Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

its all about the front end .....

I don't know what this means

Front end = source = cd player, record player, tuner, squeezebox, laptop or whatever
Then you have amplification
Then speakers

Some contend that if you get the front end right everything else will fall into place. I think all three play a part. If I had to put the factors in order I'd say:

The music

Source
Speakers and listening room (I view as a coupled system)
Amp
Support (i.e. rack - dealing with vibrations)
.
.
.

Umm
Perfect AC sine waveform
Alignment of the planets
Cables and interconnects

oh yeah - source. yep - cheers

Front end = source = cd player, record player, tuner, squeezebox, laptop or whatever
Then you have amplification
Then speakers

When I was first interested in hifi, I think I did what a lot of people naturaly do and think its all about the speakers, but over the years, I think the above order is bang on, within limits of reasonablness.

The proof is in putting a pair of relativly down to earth speakers (lets say some £200 bookshelf jobbies from the likes of Monitor Audio or B&W) on the end of a top end system (lets say a NAIM CDX and 52/250).

It never ceases to amaze me what the budget speakers can do, they just keep getting better as you improve the kit up stream.

The key is in finding a nice balance, and where posible getting an extended demo in your own home. Good hifi dealers will lend you kit to try before you commit, but in the consumer age of internet shopping, ebay and bargin hunting this is not always possible.

One thing I would say is that buying decent second hand british hifi kit can be quite risk free, as you can buy somthing, try it out and if you are not in love with it, move it on for more or less what you paid for it.

Oh, and dont forget to try some of the Peter Belt gear, it makes all the difference....

http://www.pwbelectronics.co.uk/product/odl/One_Drop_Liquid.html

^ voodoo

^^ don't forget your Shakti Stones.... http://www.shakti-innovations.com/audiovideo.htm

Both complete WTF moments for me.....

you and any right thinking human being

unicorn hair is also supposed to make turntables sound better when used instead of copper silver and gold in cabling

Possibly not exactly the right thread, but I'm after some sort of ipod doc for my kitchen.

Dream wish list:

• DAB raido as well as Ipod dock
  
• decent sound (doesn't need to go that loud)
  
• Neat
  
• Wipable rather than a big material cover on the front
  
• c.£100
  
  
  

Also ages ago I fell in love with Brionvega stuff (mainly the Radiofonografo) and saw that they did a modern version of their classic box raido http://www.radiocubo.it/

But I can't find them anywhere any idea if they were made?

Any idea?

Cheers.

Tivoli? Some voodoo around their promotion, but in store they sound alright.

I've recently moved from mainly using cd's to using a couple of Logitech Squeezeboxes and I just wish I'd done this years ago! I've pretty much retired my CD player and all my listening is now via the Squeezebox and a Nexus 7 with Squeeze Commander.

Possibly not exactly the right thread, but I'm after some sort of ipod doc for my kitchen.

Dream wish list:

• DAB raido as well as Ipod dock
  
• decent sound (doesn't need to go that loud)
  
• Neat
  
• Wipable rather than a big material cover on the front
  
• c. £100
  
  
  

Looks like you just missed that super Onkyo deal at Amazon. It could pop up again.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/onkyo-cs-245dab-cd-hi-fi-mini-system-white-99-95-delivered-available-1-2-months-1427168

I've recently moved from mainly using cd's to using a couple of Logitech Squeezeboxes and I just wish I'd done this years ago! I've pretty much retired my CD player and all my listening is now via the Squeezebox and a Nexus 7 with Squeeze Commander.

dibs your old cd';s if they are any good and at a decent price

Cheers for the suggestion.

In the end I went with the Jawbone Jambox Portable Wireless Speaker.

The cnet reviews seemed good and the more I thought about it my iphone already has everything I need in terms of DAB. Ultimately it was the size that did it.

I've got several cardboard boxes of cds and dvds in my loft.
I think I might have to go on a flac ripping / handbrake encoding spree and then just ebay the lot. I might put them up here if there is any interest.

I love my jambox, portability is great. and everyone loves the sexy voice - "i'm activated, ready for action"

I've got several cardboard boxes of cds and dvds in my loft.
I think I might have to go on a flac ripping / handbrake encoding spree and then just ebay the lot. I might put them up here if there is any interest.

What kind of stuff you into?

Is space at such a premium?
I still have all of my LPs and discs; don't quite trust the cloud or my computer or my back-ups.

this ^
why would you ever get rid of a music collection in whatever format

*still kicking myself for accidentally throwing away over 200 C90 casettes full of music from my youth

^ and ^^

• although my C90 collection was taken from my LP collection in order to play them on what passed for a car 'stereo'
  
  

If computer based systems recommend backups does this mean they are expected to fail at some point?

Everything is expected to fail at some point

If computer based systems recommend backups does this mean they are expected to fail at some point?

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_time_between_failures[/ame]

In engineering, there's always a tradeoff between performace, reliability and the maintenance overload.

IT systems tend to be designed for minimal physical maintenance and concentrate instead on workarounds to minimise the impact of failures.

why would you ever get rid of a music collection in whatever format

I got rid of most of my CDs over the last ten years, if I ever miss one I just download it, makes it kinda fun.

And I have to admit to the temptation of selling records every time I move house. Last time I just decided that I need to move less often.

IT systems tend to be designed for minimal physical maintenance and concentrate instead on workarounds to minimise the impact of failures.

(Tries not to think about how many hard drives have been replaced, goes back to lubricating main bearing on 25 year old turntable)