Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Luckily My Bloody Valentine seems to be soothing Geoff at the moment.

1 Attachment

A bit of an update to my previous woes, in case anyone was following - I had the amplifier apart at the weekend and gave everything a liberal go-over with contact cleaner, got it all back together and... no difference.
Next step is to bring the back-up turntable back from the shop and give that a go - if it turns out to be something loose in the TT itself, I wouldn't be surprised, since I bought it used and the seller made a right fuck-up of packing it for shipping, it was basically loose in the box and must have had a proper rough ride, so managed to get a bunch of money back on it anyway.
Will keep everything crossed - and then it might be new TT time instead!

Does anyone here have experience with building speakers or with horn or transmission line speakers?

Yes. Mass loaded transmission line speakers using fostex fe167e full range drivers. Have had them for nearly 20 years - big but sound amazing.
I think I recall seeing some frugal horns on here too

Years ago I built up a pair of LT-2000 speakers from Bob Brines.
They were a lot of fun (though I kind of wrecked my hands with all the clamping for glue ups). I sold them in the end because I needed more low end and didn’t want to introduce a subwoofer. I didn’t do any of the electronics and had the mdf cut by a pro.

Built some big folded horns for PA. Efficient for sound, but way inefficient on space.

@mervan46

I'm currently using Harmon Kardon Soundsticks ii as my speakers at home which have served me excellently for the last 10 years but they're falling to bits.

I fancy getting a proper setup (sub woofer etc) but not sure what I can get for a budget of £300. Would most likely be buying used. I mainly play music through a Bluetooth adapter which is probably a horrible fucking sin. I've also got some Dali Spektor 2 passive speakers I use for my record player and a NAD amp. Can I just use a bluetooth adapter with them.

I don't feckin know.

@mervan46 Your OG post was in classifieds so I'm gonna remove it. Hifi questions can go here...

Thanks @hippy

Minirig & similar, what's good for clear & relatively loud plus 90min+ battery?

I have an idea I want to explore...

-

Noob looking to upgrade my home hifi. It's been used mainly for vinyl but more recently i plugged in a Chromecast and have been enjoying streaming Spotify and the radio. Furthermore i've just had a reshuffle of furniture and the TV now sits between the speakers.

The current system compromises a Technics 1300 turntable, Pioneer A333 amp and Celestion Ditton 15 speakers which i've had since the early 90s (all purchased second hand). I'm attached to the turntable so that will be getting a service and new cartridge and the speakers although lacking ompf look lovely so i figured the amp would be where i'd put my money. I just popped into a Richer sounds and without giving any hints on what i'm thinking they noted the amp was the weak point which was reassuring. I ran through the requirements with them (approx. 40% vinyl listening, 40% streaming and maybe 20% watching movies) and they suggested the Marantz PM7000N network stereo amplifier as it's all in built within the unit and i'd prefer not to have multiple components.

Having a look around the reviews look very good and the likely hood of finding second hand slim (i can get the 10% off first order). By my understanding there's no need for a phono pre-amp, the streaming over wifi will be better then Bluetooth and i can take a digital out from my TV directly into the amp. Other than being over budget my main issue is the looks as i was hoping for something a bit more minimalist/design wanker looking.

Question is for £600 am i missing out on better options that would do the same for less or give me more for my money?

I'm thinking if I'm gonna build a pair I might as well build something that's not ported, I think transmission line might suit me best. I did see someone that combined a horn and transmission line, which might be taking it too far. But I'm also wondering whether to just buy a 2nd hand pair of transmission lines just to see what they're like.

Are they ported but with a single full range driver?

I recently did a similar thing as I had a cheap optical DAC, phono stage that gave up the ghost, blue tooth reciever, and airport all plugged in. Doesn't sound £550 better but the convenience is much better as all those appliances are now integrated.

I've got a Technics 1301, I've serviced it a few times as it intermittently speeds up - Just needs the pots cleaning when it does. I also replaced the 43 year old power cable and non sheilded RCA cables which were a nice upgrade, if they've never been changed I recommend you do, or have some RCA connectors installed in the case (might do this at some point).

I've also been looking at speakers with resonators.

Yeah i figure the convenience of it will be the bigger win but Richer Sounds man did think i'd notice a fair improvement in sound. What amp did you go for and what RCA cable did you use on the 1301? Can't remember if it was you that linked me the Pro-ject cable but not sure i can justify £45 on a cable that i'll have to cut the plugs off one end.

The design was for a “Mass-Loaded Transmission Line Speaker”.
I don’t have any photos of my own but could send you a pdf of it.
It was ported with a single driver, yes.

I got an Onkyo 8270, only complaint is that the phono stage isn't great. Cable was an OFC gold tipped cable, it's been so long since I bought it I can't remember what brand it is, it's not anything expensive or fancy. The project cable is nice though.

Almost forgot, I've serviced the suspension. It needs a long 7mm socket with some material removing as when you tighten up the bolt the spring also winds up if you're not careful.

Found a picture with one of them in the background, being enjoyed by our greyhound...

1 Attachment

So dogs really do go to heaven

Your greyhound looks like alien is about to erupt from it's stomach
Nice stove btw. How'd you manage to keep the glass so clean?

Nice stove btw. How'd you manage to keep the glass so clean?

It was about a week after it was installed....
Although tbh it's still pretty good as one of the reasons we got it was we had a 70ft ash tree that needed to be cut down, so the wood being burnt is pretty much all nicely dried ash.

Nice wood for burning too

wood being burnt is pretty much all nicely dried ash

So it's a case of...

1 Attachment