Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Your laptop/phone has no bluetooth?
Fucking hell, and i thought i lived under a rock..

I know.

My phone does, I'm not a complete savage.... My laptop might, I've never had any use for bluetooth until now so just investigating that.

NAD DAC 1?

Jds labs objective DAC.

I use a Chromecast Audio.

I just cast from my phone using either Plex or Play Music. Works perfectly, and I cannot hear any issue with it.

Chromecast Audio is excellent. Currently "casting" from tidal (via phone) onto a Cambridge Audio Topaz AM5 and some Tannoy speakers found in a skip. The sound is excellent, far better than any one box streamer/speaker setup. Can connect with 3.5mm to RCA into amp. works well.

Otherwise, cheap amazon DAC into standard stereo. Do not spend mega money on DACs.

Thanks for the suggestions, the Chromecast seems like a good option.

Quick question - can I connect to two sources of wi-fi? I've never tried it but could I stream from Spotify and then to my stereo via the Chromecast or would I have to be offline?

Edit don't worry, I found an ex-display NAD DACS 1 for £125 (rrp £275) so as that seems like the biggest bargain, I've gone for that.

Chromecast is on the same wifi network as your phone. So all devices have a single wifi connection, to your home wireless access point / router.

Cambridge Audio are decent. Floorstanders = larger cabinet volume = more bottom end.

Compression v's Art on R4
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tvgp1

^Be interesting trying to hear what (i presume) they're talking about through broadcast radio compression.

Will have a listen later.

Presume it's talking about the loudness wars.... i.e. why most music since the 90s sounds shit on a decent stereo.

Might be worth keeping in mind the amount of compression applied to current broadcast material before coming to any real conclusion. The 'Optimod' was (still is?) used by many stations to make their music and content sound louder and thus more 'must-listen-to' for years. We're surrounded by compression, have that Gravity! :)

Yes, I was listening to Jarvis Cocker the other day talking about Neil Young and the Pono and he finished off with saying let's see if we can hear the difference, this is one of the hi-res tracks. This was on 6 music which is 128 kbit/s

Looks like they are talking about data compression AND dynamic compression. I can live with data compression a lot easier than dynamic - unfortunately most music is mastered with EVERY FREQUENCY AT THE SAME LEVEL. I would love to hear TOOL 10,000 days re-mastered without the compression.

If the audio they played showing the parts removed by mp3 compression is accurate, that's a pretty incredible amount removed!

Don't forget that we've never really had uncompressed music at a domestic level, unless of course you live in the Royal Albert hall and you have live orchestras playing for you...

CD's are heavily compressed, just at a finer grain than say, 128kbps - at 320kbps it get's harder to perceive. I've been told that even vinyl has a small freq. range but the peaks and troughs are just smoother, not stepped - hence the warmer, more inviting analogue sound.

Clever sound people.
I have one of these:
http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/pioneer/sx-450.shtml
Linked to some of these:
http://www.kef.com/html/gb/explore/about_kef/museum/1970s/Reference_Series_101/index.html
Input coming in from an Apple Airport Express (Aux) and a Beogram 1203 on Phono.
All sounds pretty good but I am sure there is room for improvement. Nothing has really been cleaned or serviced for 30 years. I did take the Amp apart and hoover it, but thats about it. Suggestions welcome.
Open to new/better Amp suggestions (need to keep within already set aesthetic). Please keep it all simple as I dont understand much.
All the thanks.

Only to someone listening to the hifi and not the music?

I have a half-decent stereo (Naim and Neat) and listen to loads of new music. I never think about the sound quality of any of it, but in terms of emotion, excitement, involvement and all that other nebulous stuff, it's anything from great to fucking amazing.

@chrisbmx116
What do you mean by improvement? More thumping? more detail? Greater sense of space?

It's kind of hard to recommend anything as sound is so personal (and the space it's listened to in).

BUT! I'll take a guess that the sound is very laid back and maybe you feel there's something in front of the sound, like you're listening from the other room? Or it just gets confused when the volume is above conversation level?

Unless there's crackling or left and right channels dropping out then the amp will be fine.

Those Kefs are very similar to the LS3/5a speaker which I have used a lot (and own). Same drivers. I bet the treble sounds slightly "papery" and there isn't a massive amount of bottom. That's a nice setup you have. If anything, I'd maybe change the speakers if I wanted an improvement, but it looks like quite a nice setup as-is.

The BBC radio networks are still compressed by Optimods. You wouldn't believe how much gain reduction is applied to Radio 1.

Cheers. Yeah sorry to be so vague. I guess the sound is pretty good, maybe it could be "clearer" or cleaner? As I said, far from an expert. I listen to both types of music (Country and Western) so after a sound that suits vocals and guitars. Volume wise its pretty decent, never need it past half way, except after a few too many at 2am when I am wondering why it doesn't have an 11 and the neighbours are shouting out their windows.

Cheers Rob. Yeah, that sounds about right I think. Quite keen on keeping the speakers as they were my dads. Maybe I will just try and refurb the amp a bit? Or find someone who will give it a proper clean on here as I will no doubt break it.

I had half a track played on it some time ago (streamed off myspace, to give an approx. era) and the difference between what we heard out of the radio and the original (unmastered) was staggering.