Introducing My Living room Hi-Fi System @ Summer 2011

【Audio System Configuration – Summer 2011】
Main System｜Sub System

It feels like I haven’t written a single audio entry since restarting this little Hi-Fi blog, so I thought it might be time to introduce where things currently stand with the AudioStyle author’s Hi-Fi and PC audio setup.

As of 2011… here is a rough overview of the audio systems currently at home…

1） Living Room Main System
2） Study Sub System A
3） Study Sub System B
4） Study Sub System C
5） Bedroom Sub System D
6） Desktop PC Audio
7） Car Audio

Something like that. There are actually quite a few other pieces of gear that didn’t make the cut and have been quietly retired, sitting stacked in some corner of a room — or perhaps not. I say this myself, but: just how much audio equipment does one person need… That said, since I have a preference for small, compact products, I own almost nothing that would be called high-end — none of those ultra-luxury or large, heavy items. And that, I keep telling myself, is precisely why I manage to get by at all.

The basic concept behind all of these compact systems is the same: cheap, small, and soft. The “soft” part — I’m not entirely sure what I mean by it myself, so please don’t worry about it. What matters more is musicality — that is the crucial thing. With audio, musicality comes first; sound quality, honestly, is secondary. The goal is that once you put on a CD, the music becomes so enjoyable you simply cannot stop.

And then there is the appeal as gadgets, perhaps? Tastes will naturally vary, but particularly with Hi-Fi components, I do love that quality — a restrained sense of luxury and refinement that works as interior décor and furniture alike, beautiful even as the years pass and things grow a little worn. That is the kind of atmosphere I am drawn to.

In the case of desktop PC audio, there is the added constraint of having a PC and monitor present, so the priorities shift somewhat: being even more compact than the small Hi-Fi systems, and being well suited to mixed audio-visual use — music, voice, sound effects and the like — at low volume and lower bit rates on a computer.

As a way of keeping Hi-Fi and PC audio completely separate while still connecting them, I have been thinking it would be nice if something like a network audio player or iPod dock — ideally one capable of wireless digital transfer — could be added to allow the two worlds to coexist, those two that really ought not to be mixed. For now, though, it remains at the stage of an idea forming in my head. The YAMAHA NP-S2000, with its slim design that I rather like, would solve the problem in one go — except that the price is, well… That said, as a realistic option for emerging from the Urashima Tarō state of being two years out of the loop, the ONKYO DAC-1000 might be the more sensible choice.

Right, that is quite enough preamble — from the next entry onward, I will be introducing the sound system setups across systems 1) through 7).

【Audio System Configuration – Summer 2011】
Main System｜Sub System