Category: Audio Enthusiasts

Interviews made by yours truly to audio enthusiasts around the world.

Audio Enthusiasts – Vitor Valeri – Environmental Health.

Rafael aka JourPT

Vitor Valeri is someone I respect a lot in the headphone community, mostly because he’s the guy behind “Fones the Ouvido High-End” a Brazilian facebook group dedicated to headphones.
As a administrator he gives a lot to the community and asks nothing in return so this is my way of paying back to him.
 
1. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
I´’m 25 years old and have a bachelors degree in environmental health.
My hobbies are: read about technology – computers, photography, TV, Headphones, among others -, read Manga, read about Japanese culture, watching anime and taking photos.

 2. What music do you enjoy and why?
I enjoy soundtracks from anime, movies, TV series, because besides reminding me about the works, the songs are very well executed.
I enjoy classical music because I like instrumental songs, mainly of stringed instruments.
I enjoy jazz and blues, but there isn’t an apparent motive that justifies my taste for that style. I simply enjoy it.
I enjoy rock, with preference for older bands, classic and also melodic rock. I hear that style when I want a more energetic music.

 3. Why are you enthusiastic about audio?
I enjoy audio because it’s a thing that relaxes me, that brings me good memories, that makes me feel good. Besides that it’s because I like technology in general and enjoy always searching for the best.
In the end I got interested in that area because of a headphone related group that I frequented in Orkut, I started researching more and more about the subject and I never stopped since then. I always organized things about audio: groups in social network, meetings, sites, etc.

 4. What audio gear do you use?
My audio gear is a JH5 custom in-ear and a Cowon J3 Mp3 player that sometimes I use together with my Cmoy 18V amplifier.

5. What would be your perfect audio gear setup?
I don’t crave one unique gear, I think about having one or two in-ear headphones (For now I crave the JH Angie custom in-ear) and 3 other headphones (ATH-W3000ANV, Sennheiser HD600, Stax SR-007). I think like that because one headphone in the majority of times doesn’t play all songs well and also there are times one desires a different sound (Relaxed, analytical or in-between).

6. What is your favorite format for audio and why?
I use 320kbps MP3s a lot and my favorite albums I hear in FLAC.
One of the motives for me to use MP3s is because there isn’t so much difference between the later and FLAC in the great majority of the songs I hear.

Interview conducted in 04/01/2016 translated to English from Portuguese. 

The concept behind Audio Enthusiasts was inspired from the amazing My Linux Rig. If you want to get interviewed drop me a line on my Tumblr, or viaTwitter.

Audio Enthusiasts – Helmuth Lageschaar – Electronic Engineer.

Rafael aka JourPT

Helmuth is a Dutch electronic engineer with some mighty skills with the soldering iron and spectacular loudpeaker designs, I really advise a visit to his blog to enjoy his projects.

1. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
Yes I would.

2. What music do you enjoy and why?
Music I like all styles. I listen to everything that has quality. My taste is pop and that converts to Jazz en blues now. Because I know my favourite popsongs by now.

3. Why are you enthusiastic about audio?
From childhood my father was repairing TV’s he was very interested in video. But we had great audio gear to that had my passion. In the seventies we listen to local illegal radio stations on Sunday. In my home town we had “Radio Central” the name came from wired radio home to home central radio system.

4. What audio gear do you use?
Diy tube amp own design. DAB tuner Sansui. Philips DVD SACD. Thorens TD124 Turntable and my own speakers of course.

5. What would be your perfect audio gear setup?
My perfect audio set would be my hybrid tube amp, speakers and my own turntable that i have in mind to build. Vinyl gives to most emotion when playing the best format.

6. What is your favorite format for audio and why?
Like i said vinyl, I did compare. The same song from vinyl en CD and also did compare it as Mp3 file. The emotion soundstage is a extra layer of vinyl recordings. I have new LP’s as from Jose James. It sounds like Mp3 from LP.
I have sixties recordings from LP and CD they are absolute much better then seventies recordings and up.
I found a recording engineer on Youtube. He explained in the sixties they documented a performance. Now they mix a song. You miss the room information en the group standing performing. It is emotionless.

Interview conducted 03/01/2016 

The concept behind Audio Enthusiasts was inspired from the amazing My Linux Rig. If you want to get interviewed drop me a line on my Tumblr, or via Twitter.

Audio Enthusiasts – Hasafraker – US Marine.

Rafael aka JourPT


I found Hasafraker on Tumblr because we both enjoy DIY electronics, he has a really cool tumblr you should checkout if possible.
Vinyl lovers should also give him a visit 🙂 just saying!

1. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m kind of just a regular guy, I live in Ohio, I’ve lived all over the US. I was born and raised on the west coast starting in Southern California. I’m a US Marine. I love to ride motorcycles, I currently own two, a BMW K1200RS and a Ducati Monster 696. I’ve been in love with electronics since I was a kid. The first thing I ever built was a strobe light, it was really cool, my parents hated it lol.

2. What music do you enjoy and why?
My first love is jazz or smooth female vocals. I love old big band stuff too, lots of classic jazz and blues. I love old classic rock, I have recently rediscovered classic rock. Music is food for your soul, I really believe that without music the world would be a very sad place.

3. Why are you enthusiastic about audio?
I have been a bit of an audio nut my entire life I just didn’t realize it till I was in my 20’s. Music is like an old friend, it always has time for me, is always there to comfort me, doesn’t ask any more than for me to just listen. I learned a long time ago to LISTEN to the music don’t just HEAR it. There is a difference! I love recordings that are done really well, that if you have a very detailed setup and a quiet listening environment, you can hear little details like fingers sliding on strings, Louis Armstrong clearing his voice between sets, Dave Brubeck laughing about something in the studio with Paul Desmond, I love hearing these little details buried in the recording, it’s like sharing that moment with them, being the proverbial fly on the wall.

4. What audio gear do you use?
Lots of my gear is tube based. All of my tube gear was hand built by me. If I had to pick a favorite single piece of gear that I’m particularly fond of it would be my Bottlehead Crack OTL Headphone amp with Speedball upgrade, add to that my Sennheizer HD600’s and so long as your source is clean… it’s quite amazing. My main system is Vinyl, a sweet little turn table from the guys at U-Turn Audio, I got it as a late Christmas gift from my wife just in time for my birthday hehe. An AT440MLA has groove duty, it’s a wonderful basic table which I feed to my Bottlehead Reduction Phono Preamp, to my Decware ZSP1 Preamp, which feeds my Nelson Pass Class A Amp Camp Amps (dual monos) which are pretty amazing in their own right. The final bit are the speakers that I finished this year, a kit from Parts Express, the TriTrix MTM TL floor standing speakers. I love them. There is a great deal of satisfaction in listening to a system that I built almost completely by hand.

5. What would be your perfect audio gear setup?
Hmm honestly I don’t know if such a thing exists, I’m pretty sure in Audio, the perfect system would be our Unicorn LOL a mythical creature with magic powers able to reproduce sound exactly as it was meant to be heard. However…  I wouldn’t mind having like some old school Klipsch horns and a nice power amp, maybe tube maybe solid state, no haters here. I think it would definitely have to be a vinyl system, or maybe a nice reel to reel.

6. What is your favorite format for audio and why?
Hmm this is a fun one, I may get blasted lol. I LOVE my vinyl, I also LOVE ripping my vinyl to mp3 so I can have it at work. I think each format has merit. Vinyl for me just sounds …right, I don’t want to make any fantastic claims here, it just sounds the best to my ears

7. Would you like to share some photos of your audio gear?
I would love to. I have attached some pictures of various bits that I’ve made over the years.

 

 

 

Interview conducted 22/06/2014

The concept behind Audio Enthusiasts was inspired from the amazing My Linux Rig. If you want to get interviewed drop me a line on my Tumblr, or via Twitter.

Audio Enthusiasts – Internetsandman – Welder.

Rafael aka JourPT


Internetsandman shares my love for FLAC audio files and Schiit audio products, that portable gear looks really sweet.

1. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m a Canadian welder working full time, currently waiting to go back to school for my trade to advance my career. I’m also really into videogames, they occupy a fair amount of my time when I’m not at work, though I definitely play less than I used to.

2. What music do you enjoy and why?
Classical, modern orchestral, and jazz music are my favourites in general, along with rock and alternative music. I also highly enjoy some music in languages other than English, even though I can’t understand the lyrics

3. Why are you enthusiastic about audio?
I love listening to music, and the more of my music I can hear, the better. High end audio can let you hear and feel more of the sound, the detail and texture of the sound can be incredibly enjoyable. Quite often I will actually procrastinate on things I should do, or even other things I want to do, simply so I can keep listening to the music

4. What audio gear do you use?
At home I have an Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card in my PC, and that drives a set of Sennheiser HD 650 headphones

When I’m at work or on transit, I use an iBasso HDP-R10, more commonly known as a DX100, to drive a set of Unique Melody Miracle custom-IEM’s

5. What would be your perfect audio gear setup?
I would love to own a Schiit Yggdrasil and Ragnarok DAC/amp setup and use that to drive a set of HiFiMan HE-6 headphones. Hell, if I have the money down the line, I might even dedicate a room in my future house to listening to that setup undisturbed, bringing in a laptop, sitting on a comfortable chair, maybe with a nice drink, and just enjoying my music as I browse the internet and chat online

6. What is your favorite format for audio and why?
FLAC, simply because it’s the most used format and thus almost everything designed for quality music listening is compatible with it, both hardware and software, so it’s less to think about when it’s all the same. That being said, I’ve definitely had issues setting up a network server due to incompatibility with server software and FLAC music files

7. Would you like to share some photos of your audio gear? 
Oh definitely!

 

 

Interview conducted 21/06/2014

The concept behind Audio Enthusiasts was inspired from the amazing My Linux Rig. If you want to get interviewed drop me a line on my Tumblr, or via Twitter.

Audio Enthusiasts – Rob Leroy – RF engineer.

Rafael aka JourPT

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Rob Leroy is a engineer by trade, this means he has a professional insight about audio that only professionals have and its something that shows in his own writings.
I really respect his words so this interview was a true joy to make.
Btw Rob your Pioneer gear is a beauty, they don’t make them like that anymore.

1. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
Sure.  I grew up in New England and lived there until about ten years ago. I now live here in Ohio with my wife, Ann. I’m a dad and granddad. My day job is in RF engineering. My kids think I should retire to devote full time to writing and photography which I enjoy. But my first passion has always been audio.

2. What music do you enjoy and why?
I listen to classical and jazz primarily because it is the music I grew up with. These recordings tend to be done with more care to detail and are less often overproduced. I love rock and folk, too, but that is a different experience for me. There is nothing wrong with cranking it up to 11 and losing yourself in the fury.

3. Why are you enthusiastic about audio?
It’s all my dad’s fault. I grew up surrounded by my dad’s hi-fi gear back in the 1950’s. His day job was to produce musical programs for figure skaters and way back then, he had to pretty much build his audio system from scratch. As a young lad, I was fascinated by the music and the sound and the science. Ever since then, listening to well-recorded and reproduced music has been a transcendent experience for me.

In the last few years, there has been an explosion of new audio technologies and products. Some of these are truly revolutionary. But others are nothing less than fraudulent. It offends me to see these purveyors of audio snake oil preying on the (many) inexperienced newcomers to the hobby. Stop talking about sound as if it were wine.

4. What audio gear do you use?
Back in New England I used to have my own home studio devoted to recording and producing for local talent before it became so simple for artists to do all that for themselves. But frankly I did not listen to music for the sheer joy that I do now. I have always been partial to vintage gear because manufacturers used to put their value into performance instead of cosmetics. My listening room presently consists of vintage Pioneer gear (top to bottom) SX-1280 receiver / RT-707 open reel deck / PL-518 turntable with an Audio-Technica AT120E cartridge / CT-F 1000 cassette deck.

For speakers (not shown),a double pair of “New” advents.

OK. OK. I also do have a Sony CD player. Ugh.

5. What would be your perfect audio gear setup?
It’s not so much about the setup. Linearity and dynamic range electronics are abundant nowadays and can be measured objectively. The real issues are source material, transducers, and acoustics in the listening environment. Even if cost were no object I would not waste good money on “warm tube sound” or goofy 10K$ turntables or speakers that look like a brass band. The laws of acoustics (and psychoacoustics) are what they are. Get used to it.

Give me two high quality front channels, and a  simple “A minus B” ambience recovery channel above and to the sides. Done. The whole system (turntable / cartridge / amplification / speakers / ) should not set you back more than $2500. The listening room acoustics are another matter.

6. What is your favorite format for audio and why?
This is a trick question Raphael! There is a place and time for them all. I have a ton of (mediocre) MP3 files that I love to listen to around the house when I am cooking a fabulous dish for my lovely wife. I also have a ton of lossless digital files that I enjoy usually with headphones late in the evening. But when I really want the whole enchilada I put on vinyl and let the Advents sing. Goosebumps.

7. Would you like to share some photos of your audio gear?
FYI / if you would like more sage audio abuse advice like the above interview, feel free to visit my tumblr audio blog.

Interview conducted 21/06/2014

The concept behind Audio Enthusiasts was inspired from the amazing My Linux Rig. If you want to get interviewed drop me a line on my Tumblr, or via Twitter.