Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Final setup before I move out. Mullard valve pre-amp, Maplin 150W MOSFET amps and some old JVC bookshelf speakers. Bare bones for cleaning, filling holes and touching up paint in an empty house before I eff off at the end of the week. 10 points if you can name the song in the video.

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Technics SL1300. A solid behemoth of a semi automatic. Keeps excellent time, works great TBH, changed the tonearm wiring and have a few different cartridges depending on what I fancy which TBH makes it 95% of what I want. Reliable, and even if someone is doing jumping jacks in the same room, doesn't move or skip ever.

But.... going to Japan soon as remember seeing someone modify one with a nice looking arm (looses semi auto functions but ah well, can be un modified easily). Anyone recommend any 70's appropriate looking tone arms that may fit? May or may not improve performance, just purely a 'what interesting weird techy audiophile type stuff can I get from Japan while I'm there that no one else would ever bother with'.

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Jelco or MicroSeiki would be a good place to start but no idea if they are any cheaper over there. You can get arm bases over here to fit them to Technics decks

I'd be looking for fidelity research or SAEC, but there's loads of stuff from Grace, denon, audio technica, Sony, technics etc. Would probably good to get some idea of what armboards are available before your trip.

@Velocio I remember you turning your CD collection into some kind of lossless digital copy and then doing something with the cases and covers. What did you end up doing?

I've got a DVD collection that I want to reduce the physical size of. I can't be bothered digitising it all but I was thinking of just sticking all the discs in some kind of folder with the covers (or most, some of the US ones and funky ones don't have 'standard' cases).

Any suggestions on a quality folder for this? I presume there's some kind of 'go to' brand that makes decent ones with plastic that doesn't degrade, maybe with disc slots AND cover slots, etc?

Actually there's some CDs too.

Like this, but I don't want to cut the covers up to fit...
https://www.slattye.com/dvd-storage/dvd-storage-without-case/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/LIOVODE-Booklets-Capacity-Storage-Organizer-Black/dp/B0BKG3B9K5/

Flight case for CDs, they store 2,000 CDs each. They came with plastic slips for the CDs, and these include a bit to slide the booklet / CD art into too.

I recycled all of the hard plastic CD cases.

I have 3 of these flight cases in the loft, took 3 years to rip them all to the local NAS, and there's just over 6K CDs crammed into them. They're now long-term stored in the loft in these flight cases.

This type of thing... but four times the size.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/NEO-ALUMINIUM-FLIGHT-SILVER-SLEEVES/dp/B0012NVNKK

They are large and heavy! Maybe I should've gone with smaller ones and just got more of them, but it's not like I move them around often.

Groovy, thanks.

I have a Shure V15V-MR Cartridge which is very highly regarded and NLA. Today whilst trying to clear it of dust I broke the cantilever. Gutted. An aftermarket replacement stylus is £300, but that’s also the price of some nice complete MM cartridges. What would you do? We’re talking about some higher end Audio Technica, Grado, Nagaioka etc. lots of choice at that price.

Jico stylus?
As the owner of a wonky Sumiko blue point special it’s going to be a body with replacement stylus with upgrade options next!
Probably an AT OC-9 and whichever shibata/elliptical/microlinear suits the budget

https://shop.mantra-audio.co.uk/acatalog/Shure-VN15VMR-Shibata-Stylus-Ref-T6420SHIBA-MA1397.html?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADrJ811pLGOh4FN4Ko5EXD4woT7or&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzs6WxueuiAMVJJVQBh0JdRvHEAQYAyABEgK4gvD_BwE

https://www.retrotone.co.uk/cat/jico-stylus/shure-v15-stylus/

Yes Jico was the one I found. That’s a better price you’ve linked to thanks for that.

I’ve absolutely nothing to complain about with the Shure, trying something else would just be an experiment for the sake of it, I can’t imagine I’d find anything better, maybe different.

Thread dredge. Have you tried cardboard wings off the back of those baffles to play with increased lowend?

I messed around with DIY hifi for years. I enjoyed visaton b200s open baffle and I even built myself a pair of air motion transformer tweeters but since having kids I'm reduced to Google minis around the house.

I've got a load of the necessary to build some First Watt F3 and F5 Amps. The plan was always to integrate them into monoblocks and switch between the F3 and F5 so I only had to buy two cases.

Anyone had bespoke record storage built? Looking to move away from multiple kallax to something that will store them a bit more vertically as well as housing decks and a mixer.

Looking to store about 6m of records.

My budget doesn't quite stretch to Vitsoe 606 yet.

Most of the ones on https://www.instagram.com/doyouspin are only floor units and won't be big enough to hold everything...

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A mate had something built years ago. Not 6m thoug! He got a deal, but I want to say it was still something like £500 10yrs ago.

Point being if it's anything like other cabinet adjacent carpentry I'd plan for it to be £2k, then be happy if it's less.

If you're on a budget then I'd revisit the kallax, but look at hacks and mods to give a more finished look. Also see if there's an alternative product like say the Besta and see if the dimensions work if you remove the internal dividers.

We’re getting rid of our Can-Am units as we ditched the jewel cases from our CDs and no longer need to the storage space. They’re very ‘office furniture’ but can be expanded infinitely.

https://www.can-am.ca/

I'd get an audio technica vm95. If you're confident in your arm setup the ML version, or the SH or E if you're less anal.

I have a DJ friend with about 5k records... It is all stored in Kallax.

He could afford custom storage, but he moved home when he was at 2k records and has a little custom storage before and swore not to again.

I was pinging him last night so asked him and he's replied this morning, the custom stuff was "£800 per meter" (about a decade ago) and whilst that doesn't mention height it was about 2m high.

He uses Kallax because it works, and the large ones are barely visible when full. If you damage them you just buy another. You can move house with them (though he's not done so for a while).

Always thought the Tylko stuff looked good. Got a sale on at the moment, ending Tuesday, but seems as though you can extend that by 10 days if you sign up to their mailing list.

https://tylko.com/en-uk/furniture-c/vinyl_storage

We have some Tylko bits. I can confirm that it is dench, would be fine for vinyl. Lots of customisability.

what phono stage are you using?

if you decided against repairing the Shure, some things to consider:

Dynavetcor 10x mk5 - I had a 4, one of the nicest carts i've used. high output MC (above your budget though but if you feel like pushing the boat out);

Ortofon 2M Black - I've always wanted to try one of these so please get one and then convince me i need one ;-) MM, again, over budget;

Goldring 1042 - I had a Reson modified version of this (or similar?) Goldring cartridge which was really nice, and it's almost in budget.

lots of opinions can be found here:

https://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_reviews.php?make=Goldring&model=1042

Thanks, I had the VM95 Shibata before the Shure and the Shure is definitely a step up in sound quality.

Thanks all, that's getting to 606 pricing so will look at that too. I have a couple of joiner / cabinet maker friends but never really like mixing work with friendships

That’s good stuff thanks, I’m using a Pro-Ject Tube box phononstage which has all the MC adjustability but I’m not sure I fancy making the switch.

I’d found my way to the Orofon and the Goldring from that list, I’m tempted by both of those, but in the end I ordered a replacement stylus for the Shure as Gary found a good retailer for them. I do love that cartridge.

but never really like mixing work with friendships

This is how my mate got a deal on his custom deck stand +storage. It took a million years for him to get it because the carpenter mate looked at it as a favour. Which pissed off my mate who looked at it as saving a couple of hundred quid in exchange for never being able to ask for any updates and being blind as to when (or if) they'd ever get it.

They did. It's nice. And it's moved through a couple of places and has been modified as times have changed.