Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

As you say, google throws up limited info on these but they appear to be from a decent manufacturer (Heco?) and aimed at commercial installs. So I would expect they are decent examples of their type.

For basic mounts, yes half squash balls or even blobs of blue-tack if you are ok with a rudimentary approach. I used blue-tack to fix a pair of Tannoys to their stands, worked fine for the many years I had them.

I've heard a few people mention using an Ikea Gunstig (rubber pot stand) for isolating speakers and hifi:

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/ikea-365-gunstig-pot-stand-magnetic-red-dark-grey-50175276/

Thanks Mister.

Skulls, google "monitor isolation pad" and you should get all sorts of options and priced from a tenner to silly money. This kind of shiz is useful because you can angle speakers earwards. https://www.studiospares.com/auralex-mopad-studio-monitor-isolation-pads--461600.htm?gclid=CjwKCAiAz--OBhBIEiwAG1rIOnfF_u2xEiMJ2IF3E2-eptLLKtOguLwBn4-UnyxLzqz2q2EENQGOLhoCD5cQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

New tonearm. Little bit of ground hum gone, sounds better than the sme 3009 it replaced, I think? I can now get the vta high enough, and play around with low compliance carts. It's a sorane sa1.2 for anyone interested. Would have got a jelco but they seem to have shut down.

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Bought an A30. Waiting for the cables and speakers to turn up; thanks for the recommendation

wow, that's a lovely looking TT.

what cartridge are you using?

Audio technica oc9sh. It's lovely, quite bright and 'digital'sounding but tracks like a champ and surface noise is quiet. Quieter than my previous dynavector 10x5.
Next up will be a denon 103 or maybe an ortofon spu.
Got the garrard for a steal off a local auction site. It's just amazing for something that was made in 1962.

Nice. Years ago I had a Linn Axis /Akito which came with an AT OC9 (the previous generation to yours) when I bought it s/h. I eventually replaced the AT with a DV 10x, which was a great cart in that deck.

Currently using a Rega P25 with an Ortofon Rondo Red. Considering trying an MM cart in it at some point, something like a Goldring 1042, Nakaoka of some sort, maybe an AT VM.

Be interested in how you find a MM in your set up.

Regas are great. It's interesting most other turntable manufacturers are either doing mass or suspension, but no one else seems to be doing the light&stiff thing that rega have made their own.
I'd really like to try a nice mm at some point. Maybe a Garrott or nagaoka.
I've got an at vm95e in a drawer, will give it a spin sometime. Amazing value that thing.

Funk are doing an interesting light/stiff uprade for a rega.

the Schitt turntable looks interesting too, no idea how the distribution is in the U.K. though.

Had a look at the Funk upgrades - interesting; quite spendy. The feet and mat appeal, not sure i'd bother get my arm sawed in half... The upgrades are a lot more than I paid for the tt and cartridge in the first place.

Their website is a bit obtuse. The Houdini, for example. It costs £300 but they give no indication of wtf it actually does.

https://www.thefunkfirm.co.uk/products/p/houdini

they give no indication of wtf it actually does

It "brings the master tape closer". I assume for £300 they find out where the master tape is stored, and then it's up to you to move house 🙂

lol typical Audiophile stuff.

Think I'm beginning to fall into the audio science review style of mindset. Look at measurements and actual figures, then listen and choose. All the audiophile analogies and jargon is all a bit much. Although, I will admit that there must be a fair amount of confirmation bias/psychoacoustics in there.... One I know the DAC measures well I'm sure I can hear it, or not in the case of a good DAC....

Na. It’s all bollucks over there mate. He doesn’t even listen to the equipment. It’s ridiculous. Maybe, maybe there’s an argument for his testing methods with DACs, but nothing else. Imagine reviewing an amplifier but never connecting it to speakers. Loooool. Would be like reviewing a restaurant from photos and never eating in there.

There is that, for sure. That's why I said "style". I lol at the "I only connected one speaker but I imagine it would fill a room with both ..." I do find value in the DAC stuff though, only found the site while searching for a new dongle DAC/amp. Speakers have far too many variables to put much weight on measurements only.

Yeah, DAC stuff like I say understandable, but here's his summary of my amplifier:

Conclusions
Rogue Audio takes a perfectly serviceable Hypex UcD 180 amplifiers and adds copious amount of noise and distortion with its front-end. Mind you, despite use of the tube, it doesn't give that 2nd harmonic dominant result. It just raises the noise and distortion, robbing you of transparency. But hey, folks buy audio products by how many myths are included in their design and Rogue audio gets there with that tube stage. Perfect marketing, poor engineering. Story of high-end audio.
Needless to say, I can NOT recommend the Rogue Audio Sphinx V3. You can get plenty of better amplifiers for this level of money.

But he didn't listen to it. Lol.

Unbelievable twattery.

To be fair, if his premise is that he wants to minimise noise and distortion, he doesn't need to listen to it. He doesn't say it sounds bad (at least not in that quote), just that it doesn't fulfill his criteria.

It is a bit patronising though.

Also TBF I’d guess the main reason people like the sound of tubes (ignoring all the other factors, nostalgia, marketing etc) is that famous 2nd harmonic distortion. If that amp doesn’t cause any, but does add pointless noise, I can see his point that it’s worse than just the Hypex module on its own.

What exactly do 2nd order harmonics sound like?

Would be interesting to identify an amp that is low distortion save for a nice beefy second harmonic to find out

Warm tuby sound. Too much is bad, a little is good, especially with simple stuff like a jazz quartet or a solo singer. I’m sure there’s some YouTube vids with the audio equivalent of split screen.

Like the natural sounds produced by many acoustic musical instruments, including the human voice. Because of the mechanical design of instruments and the way their first order resonance is excited, they produce high levels of even order harmonics as a byproduct. The 2nd and 4th harmonics are the same musical note as the first but shifted up 1 and 2 octaves respectively.