Newbie - Clueless and Broke

TomRob62 · « **on:** 18 Mar 2016, 01:29 am »

Greetings,
My name is Tom (in my head I'm hearing a rousing chorus of "Hi Tom) and I like to listen to music. I've been "out of the game" for the most part, been travelling the world for the last 25 years and couldn't see the benefit of a good stereo, given my circumstances. I always promised myself a good setup when I settled down but now that i have, I'm left with the undeniable fact that I'm broke.

How I found this site - I started a discussion with Dennis Murphy, who used to modify the Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers. I thought I had a great deal on some of those speakers (turns out the store cancelled my order) and I thought of diverting them to Dennis, have him do the mod, and then have him ship them to me. Turns out shipping killed the deal. Dennis linked me to MCM_Fan's write up of Dennis' mod in Cheap and Cheerful Hi-Fi and I thought to myself - this is my kind of place.

So here I am to test the axiom "There are no stupid questions"

Cheers,
Tom

JerryM · « **Reply #1 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 01:56 am »

Cool! Welcome to AudioCircle, Tom.

ArthurDent · « **Reply #2 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 02:46 am »

Greetings & Welcome to AC Tom

Phil A · « **Reply #3 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 02:48 am »

Welcome to AC! - There are alternatives. Where are you located?

Letitroll98 · « **Reply #4 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 03:04 am »

Hey Tom, welcome. Yes, the cheap and cheerful circle is your home here. We specialize in limited funds stereo, in fact it's a rule that you can't spend too much, $1000 is the limit for a complete system. Dennis has a new affordable monitor, not the Pioneer, but rather the Dayton speaker. And GR Research has done cheap kits.

brooklyn · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 05:07 am »

TomRob62 · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 08:07 am »

Quote from: Phil A on 18 Mar 2016, 02:48 am

Welcome to AC! - There are alternatives. Where are you located?

South Florida - not by choice - my son's medical care took us here

TomRob62 · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 08:10 am »

Quote from: Letitroll98 on 18 Mar 2016, 03:04 am

Hey Tom, welcome. Yes, the cheap and cheerful circle is your home here. We specialize in limited funds stereo, in fact it's a rule that you can't spend too much, $1000 is the limit for a complete system. Dennis has a new affordable monitor, not the Pioneer, but rather the Dayton speaker. And GR Research has done cheap kits.

Thanks - yes I've heard nothing but GREAT reviews on Dennis' latest AA monitor. I'll have to check out GR research. I USED to be pretty handy with a soldering iron - woodworking...not so much

Guy 13 · « **Reply #8 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 10:28 am »

A warm welcome to AudioCircle Mr. Tom

Guy 13

TrungT · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 12:32 pm »

Welcome to AC

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #10 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 12:41 pm »

No prob Tom information here is free.

mresseguie · « **Reply #11 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 01:06 pm »

Hi, Tom.

World traveling is a wonderful drug - I know it well.

Much can be accomplished with few funds. Buying used doubles, triples, and sometimes quadruples your buying power. There are very inexpensive integrated amps fully able to power great sounding second hand speakers.

Good luck!

Michael

JLM · « **Reply #12 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 01:25 pm »

Hi Tom

Now-a-days lots of low cost/relatively high quality options exist:

- Spotify or Tidal to access millions of songs with no money down
- Using your existing computer (or smart phone with Wolfson DAC built-in) as a source/source-DAC
- Good quality DAC's are available starting at $100 (Audioquest Dragonfly or Schiit Modi/Modi Uber)
- Good quality cables need not cost much (such as Blue Jean Cables)
- Headphones (10 times cheaper than comparable speakers)
- DIY (Pi computer sourcing, Madisound/Parts Express, buying speaker plans)
- Vintage (old classic stereo receivers are being dumped for multi-channel HDMI equipped new ones)

dB Cooper · « **Reply #13 on:** 18 Mar 2016, 02:56 pm »

Welcome, TomRob.

Re Dennis Murphy- check his site, he is now "modding" a different mini-monitor since the Pioneer pricing situation made that option untenable. It's a homely piece from Parts Express, but who cares- having heard Dennis' modded Pioneers, I'll bet it kicks a**.

JLM makes a number of good suggestions.... A headphone dollar, properly chosen, buys you at least 10x the "fi" of a speaker dollar. A stereo receiver from a pawnshop, or eBay, or a yard sale etc will get the job done. There may even be a member here who has something collecting dust in their basement that would help begin a "Cheap and Cheerful" system.

If money is real tight, skip even 'moderately' priced "high end" cables. The impact of cabling on overall system sound is, to put it mildly, exaggerated IMHO and not an optimum way to allocate tight resources. (This subject is a whole different dead horse.)

Get your cables from Amazon or Monoprice, at least for now. They work just fine. You can always buy boutique cables later if you want.

Welcome to AC and enjoy yourself here. I for one would be interested to see what you come up with.

TomRob62 · « **Reply #14 on:** 19 Mar 2016, 12:04 pm »

Quote from: dB Cooper on 18 Mar 2016, 02:56 pm

Welcome, TomRob.

Re Dennis Murphy- check his site, he is now "modding" a different mini-monitor since the Pioneer pricing situation made that option untenable. It's a homely piece from Parts Express, but who cares- having heard Dennis' modded Pioneers, I'll bet it kicks a**.

I've heard nothing but great things about his current modded mini monitor, except, as you say, its no beauty queen. Do you know if those mods are public domain? I could probably tackle that project seeing as how my woodworking skills primarily consist of gluing.

dB Cooper · « **Reply #15 on:** 20 Mar 2016, 12:33 pm »

Someone published a photo how-to on the Pioneer mod and I believe Dennis vetted it. That one was a little more intricate as it did involve some cabinet work to accommodate the tweeter substitution. The PE- based system AFAIK simply involves a crossover revision and some extra cabinet damping, and thus no woodworking. Since you indicate you can solder, you'd only need the appropriate parts and a good set of instructions.

Dennis' modded price is barely more than the bone-stock version- he presumably is getting at least something of a quantity break in his purchasing. So unless you already have a pair that you want to "mod" yourself, it probably would make more sense to buy from him- unless it might work for him to offer a "kit" version with everything you need to accomplish the "mod" and save himself the labor time. The speaker comes from PE as a kit anyway, with a preassembled cabinet, requiring only mounting and connecting the crossover and drivers. Don't know if he'll see this, but you could always contact him through the Philharmonic website and ask.

Phil A · « **Reply #16 on:** 20 Mar 2016, 01:23 pm »

Don't forget places like Craigslist. I'm a few hours north of you.

orientalexpress · « **Reply #17 on:** 20 Mar 2016, 01:32 pm »

welcome to AC,the best and honest audio site on the net

TomRob62 · « **Reply #18 on:** 20 Mar 2016, 02:25 pm »

Quote from: dB Cooper on 20 Mar 2016, 12:33 pm

Someone published a photo how-to on the Pioneer mod and I believe Dennis vetted it. That one was a little more intricate as it did involve some cabinet work to accommodate the tweeter substitution. The PE- based system AFAIK simply involves a crossover revision and some extra cabinet damping, and thus no woodworking. Since you indicate you can solder, you'd only need the appropriate parts and a good set of instructions.

Dennis' modded price is barely more than the bone-stock version- he presumably is getting at least something of a quantity break in his purchasing. So unless you already have a pair that you want to "mod" yourself, it probably would make more sense to buy from him- unless it might work for him to offer a "kit" version with everything you need to accomplish the "mod" and save himself the labor time. The speaker comes from PE as a kit anyway, with a preassembled cabinet, requiring only mounting and connecting the crossover and drivers. Don't know if he'll see this, but you could always contact him through the Philharmonic website and ask.

yes Dennis actually linked me to the how-to, awfully nice of him. And we discussed his new AA monitors. The problem is shipping. He obviously can't offer free shipping but PE often has sales/discounts/free shipping so, not knowing the costs of the crossover upgrade, still figure I could shave 20% off the shipped price from Dennis. I do feel bad about picking his brain and that not ordering anything but, on the other hand, I do tell everyone that will listen about his site/speakers so maybe instant karma won't get me on this one!
Cheers

dB Cooper · « **Reply #19 on:** 20 Mar 2016, 03:06 pm »

I don't know whether Dennis' crossover is a complete drop-in or a mod of the existing board (I suspect the latter), but he definitely isn't doing this project to make money so maybe he'd consider publishing instructions or having whoever put the Pioneer instructions together do it. I watched the Parts Express assembly video and the project looks really easy.

It's not ugly but nobody would mistake it for, say, a Salk product. I hope Dennis comes back to Capital Audiofest this year and brings a pair along.