The ‘Modern Hi-Fi’ thread....

[Venod]

It's not about absolute quality and faithful reproduction for me

I am with you, my hearing is not the best but I know what I like to hear, I have listened to friends HiFi that has cost them an arm and a leg and drooled over their gear, but have often thought the sound is nothing special, you have to listen to what you like even if its not what the composer/musicians intended.

This will upset the hifi elite but I have just employed one of these to power a pair of Kefs (used as background speakers)that I used with my old Teac gear, the Teac stuff is now driving an ancient pair of Goodmans Minsters in the garage both sets of speakers sound fine but others may find them unacceptable.

http://www.doukaudio.com/Product/detail/id/14.html

 

[MontyVeda]

IMO... Tone controls on a hi-fi are pointless these days. The only time I use them are when listening to (and ripping) old cassettes which often need a bit of bass enhancement or hiss removing (which only works with very limited success)... otherwise, leave the treble and bass flat and respect the producer.

 

[Tim Hall]

This is all you need to know:

 

[Venod]

otherwise, leave the treble and bass flat and respect the producer.

But shouldn't listening to music be a pleasure ? and if you have the facilities to adjust the sound to something more to your taste why not do it, you have bought it so listen to it how you want.

 

[raleighnut]

IMO... Tone controls on a hi-fi are pointless these days. The only time I use them are when listening to (and ripping) old cassettes which often need a bit of bass enhancement or hiss removing (which only works with very limited success)... otherwise, leave the treble and bass flat and respect the producer.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...f-audio.html&usg=AOvVaw0TLJltkXmb3vZdWXzr_5OR

 

[Profpointy]

IMO... Tone controls on a hi-fi are pointless these days. The only time I use them are when listening to (and ripping) old cassettes which often need a bit of bass enhancement or hiss removing (which only works with very limited success)... otherwise, leave the treble and bass flat and respect the producer.

I don't think that's as logical as you might think. Room accoustics have a big effect in how things sound; ditto speaker placement. Moving the speakers closer to the wall and even-more-so into a corner increases the bass reaponse. A suitable tone control would do the same. The room in which the orginal performance was in has a particular frequency response which will likely be very different from that od your sitting room. Tone controls, if sensibly designed, could get you closer to the original sound.

That said I don't actually have tone controls on my current, nor previous amps, but I accept the idea. Those on the quad 44 seem particularly suitble - though I've not used or heard one

 

[raleighnut]

I don't think that's as logical as you might think. Room accoustics have a big effect in how things sound; ditto speaker placement. Moving the speakers closer to the wall and even-more-so into a corner increases the bass reaponse. A suitable tone control would do the same. The room in which the orginal performance was in has a particular frequency response which will likely be very different from that od your sitting room. Tone controls, if sensibly designed, could get you closer to the original sound.

That said I don't actually have tone controls on my current, nor previous amps, but I accept the idea. Those on the quad 44 seem particularly suitble - though I've not used or heard one

 

[MontyVeda]

But shouldn't listening to music be a pleasure ? and if you have the facilities to adjust the sound to something more to your taste why not do it, you have bought it so listen to it how you want.

good music should be a pleasure with no bass/treble enhancement... if you like sh!t loads of bass, go for it... but IMO, i'd rather hear something close to what the producer intended, and that's with no enhancement on my amp. I think there's a reason the 5 or 10 band EQs fell out of favour, and why some HiFi systems these days don't even have bass and treble controls... they're not necessary.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

OTOH what we're typically listening to, unless we're in the land of exotica, isn't all that close to what the producer intended.

I think I've mellowed in my old age, but tbh, listen to what you like, however you like it IMHO.

 

[raleighnut]

good music should be a pleasure with no bass/treble enhancement... if you like sh!t loads of bass, go for it... but IMO, i'd rather hear something close to what the producer intended, and that's with no enhancement on my amp. I think there's a reason the 5 or 10 band EQs fell out of favour, and why some HiFi systems these days don't even have bass and treble controls... they're not necessary.

A friend of mine (actually the guy who got me into QUAD, he had a 33 405-1) had a pair of these studio monitors,



Bose Studiocraft 220 which a lot of recording studios used in the early 70s for mixing/mastering

They have a particular sonic 'signature' which is oodles of bass and bags of treble but very little 'midrange' which caused the engineers to 'boost' those frequencies when mastering, now when replayed through those speakers LPs from the time sounded great but played on modern (80s) systems gave a very poor sound and conversely when listening to 80s recording through them had far too much bass/treble (I know this cos when I bought my Mission 707s in June 85 I was living in his spare bedroom and we hooked them up to his QUAD with a Technics 1210 fitted with an SME 3009 fixed and Ortofon VMS 30E Mk11 and he was 'blown away' by the difference)

My point being that what sounded 'right' to the engineer on his desk might not sound good on a different system and in a different environment.
Thankfully anything recorded in this century was mixed/mastered using speakers that have a consistent 'flat' response so this doesn't occur anymore hence being able to sound good on Amps with no tone controls.

 

[Rezillo]

You can't go wrong with any of the IPL kits, of which I've built a number. My S4TLs, more than twenty years old, are now on their third set of drive units, not because they've failed, but because it is so easy and relatively cheap to upgrade to the latest ones (plus you can then experiment with your own designs using the old units). The current ribbon tweeters are great.

Thanks!
I visited years ago and was mightily impressed.

The only tricky bit is iron-on veneer. There's a knack to slightly over-lapping it enough to accommodate some heat shrinkage then moving it while the glue is still hot to make a clean join. Heated for too long, it shrinks and cracks. You can bodge it a bit by leaving it overlapping and then sanding it down. The stuff that IPL sell is much better quality than from one of the big DIY stores and is less prone to cracking.

 

[Fab Foodie]

The only tricky bit is iron-on veneer. There's a knack to slightly over-lapping it enough to accommodate some heat shrinkage then moving it while the glue is still hot to make a clean join. Heated for too long, it shrinks and cracks. You can bodge it a bit by leaving it overlapping and then sanding it down. The stuff that IPL sell is much better quality than from one of the big DIY stores and is less prone to cracking.

To be honest, I wasn’t thinking of veneering them, maybe several layers of gloss or wallpaper or maybe some of @Hill Wimp crochet....


Ivan approves of the Brio as a suitable amp!

 

[MontyVeda]

A friend of mine (actually the guy who got me into QUAD, he had a 33 405-1) had a pair of these studio monitors,

View attachment 399182

Bose Studiocraft 220 which a lot of recording studios used in the early 70s for mixing/mastering

They have a particular sonic 'signature' which is oodles of bass and bags of treble but very little 'midrange' which caused the engineers to 'boost' those frequencies when mastering, now when replayed through those speakers LPs from the time sounded great but played on modern (80s) systems gave a very poor sound and conversely when listening to 80s recording through them had far too much bass/treble (I know this cos when I bought my Mission 707s in June 85 I was living in his spare bedroom and we hooked them up to his QUAD with a Technics 1210 fitted with an SME 3009 fixed and Ortofon VMS 30E Mk11 and he was 'blown away' by the difference)

My point being that what sounded 'right' to the engineer on his desk might not sound good on a different system and in a different environment.
Thankfully anything recorded in this century was mixed/mastered using speakers that have a consistent 'flat' response so this doesn't occur anymore hence being able to sound good on Amps with no tone controls.

I did a sound engineering training course in 1990... in a very small studio in Blackburn. I addition to the big 'proper' monitors, there was also a pair of 'standard' speakers which the final mix was checked through... the premise was... it might sound great on the monitors but it needs to sound great on the sort of speakers the average Joe tends to own too. I've no idea if this concept was unique to that particular studio or not, but i doubt it.

 

[raleighnut]

I did a sound engineering training course in 1990... in a very small studio in Blackburn. I addition to the big 'proper' monitors, there was also a pair of 'standard' speakers which the final mix was checked through... the premise was... it might sound great on the monitors but it needs to sound great on the sort of speakers the average Joe tends to own too. I've no idea if this concept was unique to that particular studio or not, but i doubt it.

There is no scale to be able to tell the size of those 220s but I'll tell you they are only small things, a single 4" driver and a tweeter in a cabinet about a foot high, how they produce the sound they do is unreal but it is the same 'longthrow' driver they fit 8 of to the 802/901 monsters I think.

 

[raleighnut]