Never had it so good?

MajorFubar

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It's still expensive to get the very best sound, but recent advancements (last ten years or so) sure have raised the minimum bar. After practising what I preach and going to listen to a few pairs of speakers at a localish pro audio shop, today I've purchased a pair of Alesis Elevate 5 mkII studio monitors for my sons' bedroom for £109. My sons will be using them with a Neet Airstream that I've ordered off Amazon.

The boys are 15 years old, and for less than £140 they've got a sound quality WAY ahead of anything I was destined to possess as my first or even second system, both of which cost several times more that £140 back in the 1980s, and that's even discounting inflation.
 

CnoEvil

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MajorFubar said:
and for less than £140 they've got a sound quality WAY ahead of anything I was destined to possess as my first or even second system.

61LRJDYtV5L._SX524_.jpg


Yup. These sounded a bit scratchy. *diablo*
 

MajorFubar

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gasolin said:
why not a used pair of dali zensor 1 or a new pair of Q Acoustics 3010,3020 and a small nad amp or something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00G503KCY/ref=psdc_560868_t3_B00KBIV1WW

Probably a thousand and one ways to skin the cat, all of which would sound better than I could achieve for the same money at their age. And we can thank cheap digital sources for making it possible. It was the mid 80s when I was their age, and £150 couldn't scrape together even a one-source system worth listening to. Not new at any rate.
 

MajorFubar

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insider9 said:
I think it's important to note that most people couldn't achieve the same with that budget.

It just takes a little thinking outside the box I guess. There's nothing in the hifi arena in the <£150 price slot to compete with similar-priced studio monitors. There's not a whole lot of choice even in the studio monitor category really, but we did find three pairs in the shop: these Alesis Elevate 5's, another pair of Alesis (320 USB, £89), and Akai RPM3's (£119). I would like to have heard the Presonus Eris 4.5 (£150ish), but sadly we don't have a nearby stockist.
 

insider9

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Particularly digital sources imporved massively. Then class D amplification that's another leap and speaker design. All good developments and all means that as long as you know what you're looking for you can get a good sound for reasonable money.
 

gasolin

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Could have bought a pair of jbl lsr305 for less than £200 (mabye less if you find a used pair) if a streamer or bluetooth unit wasn't important.

They are much better than any £100 pair of studio monitors. Personally i don't like the plastic front and the low weight compared to rookit 5g3 and yamaha hs5's but many say they are really good (havn't heard them more than a few min) and the price is better than the krk rookit 5's and yamaha hs5's.

Personally i love my q acoustics 2010i and nad dvd system for less than £200 if used with cheap cable and couldn't imagine any new speakers i would rather have that a pair of q acoustics 2010i,2020i or 3010 (although the 2010i might be less bright and have more bass than the 3010) for £100 https://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/p-9912763-q-acoustics-3010-graphite-speakers-pair.aspx?utm_source=PriceSpy&utm_medium=cpc

I asked in #4 why not real hifi speakers since that would have sounded better and also to know the reason for the choice of £100 studio monitors instead of hifi speakers.
 

MajorFubar

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gasolin said:
...why not real hifi speakers since that would have sounded better

Not necessarily, it isn't an automatic given. Don't you think the big companies which make studio monitors and other related gear at all budgets are at least as on the ball as niche hifi manufacturers?. Nor was this thread intended to argue about it really. The whole point of the thread was to note that no matter which way you spend the money, the sound quality is miles ahead of what the same money bought us years ago, chiefly because buying decent sources was so expensive. Especially the turntable.
 
MajorFubar said:
It just takes a little thinking outside the box I guess. There's nothing in the hifi arena in the <£150 price slot to compete with similar-priced studio monitors.
I doubt any hi-fi manufacturers want to even try and compete in the sub £150 category for any single component, let alone a complete system. There’s no money in budget hi-fi anymore, which is why most products are around £150 per box as a bare minimum. Profits need to be made for the products to be sustained, so under £200 - unless someone is willing to look at used equipment - will belong to the realm of the active or powered speaker in some form or another.

Active speakers weren’t known when I bought my first system (or weren’t known to me, althought the Wharfedale Active Diamond appeared around the mid 80s), so my first system cost me around £250 for a turntable, amp and speakers. And it sounded fantastic, producing many enjoyable hours of music reproduction. And I’m sure anyone else doing the same thing nowadays would be just as easily impressed/happy.
 

gasolin

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You can get Q acoustics 3010,mission lX2 and Wharfedale Diamond 220 for less than £150 for a pair, they are all pretty much the best you can get for less than £150 and non of than had close to a bad review
 

drummerman

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gasolin said:
You can get Q acoustics 3010,mission lX2 and Wharfedale Diamond 220 for less than £150 for a pair, they are all pretty much the best you can get for less than £150 and non of than had close to a bad review

You'd still have to add an amp

Agree with the OP though, it's a fantastic time to get decent sound for little money.

My pick for Kids bedrooms or an orifice would be Qacoustic's BT3.

Simply on looks I could not cope with any of the cheap 'studio' actives.
 

davedotco

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davidf said:
MajorFubar said:
It just takes a little thinking outside the box I guess. There's nothing in the hifi arena in the <£150 price slot to compete with similar-priced studio monitors.
I doubt any hi-fi manufacturers want to even try and compete in the sub £150 category for any single component, let alone a complete system. There’s no money in budget hi-fi anymore, which is why most products are around £150 per box as a bare minimum. Profits need to be made for the products to be sustained, so under £200 - unless someone is willing to look at used equipment - will belong to the realm of the active or powered speaker in some form or another.

Active speakers weren’t known when I bought my first system (or weren’t known to me, althought the Wharfedale Active Diamond appeared around the mid 80s), so my first system cost me around £250 for a turntable, amp and speakers. And it sounded fantastic, producing many enjoyable hours of music reproduction. And I’m sure anyone else doing the same thing nowadays would be just as easily impressed/happy.

Yet the (semi) pro market sells loads of equipment in the budget price ranges, and does so at very competitive prices.

Sure this is a bigger market than domestic hi-fi but the retail model is different and in sales figures, much more effective.

Don't take this the wrong way, as an ex dealer I know exactly how expensive it is to run a 'proper' bricks and morter dealership, especially if you are an independent, but I still think that the hi-fi retail model is well behind the curve, it lacks inovation, particularly at the budget end and is inately very conservative.

In some cases it is obsessed with audiophoolery and pushing the hi-fi agenda despite what many of their prospective customers actually want. All in all I think the industry does itself few favours, it really should do better.
 

chelstondave

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I bought my factory seconds q acoustics BT3s for £60 direct from Armour and I can’t get over how good they sound. Not as detailed as my main system but they have a quality that keeps me wanting to hear them more and have been using them in preference lately.
 
davedotco said:
Yet the (semi) pro market sells loads of equipment in the budget price ranges, and does so at very competitive prices.

Sure this is a bigger market than domestic hi-fi but the retail model is different and in sales figures, much more effective.

Don't take this the wrong way, as an ex dealer I know exactly how expensive it is to run a 'proper' bricks and morter dealership, especially if you are an independent, but I still think that the hi-fi retail model is well behind the curve, it lacks inovation, particularly at the budget end and is inately very conservative.

In some cases it is obsessed with audiophoolery and pushing the hi-fi agenda despite what many of their prospective customers actually want. All in all I think the industry does itself few favours, it really should do better.
I agree.
 

Gray

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Never been better in terms of value - a point that l keep preaching. When l tell non-hi-fi owning music lovers how little they'd need to spend, they're not interested.

(Probably because what now seems cheap to us, is still too much to those with different priorities, like buying food)
 
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Gray said:
Never been better in terms of value - a point that l keep preaching. When l tell non-hi-fi owning music lovers how little they'd need to spend, they're not interested.

(Probably because what now seems cheap to us, is still too much to those with different priorities, like buying food)

Plus they are probably more interested in paying expensive tarrifs for things like Sky or the newest mobile, which can easily enter into four figure sums p.a. Personally I don't waste money on such things... I only waste money on hi-fi related gear *biggrin*
 
DougK said:
Gray said:
Never been better in terms of value - a point that l keep preaching. When l tell non-hi-fi owning music lovers how little they'd need to spend, they're not interested.

(Probably because what now seems cheap to us, is still too much to those with different priorities, like buying food)

Plus they are probably more interested in paying expensive tarrifs for things like Sky or the newest mobile, which can easily enter into four figure sums p.a. Personally I don't waste money on such things... I only waste money on hi-fi related gear *biggrin*

+1

I work away from home as some forumees are well aware of , it is money down the drain for me to sign up to any contract when I am not at home to enjoy the end result. My money goes on CD s and LPs that I get to play whenever I get the time.

Streaming..... forget it, unless you can enjoy 24/7.
 

MajorFubar

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drummerman said:
My pick for Kids bedrooms or an orifice would be Qacoustic's BT3.

Simply on looks I could not cope with any of the cheap 'studio' actives.

They do look very nice but are £200 over budget.

Today has seen me mount the speakers at ear-height using some wall brackets I had lying unused in the loft. I chose wall brackets because floorspace is a premium and brackets don't have a footprint. Still impressed with the sound for the price. £109 wouldn't buy some folk's speaker cables. My first half-decent speakers were Wharfedale Diamond mkII's that I bought from Comet in 1988 for £85 when I was 18 years old. They were several leagues behind these and needed as much money again throwing at separate amp in order to use them.

Yep, we have definitely never had it so good.
 

drummerman

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Al ears said:
DougK said:
Gray said:
Never been better in terms of value - a point that  l keep preaching. When l tell non-hi-fi owning music lovers how little they'd need to spend, they're not interested.

(Probably because what now seems cheap to us, is still too much to those with different priorities, like buying food)

Plus they are probably more interested in paying expensive tarrifs for things like Sky or the newest mobile, which can easily enter into four figure sums p.a. Personally I don't waste money on such things... I only waste money on hi-fi related gear *biggrin*

+1

I work away from home as some forumees are well aware of , it is money down the drain for me to sign up to any contract when I am not at home to enjoy the end result. My money goes on CD s and LPs that I get to play whenever I get the time.

Streaming..... forget it, unless you can enjoy 24/7.

You can. All music streaming services support mobile platforms, many with off line storage as do Netlix etc.
 

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