Any HI-FI Buffs on here ?? I need some advice.

[threebikesmcginty]

[QUOTE 4497269, member: 259"]What Hifi is always good for a laugh - the reviews of power cables are golddust. Literally in some cases.[/QUOTE]

I've been reading a few online/mag reviews in the last couple of days and the language they use is priceless, I'm not sure they're listening to music, just thinking of rediculous things to say. I've also noticed that 85% of reader/consumer reviews say 'I bought [insert brand/model] to replace an [insert age] year-old [insert brand/model]. Take a look, it could be higher than 85%, I just made that percentage up.

 

[Kevoffthetee]

I had the silver technics system which was ok but I realised it was nothing on a proper separates system when I met my wife, as her father has a Naim/Linn sonder setup which sounded unreal. This guy is seriously into his music and his technology but will not replace it with anything modern as his vinyl and CDs just won't sound the same apparently.

I decided to get a Sony str895D AV reciever to run my skyTv, Dvd & bluray through and coupled it with a wharfdale Diamond 9 CS5.1 setup which has the floor standing front speaker upgrades. I paid £140 for the whole lot on EBay thanks to badly worded ads with poor pics and the sound is fantastic from hdtv, bluray or CD.

My advice, get an AV reciever rather than an amp and get everything running through it

 

[swee'pea99]

I've been reading a few online/mag reviews in the last couple of days and the language they use is priceless, I'm not sure they're listening to music, just thinking of rediculous things to say. I've also noticed that 85% of reader/consumer reviews say 'I bought [insert brand/model] to replace an [insert age] year-old [insert brand/model]. Take a look, it could be higher than 85%, I just made that percentage up.

I teased a friend of a friend once, asking her why music students always seemed to have big record collections but crappy stereos. "Because we care about the music, not the equipment," she said simply, leaving me feeling rather sheepish.

 

[raleighnut]

I had the silver technics system which was ok but I realised it was nothing on a proper separates system when I met my wife, as her father has a Naim/Linn sonder setup which sounded unreal. This guy is seriously into his music and his technology but will not replace it with anything modern as his vinyl and CDs just won't sound the same apparently.

I decided to get a Sony str895D AV reciever to run my skyTv, Dvd & bluray through and coupled it with a wharfdale Diamond 9 CS5.1 setup which has the floor standing front speaker upgrades. I paid £140 for the whole lot on EBay thanks to badly worded ads with poor pics and the sound is fantastic from hdtv, bluray or CD.

My advice, get an AV reciever rather than an amp and get everything running through it

We have everything in the front room set up to run through a big Yamaha AV amp, cable box, DVD,CD Minidisc Turntable and TV/video ................ sounds OK but then in the dining room I've got my HiFi, Quad pre/power amps, Thorens Turntable and B&W loudspeakers...............Sounds amazing.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

[QUOTE 4255807, member: 259"]All my streaming is via cables!

I agree about qobuz though, quite good prices and a good range of music.[/QUOTE]

Although I'm not a download person, qobuz has got a couple of Bear Family bargains, the Roy Orbison set which is about 6 or 8 discs worth of Sun and Monument stuff and a couple of Sun compilations sets, blues and country, again about 8 discs worth. If you buy the physical product they're well over £100, you can get a download for under a tenner. And that is a bargain. Fact.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I've done the whole surround cinema thing, Denon av amp, B&W 602s3 up front, Rotel CD. 15 years all going nicely.
Would love space for a turntable.
Even added home cinema PC.
Shame Netflix in HTML5 can't do 5.1 surround.

Then stuffed the whole lot by developing tinnitus 2 years ago :-(

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Ok I've narrowed down my next amp to a shortlist of three, these are the contenders identified only by a BS snippet from What Hifi...

1 - This is a more muscular sounding unit than its predecessor. Its presentation is robust and tonally more even.

2 - smooth and easy-going character that we’ve always liked, but the layers around that are more detailed, agile, and precise.

3 - energetic presentation. It sounds cohesive and well balanced, delivering a sense of drive and attack.

I'm going to go and check em out but obvs the rest of my stuff is 20 years old so I can only benchmark them with each other against what's available in store.

 

[Tim Hall]

I'm sure I read the description for your second choice on a bottle of wine. They've missed off "ideal with pasta dishes" though.

 

[Crackle]

Ok I've narrowed down my next amp to a shortlist of three, these are the contenders identified only on a BS snippet from What Hifi...

1 - This is a more muscular sounding unit than its predecessor. Its presentation is robust and tonally more even.

2 - smooth and easy-going character that we’ve always liked, but the layers around that are more detailed, agile, and precise.

3 - energetic presentation. It sounds cohesive and well balanced, delivering a sense of drive and attack.

I'm going to go and check em out but obvs the rest of my stuff is 20 years old so I can only benchmark them with each other against what's available in store.

I had a CD player once which they reviewed. They said the sound improved when you switched the display off. I made everyone who visited listen while I switched the display on and off and said 'well?' Not a twitch of a musical dickie bird was elicited. They all thought I was mad.

 

[swee'pea99]

They all thought I was mad.

Surely not.

 

[Crackle]

Oh you'd be surprised.

 

[raleighnut]

I had a CD player once which they reviewed. They said the sound improved when you switched the display off. I made everyone who visited listen while I switched the display on and off and said 'well?' Not a twitch of a musical dickie bird was elicited. They all thought I was mad.

Denon ?...............................Mine does that, I run it with the display off so I'm not 'annoyed' by the display being just at the corner of my field of vision.

 

[Crackle]

Denon ?...............................Mine does that, I run it with the display off so I'm not 'annoyed' by the display being just at the corner of my field of vision.

It may have been. I don't have it any more but Google pics of Denons look familiar and I bought it from Richer Sounds.

 

[Profpointy]

Having been a bit of a hi-fi snob back on the day, but still, I hope, remaining within the realms of reason and real physics, I do think modern cheap kit does sound suprisingly good. Back in the day the cheap stuff was really veey poor

By way of example, my PC based digital source now has a studio quality professiional sound card (Lynx L22). This is the kind of thing which would have been used in the recording studio so basically as good as it gets. Mine was 2nd hand for £200 odd rather the than the original £600 or whatever. But that said it's only a bit better than the on board sound the PC had on the motherboard - which must have cost a fiver. I've got some monster Kef reference speakers 2nd hand again at a fraction of their original £3k cost - and though they are fabulous, i've also heard some much more modestly price movie type 5 speaker systems sounding awfully good for the money, especially the digital processing type which magically compensates for room accoustics. These things are hundreds rather than thousands.

The other huge improvement is the very low price of classical music CDs, even stuff by top names. I must have 5 or 6 sets of beethoven symhonies, all giving something different, but all costing, in real terms, the price of 1 record back in the day. If i hear something on the radio I just buy it, or maybe even a box set of the composer so now have months worth of great music. The musicians arw still getting a good return as I buy loads, but each work is very cheap.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

When I was seriously into hi-fi I bought an Arcam CD player for about £700. The whistle from the power supply was so damned annoying I took it back. The £35 Currys thingy it replaced never made a squeak.
The shop refused to take it back ("we don't supply goods on approval sir") until Arcam admitted the thing did make a noise.