Skip to main content

Being An Audiophile Is Cheap, The Desire Make It Expensive

The reason to enjoy the music we love is hear every note as the way as artist intended. Every breath and every instrument of the music reveal to the ears of the listeners. The equipment to accommodate those purpose are basically simple and affordable. Your extra mileage and desire to make the music more lively that's makes this hobby expensive.


To introduce the basic audio equipment especially for a new comers in audiophile world, all you need is a good headphone and a good player. It will sound just like a studio monitor when playback their records, it is clean and natural.

I am using Audio Technica ATH-M40x headphones which is the cheap way to get the audiophile experience. I also using the M50x long time ago and already sold it because of dominant sound at high and low frequency.

The player in this blog is my trustworthy and mighty CD player from Victor (now is JVC) XL-V90. I bought it second hand on 1992 and surprisingly, until today, it still play music very well. You can choose whatever player from the portable up to the desktop like this one.

This CD player build quality are astonishing. The front panel is all aluminium and the case is thick steel material. They focus on simple looking and great audio performance.

Inside this CD player is the Burr-brown DAC PCM53JP-V for DAC.

This CD Player also been upgrade in the capacitor. I think about 2 years ago I doing some recap in the power supply section as you can see on the photo bellow.

By today era, perhaps the CD player isn't for you, then maybe you also need a DAP like my iPod video 5th gen here. The sound from this iPod is good but can't compare to the quality of the CD Player.

Cost for headphone is US$99 and good second hand CDP is about US$50. So in total this audiophile devices is only US$149. Add more US$100 for an used iPod if you want the portability. Congratulation! you are now have a good audiophile equipment for cheap:)


Disclaimer: Any statement and photos in this article are not allowed to copy or publish without written permission from the writer. Any injury or loss from following tips in this article is not under writer responsibility.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

OPA1622 Vs. OPA627 High Performance Op-amps Comparison

This op-amps comparison topic is actually boring, but at the same time, many of us still curious about what others think about it. The reason is simply because of the op-amps variation are hundreds and they are depends by the implementation. The op-amps are considerably cheap and an interchangeable electronic components but they are not built for the same function. So in this discussion, I will focus on the modern Vs. vintage high performance op-amps in the simple non-inverting pre-amplifier gain stage.

Vintage Multibit R2R DAC Tier List

At the very beginning of this year, I committed to explore the best multi-bit R2R DAC. This is simply because I have plenty of the resources (from broken old unit CD player of course) and ability to build them up. If you think this kind a recycle from old un-used unit to become something useful, than I should stated myself giving contribute for greener world:) After all DAC that I built in this year, I think it is better for me to list them up again in one single page like this. Then I will rank them up in a simple tier list. The reason for this, so you all know what my opinion about of those vintage multibit R2R DAC especially in the sound quality.

PCM56 R2R Non Oversampling DAC Built

From early this year, I am start to playing a lot with the multibit DAC. They are from Sony CDP TDA1541A here , Nakamichi DAC-101 dual TDA1541S1 here , Clarion DRX-9255EXL PCM1702 here  and Clarion HX-D1 PCM1704 here . What I said playing with them is actually more suitable words because none of them are built by myself. I only study and exploring those unit then make some upgrade especially on the power supply components, signal capacitors upgrade, and bypassing the unused internal circuit for more clearer yet natural sound quality. This upgrade make a lot improvement compare to the first time I listen from it and I can really enjoy what the designer from each manufacture deliver the sound they would like to perform in those units. Those said units are categorized as a parts of hi-end audio system and I really now familiar with the sound signature from each of them. But to be honest, I am not satisfy yet with this condition. Because none of them is built by myself from ground up. ...