Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Sapele, fixed to packers in the reveals using magic construction adhesive.

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I like to think that the cat is there for support while the adhesive sets.

The cat is there because it sat there before the adhesive set and has been stuck there ever since

Ran out of quick clamps

The cat is there because it sat there before the adhesive set and has been stuck there ever since

haha, reminded me of

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nice space @dbr (and nice cat 🙂 )

Not been down in a while but going to be DJing there again in May.

If it's still open... Mr Bongo, Across the Tracks. Borderline had a small but nice selection... but I seem to remember that one closed?

Cheers! Went to Across the Tracks, which is great for used stuff; and Resident for new stuff.

That window is glorious. How do you rate the Tannoys? I’m considering buying some to replace my PMC as I need something with more oomph. I’m little concerned thr Tannoys will be all warmth and no clarity.

If you're in North London you can listen to mine.

I love em. The crossovers are adjustable too so you can tweak them to taste / the room. Mine are the OG 1978 version, albeit completely refurbed and upgraded. Velocio’s are the newer re-issue so depending on which you’re looking at you could have a listen to mine too. We’re in Hackney.

I'm after some small bookcase speakers, nowt fancy, any point looking past JBL Control 1s for £89?
I realise this is a bit lowbrow for this thread ;)

Random musings - is Audiophilia for those who live in big spaces and/or can turn the volume up? At 9 o'clock on the volume knob on my 30wpc amp is giving 70db in my listening position... which makes me wonder if actually all I need is a pair of Apple HomePod Mini's and some headphones.

It seems like most trad hi-fi is geared towards the older listener who lives in a bigger space; whilst the newer stuff perhaps reflects modern living conditions better?

is Audiophilia for those who live in big spaces and/or can turn the volume up?

Not only. There are audiophile headphones and plenty of articles from the usual suspects about near-field audiophilia

which makes me wonder if actually all I need is a pair of Apple HomePod Mini's and some headphones.

I can’t rate the original HomePods* enough. For apartment living in London, there’s just not the opportunity to crank up the volume much for massive speakers. But the bigger HomePods are great. The mini’s don’t quite have the depth, but the originals (or new ones) in stereo really are good.

*And a decent pair of headphones

Tannoys are great. The midrange isn't super flat compared to studio monitors but the best thing is the dynamics at all volumes, I think due to the horn compression driver.

Wharfdale Diamonds also worth a look. if you stretch the budget a bit more, Q Acoustics 3010.

Thanks for this.
Really like the q acoustics, sadly they're too deep, almost the same size as my current speakers.
The wharfedales would fit, which leads to another question.....
Impedence, current speakers are 3 ohm, so assuming the amp is, would a 4 ohm or 8 ohm work?
Am I better off buying a new amp/receiver type thingy?
I need something with a usb connection (to power my very old tablet that I use for Spotify and radio), and Bluetooth.

What amp do you have?

Broadly speaking, higher impedance speakers are easier for an amp to drive so if your current unit can run 3 ohm load, 4 or 8 will be fine.

Cambridge Audio have a good range of amps with various connectivity built in but then you are getting into more outlay.

Bluetooth adaptors are available to get around that problem.

Currently have a Panasonic mini system (pmx82), nowt fancy, but was what I could afford.
Richer Sounds have a MAY10 and MAY50 deal on til Wednesday, so if I'm gonna do it, may as well be now.

I'd guess that will be fine to run something like Wharfdale diamonds.

It depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.

Something like this has Bluetooth, DAB but not USB:

https://www.richersounds.com/yamaha-dab-bluetooth-stereo-receiver.html

Ha, was just looking at that, suppose usb isn't absolutely necessary, as it's only for charging the tablet.
This is where I get lost again though. That's an 8 ohm amp, the JBL are 4 ohm, the wharfedales 6 ohm, too many fuckin numbers.

You don't need to match the ohm number.
Any reasonable amp will drive both of those speakers.
I'd ignore Bluetooth and USB, they will change in time and a decent amp should work for 20 years.

I wouldn't worry unduly about the number associated with the speakers; it's just an approximation of the load which the amp will "see", in reality the load varies significantly across the frequency range.

So long as the speakers don't have a crazy low number, a modern solid state amp will be fine with them.

If you go to Richers, you can ask them to hook up some speakers and see how they sound. It's not a great demo environment in their shops from what I've seen, but I did once demo a Denon system with a couple of different speaker options and it gave me a bit of a clue as to how they sounded.

Thank you, that will make my choices a lot easier.

Oh god! If I ignore Bluetooth and usb, what else do I need to buy to get my tablet connected to an amp?

Cheers.
Not going to RS, just ordering online, I've sound tested speakers in the past, and to be honest, I can't really tell the difference between closely matched speakers, this may be due to my constant background tinnitus.