Trawling through these forums you might get the impression that the only hifi equipment worth recommending is a budget Marantz/Yamaha system at one end of the scale or at the other, or hair shirt acrylic boxes with ginormous second hand vintage speakers bought off eBay coupled to a turntable with as much again spent on cartridges, anti-static gear and cleaning products. Whatever happened to decent good value, aesthetically pleasing, good all-round functionality and sound that fits in with a normal lifestyle? Can we hear more about these please and they don't need to be the usual suspects i.e funny sounding French or Swedish products or a certain brand of active speakers. And they don't need to be WHF 5* rated either. For my part, I ended up with a simple and compact digital system with lovely looking speakers (IMHO) based on the criteria I mentioned above. It sounds pretty decent too with no major criticisms from me. That said, I've never taken part in a bake-off against hair shirt acrylic boxes with ginormous second hand vintage speakers bought off eBay or a certain brand of active speakers. I don't think I would even participate in such a thing if the products failed on fairly key points such as aesthetics or the need for excessive compromise / maintenance / tweaking. Have a nice weekend and hope you enjoy reading about the the Great British Bake Off .... the one on TV, not the one on this forum *biggrin*
GBBO
- Thread starter tino
- Start date
Gaz37
Well-known member
Accepted wisdom here appears to be that unless a system cost at least £2000 and has an absolute minimum of 300watts it isn't really worth listening to.
What a system actually sounds like is largely irrelevant, as long as it cost lots, has big numbers, is connected with uncorn hair cables and the correct name(s) on it. If anybody suggests otherwise they are insulted and/or ridiculed.
What a system actually sounds like is largely irrelevant, as long as it cost lots, has big numbers, is connected with uncorn hair cables and the correct name(s) on it. If anybody suggests otherwise they are insulted and/or ridiculed.
Al ears
Well-known member
thewinelake. said:
What utter tosh..... uncorn hair cables indeed. Try unicorn instead.
Apologies, this was supposed to be in reply to post #2
hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004
Well-known member
I believe all sorts of gear gets it's fair shout on the forum...but maybe some more than others.what I can't really be bothered with is the....my thing I bought is better than this or that.....Sometimes you get the impression that the op actually built the damn thing that they rave on about.At the end of the day we're all music listening fans and wheather you get there in a Ford fiesta or a bugatti veyron is irrelevant..as long as you get there in the end.If you get the car analogy thing.oh dear,I've had a few beers again.lol.
rainsoothe
Well-known member
Gaz37 said:
They're not insulted/ridiculed because they're suggesting otherwise. They're only ridiculed because of some nonsense they state as fact, which usually adds up to "everything sounds the same", while admiting to not bothering to test, since that's the fact of the matter.
Besides, the usual causality is this one: 1. OP asks "what cable"? 2. A couple of suggestions. 3. A snarky "expert(s)" that belittles the "whichcraft" and any believer and/or anybody that suggests otherwise. 4. The "expert(s)" get ridiculed. 5. Sarcasm wars begin, and OP gets useful information every other 19 pages.
As you can see, the provocation is done in step 3. That's how it's always been. People in step 3 NEVER EVER say "but do audition for yourself". Actually, quite the oposite, since it's clearly Placebo. However, they always imply that the others are rather dim and have self-enforced hallucinations. Boo-hoo, poor them.
(by the way, still saying I can tell Audioquest Type 4 or DNM Reson from QED XT40, or Marantz from Naim amps in any unrigged blind test)
Gaz37
Well-known member
rainsoothe said:
Genuine question.
How do you "rig" a blind test?
My thoughts about a blind test are -
This is system/cable A
This is system/cable B
Which sounds better?
nopiano
Well-known member
I'm sure there are many ways, the obvious one being turning up the volume a bit for the "better" item.
Have you ever been to a comparative dem where the better item comes first? No, me neither. The cheaper or standard product is first. Then there's a pause. You listen again but this time to the better item and you hear improvements.
Have you ever been to a comparative dem where the better item comes first? No, me neither. The cheaper or standard product is first. Then there's a pause. You listen again but this time to the better item and you hear improvements.
rainsoothe
Well-known member
nopiano said:
Well unmatched volume is one way. Other can be using highly compressed music or bad recordings, non-transparent speakers (that won't be able to relay the differences) etc.
By the way, the way I got into Naim was that I went to the store to listen other stuff, some of which was more expensive. The dealer just told me "is it ok to suggest 2 other systems?" I was like "sure". 1 was Naim + Martin Logan Motion, other was Jadis + Focal Electra. I liked the Naim setup better then Sugden Master something + Proac and the Simaudio stuff. Jadis I liked a lot, but it was different, and I just went for the black. And no, it wasn't just the speakers, because afterwords, my mom went to the shop, and got a Uiniti 2 + Focal Electras, and they sounded ear-piercing with the U2 (wasn't the case with the Jadis). She later chaned to Piega floorstanders, and everything got nice.
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