Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

This is interesting, I remember them having the opposite reputation 15-20 years ago, so good to hear they have turned things around.

Apologies for pursuing a conversational style of engagement in the Audiophiles thread. I shall return to inspecting my stylus and stick to purely useful factual answers in the future :)

I thought he sold the company to the employees when he wanted to retire. There was a decent article knocking around about him and in fairness despite the pile 'em high sell 'em cheap look of the shops it's a model that has worked for years.

The only problem I find generally with the products is they tend to have stock of stuff which is second best in terms of features etc. and the 'best' stuff of the day is supplied to order or not available. In that respect it serves quite well for people who want something in a hurry and need to see or touch it first.

The one near London Bridge station in the 80's took a lot of my money just because it was between the office and the station.

Right- in an attempt to avoid Sonos- some advice saught.
We have two pre-plumbed in Speaker systems in the house- one upstairs (bedroom/ bathroom)- my choice for amp is likely to be:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078HGTRWK?tag=georiot-trd-21&th=1&psc=1&ascsubtag=whathifi-gb-8229876045483389000-21
predominantly due to size of space.

Downstairs I’m a little lost- was thinking the Yamaha system? In a dream world I’d like to Wirelessly link the downstairs system with upstairs, but tbh that is probably a bit pointless.

Analogue Speakers throughout.
I could reuse my trusty amp downstairs as well- which would be nice- so if there’s an Airplay streaming add-on that people like- let me know. My old one has given up the ghost.

Finally- if I can get a base station next to the wireless router (which is where the speakers are plumbed into) is there a way to wirelessly stream to a secondary amp to plug in my old stand-up speakers somewhere else in the room?

Rambling post- so a TlDR:

1. The above amp- any thoughts?
   
2. Best system for amplifier downstairs (new or re-use old)
   
3. Smart thoughts on
   

@ChainBreaker picked up a Sony SRS-HG1 for £55 posted off eBay, just set it up and its exactly what I needed, thanks for the recomendation.

picked up a Sony SRS-HG1

Nice one!

What colour did you get?

https://youtu.be/IIW9sL-Yf6Q

If you got any chromecast audio speakers elsewhere, great piece of tech to connect them

This is a longshot but you never know...

I have a Pioneer soundbase (SBX-B70D) that has a blown power unit as diagnosed by Sound Systems Technology, they can't get hold of of the part. I rang Babber who are the authorised Pioneer service centre in the UK and they too can't source the power unit from Pioneer. Seems anything Pioneer is an absolute ballache to fix as they've made some kind of retreat from the UK market.

Wondering if a fix with a third-party power unit is possible; any recommendations of hi-fi repair places that might give be able to help? Or should I just admit defeat and bin the thing?

Hi, I want to play records in our kitchen but won't be able to use regular cable fed speakers through my existing set up.
So, is there such a thing as an attachment that means an analog amp can be used with bluetooth speakers?
Or will I need to buy a new bluetooth amp?
Apologies if this covered elsewhere or is such a dumb idea that no-one else would even mention it!

is there such a thing as an attachment that means an analog amp can be used with bluetooth speakers?

There are millions, here's just the first one which came up on Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TaoTronics-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Portable-Transmission-Black/dp/B00Q2EGQQU

should I just admit defeat and bin the thing?

Almost certainly. While the power supply is usually the easiest part to hack, you wouldn't be asking here if you had the requisite skills and equipment. On the other hand, anybody who says they can do it for you for less than the cost of a whole new replacement device should not be touched with a 10 foot pole, unless it's one of those special ones used by power engineers to reset air circuit breakers.

1 Attachment

Noted, cheers! I'd built an irrational attachment to that soundbase so was trying to do what I could to get it fixed. Seems wasteful to just bin it but there we go.

Moving on, its now a choice between Sonos Beam and Bose Smart soundbar 300. Plenty of good reviews for the Sonos, Bose one is fairly new so not that many reviews out there yet but the early ones seem good. I've got a pair of QC35 II which were my first foray into Bose and I've been really pleased with them so kind of leaning towards Bose. I don't have any need for multi-room set up so that Sonos USP is a bit lost on me.

Many thanks for this. I didn't think to include transmitter when searching so I wasn't finding anything suitable myself. Cheers!

Not audiophile but are there any soundbars which are good for music?

It's not ideal but having my turntable going through a soundbar (obviously with a phono stage) would greatly simplify things if there is anything decent out there.

Assuming that you want a soundbar predominantly for the telly with the option to play music sometimes, buy a cheap phono stage and plug that into the line level inputs on the soundbar?

Budget?

Instead of looking at a soundbar, have you considered centre speakers? Or just a pair of small monitors?

Example centres:
https://www.monitoraudio.com/en/speaker-type/centre-channel-speakers/
https://www.richersounds.com/tv-home-cinema/centre-speakers.html

Something like this https://www.richersounds.com/monitor-audio-bronze-c150-black.html

You could place the turntable over it to create the footprint and essence of an old vintage record player that would have the speaker built into the front and bottom of it.

Billy Vee did a nice job on servicing my Planar 2, they will part exchange if your looking to upgrade (even none working rega gear). Stereo has not sounded better.

Currently Playing Gene Clark - No Other

Marantz pm7000n arrived! Got a good deal on some bnw 606.

The streamer is heavy as hell, always a good thing and it comes with a proper remote.

Amp sounds prety much exactly what i remember my last marantz amp to sound like. A 90s pm6010 ose. Its warm but has loads up top, low volumes are nice, feel like the lower mid area is just missing a bit but maybe more down to smaller speakers than i last had in this room.
Previously had a variety of amps infront of some 90s ruark floor standers which just took over everything you played, borrowed a mates £££ valve amp setup and struggled to ever leave the house.

Made one mistake though, the pm7000n doesn't have hdmi arc, no idea why i thought it had it. So now have to work out how to extract optical or other digital out of a ps4

You could place the turntable over it

Putting a turntable right on top of a speaker that puts out any kind of bass is not a great idea.

Top record!

Cheers and @Velocio

Well I want the soundbar for both music and TV. If there are soundbars that are good for music that's what I'd be interested in but there isn't much info on that.

The soundbar is to neaten things up over amp and speakers and they generally seem less sensitive to placement than speakers.

seem less sensitive to placement

Speakers are not sensitive to placement if you don't need them to sound any better than a soundbar 🙂

Quadraphonic man..

Picked up my speakers from Billy Vee today.
The bill was ridiculously low (£35 for parts and labour).
They even fitted a cartridge I didn't buy off them to a turntable that isn't from those brands they sell for free.
I can't fault them. Very nice, chilled place.
Will definitely spend more money there in the future.