Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms The Analogue Experience

Miklos, are the metal balls on the fireplace part of the sound system? probably not or? But they fit optically super well to the tweeters

Well, somehow I am sure they are part now - bit not by design;)

I should try the difference without them next time...

That’s some serious stuff Heinz, super cd cabinet/shelving

For the modern digital stuff just don't fall for this tulip bulb nonsense.

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/ethernet-switch-for-audiophiles

An ethernet packet is an ethernet packet unless your transfer medium (UTP/WiFi/Blueooth) is compromised.

The one that made me laugh recently was someone trying to sell a 1 metre mains cable to go from wall socket to amplifier at a ridiculous cost, well over £100. I asked what I needed to do about the 50-odd metres of 2.5mm T&E buried in my walls bringing the power to the socket, but they didn't reply.

Alistair, it seems there is no limit to the levels that companies will go to sell to those with hi-Fi and too much money. Try looking at HiFi + magazine...
Cables, mains plugs and now, of course, ethernet connections.
I've not yet see anyone offer a dedicated HiFi " Gigabit Hub" but without WiFi and other things that might "corrupt" the audio, but I'm sure it will come!

Yes, I've spent a lot of money on HiFi hardware (but not as much as on Morgans) but I listen to music, not the hardware.
One side effect of good HiFi is you discover that some music is not at all well recorded, whilst other recordings from the past are sublime.

What we have works and I see no need to change anything, although a 4K TV is on the cards next year.

In my early 20s I was quite into Hi-Fi but with a limited budget, was always on the budget end and ended up with a Dual/ Nad/ Kef set up. I was a devourer of all the mags, but kind of lost interest in the topic, when in one mag, there was an article about "sexing" speaker cables and letter from a chap who said that the speaker in his watch affected the sound quality of his set up.

I revisited upgrading in my early 30s and "auditioned" (most people would refer to that "listened to") some more high-end kit. By then though my rock concert damaged ears could barely discern any difference apart from bass

Now I have a Sonos set up including the Sub which works fine on my 70 year old ears.

The problem with those Quad speakers which Peter J has is that if you spend any time with them, nothing else will do. The huge paradox with them is that whilst they are offensively visible in any normal room, acoustically they disappear. The sound just comes out of the atmosphere in a most sublime way. I've never heard any other speakers that sound so transparent, invisible.
High maintenance though, needing servicing in my experience every eight to ten years.
Great choice Peter.
Nick

I've gone the other way to Peter on how visible my AV kit is; I prefer it to be invisible -or near as is practical :-)

Given how much time we were going to be spending in our home this year, the AV system's been upgraded (any excuse!)
The biggest single step towards low-visibility kit is to project TV instead of having a permanent screen. I upgraded a 5 year old 2.4k Sony projector for a 4k one: it's brighter, 4k content is definitely sharper, though there's not a lot of it about. We have 65mb broadband (& a Google mesh network) which streams at 4K just fine using an Apple 4K TV box.

Though a projector costs more up-front than a TV screen, I did easily eBay the old projector for 2/3ds of what I paid for it 5 years ago. Man-math says it's cost me less than £2 a week.

The one challenge I've had with a projector is to sync sound & picture, when they're on opposite sides of the room. The only answer *was* a very long optical cable. Now I use a Bluesound Node 2 (the same as Heinz) which handles airplay perfectly, along with a plethora of streaming options.

For five years I've used a Naim MuSo as a music streamer, speakers for turntable, & fancy TV soundbar. For a single box the MuSo's sound is amazing, but there's definite limits. So 2021's upgrade has the Bluesound is now hard-wired to a pair of BeoLab 18s - tall, slim, & a design classic, which fits the room's mid-century modern aesthetic. And the footings are engineered not to pass sound through the floor - which matters when you're in a 2nd floor flat.

Each to their own!

Will

Thanks Nick, you have hit the nail on the head, once one has entered the QUAD ELS world nothing else will do...!
Yes, aesthetically they are a bit of a challenge, but I'm very lucky in that Caroline puts music quality over aesthetics...

We started with the original QUAD ELS 57s in 1981, moved on to the 63s in 2002 and then jumped to the 2912 in 2019...a path of steady improvement. The valve amplification makes a positive difference but the Linn DSM is the icing on the cake and proves that GI-GO applies.
It always used to be said that QUAD ELS don't do bass.. well the 2912s do and Organ music sounds real, at last!

As to Vinyl, the LP12 Akurate extracts the best from vinyl, but it has become clear that some of my older LPs are "played out" and although sounding better than early CDs are not as good as re-mixed streamed versions. But I still buy vinyl... I will not be buying any more CDs!