Planet Rugby Forum

Sandstorm wrote:

ovalball wrote:

GWO2 wrote:I have never had the money to go ALL posh and get this system or that system (even though I worked all my working (15-65) life. I find I enjoy listening to music as I have ALWAYS known it, even back to the 50s - 60s even if that means listening on inferior systems.

Yes, there's a danger that you end up listening to the quality of the system rather than the music itself. The music can be just as enjoyable on a modest system as a really expensive one.

Hmmm.....if you listen to an album you know well on an inferior system after hearing it on a great one, it really can lose its appeal.

Which (apart from the finances) is why I stick to what I know and love.

Italian powder coated alloy outdoor chairs and table set.

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

Sandstorm wrote:

ovalball wrote:

GWO2 wrote:I have never had the money to go ALL posh and get this system or that system (even though I worked all my working (15-65) life. I find I enjoy listening to music as I have ALWAYS known it, even back to the 50s - 60s even if that means listening on inferior systems.

Yes, there's a danger that you end up listening to the quality of the system rather than the music itself. The music can be just as enjoyable on a modest system as a really expensive one.

Hmmm.....if you listen to an album you know well on an inferior system after hearing it on a great one, it really can lose its appeal.

Nah, the difference between a 'modest' system, and a great one, is still quite marginal. By 'modest' I'm not talking about something crappy - £500 can get you one that will always sound pretty good.

Rinkals wrote:

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

Indeed, anything can be crazily taken to the extreme.

The point I was making about improving the acoustics is it’s easy and cheap. And will have a bigger impact on listening experience for most rooms than the marginal gains of spending £1000+ on better speakers etc.

pjm1 wrote:

Rinkals wrote:

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

Indeed, anything can be crazily taken to the extreme.

The point I was making about improving the acoustics is it’s easy and cheap. And will have a bigger impact on listening experience for most rooms than the marginal gains of spending £1000+ on better speakers etc.

Changing the room is easy

You're not married, are you.............

Rinkals wrote:

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

We can chat about that on this thread I reckon.

The kit I have is quite old now. The speakers were used as a reference to other bits of kit. They are rather astonishing. The bass unit consists of two speakers pumping against one another.

The amps are an upgrade from the Audiolab 8000A so I have a pre amp and two power amps which essentially drive the speakers separately.

The Sony CD deck is from their "professional" series. It weighs a ton as it is wholly metal and not plastic.

I have three decks. The one in the picture is a Linn Axis, purely for easy use as it can cope with 78, 45 and 33 rpm discs. The other Linn is a classic Sondek LP12. That comes out when we are getting serious.

I also have a Technics deck which comes from my days as a DJ.

You can muck around all night with some of these new systems with surround sound, which I find a bit of a gimmick.

When I started DJ work (40 Thieves in Coventry) with a fellow student, we were into Quad. I went to their factory in Huntindon to buy some decent bits of kit.

My main claim to fame is that I introduced pulse lighting to go with the bass beats. Up to then it was lava lamps and revolving projector lights.

It was initially ensconced in a Tupperware container to avoid beer damaging the circuitry. This proved to be not a good idea as the heat melted the plastic. We needed a heat sink.

It eventually became tucked into a biscuit box with added embellishments.

When we started at the 40 Thieves (a long while ago) there were only about 20 people in the place, including staff. Word spread rapidly and they eventually had to employ the first "bouncers" in Coventry to keep the numbers down.

I was an electronics student and a bit more perhaps. I've plenty more to tell.

I'll also mention that the stands on which my home kit resides are rather amazing too. The glass shelves rest on carbon fibre and metal pins, thus are totally insulating platforms.

If anyone wishes to pop over to Oundle, I'd be very happy to entertain you.

Pat the Ex Mat wrote:

assfly wrote:

My old hard drive crashed. Hopefully they can recover the last 19 years worth of photos I stored on it

Always have two copies mate....

Synctoy and keep one offsite

add a M-DISC blu-ray = 25 Go, about 3 or 4 € per disc, bruner about 100 €.

edit : offsite but also one offline.

globus wrote:

Rinkals wrote:

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

We can chat about that on this thread I reckon.

The kit I have is quite old now. The speakers were used as a reference to other bits of kit. They are rather astonishing. The bass unit consists of two speakers pumping against one another.

The amps are an upgrade from the Audiolab 8000A so I have a pre amp and two power amps which essentially drive the speakers separately.

The Sony CD deck is from their "professional" series. It weighs a ton as it is wholly metal and not plastic.

I have three decks. The one in the picture is a Linn Axis, purely for easy use as it can cope with 78, 45 and 33 rpm discs. The other Linn is a classic Sondek LP12. That comes out when we are getting serious.

I also have a Technics deck which comes from my days as a DJ.

You can muck around all night with some of these new systems with surround sound, which I find a bit of a gimmick.

When I started DJ work (40 Thieves in Coventry) with a fellow student, we were into Quad. I went to their factory in Huntindon to buy some decent bits of kit.

My main claim to fame is that I introduced pulse lighting to go with the bass beats. Up to then it was lava lamps and revolving projector lights.

It was initially ensconced in a Tupperware container to avoid beer damaging the circuitry. This proved to be not a good idea as the heat melted the plastic. We needed a heat sink.

It eventually became tucked into a biscuit box with added embellishments.

When we started at the 40 Thieves (a long while ago) there were only about 20 people in the place, including staff. Word spread rapidly and they eventually had to employ the first "bouncers" in Coventry to keep the numbers down.

I was an electronics student and a bit more perhaps. I've plenty more to tell.

Surround sound isn't for music though it's for TV. It makes a huge difference when you are watching films - I have a Denon system with Kef side/centre/rear speakers and a Sub - 8 speakers in all. I'd need to add some ceiling speakers to fully use the Denon's capability - but I can't be arsed. For music I have it set back to stereo with the sub - it's fine for music but its' forte is the Dolby surround. I don't even bother with a cd player in the lounge these days - just stream all my music to the system.

But I do also have one of these, in another room, which is great and which I wouldn't swap for any other system.

I'd not expect anything else Ovals. I'm not a film fan, the Sky box is for the kids.

And BT Sport for the rugby.

I've had a request from a former trainee sailor to have a trundle around the Solent.

You will know his name. He's not too far from CF.

Pub visit in April/May?

Globus invented lights synced to bass and bouncers in Coventry

globus wrote:I'd not expect anything else Ovals. I'm not a film fan, the Sky box is for the kids.

And BT Sport for the rugby.

I've had a request from a former trainee sailor to have a trundle around the Solent.

You will know his name. He's not too far from CF.

Pub visit in April/May?

I'm around most of that time, when not playing cricket. I don't know anyone from the sailing fraternity - few things interest me less than sailing.

RuggaBugga wrote:Globus invented lights synced to bass and bouncers in Coventry

Yeah, someone else turned that into him claiming he invented a graphics card in the 1960’s, and I cheekily added this to the list of all the other bollocks he has in fact actually said.

ovalball wrote:

globus wrote:I'd not expect anything else Ovals. I'm not a film fan, the Sky box is for the kids.

And BT Sport for the rugby.

I've had a request from a former trainee sailor to have a trundle around the Solent.

You will know his name. He's not too far from CF.

Pub visit in April/May?

I'm around most of that time, when not playing cricket. I don't know anyone from the sailing fraternity - few things interest me less than sailing.

Happily have you throwing up over the side in the Solent. I have remedies. Ginger biscuits are good but the hair of the dog is wondrous.

It is not a good idea at the start of the Round the Island race. A certain pal and I were on his boat, appropriately named "Restless Two".

We went for the Tankers, big time the night before. I was incredibly alert at the start, which meant a lot of shouting about who was on starboard, who was on leeward etc.

We trundled to the Needles. Lots to say about that and our drunken attempts to see if we could cut the corner.

We followed a lovely chap who lived in the region and was a bit of a star as Onslow. He'd got a few tins down him before breakfast.

By the way. A certain dwarfish individual from LOTR lives close by and we have invited them to dinner here

Doubt that will happen as he now a bit of a superstar and spends most of his time in America now.

Do label this post as "bullshit" for Yeeb, who simply cannot understand that other posters have interesting lives.

globus wrote:

ovalball wrote:

globus wrote:I'd not expect anything else Ovals. I'm not a film fan, the Sky box is for the kids.

And BT Sport for the rugby.

I've had a request from a former trainee sailor to have a trundle around the Solent.

You will know his name. He's not too far from CF.

Pub visit in April/May?

I'm around most of that time, when not playing cricket. I don't know anyone from the sailing fraternity - few things interest me less than sailing.

Happily have you throwing up over the side in the Solent. I have remedies. Ginger biscuits are good but the hair of the dog is wondrous.

It is not a good idea at the start of the Round the Island race. A certain pal and I were on his boat, appropriately named "Restless Two".

We went for the Tankers, big time the night before. I was incredibly alert at the start, which meant a lot of shouting about who was on starboard, who was on leeward etc.

We trundled to the Needles. Lots to say about that and our drunken attempts to see if we could cut the corner.

We followed a lovely chap who lived in the region and was a bit of a star as Onslow. He'd got a few tins down him before breakfast.

By the way. A certain dwarfish individual from LOTR lives close by and we have invited them to dinner here

Doubt that will happen as he now a bit of a superstar and spends most of his time in America now.

Do label this post as "bullshit" for Yeeb, who simply cannot understand that other posters have interesting lives.

Wild horses wouldn't get me onto a sailing dinghy - or to listen to sailing stories.

globus wrote:

Rinkals wrote:

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

We can chat about that on this thread I reckon.

The kit I have is quite old now. The speakers were used as a reference to other bits of kit. They are rather astonishing. The bass unit consists of two speakers pumping against one another.

The amps are an upgrade from the Audiolab 8000A so I have a pre amp and two power amps which essentially drive the speakers separately.

The Sony CD deck is from their "professional" series. It weighs a ton as it is wholly metal and not plastic.

I have three decks. The one in the picture is a Linn Axis, purely for easy use as it can cope with 78, 45 and 33 rpm discs. The other Linn is a classic Sondek LP12. That comes out when we are getting serious.

I also have a Technics deck which comes from my days as a DJ.

You can muck around all night with some of these new systems with surround sound, which I find a bit of a gimmick.

When I started DJ work (40 Thieves in Coventry) with a fellow student, we were into Quad. I went to their factory in Huntindon to buy some decent bits of kit.

My main claim to fame is that I introduced pulse lighting to go with the bass beats. Up to then it was lava lamps and revolving projector lights.

It was initially ensconced in a Tupperware container to avoid beer damaging the circuitry. This proved to be not a good idea as the heat melted the plastic. We needed a heat sink.

It eventually became tucked into a biscuit box with added embellishments.

When we started at the 40 Thieves (a long while ago) there were only about 20 people in the place, including staff. Word spread rapidly and they eventually had to employ the first "bouncers" in Coventry to keep the numbers down.

I was an electronics student and a bit more perhaps. I've plenty more to tell.

You should have a look at this.

http://www.russandrews.com/mains-power- ... erkord500/

Utterly pointless apart from when you want to say how much it costs. Right up your street.

Homer wrote:

Bought this for my son for Christmas. It's surprisingly good for such a small and relatively cheap bit of kit.

The temptation to put a large W at the front of the manufacturers logo was almost too much.....

no wonder they made it waterproof

OK. I'll bring a couple of guitars.

One is left handed as the injuries took their toll.

That really got my brain going.

Seriously, if you are still in CF waters, be nice to meet you.


My mate is planning a bit of a shindig for his wife. You want to meet him. He is seriously dangerous in the spirit division.

Fun all round, I promise you.

If I can get T and P to join us, get a nurse for the morning after.

T is famous for a few cocktails in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

I did a bit of my stand up, having ensured there were no kids about.

T kept chucking loads of alcohol fuel down her gullet.

How on earth we got her back to the yacht is a mystery.

Cue "Management". I know why I married this gal.

T is hauled out of berth and sent to attempt another removal of the night before into the sea.

Berth is refreshed. Her husband looke a bit distressed. No worries. Management cooks an egg, bacon, sausage and tomatoes with fried bread.

We trundled in a south direction as I frantically get the ruddy Garmin to work. I am now on a satellite phone to them and threaten that the cost of such will be met by them.

I'll keep going fellas.. Come sail with me and there is no end to the fun and games.

Not lost a passenger yet.

I've tried mucking aroud with this and that.

Got some serious gold plated leads at no cost. Messed around with them. Fiddled about. Bell wire would have been as good.

Offer always open. Visit Chez Globus. Got a big project on for the summer, possibly, Involves instruments sent to another of this parish.

Starting to write the intro. Got to a bit of sampling of Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait

globus wrote:OK. I'll bring a couple of guitars.

One is left handed as the injuries took their toll.

That really got my brain going.

Seriously, if you are still in CF waters, be nice to meet you.


My mate is planning a bit of a shindig for his wife. You want to meet him. He is seriously dangerous in the spirit division.

Fun all round, I promise you.

If I can get T and P to join us, get a nurse for the morning after.

T is famous for a few cocktails in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

I did a bit of my stand up, having ensured there were no kids about.

T kept chucking loads of alcohol fuel down her gullet.

How on earth we got her back to the yacht is a mystery.

Cue "Management". I know why I married this gal.

T is hauled out of berth and sent to attempt another removal of the night before into the sea.

Berth is refreshed. Her husband looke a bit distressed. No worries. Management cooks an egg, bacon, sausage and tomatoes with fried bread.

We trundled in a south direction as I frantically get the ruddy Garmin to work. I am now on a satellite phone to them and threaten that the cost of such will be met by them.

I'll keep going fellas.. Come sail with me and there is no end to the fun and games.

Not lost a passenger yet.

Two things that won't happen to me 1) Getting on a sail boat 2) Getting pissed

a) I can't swim, b) I hate sailing boats, c) I hate the sea d) I don't particularly like alcoholic drinks e) Alcohol sets off my Chrohns f) I hate being pissed. I'd eat the breakfast though !!

That's the way to go, Ovals. Horribly sensible but ............. sensible.

I doubt you will have survived the trip around the Fastnet. I had an awful lot of chats with the Lord.

Sadly many sailors got to meet him.

Really totally rubbish now on the guitar. Both sets of fingers do not work (rugby injuries) so I'm drumming these days.

ovalball wrote:

pjm1 wrote:

Rinkals wrote:

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

Indeed, anything can be crazily taken to the extreme.

The point I was making about improving the acoustics is it’s easy and cheap. And will have a bigger impact on listening experience for most rooms than the marginal gains of spending £1000+ on better speakers etc.

Changing the room is easy

You're not married, are you.............

Actually yes! Acoustic panels can be covered by canvas with pictures printed on them

And ceiling ones can have lights around them...

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/offices ... 54186?mt=8

Office Suite Pro is currently free on IOS. I have this on Android and it's fine. £13.50 on Google play.

ovalball wrote:

GWO2 wrote:I have never had the money to go ALL posh and get this system or that system (even though I worked all my working (15-65) life. I find I enjoy listening to music as I have ALWAYS known it, even back to the 50s - 60s even if that means listening on inferior systems.

Yes, there's a danger that you end up listening to the quality of the system rather than the music itself. The music can be just as enjoyable on a modest system as a really expensive one.

An acquaintance of ours is the MD of arguably Edinburgh & Glasgow's premier HiFi retailer. We went to their country cottage where I was rather surprised by the (relative) modesty of his set up. He pointed out that it was an odd shaped space, and its prime purpose was living and socialising. He could have pushed the boat out, and though improved the room would compromise the sound. Whilst he'd be able to tell the difference, it would not be huge and why bother when the music was not the prime purpose of the area, and what he had was pretty good anyway.

Edinburgh01 wrote:

ovalball wrote:

GWO2 wrote:I have never had the money to go ALL posh and get this system or that system (even though I worked all my working (15-65) life. I find I enjoy listening to music as I have ALWAYS known it, even back to the 50s - 60s even if that means listening on inferior systems.

Yes, there's a danger that you end up listening to the quality of the system rather than the music itself. The music can be just as enjoyable on a modest system as a really expensive one.

An acquaintance of ours is the MD of arguably Edinburgh & Glasgow's premier HiFi retailer. We went to their country cottage where I was rather surprised by the (relative) modesty of his set up. He pointed out that it was an odd shaped space, and its prime purpose was living and socialising. He could have pushed the boat out, and though improved the room would compromise the sound. Whilst he'd be able to tell the difference, it would not be huge and why bother when the music was not the prime purpose of the area, and what he had was pretty good anyway.

I doubt my old ears could tell the difference between a £1000 set up and one costing £10 000.

ovalball wrote:

Edinburgh01 wrote:

ovalball wrote:

GWO2 wrote:I have never had the money to go ALL posh and get this system or that system (even though I worked all my working (15-65) life. I find I enjoy listening to music as I have ALWAYS known it, even back to the 50s - 60s even if that means listening on inferior systems.

Yes, there's a danger that you end up listening to the quality of the system rather than the music itself. The music can be just as enjoyable on a modest system as a really expensive one.

An acquaintance of ours is the MD of arguably Edinburgh & Glasgow's premier HiFi retailer. We went to their country cottage where I was rather surprised by the (relative) modesty of his set up. He pointed out that it was an odd shaped space, and its prime purpose was living and socialising. He could have pushed the boat out, and though improved the room would compromise the sound. Whilst he'd be able to tell the difference, it would not be huge and why bother when the music was not the prime purpose of the area, and what he had was pretty good anyway.

I doubt my old ears could tell the difference between a £1000 set up and one costing £10 000.

You can Ovals. The difference is startling. We had a young couple move in down the road, we were popping our usual "Welcome" card through the door just as a very pregnant lady opened it.

We discover that her husband is a decent guitarist. I have got quite a few bands together so I wondered if he might be interested.

The subject of musical content invariably came up and we were ushered into their front room to meet the parents. On came their system. A bit of Dire Straits. And that was pretty well how it sounded.

When young Harry was born, we had a bit of a celebration here. I picked the same track "Sultans of Swing" on my system, but running off vinyl.

I leave the rest to the imagination.

Incidentally, the grandmother is no slouch. She can play the accordion.

Sefton wrote:

A5D5E5 wrote:

globus wrote:

Rinkals wrote:

pjm1 wrote:I always find it amusing when people who don’t understand acoustics think that spending vast amounts of money on various pieces of kit equates to a high quality listening experience.

Instead, they could spend a couple of hundred quid on acoustic panels, corner baffles and get a WAY better experience with more accurate reproduction at the listening point from a £500 system.

All the gear, no idea at its most acute!

This is all hearsay and told to me by a friend of my girlfriend's so no guarantee of veracity, but I was told of a Hungarian expat living here in Jo'burg, who has a special room in his house with only one especially designed chair in it for listening to music, principally jazz. All lights have to be turned off and the single electrical outlet to the record playing equipment is connected to a magnetic device to minimise electrical interference. The audio equipment (he told me the name, but it's a bespoke firm which I had never heard of) was built especially for the room and engineers were flown over from Europe to design and install it at the cost of millions (Rand, but still a six figure sum in Euros).

Now, it's all very well to go to those extremes if you are ostentatiously wealthy and want to impress, but I cannot see how the human ear can differentiate between that sort of dedication to quality sound and reasonably good off-the-shelf gear. Certainly I can't, although my gf, who is a professional musician, might.

Still, a topic for another thread, methinks.

We can chat about that on this thread I reckon.

The kit I have is quite old now. The speakers were used as a reference to other bits of kit. They are rather astonishing. The bass unit consists of two speakers pumping against one another.

The amps are an upgrade from the Audiolab 8000A so I have a pre amp and two power amps which essentially drive the speakers separately.

The Sony CD deck is from their "professional" series. It weighs a ton as it is wholly metal and not plastic.

I have three decks. The one in the picture is a Linn Axis, purely for easy use as it can cope with 78, 45 and 33 rpm discs. The other Linn is a classic Sondek LP12. That comes out when we are getting serious.

I also have a Technics deck which comes from my days as a DJ.

You can muck around all night with some of these new systems with surround sound, which I find a bit of a gimmick.

When I started DJ work (40 Thieves in Coventry) with a fellow student, we were into Quad. I went to their factory in Huntindon to buy some decent bits of kit.

My main claim to fame is that I introduced pulse lighting to go with the bass beats. Up to then it was lava lamps and revolving projector lights.

It was initially ensconced in a Tupperware container to avoid beer damaging the circuitry. This proved to be not a good idea as the heat melted the plastic. We needed a heat sink.

It eventually became tucked into a biscuit box with added embellishments.

When we started at the 40 Thieves (a long while ago) there were only about 20 people in the place, including staff. Word spread rapidly and they eventually had to employ the first "bouncers" in Coventry to keep the numbers down.

I was an electronics student and a bit more perhaps. I've plenty more to tell.

You should have a look at this.

http://www.russandrews.com/mains-power- ... erkord500/

Utterly pointless apart from when you want to say how much it costs. Right up your street.

There was a Kiwi poster who tried to lecture me on how high end HDMI cables improved the picture, he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that digital is just 1 and 0 which either works or it doesn't and no amount of gold plated love leads to an improvement in picture quality.

Ah, but high end digital cables only allow higher quality 1s and 0s through.

globus wrote:

ovalball wrote:

Edinburgh01 wrote:

ovalball wrote:

GWO2 wrote:I have never had the money to go ALL posh and get this system or that system (even though I worked all my working (15-65) life. I find I enjoy listening to music as I have ALWAYS known it, even back to the 50s - 60s even if that means listening on inferior systems.

Yes, there's a danger that you end up listening to the quality of the system rather than the music itself. The music can be just as enjoyable on a modest system as a really expensive one.

An acquaintance of ours is the MD of arguably Edinburgh & Glasgow's premier HiFi retailer. We went to their country cottage where I was rather surprised by the (relative) modesty of his set up. He pointed out that it was an odd shaped space, and its prime purpose was living and socialising. He could have pushed the boat out, and though improved the room would compromise the sound. Whilst he'd be able to tell the difference, it would not be huge and why bother when the music was not the prime purpose of the area, and what he had was pretty good anyway.

I doubt my old ears could tell the difference between a £1000 set up and one costing £10 000.

You can Ovals. The difference is startling. We had a young couple move in down the road, we were popping our usual "Welcome" card through the door just as a very pregnant lady opened it.

We discover that her husband is a decent guitarist. I have got quite a few bands together so I wondered if he might be interested.

The subject of musical content invariably came up and we were ushered into their front room to meet the parents. On came their system. A bit of Dire Straits. And that was pretty well how it sounded.

When young Harry was born, we had a bit of a celebration here. I picked the same track "Sultans of Swing" on my system, but running off vinyl.

I leave the rest to the imagination.

Incidentally, the grandmother is no slouch. She can play the accordion.

I'm not bothered by listening to MP3s. It really doesn't make a difference to me and never has done.

Edinburgh01 wrote:

Captain Average wrote:

Pellet stove?

We have pellet central heating but the stoves are woodburners.

Indoor pellet boiler. Does the whole house.

Trip up the mountains at the weekend...

pjm1 wrote:

Trip up the mountains at the weekend...

Surprised you haven't tried these instead

jolindien wrote:

Homer wrote:

Bought this for my son for Christmas. It's surprisingly good for such a small and relatively cheap bit of kit.

The temptation to put a large W at the front of the manufacturers logo was almost too much.....

no wonder they made it waterproof

My sister just bought a beach hut £290K

ovalball wrote:My sister just bought a beach hut £290K

Where Ovals? We have one of those in Hunstanton.

globus wrote:

ovalball wrote:My sister just bought a beach hut £290K

Where Ovals? We have one of those in Hunstanton.

Mudeford Sandspit - Famously, the most expensive Beach Huts in the UK.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... o-loo.html

Captain Average wrote:

Edinburgh01 wrote:

Captain Average wrote:

Pellet stove?

We have pellet central heating but the stoves are woodburners.

Indoor pellet boiler. Does the whole house.

Isn't it a bit of a schlep feeding it?

pjm1 wrote:

Trip up the mountains at the weekend...

Where do you live?

Cracking pint

Edinburgh01 wrote:

pjm1 wrote:

Trip up the mountains at the weekend...

Where do you live?

It better be somewhere remote and scary.

I have been doing mountain driving for 30 years and never once needed chains.