Hi Fi

[ian parkes]

Its time for my lovely old seperates system to go , so i take a look on the web for whats about .

got to sound ok and be compact and have Dab radio oh and i like the idea of plugging in an mp3 with a load of music on it , that would stop my daughter giving my cd collection heavy use

how confusing the choice is , and i realize i don't even know the difference between an Ipod and an MP3 .

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by ian parkes

Its time for my lovely old seperates system to go , so i take a look on the web for whats about .

got to sound ok and be compact and have Dab radio oh and i like the idea of plugging in an mp3 with a load of music on it , that would stop my daughter giving my cd collection heavy use

how confusing the choice is , and i realize i don't even know the difference between an Ipod and an MP3 .

I can't see the worth in paying the extra for an Ipod unless you want to watch video on one.
Plugging in an MP3 player is easy-just the headphone jack into the amp will do it. It's really cheap (sub 30 quid) now to get an mp3 player that takes a big SD card too. You could do that easily on your separates and add a DAB radio too. All this 'compact' stuff is crap. A decent system needs a fair bit of size to accomodate decent size caps and a sodding great transformer along with big heatsinks.

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by ian parkes

Its time for my lovely old seperates system to go , so i take a look on the web for whats about .

got to sound ok and be compact and have Dab radio oh and i like the idea of plugging in an mp3 with a load of music on it , that would stop my daughter giving my cd collection heavy use

how confusing the choice is , and i realize i don't even know the difference between an Ipod and an MP3 .

Flogged mine on fleabay and paid for most of their replacements which were a big 'do everything ' AV amp Yamaha Rx v 2700, and screen The AV amp will play all your mp3's and act as a media centre if you want, and it drives your screen. You can keep your speakers if you want but I sold them too and bought a matched Dolby Monitor Audio 7.1 set with feeds into other rooms . Burned all my CD's onto a media centre, so dont need a cd player either and got rid of all my cd racks.. mind how you go tho, you need a media policy that looks after all that stored content, put the CD's in the garage yes .. but not in the bin.

You can get some systems like sonos that store all your media in one place and you can view or listen to the content in any room you have a player connected or a device to watch it

What with certain standards being adopted these days, seperates are for true audiophiles, there is still a place for them , but sadly,.. most of us want convienience first. I used to be decerning that way ,.. but now I can take my 4500 song collection with me wherever I go in my top pocket, even on the boat

[ian parkes]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Flogged mine on fleabay and paid for most of their replacements which were a big 'do everything ' AV amp Yamaha Rx v 2700, and screen The AV amp will play all your mp3's and act as a media centre if you want, and it drives your screen. You can keep your speakers if you want but I sold them too and bought a matched Dolby Monitor Audio 7.1 set with feeds into other rooms . Burned all my CD's onto a media centre, so dont need a cd player either and got rid of all my cd racks.. mind how you go tho, you need a media policy that looks after all that stored content, put the CD's in the garage yes .. but not in the bin.

You can get some systems like sonos that store all your media in one place and you can view or listen to the content in any room you have a player connected or a device to watch it

What with certain standards being adopted these days, seperates are for true audiophiles, there is still a place for them , but sadly,.. most of us want convienience first. I used to be decerning that way ,.. but now I can take my 4500 song collection with me wherever I go in my top pocket, even on the boat

Sounds great mate , i used to be able to talk HI FI a bit 20 years ago when a fibre optic link from the cd was state of the art, then i got the system i wanted , or could afford,and forgot about the tech stuff . You had just as well be talkin another language to me now .

Mat i think compact is the real thing I need , her indoors doesn't really care for a 3 foot high hi fi and speakers like skips stood on bricks in the newly decorated living room plus its not as healthy as it was since a 3 yr old tried to feed it 2 cd's at once

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by Nos4r2

All this 'compact' stuff is crap. A decent system needs a fair bit of size to accomodate decent size caps and a sodding great transformer along with big heatsinks.

I agree, and it lasts longer. I still have most of the hi-fi kit I bought when I was at university fifteen years ago, the CD player is a Marantz I bought when I was at sixth form ... may be old tech now but it won the WHF? Best CD Player award the year it was launched, I think its 19 years old now and still sounds great to me

Change the wife and banish the child, a man needs a decent hi-fi

[Stoo]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

Change the wife and banish the child, a man needs a decent hi-fi

LOL... When the first Mrs. Stoo gave me the toss, I left with my RIB, my ginormous stereo, 800 CDs, a bunch of books, and one old leather chair. Oddly, I've never missed any of the other crap!

[codprawn]

I don't think you will be very pleased with DAB radio after having a decent HiFi system - the quality is crap. Bitrates are poor as too many broadcasters want a piece of the action.

[doggypaddle]

Dont be too hasty to get rid of your old separates gear for something compact. Nos is spot on, an amplifier only sounds as good as its power supply, lightweight means switchmode supply (lots of rf noise)and/or class d amplification.
digital amps and compressed sources have come a long way in the last few years, but at the end of the day with a digital signal its only a clone of the original, and will never be precisley the same. i wouldnt want to go below CD sampling rates for a serious system and still prefer analogue.
All i will say is that a lot of modern systems i have listned to sound great in the shop, when you listen for an extended period of time you realise they are tiring to listen to, and when it comes to speakers bigger is usually better, after all a speaker is an air pump, the bigger it is the more air it can move and the more the neighbours complain
i currently use all home made valve gear and a rega turntable, wouldnt go digital for all the tea in china.(except for the cd player)

[Andy Moore]

Teac Ref300DAB Best Buy, Which?

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/cl/34/A...b&ref=redirect

[ian parkes]

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

Teac Ref300DAB Best Buy, Which?

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/cl/34/A...b&ref=redirect

That looks good Andy , can't believe the price differences there , Home cinematv have it for £230 ish and all the rest are over £440 . That can't be correct surely


Codders i have a Dab radio in my workshop , its ok sound is good etc but i wouldn't get all exited about DAB . The reason for Dab is that I thought all radio was going to DAB soon and normal radio's were not going to work any more . Do I have that wrong . My radio lives on radio 2 mostly exept for a bit of local radio if i want local news and surf reports etc .

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by doggypaddle

i currently use all home made valve gear and a rega turntable, wouldnt go digital for all the tea in china

You are really tempting me to go and make a room for myself in the house again doggy I've saved my vinyl too

[codprawn]

Vinyl still rules - and turntables like the Linn Sondek and Roksans are still in production - if you have a spare £2,000 or more.

Valve amps are awesome - more around now than ever - prices going from £600 to £30,000 plus.

Why people think digital is everything is beyond me - sound is generated in an analogue form anyway.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by ian parkes

Codders i have a Dab radio in my workshop , its ok sound is good etc but i wouldn't get all exited about DAB . The reason for Dab is that I thought all radio was going to DAB soon and normal radio's were not going to work any more . Do I have that wrong . My radio lives on radio 2 mostly exept for a bit of local radio if i want local news and surf reports etc .

Best place for one!!!

Nobody really knows when or if analogue radio will be shut down - certainly not before 2020 and probably never.

think of all the very annoyed car drivers - not many have DAB yet!!!

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Vinyl still rules - and turntables like the Linn Sondek and Roksans are still in production - .

Linn products are next door to us here in Glasgow, actually Eaglesham (where rodolf Hess once landed) Mein gotten ze himmel

... cue John Kennet

Actually I never liked their gear much

[ian parkes]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Best place for one!!!

Nobody really knows when or if analogue radio will be shut down - certainly not before 2020 and probably never.

think of all the very annoyed car drivers - not many have DAB yet!!!

Oh thought it was all going at the same time as the TV . In that case there are a lot of better buys without DAB radio .

As for turntables i have a really good one on my old system , but not much Vynyl only used it a handfull of times in 18 yrs . I never could see the atraction at all after Cd arrived .Snap crackle pop

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Linn products are next door to us here in Glasgow, actually Eaglesham (where rodolf Hess once landed) Mein gotten ze himmel

... cue John Kennet

Actually I never liked their gear much

It is great stuff but not as attractive and way out as some.

[Gerry]

I've had a TEAC CRH255 system for a couple of years. It's not my main system (still have separates for that) but I'm very, very pleased with it. It's compact and I use it with some Tannoy bookshelf speakers. It plays CD's (inc. MP3/WMA) and has an FM and DAB tuner. Also has a USB socket on the front for playback, but you can also "record" to it from other sources. I have most of my albums encoded to WMA (high bit rate) and just play them off a USB memory stick, which is really convenient and saves carting CDs around between systems.

What's also useful is that it has 3 auxiliary inputs, 2 on the back and a 3.5mm jack on the front (e.g. for MP3 player audio input). I've used it to monitor the output from a Korg sound module.

OK, it's not a purist's Hi-Fi, but for a compact, convenient system it's pretty good. I suspect that the sound quality of my system is limited by the speakers rather than the system itself. It's also heavy and has a proper metal case, which to me is a good sign.

Dunno if they still sell it - maybe there's an updated version.

Gerry

[doggypaddle]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

You are really tempting me to go and make a room for myself in the house again doggy I've saved my vinyl too

8 KT88's and a dozen 6sn7 valves all running in class A make a good heater in the winter too..........bit too much in summer though

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by doggypaddle

8 KT88's and a dozen 6sn7 valves all running in class A make a good heater in the winter too..........bit too much in summer though

Nice,.. warm in all senses of the word sounds a bit of a Quad set up only with extra KT88's

Here is a pic I found of one of a pair of my fave speakers, that I had to let go years back Celestion 662s 2x12's with one an ABR. Space was the problem plus I kept blowing mids , but oh baby, the sound

[RichardB]

Originally Posted by ian parkes

Oh thought it was all going at the same time as the TV . In that case there are a lot of better buys without DAB radio .

As for turntables i have a really good one on my old system , but not much Vynyl only used it a handfull of times in 18 yrs . I never could see the atraction at all after Cd arrived .Snap crackle pop

Sonos has already been mentioned for MP3s. You may also want to look at the Squeezebox range. New Squeezebox Boom for all in one or Duet for a discrete handset based system. I've got one of the Squeezebox Classic. Been using it for some years and ebayed an expensive cdplayer as I'd not used in two years. We did a blind listen and no one could tell the difference between the old (but good) cd and the Squeezebox. They have internet radio rather than DAB (Internet radio more likely to be the downfall of DAB but quality is even poorer).

I'm afraid for me that pure audiophile quality has been sacrificed a little for convenience. We have access in most rooms in the house to 5000+ tracks (plus DAB and internet radio) with a few scrolls through album covers. Vinyl may have good old fashioned class but the new technologies provide good quality, convenience and near invisibility of kit.

www.slimdevices.com