Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

free to me

What's the punt?

ok, not fiscally, but i dont need a pair of giant speakers at all really, but a decent brand would make it more sensible to do

Yes.

http://www.audioreview.com/product/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/castle-acoustics/harlech.html

Seem to benefit from an amp with a bit of muscle.

The exterior finish on some of the old Castle speakers was very good from what I recall.

nice, thanks. I've enquired about their availability

I've got a surround sound system I'm planning on selling. Just wondering if there's any interest on here before gumtree or ebay or whatever.

DENON AVRX2300W receiver and wharfedale diamond speakers (2 x 9.4, 2 x 9.0 and a centre speaker)

Will adding a sub to a stereo setup help with low listening levels? I'm in a terraced flat and wondering if adding a sub is a bit silly or if it will simply improve listening at all levels.

I've got Kef R100 bookshelf speakers at the moment.

Silly question perhaps but I'm not sure having never owned a decent sub nor having much opportunity to demo one. All sub reviews seem to amount to "it shook the room when I watched the avengers" which I've always found a strong indication that they are primarily for dorky home theatres, but I see a lot of good stereo setups with them too.

I wouldn’t be without a sub. 2.1 FTW.

Not sure it’ll improve low level listening specifically but it’ll improve all levels generally. Sub level set for music can be a bit mental for films (I guess they just put a lot of < 100Hz on the soundtrack for impact).

Our flat is the first floor of a divided Victorian terrace and I’ve not had any complaints. Downstairs is vacant just now though, making the most of that 😬

I’ve found a miniDSP 2x4 very good for integrating it, both with the mains and trying to fix some room modes. If I did it again I’d probably go for a sub with a Hypex fusion plate amp with built in DSP.

I see a lot of good stereo setups with them too.

Subwoofer is designed to carry the low notes that other, smaller, speakers cant.

This means that you will actually notice it not being there. They can shake the room, but they can also add depth to your sound.

Possibly one for @Airhead as it's combining fitted furniture and speakers.

I'll be getting some floating shelves installed to either side of my chimney breast (so attached to brick) and will be putting some bookshelf speakers on them (something relatively small like Dali Opticon 1). A sub will be coming at some point in the future but for the moment it will just be those speakers.

I've read various stuff about shelves vibrating with speakers on them so wondering if I should request that the ones for the speakers be reinforced or similar or if that's unnecessary? Any suggestions, cheers.

Put the shelves up first to find out if they vibrate.

Unnecessary problems.

I'm not putting the shelves up though and I imagine getting someone back to amend them would cost quite a bit more than doing it from the off (and probably look worse).

Put the speakers on brackets connected directly to the brick, visually floating just above the shelf. Even if you can dampen the shelf everything on it is still going to vibrate.

Bookshelf speakers work quite well on shelves full of books. The proximity effect can help with the bass and if they're designed that way it can really help small speakers.

Otherwise they're a compromise because its easier to have the speakers in the room a bit and the soundstage can end up fragmented.

The C340 looks like a reasonable chunk. Does it have a pre amp out? If so, you could look at using a separate power amp.

Yes I'm pretty sure it does, I hadn't even considered going down that route but thats a great suggestion!

Cheers for the suggestions. Alternative speaker placement would be better but I'm not currently anywhere near winning that argument. Finding decent, compact bookshelf speakers is an effort though.

Quad S2, Neat Iota?

Quad S2 (and S1) were one of the first I looked at as I'm planning on getting a Quad Vena II Play but a they are a little large and by all accounts not good at being too close to the wall.

Hadn't heard of the Neat Iota, definitely look like an option. Cheers

Alternative speaker placement would be better but I'm not currently anywhere near winning that argument

This topic has come up a few times in this thread. Could someone elaborate?

I can imagine my partner mentioning the aesthetics of hifi equipment, perhaps even mocking me playfully, but vetoing seems quite excessive :/

Not really. If your partner brought a pair of things that you thought ugly into the living room you’d probably protest. Especially if they had to go in a certain place and didn’t do anything you’re interested in.

If your partner brought a pair of things that you thought ugly into the living room you’d probably protest. Especially if they had to go in a certain place and didn’t do anything you’re interested in.

Yeah, I've mentioned this to my partner but she says the kids are both of our fault.

Ba-doom tsh

nice

Standmount/floorstanding speakers would require a fairly large room rejig and doing that just so I can put some different speakers in is a tough sell.

In my case the main issue is less the speakers and more the cabling though. To put the speakers in any decent positions there would be some trailing cables around skirting or across the fireplace or similar which is the big no-no.

EDIT: The other issue is that there will be another room where I'll have something more of a free reign but I'll be going for more of a home cinema in there.

I have a tripath-based amp with an intermittent problem that I wondered whether anyone could shed light on.

One one channel the volume level will stutter a little like a noise gate has been applied, so it cuts out when quieter and will kick in properly if you turn either the input or amp volume knob up. It can also be fixed by tapping the woofer. It seems to happen whether the gain is high or low (i.e. high input level, low amplification or vice versa).

Have tried with multiple speakers, all inputs, outputs, switches and pots seem sound. Feels to me like it's an output stage problem, but can anyone point towards a particular component? I know these things are cheap to replace, but I don't particularly want to contribute to the slow death of the earth unless I really have to.