Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Grado, starting with SR60x and upwards depending on budget. Super comfy and low impedance, so iPhones will drive them without issue. I'd recommend listening to a pair first though, their in-house sound isn't for everyone.

Does anyone have any speakers for sale? Anything that might work well with a pair of Quad IIs? Or recommendations for something that would?

Does that mean you found a second one? Pics plz!

Obviously make sure whatever you get is the correct impedance. Just my opinion but I think big old paper cones sound great with big old valve amps!

They're still in the post, but will pop a pic up here when they arrive. They'll be straight off to Dickinson Amps for a service. I have a Belkin Airplay adapter and a passive preamp on the way. And a set of honestly pretty inappropriate speakers... May look at something different eventually but I move house in two weeks so it's taken a backseat.

https://www.whathifi.com/monitor-audio/monitor-100/review

Bit of rust never hurt anyone.

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Thanks for your feedback @Ste_S and @JB !

Remember not really enjoying Grado last time I heard them (friends' SR60's) but will try again when I have the chance.
Regarding Sennheiser I wonder how much of an mprovement in sound quality the 560S would actually be over the HD25's. Will try to have a listen to one of those as well 👍

Any love for AKG in this thread?

Very different listen. Bear in mind HD25s are monitoring headphones and they're OLD. Headphone technology and drivers have come a long way since the last update to HD25s. Think they'll be much comfier too. I should've said, I assume these are for at home use. They're not applicable for use in public/in an office.

I have made the mistake of looking at speaker cables.

And ended up here https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/cableloss/

The problem I have: I've got 3m cable, but I need 5m cable for where the speakers will be placed. Additionally I'd like the cable to be somewhat discreet which means being able to flex 90' in a couple of places (it's OK if it doesn't do that, but needing a significant curve means it's less discreet and the cable would also need to be a bit longer still. The amp is powerful (800w), the speakers high impedence (8ohm).

To get a flexible cable implies a core of smaller wires woven together, i.e. 12-24 strands of 0.2mm wire per cable.

To get less power loss in the cable implies a higher gauge, i.e. 2mm solid core to a cable - which is a bit like an electrical cable for a cooker, it isn't flexible.

I now know why I can't find a flexible cable, all the people who have big speakers and powerful amps obsess about not losing power due to the cables and all purchase what is essentially the cable for an oven.

Yet I would like a more flexible cable even if it were ultimately larger to achieve it (more strands, slightly larger strands).

The question then: Does anyone know a speaker cable that is flexible and will carry a high amount of power?

If it’s solid core it will be flexible. It just won’t allow repetitive movement, as it would crack where as lots of thin strands will allow for movement without breakage but you wouldn’t need that so it should be fine. With solid core you could get a really tight angle too.

It would be a cheap and interesting experiment at the very least.

ended up here https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/­cableloss/

You should have moved on, that's really for concert PA where the amp racks are tens of metres from the driver cabinets. They even say something to that effect:

For an 8-ohm loudspeaker connected to 40 feet of 18-gauge zip cord, the power loss is about ½ dB, which is neither audible nor significant,

The traditional 79-0.2 (2.5mm²) is very flexible and much lower impedance than 18awg (0.75mm²). If you want solid core, you have to shop around to get 2.5mm² twin&earth 6242Y because it's mostly 7 strand on the main conductors, but 1mm² lighting circuit wire is nearly all single strand conductor. Either can be bent to a fairly small radius once as Dogtemple says.

I don't remember how high-end your gear is but I reckon there's better places to spend that money to hear a perceivable difference.

The conductors in copper fixed-wiring cable can be bent to an internal radius of 1×D without any trouble, the limiting plasticity is PVC insulation and in the case of Y type multi core cables the jacket. If you want to go super tight in the corners, maybe elastomeric insulation.

At some point I'm going to move my speakers and make shorter cables, for which purpose I have purchased copper armature wire from the art supplies store and appropriately sized silicone rubber sleeving from the silicone rubber sleeving emporium

I don't remember how high-end your gear is but I reckon there's better places to spend that money to hear a perceivable difference.

Not sure what I have counts as high-end.

• Gato DIA-400S https://www.gato-audio.com/eu/dia-400s-integrated-amplifier-dac.html
  
• Tannoy Eaton Legacy https://www.tannoy.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DEL
  
  

The cables that came with it are AudioQuest Rocket 11 which were thrown in to complete the kit.

The speakers are currently getting new grilles made by a carpenter so that they're cat safe, and I need to move the amp as it can get quite hot so cats shouldn't sit on it - and that necessitates longer cables. The room is just a small living room about 5m x 6m, so having the amp move to an off-centre location results in needing 5m runs even though the speakers are well within the room.

Not sure what I have counts as high-end.

>>>> Golf club thread

https://www.gato-audio.com/eu/dia-400s-integrated-amplifier-dac.html

Fuck me, how can something so stupidly expensive also look like it came from an early 90's system out of Argos?

how can something so stupidly expensive also look like it came from an early 90's system out of Argos?

Have you not seen a Lamborghini?

how can something so stupidly expensive also look like it came from an early 90's system out of Argos?

You've actually hit upon their design ethos. They do it really well, no?

Nice, I'm getting closer to finally getting some Cheviots.
Just trying to persuade myself the rooms big enough (which it isn't) and the Mrs will be fine with them (which she's not).

Sure - they've nailed it.

I have my cheviots in a wee room just now, only about 3m from the sofa. They sound great.

how can something so stupidly expensive also look like it came from an early 90's system out of Argos

I like how they're called gato - and the design seems to be perfect for a cat to cuddle up on top of it 👍

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatsOnStereos/

Very different listen. Bear in mind HD25s are monitoring headphones and they're OLD. Headphone technology and drivers have come a long way since the last update to HD25s. Think they'll be much comfier too. I should've said, I assume these are for at home use. They're not applicable for use in public/in an office.

Thanks again for your feedback, I appreciate it 👍
Yes - just home use, need to be moving around a lot though, so would be good if they're not too heavy and sit on the head well.
Long story short I'll need to try the HD 560S in person, they seem a bit heavy and look like they're made more for sitting still.

If you want to try something neutral, designed for moving about, bluetooth and reasonably priced the ATH-M50xBT should be an improvement on the HD25s. They are still closed back though.

Thanks for your input; prefer something with a cable though, also want / need open back.

Used to be the HD650 that everyone loved. I've never had open back headphones but it seems like they're all designed for sitting still.

The AT's have cable input too fwiw.

Would need to check it has a socket (think those ATH-M50xBT ones do), but you can also go wired with many Bluetooth headphones.