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Music The Hi-Fi thread!

Discussion in 'General' started by Edge102030, 30 Dec 2009.

  1. Aterius Gmork

    Aterius Gmork smell the ashes

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    Got my Marantz PM 7005 today, totally stoked! The USB DAC sounds better than my old Maverick Audio Tube Magic D1 and there is no background noise. Asynchronous USB seems to be very well worth the money.

    The amp itself sounds great as well! The soundstage is alot wider than my old Yamaha, the bass is precise but not weak and the treble is alot clearer.

    Still hate connecting the cables to the speakers though.
     
  2. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Asynchronous USB is definitely worth it! :thumb:

    I received my Astell & Kern AK300, the dock and XLR cable to connect it to my MHA100 pushing music to a pair of KEF LS50. Yes, it is a bit on the cold side and yes, it lacks oomph in the bass department, but to me it is heaven. Or as close as I can get right now. There never will be a cure to upgraditis. But for now... I am extremely happy!

    As I bloody well should be, my friends remind me, after spending almost 10k on a stereo setup. And another 4k on headphones. :D
     
  3. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    I never updated about the LD2. OK so I ordered one and it came and I figured it was broken because it had no guts whatsoever and distorted if I turned it up. It turns out that the second unit was identical, so why was it so inferior in power than the LD1? well, it seems the LD1 is valve pre and then solid state for the amp. This means it has far more guts than a headphone amp running on four small valves. I don't know if this problem is specific to my cans (Hifiman HE400s PM) but yeah I wasn't happy with it.

    So I kind of had the idea of using the LD2 as a pre amp and then feeding that signal into my Graham Slee, which is the most neutral amp on earth it seems. And the results were good ! Whilst it did not have the sheer grunt of the LD1 it sounded much better due to the signal. So happy days, right? well almost. I felt terrible about having nearly £500 worth of amps tied up to a pair of headphones I use for bass heavy music and I used to use my Graham Slee to power my Grados, which is about the best combination I could find for neutrality and live recordings. Absolutely nothing I've ever heard even comes close to the detail and soundstage of that combination. It's almost like you're expecting a musician to tap you on the shoulder from behind.

    I didn't want to return another LD2 as there is nothing physically wrong with it, so I had a bit of a poke around and found this on clearance at RS for £29 delivered.

    [​IMG]

    I am hoping that it will work well with the LD2. Mixed reviews, but seems to be OK overall. It just needs enough grunt to run these HE400S.

    It's a lot of messing around, but none of my other headphones are "fun". What I mean is they all have small drivers and whilst being excellent at what they do I like to listen to a lot of thumping beat driven music sometimes. Like early 90s techno, hardcore and the likes and they just don't have that deep rumbling bass that I like.

    I guess you can take the boy out of the car but you can't take the car audio out of the boy.

    I could fit some gear into my wife's Mini but we need the boot. Shame too, 'cause I have a set of 1990s JL W6 12s? or 10s? in my mother's loft just needing new foam surrounds.
     
  4. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Guys may I pick your collective brains? I have a few audio related questions, but will explain what I'm up to.

    OK, so since setting up the cinema system I have wanted to be able to play music through it also. I didn't buy all of that hifi gear just to listen to Celebrity Big Brother :D

    I originally bought a 5.1 decoder and hooked it all up using that (optical out from Humax into the decoder) but 99% of the stuff we (my lady and I) watch was not in surround and so I had to get up and press the "Psuedo surround" button every time I changed channels in order to make all of the speakers work. This soon became tiring, so I just wired the bugger up on splitters in stereo with the rear speakers reversed.

    I seldom watch movies I just watch TV so this worked well. So, now I can buy a RCA switch box and connect up something to it and be able to listen to it through my system.

    I thought about building a ITX rig for music and stuff but I would need to use an expensive soundcard and my next idea works out cheaper. I am going to buy a double din head unit and fit it into a ITX case with a 750w XFX (Seasonic) full sized PSU. I will post more about this when I have 100% decided on which stereo I want to use and which case I fit it in. I have a few on my short list.

    OK so here is the question. With modern head units they all say "Bluetooth". However, when I looked at a manual on Nakamichi's website all it did was show you how to use a phone through the stereo.

    So when these head units say Bluetooth, are they a device you can connect an Android phone to and play the sound on the phone through the head unit? The head unit I am looking at does not play FLAC and most of my audio collection was on FLAC so could I use VLC to play FLAC and then transmit that sound signal via Bluetooth into the headunit?

    I need an "audio station" basically. It has a card slot, USB slot etc so that connectivity is all awesome but the last piece of the puzzle is this bluetooth thing.

    I've not been into car audio (I don't have a car) since '08 and a lot has changed. I can't fit a stereo into "our" car because it's a Mini ffs.
     
  5. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    As a mini project I bought one of these.

    [​IMG]

    Which didn't work when it arrived lol. I tracked it down to a bad trace and simply soldered in a bridge wire. The left audio channel was dead..

    Any way, I then did these mods to eliminate the tone control.

    [​IMG]

    Made a new front panel.

    [​IMG]

    And as per the threads on the net have ordered some replacement caps.

    [​IMG]

    Nothing too taxing but fun :)
     
  6. ShakeyJake

    ShakeyJake My name is actually 'Jack'.

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    Hi-fi gurus, I need to upgrade from my lovely Microlab Solo 7C as I need more inputs, and digital ones at that. I tried to get the 9cs but they appear to be eol. Anyway I was thinking this might be my excuse to get into proper hi-fi. Is this a good start?
    http://www.richersounds.com/package/system-savers/mini-hi-fi-system-deals/pah011943

    As long as it's good for now, the plan would be to upgrade incrementally over time.

    Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk
     

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