Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

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  • Nonsense, "room treatment" is just something people say to sound knowledgeable,

    A £50,000 system in an untreated room will sound better than a £500 system in a "treated" room.

    sticking some stuff to the walls and in the corners won't change that.

    Money is better spent on the music and weed/wine.

  • Back in 1998 I bought a paid of Monitor Audio speakers, yesterday was the first time in perhaps a decade when I really opened them up and let them sing.

    There was a street party on my road, kids playing outside, no cars and no background noise, and all the windows open. The Monitor Audio are not the loudest speakers out there, I barely recorded 90db on my sound meter... but wow, were they alive.

    Even in songs I know really well, the feel of the kick drum was palpable. The tone of the bass. The clarity of the high hat. Damn... these things sing.

    So all I have in the way of audio equipment left over from years of having acquired and sold little bits, is this beloved pair of speakers - the model on the back shows that they are the Monitor Audio Silver S8, they were bought as reference speakers for a couple of grand back in the late 1990s when I had sold a record (a flawed master acetate of a band, which contained an alternative version of an album, and a fan paid enough to cover most of the cost of these speakers). And these speakers are hooked up to an Arcam amp, an amp old enough to not have a screen on it, with it's model designation no longer visible on the front (it's been cleaned enough times or chipped off?), but it looks a bit like Arcam A38 except without the screen and with fewer inputs - it's from around the same time as the speakers... the late 1990s. And the input for all of these is a studio DAC from RME Digi known as a DIGI96/8 with some FLACs (mostly 24bit) inputting to that.

    Anyhoo... yesterday with people drinking outside, all windows open, and a party atmosphere pervading I figured that so long as I put on party-esque music I could have these loud.

    I'm soooo glad I did. I've kept these things out of emotional attachment, at having purchased them at a time when I was broke and forlorn, a bit despondent. The music they played at the time kept me alive, and now in a different place (emotionally, financially, work-wise, etc) they remain an unbelievable gift that keeps on giving.

    Hard to put words to how good they sounded and what they did to the songs. But I haven't heard them that alive in as long as I can remember (probably aided by a wood panelled room rather than a concrete box).

    Good equipment, even old, is a glorious thing.

  • I live around the block and missed the party ??? (assuming you're still in Brentford/Kew Bridge)

  • No, moved to Crouch End at the end of last year, this was the Inderwick Road street party in N8.

    I'm trying to imagine a Green Dragon Lane street party (never happened), and I think it would be too noisy and a bit stabby. That said, there was a good pirate radio on the estate and I'm sure that they could've mustered a decent sound system.

  • £500 maybe, £1-2k unlikely. You can’t ignore physics.

  • I've never understood the issue with "listening to the system not the music." If it gives you your kicks then so what?

  • Monitor Audio 20 SE

    lovely speakers. good to read about your enjoyment.

  • Yeah , can't imagine that happened in GDL :)

  • I've got an amp and nothing else at the moment (bar an old CD player but I'm not sure there's much use for that any more.)

    I'm after a turntable and a pair of speakers but can't really stretch to more than about £200 for both.

    A friend has recommended the Dual 505 turntables, is that backed up, and is there anything else for around £100 that's worth considering?

    And what's the best I could do for speakers for around the same?

  • Our cat climbed on my speakers in my bedroom last night. Enjoying some house music.

  • I bought some Monitor Audio speakers last night mainly based on this (EBay search after reading it, then search of the reviews for the model I found).

  • Oooh, what did you buy?

  • Does your amp have a phono stage?

    I have a Dual505. My dad gave it to me. I don't know much about turntables, but it is very well made with nicely machined parts. I just needed to oil a pivot point under the deck which was easy.

    The big thing you need to know is that there are very limited cartridge options. I originally thought it was just a compliance issue due to the ultra-low mass (ULM) arm, but when I contacted Thakker.eu he said:

    For the Dual CS 505 and CS 505-1 only one TKS pickup fits, on the models CS 505-2, -3, -4 also the Ortofon OM systems fit. With a good phono preamplifier, the OM 10 are not much worse than the OM 10 Super.

    So I got an OM10 for £50 and I love it.

  • I bought a pair of the B2 speakers second hand on EBay.

    If I find I'm using the system a lot I might think about some floorstanding speakers but to get back in to listening to records they should be great.

  • I'm after a turntable and a pair of speakers but can't really stretch to more than about £200 for both.

    This month’s What Caravan has an article in it about turntables


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  • £19k?????

    What a time to be alive.

  • I bought a Dual 505-3 in the end.

    It arrived today, with the lid (still attached, despite having detachable hinges) cracked in half, impact marks cracking the veneer all round one hinge, and one of the corners dented in.

    No 'fragile' or 'this way up' on the box.

    Even if it works it looks a bit shit, and was advertised in "excellent cosmetic condition".

  • that sucks. Hopefully you can make a claim or return it for a refund

  • The seller has been really apologetic and has offered a full refund and return or partial.

    He says it was still packaged up from the previous seller, who sells a huge amount of audio stuff (which checks out) and that he assumed it would be well packed.

  • Is anyone selling a decent turntable?

  • That's a lovely tale.

    I've always thought that the Monitor Audio brand had something special to them. I had a gentleman come and buy a pair of R1200 Golds from me only yesterday. I applied some wood treatment on the spot for him and cranked them up loud in the garage and we were both in some level of awe. He'd first heard a pair back in the 80s in Portugal and had been obsessed ever since, refreshing Gumtree and eBay regularly in pursuit of finding a pair. He's also looking for a pair of Studio 20s!

    Glad to hear the street party is live and kicking. I used to live at number 104 IIRC!

  • Hi all. So, I’ve got Plex Server running on my Mac mini, Plex Media Player on my iPhone and I’m planning a couple of room setups with chromecast audio sources. Also Plex is working with my Samsung Smart TV and I’m loving it, although my sum total video content is one ripped DVD. Anyhoo, I have two questions:

    • best way to do multiroom audio simultaneously as it seems Plex only lets me cast to one client at a time.
    • a wireless speaker for forays into the patio, that will integrate into the above setup? Not sure if Bluetooth will work if I want it to play at the same time as my chromecast sources with no latency. Budget £200

    Ta x

  • I don't think Plex is great at multiroom audio from its interface.

    In terms of the chromecast audios I think you can set them up as one listening group so you can cast to multiple ones (only a solution for chromecast though).

  • ^ as had been said many, many times here.

    Though, it’s a feature that may just arrive in a release one day. This is the Plex way.

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Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Posted by Avatar for coppiThat @coppiThat

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