Stevethecoffee

Most recent activity

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 5 days, 11 hours

  

  Bargain! Yep, definitely worth the risk at that price.

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 5 days, 12 hours

  

  I’ve got some LS-4a they’re not that great, I wouldn’t go for those - contrary to my previous advice, soz.

  Edit - Just because they sound a bit meh, nothing bad but nothing special either. Most vintage boxes will have something outstanding about them, usually warmth or exceptional vocal clarity or pleasantly overblown bass that you don’t get in modern speakers but the LS4As don’t really have any of that.

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 6 days, 11 hours

  

  They look great and probably won’t be trouble as long as the foam surrounds for the drivers aren’t on their way out.

  The other thing to consider is the components in the crossover going out of spec but if they sound good they sound good. I would only get them looked at if there was obvious distortion or if one of the drivers stopped working.

  You’re much more likely to get a relaxing listen out of something like that than a modern speaker if that’s what your preference is.

  I had some vintage Rogers LS7Ts which were very big, fat and warm. Something about the Rogers Bextrene drivers’ composition meant that the surrounds were not prone to perishing so maybe look at that brand.

• Starting/running a business

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 6 days, 18 hours

  

  I read your other thread, sounds similar to my story, hopefully there’s stuff in it that could be useful.

  I went straight to bricks and mortar. It’s tempting to want to get started the cheapest possible route but:

  Mail order from home: How are you going to get known about and persuade people to use you vs all the much better resourced and experienced competitors?

  Going mobile with a trailer or something: Mostly impulsive one hit wonder sales. No repeat custom. Shitty working conditions

  Cheapest possible premises in poor location or trading estate: Nobody’s coming, same problems as going direct to online.

  Sounds to me like you’re doing this because you like it and want to make a living doing something you enjoy, which is the route to long term success as opposed to knowing about business primarily then choosing a product that fits your goals. In which case it’s you that’s the product so you need to make yourself as visible as possible.

  Opening a proper shop in a good footfall area means you will be able to impress on your customers your enthusiasm and expertise which generates word of mouth, repeat custom, loyalty and growth. It is also very rewarding and motivating for you. Aim to become a local institution. It takes investment to begin but start small, reinvest your profits, figure out a way to subsidise losses for a year. I managed it at age 37 with £20k life savings from me and my wife. No rich daddy money. Losses were filled by doing freelance coffee work while a staff member operated the shop 3 days a week.

  Make sure you continuously figure out how to keep your enthusiasm and energy in the culture of the business without you having to constantly be there or you’ll burn out in 2 years. Just rest pussycat. Hiring the right people, paying them well and being nice to them is the key to putting your trotters up in Nice in 5 years time.

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 1 week, 1 day

  

  How much would it cost to conduct a Need for Speed career on a coin-op machine I wonder. And what would that look like? Do they give you some tickets when you retire?

• Coffee Appreciation

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 1 week, 2 days

  

  https://www.coffeehit.co.uk/products/luminaire-espresso-shot-timer?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=18113226405&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsOq6BhDuARIsAGQ4-zgVJYZT7tJgr9IVOS-QG-fw-XdLXO8IvHZTDJo862Onp9n6xUong1kaAkFwEALw_wcB

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 1 week, 4 days

  

  Went quiet then started smoking. Like me in my teens.

  I guess that transformer shorted out, hopefully in isolation and not because of a fault upstream. I do feel confident that it was nothing I did wrong but that doesn’t make me feel much better when it’s someone else’s very expensive kit.

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 2 weeks, 2 days

  

  Watch some Techmoan videos of him fixing tape mechanisms, that should give you an idea. Can’t see it’s worth paying someone to mend it.

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 2 weeks, 2 days

  

  Yeah that’s pretty much how I imagined it as I considered whether I should put it out in the garden while it’s pissing down.

• Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

  in Miscellaneous and Meaningless • 2 weeks, 2 days

  

  Which was all great until it all went quiet.
  And then the smoke started piling out of it and was so persistent I thought it was on fire.
  And then I got the lid off and this expensive looking transformer doesn’t look very well.
  And now I’ve got a difficult conversation with the owner tomorrow when I was hoping just to have a nice relaxing day listening to digital music.