All-in-One units for retiring audiophile & music lovers in 2025, say what?
A good audio buddy friend closing in on his later parts of the golden years contacted me over the holidays. He started talking rather excitedly about these new all-in-one units. [Please disregard if this is nothing new for you and/or not of any real interest]. This story and ask below might not resonate with some. Hopefully others who can relate might reply, understanding a lot of what this is really about. A winding down audiophile friend, looking for simplicity of listening to music is what I can share up front.
I found my audiophile friend's [all of the sudden] inquiry interesting, me asking what he's looking at buying - say what?, and starting to ask him "does it sound good, look good, is it light weight or heavy, could you see it replacing everything as your new center piece in your big room, and all the other stuff gone - really?", "Say more". He started to share more. Please read on if any of this is resonating, Thanks.
We start talking and reminiscing about our early Go-To receivers from the mid 1970s. The big all-in-one boxes. Wider cases, big transformers, powerful, weighty, great FM tuners, tone controls, Big Stereo Sound. How it was back then - simple to listen to FM, big roller dial, plug in your turntable, tape decks, and enjoy the music for days. No other worries, let it play. Remember doing that? I bet many members here on Audiogon lived all of that too, and none of us will ever forget it. I won't.
I also bring this up because It dawned on me, I started asking myself wow - is this really occurring all over again in some new and exciting way. Like a giddy kid I start researching with him seeing more - woah, what? I did realize some of this [sort of an era renewal] was already occurring past few years, still not quite aware myself of what's out there, or coming back, maybe puzzled a bit and curious.
Seeing more videos, familiar reviewers, all touching on this topic past 1-2 yrs. Then you see some of the same new units popping up with all of the reviewers, hmmm.
So my fairly extreme multi [tube/amp/component] audio buddy [past 60 years] starts showing me these new generation [mostly] solid state units he's been looking at, seemingly ready to hang up ALL of the separate components. Says he simply wants "one box" now to "do it all", "getting rid of all this other stuff", to just "play music" and "be done". These were his exact words recently. Some may relate here. It kinda hit me. Something to be said for simplicity and just listening to music. Yes.
Next Generation -
Looking closely at these new units with my friend - seeing somewhat old-familiar design approaches, renewed, by real engineers. Ahhh, hey, there we see big transformers, a stout amplifier section, nice capacitors, thick copper wiring, big screws on power caps, robust binding posts, nice built in DAC, built-in streamer with tons of access, yep - tone controls, loudness control, low noise, meters, lighting - hmmm what's going on here. I soon realized I too need to pay attention and look around more closely - to see what he's really looking at and why. It starts to make a lot of sense, it's coming into a focus, just like the '70s era receivers were.
Fast forward a few weeks - Buddy just ordered his new all-in-one unit, maybe downsizing speakers. He's dropping back down to a new/familiar 70s style midsize speaker as well. He was initially anxious, a little nervous maybe, wondering - and decided to just go forward and "not look back" he says. Some of you may already be well down this path, or even doing this in 2nd, 3rd systems now. The whole thing is sort of a throwback [in some ways] to me, sort of what it use to be like 50yrs ago. Or feels that way to me. They say great ideas recycle back to themselves. Maybe so. Observing closer now.
Wow, wouldn't it be really cool if it could be all done really well, in one-box, once again? No more separates component listening - just hit the power button one time, turn up the volume, and let it play in the big room, listen, walk around, no worries - just let it play for days on end. I bet many here totally get why I posted this. It's for an audio friend.
ASK:
Please share your story. It would be so cool for him to read any of your stories. I know he would be interested and appreciate your wind-back consolidation journey too - if you have one like his to share in some way. Particularly those who've made great strides towards major consolidation and still enjoying the music. Dear buddy is starting the journey now to separate himself from his vast array of separates, lots of stuff, selling everything else soon, and going back to "one box" for simple music in the big room. I'm supporting him along the way on this particularly journey.
Thanks a million in advance for your replies - care to share your familiar story at all?
a few pics of another worthy solution mentioned three times so far... Amplifier Output Power (Per Speaker) LF: 280W Amplifier Class (Per Speaker) LF: Class D
|
@decooney ....well, I’d be the last to blow off a MC variation on a JBL theme, but sitting in between my omnis’ doesn’t flip the soundstage on you...but I’ve got this bias.... :) Besides, I’d suggest sitting ’back’ a tad and rotating the speakers’ tops ’facing’ you...makes it make sense imho.... Any flat & vaguely level surface around us ’grows stuff’ and is a non-starter... Auto-style subs, don’t have a couch that cats can destroy and you get to chose between drivers, asshakers, or both.....we’ve enough choices already on stuff.... ...and the KEF ’living room’ pic....how many of us listen like that? ...curious....like the market is lashing around, trying to find The Niche.....🤷♂️ Not like I’m crusin’ to bruise, but a thought about the intended perception issues become kinda....’bent’....*sly grin*
|
Nah, you missed the disclaimer - this thread is not meant for those still enjoying and justifying their high $ audio separates all over the place. Since you bring it up, the *sly grin* rests with clever folks listening with really good headphones on
|
What an interesting thread and all the thoughtful replies to the OP. I am starting to walk down the simplification path to some extent. At the age of 72 I still enjoy a system of separates but not to the order of magnitude I once did. This bears explaining. I was exposed to hi-fi gear back in the days when AR inc was making a name for itself and state of the art home audio gear was from heathkit and featured a williamson type tube amp (20 wpc) and a separate preamp. Add Tuner and turntable and you have a mono system. That was Dad's first system that I had recollection of and 'helped' build it at the age of 8, my help largely limited to asking way too many questions and getting in his way. But that kit building experience opened the door for a career in electronics, and many more kits from companies like Lafayette, Heathkit and Hafler. All of which helped me along my path. Fast forward to where I was in early 2024. At one point there I had no less than 11 different sound/video systems scattered throughout my house, almost all of that were separates, with various extra pieces that either had fallen out of favor due to age or some personality trait I decided was sufficient reason to disconnect and store as a spare. Then in April the house fire happened and that was the end of essentially all of what I had. Its safe to say I won't be rebuilding 11 separates based systems when I move back into the house. Its just not going to happen. Most of what will be bought will be simplified systems that don't have a high fiddle factor. I too many other things I would rather do than try to collect the odd collection of stuff I had before. Its just not worth the trouble at this point. I will certainly have for sure one separates system but for the most part, integration and consolidation is the path forward. For sure there will not be 11 systems either...that ship has sailed. I am leaning more towards the idea of things that are mostly music based systems and 2 channel to have a DAC/preamp/amp combo with perhaps a streamer or computer as the source. The system I am using now is an Emotiva TA1 with a Macbook Air as the source, connected by USB. Not high powered at all, but sufficient as a desktop system. So, am I considering systems more consolidated than this one. Perhaps for the garage or bedroom or kitchen, these locations truly beg for a simple quality solution. Not necessarily cheap but something that is simple to use and sounds good at reasonable levels. It seems there is a TON of gear out there now that meets these parameters and is fairly affordable. The lure of the simplicity combined with near audiophile or true audiophile quality is pretty compelling. Choosing out of this glut of gear is a daunting process, and so time consuming due to the lack of brick and mortar stores within a reasonable distance from my home. But I still want at least one serious separates system that will rock the house like a Grateful Dead concert. I cling to the belief that in order to make the illusion of actually being at the venue where the recording was done really come home, you need to be able to reproduce the live levels and dynamic range that were captured on the recording. To ensure that is possible you need efficient speakers and prodigious amounts of amplifier power. Everyone draws that line in a different place but for me, especially given this multichannel system must reproduce movies and music convincingly, if the amp and speaker combo can produce clean musical peaks at 115db that is a reasonable compromise between true real world loud levels you would experience hearing gun shots or jet engines spooling up or....pick your loud sound effect. For music, that is certainly enough and for sound effects it exceeds Dolby standards by 10 db so I'll call it good. That said, I dont know of an integrated amp/streamer that has that potent an amplifier section. This is easily achievable with separates. So begins the slow process of managing and rethinking my expectations going forward. |
What an interesting thread and all the thoughtful replies to the OP. I am starting to walk down the simplification path to some extent. At the age of 72 I still enjoy a system of separates but not to the order of magnitude I once did. This bears explaining. I was exposed to hi-fi gear back in the days when AR inc was making a name for itself and state of the art home audio gear was from heathkit and featured a williamson type tube amp (20 wpc) and a separate preamp. Add Tuner and turntable and you have a mono system. That was Dad's first system that I had recollection of and 'helped' build it at the age of 8, my help largely limited to asking way too many questions and getting in his way. But that kit building experience opened the door for a career in electronics, and many more kits from companies like Lafayette, Heathkit and Hafler. All of which helped me along my path. Fast forward to where I was in early 2024. At one point there I had no less than 11 different sound/video systems scattered throughout my house, almost all of that were separates, with various extra pieces that either had fallen out of favor due to age or some personality trait I decided was sufficient reason to disconnect and store as a spare. Then in April the house fire happened and that was the end of essentially all of what I had. Its safe to say I won't be rebuilding 11 separates based systems when I move back into the house. Its just not going to happen. Most of what will be bought will be simplified systems that don't have a high fiddle factor. I too many other things I would rather do than try to collect the odd collection of stuff I had before. Its just not worth the trouble at this point. I will certainly have for sure one separates system but for the most part, integration and consolidation is the path forward. For sure there will not be 11 systems either...that ship has sailed. I am leaning more towards the idea of things that are mostly music based systems and 2 channel to have a DAC/preamp/amp combo with perhaps a streamer or computer as the source. The system I am using now is an Emotiva TA1 with a Macbook Air as the source, connected by USB. Not high powered at all, but sufficient as a desktop system. So, am I considering systems more consolidated than this one. Perhaps for the garage or bedroom or kitchen, these locations truly beg for a simple quality solution. Not necessarily cheap but something that is simple to use and sounds good at reasonable levels. It seems there is a TON of gear out there now that meets these parameters and is fairly affordable. The lure of the simplicity combined with near audiophile or true audiophile quality is pretty compelling. Choosing out of this glut of gear is a daunting process, and so time consuming due to the lack of brick and mortar stores within a reasonable distance from my home. But I still want at least one serious separates system that will rock the house like a Grateful Dead concert. I cling to the belief that in order to make the illusion of actually being at the venue where the recording was done really come home, you need to be able to reproduce the live levels and dynamic range that were captured on the recording. To ensure that is possible you need efficient speakers and prodigious amounts of amplifier power. Everyone draws that line in a different place but for me, especially given this multichannel system must reproduce movies and music convincingly, if the amp and speaker combo can produce clean musical peaks at 115db that is a reasonable compromise between true real world loud levels you would experience hearing gun shots or jet engines spooling up or....pick your loud sound effect. For music, that is certainly enough and for sound effects it exceeds Dolby standards by 10 db so I'll call it good. That said, I dont know of an integrated amp/streamer that has that potent an amplifier section. This is easily achievable with separates. So begins the slow process of managing and rethinking my expectations going forward. |
