The right system for the right room

I have different environments in my house which let me unleash my obsessive, audiophile twitch to different degrees. Much depends on who is sharing the room with me. My wife and young daughter are busy, and have little enthusiasm for beautiful speakers, separate amps and pre-amps, and careful consideration of source. Instead they want instant sound to a somewhat gratifying level (mostly from the TV). So it is a soundbar and sub, and/or bluetooth speakers all the way in rooms that we share.

My office is a different story, and requires a computer based digital sound system largely driven by a DAC and a headphone amp. In this room I am the chimp with cans on my head. Nobody else is listening and I can geek out on settings to my heart’s content. I can listen to obscure stuff too. All on the cans.

My final space which allows for a different setup, is the listening room, where i can set up the more fragile and complex equipment such as LP players, stereo speakers and preamps. This is a hard sell in a busy household because space is at a premium. But for now I am winning the battle.

Life being as busy as it is, most of my serious listening happens at my computer nowadays. No complaints, distractions, or interruptions. At the computer i am just a chimp, with some cans on and a big old smile on my face.

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