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Hi-Fi systems

chrismpw said:
There's a LOT of snake oil - especially on the topic of cables ... a pal who want to become an agent selling for an esoteric French firm was asked to pay £40,000 up front for some fancy cables in his show room. Just a pair. At this point we chatted ... I was on the verge of buying a very expensive pair of drivers from that firm, for the project above. Both of us had been asked to pay by bank transfer... which rang alarm bells with me ... what if the company is about to go bust? We walked away.

Cables do make a difference- and it's down to how well the impedance and capacitance team up with the rest of the system ... there is very, very little correlation to cost.

My view is - if you like it it's good.
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I like to watch some of the hi-fi channels on YouTube just to laugh at all the descriptors used but they usually fail to acknowledge that you can have two people listen to the same exact setup and they'll have vastly different listening experiences. For example, I prefer soft dome or horn tweeters as opposed to titanium dome or ribbon ones due to my individual hearing, typical style of music I listen to and home speaker placement/acoustics.

This is why I still haven't fully replaced my Klipsch Heresy II's in the living room even though she wants me to due to them being completely archaic-looking when it comes to build quality/style but I also use some modern Polk Monitor 70 S2's I got off Amazon 10+ years ago for a steal that do really great with newer digital recordings/PC audio. Although, in the case of those, I didn't get to audition them because I took the chance based on general knowledge/word of mouth, which is NOT recommended unless you know some things about you as a listener. I got to the point, ages ago, where I was buying a DVD player based on it's supposed CD audio output quality but those days are long gone. Those 70k+ setups out there are pure folly, IMHO. A fool and his money, etc. A $12k mono block is insanity.
 
Gwladys St. Glory said:
I like to watch some of the hi-fi channels on YouTube just to laugh at all the descriptors used but they usually fail to acknowledge that you can have two people listen to the same exact setup and they'll have vastly different listening experiences. For example, I prefer soft dome or horn tweeters as opposed to titanium dome or ribbon ones due to my individual hearing, typical style of music I listen to and home speaker placement/acoustics.

This is why I still haven't fully replaced my Klipsch Heresy II's in the living room even though she wants me to due to them being completely archaic-looking when it comes to build quality/style but I also use some modern Polk Monitor 70 S2's I got off Amazon 10+ years ago for a steal that do really great with newer digital recordings/PC audio. Although, in the case of those, I didn't get to audition them because I took the chance based on general knowledge/word of mouth, which is NOT recommended unless you know some things about you as a listener. I got to the point, ages ago, where I was buying a DVD player based on it's supposed CD audio output quality but those days are long gone. Those 70k+ setups out there are pure folly, IMHO. A fool and his money, etc. A $12k mono block is insanity.
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I've never heard any Klipsch speakers, but from what people say, I'd like to one day.

Completely agree - after a quality point, it comes down to taste. This is why I've always (since the 1980s) built my own speakers. I always use paper coned woofers - they always render the voice and instruments more realistically for me. I've never used more than 2 way speakers ... absolutely unnecessary in my experience, unless youre after boom boxes and have no interest in imageary. I've nearly always used ribbon tweeters though, however the graptolite speakers (on the left) use a modern version - AMT drivers (air motion transformers) which i tried out of a combination of curiosity, reasonable pricing and their ability to go down to 1kHz if I wanted. They're also backless so work as a dipole, which is what I wanted in this open baffle speaker. At first they sounded horrendously sharp and aggressive and I had a lot of "buyers remorse" but after a day or so running in all of that went and I'd heartily recommend them now.

Making an active crossover was the biggest single revelation in my sound - having nothing but wire between the amp and drivers. My latest speaker is the theoretical goal... no crossover at all - less electronics to mess with the sound - purity!

There's a great video by "mend it mark" on YouTube, very recently, where he takes apart to fix an "unfixable" £32,000 phono preamp. The manufacturer was furious that he opened the lid and let all of the magic oil out - had the video taken down for copyright reasons - but really revealed that the build quality was not premium, shall we say, and the parts very ordinary. Fortunately, several others have reposted his video!

It was fixed by replacing one component for a matter of pence!
 
Gwladys St. Glory said:
I like to watch some of the hi-fi channels on YouTube just to laugh at all the descriptors used but they usually fail to acknowledge that you can have two people listen to the same exact setup and they'll have vastly different listening experiences. For example, I prefer soft dome or horn tweeters as opposed to titanium dome or ribbon ones due to my individual hearing, typical style of music I listen to and home speaker placement/acoustics.

This is why I still haven't fully replaced my Klipsch Heresy II's in the living room even though she wants me to due to them being completely archaic-looking when it comes to build quality/style but I also use some modern Polk Monitor 70 S2's I got off Amazon 10+ years ago for a steal that do really great with newer digital recordings/PC audio. Although, in the case of those, I didn't get to audition them because I took the chance based on general knowledge/word of mouth, which is NOT recommended unless you know some things about you as a listener. I got to the point, ages ago, where I was buying a DVD player based on it's supposed CD audio output quality but those days are long gone. Those 70k+ setups out there are pure folly, IMHO. A fool and his money, etc. A $12k mono block is insanity.
Click to expand...

Picked up a DVD player from a charity shop for a fiver a while back. The small SACD logo caught my eye so I knew I'd be able to flip it online for a few quid.

If aesthetics aren't a massive deal then there are much worse value ways to fill a CD gap in a budget set-up.
 
I think alot of the very high end stuff you are paying for build quality with very little noticeable sound difference, for budget stuff I really like the wiim products
 

neil999 said:
I think alot of the very high end stuff you are paying for build quality with very little noticeable sound difference, for budget stuff I really like the wiim products
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It really depends on what ears you have. My kit has got quite expensive now, having spent sums i could only ever dream of when i was younger and it sounds a different league to what I considered high end just a few years ago. Certainly there is the law of diminishing returns in play though. We are all different - I can hear very subtle differences - I'm not saying this makes me in any way superior, but it gives me a lifelong interest in hifi that orhers mught never get into. In other ways, my euesight isn’t as acute so I'm not really interested in getting the best tv. As an analogy - I like food and I like the flavour, but the missus can taste individual herbs and seasoning used in it whereas I just like the taste. Equally, she likes the sound of the music, but I'm excited to hear the timbre of an instrument like the sound of resin scraping on a violin string.
 
chrismpw said:
It really depends on what ears you have. My kit has got quite expensive now, having spent sums i could only ever dream of when i was younger and it sounds a different league to what I considered high end just a few years ago. Certainly there is the law of diminishing returns in play though. We are all different - I can hear very subtle differences - I'm not saying this makes me in any way superior, but it gives me a lifelong interest in hifi that orhers mught never get into. In other ways, my euesight isn’t as acute so I'm not really interested in getting the best tv. As an analogy - I like food and I like the flavour, but the missus can taste individual herbs and seasoning used in it whereas I just like the taste. Equally, she likes the sound of the music, but I'm excited to hear the timbre of an instrument like the sound of resin scraping on a violin string.
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I thought it was all utter nonsense and was quite happy with a single sonos, but the difference between that and a decent amp and stereo speakers was amazing, that cost me well under 1k
 
neil999 said:
I thought it was all utter nonsense and was quite happy with a single sonos, but the difference between that and a decent amp and stereo speakers was amazing, that cost me well under 1k
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There's also a fair bit of learning to do, so you know what to listen out for, if you're interested in the hobby. And if it's not your bag, you stand to save a lot of money with an old amstrad system. Contrary to a lot of views in the audiophile world - that doesn't make you a lesser person.
 
chrismpw said:
There's also a fair bit of learning to do, so you know what to listen out for, if you're interested in the hobby. And if it's not your bag, you stand to save a lot of money with an old amstrad system. Contrary to a lot of views in the audiophile world - that doesn't make you a lesser person.
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I've found it good fun to learn about, I will never spend the crazy amounts but it's interesting and I do enjoy watching all the stuff on YouTube, even though alot of them say the same stuff about different equipment 😆
 

neil999 said:
I've found it good fun to learn about, I will never spend the crazy amounts but it's interesting and I do enjoy watching all the stuff on YouTube, even though alot of them say the same stuff about different equipment 😆
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This is true. I’ve got a decent hifi, and used to quite like watching stuff and reading What HiFi and all that, but you do get a bit bored of reading the same review again and again:-

“The amp is impressively robust and muscular, and handles the dynamic delicacy of Dummy by Portishead with ease. It may lack the ability to deliver the true breadth of soundscape in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture, as a higher end amplifier would manage, but it more than holds it own in this price range”.
 
chrismpw said:
There's also a fair bit of learning to do, so you know what to listen out for, if you're interested in the hobby. And if it's not your bag, you stand to save a lot of money with an old amstrad system. Contrary to a lot of views in the audiophile world - that doesn't make you a lesser person.
Click to expand...

It all depends what you're after, as mentioned in this thread my gf 's dad like you builds a lot of his own stuff, he recently worked out that new it would be worth over 100k. The whole room is built around his system, and the sound is incredible. He is into a lot of jazz and electronic music, a lot of albums I've listened to for years and I hear stuff I didn't know existed. But I have two Sonos 5's with a decent amp etc and he says he doesn't know if it's just an electronic obsession or if it's loads better

Next time I'm over I'll get a pic of it
 
coollino said:
It all depends what you're after, as mentioned in this thread my gf 's dad like you builds a lot of his own stuff, he recently worked out that new it would be worth over 100k. The whole room is built around his system, and the sound is incredible. He is into a lot of jazz and electronic music, a lot of albums I've listened to for years and I hear stuff I didn't know existed. But I have two Sonos 5's with a decent amp etc and he says he doesn't know if it's just an electronic obsession or if it's loads better

Next time I'm over I'll get a pic of it
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I assume he has a dedicated room? As there another world of room acoustics
 
Amw79 said:
This is true. I’ve got a decent hifi, and used to quite like watching stuff and reading What HiFi and all that, but you do get a bit bored of reading the same review again and again:-

“The amp is impressively robust and muscular, and handles the dynamic delicacy of Dummy by Portishead with ease. It may lack the ability to deliver the true breadth of soundscape in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture, as a higher end amplifier would manage, but it more than holds it own in this price range”.
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What hi fi is an absolute joke!
 
neil999 said:
I assume he has a dedicated room? As there another world of room acoustics
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Yeah he does had a room for it. He doesn't spend loads though, he buys stuff from eBay, keeps it for a bit and then sells for the same price or more with better pics etc. although he has stopped using eBay at the mo due to tax and has started on some hifi forum. He's had to post for 6 months, 50 a month to be able to sell haha
 

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