Speaking of spoiled, my fun will be soon, surveys and solicitors not sh_tting the bed permitting, will be moving to a house where the best fixed-line I can possibly expect is 35/6
Ooh! That would be nice, 16.5/5.5 here. We were supposed to have FTTP next year but, Connecting Devon and Somerset are as much use as a chocolate teapot with a hole in the bottom. I think that is very true, especially if want to enjoy your music and not analyse it studiously, as some "audiophiles" like to do.
Oof. Not sure I'd take the downgrade, personally.. But then I presume there are other factors in this move than just internet!
High-school catchment has created compromise in many factors including internets. A mate of mine took great pleasure in pointing out "look what you could have had" of what is basically a palace 3 miles on the wrong side of an arbitrary line. 7200sq ft, 5 garages, indoor pool, 500mbit internet of course. But nooooo, EdUcATioN. That said I can't and won't complain, it's not as if it's a shed we're moving to. And anyway on one hand it means I have to redo the media room, but on the other hand it means I get to redo the media room.
From what I remember of catchment areas, they can choke on it. I only ended up in the high school I went to because my parents had the doctor write a letter - I was one street over from the catchment area. All that said, I would quite like the remit to build a media room.
Today my graciously brief (2 months) search for a matching HTM3S centre has come to an end... Just in time to test it out in the gap that I originally sized for one of the big-boi 800-series centres (just in case) before we move. I'm pretty sure these are now my forever front speakers.
I picked up a Marantz NR1710 - after much debate internally I decided I didn't need the mild update offered by the 1711, so opted for the cheaper previous version. Which the wallet liked. But it does have dual sub outputs, and I think it's exposing the limits of my diddy little rears. Which is making me think about upgrading the fronts (and the center..) and reusing the fronts as rears. Ho hum, what a conundrum. Especially as I have a tendancy to go with a little bit of looks over performance with regards to things I look at all night. On that note, anyone got any thoughts on Klipsch as a brand?
I feel so terribly irresponsible.... Last night I changed the micropods in the bedroom to the small pods (in the picture above on the floor). Made a nice difference. Then last night my DAB radio I have hardly used wasn't outputting any sound. So I had a poke and the 3.5mm jack has failed. So I took it apart and will need to take it to mum's to solder in some proper RCA cables. Any way, when I was digging through the crawl space for stuff (HDMI cables mainly) I came across a box. When I opened it I found a Dolby Pro Logic receiver unit. At first I was like "WTF is this?" and then it dawned on me that I bought it years ago to use with my valve amps. However, I didn't understand that for the most part sound only comes out of the centre in that mode and it wasn't enough for the enormous room I was in so I just split everything off in stereo to fill that chasm of a room with sound. It's not very big, but it's optical and has 7.1 outputs IIRC. Might be 5.1. So then the cogs start whirring in my head. "Ooo, I have two front speakers and two rears, I can set up surround in the bedroom too !". Then I was scuppered as I would need an amp for the rears. Then I realised those Chingrish amps are actually rather good if you are not chasing pure quality. And I already have one in there bolted to the back of the dresser out of sight for the fronts. "But you don't have a centre speaker idiot". Then my brain remembered I have one of these in the loft at mum's I use when building bikes (got a phone running into it) "But you don't have a sub and they are really expensive". Yeah I admit that one wasn't immediately solved. I sat down on my PC and thought about looking for one. Then I looked down to my left foot..... Since buying my new monitor it has sat switched off doing nothing. I had it split with the B&O speakers in the monitor, but the Asus has no speakers. I'd literally forgotten it was there. "OK, so what actually do I need for this?" https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OPVWHRY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 That's it. That is literally it. I have a giant roll of speaker cable, tons of RCA and HDMI cables, 3.5mm to RCA cables etc. So other than finding a way to fix the rear speakers to the headboard on my bed.... I need absolutely nothing. Mad eh?
Today I signed-up for a free month of Qobuz, partly to listen to a bit more classical music, although a bit more than hardly any at all, is still not a lot. Anyway, I found Gustav Holst's Planet Suite, I already have it on CD but, that version is best described as shite. The version I listened to was a 2019 recording by Micheal Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. It's the first time I have listened to classical in high res and, it was 24 bit 176.4 KHz. Also the Qobuz Windows app supports the MUSBAudio ASIO drivers, so Windows couldn't mess with it. Now I know what my DAC/headphone amp and headphones can really do, it was beautiful.
So the ~£30 stand on deal that I thought would be a good temporary solution for the TV in the cinema-room-to-be turned out to be false economy. For TVs up to 50kg, and with a TV of 48kg perched on it... And that's with boards under the front feet to try to correct the lean. The vertical posts are secured by one M10 bolt through the base each, and that's more faith in cheap steel and questionable welds than I'm willing to give. Much nope. So that lasted less than 24 hours, and the TV is now on the wall, several weeks if not months prior to plan. I think it's in its final resting place, height is right, and it should be cental within the room once the fitted wardrobe on the left wall is removed. So one less job for the cinema room. Which makes 999 of them to go.
Wanted those for the front originally, but deal was too good on the Sonus. Currently for my rears I have some old car speakers and my Fatman valve amp. I will be getting a new amp for the rear ASAP. No point in ordering it right now unless I get a killer deal, as I am not home yet. Those were a killer deal. Any one got any reccs on adjustable stands? They need to come up to the rear of my sofa height.
Potato pics. This room is a sod for lighting. Any way, here is where I am at. Spent hours doing that. Couldn't find a power cable for it so had to dig, couldn't find a network cable, etc. Then had to bugger with the config of VLC etc. Visually the only complaint I have is the white LED. Will swap that out for a blue one. Sonically? holy effing sheet. I can't believe how much better it sounds than the Fire TV through optical.
Nice setup @Vault-Tec, I remember lusting after that TagMcLaren gear back in the day, bet it sounds lovely!
Yeah it's incredible tbh. You can get really good deals on it from time to time too. I guess some value it far less than others.
And just as I said that one popped up. Supposedly mint in box with the original paperwork and test CD etc. £380. Not bad considering a half decent int amp these days costs much more than that.
Bloody hell. After conquering the 108 steps last time with both an amp and those Sonus Fabers I figured the Quads would be a cakewalk. "Half the size, half the weight, easy !". Only I had my maths wrong. Half the size, twice the weight. Dear god they are like concrete blocks ! One more Tag amp and some speaker stands to get up.......
Speaking as somebody who has always used TVs with inbuilt speakers, what might be a sensible way to dip my toe in the water if I fancied trying to get something external for the next TV I buy?
