I am a seventy year old codger and I have had a rebirth into the world of high res. I have an Azur 851N fed by a pc running Roon and Tidal and albums dragged there from Amazon HD. I am listening to selections like I have never heard them before. It is a truly enlightening experience and very pleasant on the ears.The thing is that I talk to my peers and they look at me like I have thrown a rod or something. They have no idea that this is out here. I feel grateful to experience it for myself but I keep wanting to share this with others but in my world it falls on deaf ears.
18 Likes
You may or may not be able to share the appreciation of what you’re hearing.
My wife says she hears the difference but doesn’t care. It doesn’t have any effect on her enjoyment of the music.
We all should enjoy whatever aspect of the music we enjoy. Not very profound, I’m afraid, but glad to hear you’re getting renewed pleasure from music.
5 Likes
Hi Charles
I will be 66 at the end of November and my wife also doesn’t care about the quality of the music she hears, preferring her Amazon Alexa to my 18 year old kit.
That said she’s reluctantly allowing me to sell all the old gear (apart from the Shanling Omega drive CD player) and buy a new kickass system in early November, based around Kii Three speakers and Grimm Audio MU1 streamer.
I’ve never used any streaming system (can’t hardly use Amazon as she’s using it all the time) so I’m usually listening to BBC Radio 3 (baroque classical is my passion, followed by Jazz and female vocalists - from Ella Fitzgerald to Nora Jones) but I’m really looking forward to having a Quobuz or Tidal subscription (need to choose when it arrives) so I can listen to all manner of music, including
Oh and don’t forget, you’re not an old codger, we’re both vintage, like a really good wine we get better with age!
Happy listening!
Cheers Terry
5 Likes
Join the club -
1 Like
I’m a 72 year old with retired drummer and pilot ears. I still very much enjoy listening to Tidal and Qobuz high resolution music, mostly '60’s and '70’s rock. Constant high pitched tinnitus doesn’t help.
5 Likes
Yeah, I have tinnitus too but I don’t notice it much with my Klipsch speakers turned up.
1 Like
I am soon to be 77, and perhaps because I love music and technology both I have been using ROON and streaming all my music I have ripped to a server as well as some Spotify and Amazon streams for a couple of years now. I have used all formats in the past and still have a turntable and records, but this modern way of listening to music is glorious.
3 Likes
I’m only 58 but my mum says I can play with the 59 year olds if I don’t cry.
My friends seem to fall into three groups:
-
Audiophiles who share my interests in music and gear. Most of them would put turntable or tape sources ahead of CD or streaming, but they listen to the latter for convenience. While they all prefer CD quality to mp3, there are different views about the virtues of higher resolution. Only one of this group has taken up my recommendation of Roon and he loves it;
-
Music lovers who are not interested in gear but appreciate good reproduction. This group includes quite a lot of my women friends and a few of the men. They listen attentively to the music and have a greater response to it (tapping hands, feet or dancing) when it is well recorded and reproduced. They don’t seek out high res sources, but they know they like it when they hear it;
-
People who only want music in the background and don’t listen attentively. This group still enjoy music, but it isn’t as important to them as the first two. They are quite happy with any source and don’t seem to vary in their response to it whether it is high res or not.
The trick is showing the second group what can be done, without scaring them off with technical detail.
4 Likes
I’m in the most common age bracket 51-60, but nearly out of that one at 57. Roon/Tidal has allowed me to find (and rediscover) some great music.
Those who like 60s and 70s rock should check out Pete Pardo’s Sea of Tranquility YouTube channel; he likes heavier stuff than I do but his taste is wide and covers those periods well.
Cheers
1 Like
I agree. It certainly is.
Or sometimes the cost of getting that high res reproduction.
1 Like
I re-discovered music when I retired at 70. iTunes finally drove me to look for for a better experience.
I developed software for a living so right away I was impressed as hell with the Roon experience and bought a life-time license. With Tidal I can screen albums, and that got into listening to classical. It surprised me that after a while I could listen to different recordings of a particular work, and compare the musicians, orchestras, and performances, and find such a variance of enjoyment across recordings.
I now prefer headphones to speakers. Although I have a better pair of headphones (iMac>Roon>Mojo>headphones), sometimes I sit on the patio and use iMac>Roon>iPhone/iPad>Bose noise cancellation headphones.
I think most anyone can develop an “ear” for classical music, if I can do it. Two things that helped me were recordings by Robert Greenberg (available on Audible.com), and occasional cannabis use (which I got from my brother at a reasonable markup). 
5 Likes
I sometimes sit on the back porch and use Roon Nucleus>WIFI>RPi4>USB>Dragonfly Cobalt>Sony WH-1000XM3 noise cancelling headphones.
2 Likes
Interesting rig. Is that a dragonfly I see?
AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt.
1 Like
Damn, i feel like a youngster here with only 53 years, lol
Charles, I can completely understand what you experienced with the Azure 851N … I bought one myself a few months ago and enjoyed it so much that I traded it in 2 weeks later for the Edge NQ and I am madly in love with that one. Yes, it costs a lot more but it also needs a lot less. It has a superb headphone amp built in so all you need (if headphones are your thing) is a good pair (I have the Sennheiser HD800s and Denon AH-D 9200 and love them both) and off you go to never look back.
My wife is the same as yours (maybe just a slightly younger model) but even she is impressed with the quality. But, much like yours, she doesn’t care about audio visual quality at all. But Roon ? Now that’s a different story. I had to install a client on her PC after I showed it to her (I have a Nucleus+ which by itself is a pretty decent streamer).
Hope you’ll enjoy your Azure 851N for many, many years to come (or maybe upgrade too ?) and also enjoy Roon. It’s truly a new way of listening to Music. I bought an IPad mini as a “roon remote” and it’s wonderful
2 Likes
That’s the reason I was asking about headphones on the Ipad Pro 12.9, I have a patio where I sit and use the iPad as an end point with a camera kit feeding the Audioquest Dragonfly Red.
To be honest for casual listening the built in DAC is actually quite good, I use my Bose QC25 with the iPad, I must admit your RPi rig looks like a bit of a handful just to squeeze out hi res !
Each To His Own
1 Like
I see this has become the “old codgers” thread…maybe we should re-title it!
I’m a 66 year-old audiophile who has invested funds in hi-fi upgrades to stave off an inevitable move to hearing aids as my hearing has declined over the years. (My hearing loss is right at normal conversation pitch…my family insists that I don’t pay attention to what they are saying!) I don’t usually listen through headphones, but I must say that my recent purchase of Focal Clears has been an ear-opening experience. For mobile listening I use an Astell and Kern SR25 DAP and JH Audio 16v2 Pro IEMs.
By the way, @Terry_Trinder, your musical preferences are identical to mine: Baroque (I live and breathe Bach), jazz, and especially jazz vocalists (Sarah Vaughan is a goddess). I love exploring the more obscure byways of both genres, which has been much enhanced by Qobuz streaming via Roon.
3 Likes
I am not a Roon convert, mainly due to cost, preferring to spend the money on music live pre-covid and recorded plus Qobuz substription and hardware. I am however like the majority on this post over 60!
1 Like
Same here, Jim. Sometimes it is really bad, others … well, I guess you get used to it. Often it’s worse when I’m really tired, but then, what isn’t? Ha.
2 Likes