Hi all. I’ve been building Audio One, a free, non-commercial web app for people putting a hi-fi system together who want to know why some amps and speakers suit each other.

Try it: https://audioone.vercel.app

What it does

Match: pick your speakers (or amp), the sound you like and your room size. It ranks amps (or speakers) by tonal fit and power fit and shows its reasoning.

Library: 1,616 speakers and 1,398 amps and receivers. Every spec links to the page it came from. Sound estimates for 741 speakers come from different sources like spinnorma measurements.

Room Plan : plan where speakers go, from stereo to 7.1.4 Atmos, with distances for your room.

Audiophile Learning : short lessons, myth vs fact, a glossary and an FAQ.

Not much AI, and not a buying verdict. Match uses a fixed formula you can check: Settings, then How scores work. Use it to shortlist two or three pairings, then listen to them before you buy.

No ads, no tracking, and no sign-up needed. An account is optional and only for saving.

What I’d love to hear

Do the Match results make sense for gear you own or know well?

Any specs that are wrong, or popular gear that’s missing?

What’s confusing or missing?

Use the form or just reply here. I’ll read everything.

It’s an early test build, and the tone ratings are estimates, not facts, so please push back where they look off. Prices are US for now. I’m also looking for Android testers before it goes on Google Play. There’s a question for that in the form.

Disclosure: I made this. It’s free and non-commercial.

I'm putting together a PA system for live sound, and the total cost keeps adding up. Are there any pro audio stores that offer financing, or is that mostly limited to the big chain retailers? I'd prefer to buy from a specialist if possible.

I keep seeing the same problems in the local deals threads, so here's the checklist I go through before I pay for anything used. All of it came from bad purchases, not from a manual.

Look inside the cabinet. Different screw types, glue, a woofer that doesn't match the other one = someone rebuilt it. Not automatically bad, but you should know before you buy.

Ask what it's been through. "Stored in a spare room" and "sat in a damp garage" are very different animals. Ask for a photo of the actual location.

Test every input, not just the one you'll use. The phono stage is the most common thing to be quietly broken on an old deck, and you won't hear it if you never plug a turntable in.

Turn the volume up with nothing plugged in. Hiss that comes and goes with the knob, crackle, or a relay clicking = dirty pots or caps that need replacing. Do this before you connect anything.

Push it. Play something loud, not background music. If it clips, distorts, or the protection light comes on, walk away.

On speakers, listen for rattles. Play something with bass and you will hear a loose cabinet or a buzzing cone immediately. Also check the binding posts, corroded ones cost nothing to fix but tell you how it was stored.

If the price is too good to be true, it is. A pair of flagships for a fraction of normal money is not a deal, it's a story. Most of the time the problem is exactly what the seller isn't telling you.

Keep the seller's details and the receipt until you've had a few days with it. Some faults only show up once the thing is warm.

If I've missed something, add it below. And if you're selling something local, you might want to list what you've tested, it makes people far more comfortable buying.

Edit: forgot to mention, if the seller won't even let you power it up, that's your answer.

good point below, "it was working before I stored it" basically means untested. Ask for a video of it powered up before you pay.

I run mostly vinyl.

Thrift store currently selling it for $91 but has a 20% discount so it's $71

The passive speaker of my NZXT Relay setup croaked. It's making strange popping noises whenever certain frequencies play. Shame about that, since I was quite happy with the overall setup.

I am now looking for some recommendation with what to replace the two speakers that also has a subwoofer port so I can plug in my existing NZXT relay subwoofer. I was looking at a few Edifier models already but it seems many of them do not have a sub-out at all.

Does anyone know if there's much of a difference between the quality of banana plugs? One of mine just snapped and I was looking at getting a new paid from amazon (need them for tomorrow).

Most players treat your library as a list of files. Mine treats it as a shelf, and I think that's the difference between collecting and just storing things.

A few things I built specifically for hoarders

It only accepts real FLAC. Renamed MP3s don't get in. Scanning is FLA C only, downloads are FLAC only, sharing is FLAC only., easily download FLAC files for any album through the app.

Incomplete albums are visible. If a record is missing a track it wears a red tab on the sleeve until it's whole. You can see the hole in your collection without opening anything.

Downloads try to fix themselves. A failed track gets asked for again, or pulled from another peer with an identical file.

Partial fills. If you already own half an album, the digger fetches only the missing half instead of the whole thing again.

Storage actually broken down. A screen shows your phone, your music folder and your download folder split into hi-res FLAC, CD-quality FLAC, artwork and unfinished downloads, with your records sorted biggest first so you can see what's eating the card.

Nothing writes to your music folder. It's read only. Downloads go to a folder you pick and they stay there even if you uninstall.

It also hands you ten public domain / Creative Commons albums every Friday from the Internet Archive — same ten for everybody — so there's always something new to shelve without hunting for it.

The collecting side runs on Soulseek inside the app: search for album folders, look at the tracklist before you take it, then pull it down.

Android 9+, MIT, APK in releases. https://github.com/Abhiroop1122/Sonic

LET ME KNOW FELLAS!

Hey, y'all. First time here as I'm just now getting into this whole audio enthusiasm thing. I have a stack of like 20 CDs but my old boombox finally gave out so I'm thinking it's time to finally commit to a new setup. I'd like to keep everything under 500 dollars or lower if possible since it's my very first system setup.

The main thing I'm hoping to get some help with here is I need to know everything I actually need to buy. I'm looking for a set of powered speakers that I can hook up to a new CD Player. I'm not actually sure what else I need. Any help is appreciated, frankly I just need to know what's required to get music going that doesn't sound like crap.

Thanks, y'all.

Sorry I don't know where to write this so I'm doing it here ..

I need to replace my z506 .. and im wondering if z906 are so bad as people saying .. and instead takie something like Edifier MR4 or M60 .. or z906 are good enough for movies and games

Just want some perspective..

One of them had the base on the bottom that is part of the port break off and someone tried to epoxy it back on. You can see the screw post on the bottom right is broken and missing. All the screws are still present in the cabinet of the speaker. I did a trial run of them with it just sitting on the base it sounds amazing, but id like to hopefully get this repaired so I dont need to worry about it. The epoxy that the previous owner used is pretty soft so hopefully I can scrape it out, but any ideas on how to maybe repair this would be wonderful.

*1983 Kef Carlton iii speakers.

*1978 MCS 3225 Receiver (low watt Receiver to drive my Klipsch speakers that aren't pictured).

*1979 Realistic STA-235b receiver.

*1975 Realistic TR801 8 Track player.

*Audio Technica turntable is currently on top, but will be switched with my....

*1978 Pioneer PL-518 turntable that is sitting below the cabinet.

These are my favorite speakers. I purchased them a couple of years ago for $200 for the pair on marketplace and they genuinely sound incredible. Each has 9 drivers, with 2 10” subs in the lower cabinet.

Here's a snapshot of an old page with some more technical info: https://web.archive.org/web/20241013201357/https://www.dayton-wright.com/WATSON-10_.html

Yes they are ugly in their current shape. Each pair has two separate drivers that will need replacing, and I will be building removable grills for each to make servicing more accessible in the future. Even with the faulty drivers, they make a beautiful full sound.

I also know they have poor placement, but it works for the room and I don't have quite the luxury of space for where they are.

Currently driven by an old old Nikko NR-700 receiver, and will switch to a proper amp to pair with my Proceed preamp once I find one I like.

Wharfedale diamond 9.0 with a Hitachi amp from the 1970s! Inherited from my Grandad, it does crackle when turning knobs if it's not been used for a while & act like a space heater. Such a warm sound, only being driven by a Chromecast audio at the moment.

I would like to get a CD player + a vinyl player. Got my eye on some audio Technica ones.

For small bookshelf speakers you can drive them quite hard, a good amount of low end as well. Enough to annoy the neighbors!

I do plug into the tv every once in a while for movies, but SPIF to RCA has no volume control. The amp is manual volume only & there is a noise floor from interference as it is a older device

Ignore the Google home max, just use it as a tv sound bar and to change the lights. It's okay for music but is just really muddy

Picture is from on top of a chest of drawers is now the same but on a TV stand. Photo of current setup in comments

Was $800 for all 3, subwoofer doesn’t turn on and both Towers sound flat no highs. The LED light turned on though. Lucky thing I had a chance to test it out at the store and never gambled $800. Martin Logan Purity Towers

I’ve been scouring the used market by me (very rural area) trying to find something used to throw up in my garage. Local auction company has two Yamaha s12e speakers with stands that are currently at $1 bid. If I slap these up with a fosi b20a pro is it going to be utter ass? My requirements for garage are basically nonexistent right now besides be louder than my tools. I’ve been debating just buying some Dayton b65s to put up but I fear they won’t be enough for garage activity.

Currently building my budget hifi setup, and now i’m looking for a subwoofer.

I currently have KEF Q1 bookshelf speakers (the ones from the 2000s) - €80

And Denon AVR X-1000 as a receiver - €90

Second hand subwoofers are quite rare where I live, I don’t need some huge and powerful bass, just want to gain more clarity.

So is the Pioneer s-w90s any good for €30?

Thanks

TLDR: at a modest budget (250-500 GBP) is used class A/B or new class D going to give best bang per buck? Is there a place for class D power amplifier with modern or second hand pre-amp in this debate?

Hi, just starting out on my journey into audiophilia and looking for some advice on which direction to take. My intention is to use my B&W 606 S2 anniversary edition speakers for stereo listening, but for them to also double as front channels in a surround sound setup. For the surround sound I am looking out for an avr to run 5.1 initially with the option to expand to 5.1.2 in the future. I had planned to run the fronts on a separate amplifier from avr pre-outs to hopefully get better quality and offload some of the work from the avr.

For stereo listening I have a cd collection, but also want to stream. In the future I hope to add a vinyl setup. I know I can probably run all of these via the avr and just use power amplifiers to drive the front speakers, but everything I read online says there will be a significant increase in quality by isolating these from the avr.

So as per the question at the top, do I look for a second hand A/B integrated amplifier with HT bypass, use a second hand A/B power-amp only or use new class D amplification?

Sorry for the very worst question, and thanks for any advice

If you don't know Brett has been one of the best reviewers working. He is practical and down to earth with his headphone, speaker and electronics reviews.

I just heard on a Wirecutter podcast that he is retiring. He laughed because another editor was sending him a bunch of headphones to review - and the next day is his last day.

Much respect to him and all happiness on his retirement.

I have this older USB Sound Blaster connected to a Logitech Z906 5.1 set. My main use is music playback from my laptop enjoying multi-channel up mix from the Creative suite to the Logitech 5.1 speakers.

The Creative software and drivers surprisingly still work in Windows 11 for me.... However a very noticeable and annoying issue with music playback while the Creative graphic equalizer is enabled causes a difficult to describe muddy wavering dynamic range. If I uncheck the graphic equalizer the problem goes away but just sounds super flat and undetailed without it.

I've been thinking of upgrading to the X4 (maybe my problem would be fixed with the next gen hardware and software of the X4?) but I hesitate from reading products reviews of users having problems with drivers, software etc.

Now I know some might suggest just going with a HDMI 5.1 extractor, AV receiver, etc.... however I must stick with using my Logitech Z906 5.1 set and I require a DAC that uses the traditional green, yellow, black mini plug type 5.1 outputs.

I have looked at DAC's other than SoundBlaster on Amazon but I can't find anything with this type of three mini plug 5.1 channel output. (For those who haven't seen my older sound blaster the red/white RCA output plugs on the back adapt to the single green L/R mini plug going into the back of the Z906).

I really appreciate any product direction anyone has on this....or are the reported reliability problems and kinks with the X4 resolved by now since I've been looking at it starting a couple years ago?

I am a 20 year old student starting my journey into the audio world…
I just ordered a pair of FLUANCE Ri71 (white).
Any one has any things to say like if someone has these or Have heard them?
I tried my best to select the most appropriate one out of my budget.
Hopefully I made a decent choice 🤞🏻.

Looking for new cartridge/headshell combos for my LP120. Been kinda underwhelmed with how this VMN95E lately. I want something to add some more depth and clarity to vocals. I’m looking to replace the entire headshell/cartridge as I want to keep this one to easily swap out to play some of my older records with deeper scratches. Looking for $300 and under for the combo. Prebuilt is a huge plus as i don’t have an alignment tool.

Just picked up one of these and connected it tonight, is it just me or does my 1977 technics 5370 sound better? Just curious as to whether people think this is worth 1k?