3 Sad Bastards

Join the 3 Sad Bastards as they finish off Season 2 with a proscriptive perspective on the year that was (inside episode joke), and consider where to focus next.

If you're getting that itchy feeling of what's next in your audio journey, thinking of going up the hifi ladder, or considering a change of direction, you're not alone!

Wonders of wonders, somehow each of the Sad Bastards comes to the same conclusion on what Season 3 will be all about - listen in and get ready to be part of the next step of the journey.

HINT: Around 18:20 into the podcast.

After all the blood, sweat and tears of making a pair of DIY loudspeakers, the moment of truth is how they sound! But first you have to make sure they are not connected out of phase. The Sad Bastards find out if the pain was worth the gain, or the gain was worth the pain, and whether selling a top notch commercial loudspeaker before completing the DIY build results in a happy ending.

If you're thinking of taking the plunge and trying your hand at DIY loudspeakers, then listen along and find out how we think it worked out for SB1 (hint: F A N T A S T I C).

Special Guest Edition! The 3 Sad Bastards are joined by Roger Sanders from Sanders Audio Systems in this first ever episode where someone has been brave enough to come on and engage in witty, respectful and engaging repartee! As a completely unconstrained episode, the 3 Sad Bastards are schooled by one of the audio industry great thinkers and innovators - listen in as Roger articulates his philosophy on amplifiers, speakers and hifi in general!

Why are valves (vacuum tubes) still being used in hifi audio equipment? The 3 Sad Bastards decompose the arguments (and have a few of their own along the way) as to the intrinsic characteristics of valves and why valve audio equipment is seeing a resurgence in the market.

For anyone that's wondered what all the valve fuss is about, why some audiophiles prefer amplifiers that can triple up as incandescent bulbs,  heaters or even toast your crumpet, join in and find a voice to vent your inner valve audio obsession.

Spoiler alert: The podcast ends with the conclusion that valves are clearly superior at toasting crumpets.

If there’s one aspect of audio hifi that divides the audio world it’s cables! If you believe that cables make a difference, are you a hifi wizard, or a cable clown?

Are speaker, interconnect, USB, Ethernet and power cables the hidden secret sauce to making a hifi system go to the next level or is it just a load of snake-oil that you rub on to alleviate the sting of how much you’ve spent?

Listen in as two of the Sad Bastards goad each other with their fact based approach (i.e. unsubstantiated ambit claims) and almost come to fisty-cuffs. In fact SB3 had to tie SB2 and SB1 virtually up with the (inferior) kettle-cord that came with his amplifier to keep the show moving along.

The allure of shiny and new goodness vs. crufty and dated oldness proves too much for the 3 Sad Bastards.

In this episode they come clean that they really, really, really only consume hifi porn for the photos and videos online, and that generally hifi porn is harmless and does  harm to none.

If you protect your hifi browser history like the last chocolate biscuit in a zombie apocalypse, then this is the episode you have been waiting for - a safe place where the obsessed and afflicted can share their love of hifi.

The 3 Sad Bastards take a pair of pliers and blowtorches to the fine art of audiophile hifi reviews.

Superlatives are used LIBERALLY, and this episode is without doubt the best and most awesome 3SB episode of ALL TIME.

Come and join the 3 Sad Bastards deconstruct how to (not) write a hifi review, how to get paid (or in our case, not - and now never likely to be) as we take a look at how bad audio hifi reviews can be, and just how sad we are for reading them, over, and over, and over again.

After you listen to this episode, your hifi will sound SO MUCH BETTER. Trust us.

One of the 3 Sad Bastards has started a project to build to build a pair of loudspeakers. How hard could it be, right? Listen to the other Sad Bastards rip into SB1's naiveté, rose-coloured, wishful thinking belief that making your own loudspeakers could rival commercial quality. In Part 1, we consider  the design process, from drivers, cabinets, cross-overs (active vs. passive) and wife-acceptance-factor considerations.

In a forthcoming Part 2, SB1 will reveal his new creation, and suck it up when the other Sad Bastards finally realise that SB1 was right all along.

If you've ever considered making your own speakers, join us to see how we tackle the problem in our unique style of ignorance and discovery, laughing all the way...  

Back by popular demand, the 3 Sad Bastards kick off Season 2  with an episode dedicate to headphones. Finally! SB3 is vindicated after years of trying to convince SB2 and SB1 that headphones are awesome.

Blending their unique style of education, irritation, and pissing each other off, the 3 Sad Bastards consider whether closed or open headphones are better, do you really need an amplifier for your cans, and revisit whether DACs really do matter, or whether buying randomly is the best option.

A must listen for any audiophile interested in headphones!

Why did three audio, hifi, enthusiast audiophiles decide to create a podcast? Why should the world care, and what can other sad bastards expect as a return after 10 episodes?

In this bonus podcast, recorded last, the 3 Sad Bastards come clean and reveal the real reason behind the podcast.

Or you might have to wait until Season 2.

Why does music sound better when you've had a few drinks... or does it?

In this episodes the 3 Sad Bastards get increasingly inebriated and (try to)  determine once and for all whether alcoholic consumption should be a viable upgrade option for your hifi. What does it matter how your hifi sounds better at the end of the day?

In a no-holds-barred episode, the idea of whether your hifi sounds better or not if you're tipsy, and/or if no one is listening lead the 3 Sad Bastards to meta discussion on the special theory of relativity and a quantum mechanical interpretation of the uncertainty hifi cat.

Enter at your own risk...

It's time to upgrade your system. After endless reading on the Interwebs, arguing against your desires, many months of siphoning your pay to that hidden account that you think (hope) you know who doesn't know about, and hoarding coins in your glovebox for a few years, it's finally time to get your next hifi system.

Upgrading can be fun, but now that you are ready, how do you avoid common pitfalls and rookie mistakes, and really - how do you justify it to yourself and your partner, and how not to waste your money by adding components or getting a (comprised) 2nd system - be a sad bastard and go for gold.

The 3 Sad Bastards weigh up strategies on how to get your desired outcome, such as "pounce like a panther", "appeal to design aesthetic", or "beg forgiveness than seek permission".

Hear how well that's worked for the Sad Bastards...

By any common measure, a modern hifi should not include a source device invented in 1877. But for some strange reason, grown men and women have been known to only use records and turntables, proving that being a sad bastard is not gender biased.

The 3 Sad Bastards share their shameful audio hifi secret, that sometimes, late at night, after having a few, that they have been known to put on a record or two, and somehow manage to convince each other that records are just sometimes better than digital alternatives.

I didn't believe it either.

The saddest Sad Bastard is the bastard who takes their hifi to a mates house and finds that it sounds better there than in their house.

No, Johnny, don't turf the lot! The reason is because your room is conspiring to make you sad by emphasising the bass, wrecking hell on the timing of the treble and having fun at your expense.

The 3 Sad Bastards guide you through how adjusting the signal in the digital realm can take your room out of the equation (at least enough) - you won't believe it's the same system - and give you something else to obsess about.  

You're either with us or against us, a true believer of all things analogue or digital. Nothing starts a fight at a GTG faster than the greybeard vs the hipster sitting on the sofa playing the same track on a record and from a CD.

In this episode the 3 Sad Bastards put their digital filters on and consider all things digital, from DAC's, to Streamers, to All-in-Ones, and what is the best platform for music management, and how to avoid being locked into an ecosystem when you discover that you don't own all the music you listen to anymore.

At the heart of every sad bastards hifi is the amplifier. Taking pride of place it is the shrine on which many an audio enthusiast has wasted countless brain cycles wondering if their amp is better than their mates. Class A is better than Class D, and Class AB is the best overall.

Fighting words I know, I know.

The 3 Sad Bastards attempt to convince each other and you dear listener why amplifiers matter, and how important the type of amplifier is to your general happiness and well being, mindfulness and enlightenment.

Pssst: The best amplifier is ...

You're about to hit "buy" on that listing you've been watching for the last few days... but secretly want to go to the local hifi store, sit and listen for the afternoon, and take something new back home with you. Good Bastard says "Buy the used item, you can always flog it", Bad Bastard says "Go with new, it has a warranty."  The result is a Sad Bastard, because both options are great!

The 3 Sad Bastards tell it how it is - when it makes sense to buy new, the pitfalls of used, and how to avoid the abused items that will waste your time (present podcast excluded).

The "something isn't right" itch has become a rash, and every moment of every day is spent on audio review sites to justify the idea of upgrading your hifi. But budgets are tight, and you can only change one item in your hifi! Will you blow your next two pay-packets on that new set of silver XLR cables, get that newest shiniest DAC, or just give up and throw the towel in and buy that 5.1 system you really want?

In Episode 4 of Season 1 (you know we can't resist another season), the 3 Sad Bastards share their stories of the ONLY thing you should change in your hifi when you absolutely just have to do it. Just like Frankie says. Relax and listen.

Hifi Bastards know the feeling well - when the itch to upgrade "because something isn't quite right" in the hifi system. A sad Sad Bastards is the most woeful sight ever. Sitting in the dark, thinking dark thoughts, and listening to the same audio test track over and over, whilst changing USB cables between the DAC and the Source. The 3 Sad Bastards guide you through what to do when the itch starts and how to get rid of it.

What is a good first hifi system? The 3 Sad Bastards show that they are completely out of touch with reality and then proceed to run a train through the idea of what entry level hifi should be. Each Bastard presents an argument for a complete high quality hifi system and try to present a coherent argument as to why spending money on hifi is a good idea.

Where 3 Sad Bastards proved that there were no limits on what they could achieve, provided with sufficient wine.