scratch-and-sniff "what hi-fi have you got" thread.

Happy New Ear Bassnation

Euch

I've got an arcam amp & mission speakers which I've had for years - they've been in my studio for a while & I've mixed a load of stuff on them. But now I've got some PMCs for the studio, so they can go back to being hifi.

I had a NAD 533 turntable which I sold to buy my decks (technics). Might get another one now, they are great (piss all over 1210s). I used my computer for CDs up til now (with a decent pro soundcard) but might invest in a standalone player from here on.

Two personal rules of thumb:

If your hifi costs more than the aggregate replacement value of your music collection, you're a nerd. On the other hand, most folk here have invested big money in music & it makes sense to get the most out of it. Aim for a hifi that between a third & a half the value of your music.

And... if you're spending big-ish money on a system (say £800+) it makes sense to have a look at the room acoustics. Pros do this as a matter of course but its often neglected in consumer hifi circles. You dont need to be putting in floating floors: just a few acoustic panels can makes an amazing difference if they are sensibly placed.

Gabba Flamenco Crossover said:

If your hifi costs more than the aggregate replacement value of your music collection, you're a nerd. On the other hand, most folk here have invested big money in music & it makes sense to get the most out of it. Aim for a hifi that between a third & a half the value of your music.

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If I had that kind of money, I'd feel a bit irresponsible not using it for a downpayment on a house.

re: audiophiles vs. music lovers...

blissblogger links to a Stylus piece about dynamic range compression etc., and mentions, in passing:

* an aside to one of Nick's asides: i'm nowhere near him in terms of audiophilia, but it has amazed over the years how many rock critics have really lousy stereos. it's like being a film reviewer and forgetting to wear your glasses before heading out to the screening.

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On the other hand, see this post at the original soundtrack, where Geeta says:

I never had any patience for audiophiles, but I am simultaneously fascinated by them. I don't have a good system; I have a cheap and serviceable one--a Denon tape deck I picked up for 30 bucks, an old Onkyo receiver, and a cheap Technics belt-drive turntable and CD player, fed into a pair of speakers that closely approximate wet paper towels. I generally listen to music through a pair of reasonable headphones that I bought five years ago (Grado SR-80s, designed right here in Brooklyn) that cost me something like $75 and still work even after having had rum spilled on them (they actually soaked overnight in the rum, and one of the foam ear-snugglers got stiff and fell off, but the headphones still work!) When I want to hear music the way I want to experience it, I go to venues to listen to DJs spin records.

Film critics don't have glittering home cinema systems and projection booths in their homes; can we really expect broke music critics to have great systems in theirs?

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Obviously, people posting here aren't against having a decent sound system at home... but it's interesting to see how blissblogger's and TOS's responses differ, no?

Marantz PM4200 amp (I think this is an "anglified" Marantz)
Sony MXD-D40 CD/MD (with high-speed copying from CD to MD)
Denon TU-580RD Tuner
Wharfedale Diamond 8 Speakers with proper cables
Optonica RP-3500 record player with a Rega pickup

Every item simply bought when I could afford it, on recommendations from
What HiFi. In total a grands worth or so.

Nothing special, but good enough, apart from the record player that
is probably bordering on proper vintage hifi.
It's a 16 kg wonder of Japanese engineering (chassis is crushed stone),
costing me 150 quid some 28 years old and still going strong.

half new best i could afford, half junk shop (and better)

Project turntable - 6 years old, ortofon cartridge, could be better
Garrard turntable - '60s marvel, but needs some work
Cambridge CD player - never use it anymore
Sansui Amp - early 70s absolutely fabulous 20 quid in a market
Goodman speakers - charity shop again 15 quid
Also a pair of rigonda speakers from russia with a blown woofer but fab teak cabinets

Yeah, I would like to know what system Reynolds uses. And some film critics do have good surround systems. If Geeta has Grado phones, though, that's a fantastic system in itself. Grado stuff ROCKS.

I have two hi-fis and a minisystem.

The minisystem is a Denon DM31 with SCM101 speakers. It lives in my bedroom, and mainly, sadly, gets used for the radio.

The main hi-fi has it's own room, with my music and DVD collections, my TV, my Xbox, my winerack, etcetera. It's a NAD CD521Bee player, Cambridge Audio Azur 640A V2 amp, Pro-Ject Debut turntable, NAD phono amp, Tannoy R1 speakers, on an Atacama rack and Target speaker stands. Cables are Qnect 4s from the NAD and Qnect 2s from the phono amp. Speaker cable is Cord Company Silver Biwire. I run my shitty Toshiba DVD player through it too.

The other hi-fi is in my bedroom and is my, oh sweet fucking geek, "headphone rig". It's an old Marantz CD67MKII player, a Beresford TC7510 DAC (the analogue outs on the Marantz are faulty, so this takes a digital output from it) and a Meier Audio Corda Headfive amp, with either Alessandro MS-1 or Sennheiser HD595 headphones depending how saucy I'm feeling. Qnect 2 cables again, and an optical toslink that came with the Beresford. I've got a big-ass Grado extension cable that's 4 metres long so I can go and wig-out on the landing with headphones on.

a huge seventies chrome amp.

some huge tannoy standing up speakers.

a seventies chrome tuner.

all sounds lovely and my best mate lives downstairs so I can turn the bass right up.

The £15 headphones hasn't got the world's most pleasant sound, but anything costlier would be economic suicide since I accidently stamp a pair to pieces every six months or so (as is evident from the picture, the current pair is already on its' last legs). The amplifier I brought with me when I moved from parents' house isn't the fancier sort, but I reckon it sounds just fine; the speakers I use with it have the symbol "π" [pi] on them, I have no idea if they match the amp. I rarely use the Philips cd-player nowadays, but it's a tremendously robust player which plays all cds but the most scratched ones.

Since I have a lot of elderly neighbours I mostly listen to music through my headphones, but I definitely get more of a rush out of listening to it through speakers; living on top of a nightclub for a time (I moved last February) and thus being able to crank up the volume a great deal decidedly affected my musical preferences: A lot of bass-heavy music which sounded fabulous then sounds severely lacking now, when played at whispering volume.

I have a friend, a self-appointed "music lover," who listens to his beloved music (=128kbps mp3s) through his laptop's built-in speakers. That's just madness to me. Still, perhaps audiophiles view my setup with equal distaste.