r/audiophile • • 2d ago

Community Help r/audiophile Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk Thread

1 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/audiophile help desk. A place where you can ask community members for help shopping for and setting up stereo gear.

This thread refreshes once every 7 days so you may need to repost your question again in the next help desk post if a redditor isn't around to answer.

Finding the right guide

Before commenting, please check to see if your question actually belongs in one of these other places:

Shopping and purchase advice

To help others answer your question, consider using this format.

To help reduce the repetitive questions, here are a few of the cheapest systems we are willing to recommend for a computer desktop:

$100: Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers Amazon (US) / Amazon (DE)

  • Does not require a separate amplifier and does include cables.

$400: Kali LP-6 v2 Powered Studio Monitors Amazon (US) / Thomann (EU)

  • Not sold in pairs, requires additional cables and hardware, available in white/black.
  • Require a preamplifier for volume control - eg Focusrite Scarlett Solo

Setup troubleshooting and general help

Before asking a question, please check the commonly asked questions in our FAQ.

Examples of questions that are considered general help support:

  • How can I fix issue X (e.g.: buzzing / hissing) on my equipment Y?
  • Have I damaged my equipment by doing X, or will I damage my equipment if I do X?
  • Is equipment X compatible with equipment Y?
  • What's the meaning of specification X (e.g.: Output Impedance / Vrms / Sensitivity)?
  • How should I connect, set up or operate my system (hardware / software)?

r/audiophile • • 12h ago

Deal Alert The Sony SS-R10, the white whale of speakers, is up for grabs in Japan.

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401 Upvotes

I am overly excited by the fact that those were listed and described as working 🤩

So cool!

Learn more: https://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-SS-R10.html

Auction itself: https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/japan/en/auction/yahoo/input/p1247838431/

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the auction, just wanted to share my lucky find with the wider community 😇


r/audiophile • • 3h ago

Discussion Has anyone’s system attracted bees

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43 Upvotes

Look I know this sounds like a shitpost, but it’s not. It’s real, and I agree it’s ridiculous, but it’s real.

So anyway, I posted pics of my dual sub build the other day. Several hours after I started using the subs, freaking bees started trying to make their way into our house. Like a small swarm, basically attacking the window right next to where my subs are. Terrible photo I know, but hopefully it’s ugh … evidence.

I mentioned it in the group chat and someone joked it would be funny if they were attracted to the bass.

So I searched it up and … yeah maybe.

So yeah - anyone else with subs had a bee problem?


r/audiophile • • 1h ago

Show & Tell Am I Audiophiling hard enough ?

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• Upvotes

I just bought this pair of Tri-Art Open 3 Reference. Not an easy speaker to setup so far. Lots of trial and error to do to set them up properly ahead.


r/audiophile • • 51m ago

Discussion Hi-Fi Reviewer Denies Being Paid to Praise Brands Amid $2M Lawsuit, but a Newly Released Invoice Allegedly Proves Otherwise

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• Upvotes

r/audiophile • • 15h ago

Show & Tell New (sort of) Speaker day. Traded in Watt Puppys for Alexia V's (both 18 months old)

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82 Upvotes

Still learning my way around the setup regarding crossing over w/subs and ideal levels. But there's many differences, starting with size lol.


r/audiophile • • 16h ago

Show & Tell Runterkommen und entspannen

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51 Upvotes

Meine Hifi Kette:

wiim ultra, project cd box ds 3, project powerbox ds3 sources, project x2b mit hana umami blue, project phono box ds3 b, musical fidelity m8xi, musical fidelity m8x dac, Triangle australe ez

Kopfhörer: The Arranger von Austrian Audio, project headbox ds3

Strom: furutech wandsteckdose, dynavox 4100, netzkabel für m8xi van den hul mainstream hybrid

Kabeln: alles hochwertige van den hul integration hybrid kabeln, alles symmetrisch mit xlr kabeln verbunden, bzw. mini xlr/xlr bei der phono verbindung


r/audiophile • • 5h ago

Discussion usaudiomart is hiding prices for non-members

7 Upvotes

I have noticed this since a few days ago. Do you know why this change happened without any announcements?


r/audiophile • • 16h ago

Show & Tell Added value with McIntosh original box?

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42 Upvotes

Sorry if this is wrong sub but I’m helping a friend with his father’s estate. Dad was only owner of some decent audio stuff with it never being moved in 50yrs except for servicing. Does the original box increase value? We listened to a record last week and all the equipment running great.


r/audiophile • • 18m ago

Show & Tell Saw this pic and thought of you guys!

• Upvotes

LOTS of gear here guys. how about commenting on each piece. Note the lack of mullets! These guys are making sure wiring is correct!


r/audiophile • • 20h ago

Discussion Favourite albums to listen on Your system

73 Upvotes

This topic was for sure discussed here but everytime I found some new great albums to listen on mine system and really enjoyed, so put a few favourites. It can be production wise or based on musicianship and record quality that transform an emotion You get listening on Your system.
I will start with:

  1. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
  2. The Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky
  3. Dire Straits - Communique
  4. Miles Davis - E.S.P.
  5. Tool - Ænima

r/audiophile • • 17h ago

Show & Tell Picked up some random bs at my thrift store bc my roommate moved out and took the audio setup- how’d I do?

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16 Upvotes

Scott A1610, KLH Model 24s
I know literally nothing about audiophile stuff pls go easy on me. Haven’t gotten to hear it yet bc i’m waiting on RCA to raw wire cables in the mail


r/audiophile • • 21h ago

Show & Tell Pair of Pristine EPI 100V Thrift Find, the bug begins

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22 Upvotes

I've been slowly swapping speakers I find at thrift stores for a year now, whatever bookshelf is an upgrade. Was definitely not an audiophile, I just enjoyed doing upgrades, until now. I found these for $25 and ignored them because they seemed so plain. Did some research and flew back to amvets the next day, was so relieved to find them again. Nearly pristine, perfect foam, and this unlocked this hobby to me. I never fully understood it until I listened to these. Records I was indifferent on suddenly bloomed and took me to a different dimension (sorry for the cheese).

These were a lot more when you really think about it, considering I got a Pioneer PL-516 and Schiit preamp directly afterwards. The quest for a vintage stereo sansui has begun 😈


r/audiophile • • 1d ago

Show & Tell 2 weeks now with the Dynaudio BM6A Classics and I’m still very happy.

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68 Upvotes

It was a long and hard decision to finally spend some proper coin on nearfield monitors, my requirements were they needed to be crisp and clean, have a good sound stage and separation and a slight lean towards pleasing more than surgically flat. My use case is as much listening and enjoying music in a comfy chair as producing mixing and mastering. I listened to and compared Genelec, Adam, Neumann and Focal in a similar price range and what stood out for me with the BM6As were the goosebump reactions I was getting from experiencing some of my favourite music in high quality recordings and that emotional reaction I received as much as the accuracy, which is absolutely there.

I have them paired with a Focal One sub atm but plan to replace that with a 9s or 18s in the near future.


r/audiophile • • 21h ago

Show & Tell New room treatments

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12 Upvotes

Added GIK panels at my first reflection spots and added corner bass traps. Old hexagon panels above rack are from ATS.

Not a great WAF, but she's tolerating it for now. 😄

Plan to do before/after measurements with REW at some point when I have the time!

  • Equipment List:
  • Speakers: Rega RX5
  • Amp: Rogue Dragon
  • Preamp: Rogue RP5
  • EQ: Schitt Lokius
  • DAC: Gustard X18
  • Streamer: Rasberry Pi 5 with Moode
  • CD Transport: Rega Apollo-R
  • Turntable: Rega RP3

r/audiophile • • 17h ago

Discussion Step into the light, all are welcome - AKA I built an open-source vinyl capture tool and fell down a hole about pre-RIAA EQ curves

6 Upvotes

Hi, my first post here so be kind 😄 and a note to the mods - this post is about free software, MIT licensed, and non-commercial; it's free and open-source that was built with my love of audio, and the promotion of the same. Please don't delete.

I've been working on a free open-source vinyl capture solution, it is bit-perfect capture and encoding on all platforms Linux, macOS, and Windows - VCW, a vinyl capture workstation.

I am posting because of one part of it that turned out far more interesting than I expected, and I would like to hear from people who know more about it than I do.

The curves

If your record was cut after roughly 1955, your phono stage is correct and you can skip this bit, er - no not the correct term there for sure 😄. If the record was cut before that, it probably was not cut to RIAA. Columbia, Decca, EMI, NAB, AES and others each had their own characteristic. Play one back through a RIAA stage and you get the wrong tonal balance, usually a few dB out at both extremes.

Plenty of hardware and software can apply these curves. What I could not find anywhere was agreement on what the numbers actually are. So I worked them out from the published sources. The tool now carries sixteen curves, each with a citation to where its parameters came from and a note recorded wherever the sources disagree.

Some of what fell out of that:

  • A lot of published tables quote "dB at 10 kHz" for the treble section alone, not for the complete curve. Columbia LP is widely listed as -16 dB. The complete curve reads -15.54 dB. Read the table as the whole curve and you are wrong before you start.
  • NAB references 0 dB at 700 Hz, not 1 kHz. Every value in an NAB table is offset by 1.488 dB from everybody else's.
  • A trailing "-0" in a curve code means there is no treble network at all. It does not mean 0 dB of treble. Three curves in common tables are like this and all three get misread.
  • EMI and HMV are the same curve (Blumlein, 531 us turnover, no shelf, no rolloff). HMV then splits on a date: English HMV 33s cut after mid-July 1953 use the Columbia LP characteristic instead.
  • The "Decca 640 us / 53 us" curve that circulates online appears to be fictitious, a misreading of where a published graph leaves flat, taken for time constants. Decca's 78 characteristic and its post-1950 LP characteristic are two different real curves.
  • One row in a widely copied published table (RCA 45) has an arithmetic slip in it that has since propagated. The same page computes the equivalent row correctly two lines above.

The filter

Applying the EQ correctly at 44.1 kHz is harder than it looks, because the correction has to stay accurate right up against Nyquist. A straight bilinear transform of RIAA is 13.5 dB out at the top of the band at 44.1 kHz. Matched-z gets that to 3.1 dB. Fitting one extra pole and zero pair gets it to 0.078 dB worst case across 20 Hz to 20 kHz. That last one is what ships, and the conformance figure is measured in the test suite at all six rates from 44.1 to 192 kHz, so a regression fails the build rather than quietly sounding slightly wrong.

The EQ curve is never baked into the capture. Any post-processing performed is applied non-destructively. The EQ curve is a stored decision that is then applied on audition, on render and on export, and the exported files carry a tag saying which curve was used and whether it was actually applied. If the tool cannot establish a bit-perfect path it says so rather than claiming one.

Honest status

This is an alpha release, and it says so. Capture, track detection, metadata lookup, crash recovery and export (WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis) all work and I use it on my own records. Capture-path verification has only been done on Linux x86_64 so far. The Mac and Windows builds exist and run, but I have not yet validated a recording device on either, so treat those as experimental.

Repo, releases and the full write-up on the curves: https://github.com/shunte88/vcw

What I would most like back: if you have pre-RIAA records and a source for a curve I have wrong, or one I am missing entirely, would you please share it with me. And, equally happy to be told my DSP is wrong.

Folks using macOS or Windows - give the solution a spin and let me know what you find


r/audiophile • • 21h ago

Show & Tell Somehow, I have an Onkyo INTEC205 system now

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8 Upvotes

A month or two back, I thought I need something better than my Gravastar Mars Pro speakers with a Hiby R4.

So I thought, let's turn this slowly into some sort of Hi-Fi, what could go wrong?

As I alteady had a new issue Soundburger and a Yamaha MDX-E100 Minidisc recorder, I bought a Fosi P4 preamp.

Combined with a Fio BTA30Pro as a Bluetooth receiver and some cheap bluetooth sender dongle on the output, I had something resembling a stereo system.

I may eventually get some better speakers, most likely with an end stage amplifier and then go from there. It just then happened that my partner, which sadly moved farther away because of job reasons, let me test her Genelec 8020s. I was blown away by the clarity and immediatly got myself a pair of 8030s and a Fosi ZP3 to have the XLR balanced outs.

After I got them setup, I connected a Game Boy Pocket and listened to the Metal Masters soundtrack. So much clarity.

I started listenting to lots of my MD recordings and records and discovered things I never heard or forgot was in the songs.

Unfortunatley, about a 3rd of my MD collection is recorded in MDLP or Hi-MD for longer.albums or large soundtracks and compilations. I should get one of those Hi-MD decks then. There should be a selection, right?

Onkyo was the only manufacturer to produce such models. Two in fact, a standard sized one and the MD-105FX, which would fit nicely in my Kallax cabinet and next to my existing Yamaha unit. So after some research and eBay browsing, a unit was ordered, received and integrated.

After a few days of enjoying my setup immensly, I rememberd that I have some CDs too. And conveniently, a LaserDisc player was setup not that far from my Stereo, so let's try that.

And it failed. It failed to read multiple CDs. Looksnlike my LD unit is bust :(

First I looked at the current offeringsnof CD players and transports, but I only found full size components or little portable units like the Fosi, but then I remmebered, maybe there is something in the range ofnmy Yamaha Natural Sound or the Onkyo Intec.

The Yamahas offering was an all in one unit, Tuner, Amp and CD, the MD one was the seperate in that collection, and as seen on diverse Youtube videos, all in ones are a hassle to maintain.

Even if it is not the best, I opted for an Onkyo unit. Got the C-705FX because I already had a 4th gen 205 MD player with the FX moniker in the product name.

After ordering a fine working specimen, I dug deeper into the Intec rabbit hole, it's five generations produced from 1998 until 2012, also called the Onkyo Seperate Collection 205 and all its tiny little components.

We all love visualizers, be it in Winamp, Windows Media Player or any old Hi-Fi that had one. My old man's Technics tape recorder had one, even when I listened to CD, I made it 'record' to have the EQ going.

Of course I had to get the matching EQ-205 for my system. Hooked it up between the Fosi P4's output and the ZP3's input for some nice moving graphs.

The EQ part is a nice bonus.

The only reason I got the matching Intec Amp (a A-905FX2) is to simplify remote controls.

There were no remotes included with the three Onkyo units, as most customers would have bought them to be used with an Intec system.

Even if the orange volume knob on the Fosi P4 is nice and motorized, the ZP3 has the orange knob, and the A-905 has me covered in the motorized dial area.

Today the amp finally arrived, and after wiring all the components up (I will need to get some new RCA cables eventually), everything is working, including remote control of CD, MD and EQ trough the amp.

Thank you for coming with me to this little journey.

If this will be the end of it?

Don't think so, there are tape recorders, CD writers and CD changers to concider ;)

The Mars Pros still stand guard.

Current Setup:

MD recorder: Yamaha MDX-E100

Hi-MD recorder: Onkyo MD-105FX

CD Player: Onkyo C-705FX

Turntable: Ars Technica Soundburger AT-SB2022

Turntable: Ars Technica AT-SB727

Bluetooth receiver: Fiio BTA30 Pro

Streamer / DAP: Hiby R4 x EVA

EQ: Onkyo EQ-205

Integrated Amp: Onkyo A-905FX2

Linelevel shifter: Teufel AC 5011 AP

Preamp: Fosi ZP3

Loudspeakers: Genelec 8030C

tl:dr: after upgrading speakers, wanted a Hi-MD deck and got the other units from the same series as they matched my needs for function, design and size. Which happend to be Onkyo's Intec 205.


r/audiophile • • 1d ago

Impressions KEF LS60 Wireless Observations... vs. my B&W's

67 Upvotes

I stumbled upon a pair of KEF LS60's for $2500 open box, so I'd figured, why not, let's try them out, nothing much to lose and I can always resell them since they were so cheap. They were in great condition anyways.

Took them home and hooked them up and listened to them for about an hour to give them a good run in. I was like, these sound awesome, vocals and midrange sounds super smooth, bass is just enough, very surprising for the speaker size. Detailed enough and easy to listen to for a while without being fatiguing. I was really worried I was going to like these KEF's better than my Bowers 802 D4's that I spent a fortune on.

So after an hour or 2, I switched back to my Bowers 802 D4's. At first, I was like ew, the sound was very V shaped, not enough midrange and very bright (typical reaction for people who are new to B&W). KEF's Uni-Q speaker array was very noticeable here vs. the B&W's. The B&W's had everything sitting at the top (obviously with the top mounted tweeter) vs. the KEF's being right in the center image of the speaker.

But after an hour or 2 with the B&W's, I got used to the sound that I loved initially again and I was like, whoa, these are really good speakers, I really like these better. The B&W's, although brighter, was much more detailed, and was much better at resolving individual instruments on more complex tracks. Every instrument sparkled and could be identified throughout the sound stage. Bass was more textured and deeper, obviously because of the larger drivers. Then I swore these were the best speakers in the world and I was going to return the KEF LS60's.

After a week of owning both and switching back and forth, I can see why this hobby is so funny, confusing, and addictive. Simply, you CANNOT make a decision based on reading reviews and specifications alone online. You need to listen to speakers in person to determine your own personal taste and preferences.

These KEF's and B&W's cannot be any more different and on opposite ends of the sound character spectrum. I would describe the KEF LS60's as a really nice bottle of Chardonnay, like a $75 bottle, nice, smooth, buttery, but white wine at the end of the day. My Bowers 802 D4's are like a luxury bottle of Syrah, a little peppery, but a really nice bottle still exhibits smoothness while characteristics of being a Syrah, maybe like a $300 bottle of Syrah.

So yeah, you need to audition speakers in person in order to find your taste profile. Ideally audition them at home. I will probably end up keeping the LS60's and putting them in my office as my secondary system. Will switch back and forth, like sometimes I feel like white wine, sometimes red wine.

Open to thoughts


r/audiophile • • 18h ago

Discussion Buckeye amp sales?

4 Upvotes

Does buckeye amps do discounts? Should I wait until thanksgiving/Black Friday? I’m interested in the 8 channel amp.


r/audiophile • • 11h ago

Discussion music app recomendation for LG V50s

0 Upvotes

I bought this phone for cheaps, so i want to use it as a DAP, i don't know much about music or anything but i download all my music on my laptop then transfer it on my phone, but Google Play Music's interface SUCKS, what app do you guys reccomend? i also play music not by the album but by the folder


r/audiophile • • 20h ago

Show & Tell Elite Quality & Engineering. Precision Machined in the USA

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5 Upvotes

Reference-grade audiophile rack, used in three elite rooms at Axpona 2024, including TAD’s.

Built to the same standard as the equipment it carries, it was inspired by my previous rack, an all-out, cost-no-object design with several engineering innovations of its own.


r/audiophile • • 16h ago

Discussion Best crossfade for local files?

2 Upvotes

I've been using Spotify for a while to read local files on my phone, specifically for its crossfade feature. But recently, I've been having a lot of issues with Spotify having a hard time reading my files, so I ended up switching to VLC (the goat) to at least be able to listen to them (even though it doesn't have a crossfade option).

What app do you use that has a good crossfade feature and is not too much of a hassle? (i.e. not full of adds, not hella expensive)

(For those wondering why I need crossfade, I like to listen to projects such as "NONE OF THIS IS REAL", which use crossfade for an optimal experience of the album. It's also just nice for looping single songs)


r/audiophile • • 1d ago

Show & Tell Clothing store had Q Acoustics speakers for their music system

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218 Upvotes

Went into a clothing store and spotted they had some Q Acoustics speakers playing some music, which is unexpected because you dont expect a clothing store to use hifi speakers and yeah, they sounded good. I thought to post this because you don't see this every day..


r/audiophile • • 1d ago

News Deezer introduces next level HiFi quality with up to 24-bit/192 kHz

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245 Upvotes

r/audiophile • • 1d ago

Discussion I feel like I’ve always been an amateur audiophile. Until recently I feel like I’ve really levelled up.

27 Upvotes

I really do believe when you learn some new knowledge, develop some new skills, you just look at things differently. It's like when you see something and it can't be unseen. I feel like I've always been an amateur audiophile until recently...

I've been a passionate music lover for many years. I have a huge palette of genres that I love. I bought my first decent system 10 years ago: KEF R500 towers (that are now two generations old) with R100 surrounds, R series centre speaker, KEF R400b sub as well as an off brand 12 inch ported sub. Powered by a Yamaha AVR A1060. I had it set up in a 17 x 21 room along the 21 foot wall, squeezed tight into one corner. With one side open to a hallway.

I would listen to compressed music through Spotify off my TV app. Playing music through ALL my speakers, room untreated, uncorrected, untested. Until recently, I was very happy with it. It was the best setup I'd ever personally heard. I don't know anyone that has the passion that I do to just sit and listen to music for hours. Nobody that had a great setup I'd ever listened to. But I've always wondered what real high-end speakers in a room-corrected environment would sound like.

I'd just been ignorant to the knowledge. Not realizing the potential joy that my mediocre setup could actually bring me. I wasted 10 years listening to very mediocre sound quality. I recently went down the rabbit hole and I'm never coming back out.

One of the great things about AI is how easily you can attain great information, and I've really put that to work lately. I basically got a crash course in acoustics over the last month, and here's what it taught me — and what I changed:

The room was the biggest upgrade, and it cost me a few hundred bucks. I built 8 DIY acoustic panels and put them at the first reflection points. My reverb time went from a muddy mess to ~0.35 seconds, which is basically textbook. I had no idea what I was hearing before was mostly my *room*, not my speakers.

**Speaker placement is free and it was half my problem.** I dragged everything off that 21-foot wall corner and set up a proper 2.1 layout along the 17-foot wall: towers 8 feet apart, 3 feet out from the wall, my chair 9 feet back. Same speakers, completely different system. The imaging snapped into focus like someone wiped fog off a window.

**Stop playing music through all your speakers.** This one hurt. I'd been running "all-channel stereo" for a decade thinking more speakers = more sound. Turns out it was smearing the stereo image into mush. Now it's 2.1 for music — towers full range plus one sub — and I finally hear what a soundstage actually is.

The sound quality that I had uncovered with my old gear with very little effort in comparison to how it was blew my mind!!
So I started thinking about how much better I could potentially increase the quality of what I was hearing. So I’ve since bought some upgrades.

**The gear, in order:** WiiM Ultra streamer (goodbye Spotify-through-the-TV-app), then a Musical Fidelity M6xi integrated amp driving the towers, then an SVS PB17-Ultra sub — 17 inch driver, 2,800 watts, flat down into the teens. Each one was a real, audible step. And I learned to *measure* instead of guess: bought a UMIK-1 mic, learned REW, tuned the sub with parametric EQ and phase alignment instead of twisting knobs by ear.

**Where it's at now:** KEF R7 Meta towers are on a truck being delivered to my house as I write this. The system went from "best I've ever heard" to something I couldn't have imagined a month ago . The soundstage that opened up, versus the flat music I’ve been listening to. The holographic imaging the precision, the depth being able to hear different instruments in different parts of my room. It just really blows me away! The crazy part is the *knowledge* was the real upgrade. The gear just gave it somewhere to go.

**The myth that died for me:** that more expensive always means audibly better — I almost bought speakers at 3.7x the price before measurements and blind logic talked me off the ledge.

Now when I see a reel of somebody’s set up. I just look for how much better it could be with inexpensive fixes. I learned that the most expensive speakers can sound like crap in an untreated room and very affordable speakers can sound better than I could have ever imagined . When I sit down and listen to my music…….
The best way I can describe it is :
A musical orgasm for my ears !