Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

What are people's opinion of power supply and power cable upgrades?

The Law of Diminishing Returns comes to mind...

http://www.chord.co.uk/product/chord-sarum-super-aray-power-cable/

Total bullshit.

God's way of telling you 'you have too much money'

I use a power conditioner and I do think there's a difference. Not convinced about changing the kettle lead though.

One of these:

http://www.whathifi.com/tacima/cs929/review

Not exactly hi-fi related but as an indicator that power connections can make a difference:

I have a laptop with two monitors plugged in to it, one through VGA, one through HDMI. The VGA monitor flickers badly enough for it to be unusable for any length of time. The only way I have found to solve this is to unplug the laptop from the mains at which point the flickering stops straightaway.

Earth loop?

Sounds like it. Also a problem with some audio setups but not caused/solved by quality of power lead (unless faulty).

I assume so, unfortunately it's beyond the wit of my firm's IT department to sort out. But yes, agreed it's not the quality of the mains lead.

Before this goes to the bay I thought someone here might be interested? Been using this Michell Focus One for a couple of years but now upgrading so this has to go. Lin basic LV V arm and Ortofon CMS 20e cartridge. Sounds nice works as it should. Would like to get back the SOLD I paid. Can send more pics if there is interest.

1 Attachment

I'm looking for a cheap amplifier as my dads sentimental AKAI AM-2250 appears to be too fragile to continue working without the need for constant repair.

Does anyone have anything that they'd be willing to sell like this

that could be a temporary substitute

So, I think this is the most appropriate place for this, My 13 year old Marantz SR5400 AV receiver has decided to go a bit off the rails. Last night I was using it, at this point the powered sub-woofer was turned off, the pre-out was all connected up. I decided to turn it on and after a couple of seconds the Marantz put itself into standby, tried to turn it back on and same, standby, turned off SW, Standby, disconnected everything at the back of the amp, Standby. A little bit upset by this, at the moment there is no way I can justify replacing it with a brand spanking new amp, a second hand amp doesn't fill me with joy either as I would worry the same would happen again so I'm going down the repair route, having never had anything repaired or serviced professionally before I was wondering if anyone had any experience and how economically viable it all is? Any info greatly received.

I have used a company called AVR Sound Systems, who were recommended by London Sound however the repair cost me much more than the amp was worth, I could have picked up a fully working second hand one for 25% of the price. However the amp is sentimental to me and important to be working (probably the reason I'm not wealth or a businessman).

Hope this is of some help

Oh and I forgot to say, you can email both and they are likely to give you a guide as to how much a repair will cost, AVR Sound Systems comes with a 12month warranty on all work, essentially resetting your amp to new

Cheers, I'm based in Scotland so would be couriering it down but not too fussed about that, have had a quote for around £100 - £130 for the repair but only 3 mths warranty. I know what you mean about sentimental value, I've had this for over 10 years, would feel like such a waste throwing it away, will fire off a couple of emails.
Bern

Could be a power cap, they are often the culprits. If you open it up and find the power supply board you may find a deformed or leaking cap on there. The parts usually cost less than a tenner and it's a few hours work if you take your time, the tools could cost less than £30 and you can start to become self sufficient over the years.

new turntable.

Mono, right? :)

Speakers look nice. Cura have a good rep; I've never heard them though.

What is the tt?

What are the things under the amp?

Look sexeh

TT is a michell focus one I believe? Very nice.

it's the tt @pharoahsanders was selling ^^^up there

the box on the left is a valve phono stage and a Beresford dac on the right.

the curas are amazing and prob the bargain of the rig

Notbposted in this thread before - I have a Cambridge Audio D-100s CD player, surplus to requirements of its of any interest to anyone. It's boxed and well looked after. Drop me a PM if there's any interest.

Cheers for the advice, I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on this, not confident enough to take it apart and break out the multi meter, let alone a soldering iron. I'm dropping it off to a chap tonight to get it looked at, apparently he does a lot of the repair and warranty work for a well regarded hifi shop up in Aberdeen, all other options would have required me to post it off and I don't feel comfortable doing that either!