Would you look at that lol, also travelling. But I think I can give my answer now, since it’s pretty simple.
For my main speaker setup, that is my endgame and will always be my endgame. Only time I actually feel comfortable using the word endgame in fact lol. The only thing I might change about that setup is upgrading to the newest top antipodes when it comes out. That’s pretty much it. Speakers, amps, preamps, iso/racks, cabling, are pretty much set in stone for me. At this point same with the dac too, but I might upgrade it later on if a better totaldac comes out in the future.
In terms of how it sounds, best I can describe it as just overall real, it’s good enough that I can get away with using the term lol. I guess it’s probably a bit sweeter than real, but it’s so accurate in the time domain that it still feels real regardless despite having a bit of extra coloration that makes tonality and presentation a bit tilted sweeter.
For the headphone setup, I’d say that’s pretty much my limit for what I want as well. I don’t think it’s as set in stone as the speaker setup, but I still really like it. For what might change, I’m not really sure lol. I might end up slotting in another preamp into that setup more suited toward the Aries cerat (probably an impera ii) and maybe bump the power amp to a concero 65, but I don’t really know if that would be worth the extra cash. I’ll definitely get the top tier mass kobo eventually lol. Still on the fence about selling the ec studio t. Headphone wise I’m also pretty locked in unless there’s an upgrade to what I have that comes out, although been considering also selling off the adx5k but can’t bring myself to do it lol, potentially replaced by a higher end limited edition at in the future, don’t know. On speakers are definitely locked in here though, no desire for anything different there.
Sound wise, there’s a lot more potential variance depending on what I use in the setup, but I think it’s consistently high directness, high dynamics for whatever I’m using. Generally anything used with the horizon is also pretty spatially massive and enveloping, just extremely immersive. Picking the AFM offers a bit more relaxed in presentation and a bit more warmth and richness while still maintaining the directness and liveliness of the lower level information, still great control, very organic and liquid. Swapping to the concero offers a much more massive, grander, forward, quick and macro almost heavy handed approach while still being very organic and extremely technical. Both 2 very different experiences that are equally worthwhile depending on pairing and what I want out of the setup lol. The berk to mk chain is something I use more out of convenience, but it’s also a very accurate reference chain that I think is honestly less colored than my main HP chain, nowhere near as good/realistic, not as enjoyable, but I think it can still be valuable enough to keep around for when I’m questioning what a recording is exactly doing, or when I’m lazy which is mainly why I use it lol.
I do have my current fuck around setup listed now, which will probably change around, but I won’t count that.
TLDR: my endgame is mostly what I have, just extremely satisfied, only upgrades or changes I would want to make is if there’s direct upgrades to what I already have. I don’t have much to say on all of it because I don’t think I really have the capacity to actually put what I’m hearing to words in my setups anymore lol, and I’m not making any other changes in the setup outside of upgrading to something that’s the same but better
I’ve also been quiet for the past few months since I’ve been working on a few projects, my preamp comparison, another front page article, and getting demos in of random stuff I wanted to check out and making some notes on that, so that’s taken my time and energy that would typically be used for forum posting lol
I could go on about how I feel like the concept of “endgame” is highly variable and somewhat of a both highly misused and highly personal phrase, always irritates me just like the phrase diminishing returns does. But I’ll just treat the question more as asking about how you feel about your current setups and status in the hobby, rather than how would you define the term endgame and all the stuff that goes around that lol.
