Breakes on . . . ?

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chebby said:
CJSF said:
Another thought, compared with the 'good old days'...

CJSF said:
...those golden analogue days of yester year.

I don't 'get' the nostalgia. I have been interested in hi-fi and buying hi-fi for over 30 years - on and off - and I am not aware of any 'Golden Age'.

There wasn't a 'Golden Age', but I think it's more of the magic of owning a hi-fi at such tender ages. We all have these urges every now and again.
 

Soopafly49

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CJSF said:
Another thought, compared with the 'good old days', its not sprising modern hifi hobbyists spend a lot of time changing what are majour and expensive items in their system.

We used to buy our system, upgrade as and when, however inbetween we 'adjusted' the TT to fit the new, improved? capability of the system . . . modern digital hifi has little or no room for adjustment, the only option is throw money at it???

I know I'm a tweaker, born of my geans and those golden analogue days of yester year. I've driven Chebby mad with my tweaking threads. Now I've reached a platough, I look back and enjoy, spend time on other things that need my attention, but the tweaking goes on.

There was a thread a few weeks ago asking about Russ Andrews wooden cones. There have been a few threads talking about the claimed atributes of verious wood isolation systems? A bit geeky I thought, but the seed was sown, I made a set of three from mahogany offcuts, they sat in a draw for a month or so, cos I was busy with other non hifi things. I tried them on Friday, suporting the isolation board under my TT . . . Considering they cost me nothing, cobbled together from the 'usefull one day box', the improvement was worth the effort. Yes, better not just different, more subtle detail in the background and slight firming up of the lower frequancies.

They replaced metal cones, that I had also made, a fancy comercial set would set you back £50! Russ's Oak cones are a lot cheaper, mine cost £0 . . . + an hours fetlling.

Another economic idea I might try, one day . . . Many years ago, I did an experiment using house wiring mains cable. Its all a buit vague in the mind, but I seem to remember 30amp solid core copper was a winner? Certainly dont cost £50pm!!! A bit off the wall, it was put forward first by one of the hifi mags of the time, cant remember which one.

Ah well, the amp has been cooking for the past hour, time to relax spinning some vinyl :grin:

CJSF
Interesting thread by the way. I Think that different people will have different defintions of better or different. The sublte detail in the background might be better to you but just different to someone else.

Going back to something that was said earlier in the thread about there not being any gold at the end of the rainbow. How would one know having not been there. What a pot of gold to you is could be someone else's silver etc. Besides isn't the journey there what makes life exciting?
 

CJSF

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plastic penguin said:
chebby said:
CJSF said:
Another thought, compared with the 'good old days'...

CJSF said:
...those golden analogue days of yester year.

I don't 'get' the nostalgia. I have been interested in hi-fi and buying hi-fi for over 30 years - on and off - and I am not aware of any 'Golden Age'.

There wasn't a 'Golden Age', but I think it's more of the magic of owning a hi-fi at such tender ages. We all have these urges every now and again.

It was a golden age for me Chebby, first I learned a lot and made some money from hifi. Second it was the age of hifi awarnes, some good some, not so good as has been touched on in other threads. The 'not so good' was fun for those of use who did the ducking and diving, refusing to tow the 'party line'? . . . still the case for me, my views are often not the norm . . . I also had to mature in that time, a tough school, even tougher in the next couple of decades . . . thats another story.

Soopafly, I see your point on the detail, if I get extra with no loss of the whole, that is 'better' in my book. If I had traded extra detail for say, less bass, that is different, not better, to me . . . Then one moves on to as has been sugested 'preferances'.

Opens a whole new can of wormes . . . CJSF
 

Helmut80

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I'm just not a tweaker by nature. I freely admit though that every couple of years I am considering box-swapping not only because I have not reached my 'sensible/realistic' limit yet, but also because I just like different shiny boxes (thank god for DACs), and there is just so much out there.
 

steve_1979

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I have no urge to tweek or change anything. I'm totally happy with the way my system sounds and just enjoy listening to the music without any thought for the equipment playing it. Occasionally I tweek the sound using a graphic equilizer or change the subwoofer settings.

If I had more money to spend I'd upgrade to the ADM9's or Opal Event's which sound very similar to my current system but with a bit more detail and slightly better controlled bass. If I won the lottery I'd probably get either the ADM40's or some £10K ATC active floorstanders which also sound very similar to my current system but with bit more detail and slightly better controlled bass.
 

CJSF

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steve_1979 said:
I have no urge to tweek or change anything. I'm totally happy with the way my system sounds and just enjoy listening to the music without any thought for the equipment playing it. Occasionally I tweek the sound using a graphic equilizer or change the subwoofer settings.

If I had more money to spend I'd upgrade to the ADM9's or Opal Event's which sound very similar to my current system but with a bit more detail and slightly better controlled bass. If I won the lottery I'd probably get either the ADM40's or some £10K ATC active floorstanders which also sound very similar to my current system but with bit more detail and slightly better controlled bass.

Thats how this thread started . . . 'sit back and enjoy your music' . . . satisfying word is 'satisfied' :cheers:

CJSF
 

SteveR750

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Whilst packing for the house move and making rash impulse purchases I have been pondering on this, especialy after yesterday evening listening to a live orchestra playing, and realising hi fi is nothing, not remotely close to the real thing, so it's not worth chasing that ideal perhaps. IF that's the conclusion, then it makes sense to find a system that you like the sound of, accurate or not, and in that respect, you don't need to spend that much money, I have this feeling dep down that I have spent too much, it makes no sense no matter how much I love music then it surely isn't justified spending this much, not when listeining to the real thing is much cheaper! I have been almost willing the M2 to be "perfect" for me, as I so much want it for lots of reasons, most of them irrational, but nonetheless important. It seems its not perfect as it is today, and even if you could numerically prove it to be "excellent" I would still not be satisfied because I keep getting drawn to the sound not the music.

If nothing else, I have learned it is very difficult to get it just right, and the more you spend the more you expect to it to be so; indeed there really was nothing much wrong with my NAD 352/541 B&W 602 S3 system, in fact I probably enjoyed it more!
 
A

Anonymous

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steve_1979 said:
I have no urge to tweek or change anything. I'm totally happy with the way my system sounds and just enjoy listening to the music without any thought for the equipment playing it. Occasionally I tweek the sound using a graphic equilizer or change the subwoofer settings.

If I had more money to spend I'd upgrade to the ADM9's or Opal Event's which sound very similar to my current system but with a bit more detail and slightly better controlled bass. If I won the lottery I'd probably get either the ADM40's or some £10K ATC active floorstanders which also sound very similar to my current system but with bit more detail and slightly better controlled bass.
That's why there is temptaion in the world. :)
 

chebby

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SteveR750 said:
...after yesterday evening listening to a live orchestra playing, and realising hi fi is nothing, not remotely close to the real thing, so it's not worth chasing that ideal perhaps.

Maybe not with amp and speakers. You could get a lot closer with some seriouly good headphones and headphone amp though.
 

SteveR750

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chebby said:
SteveR750 said:
...after yesterday evening listening to a live orchestra playing, and realising hi fi is nothing, not remotely close to the real thing, so it's not worth chasing that ideal perhaps.

Maybe not with amp and speakers. You could get a lot closer with some seriouly good headphones and headphone amp though.

Possibly, but 'phones miss one vital ingedient - you can't feel the sound.
 

Frank Harvey

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SteveR750 said:
...after yesterday evening listening to a live orchestra playing, and realising hi fi is nothing, not remotely close to the real thing, so it's not worth chasing that ideal perhaps.

You may not be able to recreate the real thing, but you can get closer to what's on the disc... :)
 

SteveR750

Well-known member
FrankHarveyHiFi said:
SteveR750 said:
...after yesterday evening listening to a live orchestra playing, and realising hi fi is nothing, not remotely close to the real thing, so it's not worth chasing that ideal perhaps.

You may not be able to recreate the real thing, but you can get closer to what's on the disc... :)

I did use the word perhaps deliberately ;)

I don't want to be responsible for contributing in any way for a collapse in sales of high end audio ;)
 
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the record spot

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Sabby said:
Quite substantial improvements can be made without breaking the bank. There are hundreds of different speaker cables and interconnects out there and you could literally spend the rest of your life just trying different cables. OK that's a bit extreme, but the possibilities are there for experimentation.

It would of course also serve to be the very definition of a life wasted!
 

Frank Harvey

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SteveR750 said:
I don't want to be responsible for contributing in any way for a collapse in sales of high end audio ;)

:)

While AV has started flagging, 2-channel is on the up, and it's the mid to higher end that's more stable at the moment. I think you're safe Steve :)
 

SteveR750

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FrankHarveyHiFi said:
SteveR750 said:
I don't want to be responsible for contributing in any way for a collapse in sales of high end audio ;)

:)

While AV has started flagging, 2-channel is on the up, and it's the mid to higher end that's more stable at the moment. I think you're safe Steve :)

Phew! My attempts to play my part in paying our way out of recession seem to be working! Oh, except I bought used :shifty:
 

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