Nobsound over the Fosi, by a lot.

The Nobsound and the ACA sound very similar. The ACA was more pleasant to listen to until I did the cap upgrade on the Nobsound and then I tended to prefer listening to it over the ACA. I doubt I could pass a blind A/B test between them, but the preference is a real thing that persisted over months of time.

The Hypex is the most recent purchase. And again the sound is not obviously different than either the Nobsound or the ACA, but my listening preference is even greater for it. I tended to get antsy listening before I got the Hypex and listening sessions rarely lasted over an hour ever, but now I’m listening much more often and for much longer periods, so there’s something about the Hypex sound that’s far more seductive and satisfying. I simply don’t listen to either the ACA or Nobsound anymore even though all it takes is the flip of a switch.

Considering the greatest contrast, at first blush the Fosi and the Hypex don’t obviously sound all that different. And, I would frankly be quite surprised if any casual listener could pass a A/B test comparing them in my system. But the fact is that I really just can’t stand listening to the Fosi for much more than maybe 30 minutes at a time and only occasionally, whereas now I listen to the Hypex every day typically for 2-3 hours, and it’s hard to tear myself away. The Hypex is just far more engaging out of all four of my amps.

I started out buying really cheap gear, sort of a learning phase I suppose. That includes buying different types of gear just to see what it sounds like, all relatively inexpensive (well under $1K each) Since, I’ve done both a few place-holder buys knowing I would be upgrading later, followed by replacing that gear with carefully considered choices intended to be end-game. A few items were carefully chosen from the start as end-game. I haven’t yet replaced any of my end-game choices.

I went through 3 DACs, 4 power amps, 2 preamps, 2 phono pre’s, one streamer, one sub, one turntable & cart, and maybe a little surprising, but I still have my original speakers (not intended to be end game, but rather are homemade, but they just sound so good).

I’ve been enjoying Overmono’s latest, “Good Lies”. They are known for their club sound and live act.

More conventionally audiophile sounding, by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, is “The Nation’s Most Central Location”.

Both, released in May and December respectively, are two of Rough Trade’s Albums of the Year 2023.

Apple Music.

My DAC also reports 44.1/16 when using Airplay 2. My understanding is that 44.1/16 is the definition of lossless, any thing higher is defined as high res.

My dogma rule, only have one:

1. If I like the sound, it’s good.

The rest is just something interesting to talk about.

It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to Blink … since well before I turned into a sooty audiophile. They were okay for listening in a car. So I’m going into this with a bad attitude.

Speakers: Homemade DML panels, Hypex Nilai amp, Bottlehead Moreplay preamp, Denifrips Aries 2 ladder DAC, Apple Music lossless (why bother?).

Headphones: HD650, Bottlehead Crack, Moreplay etc. (see above).

The worst case scenario ends with you in your underwear standing out in the snow on your lawn watching your house burn down while your wonder if the ringing in your ears will ever go away, and then an asteroid strikes and takes you out of your misery. Fortunately worse case scenarios virtually never happen. So, if I were you I wouldn’t sweat it. ;)

I’m listening to the same version, the airplay version is always converted to 44.1/16.

One interesting place to start might be to build a kit. Bottlehead is famous for their highly regarded OTL tube headphone amplifier kit, the Bottlehead Crack. It pairs superbly with high impedance headphones, the Sennheiser HD650’s being the classic example.

It’s a relatively simple assembly job that requires soldering skills, which can be learned while building the kit, and the ability to use a multi meter to read voltages and resistance. Also easy to learn. As well as care and patience. The instruction manual is excellent and their online community is active, friendly and helpful. They have talked thousands of folks through the process. It’s a great way to learn about audio.

This will expose you to a lot of different technical aspects of audio. And you will end up with one of the best headphone amplifiers available for under $1000k.

I got to WiiM mini because I was tired of tethering my iPhone to my DAC with a USB. But recently I’ve gotten curious about moving up from lossless to high res audio, wondering if I can hear the difference. Airplay 2 doesn’t support high res, so back to tethered. Fortunately my desktop iMac is close enough that I can run the USB to that. And now I can stream either from the computer in high res, or the phone lossless. I think high res maybe sounds better or maybe I’m imagining it. 😊

Since my streaming service of choice is Apple Music, and I’ve already got too much nice looking gear on the rack, I don’t see any reason for anything fancier than the WiiM. Being able to stream from my phone is convenient, and worth the Mini’s price just for that.

With respect to the power amplifier component of integrated amps, Class D has vastly improved over the last 20 years. So a 20 year old class D may be obsolete whereas so modern class D is arguably the state of the art for power amplification. Class A & AB has not changed appreciably over that timeframe. The best Class D today competes with Class AB in sound quality and can outperform driving difficult loads.

With respect to the preamp section, incorporating tube buffers in the preamp section has become more common and can introduce a very pleasing sonic character vs solid state preamplifier sections. Whether that’s an improvement is a matter of taste. But it’s more accessible now with broader availability in lower priced gear.

Likewise all tube integrated amplifiers are more broadly available at lower prices for those who enjoy tubes.

My system uses a Bottlehead preamp and phono preamp and a Hypex power amp and that combo sounds fantastic. It’s not an integrated amp, but the point is the combination of tube preamp and class D power pairs extremely well in my experience.

I’ve got an EQ (Lokius) in my system. My speakers require it to flatten their in-room response. It improves the sound considerably and seems to improve sound stage as well.