Realizing your dreams (while saving a few pennies)

For those who of you who know me, you will know that I've always appreciated quality over quantity. But that doesn't mean that I am willing to chase the dragon on diminishing returns. To that end, I've decided to dip my toes back into the world of audiophilic sound systems. Earlier in my life I had a very nice (and expensive) system that was definitely overkill ... but I loved it. Unfortunately, I had to let it go when I moved to the US.

Now, almost 13 years later, I'm in a position to plant roots, and so, I decided to upgrade from a compromised soundbar to something far more substantial. The best part of this was that I could build the perfect sound system by frankensteining a relatively understated array of parts into something rivaling the upper-most tiers for audio nirvana. Not even 5 years ago, I would have to have spent well over 2000 (USD equivalent) to get something which would not even be on parity with the system I have now. It is astounding how much hardware and software has evolved.

Here is the build:

• WiiM Ultra - a multi-source streamer with HDMI eArc and a vast array of inputs, including phono!
• SMSL SU-9N - this is a DAC (digital to analog convertor) which has astounding sound floors, clarity, and staging and can support up to 32bit/768KHz playback
• Aiyima A70 - this has a 116dB SNR and can output 300 watts @ 0.0015% distortion ... per channel!
• Wharfdale Evo 4.2 - 87dB sensitivity @ 4 Ohms and 45Hz-22KHz range

This is audio nirvana and I can categorically state that there is no integrated amp that has better specs - at any price. Now, even though the cost of these components end up totalling a little more than your standard midrange soundbar, if you were to budget the cost over 10 years the difference would be negligible. I would challenge every household to invest in a quality soundsystem - especially one as versatile as this one, as the enjoyment you will get from this well outweighs the additional cost.

With these four components, I'm able to chromecast, play tidal/pandora/amazon music/spotify, auto-switch inputs automatically, have integrated Alexa, control all these elements through my phone, remote, and touchscreen (built into the WiiM) - and have room correction, preamp, integrated EQ. The end result is a system that has (I have to admit) brought a few tears to my eye, as it surpassed my expectations with its soundstage, power, accuracy, and clarity. If you appreciate good audio then these components should be something to be considered. The beauty of this is you can inch towards audio nirvana as the WiiM also is a fully fledged amplifier in itself.

Side note: I was one of the first to purchase the WiiM Ultra when it was released (about a month ago) and, as with any new hardware, it had a few teething problems. Audio playback was perfect but the HDMI eArc had issues. I reported this issue to WiiM and they sent out a replacement model (with the revised hardware fix) free of charge. Now, *that* is customer service.

Thank goodness for men's intuition

I would like to preface that I'm attempting to popularise Men's intuition, much to the chagrin of my partner, as I believe that women shouldn't be the only purveyors of intuition ... but I digress. Just over a year ago we migrated to France, as I felt like America wasn't progressing the way I wanted things to be moving. And, given today's sad news, it has reinforced the correctness of our choice.

You would think that in a time when common sense things like women's rights, gay rights and such had been sorted out many years ago, certain people wouldn't be looking to revoke those hard-fought wins once again. Well, apparently, many states in the US did not think so. Would you believe that not that long ago, Iraq was once a far more egalitarian society with women allowed to wear things other than full-length burkas? Fast forward a few years and societies such as that quickly moved to a draconian religion-lead existence where things such as robots had more of a right to drive than any woman.

Iraq, Baghdad in the 60's

It's funny to think what war and opposing fundamentalist religions can do to a country - and it looks like a similar approach may be taking place in the US right now. Perhaps, for the powers that be, this allows a better means of controlling the masses by returning them to an age where if you're not with us you're against us. Nothing ever is as clear-cut but a women's right to sufficient medical support should be something that no one could possibly object to, right? Apparently not.

And you would think that having a comparatively young, intelligent, felon-free, educated and well-spoken woman representing the American people would be an excellent choice in comparison to the felony-indicted cesspool of humanity who already incited one coup. Apparently I'm the one taking crazy pills, as the American people said, You know what? I like the cut of that senile oompa loompa's jib. He's got my vote. 

 

 

This disappoints me - but at least we got out before it completes the inevitable transition into a banana republic. Although, perhaps, an orange republic is more fitting given the shade of his skin.

In the pursuit of diminishing returns

It's a funny thing. We all want the best but, to reach that pinnacle, you need to push every envelope to its limit to even come within spitting distance of that unreachable goal. Case in point: the present top-of-the-line graphics card from Nvidia, the 4090, costs a baseline retail price of USD 1600, with the next in line being a paltry USD 1200. I built my whole computer for less than the price of one of those graphics cards. Alongside this, the 4090 ends up drawing over 400W and taking three slots on your computer. That's also about the power draw of my whole system. That is truly insane - but apparently people are still willing to buy it. But I will never be one of those people - let me explain.

My general rule is that if the next tier of  'thing' is 20% better but 50% more expensive, I'll generally pass on taking up that offer. This holds true for everything I've bought in my life. I purchased a very good 55" HDR Variable-refresh rate 4K LCD for $600. I could buy an OLED or Quantum dot TV - but that would be over 70% more expensive while being only subjectively better (or perhaps objectively better, with OLED black levels). This is the same thing for the set of headphones I purchased. They're wired and bluetooth enabled and only cost $35. They're sealed cans, look pretty spiffy, have excellent staging and clarity and, I would argue, that between this and 'studio' headphones, the difference is perhaps no more than 20% while being a small fraction of the cost of one of them (they're generally well over $500).

If you follow that one simple rule of diminishing returns, you can save yourself a lot of money and be content in experiencing 80% of the best while only spending 20% of the fare. Every generation of technology is pushing the needle higher so why not benefit? I used to drive a Fiat Abarth which I bought for $8K - a conservatively fast car by today's standards. Now, those same performance numbers if you pushed back to the 1980's results in you driving the equivalent of Magnum PI's Ferrari. Now, that is progress I can get behind, my friends.