What was your most inexpensive or most cost effective HiFi discovery

[Jasonovich]

Well, as you're into low-cost tinkering....
A dual-gang logarithmic pot would give you control into the Fosi input -and parallel to sub input.

Here's one I made earlier, to use as a single-knob control for the Lepy amps on the back of my Kefs:
View attachment 5215

Thanks for that Gray, that looks like a workable solution.
There is one proviso, the Dali's+ Fosi + Denon was set up to be Wife Friendly HiFi.
You know, 2 buttons to switch on power and a big dial for volume control, eject button for the CD; that neat little gadget would send her into a fit. 🤣

 

[SACripps]

Mine would be prising out the rubber plugs in the speaker terminals on the back of my amp so that I can connect banana plugs instead of tightening down bare wire. Costs nothing except five minutes of time and is transformative

 

[Shrek]

My cables 🍺

 

[Shrek]

On a serious note though i added a Sub too my system recently, its made a huge improvement on badly recorded formats i noticed at low volume.

 

[twinkletoes]

blutak

 

[Gray]

Mine would be prising out the rubber plugs in the speaker terminals on the back of my amp so that I can connect banana plugs instead of tightening down bare wire. Costs nothing except five minutes of time and is transformative

Some people still don't know they're removable.
And why were they there?
Something to do with the EU wasn't it?....and their mains plug pins?
Though if kids plug banana plugs into mains....if the mains don't kill them, the speaker owner will 💀

 

[Jasonovich]

blutak

Never under estimate the Pow-wah of the BlueTAK!

 

[Revolutions]

Today I discovered that a keenly priced Planar 6 I’d been eyeing up for weeks has been sold.

It had a white plinth.

Bullet dodged.

 

[WayneKerr]

Today I discovered that a keenly priced Planar 6 I’d been eyeing up for weeks has been sold.

It had a white plinth.

Bullet dodged.

Ya snooze, ya lose 🙂

 

[Jasonovich]

Today I discovered that a keenly priced Planar 6 I’d been eyeing up for weeks has been sold.

It had a white plinth.

Bullet dodged.

Doug Brady HiFi is selling White Plinth for £1.3k.
That's £300 cheaper than everyone else? 😊

 

[Revolutions]

Ya snooze, ya lose 🙂

In this instance I think my brain will thank me. I wasn’t ready for a white turntable even though it was crazy cheap.

Doug Brady HiFi is selling White Plinth for £1.3k.
That's £300 cheaper than everyone else? 😊

It was 2nd hand: £580 with exact cart. Crazy good deal for anyone who actually wanted a white turntable 😊

 

[Winter]

Chromecast Audio for a tad over £20. Being able to stream to multiple rooms and without the irritation of bluetooth. Meant I could listen to the same music in the kitchen as my guests/victims waiting for their food!

Agreed ! Plugging one of these into a decent dac superb !

 

[Witterings]

Mine would be prising out the rubber plugs in the speaker terminals on the back of my amp so that I can connect banana plugs instead of tightening down bare wire. Costs nothing except five minutes of time and is transformative

I never knew that ... is this with most amps?
I have a Denon M39 and also their AVR 2311 I'd like to be able to do that with, I'd go look for myself but the reason I don't is they're hard to get to / see the back of and hence why it'd be so much easier if I could use plugs.

Is it the same with speaker terminals as well, I have Wharfedale 9.1 speakers, there seems to be a hard plastic bung in there, wonder if you could drill that out (and other speakers) and use plugs instead.

 

[Gray]

I never knew that ... is this with most amps?
I have a Denon M39

Yes, I whipped them out on my brother's M40. I used a scalpel, but one of those ultra-small screwdrivers will do it.

...Same with your Wharfedales.

 

[Cricketbat70]

Mine would be prising out the rubber plugs in the speaker terminals on the back of my amp so that I can connect banana plugs instead of tightening down bare wire. Costs nothing except five minutes of time and is transformative

Yep done that and then got a pack of fiscule? Banana plugs from Amazon. Best Banana plugs I've had two screws in each to grip the speaker wire. Most of the banana plugs I've used in the past only had one screw to grip the cable

 

[Cricketbat70]

A nice pair of walnut Kef Q100 straight from the factory - as a prize for letter of the month to (R.I.P.) Hi-fi World .

Then experimented with 40 quids worth of class D vertical bi amping:
View attachment 5209

Makes for a half decent, compact, powered speaker setup.

The number if times I've looked at lepy amps on Amazon,, just to knock up a cheap bedroom hifi. Got the idea from some story on the news feed on my phone a few years back. I wouldn't know where to start doing what you've done.

 

[record_spot]

Moving my speakers around a little to adjust the scale of the sound I was hearing (this is usually after a new component's been added).

 

[Gray]

The number if times I've looked at lepy amps on Amazon,, just to knock up a cheap bedroom hifi. Got the idea from some story on the news feed on my phone a few years back. I wouldn't know where to start doing what you've done.

Don't kid yourself, you could easily do what I did - but I was only experimenting because I had two of the Lepy amps.
One is enough though.

I think you're right, if the one aux input is enough, it would be part of a great, compact and cheap little system.
Fed by a Wiim mini and into some little JBL speakers, it wouldn't be much more than £200 all in.....even less if you used your minidisc player as the source.

Control One | 2-Way, 100mm (4") Bookshelf Speaker

With a compact, two-way design in the JBL® professional tradition, Control® series monitors take true studio sound to places where only boom boxes have been before.

uk.jbl.com

Speakers come with wall mounts.

 

[AJM1981]

🤣
Actually this kind of gives credence to the nayers, that some cheap cost effective speaker cables can be really good as I have discovered with SCP 🙂

Expensive cables are like water in a fancy bottle. The price one pays for the bottle can range from a bit to a lot. Depending on the belief in the bottle as a plus to the “flavour” of the water and the desire for anything in art to admire.

What I personally consider a reasonable price for a sturdy 1,5 to 2m pre-made cable with bananaplugs is around 40 to 50 euros.

 

[Dom]

I recently purchased the 1m Cambridge Audio 100 series 3.5mm jack to 2 RCA cable for £13, and I believe it offers excellent value for money. This purchase served as a replacement for the 1.5m £27 Audioquest Tower cable I had been using previously. Depending on your sound preferences, I would recommend this cable series to any budding enthusiast.

It can be found here at Richer Sounds

 

[Jasonovich]

Expensive cables are like water in a fancy bottle. The price one pays for the bottle can range from a bit to a lot. Depending on the belief in the bottle as a plus to the “flavour” of the water and the desire for anything in art to admire.

What I personally consider a reasonable price for a sturdy 1,5 to 2m pre-made cable with bananaplugs is around 40 to 50 euros.

All cables are subject to the laws of physics. An ideal cable will have less resistance and a balanced inductance.
Poorly designed construction, may cause the amplifier to oscillate prematurely or lead to treble rolloff. Some cables are deliberately designed, so the treble rolls off, thus the topend appears smoother but less detailed.
Super crazy priced cables may appear as candy to the eyes but sonically it may not offer any real beneficts to a well designed £40-£50 cable.
I honestly believe there should be like a food label on cables, where it gives measurement of inductance and resistance and some hint of the tonality and sound characteristics of the cable, so you can make an informed choice if these cables are suitable for your amp and speakers. 😊👍

 

[AJM1981]

All cables are subject to the laws of physics. An ideal cable will have less resistance and a balanced inductance.
Poorly designed construction, may cause the amplifier to oscillate prematurely or lead to treble rolloff. Some cables are deliberately designed, so the treble rolls off, thus the topend appears smoother but less detailed.
Super crazy priced cables may appear as candy to the eyes but sonically it may not offer any real beneficts to a well designed £40-£50 cable.
I honestly believe there should be like a food label on cables, where it gives measurement of inductance and resistance and some hint of the tonality and sound characteristics of the cable, so you can make an informed choice if these cables are suitable for your amp and speakers. 😊👍

A quote:

“While it's possible that some cables will alter the sound in minor ways (usually due to cable length), that's not a good thing: it means that the cable is falling short somewhere. By the design of all modern audio equipment, your cables should not affect your signal… assuming you have the proper connectors, gauge, etc.”

 

[manicm]

My B&W MM-1 PC speakers. 13 years old and still marvellous. They still work perfectly with the remote, and would not trade them in for anything until they die.

These have a built-in DAC so bypass the laptop, albeit it only has 16/44 resolution.

I bought them for the equivalent of about 200 quid.

 

[Gray]

I'm not going to start a cable debate - until cables get their own sub thread.

I will just say though that I've just skimmed through 4 or 5 pages of cable reviews and recommendations in a Hi-fi Choice magazine that I'm reading.
The descriptions of the cables' 'sound' that I accidentally saw, made me feel a bit dirty - for having paid (£1) for the magazine - to partially encourage such complete and utter b****cks 😞.

...thought I'd get away from such filth and have a look at the forum....and it's here too 😆

(No offence Jason 🤣)

 

[Jasonovich]

A quote:

“While it's possible that some cables will alter the sound in minor ways (usually due to cable length), that's not a good thing: it means that the cable is falling short somewhere. By the design of all modern audio equipment, your cables should not affect your signal… assuming you have the proper connectors, gauge, etc.”

Thank you for your comments but the buck stops here with me 😊
I will not be party to another dreaded cable debate. 😂
I am nevertheless appreciative of your feedback.