Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

My set up in the vault.

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I'm a massive fan of the woven chair to the left of the pic, I'm getting serious granny's house nostalgia from looking at it!

Ha, not actually a chair it's a low table - at least I use it as such, doesn't seem strong enough to actually take human weight.

I can practically smell that picture. And I like it.

Thanks for the earlier suggestions for speaker stands. Things escalated to looking for more space outside of London on Zoopla (again). A move to Bristol would solve many problems. Falling short of that, got friends on the look out for a nice sideboard.

Good luck with the house search.

IMO a sideboard is going to cause you all sorts of problems creating additional unwanted acoustics. Better to go with something like kenrick sound speaker stands https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/534661786991461364/
https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/honest_vintage_audio

Shite photo but these Oberon 1’s are spot on. I think they look very smart indeed. As does the Mrs.

Dali apparently designed them to be very unfussy with regards to placement and you can tell. Despite being in a corner and rear ported and incredibly close to the wall, everything sounds controlled. No boomy low end and I’m pretty sure if I close my eyes, it sounds like Paul McCartney is in my living room (listening to the Master recording of Sgt Pepper via Tidal). Sound stage is expansive and instrument separation - one of my biggest requirements - is very good. They did come with isolation pads that I’ll install once I know I’m keeping them. I may grab a pair of B&W 607’s too to A/B with these but so far, very impressed.

Always surprises me when people say small boxes can’t produce low end frequencies. These definitely can.

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Ruark MR1s always well reviewed also?

Unavailable in the U.S. unfortunately. Also, I fully intend to keep these for a while, meaning a pair of desktop speakers probably isn’t right in the long run.

Well... they're good... but I think I can do better for the money. Much better. KEF Q150's are on sale for $399 at the moment, which seems a bit of a steal. @freddo - do you have 150s or 350s? I don't think I can get away with the size of the 350s unfortunately.

Problem with boxes that size is they tend to rely on proximity effect to produce bass volume and that is usually focussed in a small frequency range. Quite often a neutral system sounds bass light because we are all used to hearing a room node or smile eq.

It's not actually lacking in bass. I'm certainly not a basshead either. It's more soundstage and scale that I'm looking for. I appreciate I'm not going to get floorstander levels of scale, but I think a slightly bigger box will do me better. Also, there's definitely a hipster tax on these Dali's. They're good, but they're not $549 good. Pricing is odd in the U.S. Dali's are £349/$549. The KEFs are £399/$399, so seem a far better deal. Just trying to get the best VFM that I can with the space/budget I have.

Nah man I have the R300. They’re 3 way with a 6” driver, the previous version of the R3 so much larger. Perhaps audition the R100 against the Q150?

@JB you could also buy a second hand pair of LS50

Oh right, yeah, I didn't think the Q line was swag enough for you ;-) I would if I could. No KEF stockists near me other than Best Buy and I don't think they have anything from KEF at the moment.

Would definitely consider used LS50s, though. Pretty small, too. Seem to go for around $800 without much difficulty, or open box for about $950.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm boring everyone so I'll just try to listen to some :-)

Dali 3s have a larger box AND driver. They're passive though.

I want passive, ideally. The main reason to look at brands other than Dali is they offer poor value here, as do Dynaudio. Pricing on KEF's is far better taking GBP vs USD into comparison.

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the forum amp has found a new home, but does anyone want these speakers for free?

Wharfedale Linton 3xp speakers - in good condition - a few inevitable marks on the top.

https://goo.gl/images/YHjfUq

Collection from Herne Hill.

Thanks all for the recs, will order a few to test

Well, just listened to some KEF LSXs and LS50W's. LSXs were a big pile of over-processed meh. Felt like the DSP was trying to overcompensate for the small size.

However, the LS50W's. This is what I have been looking for. Good lord. Glorious. I am not worthy. Can't imagine what really expensive speakers are like...

Edit: That's unfair. I was sat too far away for the LSXs I reckon. The guy was really blasting them and I think they'd lost control at that volume. I mean, with that said, the LS50W's are definitely at the top of the want list now, just $$$.

:) told ya!

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and then on my way home I popped into the most pretentious hifi store I’ve ever visited. Had speakers for $850,000.... but they also had some focal chorus 706s and I was absolutely blown away, surprisingly, given their relatively low retail price and even lower ex demo price here. Incredible. Anyway. Boring myself now! To be updated...

I was obsessed by hifi when younger, always reading magazines, going to shops etc. One of the best things I did was to stop buying and reading hifi magazines. Once my listening/viewing room is complete I’ll be glad to leave all the research and just be able to get down to listening to music for its own sake, I find it frustrating when trying to enjoy music and finding myself critiquing the system instead. Thankfully v happy with our recent purchases so hopefully won’t be embarking on this kind of malarkey again for a while.

Tidal has been great until today when I heard about the death of someone who used to be part of my social/musical network and couldn’t find his work on Tidal. There have been a few other things I couldn’t find on there but really enjoying being able to do so much speculative listening.

Also had the pleasure of downloading a mix album and particularly enjoying a track to realise it was by an old friend of mine. Was a good excuse to call him up and check how he was doing.