Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Currently enjoying a bit of French 79 blowing the doors down. Got the big MOSFET amp doing the hard work and VU meter bypassed, so only the 5 valves in the pre-amp on. Been testing some new output transformers in the little valve amp and they stretch its legs right down into the lower octaves. Also got a bigger power transformer for it and so got a complete rebuild planned at some point.

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Also picked up this little lot which is going to make for some fun analogue synth projects. Got a plan for my VCO sketched out and been playing in the lab with a few options for the actual voltage control for valve VCFs and VCAs.

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🚨 Nerd Alert 🚨

Looks sick, I can’t be bothered with more than soldering connectors on and drilling a back panel, chapeau!

🚨 Nerd Alert 🚨

Aythangyaw

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Amazing. Looking forward to a look mum no computer style update.

There’s a massive job lot of valves for sale on my local Facebook marketplace. Mostly crap and esoteric stuff but I’m kind of tempted to see if there any gems in there…

Gone through a bit of churn in my office system last few months, got a 50% deal on a Linn Selekt DSM (RCA out, not amp) but had a number of issues with electronic noise, back and forth with the retailer trying to reproduce, ended up getting a refund, for something that should cost 4 grand the build quality was shite and the software buggy as hell, have ended up buying a BluSound Node X, and overall a much better experience and I cannot hear a difference between the two.

i've had a couple of mp3 players made by cowon over the last 10 years. my most recent one a plenue has just started to have slight issues with the headphone connection and intermittent cutouts and loss of sound quality ( probably a lose connection in there somewhere in the headphone jack, the previous model a cowon x7 has similar issues with the headphone jack )

i've loved the sound quality, the battery life but it seems like cowon the company is failing, i can't seem to find a cowon player for love nor money in the uk, revues of the latest plenue are quite scathing as the battery in them seems very poor

does anyone have any recommendations for a decent portable hi res audio player. i have my whole cd collection ripped into flac files ( cd quality ) on my hard drive. so i'll be using these files to upload to the player. don't want to pay silly money and ideally no unknown chinese brands. stuff like astell and kern / sony / samsung would be preferred and stuff that can be sourced easily in the uk and therefore returned easily in the uk if any issues arrive. nothing from amazon either please.

Not for the audiophile necessarily, but the cheap little SanDisk players are dependable and sound pretty good.

Devon Ojas's listening room is coming to London. I've followed him for a while and really love the aesthetic and ethos behind his speakers. Now I can finally decide whether I like to sound of them!

https://www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/devon-turnbull-ojas-hifi-listening-room-dream-no-1

You like horns? You like these. You don't like horns? You won't like these.

FiiO is probably your answer dicki.

https://www.avshops.co.uk/collections/dap/products/fiio_x3iii

https://www.avshops.co.uk/collections/dap/products/fiio_m7

FiiO are very reputable and aren't an unknown Chinese brand, but they're also not a household name like Sony is.

thanks jb

one more specification to the above, no wireless, have grado headphones with cabled 3.5mm jack so cabled connection required. can't see from photos or description if those FIIO's are only bluetooth* ?

*ok so they do, just went to another website for more details

Not actually sure if that shop is still functioning FWIW. Just realised. So may wanna look elsewhere...

A friend of mine bought this at the weekend.

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Group lisson trip for devon listening?

Was well excited the first time he announced Lisson, until I realised it was the NYC gallery. This is gonna be great. Defo gonna avoid the opening though, be like peak hype fashion drones

definitely, will try go for opening time one weekday and hope its nice and quiet

Current setup, very happy with this. Might add a woofer later but it’s not essential tbf.

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Very tidy. I’d like to live in a house where I could easily count the number of items in a picture.

Its not essential until you get a sub, realise how much low end was missing with a pair of Meta's/Wireless IIs and then you'll never look back 🤪

Fact, I’m aware of the added value but the livingroom is not that big and I’m sure my neighbors would appreciate me not getting one haha.

Snap - apartment living does mean being a bit restrained. I'm still wondering about it though.

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You like horns? You like these. You don't like horns? You won't like these.

Horns, you say?

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