I've long suffered with having roommates. This meant my system was confined to my BEDROOM. My stereo is confined to a corner.....let's just say it's a mess and I'm not getting the sound my stereo is capable of. BUT....now I'm touring roommate free apartments. I'm wondering if one floor plan is better than the other for setting up a system. For example: Option 1: clearly defined separation of rooms. Slightly claustrophobic, but I imagine the neatly defined rooms lends itself to good sound. Exton PA Apartments | Severgn Apartments | Floor Plans Option 2: The living room and dining room are kind of like one BIG room. Spacious and airy but perhaps not the best environment for achieving stereo sound at neighbor friendly volumes. Exton Crossing Apartment Homes - Availability, Floor Plans & Pricing Is this something I'm overthinking? Any apartment shopping advice for the audiophile?
Get an apartment where the living room - and stereo set up - is next to a hallway. My living room was next to the hallway between the elevators and apartment, the hallway led to the stairwell. Don't put speakers in the bedroom. I did this once and programmed Pink Floyd - Time with the clocks and alarm/clock bells. Scared the CR*P outa me first thing in the morning! Bad idea! True story!
My response exactly, @Black Elk beat me to it! I've lived in apartments most of my life, sometimes with housemates and sometimes alone. Six years ago I bought a really good stereo system and moved into a bedroom in a big home with two empty-nesters. I've never had a separate home dwelling all to myself. The advantage of my present situation is that when the homeowners leave for traveling (frequently) I have the whole house to myself and I can really crank up the volume, as there is no one else in the house and no one on the other side of the wall, just a small yard between the next house. When they are home, I have to listen at low levels. Every time I ever lived in an apartment with my own stereo, I had to learn from experience to turn down the volume low enough that I wouldn't be getting a knock on the door. You're lucky to be able to afford to shop around for an apartment. Here in San Francisco, rents for studio or one bedroom apartments have skyrocketed. When I move again in the near future when the homeowners of my present residence decides to sell the house and retire to their second home, I will have to move into a senior low-income apartment without much option for choosing. Waitlists to even get such an apartment are years long. I'm resigned to going back to apartment living in the near future, and I just ordered a set of $3K headphones (ZMF Atrium if you're curious). Because I know I won't be able to do any more loud listening through my tower loudspeakers. Unfortunately you will never know how soundproof an apartment is until you move in, and hear your neighbors above or below or to either side of you, and they hear you and start complaining for you to turn the music down. As for a listening space, my only advice is that a symmetrical square or rectangular room is going to have more even and manageable acoustics than a room that is L-shaped (like my current bedroom) or unusual like a studio apartment with combined dining and living room. Good luck!
I have that same audio clip programmed as an alarm on my phone... not as loud as having it on a stereo system with speakers.
I was picturing an apartment block where all the residents were audiophiles. Imagining the fights for the cleanest power supplies.
The best sounding apartment I ever had was one with a dining room and living room attached to each other, and it also had a high sloped ceiling. I setup the system in the dining room facing the living room and sat near the wide space between the two rooms. The huge empty space behind me contributed to excellent sound staging, and so did the high and angled ceiling.
One thing I realized was important: sound insulation. My building is mostly hollow tile so sound only travels into the hall way via the door. Oh and it also goes out over my lanai. I can't hear what's going on on either side of me so I assume they can't hear the music.
First of all: congrats. Being rid of roommates is a big deal. Can’t happen soon enough. Ive only ever lived in apartments and at the moment, I’m enjoying my low watt/high sensitivity rig better than past high watt/low sensitivity rigs. I’m getting much more satisfying sound at 65 - 80db listening now than I ever did before at 80 - 90db. Drawbacks are poor bass extension (a positive in an apartment) and size of the speakers, if you care about that kind of thing. Sorry, to answer your actual question: big room, small problems. Stereo in the living room, and sit as close as practical so you can keep the volume as low as possible.
Thanks. It's taken me a long time to be roommate free. That said......I'm well accustomed to nearfield listening. It's been by necessity and I guess it still is. Anything to keep the volume down.
I tried to go down this rabbit hole and got scared off. Separate headphone amp. No big deal...it would be fun to research them..... Wow. EVERY SINGLE REVIEW had them connected to a computer for streaming. I don't do computers and I don't stream. I listen to vinyl and CDs exclusively and chose my integrated amp because it was old school without a single digital input. Did I get the wrong impression that the modern audiophile headphone setup is geared towards digital streaming?
Just from the floor plans, I would suggest the Saratoga in option one is your best bet. That long wall would give you the best option for speaker placement. I have often thought if I were shopping to move into an apartment, I would bring some audio gear, play it and inquire with the neighbors if it bothered them. I had a very bad experience with a neighbor that blasted disco music through the weekend. It was not conducive for my reading. Also, an older building would tend to be more solid and have less vibration going on.
Quote from the 2nd guy, "In my life, audio may be the most important. Well, maybe my girlfriend. Both are actually equally important." If she goes to his apartment, she already knows that though....quite the setup.
I suppose a headphone amp with built in DAC would be connected by USB cable to a computer. But most headphone amps, I would think, have multiple source inputs including analog inputs. I have a Benchmark HPA-4 with all analog inputs, which go to a dedicated DAC which is connected to my PC for digital playback and to a disc player. If you get a headphone amp with two stereo analog inputs then one goes to your CD player and one to your phono preamp. If I am wrong, someone feel free to correct me.
Move in with mom or dad for a few years and save up for a down payment on a townhouse or condo. Unless you dig headphones, trying to get good sound without disrupting the neighbors in an 850 square foot apartment ain't going to be easy. And $2000 a month. Geez Louis!
You got the wrong impression about headphone listening in general, but perhaps the right impression of the type of listening most people post on the internet about. The headphone amp I use the most now doesn’t even have any digital inputs.
Near field in a larger room is better than a smaller room, IME. And hopefully mid-field isn’t too big of a stretch!
Too old to move back home, and yes, RENT IS INSANE here. That's just a simple 1 bedroom apartment. There's a reason that I've had roommates for so long!
This one: SoundStage! Equipment Review - HeadRoom Maxed Out Home Headphone Amplifier (6/2002) you can find good deals on them used. It has a bit less detail than the later Headroom Ultra Desktop, which I also have, but a more laid back sound that goes well with the classical SACDs I use it for.
There are many very good quality headphone amps that are less than half the price of the HPA4 that have multiple analog inputs, with or without a digital input. There is a trend in headphone amps with built in DAC but you wouldn't need that feature if you're not going to play local or streamed files from a computer.
My older generation Marantz Cd5004 has a built in headphone amp. The laser is getting wonky and I'll be replacing it with the newer model soon which boasts of a newer "improved" headphone amp. Marantz CD6007 Then of course there's the headphone jack on my integrated amp. What would a standalone headphone amp bring to the table?
