Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Also @giles337, I highly recommend the HK Go + Play, basically formatted like a little ghetto blaster. The 360º speakers (I owned the UE Boom 2) can get nice and loud but there's not much aural pleasure in it.

Doesn't have to be portable

This widens your options considerably. What's your budget?

...

with a good, natural sound

For small rooms I'd suggest powered monitors with a separate bluetooth enabled DAC. If you're spending more money a Bluetooth DAC and amp like a Topping MX3 (@StevePeel has one for sale??) and some Q Acoustics 3020i speakers

Didn't read don't need portable. Ruark MR1s - Ruark make a battery pack if needs be?

HK Go + Play

appreciate that. UE was more just a suggestion towards EQ as I'm sure that insert favoured brand here would have a similar feature.

The UE has always been done it's job for me - which has been hike/camp/beach/all weather chuck in a bag and go, and it has survived frankly incomprehensible abuse over the 5 or so years I've owned it. The degree to which it has done flawlessly what it says on the tin - and been completely fit for purpose without ever skipping a beat raises it to the level of one of the 'best' pieces of consumer electronics I've ever owned pound for pound.

Ja, we have one and for a water-resistant portable speaker it's very good. We take it to the beach a lot :)

MR1 mk2s are also a good suggestion. For me they still sound a bit underwhelming in the mid-bass and below though, they've only got a 2.95" driver after all

Ha, I’ve got one of them and. Think exactly the same. Major hump in the 80hz ish region. Can sound great but is also really messes with some stuff to the point of making it distractingly and annoyinglybass-heavy

This widens your options considerably. What's your budget?

Up to £300, but I will be wincing the closer it gets to £300.

It's for the home office, mostly for music from Plex via the ipad.

I'm digging through the suggestions and liking the Ruarks so far.

Can sound great but is also really messes with some stuff to the point of making it distractingly and annoyinglybass-heavy

Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of classical stuff which I think sounds really nice on it, but it makes anything with a bassline or bass beat almost unlistenable for me.

Perhaps slightly off topic! I'm moving house and trying to think of the best way to move my hifi. 2 large shelf speakers, an amp, record player, CD player and cassette deck. Any tips to keep it all safe in the back of a van?

Help! (Version 2)

I wall-mounted the speakers, after much agonising/domestic debate with my partner. I did test them with a record to check for feedback given the closeness and it seemed like nothing was coming through. Unfortunately (lucky me) it seems that that record was an outlier and they are simply too close and I’m getting more feedback when then when I had them on the floor.

What do people suggest?

I think my options are:

1.) try and mount the speakers higher next to
The shelves. Maybe get someone in to hide the wiring in the wall. Because of the door, I can’t go much wider, unless I move everything to the left. Even then, I think that only offers about 10cm more room

2.) move the turntable to the corner pictured, with the rest of the hi-fi. Ideally on shelving separately.

3.) other ideas? I think it’s the proximity rather than the isolation that’s the issue. It’s only 20cm to the turntable from the speakers

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I think the top of that cabinet is acting as a soundboard. Stiffening it to increase the resonant frequency and reduce the amplitude of any excitation should help, damping both the soundboard and the way it couples to the turntable wouldn't hurt.

Plenty of people have run bigger speakers closer to a deck, so it's unlikely that direct acoustic coupling across the air gap is the issue.

Flush to the wall could be a problem.

What do people suggest?

If you're hoping even to approach the foothills of audiophilia, you need a new system, a new domestic partner and probably a new house.

There should probably be a "How to make my music playback slightly less shit" thread for your problems and all the wireless chat, then the rest of us can get back to arguing about the relative musicality of different capacitor dielectrics 🙂

I'm (still) fairly confident that the cabinet is the problem. I once had a turntable on a chest of drawers and it was similarly awful.

Fitting a wall shelf to put the TT on would likely make a big improvement.

I completely agree - an audio thread for people who have no idea what they’re doing would be wonderful.

@gbj_tester, @ChasnotRobert, @withered_preacher - would something like an isolation platform resolve it? Or is a shelf the only real solution?

I believe that the q acoustics 3010is are supposed to be quite happy next to a wall - indeed, I used their brackets, so you’d assume (hopefully) that they’re indeed to be mounted near a wall.

Extremely glad that I don’t need to move the speakers. Existing domestic views would be strong there.

I think I'd be angling for a proper rack (e.g.) for all the electronics in the alcove where you currently store your discs. Would likely solve the issue, and more likely to get the nod from the management than any other effective solution.

an audio thread for people who have no idea what they’re doing would be wonderful.

In.

Get 2 firm squash balls and cut them in half. Place under the feet the of TT.

Alternatively, quit flogging a dead horse and switch to streaming digital files.

Here is my TT which is pretty close to the left speaker. I've not noticed any issue with vibration or feedback.

Despite having reservations about it being strictly limited to streaming (no line-in) I bought a Sonos One last week. Impressed with the ease of setup and audio quality.

Unfortunately I've since discovered it's shit with Android. Literally no way to play most BBC stuff on it. Pretty much reliant on services being supported by the Sonos app.

Am thinking I should've gone with something that either has chromecast built in or just continuing to use my existing chromecast audio via line-in. Google Home Max is an option, but considerably more spendy and I'm not all that fussed about the assistant stuff. Not sure I can be bothered with DACs and speakers as it's only for the kitchen.

Any recommendations?

...and they all laugh at my little lp walkman

IMG_5531 by Richard Howard, on Flickr

Linear tracking record player you say? 😂

https://youtu.be/u_YAmDbEuPg

Have you tried adding Tunein or Radioplayer as services? When we used the Sonos that’s how I got live BBC. Not so good for catchup but with enough searching I could usually find the last episode or something. That was pre S1 player, not sure if anything has changed.

Do they not have Alexa on them now? That works reasonably well with the BBC

Any suggestions for a good pre amp for my AT-LP5? The internal amp has failed.