A few years ago I ditched all my 80's consumer entry level hifi gear for what I thought was going to bring me into the 21st century.
I'm hearing music that I played in the 80's on my cheap'ish technics system & wharfedale speakers on my now supposedly better system... better amp, better speakers, but to me it sounds pretty much the same only louder with a bit less distortion at higher listening levels.
I didn't just blindly buy the first bits of kit I read about, I did research... I read a lot of stuff. Admittedly I didn't know about this place nor did I get advice from elsewhere. I started with what was considered a decent amp at the time what was within my budget, a Marantz PM7005. I wanted to play music from various sources including digital... The fact that I could plug my laptop in and play content from my network was a real plus. This is also great for party's. I play my stuff through winamp and have milkdrop visualisations playing on the projector which is a real crowd pleaser. I've also recently added a Rega Planer P2 to my set up for all my old 80's Vinyl.
I know we all have different ears and people will say it depends on what your taste is and what kind of presentation you're looking for. I'll be honest and say I'm not entirely sure what audiophiles mean by bright, forward, soundstage etc.. Is there a dictionary with definitions of audiophile terminology? Now I've said it I shall google it.
I think the reason I'm disappointed in what I hear and what I've purchased is down to a) the size of the room where I listen to music, and b) the speakers I bought. My room was built by the previous owner for a antique snooker table he had. The room measures 26ft x 18ft with 10ft high ceilings. My speakers are Kef Q700's and I think this is where it mainly falls down. I actually took the time to try out various speakers at Superfi where they have a listening room. I tried 4 different types before I decided on these. I now see that the problem was that their listening room was tiny compared with where I have them now. I think this is where I need start and to rethink the set up to be able to fill the room with decent sound. Don't get me wrong, I like the speakers, they're ok'ish but I don't think they're good enough for the room size.
So I'm looking to upgrade the speakers first, which is a difficult task when you've no idea what they're going to sound like in the room with the equipment I have until I've made the purchase... and I don't really want to go through the faff of having a "home trial" like what the Premium Sound store offer. I've also read about room conditioning ... reflection, absorption, diffusion etc... but she who must be obeyed would never allow that.
I haven't got a ton of cash under the mattress so the sky limit is out of reach for me. I'm looking to spend in the region of £1500.. (the missus doesn't know this). Does anyone here have a similar sized room with similar priced speakers that they are content with? And I also realise there are better amp's and amp set ups but I can't afford to do it all at the same time.
I've spent the last couple of weeks trawling the interwebs for what's out there... I haven't discounted older speakers but the ones I keep coming back to are the Klipsch RP800F's and the Dali Oberon 9's. Any thoughts or experience on these?
And the one of the reasons I came here because through my research I read a piece by Esquire that made me laugh out loud:
I've attached a couple of pics of my room to show the layout.. again this is how it must be according to "she who must be obeyed". And to be fair because of the snooker table this does seem to be the most logical location.
Apologies for the long ass post but I'm trying not to make the same mistake twice. And I realise there is no "best" or "one size fits all" I'm just trying to make an informed decision.
I'm hearing music that I played in the 80's on my cheap'ish technics system & wharfedale speakers on my now supposedly better system... better amp, better speakers, but to me it sounds pretty much the same only louder with a bit less distortion at higher listening levels.
I didn't just blindly buy the first bits of kit I read about, I did research... I read a lot of stuff. Admittedly I didn't know about this place nor did I get advice from elsewhere. I started with what was considered a decent amp at the time what was within my budget, a Marantz PM7005. I wanted to play music from various sources including digital... The fact that I could plug my laptop in and play content from my network was a real plus. This is also great for party's. I play my stuff through winamp and have milkdrop visualisations playing on the projector which is a real crowd pleaser. I've also recently added a Rega Planer P2 to my set up for all my old 80's Vinyl.
I know we all have different ears and people will say it depends on what your taste is and what kind of presentation you're looking for. I'll be honest and say I'm not entirely sure what audiophiles mean by bright, forward, soundstage etc.. Is there a dictionary with definitions of audiophile terminology? Now I've said it I shall google it.
I think the reason I'm disappointed in what I hear and what I've purchased is down to a) the size of the room where I listen to music, and b) the speakers I bought. My room was built by the previous owner for a antique snooker table he had. The room measures 26ft x 18ft with 10ft high ceilings. My speakers are Kef Q700's and I think this is where it mainly falls down. I actually took the time to try out various speakers at Superfi where they have a listening room. I tried 4 different types before I decided on these. I now see that the problem was that their listening room was tiny compared with where I have them now. I think this is where I need start and to rethink the set up to be able to fill the room with decent sound. Don't get me wrong, I like the speakers, they're ok'ish but I don't think they're good enough for the room size.
So I'm looking to upgrade the speakers first, which is a difficult task when you've no idea what they're going to sound like in the room with the equipment I have until I've made the purchase... and I don't really want to go through the faff of having a "home trial" like what the Premium Sound store offer. I've also read about room conditioning ... reflection, absorption, diffusion etc... but she who must be obeyed would never allow that.
I haven't got a ton of cash under the mattress so the sky limit is out of reach for me. I'm looking to spend in the region of £1500.. (the missus doesn't know this). Does anyone here have a similar sized room with similar priced speakers that they are content with? And I also realise there are better amp's and amp set ups but I can't afford to do it all at the same time.
I've spent the last couple of weeks trawling the interwebs for what's out there... I haven't discounted older speakers but the ones I keep coming back to are the Klipsch RP800F's and the Dali Oberon 9's. Any thoughts or experience on these?
And the one of the reasons I came here because through my research I read a piece by Esquire that made me laugh out loud:
haha I get that. And my missus has no idea what I'm up to right now either." It's the audiophile's biggest fear, isn't it?" grins James, the immensely affable founder of HiFi Wigwam, an online forum that begat the show. "They die and then their wives sell their hi-fi equipment for what they told them it cost".
I've attached a couple of pics of my room to show the layout.. again this is how it must be according to "she who must be obeyed". And to be fair because of the snooker table this does seem to be the most logical location.
Apologies for the long ass post but I'm trying not to make the same mistake twice. And I realise there is no "best" or "one size fits all" I'm just trying to make an informed decision.