Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

All surround speakers in cinemas are above the height of a normal ceiling.

If you can make them bi directional you're laughing.

Budget of 200-300 quid. I already have floor standing front speakers, sub and centre speaker. It's just I am moving and the new place is open plan does not have walls where I'd like to place the rear speakers.

cable is cable

fucks page page not loading before I comment is making me look like i have the respomse time of a turtle...

surround is silly imo in standard residential settings. sell all your surround crap and buy better 2-channel.

I've recently bought a FiiO X1 after being pissed off at the crappy music players on phones (iphones are ok, android and windows SUCK)
It's great. interfaces and stuff aren't super slick, kind of chinese and beta-feeling functional, but works really well with isyncer to move music onto it, and sounds brilliant. Recommend, and pretty good value if you've already got SD cards kicking round.

surround is silly imo in standard residential settings. sell all your surround crap and buy better 2-channel.>

This in spades, @dancing james . I had a decent 5.1 setup a few years back but sold it and invested in a much better 2.0 setup. Stereo amps in particular are so much better than surround sound ones.

Do I miss the surround sound? On 99% of movies its poorly used and the 1% that its done properly its pretty gimmicky IMO. With decent stereo you get a very wide soundstage and real depth anyway.

Is 65w going to be enough power for day to day use? I'm thinking about getting one of these http://www.denon.co.uk/uk/product/pages/product-detail.aspx?catid=systems&subid=networkmusicsystems&productid=dran5

It'll be running through focus choral 705Vs which are rated at 25-100w and this gives out 65 per channel. Sounds kinda like what Velocio was describing a few pages back.

Actually, this one might be better, considering I'll eventually have it hooked up to computer, TV and turntable.

http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-15333-denon-avrx1100w-wireless-networked-4k-home-cinema-receiver.aspx?VariantHid=30889&gclid=CjwKEAiAhcGjBRDot_fjjtPKrgsSJACNYh76QjVoKbUPnHIhEs9q9IBsx1TWLfQjEGO_iS2I92UtoRoCYJbw_wcB

Isn't 7.1 the future? Even then it is all down to the sound encoding. My 5.1 /7.1 amp is made up of several small chip amps. Going from a sony 5.1 amp to my gain clone was the bigger difference in sound. Even changing the speakers from cheapie Ariston MX10? to jbl monitors didn't make that much of a difference. The amp gets its sound from a computer PVR.

I'm actually less interested in the surround sound aspect (which I'm clueless about) than I am having a neat and integrated solution. My requirements are: phono in, digital in x 2 or 1 hdmi, network access from NAS, good power output for the Chorus 705v speakers, preferably remote operation from a phone (I had been wondering about doing this with the Foobar 2000 running on the NAS and the romote app on my phone until I saw the Denon units above and realised this is a thing).

The first one seems to fit all of this except maybe a bit lacking in power, only one optical in and no phono in. I'm sure I could do it all with a soundcard on my PC but I don't want that running all the time as it's a graphics computer and has a massive noisy fan.

Cambridge audio do a good streaming player. Naim do some interesting to things too.

You can away with a pre amp for the record player.

any thoughts on stereo receivers, girlfriends amp has gone poof, and she's looking to replace it with something that she can run her ipod through and probably stream music to from her laptop at some point in time, and also listen to the radio.
So I'm thinking stereo receiver one of the more modern ones which you can stream to (not sure about apps that would work with them) which would also mean she could do the digital radio thing, (she only seems to listen to 6music).

any thoughts let me know..

oh yeah she's not looking to spend a tonne of money either...

old nad + airport express?

I have an old pioneer a400 and a lead that would do the trick, cornface

This:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/streaming-hi-fi-and-network-audio-players/cambridge-audio/minx-xi/camb-minx-xi-wht

Does everything, and possibly more than you need. Just add speakers.

old nad + airport express?

Yep. Separate the streaming thing from the amp, as the streaming gubbins will change over time, decent amps will last ages.
a couple of long minijack -> rca cables might even be better. Wireless still kind of sucks.

jealous !! dream of having a classic 70's set up. what amp ?? Pioneer SA ???? I bet it sounds ace

Yeah, but airport express limits you to apple airplay and itunes doesn't it? You can't easily stream you computers sound through so no digital radio. AUX line in via 3.5mm/RCA generally sounds rubbish.

Wireless does generally suck though.

A cheap solution is getting something like WD TV or ROKU media streaming box, they're under £80. They give you access to iPlayer, digital radio etc. But you need a TV. And an amp with digital input, and extra cables, and a hards drive etc. So not a clean and simple solution.

You can use Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba to stream any computer's audio to Airport. Can also turn your iphone etc into a receiver.

hmm, maybe. I'd dismissed solutions like that because they used to be terrible at keeping the sound in sync and being awkward to get working.

^^^BRM that amp looks a beast.

I very nearly bought this a few months ago:

ww.superfi.co.uk/p-13144-marantz-mcr610-melody-media-player-mini-system.aspx?VariantHid=26920&gclid=Cj0KEQiA7tCjBRDulMny5rfM0dkBEiQA7fcshfgfg33t6Kb21EOlpclU70mEL5IGsidAFn8JydPgxg4aAh618P8HAQ

Then thought better of it and spent twice as much on a mic instead (which made me very happy).

It's an SA-9500. It has been recapped and an upgraded power board and some other electronic trickery that I know fuck all about.

It is rigged up to some rare proac 3 speakers. Classic hi fi sound. The speakers are quite base heavy and lack a bit of mid clarity. With the tannoys it is the other way around. It really is a fantastic amp.

You are welcome to come around for a smoke and a listen if you fancy it.
[\creep]

I will have a word with the woman in question and let you know, may pop round to have a gander if that's good for you..