Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

A sofa to the left (you can see the arm in the picture) or armchairs to the right. Subject to further change as there's a sideboard that might be making its way to the dining room.

Yes they are - thanks for the tip.

Just lost a local auction for an accuphase e-202 from the 70s. I'm gutted.

I’d suggest starting from a bolder position. Your opening offer could be ceiling mounted speakers. When that gets rejected you can propose floor-standers. Eventually you’ll compromise on stands for your current ones.

There's a danger that the opening bid will be accepted due to the minimal affect on visual amenity, which seem to be the most important thing to the opposition, and then tbc is stuck with sorting that out.

Floor standers with a toddler?

ha ha ha ha

Is anyone in the need of a phono preamp? I have a Allen & Heath Xone32 DJ mixer that I’m planning to part with for something else and I understand they are favoured as a preamp - I got it second hand from someone who had only used it for this. Technical info here: https://www.allen-heath.com/media/XONE-32-USER-GUIDE-ISSUE-6.pdf

To be fair if you have a toddler you might be happy with the sound of silence on the rare occasions it occurs.

A treat from Russia arrived, really like the look of Micro Seiki gear but can't afford a full machine in one go.
Headshell first then maybe the rest of a tonearm when one comes up. I don't think there is a huge technical improvement, but they are so damn pretty.

And a new cart, nagaoka mp200. Surprisingly it didn't make the probably 40 year old but low hours stanton 681eee sound awful (stanton is more party for sure), on worn records yeah not a huge difference. On fresher stuff, wow she does well, great with vocals but what i would say you notice the most is the speed? It delivers each sound very quickly.

Flicking between high res digital versions and a fresh record version of the same track, yeah the digital has more about it in general (especially low and low mid range) , but the difference isn't a mile apart, without a/b switching Im Sure I wouldn't notice.
The old technics is doing a very good job, for the same spend as fluance top machine with comes with an ortofon blue or red I think.

3 Attachments

I heard about the muddy midrange and the rather hard bass, but am looking for something a bit deeper than my current Dali Spektor 2's. There is nothing overly fancy powering them; just a diy built TPA3255 based amp. Sources are vinyl and cd flacs off a Pi4 with a hifiberry hd dac in all diffrent musical styles. The theory is that I want something warm vintage to offset the rather bland amp.

It's just a simple setup for the office at home (which I have been spending a lot more time in recently). The whole setup will be migrating to a garden office, which we'll will start building once the weather turns. This will also help to warm things up a bit as it will be completly OSB, next to the windows and doors.

Anyone got an Apple TV they'd sell / lend me?

is there a go-to turntable for £400 max that has a built-in pre-amp/phono stage (so that I can connect it directly to my sonos audio line-in)? looking for something that I could add to a proper hifi system in future but for now would ideally just be plug and play with this setup

edit: planar 1 plus might be the play

Fluance with the ortofon blue or red in it for £425 is the best specced afaik. Though the regular rega p1 despite "low" spec seems to keep many people happy for £250, think there are a few decent phono preamp for approx £100

thanks I've gone down a rabbit hole since I posted that... and, inevitably, the scope and budget started drifting somewhat... I'm blaming lockdown boredom... not pulled the trigger on anything yet tho

Current/second budget setup. Digging this little receiver i recently picked up.
Gives off some vintage McIntosh vibes with the cyan backlight.

2 Attachments

Looks great! I’ve been eyeing up one of those Pioneer receivers on eBay.

this is the danger with this stuff, it starts with "I'd quite like a turntable to play my records that are just sitting there sad, £400 max" and quite quickly can escalate into "well maybe I could just take some of my savings and get a proper setup, would £2k do". too easy to revert to full #buyer

that looks great too well done!

what's the lamp?

Heh, I’ve got the same one gathering dust in a cupboard. Been meaning to plumb in to upstairs telly

Yup did this to myself too, been working constantly all year so not lockdown boredom, more like 'when i'm home, i'm not working'

I bought a 70's technics in really nice shape, replaced rca cables, new 70's headshell and an upto date medium priced cart, boom, for me performs great, sure better exists but I'm really happy, have spent I think just about £500 and apart from cart/stylus wear its not really going to depreciate like a new machine would.

Many friends + neighbours have been slowly splurging on their home entertainment (pc/consoles/film cinema stuff/hifi) since they are either home more and want to treat themselves and are in the envious position of being able to do that, or like me have worked longer and harder than ever before, and want home to be a place of rest + enjoyment.

Damnnnnnnnnnn

Looks superb.

aye, looks class. want to spec me up a setup that looks that good pls ?

My little headphone mission crept a bit. I’m now very much enjoying these Shure SRH 1840s playing through a Jan Meier headphone amp fed by the Dragonfly red dac.

Going between my IEMs, Grado and Shure there’s masses of difference, the Shure are really special next to the others. Amps and dacs not such a difference, going between MX3, Dragonfly directly and the Meier really is minimal, now I know what I’m not missing I could happily live with just the MX3 and collect loads of headphones.

It took a while to adjust to headphone imaging but now it feels like having massive speakers that you can play as loud as you like while everyone else is asleep. Which is nice.

1 Attachment

Small speakers - is there any point thinking much about which, or will they all be pretty awful?

To make things worse it's to go in a conservatory type room with awful acoustics, so this is firmly "second system" territory - it's for while on the turbo.

I wonder if cheap Bluetooth headphones might serve me better

will they all be pretty awful?

They can be good within the limitations of physics, just don't expect much music in the bass register. You're not going to be that picky if you're on the turbo, so anything half decent is going to be good enough.