Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Yep I'll be anoying people in the park and the quiet carriage on trains

Looks like something techmoan on YouTube would cover!

I’ve got enough projects at the moment.

Fuck it, what’s one more? I ordered a Bottlehead Crack kit.

Just had a look at techmoan. Interesting stuff. ta for the info.

Fuck it, what’s one more? I ordered a Bottlehead Crack kit.

I'm absolutely, 100% certain I don't need one of these. I have no use for it whatsoever. I don't even have any high-impedance headphones.

(12AU7 for the gain, running into a 6080 which can directly drive a 300 Ohm load, right? Tempting)

I want to build one.

I believe so. I’m going to be driving my 250Ω Beyerdynamic DT770 with it.

I don’t think you necessarily have to use high-impedance headphones with it, more that you can if you want to.

I have a crack-speedball with HD650s.

A lot of fun to build and listen too. I have to say I never really understood all of the OTL or high impedance stuff, but by a lot of accounts they are best with certain high impedance headphones.

I found that the crack does pick up electrical noise very easily which meant I can't use them connected to my PC (via a DAC) so I use them only with the turntable and an audioengine B1 bluetooth receiver for streaming which is great.

Cool. I thought about the Speedball upgrade, but decided I can probably do it later, if I feel like it and buy the parts locally.

I was planning to use it as a desktop thing, streaming from an iPhone via an Audiolab M-DAC+, but there would be a laptop nearby (it has a SSD, so hopefully not too bad?).

Looks like a lot of fun. I’ve already caught myself eyeing up the pre-amp and mono-block kits as well…

Love that!

Fedex have delivered one of my Pearl Sibelius' on Monday, the second one seems to have landed in Switzerland instead.. can't see this going well

Oh man :((((((((

i bought some PMC speakers once, the shipping label was not fixed properly and attached itself to a box of hand held computers (like traffic wardens used)
i was quite disappointed on opening the box.

the courier did work out where in the system this could have happened and tracked the label less box down fairly quickly.

If anyone is after an all in one, B&W have the Zeppelin on sale for 549 instead of 699, which seems like a good deal.

In other news, I just noticed that the tiny Rega IO, which I was very underwhelmed with, has increased in price in the USA to $725! Which is just absurd for what it is IMO. Which made me realise Rega had an across the board price increase in the U.S.
A Planar 1 now costs $595 - which for me would be $645 after tax. That is 494GBP. Holy shit that's a lot!
I understand why prices have increased but I also understand why Rega isn't more popular in the U.S...

what was your issue with the IO ? I've had one for a year now with no issues - I do have bad ears though

I was coming from an Onkyo A-9150 (which is actually a stellar amp considering how much they could be picked up for a few years ago when I got mine) and just expected more based on the hype. There were no discernible pros to it over the Onkyo from a listening perspective IMO. It really struggled to drive the B&Ws I was using at the time. It is for sure a better deal in the UK than the U.S. and I'm sure is great for easier to drive speakers.

Does anyone have experience of a fairly cheap but decent 50w-ish Bluetooth receiver/amp they can recommend? I'm tempted to get a 'nobsound' from Amazon if only for the name but I fear it might burn my house down.

I got a nobsound for my dad a few Christmas ago, it's been great for how cheap it was

@atz asked the same question a few months back and I recommended the loxjie A30. Hopefully it's serving them well!

The loxjie is working great. Bit more expensive than the nobsound but has been faultless.

That does look good but given its going to be used on mediocre (at best) speakers in a room with terrible acoustics (kitchen) I might go with the lower rent option after all.

Makes sense. To be honest in suboptimal conditions like that I think that's the right approach

1960s SPU GT, with a rebuilt cantilever and new elliptical stylus
Sounds like a big warm hug.

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Nice one.

Edit - keeping it