Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Ahh, might try that. Was also thinking of replacing the router anyway, as it's been acting up since my speed got upped to 200mbits.

Which mini amp? I still cannae bloody decide!

I'm getting more and more tempted by the massive silver Japanese muthaz. I need to calm down and focus on something mini-er.

How about something like a Marantz 1030? It's silver, mini-er and they are Japan-based nowadays...

I have the Gemtune SMSL SA-50 Hi-Fi Stereo Amplifier

And so far i am very impressed. Its very small, it is subtle and it sounds good. The indication its on is a suble blue ring of light around the volume knob that looks lovely too. Nothing complicated about it, simply has a volume and an on/off button. Currently powering 2 satellite speakers so not much of a test bed.

But I did get it off Amazon, if thats your thing.


(Wow those images are big... In fact, theyre much larger than the actual unit. sorry)

Clearing out my dad's house with accumulated hi-fi stuff, he's keeping the best / the stuff he likes, and inclined to give the rest to charity shop. I have no idea about any of this stuff but wondered if anyone on here interested. Old Sansui tuner/amp. Marantz CD/MD (side by side) separate. TEAC V-610 cassette deck. Probably a couple of speakers and some other stuff. Bear in mind it's all in Cambridge.

I've got the SMSL Q5 Pro, 4 inputs (USB, aux, optical and SPDIF), comes with a remote but works with Logitech Harmony remote as well. Got it plugged into my TV and CC audio and it's powering a pair of TDL RTL2s. It sounds great and has been faultless.

I did have a regular SMSL Q5 before but the aux input broke. Amazon replaced it with the pro with no fuss.

Some of the old Sansui stuff is supposed to be good. What model is it?

Post some pics - you might be able to get him some pocket money

Been looking at that, and also this

http://m.ebay.com/itm/251622131001?_mwBanner=1

Think the smsl is worth the extra £? The amazon warranty alone might be...

that one i can see doesnt come with an AC cord and with import and exchange, is it that much cheaper?

And personally one of my reasons for getting this one is that its uncluttered visually. The Indeed sort of ruins it for me.

just checked convertion and thats £45... I think for a fiver and a couple I'd still take the Amazon one

What's the music/sound source for your Gemtune?

Is it just hooked up to a PC?

I wonder how yours sounds compared to mine. Im loving the sound of mine and im running 2 shitty Bose Jewel speakers. Mine though are currently run at a very low level while studying simply to cover the ambient noise. For the cost, Im stunned. The Bose Jewels cost me a fucking fortune (NEVER BID DRUNK - FML) but the hands down winner is the amp.

Yeah, I have absolutely no complaints about the sound, although I've not got much to compare it to. I bought my sister an SMSL A2 2x40w amp as well, and gave her my Sony SS176e Brooklands floorstanders. I don't think she's used it much but it hasn't exploded or broken yet.

I think I need to nick them back, they were rather nice speakers...

No, its a Pure Jongo WiFi adaptor like a ChromeCast Audio which is playing from my pcs music collection. Im running it on the WiFi for better sound. Again, an annoying purchase as i thought it would be a platform to use any music playing app, but nope, you either use the windows app or theirs. Both are shit.

This is the screenshot of the app from windows... It doesnt even allow you to move to a specific position in the song ffs!

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jesus thats big... how do i make it smaller?!?

Ive given up on the idea of active studio monitors (sorry blackrainbow...) so i now am looking at what i can get in terms of good cheap bookshelf speakers. I won a very cheap sub (yamaha, so not rubbish) that had speaker outs so the built in amp handled it all meaning i didnt need any separate components. It arrived broken. Since setting up this lot, i think i actually may not need a sub, just a set of decent bookshelf speakers instead.

I've been pondering one of these mini-amps and some ceiling speakers in my kitchen.

Has anyone any experience of ceiling speakers, are they all crap until you spend decent money? There seem to be a fair number at £20 or so and then a big leap up to about £150. Anything in particular to look out for at the cheaper end of the scale?

When me and my mates were younger pretty much all of us had Eltax Monitors and the floor standing versions (a few had Mission 701).

Honestly for a lot of the time the Monitors were just as good as the floor standing ones. I'd have thought that 2nd hand they'd be less popular (therefore cheaper) than bigger speakers.

Bear in mind though that bookshelf speakers still aren't small, and for the best sound they'll prob need to sit in a relatively inconvenient place - that's why when I left uni I traded everything in for some single cube Bose acoustimass. Sacrilegious I know.

@aggi - the only experience I've got is one mate who has them in his kitchen and bathroom. They are good - but the environments/use aren't really conducive to beautiful sounds. Their main advantage is seamless integration and being able to listen to music as you move from one living space to another.

The bathroom doesn't have any independent control - just from the main amp in the sitting room - so I guess is just set to a sensible level. Everything is wired through the ceilings from one amp with a switch box(?) to set which rooms are playing. The kitchen has a wall mounted volume + off knob - a very simple clean instrument panel.

Unfortunately all speakers were removed from high-end homes, so assume they all cost £££s. The other bits weren't especially expensive though.

My thought would be if you can install the wiring and do everything yourself (including repair if you change your mind) then I'd just go for cheap ones. I'm sure they'll be good enough. If you need to pay someone to install them, it seems like a false economy to not go for the best you can afford.

all speakers were removed from high-end homes

euph?

In my experience, there are a lot of nice floorstanding speakers going cheap secondhand, as people get new TVs with soundbars and subs or whatever. I've got a set of Mission bookshelf speakers and they're ok, but not a patch on the TDLs or the Sony floorstanders.

Ha! No he used to work for a building company. So would ask if he could take the old stuff when they were renovating.

Actually thinking about it, the thing to do would be to chose the cheap speakers based on the size of the nicer ones. So if you do want to upgrade, it should be a relatively simple switch.

For my bedroom, a couple of passive bookshelf speakers works. Floor-standing speakers would be overkill. the reason ive moved away from the idea of the active monitors is the cost. size for size, the bookshelfs' would obviously be cheaper.

These Jewels are ok i guess, small but very little low end. I will corner mount what ever i settle on anyway.

My home theatre has the most amazing 5.1 in the form of Boston Acoustics XS. I cannot fault it in anyway. fucking amazing and very very discrete. Im tempted to get a second off the flea as they come up cheap lately.

Sansui is 300L, it lived in our kitchen for decades, my dad was going to throw it out probably about ten years ago but I hoarded it (alongside the typewriters and various other bits of old tech). I have a memory the FM dial was a bit temperamental.
I guess another question would be - could I use it as the basis for a simple set up? I have or have access to half-decent separates and speakers but currently just listen to a crappy little all-in-one in my room (not even booming enough to be a boombox).
(Edit: uploading pics...)

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DAT SANSUI.

I'm also in Cambridge and definitely interested....

Pm incoming

I'm fairly sentimentally attached to the Sansui, tbh. The rest less so...

Also just found a turntable - Pioneer PL-12. I remember that the belt perished and is wrapped around the innards... Been meaning to ask if there's a good rubber solvent to clean up. Is it a decent model? Also dad says he might have started disconnecting some bits with the intention of building a preamp for it, but he can't remember... It's surrounded by books atm but I'll get to it later today.