Looks good Dem, handy location too, pretty central to all the good bits within easy driving distance. I think there's room for a 14ft tinny stashed behind the water tanks.

For our new extension

The driveway is one boundary, the fenceline that runs down behind the wooden shed and water tanks is another (the long scrubby grass is the neighbours property), and the other two boundaries you can't actually see. One runs down the middle of the gully that is on the other side of the two field to the left (pretty much running in a straight horizontal line half way up the photo) and there is another field that you can't see (as it's sloped) behind the trees at the back of the property.



The shipping container is gone, so plenty of room for a big boat in there. Will probably start with another fishing kayak though.

Nice spot!

Loved Kerikeri when we stayed there. Is the Israeli restaurant still open?

Ah, Naim. Very British so part brilliant, part infuriatingly rubbish.

If this is anything like my own Naim, you will be addicted to its sound after about 1.5ms, and will hate operating it for the rest of your life.

I have the Qb version of that, excellent bit of kit

Even Mrs Oval was immediately convinced by the sound - despite the price tag. We tried quite a few others but this was a serious improvement on all of them.

I'm not too worried about the operation, I tend to keep it simple - In the shop it only took me about 10 seconds to get it working smoothly off my phone.

Just need the extension to be finished now - the weather has put progress back by a month (and counting).

Aye, the Naim sound is audio heroine - delivered through a Bowers & Wilkins syringe in my case. The bit I hate about my Uniti is that you cannot faf around getting something ready from one input mode will listening to a song through another input mode. Any £100 AldiLoFi system will allow that but not precious Naim, oh no. Bastards.

That sounds good - B&W speakers are awesome. Unfortunately our garden room isn't big enough to take a big HiFi and Speakers - hence the Muso - but, had it not been so impressive I'd probably have found a way to squeeze in some B&Ws - bit tricky though as 2 sides of the room are taken up with Bi Fold doors.

Our friend has just spent over £10K on her Naim system with kick ass PWC speakers in her Audio room - hugely impressive - and another £20K+ on a cinema room with Dolby Atmos - we went over, the other day, for the the 1st screening - the cinema sound is just amazing.

Bugger. I've had two cracked wheels since I've been running Grabbers. That must be why. Also, as soon as there's a bit of wear on the fronts, aquaplaning seems to be a real issue with them.

I'm going to be changing them for something more road-focused but still good in light mud and Scottish snow. I'm not taking my RR off road any more so having Grabbers isn't as beneficial (apart from looking funky).

I'm almost embarrassed to post this after the posts above.

If you are embarrassed, what about me ...

Wharfedale Vista S

https://www.wharfedale.co.uk/vista-200s/

I've just finished a phone call from my wife. Apparently we now own a 6 year old Irish Sports horse.

A while ago the girl who rides working hunter ponies for us confided in my wife that what she really wants to do is decent level eventing. A couple of weeks ago my wife went into her Aberdeen office and met a new member of staff who took up accountancy as 5* eventing was not exciting enough. They talked horses.

A few years back we bought a working hunter pony as an unbacked 3 year old, we have spent time and money developing her into a genuine HOYS class WHP. We also have her two younger sisters (3 yo and 4 months) to bring on in succession. We have now given our main rider a promising young horse who needs a lot of work in a different discipline.

The logic escapes me.

But apparently this was too good an opportunity to miss and it will all work out.

Rant over.

Very underated - Wharfedale make some excellent speakers and are brilliant bang for your buck. Their bookshelf Diamond 9.1s are fantastic.

Very nice - excellent piece of kit.

Have a look at Spendors. Philip Swift is a mate of mine and with Derek Scotland built my Audiolab kit.

I used to mow Derek's lawn.

Always wanted one, never wanted to pay the price
Noticed in the corner of the canvas shop I just had my enormous 3 room tent in to get repaired so hit the guy up and he gave it to me for $250. Kontiki and longline on a manual reel, just need the clip on traces, sinkers, and a few new 12V batteries.

B&O H9i lovely

I follow the fishing news along our coast and the boys are getting some decent fish this year from the beach. All because they are using drones and bait boats. I am still a traditionalist and won't spend the money because it's a hobby for me and the challenges of catching a decent fish are part of the fun. I always release unless its going out as a livey or as a fillet. Still got mixed feelings about it. Love the big fish the boys are catching but am concerned that breeding stock is going to the pot.

Saw a clip of an elderly gentleman fighting a decent sized yellow fin from the cliffs along our coast. Man that was something and a dream catch for any fisherman considering the treacherous conditions the angler was fighting from and the power and size of the fish.

I really want a boat, but I have no where to park the fucker.

£36 for this

Apparently she wants it to make her hair look nice.

Yeah, right...

Bottom left attachment is for your birthday.

Big rewards on a boat but lots of work and money. Not doing the conversion but a trip to Robben Island from the Cape town stadium area which is 7 km in a straight line would cost around R1350.00 an outing for fuel and bait...and a shitload in tackle and maintenance and you have a very small window to get out with the weather. Storage was around R 650.00 a month not sure now...its better to know someone looking for crew than being the one looking for crew.

as they say best to be good mates with someone who owns a boat...

Yeah, it's tough getting a crew together

Just taken delivery of one of these, looking forward to annoying the wife with it for many years to come

Um, wtf is that Womack ? Pocket beatbox ?

Not strictly a purchase, but the wife has bought me a set of these for my birthday

One rather hopes she puts it to good use.

Sexist

Good post Rinkals.

And these

Hmmm.

Do they taste of almonds?

One of these:



With one of these plugged into it (a special edition Rega Planar 1 Plus, which was cheaper than the non-special issue presumably due to the dodgy graphics):


The Denon is very handy indeed, makes a decent fist of being a two-channel amp and lets you plug in line-in (the turntable has its own pre-amp so don't need phono-in), TV box and Bluray (it's got 2 optical ins) and play CDs as well as streaming music. Excellent all-purpose box as long as you're not fussed about surround sound for the TV. Debating whether to switch spotify out for deezer or tidal, quite interested in lossless streaming but not sure the amp warrants it. Might give it a try. My car also struggles with the spotify app, so might be worth a change.

I can hear a big difference between Spotify 320KB vs Lossless tracks on my humble Bose radio. I say you should go for Lossless on your Denon!

Tidal occasionally kick out silly offers (5 months for £5) so will keep an eye out - only concern is that the full subscription is £20 per month, which is double my spotify. Assume it's tidal you're using, or are these CDs/rips of your own? Not sure if deezer do lossless, to be honest I've not really explored options but I definitely think spotify sounds 'flat' even compared to internet radio.

eta: just checked, Deezer Hi-fi (their lossless option) also £20 per month. If the missus can also use it, and it works in the car as a download - I paid extra for a Meridian sound system as I'm an idiot - I may give it a go.

I got the Denon last year too .... but went for a Rega Planner 2 (my 35 year old 3 was really dead). Very small room (home office) so was not going to splash out too much.