Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I wanted to spend £1k...to annoy my neighbours

https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/plumtree-farms-32-value-sausages-1.44kg/64792.html and send me the other £998

where do these sausages go

Perennial question

Kef LSX? (to avoid amp footprint in kitchen)

Top of my list.

Also the Naim cube streamer box thing.

I was looking at bookshelf or small stand speakers too... things like the B&W 606 or Monitor Audio Silver 100s... at this point the rabbit hole got bigger and I came to this thread.

pair of sonos fives

Klipsch Sixes would be worth a listen.

Will bookshelf speakers be loud enough, and also will their position negate their ability to annoy said neighbours.
Depending on whether they are above or below you, investing in a sub woofer would cause maximum annoyance. I’ve always found it’s the bass that annoys most.

I can’t give you any advice on bookshelf speaker (always been of the go big or don’t buy camp) smallest speakers I have are some quad 77s which still sound great and could fit in a deepish bookshelf, but I’m sure there are more modern alternatives..

The neighbours are 2m down, and 2m to the side... they've built an extension and unwisely put skylights that open directly facing my kitchen window. Now they're being loud and annoying I just wish to drown them out with some Janes Addiction or Nine Inch Nails really loud in my kitchen for me to enjoy :D

Kef LSX's are coming out in the reviews as great sounding and around 100db. Should be good enough.

Kef LSX ordered.

I see that they can be paired with others for a multi-room thing... so if they're not loud enough I'll just buy more.

I hated LSXs 🙃

Were so, so underwhelming and sooo bright.

If they turn out to be shit I can swap them out for something else. Or just use them as my desk speakers :D

Usually a pretty awful environment for speakers in a kitchen unless it opens out to somewhere with some soft surfaces. Nothing sounds very nice in mine.

I've rarely enjoyed audio components on first listen. Some of the things which were initially the most underwhelming, have ended up being long term favourites.

I've bought most (but not all) of the stuff I've owned over the years second hand, which obviously limits the ability to do a/b or send stuff back if you don't like it.

On balance, I think the approach of buy it, live with it, eventually try something else, has worked well for me.

I've had Linn Keilidhs in the kitchen for many years. They are not the most transparent, articulate or the most anything else. But they knock out a tune, they can boogie a bit, they didn't cost much and I think they are perfect for my requirements.

Last year, I picked up a pair of Spendor A7s and these are what you could describe as my "critical listening" speakers. I didn't like them at all at first, which was surprising as I'd previously had a pair of A5s in the same room, for a long time and grown to really love the A5s. I have come to appreciate many things about the A6s over the last year, but I still find them a little bass light. I intend to add a sub. More on this to follow.

My kitchen is a reasonable size and typically full of the random clutter which two adults, two teenagers and two cats seem to generate effortlessly. This helps a lot with the audio, generally minimising reflection and adding to the ambience :-)

They’ll be nice on your desktop but I wouldn’t expect too much on the annoyance factor scale from 4.5” drivers. Also all active KEFs seem to have reliability issues.

Can you borrow/rent a PA system for a few weeks?

Hey so anyone on the fence about MQA (not me, I’ve suspected it was snake oil forever) should read this https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads%2Fmqa-deep-dive-i-published-music-on-tidal-to-test-mqa.22549%2F&fbclid=IwAR1wrlSsfIN-_-wxNDdaJVLd5znmaVg2gZdUX0KvCWKuuT-D7eCnkBZz_B0

I didn't read All of that because it's hella long but surprise surprise...!

Thanks, that's an interesting article.

I haven't been following the MQA debate, although I do use Tidal + Roon. Some parts of the article where too technical for me but what is the main deal here, Tidal use MQA to save on bandwidth or something else?

MQA is a way of guaranteeing that streaming services don't just use needledrops of the their own vinyl collection instead of obtaining masters and paying artists properly. The reason Tidal are big on this is artists own the company *(like household name artists).

Ah, I see. Thank you.

I'll reserve judgement on whether the apparent compression / artefacts actually matter irl.

Sonos 5 for kitchen speakers would also be my pick.

They don't matter to Jay Z and Madonna :)

MQA is a way of guaranteeing that streaming services don't just use needledrops of the their own vinyl collection instead of obtaining masters and paying artists

Well, that's one way of looking at it. Critics of the MQA business model (rather than technology) have a substantially different take.

Just read the Wikipedia article on MQA. Sounds pretty suspect, overall.

Interesting that Meridian came up with it. I've owned many Meridian audio (hardware) products which always appeared to be very well engineered. I still have 3 power amps and one pre amp. The tuner and CD player I've sold on.