Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

So went back to Richer Sounds yesterday to buy those clearance Dali Sensor 7's. A different sales guy this time, he said to be honest those speakers have really been through the mill, we shouldn't really be selling them and definitely not at that price. He then spent nearly two hours demoing speakers at differing price points for me and Mrs EB, really took his time to explain everything to us. Such excellent customer service it was amazing. We ended up with a pair of Dali Spektor 6. Couldn't be happier!

Good going

I'm not an electronics guy so am going to take my HK430 Twin and Radio Shack (!) Nova 8B speakers in to my local audio guru for some serious work. I've had the receiver for about 12 years and the speakers for half that. The receiver will get the full rebuild treatment, I like it that much, though I've no idea how much it needs. The speakers I'll check with them about; online fora seem to hold them in high regard and worth working on, though most seem to do it themselves.

In my current gaff the living room is a really weird shape and finding some where to put the floor standers is very heavy on compromise as the longest wall has a radiator running the whole length, so the place that's deigned to put the TV is in a corner, so I'm considering getting either some small book shelf speakers, and putting them in the Ivar shelves and they'll be roughly 10cm from the rear wall, and with the side wall being roughly 2m away and the other 50cm. The other option is to get a soundbar/base, neither solution is ideal, but I'm just trying to work out which is greater?

Reposition your radiator.
Get a vertical rad.
It'll be cheaper.

Only half joking. We had two long rads on the two longest walls. Put vertical rads (big ones) to throw the warmth into the room. Freed up lots of space.
Space that is now full of kids toys.

I'd go for bookshelf speakers.

Quick q, while i've got the case off my Yamaha CA-600 to clean some of the pots... the voltage selector is set to 220v. There is a 240v option. Should I change it?

I'm going with leave it. Have squirted all the pots with contact cleaner, blown some dust out checked wires and caps and will now rig back up. The state of dust and grime in there had me wondering if the dude I paid £40 to "repair" it last year even took some of the covers off...

Get a vertical rad.

That's not a bad shout actually, although will eat in to my bike buying budget.

Fuck me. It's fixed. Definitely got had for that repair fee. Shop I did it through has changed hands now so no come back. Don't care really. Just thrilled to be sat here my desk between the speakers with a re-issue of Nick Drake - A Treasury sounding amazing!

Yup

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Nice.

Apart from "OMG, turntable on top of amplifier horror".

But if it works, it works...

I never understood that. Turntable away from speakers obv. But why not on amp? It's not blocking the vents and there should be no vibration. Is it to do with mechanical noise being transferred to the amp?

The biggest problem i have with the current placement is guitar straps falling down on it.

Microphonics.

In which direction? Stylus picking up vibrations from the amp?

Probably. The wire wound transformer will vibrate due to the design.

How much that matters depends on how much of a High End Audio Nerd you are.

Turntable support definitely makes a difference to the sound.

How much and whether it matters is another question.

It can be very obvious, e.g. at one time I had a turntable on top of a chest of drawers. The chest of drawers vibrated along with the music which then caused feedback via the stylus and it sounded awful. Moved it to a shelf and the difference was quite dramatic.

Turntable support definitely makes a difference to the sound.

^^ True enough. There's a reason behind Rega's turntable wall brackets. I used to have a Planar 3 on one of these ...

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Hmmm. Not sure i've found the ideal spot for any of my stuff in this room yet to be honest. Will def take it into account next time I have a re-shuffle.

Request for help please. I’m not getting enough bass from my speakers. At the moment I have a 30w per channel Cyrus audio (streamline v2) driving a pair of Kef R300s which are rated 25w-125w. Do I need more power? I feel like I’m not working the speakers hard enough. If so, should I add a 50w stereo amp to bi-amp, with the original 30w to the highs and 50w from the new amp to the lows? Or should I get a bigger power amp (say, 70-100w per channel) and forget about using the power stage in the original amp?

More power won't give you lower bass. It may give you cleaner bass.

If you want bass, bookshelf speakers are not the starting point.

Where are the speakers in the room?
Do you have them wired out of phase?

They’re on the long edge of the room about 3m apart but it’s a big room so listening position is about 3m from each, definitely in phase! ;)

I’m not after lower bass, just a more balanced contribution from the drivers.

The R300s are the biggest stand mounted speakers Kef make, they’re hardly bookshelf speakers!

And yes, they’re on good quality stands.