Hi, Ascending to Audiophile. Wish me luck!

[johnnyaud]

Hello all!

My name is Rahul, and I'm happy to be a part of this forum.
I was lucky enough to secure a remote job last year and decided to build a dedicated setup in a separate room(office?). I've been lurking in the forum and it's been incredibly helpful and super interesting.
Being from a middle class family and not having access to a space to really enjoy audio (everyone apparently complains if the volume goes right over the 'barely audible dialogue' haha. Why so loud volume, you can hear properly with low volume too no? ), I had only enjoyed 'gaming' headphones and earphones. Until recently, when I got some really nice IEM and truly experienced music. I love any and all kinds of music. Maybe I'll a develop a taste along the way for a specific type.
I found some really nice source in the forum. I'll start with the jazz playlist and the hindustani classical music from the pinned post.

So now I want to have a proper audio setup. (Oh god, is this how the audiophile bug starts?),
so some entry level bookshelf speakers to connect to my pc (got an audio interface and mic already). I have a budget of 30k and would appreciate any advice on where to find good gear or specific models to start.
My friend suggested to get old gear and upgrade it as my hearing and taste grows so If anyone is willing to sell their old gear, that would be absolutely amazing too.


Thanks.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Hello all!

My name is Rahul, and I'm happy to be a part of this forum.
I was lucky enough to secure a remote job last year and decided to build a dedicated setup in a separate room(office?). I've been lurking in the forum and it's been incredibly helpful and super interesting.
Being from a middle class family and not having access to a space to really enjoy audio (everyone apparently complains if the volume goes right over the 'barely audible dialogue' haha. Why so loud volume, you can hear properly with low volume too no? ), I had only enjoyed 'gaming' headphones and earphones. Until recently, when I got some really nice IEM and truly experienced music. I love any and all kinds of music. Maybe I'll a develop a taste along the way for a specific type.
I found some really nice source in the forum. I'll start with the jazz playlist and the hindustani classical music from the pinned post.

So now I want to have a proper audio setup. (Oh god, is this how the audiophile bug starts?),
so some entry level bookshelf speakers to connect to my pc (got an audio interface and mic already). I have a budget of 30k and would appreciate any advice on where to find good gear or specific models to start.
My friend suggested to get old gear and upgrade it as my hearing and taste grows so If anyone is willing to sell their old gear, that would be absolutely amazing too.


Thanks.

Welcome to the forum...We all have to start somewhere

I will second your friends suggestion to start slow and start with pre-loved. New gear is exorbitantly priced these days. I just dont see any value in it anymore. Keep an eye on our classifieds, good stuff keeps propping up from time to time at what i would call reasonable prices. And feel free to seek advise. More often than not, someone would have heard what you are interested in, so that feedback is important to avoid expensive mistakes. All the best...and enjoy the journey

 

[Nitin K]

Very sound advice .

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Well, people usually ‘descend’ into this addiction. So, beware! The forum’s anthem could very well be: "We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave"

“Welcome to the Hobby Audiophilia. Such a lovely place!”

 

[Amarendra]

Hello all!

My name is Rahul, and I'm happy to be a part of this forum.
I was lucky enough to secure a remote job last year and decided to build a dedicated setup in a separate room(office?). I've been lurking in the forum and it's been incredibly helpful and super interesting.
Being from a middle class family and not having access to a space to really enjoy audio (everyone apparently complains if the volume goes right over the 'barely audible dialogue' haha. Why so loud volume, you can hear properly with low volume too no? ), I had only enjoyed 'gaming' headphones and earphones. Until recently, when I got some really nice IEM and truly experienced music. I love any and all kinds of music. Maybe I'll a develop a taste along the way for a specific type.
I found some really nice source in the forum. I'll start with the jazz playlist and the hindustani classical music from the pinned post.

So now I want to have a proper audio setup. (Oh god, is this how the audiophile bug starts?),
so some entry level bookshelf speakers to connect to my pc (got an audio interface and mic already). I have a budget of 30k and would appreciate any advice on where to find good gear or specific models to start.
My friend suggested to get old gear and upgrade it as my hearing and taste grows so If anyone is willing to sell their old gear, that would be absolutely amazing too.


Thanks.

You will need to solve the issue of playing music or movies in your home. Your frustration will only grow if you buy a new/ used system and everyone complains about it. So see if you can build a system in a room which is relatively secluded from the rest of the house. Explore if you can isolate sound in that room (some room treatment/ closing the door/ carpet/absorbers ?) and then build your dream system. Assuming you stay in Jaipur you could be better placed in terms of space than most ppl - particularly in Mumbai.
Good luck !

 

[johnnyaud]

Welcome to the forum...We all have to start somewhere

I will second your friends suggestion to start slow and start with pre-loved. New gear is exorbitantly priced these days. I just dont see any value in it anymore. Keep an eye on our classifieds, good stuff keeps propping up from time to time at what i would call reasonable prices. And feel free to seek advise. More often than not, someone would have heard what you are interested in, so that feedback is important to avoid expensive mistakes. All the best...and enjoy the journey

Thanks you. I'm a bit intimidated by the classified section haha. Saw some prices in 6 figures and the new gear has to be more than that. But I've seen a variety of prices and will keep an eye on a pair of bookshelves popping up.

Well, people usually ‘descend’ into this addiction. So, beware! The forum’s anthem could very well be: "We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave"

“Welcome to the Hobby Audiophilia. Such a lovely place!”

Haha, I've yet to 'descend' but I'd imagine it won't be far once I experience true audio.

 

[johnnyaud]

You will need to solve the issue of playing music or movies in your home. Your frustration will only grow if you buy a new/ used system and everyone complains about it. So see if you can build a system in a room which is relatively secluded from the rest of the house. Explore if you can isolate sound in that room (some room treatment/ closing the door/ carpet/absorbers ?) and then build your dream system. Assuming you stay in Jaipur you could be better placed in terms of space than most ppl - particularly in Mumbai.
Good luck !

You are right on point. I live in a village and there's plenty of room. I had just built a 14x15 feet isolated room as my office/bedroom. Some finishing is left and I'll move in about a week or two. I haven't looked much into room treatment but I've got a false ceiling at 9 feet and plan to build some diy acoustic panels with wood wool slabs. I'll make a post for some suggestions when it's ready.

 

[Amarendra]

You are right on point. I live in a village and there's plenty of room. I had just built a 14x15 feet isolated room as my office/bedroom. Some finishing is left and I'll move in about a week or two. I haven't looked much into room treatment but I've got a false ceiling at 9 feet and plan to build some diy acoustic panels with wood wool slabs. I'll make a post for some suggestions when it's ready.

If you can add a 15*14 room to your home out of nowhere with false ceiling, etc I would rather be a middle class like you ! LOL

 

[johnnyaud]

If you can add a 15*14 room to your home out of nowhere with false ceiling, etc I would rather be a middle class like you ! LOL

Still less than a quality pair of cables
It's an investment for work. You'd be surprised how much you can save not working from a big city. (Also I had help)

 

[mbhangui]

Just saying. One descends to become an audiophile and not ascend. Becoming an audiophile is like marriage. Either you will never be happy with your equipment or your equipment will demand better treatment from you, better rooms, larger rooms costly audio jewellery and lot of pampering like exotic necklaces in the form of cables, costly shoes which will isolate vibrations. There will be many one night stands with someone elses equipment which will make you doubt your current equipment, leading to costly divorces with your equipments. This will be an endless saga till (IF) one day suddenly under a bodhi tree you will realize "Yeh audio shaudio Sab Moh Maya Hai"

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Just saying. One descends to become an audiophile and not ascend. Becoming an audiophile is like marriage. Either you will never be happy with your equipment or your equipment will demand better treatment from you, better rooms, larger rooms costly audio jewellery and lot of pampering like exotic necklaces in the form of cables, costly shoes which will isolate vibrations. There will be many one night stands with someone elses equipment which will make you doubt your current equipment, leading to costly divorces with your equipments. This will be an endless saga till (IF) one day suddenly under a bodhi tree you will realize "Yeh audio shaudio Sab Moh Maya Hai"
View attachment 82608

Very well said

And looking at my own journey, it was crappy sounding for 10 years, then bingo sounded lovely for two days...and now Iam tyring to figure out the bottle neck in the system and wondering if I should upgrade further. The wallet and mind were more at peace when it all sounded crap

 

[grindstone]

They forgot to say that, once your gear is approaching satisfactory, you progressively lose more of your hearing

One thing that works with close neighbors is just forgoing a lot of low-frequency reproduction. It is often popular to use small (3"-6") single driver systems in modest spaces with low-volume requirements. By their nature, they do not dig deep (which is what carries through walls and annoys neighbors). Also counter-intuitive, are horn-loaded systems which are similarly LF-challenged unless they get enormous (too big to fit for most) like Klipsch LaScalas. Enormous speakers can often be more effortless than the tiny ones and there are proponents of each.

Don't worry about the gear or the budget or other opinions of your own gear--trust your ears and stay modest on expenditures and listen to everything you can. If you are inclined to be more "hands-on", consider kits as another way to try things more economically.

Either way, there are lots of great people in audio so congrats on taking your dive into the fun!

PS: You get to listen to a lot of good music, too!

 

[ssf]

and now I am trying to figure out the bottle ...

You should stop here. Once this is done, things will vastly improve. This is the secret of "ascending" into audiophilia.

 

[johnnyaud]

Just saying. One descends to become an audiophile and not ascend. Becoming an audiophile is like marriage. Either you will never be happy with your equipment or your equipment will demand better treatment from you, better rooms, larger rooms costly audio jewellery and lot of pampering like exotic necklaces in the form of cables, costly shoes which will isolate vibrations. There will be many one night stands with someone elses equipment which will make you doubt your current equipment, leading to costly divorces with your equipments. This will be an endless saga till (IF) one day suddenly under a bodhi tree you will realize "Yeh audio shaudio Sab Moh Maya Hai"
View attachment 82608

I'm that one bachelor friend that doesn't want to get married hearing such horror from my married friends. But I'm still a man at the end of the day and clinging to a hope that maybe 'meri wali alag hogi'
I don't think I could stop myself from upgrading if I could. I'm a pc enthusiast (and picking a wood working hobby) and there is already a lot of gear to upgrade but hopefully it doesn't come to that (fingers crossed)
I still want to build a pair of bookshelves at least when my budget allows. I tried for a beginner kit like c note and overnight sensation by getting just their parts and building the cabinets myself. Thankfully (or not) most of the stuff is not available in India.

 

[johnnyaud]

They forgot to say that, once your gear is approaching satisfactory, you progressively lose more of your hearing

One thing that works with close neighbors is just forgoing a lot of low-frequency reproduction. It is often popular to use small (3"-6") single driver systems in modest spaces with low-volume requirements. By their nature, they do not dig deep (which is what carries through walls and annoys neighbors). Also counter-intuitive, are horn-loaded systems which are similarly LF-challenged unless they get enormous (too big to fit for most) like Klipsch LaScalas. Enormous speakers can often be more effortless than the tiny ones and there are proponents of each.

Don't worry about the gear or the budget or other opinions of your own gear--trust your ears and stay modest on expenditures and listen to everything you can. If you are inclined to be more "hands-on", consider kits as another way to try things more economically.

Either way, there are lots of great people in audio so congrats on taking your dive into the fun!

PS: You get to listen to a lot of good music, too!

Thank you.
I don't have a good(trained) ear and I'd hope to experience most of it before the ears mature.

It's really life's biggest conundrum, You don't have money when you are young and you don't have good ears to experience the best of it when you do get money.

Thankfully I don't have a neighbor problem and my soon to be home office is isolated and has 9" masonry walls but I don't have a budget Or need for large speakers...for now.
I have always loved wooden accent over the commercial black look that most consumer loudspeakers tend to have.
I'd loooove to build my own with a kit or build the cabinets by getting a parts only kit.
Overnight sensation(from diyaudiocart) was my best bet to get a kit with a reasonable price under my budget but they don't have either mt or mtm in stock and no sign of restocking but I'll keep an eye out.
I'd love to know about any other kit that I can build in my budget.

 

[ssf]

@johnnyaud

Welcome to the forum. Wishing you the best.

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

meri wali alag hogi

You’d be all right as long as you stick to that. It’s ’meri wali better/best hogi’ that gets you into problem as most of us tend confuse ‘different’ with ‘better’ when it comes to sound (as to other things in life).

I don't have a good(trained) ear and I'd hope to experience most of it before the ears mature.

Well, the ear has two different connotations in this hobby. The literal (hearing) - which will keep deteriorating with age, but the figurative (ear for music and sound) that keeps developing. It actually helps having less disposable income early on while the latter is still developing, so you don’t make costly mistakes (of commission and especially, decommission).

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

I'm that one bachelor friend that doesn't want to get married hearing such horror from my married friends. But I'm still a man at the end of the day and clinging to a hope that maybe 'meri wali alag hogi'
I don't think I could stop myself from upgrading if I could. I'm a pc enthusiast (and picking a wood working hobby) and there is already a lot of gear to upgrade but hopefully it doesn't come to that (fingers crossed)
I still want to build a pair of bookshelves at least when my budget allows. I tried for a beginner kit like c note and overnight sensation by getting just their parts and building the cabinets myself. Thankfully (or not) most of the stuff is not available in India.

There is a centuries old saying in telugu, which when translated means "Sab ko khud ke bacche, aur bagal wali biwi achi lagti hai"

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Thank you.
I don't have a good(trained) ear and I'd hope to experience most of it before the ears mature.

It's really life's biggest conundrum, You don't have money when you are young and you don't have good ears to experience the best of it when you do get money.

Thankfully I don't have a neighbor problem and my soon to be home office is isolated and has 9" masonry walls but I don't have a budget Or need for large speakers...for now.
I have always loved wooden accent over the commercial black look that most consumer loudspeakers tend to have.
I'd loooove to build my own with a kit or build the cabinets by getting a parts only kit.
Overnight sensation(from diyaudiocart) was my best bet to get a kit with a reasonable price under my budget but they don't have either mt or mtm in stock and no sign of restocking but I'll keep an eye out.
I'd love to know about any other kit that I can build in my budget.

Going DIY is hugely satisfying. And DIY'ers never had it better until now. Quality class D amplification and DSP for active crossovers is really reasonably priced these days. Stick to established build plans on Troels, diyaudio.com etc sites. Dont deviate from the plans, or the drivers used. And you will get a great sounding active speaker for 1/4 the price of an equivalent performing commercially made speaker. I will only ever buy speakers which are difficult to build like electrostatics or omnidirectionals ( MBL ). But the usual dynamic driver speakers can be easily built with the vast knowledge resources accessible for free on forums like diyaudio etc. Just dont expect them to perform at wilson audio etc levels and all will be fine in the world again

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

There is a centuries old saying in telugu, which when translated means "Sab ko khud ke bacche, aur bagal wali biwi achi lagti hai"

And in audiophilia, DIY is akin to ‘khud ke bachche’… one is always proud of them!