Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Any advice for cleaning dirty records? (For reasonably budget and space) I have been given quite a few old records but some are reasonably dirty and don't play that well. The internet seems to be full of conflicting do's and don'ts.

I’ve just moved into a detached house after living in apartments for the last five years. Oh my god. My speakers sound so different when I’m not listening at 50db from my listening position. Good lord.

I have the same, intermittently, on my Marantz PM6002 but just in the right channel. I need to take it to someone who can probably fix it cheaply but for the last few weeks it has behaved perfectly. Sorry, not much help!

It’s great - we moved into an almost detached place 6 years ago and it has been a joy to be able to let rip from time to time.

No worries, hope you can get sorted.

I have used AM record cleaner to get some really dirty ones at least playable in the past.

Bit of distilled water, a tiny touch of washing up liquid, and maybe 20% alcohol and wipe with a micro fiber cloth. Quick wipe with a dry microfiber cloth, then your good to go. I do this for everything I buy, even if it's new as it'll remove the static, then brush each play after.

If the record is absolutely filthy you can play it wet, and the stylus will pull out quite a bit of crap - probs fine for a £30 audio technica, maybe don't use anything you've pumped up for.

I've got a house record that the recording must be from another filthy record, nothing is bringing that back.

A stylus cleaner is a good purchase BTW.

Thanks both for the advice, I think I might have been overthinking things. I just didn't want to damage any records trying to clean them.

Just be gentle-ish.

I’ve just moved into a detached house after living in apartments for the last five years. Oh my god. My speakers sound so different when I’m not listening at 50db from my listening position. Good lord.

Yes. I live in an end-of-terrace, and I much prefer listening to music via a stereo pair of Homepod Mini's in the shed at the bottom of the garden, where I can set optimal listening position and crank it up vs my Hifi in the house where I'm more limited.

If you turned one around, it would look like a dragon in a portal

😂😂😂

Thinking I'd like to attend a hifi show to look at some of the lovely stuff on offer in 2024. Not been to one before. Whats the best one to go to that's either in London or not far?

Still going further down the rabbit hole of 192/24 lossless masters... started with the "you can't hear the difference, what's the point"... moved onto the "you can't tell the difference with most music" and I am still there.

For most pop/rock, there's just no point as there's no difference in how it sounds. Mostly any gains are just because they were remastered and the mixes changed, and it's nothing to do with the resolution of the file format and all to do with revisiting a studio.

But... but whenever you stray into music with a lot going on, rich full bass, strings, brass, delicate percussion like triangles and chimes... and all of that is happening at once... then it's really clear.

Latest epiphany came from listening to a 192/24 version of What's Going On, and I have owned this on vinyl, CD, ripped the CD, a remastered web download... and I still have all of these except for the vinyl (well, I have it but no deck)... so I could A/B compare this on the same amp + speaker... and yup, there are parts to this I'd never heard before, and it's less... stressed, easier to listen to, less cluttered(?).

I'm thinking that high resolution sound files do make sense, but really only for orchestration, jazz, and things that overlap with that... then you need the ability to have all this extra info in the file format. Still can't hear a damn bit of difference with 99% of what I own, but every now and then something is noticeably better, and this one is.

The detroit mix of WGO is worth a listen too. Really different mix originally shelved by the label.

If you look at the white paper by Dan Lavry that's been around forever it makes a very good case for 96/24 as a reasonable limit with enough frequency headroom. As human hearing is limited to somewhere around 16-20khz (you can find your own limit with a frequency sweep) 96/24 gives you a maximum of 48khz, well above the human limit.

Mostly what you are noticing is the extra care in the mastering as 192/24 is considered an 'audiophile' kind of resolution.

Maybe get a SACD player and some SACD's, I've been pretty happy going that route.

Subwoofer

I plan on adding a subwoofer to my current setup.

I'd need to hook it up to the KEF LS50 II, live in an apartment and need to fill a room of approx. 8 x 5.

I'm currently using the speakers both for TV / movies & music alike.

Any recommendations? KEF seems the obvious choice in terms of connectivity and setup but open to suggestions!

Baby proofing

Another challenge that's rapidly coming up, is the arrival of our son end of Feb. My partner's worried about the current speakers from when the little one starts to crawl around. I've looked at filling up the stands but I'm not sure it would be sufficient? Any experience here?

Any experience here?

Hate to be that guy but, I'd save your money for baby shit and nursery fees. It'll be years and years before you're able to listen to the sub or your speakers, so there's not point in wasting your money.

The two considerations are kids putting their fingers through speakers/breaking them or knocking them over and injuring themselves. Wall mounting speakers like in a cafe is probably your best option. Putting them on a bookshelf is going to be the easiest compromise you can all live with.

No worries, every bit of input is welcome!

I've looked at wall brackets but unfortunately KEF doesn't offer anything for these speakers. I'd have to get a pair of LSX (the smaller brother of my current speakers) in order to get away with that.

Of course, there might be universal brackets available that do the trick. I'll have a look into that, not in any immediate rush luckily.

I put my ls50s on these cheap habitat shelving units a couple of months ago. It was more an idea of a cheap weighted stand (via books) but we're expecting in January so hopefully they'll also work for when they crawl. That centre channel may not be so lucky thou...

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My boy took an interest in sticking fingers in the tweeters of my floor standing speakers but soon lost interest and wasn’t an issue when crawling, that stage is also short.

I would echo the advice @hugo7 gave though, you won’t get a chance to do anything for ages and kids cost a fortune. I’ve got lots of stuff from my past life that hasn’t been touched for ages just purely to lack of time to myself, including the Hifi.

I'm quite surprised my kids haven't poked anything through the cones on my floorstanders, but I do regularly find things inside the cabinets.

Not everyone is in the same financial position, though.

@MementoMori if its not a burden, I'd just get the KC62. Everyone who reviews it likes it.

If you're going to fill the stands, probably whatever is densest? Can you get lead shot in Italy easily? Dunno what stands you have, but something like the Pangea Audio DS400 would work well for mass filling with as much shot (or sand) as possible. All four pillars are hollow.

True. But given how much things can change, it seems to make more sense to buy something that fits your needs in 5-7yrs time.

We're literally talking about 2 months worth of enjoyment here.

Although there is a risk that if you don't buy it now you may never.

I moved house around the same time as our kid was born. Think I spent more time deciding what hifi and speakers to get than I have listening to them in the intervening years.

Either child is around and I'm just playing music through Sonos or they're in bed and I can't listen to anything loud anyway.

I can’t remember the last time I put a record on.

Kids like music too - it's all good.