Michael Fremer | Stereophile
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- Michael Fremer, Editor of AnalogPlanet.com, and Contributing Editor to Stereophile, gives us a tour of his listening room and shares a few thoughts on the industry. Filmed September 2017 in Wyckoff, New Jersey.
Analog Planet: www.analogplanet.com
Analog Planet's RUclips channel: / 21stcenturyvinyl
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I have only cables. No amplifier, no turntables, no cds no nothing. Just cables. They're sound great. I can listen to them all day long.
Analog Planet please do it first
... schizophrenia or Self-Smothering.
lol, when your cables cost $18000 they reach spontaneous-resonance level
My cables are better than your cables. I don't even need to be in the same room as my cables to hear how much better they are. My cables haven't even got plugs on them to spoil the purity of their awesome sound - thats how superior my cables are - in fact my cables haven't even been unrolled off their real because doing that would make them sound awful.
lol Nigel, in fact his cables came straighten from the factory in a long truck, that's how ridicilous are these snake oil buying "reviewers"
This guy is nuts. You don't have to spend $18,000 on cables. You can get equally good sound for $12,500. Easy.
antoniobolgnameyerwe LOL
:D :D
Better for $17,999.99 (VAT and assurance included). 😁😁😁
His Wilson speakers cost more than my home!
@@jn3750 Sure!
I don't know if he pays with a mortgage on his own home or if he has received an enormous heritage from a parental. In the first case, most probably he'll be paying for the rest of his life, wich I desire long and happy.
You know you have a problem when you're taking out a mortgage to buy an amplifier.
I FOUND my amplifier while taking out the garbage!!!!
@@mikedo6 😂🤣😂😂🤣😂🤣 this is great
I had to check the price. I am sorry, but you don’t buy these on credit/loan. Trust fund baby.
yeah a monetary problem :))
His one out is he sorta does this for a living
The story of the stroke victim man that was aware that his collection was being sold for a $1 / record but could not speak left me heartbroken. Probably the biggest lesson I took from this tour...
I shall teach my wife about all my precious items, even if she doesn't understand.
Take care about your Blood pressure!!
AWEUWWJWEEHAEH2HAAE
It pisses me off that he didn't tell the stroke victim's wife about the records' value, even after he had bought them. I think that's a shitty thing to do, especially when that stroke victim is right there, losing his mind but unable to say anything about it. His life's collection getting sold for nothing.
The sale was being run by an estate sale firm and to have done that would have created quite a scene so I bit my tongue
Good heavens, I sincerely hope that you have an excellent water damage coverage by your insurance company.
Hell yeah!
Came here to say the same. The messes that I have had to make in mechanical rooms, goodness. Hot water tanks can and do burst on occasion, terrifies me to think of the damage on that.
Oh, he would just play his records wet. :)
That man is way ahead: I listen to music, he listens to CABLE.
...and he listens to music.
Try listening to music without cables
@@AnalogPlanet I'm sure somebody is fleecing audiophools with $10,000 Bluetooth receivers.
@@AnalogPlanet lol ye
@@DonMegaphone not me.
I will be scared with that water tank sitting aside that precious sounding room
I was just thinking about that like man can you imagine if that blew.
@@Zaes223 and they usually do eventually
@@trevorbraden5448 From personal experience they don't often explode usually they rust out and start to leak slowly but I've heard of them exploding.
@@Zaes223 yeah man didn't say they explode ...... the other guy did....... I was just meaning that they can bust open a bit and flood out your basement.... if had that happen..... it builds up all that calcium deposits in there also..... I would be nervous if it was me though...... thats some serious money....... or just one of the pipes breaking would be really bad.......
me too !!!
I’m sure you probably never look at comments from some of your old videos but just want to say how much I enjoyed this. I’m from England and you made it so interesting, amusing and matter of fact with great stories about your collection. It’s your money to spend and knowing the pleasure you can get listening to great music and artists I just appreciate what you have. Thank you and now I’m subscribed will keep watching you.
Some people buy yachts. This is just gentle madness but madness nonetheless. The reproduction gear is more sophisticated than the recording gear. It's nonsense. I used to own that level of equipment (Wilsons, Spectral, you name it); spent as much on audio as people spend on a house. Not anymore. It sounded great, no doubt, but it shifted my attention from the music to the sound. I've rediscovered the emotion of music by going back to cheap but clean gear. I own Schiit Audio and KEF LS-50 and I've got the goose bumps I had as a teenager. My kit costs less than one of my cables used to cost and I feel both happy about it and less of a manic fool.
Good on ya. Folks fail to realize how our senses are actually strongly about the mental processing which can magically accommodate road noise, garbage AM through cardboard speakers and make us "hear" the music. The realists who can establish clear double-blind tests repeatedly demonstrate the inability for many to even hear close to 20,000 Hz. I actually suspect the M cable industry was a bait-and-switch scheme, as I did find sonic differences between their less expensive cables - but the better sound was an even cheaper Radio Shack pair! It's a lot of insecurity displayed by rich posers, peacocking to impress others like them.
As someone who is just getting into the HIFI audio game, I found this to be a very insightful comment. Cheers for sharing your experiences
I could NOT get rid of all my marvels, instead I, like you, listen music with high musicality, low value, to keep up and working the real stuff that matters to me, some pretty vintage gear, by age not use that's it. I can enjoy listening to cheap gear while owning hi-fi marvels. Among audiophiles, nothing should surprise us no matter what bizarre story could be.
After going 5.1 and now back down to an old hk I hoisted out of a dumpster years ago and a pair of Mirage OMD-5's, couldn't be happier.
ruclips.net/video/N8cnIQhupWY/видео.html
Thanks Michael, this make my day. I am one of this young people that started collecting LP at 25 years old... Regards.
yeah... Alan Parsons: “Audiophiles don’t use their equipment to listen to music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment”
Well well, and geeks don't use their gadgets to open files. but the files will open to admire your gadgets (equipment).
@Ephraim Winslow yeah no no yeah - you genners can't seem to decide what to say when you say nothing/something
As much as I respect Alan Parson as a producer and musician (I own quite a few of his recordings), he was wrong when he said that, and he is still wrong.
This is a false stereotype of audiophiles that may apply to a small minority. But not the majority.
I am an unabashed audiophile, but the music comes first. It was my deep love of music, that get me to want to hear it as accurately as possible. And this love of music is what got me into this hobby.
The only time most people run into audiophiles, is on audiophile forums, audio shows, audio stores, etc. So, what is the most likely subject they will be talking about? Audio gear.
@@pandstar most audiophiles know nothing about music, only how to one up each other with the latest & greatest "lirpa" gear. avoid audiophiles, & used/audiophile record stores like the plague.a bunch of socially retarded dweebs!
rock on alan
As a sound engineer the two most significant differences to sound reproduction is: 1. Room acoustics and 2. Room acoustics. Certainly not the mains power cables! - If you're that bothered, how about an external triple filtered DC mains supply instead? One thing I do notice about all deluded audio snobs is that they love telling anyone within earshot the price/cost.... I'm convinced that this level of gear is firmly about bragging rights than it is about raw sound quality.
Indeed, room acoustics, then how is his gear connected - RCA or balanced plugs?
Those amps fully differentiated ones? I doubt it!
So what about the source of the signal? Do he have 96/24 (96k 24 bit) or at least the new standard format 48k/24? ...No, wait a sec, he play music on a vinyl disk where the music come pre-compressed, eq'd and then had to be sent trough quite dramatic EQ to sound normal the RIAA correction + scratch and pops.
Have he got rectifier tubes in each box to get the internal electronics to work smoothly, instead of the pulsed DC which solid state creates? Doubt it.
Working with sound, recording tech also radio plus an on and off career as musician have made me luv tubes. But I am not an orthodox believer, there's solid state gear that sound fantastic at a bargain price - example Teac AX-501 your fav album played on a low priced but musical CD player NAD 5425 - yes balanced XLR and a pair of Elac speakers.
@@andersforsgren3806 LOL that's why I make music with my hands 🎶😉
@@doctiberius2717 Same here, I have been playing since the age of 6.
Working on an album right now that I will be happy if it sell 200 copies or dowloads of - havn't done any music for nearly 2 decades so I am quite certain I'm mainly forgotten by now and going growl metal is not exactly the recipe for finding a new audience - but I have fun and find a satisfaction meanwhile. ;)
But yes, it were in the studio I learned that stuff that higher bitrates sound better, and that tube amps for instruments did sound sooo great, even better when they had a rectifier tube for the power as well - no clicks or hiss either. So that was what led me to get stereo stuff that are made the same way for home.
Yep
they both matter in a high performance audio system.
Why don't you talk about the wiring in the wall going back to your fuse panel or circuit breakers and then out to the telephone pole and then the miles and miles of wiring going back to the power plant. And then there's the argument about the audible differences between Siemens, General Electric and Westinghouse power plants. And coal versus gas versus hydro versus nuclear. $1000 6 foot long power cables are a joke!
This is the best comment ever, more people need to call people like this out on their bullshit.
Charles Clements you are clueless. You think that clown’s comment was a “revelation”? But enjoy your ignorance. You know what else? The pipes that bring water into my home are old and some are probably corroded SO WHY BOTHER PUTTING A WATER FILTER ON THE END OF THE FAUCET?
Analog Planet first off what do pipes have to do with this? The point of the comment was to prove that all the big, stupid, and expensive cables are a joke and a waste of money. How are cables going to make any difference if the power in your house isn’t as “high-end” as the expensive and stupid cables that you use as connections between your stuff? how would it make any audible difference? The point of the guys comment was to joke about that fact, his point was if your going to spend $30,000 on a cable between a turn table and a preamp then why don’t you make the wiring to your house “high-end” as well? Not having everything be “high-end” defeats the purpose of spending crazy money on cables in the first place. And you you call me ignorant? Ha, you clearly have no idea what you are taking about. Next time why don’t you actually do research instead of just saying “but my pipes are old and that justifies my expensive cables” I don’t know if you have heard this but water and electricity are quite different. Who is ignorant now?? you are just another rich idiot that will buy anything no matter the cost. Next time think before you type another angry comment. If you are so smart and know so much then explain how it works, I’ve explained why it’s total bullshit if you think I’m wrong then prove me wrong.
@@charlesclements9672 awww did you get offended and are mad because he enjoys the stuff he talks about and yes better cables do help to a point that you really can hear the upgrade your the dumbass that don't hace a clue about high end systems
bronson osborne I’m actually not offended at all, this is fun to me. How many morons can I get to make angry comments? A lot apparently. Btw that was an excellent run on sentence, what grade are you in?? If you are such an amazing intellectual Why don’t you read my whole comment and explain how a cable can make a audible difference? Or at least try to prove me wrong. But nope you didn’t do that, all you did was make an angry comment like all the other morons do when I call out the bullshit. And you call me a dumbass? Look in the mirror, you clearly don’t know a damn thing. Next time come at me with an argument. not a pathetic, and whiney comment taking sides with with another rich idiot who knows nothing.
Thank you for allowing your readers to visit your listening room, Michael! It's a real treat!
Fantastic tour and I absolutely love the history and your sense of humor!
You nailed it about having records. The memories are incredible. You remember when you bought them....where you were...what you were doing. It's incredible. Younger people don't know what they are missing. I'm 61...have tons of records that I've bought since the 60's.....Most of them are mint! I thank God I took good care of them and kept them. Also I have tons of CD's. Now people have been convinced those are out. This is a great time to buy CD's for cheap. Get a good CD player with a DAC!
There’s a lot of us young people that college vinyl haha
..I am 67 years old.... ..Now i know there is someone who thinks like me .... About records and the music of our times.... ...... thank you....for sharing......
Michael, you made your love of music and musical reproduction your life. you may never, know how you have helped countless numbers of people like myself build audio systems that let us experience music in ways we never dreamed of. I was a musician my entire life and to sit in my home and to transcend my human condition, is in a large part because of you. I still remember the day I heard a music system so good I actually cried. The gentleman sitting sitting next to me said "you got it man", Can we switch seats?
musician shows up at recording studio with $5 road/gig beaten instrument cables and any random power cord for the amp to make the recording. Audiophiles decide they need $50k of cables in order to reproduce this sound.
Dennis Quill guitar players use after market cables also.
@@60zeller Not to that same extent
@@60zeller The most valued amplifiers are usually Fenders from the 1960's and same for the Gibson and Fender guitars. This guy is nus plus Mccartney stuff in his latter years is pretty bad.
Actually musicians do pay attention to cables. And power cords. At least the ones that care about their sound. They also pay attention to tubes, and tube brands. I guess you haven't been to too many recording sessions. Sure, some don't care. Some audio enthusiasts don't either.
hahahahaha!
Audiophile hell is equipped with a GPX dual cassette boombox and a single tape recorded off a drifting radio station.
And as youngsters, we loved it because we taped our favorite songs off the radio and played them whenever we wanted.
Thank you Michael for invite us to your home and share your sympathy, passion and knowledge.
Maybe somebody misunderstood the way you do. Fortunately, in our little world there are some people looking for the excellence, and investing a lot of time and effort to achieve the state of the art. That’s why we can enjoy and value brands like Wilson Audio, Audio Research, Air Tight, Brinkmann, Koetsu... or A. Lange & Söhne, even if they are not affordable for most of us.
Thank you again.
Wow Jerry Springer has a lot of records.
Cian O'Sullivan
lol 😂
HAAAA!!!!
Yes, all Jews do look alike and all Irishmen belong on the Lucky Charms cereal box, right?
that's funny😃
all assholes post the same shit.@Rusty
Too cluttered for me.... I find I enjoy my system much more when its in a nice clean uncluttered space. The sense of peace that comes from a nice minimal listening environment really adds to the music IMHO. That much clutter just causes an unease and a lack of relaxation. Doesn't matter how good it sounds, I couldn't enjoy it.
Yeah agree. Personally I've never come across a better way to set up speakers than the Rational Speaker Placement method. Bass note, Toe in and Rake angle. Takes a while to set up but once done it sounds incredible forever. 👍
If you guys don't believe that everything makes a diference it's okay but doesn't mean that you are right ! From what i experienced the smallest change can make a diference.
@@RFXCasey we are the finest measurment systems cause we have a brain.
Well Fremer certainly appears to be a happy goof so good for him...
For anyone interested, this is the cost of all the equipment he owns that he has mentioned in this video...
Wilson Alexx speakers: $200K/ pair
darTZeel amps: $144,500/pair
Tarot Labs Zero (?) cable: $18K
Thick speaker cables lying on the floor: $30K/pair
Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn with Cobra tonearm and Castellon stand: $90K at the time he bought it but it is now $150K
Minus K stand: Varies depending on weight
Swedish Analog Technology tonearm: $30K
Kuzma 4Point tonearm (secondary tonearm): $6500
darTZeel NHB-18NS preamplifier: $23,250
CH Precision P1 Phono Preamplifier & CH X1 power supply: $31K
Yypsilon VPS-100 phono preamp ($26K) w/moving Coil Step Up Transformers (MC10 / MC16 / MC20): Retail: $2800 / ea
Audio Alchemy ACD-Pro Transport (upside down pioneer): $1279 new
Lynx Hilo Ad/Da converter: $2500
(Utility room) Stillpoints 40-26 ESS Rack: $10,245
Harmonic Resolution System (HRS)SXR Rack Frame: $9,495 without additional charges totaling $3,600
Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner PRO: $3895
Loricraft PRC 6 record cleaning machine: $5050
Roundabout total comes to $640,914+
Minus dealer profit margin the cost would be 250k
Analogue Planet: Can't argue with you.
Much of what you listed, he specifically said that he didn't own.
+ records to play
Don't forget those cartridges. The ETNA runs about 10k and that Japanese rosewood cartridge is roughly 7k. Garsh.
Hot water tank next to records? Confucius place for high end audio!
He must really trust the plumbing :P
Jayaram G -- its a subwoofer
Confucius say man who stand on toilet, high on pot.
You didn't listen to what I said. Yes, I don't own the cables. but I own everything else. Your truly have normalized ignorance.
@
@@AnalogPlanet You just confirmed what I said already. Are your extreme prescription spectacles dirty? LOL 😂 I'll make it clear ..slow it down to 18rpm HE IS GIVEN ALL THIS CRAP (so of course you own it bright eyes) Giving you some credit , you're not censoring my comments. And yeah < that's the most often used argument from people in youtube land , an ad hominem attack on my user name (which you miss the subtle humor ?). I thought you guys were keen on wordplay and humour.. Woody Allen was. Bob Dylan too or whoever wrote his songs. Are you really from Wack-Off N.J.?? Jokes man , Jokes.
Organizing albums by race... BRILLIANT! 🤣
Hes probably jewish and can't help it.
@@tekoppentekoppen761 he is a jew
@@jn3750 Michael (((Fremer)))
@@jn3750 Michael (((Fremer)))
Ah, but should it be done by the race of the performer, or by the race the performer sounds like? What would Goebbles do?
Saw Bob and Johnny, you made my day. That's it, I'm buying a house and I'm making a room just like yours. I'm sick of being told to keep it down. Freedom!!!
Thank you Michael! Your passion is electric!
PS: I really like your record shelves, I think I will make ones similar.
Your fan from South Africa.
Wonderful. Finally a guided tour of the inner sanctum. And I agree with Michael, vinyl should be enjoyed while we can.
Awesome Stereo System and Record Collection! I Love the Rega RP10 Turntable 🤩
YAAAAAY !!! I'm the umpteenth watcher of this video and I win a complete duplicate of every piece of gear on loan and owned by Mr. Fremer. YAAAAAY!!! Now I can finally hear the voila part in Mahler's 9th.
You have some amazing gear, and probably the ultimate audiophile man cave, the search for audio nirvana is obviously not for everyone, but I admire your enthusiasm.
I tried pink t-shirts. And it really works. I vow for that. My ears don't lie.
The colour of the t-shirt has a distinct effect on the quality of the sound. Like with light radiation, darker colours appear to absorb sound radiation too. Darker colours absorb more sound than lighter colours, particularly the higher frequencies above 10 kHz.
It makes such a big difference - no doubt about it. And pink t-shirts only cost a few quid! That is the best thing about this audiophile advice.
Please, don't let any audiophile waste my advice by referring to double-blind AB tests. That is just some rational belief. Instead, believe your ears. Be like me, and put on a pink-coloured t-shirt when listening to your favorite 'hi-rest audiophile music'.
Lmfao......
I even wear a “maillot jaune” from the Tour de France when listening to reggae music and the white jersey with red points when I listen to songs with title tracks include mountains, bicycle, on the top, hills etc. But I never heard any difference in blind tests, perhaps because as soon as I close my eyes, I fall asleep and miss all the music....just kidding, all these discussions about cables are not productive. One engineer beleives that every CD Player sounds the same as there are always the same informations from the CD feeded to the player. I had to check that out and after this experience I wondered what they study at university to spread such stupidy lol
Pink? *Cough* lol, and spot on.
Have you thought of A/B ing Horizontal vs Vertical STRIPED shirts?
Very interesting...an amazing collection...even more so your equipment. Thanks for sharing!
I need to sit in that chair and hear how good this sounds... or confirm that this man is in fact completely insane.
I've heard a few high end systems and they really are no joke. This guy's system probably sounds incredibly good. Would it also sound absolutely incredible with less expensive preamps, tonearms, and cables? Absolutely. But some people really want that last few percent. Honestly you could get just the speakers, a set of monoblock amplifiers to drive them that have the requisite power handling, and a good preamp and DAC and your system would sound 95 percent as good. Generally in a modern audio chain with good components, the speakers make the most difference followed by the dac. Anytime you're converting one format of encoded music into another is where you have your losses, so like electrical to mechanical in the case of a speaker or a set of bits to an analogue signal in the case of a DAC.
@@CockatooDude Pretty much like cars. You can have fun in an old Mini (50Mph/90kph) feels like F1 when cornering. Alpine A110 - thumbs up with less than 300BHP. Porsche GT3 with 500BHP, even faster. Or an Aston Martin Valkyrie (100BHP), insane. Pricing are algorithmic. If you can afford the dream, just go for it! I'm pretty sure I would be grinning in a Go-Cart illegally on a B-road!
The best upgrade my poor little $10k sound system ever got was a great big listing room
My actual arm on my body isn't worth 30k.
hahahahahahahaha ;o)
You're absolutely right, I'll give you 7 grand for it and not a penny more
I lost my leg in a motorcycle. My leg was actually worth 30k not a penny more.
My hearing capability isn’t good enough to appreciate the subtleties of this high end equipment.
Oh come on man...
Please tell me you’re not impressed by the guy who spends $30K on a tone arm... You’re worth a lot more than you think my friend.
Like you, I can tell a huge difference in sound quality when I have a fully functional water heater in my listening room. It definitely creates a warm, fluid sound doesn’t it! At what temperature do you have yours set?
Everything makes a difference indeed.
I am considering upgrading to instant on demand hot water, looking for more immediacy, consistency, and micro-dynamics in my system.
I love this guy for one reason, he's always true to what he believes in whatever it's right or wrong and he has a sense of humor. Although I won't ever own these type of equipment and not a fan of modern stuff I like to see where the technology is going.
Thanks for sharing. Don't know if anyone else mentioned it but I find it remarkable that you keep possibly over a million dollars worth of audio gear and media within feet of your water tank...a large destructive vessel destined to fail unexpectedly. I wouldn't even want a plumber proactively swapping it out in such proximity of all that stuff. You even pointed it out!
Aaahhhhh..next to a water heater aaahhhhh..an accident waiting to happen....
It’s not really a water tank in the traditional sense. It doesn’t heat water, or have the usual plumbing. It is a passive hot water storage tank and so pretty impervious to leaking. A unit on the wall produces the hot water stored in the tank
And I thought I had a huge collection. Thank you! Although I collect almost all forms of recorded music, I still buy quite a few new records. I have noticed that many of the new "audiophile" re-issues often don't sound as good as my original pressings. With the rising demand for vinyl, new pressing companies have been popping up. Some of these new startups like QRP I've found to be especially problematic. I've had more than a few which were off-center on one side. Plus, they always don't sound as good as the originals. As an example, the CCR "Absolute Originals" were originally pressed by RTI. They are fantastic! A couple of years ago, AP decided to re-issues the albums but this time being pressed by their own QRP. They used the same metal parts as RTI used, but they got most off-center. I contacted Acoustic Sounds and they couldn't understand what I was talking about, even when I posted videos on You Tube showing the tone arm swaying side to side. They offered to send me replacement copies and I realized that the whole pressing run would be affected, but I let them send replacements anyway. Of course the replacements were off-center. My worry is that inexperienced record manufacturers may hurt the record industry.
This guy is enclosed in a breeze of good and healthy fun. I really like his audio system. Everything seems to works nicely together and is a wonderful looking setup for a trough music admirer.
I am yet to hear an A/B comparison on the difference a cable can make? I wonder why that is?
Because you only have one set of cables?
Love the video. I could listen to your stories and the history behind it all day long. Really great stuff.
Thanks for showing us around your room (published on my 50th birthday, no less!). I also really appreciate you saying what bits of gear you bought and which are on loan, for I can think of no stronger recommendation than putting one's money where one's mouth is. Industry accommodation or not, hard-earned $$$ are hard-earned $$$, so I applaud your transparency.
From a fellow vinylphile, keep fighting the good fight!
This is the most random, most amazing thing I have seen in years.
thanks for sharing
Hugely entertaining. More of this please Mr Fremer.
I could spend all day with that guy, and I would love to hear his system and some of his record collection.
imagine taking this dude to a basement, with a 90s pc and aux sound. And a cheap 10$ headset from walmart
Just so people understand. This has nothing to do with music. This is madness. This guy is forever searching for perfection, which is an illusion. Its a drug. It does not exist. Again, this has nothing to do with the art of music, this is madness.
It’s my job bozo
Laurence White I am. ALL about music
I find it all fascinating, I don’t understand why he has to go through all of equipment and tell us if he owns it or not...literally every item
@@sgals3395 You are so FULL of hate!
Is your life that miserable?
S Gals Man you are a piece of work! You must have a miserable life! I’ve met people like you that are so miserable that they want everyone around them to be miserable too!
And I would kiss Mr. Fremer’s rear end for what reason?
That doesn’t even make sense.
I looked at the RUclips video about whether a guitarist needs to know how to read music because I was curious as to their opinion and how they supported said opinion.
No matter what you think of my “playlist” (and I don’t really care what your opinion is), your remarks to Mr. Fremer and myself are very hateful.
Thus you are only reinforcing the image that you are “full of hate”.
Why such anger over Mr. Fremer’s opinions?
His RUclips video is free. It’s not part of a paid subscription to Stereophile magazine online.
It costs you nothing!
So it’s not as if you’re being cheated out of your hard earned money.
Furthermore no one is forcing you at gunpoint to watch it.
If you disagree with his opinions, that’s fine.
But why the personal attacks?
Against him and me?
A question for you as well...the same as before, because you didn’t answer it the first time.
It was rhetorical the first time I asked, but now I ask in earnest...is your life that miserable?
Is that why you are so hateful?
You can insult me further if you wish, that seems to give you pleasure.
I won’t respond to any more insults.
You may regard my next statement as sarcasm,but please believe me, it is not.
I’m truly sincere.
I will pray for you.
You seem genuinely unhappy and I’m sorry if that is true.
Huge fan! I have a whole turntable/stereo system partly thanks to you!
"When I feel like slumming it I put on digital." -Michael Fremer 2017. I love this guy!
Looking at Michael's collection of vinyl, I don't see how he can listen to or even find an album or track without some form of cataloging and even having the time to do so and continue to add to his library. His library and hardware are off the charts impressive. I resubscribed to Stereophile to catch up on what the industry has evolved to over the past couple decades. I see it has spiraled out control of my budget (Ha!) and reality. When my subscription lapses, I won't be resubscribing since I don't live on that plane of life anymore.
you look like jerry springer
The emperor has no clothes.
Reminded me of donald trump 😂👌🏽 on second thoughts ewwwwwww 🤢🤮🤣
I've got a great wardrobe even though all clothing is the same.
This guy is a hoarder, a rich one of course but still a hoarder. I have to admit he is one of the most amusing snake oil peddlers out there.
I’ve been reading your reviews for 25 years!!!
I use Krell, Dynaudio, etc, for years based on your reviews! Thank you!!!
Shame that all this pricey gear looks like the bastard offspring of Buck Rogers and a nespresso machine.
Say about him and his hobby whatever you want, I have to admit i watched this Video like three times because he is just that entertaining.
(points at boiler) "this is my subwoofer"
Michael, thanks for the video. And you are right, you don't have to disclose anything about the money side of your business and hobby. We don't need to know if you own it or not. It isn't anyone's business but your own! Happy listening (and reviewing)!
So much wisdom and music knowledge.... almost scary!
What a great storyteller. I loved this piece. Fantastic.
What an amazing tour, thank you for sharing
When your deep into the audio game and the hole is fucking deep and you can never go back
The part of him talking about the furry convention was easily the most interesting thing. lol
I am a skeptical audiophile. I have a pretty nice system but nothing like the expensive gear you have. I think a lot of what is written about is either imaginary or not discernible by most listeners. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour of your system and now think I would love to hear it. After listening to you talk about it, I am leaning towards not discernable by most listeners. Perhaps cables and well made amps sound different to people that have spend a lifetime reviewing for a living and have trained themselves to do so. Some professional audio reviewers don't hear differences that others do. It would seem probable that hearing acuity differs between people just like any other physical or mental skill. The real question is not whether Mr. Fremer or Mr. Atkinson can hear a difference, it is whether the prospective buyer can hear a difference and, if so, is it a quality difference worth paying for. I admire the fact the Mr. Fremer "puts his money where his mouth is" and purchases the gear he really falls in love with. It is much more difficult for me to take seriously the rave reviews of megadollar gear that is on indefinite loan to a reviewer. What is silly expensive varies from person to person. I have close to $10K in my system including two channel gear, surround speakers and a HT receiver. Almost everyone I know thinks that is an insane amount. None of them, having listened to it, think it sounds just like their BT speaker or name brand one box solution they have at home. The bad news today is that the ultra high end equipment is completely unaffordable to most people. Some of it is expensive only because there are people that will buy it. Other stuff (like Mr Fremer's speakers and turntables) are expensive to build. The good news about audio today is the inexpensive gear has never sounded better. Great sounding audio gear is available to anyone with an interest in it. Buy what you like within your budget and have fun.
I do wish the Stereophile would attempt measuring interconnects and speaker cables. Perhaps they have and found no differences so they quit. I suspect that some of the differences are not improvements in fidelity but subtle filtering effects that cable designers put in on purpose because it will make them sound different.
I think this might be the best example of insanity I’ve ever seen.
Better to say that YOU can't understand why someone would have over $1,000,000 of audio equipment, but then you've never heard his system. Calling anything insane that you do not understand only speaks to your limitations.
Larry Daniels My limitations in terms of what? I can hear and enjoy his system and find it absolutely amazing and I would still call him insane.
@@TheTacticalMess You reinforce my point with your reply, you are truly dense.
Larry Daniels It’s funny you say that when you don’t know me. The fact that you fail to ask why I perceive it the way I do, and immediately rush to insults just goes to show that you’re incapable of grasping where I am coming from. Hence why I didn’t bother to tell you to begin with.
@@TheTacticalMess Well as long as this thing doesn't get too out of hand, it'll be all well and good. So let's keep it constructive.
This guy is the real deal.
It is only a dream of mine to be able to listen to such a stereophile system.
What I don't understand about the audiophile world is how blind listening tests don't figure in it at all. Yes human hearing is remarkably capable but it is also extremely selective. Often we hear differences based purely on auto-suggestion (what some call "placebo effect"). I don't know if, for example, different cables sound different or not, however I do know that unless effective blind listening tests are carried out then nobody will know. Blind listening tests remove the factor of auto-suggestion.
Thank you for your considered response. Your joke about the tiger is funny, I always like the great humour you have in your videos. I don't agree with you about blind tests and I think you underestimate the importance of selectivity in human hearing. One reason why we would have heard the tiger in times gone by is that we are very good at listening selectively. Oddly enough our greatest strength in hearing, that we can shut out some sounds but focus very intently on others, is also a great weakness in assessing audio equipment.
I came to this realisation about how important auto-suggestion and selectivity is in hearing when I started to suffer from what at the time seemed like very severe tinnitus back in 2005. I did a lot of research and that led me to read about the work of Pawel J. Jastreboff who has developed a retraining therapy for tinnitus sufferers. Essentially the therapy is to kind of tune out of listening for the tinnitus. The brain has mistaken these sounds for maybe being a tiger and it makes them seem very much louder than they are. Today I am not a tinnitus sufferer, although if I listen out for it, it will come back. It is there, in fact, however I am not conscious of it, so I am not registering it. It illustrates to me how extremely flexible our hearing is.
This is why I think blind listening tests should be a common feature of audiophile publications. Please note I am not saying that all cables sound the same or anything like that, I think you appreciate that.
I think we can agree to disagree on this issue but I wish you well as I enjoy your videos even though I'm not really a vinyl guy I just like your good humour!
I think you have a point that experienced listeners with a lot of training knows what to listen for, and can hear things that non experienced would not perceive. Also, as a compliment, why wouldn´t it be interesting to record output source digitaly and then compare the audiocurves to eachother?
@Cobain Windsurfer - We could get an idea of how much better the experienced listeners are with blind listening tests. Without blind listening tests we don't know this and so it is all speculation. The problem with auto-suggestion is that it is so totally convincing for the subject. So, someone can report with 100% confidence that sound has changed when it hasn't.
@Analog Planet - I think that we see in the audiophile world is group hypnosis quite often. Consumerism often functions as group hypnosis. I think in the audiophile world we see a focusing of consumerist forces and it is one in which what we would consider checks and balances are often lifted.
I will use cables as an example because it is the one everyone thinks of, but the same applies to everything. Manufacturers make the cable and immediately advertise its "sonic attributes". Those sonic attributes are then printed in all the magazines the reviewers "hear" them and write about them. Then the public buys the cable and they "hear" them as well.
Often the fact that the "sonic attributes" are heard widely by everyone is used as evidence they must really exist.
Please note, the sonic attributes might be real and they might not be. However the nature of the audiophile world is one in which we never get to know. Blind listening tests are very rare. Over decades you have done some but I think we need these to be commonplace in the audiophile publications. There should be one a month.
Jason Victor Serinus participated in one in 2004, testing expensive power cords.
hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_4/feature-article-blind-test-power-cords-12-2004.html
That was a "text book" example of how the test should be conducted. Serinus held the test with a view to demonstrate that these power cords were effective, but the test demonstrates that Serinus could not distinguish them blind and neither could anyone else. I have enormous respect for Jason Victor Serinus for holding and participating in the tests.
If I were the editor of a audiophile publication I would have a test of this nature every month. I would see it as essential and also great copy. I don't think the result would always be that there is no difference. With a series of tests we could start to get some quantification as to the levels of difference that swapping each component would make.
I agree with you totally. Immediate and level matched blind AB test is the only sure way to determine what is "better" sounding. Even then, most of these ridiculously priced cables (talking about signal cables by the way - the idea of AC power cables making any difference is an absolute joke and I wouldn't waste my time even discussing it - unless the power cable is inherently faulty or made of dental floss - audibly it will make no difference) are technically inferior to a piece of standard domestic vacuum cleaner cable (electrically speaking). That is, they have extremely huge capacitance values and as such effectively become filters in the system. The end result is alteration of the frequency response, often less high frequency transmission which often sounds "better" warmer or whatever - of course it sounds different and usually any difference that can determined is automatically described by the listener as "better" when it's just different. Further, the audiophile equipment itself is usually technically inferior to transparent professional studio equipment - it adds carefully (or not so carefully when the designer is a hack on a gold rush which is often the case) engineered harmonics, phase alterations and other distortions that pro audio design engineers are desperately trying to work out of the signal path. Any signal with additional even order harmonics will almost always sound better than the same signal without this additional energy hence why most tube amps are favoured over class d or clean solid state. In summary - often these crazily priced interconnects, speaker cables and actual hardware may actually make the system sound subjectively better but what you are hearing is further from the truth of the recorded signal - I suppose transparency of reproduction is not the main aim for a system used purely for listening pleasure so if one prefers to spend 30000 dollars on a 20kg low pass filter rather than 50 cents on a few passive components that would fit on stamp then jolly good for them or more precisely jolly good for the people who are making them and selling them who will most definitely be laughing all the way to the bank.
All that great equipment, and nobody can pick up the crap on the floor?
Cody Earnshaw Are you mad bro?
Mother much?
Envy affects that way. MF has the good luck of having a piece of space where he can do whatever he wants without having to worry about WFA, it remembers WtF 😂.
This apparent mess it's not!. I like this messy tidyness, I bet he can find whatever he wants in a moment because he knows where everything is located despite this apparent untidiness. I love Stereophile reviewers. I miss Wes Phillips.
@@salvadorrodenas3071 Do you include John Atkinson, who said that a vinyl sounded better than the very master tape it had been cutted from?
Extraordinary statement, indeed!
@@venturarodriguezvallejo9777 particularly John!!! They are like you and me, they have their vision that don't have to met ours, at least in a hundred percent.
I've also said things that after a while I've regret .
Nice system Michael. My system does not hold a candle to yours it consist of Soundlab A3PXs Classic valve design Borealis 300b pre amp with western electric 300 b tubes Joule Electra Grand Marquis 160 OTL mono blocks REL B3 sub and Io phono stage with a modified VPI Scout and Koetsu rosewood cartridge. I also ran dedicated 25 amp outlets in my rec room. It gives me goosebumps. I listen for hours and hours my friends think I am nuts to have spent so much they seem to stick around to long when I fire it up. It is all relative in scale we both share a passion that a lot of people can not or choose not to appreciate. Love your work and your personality. The knowledge you have imparted to many is appreciated continued success good health and happiness. E. Simpson from Canada. PS I also use a bat VK-D5SE. I know a Cd player but it sounds analog to my ears plenty of tubes in that sucker lol. And yes high quality power cords do make a difference.
Listening to one record and making mental notes of the sound, then going off to do some work while someone changes out cables and then coming back to compare simply does not work. You MUST employ direct switching (A/B tests) to get anything out of it otherwise it becomes purely anecdotal and just guesswork really. It's hard enough to hear subtle differences between cables when performing A/B-test, trying to compare with long breaks in between is impossible.
They must be double blind as well. For speakers at least, it’s been proven that when doing sighted and blind, people will rank a nicer looking speaker higher during sighted tests. So, if doing sighted A/B switching between a super skinny normal speaker wire compared to those “hoses”, I’d say most people will say the hoses look better, because they think it must.
Keith O. Johnson, one of the founding partners of Reference Recordings said you can't A/B music listening. ruclips.net/video/bBR3kS4e_wk/видео.htmlm
Do you have an 3.5mm aux cable so I can plug my phone in? You'll be happy to know I only use flac files. 👍
Flac files? Don't you at least have a Croz?
Bro pass the aux. I got DUBSTEP_MIX_2013_RUclipsDOWNLOAD.mp3 I wanna play
Michael's enthusiasm is infectious in best of worst ways.
Very enjoyable. Thank you for having me. Would love to go through that collection of Brit albums.
He sounds like a true reviewer and not a shill. What a rarity in this day and age.
The audiophile world is a freaking rabbit hole, I better be careful getting into this xD!
there is NO upper limit.
More like a can of worms that you find at the bottom of the rabbit hole 😉
And here I am. Happy with my Onkyo TX8220 receiver, Polk T15 speakers, Yamaha SW012 sub, and Fluance RT83 turntable. Cables? Most of them came from my previous systems 😂
sorry man. Maybe one day
I've heard music that is absolutely amazing, breathtaking, playing through $1,000 speakers, a $1,200 amp, 14 gauge speaker wire, an $800 turntable or a laptop, and basic RCA cables. I doubt the same source would sound "Remarkably better" just by adding that $30,000 speaker wire. And Fremer already had a monster of a system before he added the $30,000 speaker wire, and said the speaker wire made a massive difference. How is that possible? The system was already fairly maxed out for playing everything recorded music has to offer. The improvement has to be a tiny percentage increase in quality over his system with $1,000 speaker wires. If he rated his complete system a 95 on a scale of 1 (unlistenable) to 100 (ultimate sound reproduction, virtually similar to live music) before upgrading the speaker wire, then there wasn't much more improvement possible. But he said the difference was incredible. It doesn't calculate.
I also question upgrading an already very good system (like one with $3,500 DefTech speakers, a $2,500 turntable on a granite base, and top end $10,000 McIntosh amp) with $68,000 speakers, $1,000 RCA cables, a $30,000 turntable with a $30,000 arm, a $10,000 pre-amp, etc. There is always a level of diminishing returns. For example, to see a 10% gain in quality over the best $1,000 system, you may have to spend $2,000. To improve the $2,000 system by 5%, you may have to spend $4,000. And so on. Eventually, you may spend $50,000 to get to 92% of the quality of the live performance in the studio (as recorded on the master tapes). To get to 95%, you have to upgrade to a $100,000 system, and to get to 97%, you have to upgrade to a $200,000 system.
I guess it's the same for cars. The stock Corvette ZR-1 is amazing. It goes 0-60 in 2.85 seconds with a top speed of 212 mph. No amount of component upgrades is going to lower the 0-60 time by more than 10%, nor increase the top end mph by more than 10%, even though you could spend $150,000 to do so if you have the money. Is it worth it? Maybe to a very small percentage of enthusiasts who have the money to spend on their passion. To most people, amazing performance at a reasonable price is absolutely fine. Give me a beast of a $1,200 Marantz amp with some astounding $3,000 Definitive Technology speakers, and I don't think upgrading to a $5,000 amp and $10,000 speakers will make a huge difference. Most people may not even be able to hear the difference.
I prefer to play lossless high dynamic range digital files (lossless WAV) over vinyl, as vinyl inevitably has its crackles, pops, and other noise that comes from dust, scratches, and normal wear from the needle. I can't stand the scratchy sounds many vinyl records have, even after a thorough cleaning. Lossless digital files cannot be scratched, worn, or abused like vinyl. Just my opinion.
With cars the statistics of top speed/acceleration/etc. is the main gauge, whereas with audio it's all in the listening experience. There's a cryptic aspect to it that you can't judge its value by just looking at the stats, you have to experience it. We can't really measure the audible differences in certain cables, but as a personal anecdote I can say that they are there. Now, incredible difference? No, I've never heard that, but I think unless you were able to sit there and listen to his system yourself, you can't really judge it one way or the other.
You have committed a substantial error in attempting to quantify that which is outside the boundaries of assigning a numeric value. I can assure you that replacing the power cord supplied by the manufacturer with a better cable will be an upgrade that anybody that has critical listening ability will notice. Is it 10% or 5%, that question has no moment, it is simply an audible improvement. I wouldn't expect that someone with a digital preference could so easily be confused by numbers. More to the point, here is an example of how your logic fails. Can you imagine an F-1 driver or a test driver for Bugatti pulling into the pits and having a discussion with the crew or technicians, the amount of data he can provide will be astounding relating to engine performance, shifting, braking, aerodynamic changes, traction, etc. Compare that knowledge to the average driver- she's driving a Buick Century. As long as it starts when she turns the key and stops when she applies the brakes, her car is running fine! She has virtually no knowledge of the cars inner workings and that is the way it should be, it may have significant problems with the engine or electronics, she will never know. You, my friend, are driving a Buick Century and you're trying to tell a test driver of a Bugatti how to drive!
This is my subwoofer-
Errr I, this is my hot water tank.
xDDDD
Танk.Много проводов.Помню заставил транзисторный усилитель петь.Подбирая вручную витую пару сетевого провода.К каждому
усилителю свой провод к каждому проводу специалиста\жириновский\
паправка Подбирая=скручивая на слух
Very neat to see your gear and such. Madness at its best!!!
I love you man! You are totally right! Being truthful to our own vision of things is more important than making friends!
Very Impressive equipment and music collection. If you haven't done it already I'd recommend that you catalog, appraise and insure EVERYTHING in your workspace. Then you're covered in case of flooding, fire, etc. and your wife won't have to worry about how much the stuff is worth. Thanks for sharing!
Great video, can't decide whether I like this guy or not, i liked his 'stroke guy' impression.
100k speakers being played in a tiny room. Oh the irony.
Room is bigger than it looks. And smaller rooms are easier to control
I could only click the like button once.
@Çerastes Why? It's all choices. Most people don't like a dead "padded cell" room, and with reverberation the room makes a big difference to the sound. Many like a bigger room like Mike Lavigne's barn, flat dipole radiators like Magnepans usually sound better further from the back wall, and I can't imagine monster column speakers in Mr. Fremer's room. I'm sure it sounds great with his absorbers and diffusers.
He is an audiophile/repairman/junk collector. On his beautiful Dartzeel 458s he has books, knick knacks, and even a screwdriver laying down on one of them. Go to the 2:30 minute mark and pause. Wall to wall records, with Wilson Alexx speakers that are so close that he takes "nearfield" to new highs...or lows. His chair sucks but his speakers and amps are heavenly. Michael F. is an intelligent man with tremendous knowledge about the industry but somewhere fell through the cracks in life.
This is like a Saturday Night Live sketch. I love it.
He knows what he hears... Except in ABX test. ;)
First thing to start recovering from "Pravus Audiophilia" is to test ones hearing and learn about confirmation bias. Then to do some ABX testing with stuff one has or even just normal blind tests with a friend or a spouse. Studying some real audio science is very much recommended also :)
33:38 - spot on!
I'm the same with my records, I have so many white labels or one off 12" runs by artists that are just gold! And the sound quality is far warmer than any digital format. Streaming is great for finding stuff or listening on the go, but it doesnt compare to actually owning an artifact in your hand and experiencing the precise moment you stumble across something new that blows you away :D
Awesome stuff Michael! I just recently got into vinyl and bought the Pro-Ject Classic SB, which I love! A big part of that decision was your very favorable and honest review and I think you hit the nail on the head. I am running it through a Rogue Sphinx 3 and I think its a beautiful match. I love both CD and vinyl but the vinyl has more magic for me. I am an orchestra teacher of 23 years so I obviously appreciate sound, tone, timbre, color, etc and I can't imagine the level of your system, but I am more than happy with mine. Cheers ~Frank
On second thoughts, guys like him make history too as well as they keep it going and alive! 🏂🏄
"You HAVE to hear these cables!"
you do
If you can hear the cables they are defective
Christ talking about that stroke victim like that was tasteless...
Not only that but he ripped off the old couple paying them $1 a record.
I guess the one $ he had to pay was still too much.
Oh please come on, it was hilarious 😂
I’m guessing he was riffing off a scene in The Ninth Gate.
Grow up, he was being lighthearted and actually very funny.
I doubt Michael paid for any of that gear being the contributing editor to Stereophile Magazine.He does have a certain persona to maintain as the Editor. He probably has to say he paid for it otherwise the real paying customers would figure out the long running deal between magazine writers and the companies that are happy to forget the gear they loaned out to them in return for a glowing article. All audio / any gear mags get tons of loan out equipment from the companies they are covering ie (forever demo gear) for testing and articles.
Though I may not understand a lot of this (yet). I am now a fan. I’ve been collecting records a long time but could never afford a decent way to hear them. I’m now putting together a little system and every piece I’ve changed has made a world of difference. So does that mean power cables will make a difference? Don’t know yet. But maybe. You’re love of vinyl is infectious and all these troll commenters need to find a better hobby than worrying about why someone spends their own money.
Don't listen to the haters. I too didn't think power cords could make any difference, but they actually make a BIG difference no clue why, but use your ears. There's plenty of places you can try for 30 days and see if you can hear an improvement. In my case I hear tighter cleaner bass less hi frequency hash, a much quieter background & improved soundstaging. if the recording has that info.