Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Sandisk Sansa

Have one of these, and its great. And expandable storage (which Cowon might have too), which is a real boon. Just got a 32gb micro sd for £18!

Have one of these, and its great. And expandable storage (which Cowon might have too), which is a real boon. Just got a 32gb micro sd for £18!

Precisely, bargain, tiny, expandable, can play a huge array of file types and the audio quality is pretty damn good!

what grado do you have dicki and how do you rate them?

dicki, get a Cowon. Pretty much any one, though they keep their old players available for a long time, so focus on models in the last 12 months.

You don't need a headphone amp with a Cowon, though the Fiio's are wonderful and I do have one. I seldom use it though, the Cowon doesn't need it.

After that, FLAC is very good and "the way to go". Acquiring FLAC is mostly ripping your own collection or downloading illegally. There are few legal download sources of FLAC. If you need advice here on where to download from, PM me.

As for headphones, obviously open ones will leak a lot and offend people around you if you're on public transport, a plane, or in a café or something. I think the closed back Audio Technica cans are pretty nice: http://eu.audio-technica.com/en/products/product.asp?catID=5&subID=38&prodID=210

The problem with closed back being bass, and moving air in a sealed unit. The ATs do pretty well at this, the sound is not greatly affected by being closed back, and the performance is really sweet all things considering. They're good to use without offending those around you even in open plan offices.

i have the grado SR60's
the SR80's were equally well rated but a bit more pricey
they are great headphones i listen mostly to pirate dance stations and radio 4 and they provide a good deep bass nice crisp sound
well pleased with them all round

listening to the ballad of george collins now by sam lee and the quality is amazing you can hear each finger slide along the frets and the timbre in his voice

now this looks quite some set up, check out that loudspeaker, everywhere you look in that photo another bit of stereo pops out of the back ground

don't know what the parts are but i'm guessing they are quite special

^ and below
for when one tone arm just isn't enough why two ? so you can pick up those sections heavy metal with the Stanic Verses played backwards ?

one for a mono cartridge for old mono recordings and one for a stereo one :)

Versatility. Tonearm/cartridge combinations can get very specialised and some people prefer to run two different setups, for instance an arm dedicated to mono playback alongside their stereo one.

^Beaten. Go geek lighting.

aaaaAAAAAHHHhhhh

anyone downsizing/thinking of selling speakers?

I am after some for a second system - looking for something easy to drive (pref > 90db/W/m) and ideally singledriver/dual concentric that isn't too fussy about placement.

So - Tannoy dual concentrics /vintage Goodmans fullrange etc would be ideal but open to other left field speakers :) (Not really keen on b+w, MS, KEF, etc)

Was thinking of downsizing possibly, as my La Voce take too much place, but they are not especially easy to drive, are not DC. Now don't be scare that they are Sonys, they sound pretty "european / british", whatever that means...

http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-SS-A5.html

Then recently, because I really like them I kind of decided I would keep them, but when I saw your post, I started to think again...

Loic

yes - think they may be a bit of a stiff load (ooerr) for what I had in mind, shame as I bet they do sound good - some of Sony's stuff was actually very good (although most of the good stuff never found its ways to these shores)

yes - think they may be a bit of a stiff load (ooerr) for what I had in mind, shame as I bet they do sound good - some of Sony's stuff was actually very good (although most of the good stuff never found its ways to these shores)

Stiff load indeed, when I got them, I only had a Creek 4040 integrated amp, that was good enough for tannoys that were bigger than the sony. I had to upgrade my amplification for more muscle (QED P300&C300). Not sure about the numbers though...

CYRUS ONE repair

Hi I have a Cyrus One amplifier that has died, the power light comes on but no sound. I have loved this amp and am reluctant to throw it out does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it or know someone who could fix it?

cheers
matt

i have the same, great piece of kit great sound only down side no bass / treble adjustment otherwise 9.5/10 but sound quality is wonderful
the cyrus 1 was once paired to a cyrus tuner of the same generation
the lights went out on the tuner i took it to a hi fi shop just near liverpool street
it was sent away to be fixed came back, got pissed took it home with me on the tube left it on the tube
fucking face palm, silliest thing i think i've done in my life

to cut a long story short i took it to a cyrus dealer and they sent it back to the company
repair will probably be 50 - 100 these are £200 2nd hand worth getting fixed - yes

Are you sure it isn't the fuse? I have found the fuse blows in those like nobodies business. No offence if you have already considered this!

i try not to turn my hi fi bits on and off
maybe the power surges as you turn it on and off may blow the fuses ?
my cyrus has behaved perfectly for the last 10 years without issue

fuse in the plug?

dicki :

thanks for the advice and ill try not to get pissed and leave it somewhere

Yeah, my One blew so many. The red light was still on, but no sound. Replaced the fuse and boom it was fine. Don't want to get your hopes up, but worth a try.

even though i've read many good things about sound quality with the cowon X7 and J3 players one post got me curious

***" you should probably look for a audiophile portable music player with a proper line-out and even a digital out (for use with a portable DAC), not a Cowon. " ***

Now what am I missing here. Is there a new level of even better quality sound to be had that is kept secret from me ? Can anyone advise what might be being spoken about here ? What type of portable audio has this function and would it be any better than FLAC / Cowon capabilities ? If the only answer is a £1000 quid portable player then it's a no from me but I am now curious as to what other options I might have. Would this be a portable CD / DAC player or the like or could it be a digital player but with special hi fi outputs ?

dicki :

thanks for the advice and ill try not to get pissed and leave it somewhere

I didn't mean to teach you how to suck eggs !

this is hi fi appreciation 101 the very first lesson you learn in hi fi school !

this looks quite nice