I recently picked up 4 used gik 244 panels to use for ceiling treatment for basically the price of 1 new one. But honestly, I think the talk with an another local audiophile user was worth more than the purchase than the actual item I came for lol. Talking to someone that actually owns $100K+ gears and have heard a lot of really great gears really taught me where I am at in my journey is some where I should stop. He told me a lot of pitfalls he experienced over the last 35+ years as a speaker audiophile and the different type of setup. He answered all my audio related questions and even informed me a lot of tricks I never knew about. 1 of the main thing I learned from talking with him is that I should never lose focus of the music. After that, we talked a lot about room treatment, different type of speakers, speakers measurement and room measurement, subwoofers, and instead of looking for upgrades, I should just focus on side grade to just try and maybe sell later while still keeping my main setup.
After the meaningful talk, he got me pointed what I think is a good direction in my audiophile journey. It’s also nice to talk to someone that actual knows the Mon Acoustic Platimon VC One. He told me some subwoofer that he recommend based on my speaker and room size and even told me about an obscure subwoofer brand that blow his mind that I should try one day and even maybe own if I ever get a large room one day. He told me the Platimon drop off point on bass in my room (at least the average graph) and how I should approach integrating a sub on it. So now I got a good reliable sub in my mind to own as the next purchase and I was taught a little trick on integrating the sub a lot easier in my room. No more upgrades from me, he really know his stuff and it feels great hearing someone praise on the equipment I currently have. Where I am at with my gear, I am very happy where I am at and he probably notice it when I talked about my gear and how much fun I am having rolling tubes on the Supratek. It can get better like everything in life if I go for an upgrade, but I will feel a lot of regret if I go further especially where I am at in life. If I have to ask myself before I purchase it if it’s worth it, it’s probably not worth it. The only real last upgrades for me is power conditioner, finishing the last bit of interconnect cables/power cables/speaker cables, and a new audio rack and I’m done. For the side gears for me to try and maybe keep if I really like for my main setup is a specific class A solid state amp that I always did wanted to try even before meeting him. The talk was really meaningful and it was something I needed. Really appreciate the local NC audiophiles, really good people!
I pre-ordered the FatFreq X HBB Deuce back in late July, it arrived today.
I had been looking at Fat Freq but was hesitant to order a $1800 IEM from outside of the likes of a Bloom Audio, Headphones-dot-com or other well known retailers. So, when I saw this collaboration go up I went for it as an inexpensive introduction to the brand and customer service and get a feel for if I wanted to go deeper into their line-up in the future.
Still very new and with less than a couple hours run time but I think I like the IEM for what I spent on it. The cable though is microphonic as hell, so it will need to be replaced. As for other impressions I think it will be fine for the use case I intend it to be - my go for walks IEM and matched up with a similiar class (by my definition) DAP like the little Hiby R4 I have, tho right now I do have working off an iBasso DX260 becuase that’s what was next to me.
Sound:
The treble is nice not too spicy but not dulled. I like it and I can be a bit sensitive. If you’re a treble lover this probably isn’t your cup of tea. The mids are clean, open natural, with instruments, male and female vocals sounding good to me. There is a nice transition from bass to lower mids that add some definition and distinction to bass notes and rhythm section impacts. The sub bass is nice but not overly present or clouding up the presentation. It is an over used term and one that is more and more falling in as a default use - but I would say this is a “Fun” set. Still my first impression of less than two hours and just spot checking some tracks randomly.
I don’t work from home anymore, so I’ve started shifting more of my attention into the IEM world (and “meta”.) IER-Z1R arrived not too long ago and there’s also a Deuce, S12 (2024), Wan’er, and Mega5EST en route .
*Forgot I also got a little bear mc103 for $15 at a used bookstore.
I’m still waiting for my pair to ship. Fatfreq definitely has had some issues with logistics and shipping for this release. I was order number 96 and I chose the fastest Shipping method , and yet my pair hasn’t even shipped out.
The shipping process is indeed painful buying from FatFreq directly for sure. There’s also a lack of correlation between your spot in the que based on order confirmation and the order items actually get shipped.
yolo’d some room treatment from a local guy on USAM, all GIK Acoustics…
(6) 242 Acoustic Panels: 24 x 48 x 6 (these are custom depth, normally 3.6” deep)
(3) 242 panels on stands
(4) T70 Scopus Bass Traps
(2) T40 Scopus Bass Traps
Plan theoretically is for the 6 traps to be stacked behind the speakers (either straight behind or corners, we’ll see) and then probably a pair of 242s on each side wall, a pair on the ceiling and the 3 with the stands behind the listening position since it’s a problematic wall to hang things on (office desk, door and built in closet on that wall).
It’s obviously not cherry picked to my room’s deficiencies but It’ll be an interesting start and testing ground. Around a 1/3 of the actual cost GIK would’ve asked for and he’ll deliver it to my house too
Nice dude, thats really sick! Room treatment is the 2nd biggest impact I had on my speaker system. 1st biggest impact is the reserve for speaker placement. Hope you enjoy your newly transformed room when its done.
Playback Designs MPD-8 arrived today. Manual says to expect changes over the first 500 hours… burn in here we go! At least this DAC shows you how many hours you have historically played which is cool.
Lol they’re not really, the blue (which is bluer than I thought it’d be) makes Levante look a little brown in person. I would’ve preferred a different color (black, silver etc) if given the option
Not sure I follow how. Still using a pair of RCAs between DAC and amp as I’ve been doing for a long time now (previously XLRs of same cable).
Not seen in the photo are the Holo Red and FTA Sinope going into the DAC (with opticalmodule and Sonore LPSU before that). I’ll probably upgrade the source and power conditioning again over the next few months
Haha. That is a ridiculous amount. I bet 1/3 to 1/2 of it will be stored in your garage.
You’ll have a lot of experimentation in front of you, including how many of them you should put up. You don’t want to over-deaden your room as well.
In fact, one of my best purchases lately was getting a used wooden 2-D diffuser. Having some bounce originating from the center image just locked it in for me.
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