Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

said it's best with these to just let them earth through the connectors to the pre-amp, which should have a proper earth

stop being a baby about getting electrocuted

There are two different things being conflated here. Circuit protective earthing is there to make sure the fuse blows/breaker opens if mains voltage comes into contact with the metal enclosure. Getting this wrong can get you killed. Signal grounding is there to provide a stable reference and to dump induced voltage in a low impedance way so that it doesn't get amplified. Getting this wrong will get you ground-loop hum and be very annoying, but it won't kill you.

Both of these are bigger subjects than we have time to go into here, but the TL;DR is that you should never compromise circuit protection to solve signal ground issues.

Pretty sure i haven't already asked this... Over ear wireless headphone suggestions to pair with a NAD 3020E and Dual 606? My dad wants to give something new a try and i owe him for some recent DIY help. Tbh he'll probably end up using them more for TV/laptop watching so needs to be able to do that as well. Richer Sounds suggesting Sennheiser RS120-W but they keep going out of stock and i'm not keen on getting them from Amazon in case he wants to change them.

EDIT: Just remembered there's a headphone thread, can move there if his hifi isn't an issue

A decent CD player here if anyone is on the lookout for one:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/383272/#comment16841579

Nice one, yeah this guy sort of said stop being a baby about getting electrocuted, it doesn’t really need an earth. What you say about earthing the case via the RCAs makes sense in a ‘you don’t want a seatbelt, you’re better off being thrown clear’ kind of way.

Missed this. That's not very good advice. The reason being if something comes loose in the circuit and touches the case, at best it's going to put 240V AC down the RCA cables and either blow them apart or trip your house RCDs; at worst it'll put 360V DC on the case and I don't think the RCD will see it because it's not a direct connection between LNE. It'll just kill you instantly when you touch it.

I would strongly recommend you swap that two-pin power cable for a 3-pin IEC socket with filtered earth and a direct earth connection to the case. I can't see anything in the schematic that would cause you issues doing that. If you really want belt-and-braces against hum you can put an internal connection direct from the speaker 0V and input 0V to the earth post, but I don't think you'll need to.

Edit: or do what they did with their 0V and couple 0V to earth with a 10Ω resistor and a 47nF capacitor: https://keith-snook.info/quad-ii-mods-grey-pair.html

Reminds me of what people call the Death Cap in some old Fender guitar amps - if it goes, and one leg touches the chassis...

Problem with the Quad is that I want to keep them looking original. Some people seem to use an Earth going to the power connector screw. Does that seem like a good compromise?

https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/safe-earthing-of-quad-ii-amps-connected-to-a-passive-preamp.259605/

That would do the trick.

I've got some Sony WH-1000XM4 Brand new in box. Anyone want them for £190? Currently £249 in the shops.

This may be of interest to some in here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loveinjectionnyc/the-dope-from-hope-book

Loving Devon Ojas's approach to Hi-Fi.
He tells me he's finally doing something in London soon so there will be a system for public ears.

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Been following him on insta for a while now - such nice stuff. Excited about a London thing. Funny how horn speaker, 'listening' bars and stuff have become a thing.

Aye. The place I got my totem’s from is a stockiest. Truly beautiful work. Didn’t get to hear them, mind.

i went to a bunch in Tokyo in November and now i'd love something similar in London.

No idea if it will ever actually work, Spiritland has the potential but unfortunately its chock full of loud mouths and you cant hear a single thing in there most of the time

I reckon it will be a gallery/studio space so plenty of opportunity to nerd out and chin-scratch.

I like Brilliant Corners; they've got the listening bar archetype - McIntosh amps with four vintage Kilpschorns. Plus, they do a great vegan (and non-vegan for the heathens) Japanese tasting menu.

Cafe Artum here in Brum are trying to do a listening bar on a smaller scale.

It all ticks a lot of boxes; grown up clubbing, ongaku food, mid century design, The Loft style music. The problem is that this reads like a safe list of lifestyle woo for 30 somethings.

It's the 21st century golf club.

Sipping bells and lemonade sat at the puggy tapping your foot to Dire Straits. I think I'd rather be a sultan of swing.

Competition in other places.

I was looking for some validation for a carefully set up bad pun.

I think the reason why audiophile sound and live venues doesn't mix has been well and truly researched over decades.

Makes me think of Bill Evans Village Vanguard recordings where you can hear people ordering burgers in the background!

I'm not encouraging that kind of behaviour 🙂

I love this one.. the sound of party chat, drinking and Art's rings on the ivories is lovely..

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It also ticks the (in my case) the senior 50+ going out experience. Bonus combo points if I've picked up a bottle of wine and some Japanese jazz from Idle Moments beforehand.

There’s a community space opposite Rough Trade that has a pair if you want to have a listen.

Hello. I know little to nothing. Looking for turntable, amp, speakers for a very small room - less than 2m x 2m. Will have only one chair, two shelves, and 'hi-fi'.

Priorities are petite size, cat proof, nice sound over oomph, less plastic more wood?, all in for £1000.

I have a Rega P3 with whatever gubbins it came with that I've been perfectly happy with. Any suggestions where to start? Just buy an Arkose etc...