What's on your Hi-fi f***it list?

Miller-8

Wammer
Wammer
Aug 6, 2005
2,798
182
93
Midlothian, UK
AKA
Michael
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Ah but some of us have a CD Recorder as well as a Player (let alone the cd player in the conservatory system and the one now sitting up in my daughers old bedroom) .. both play admirably well and so there is always a back up - and for the more dedicated amongst us there is always the ability to revert to vinyl.
That is such a waste of plastic these days. Naughty.
 

dave

incurable tinkerer
Wammer
Mar 24, 2014
1,605
924
158
cambs
AKA
dave
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Paying more than £1 for a record, especially new ones or rare ones that I really want. I optimistically thought that buying something I liked on vinyl would give me the best sound. No. It has ended up in the stupid situation of where I have Dark side of the moon, a record I don't even really like on (fake) cassette £10, annoying as the not fake is supposed to be pretty good, CD £10, oldish Vinyl £20 (needs a clean££), Remastered SACD £20. The SACD sounds a bit better, probably due to the remastering, but have only listened to it once, compared to about 5 mins of the others.
I have 3 copies of Kraftwerk the mix, Cassette 50p, new vinyl £20 and CD £2. They all sound the same???
I once had a (charity shop) copy of "living voice" Mussorgsky pictures at an exhibition on vinyl, a truly excellent recording, which I stupidly got rid off the second time I got rid of all my records. Eventually tracked down what I though was the same thing on discogs from the US £35. Damaged record, unlistenable. Now have the SACD which is pretty good, still miss my original version.
For no particular reason I wanted a copy of Graceland on vinyl. Eventually got (given) a new copy £22, sounds like it is played through a cheap midi system. I could go on and on.
 

Lawrence001

Mega Wammer
Wammer
Jul 21, 2015
5,953
3,535
168
London
AKA
Lawrence
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Paying more than £1 for a record, especially new ones or rare ones that I really want. I optimistically thought that buying something I liked on vinyl would give me the best sound. No. It has ended up in the stupid situation of where I have Dark side of the moon, a record I don't even really like on (fake) cassette £10, annoying as the not fake is supposed to be pretty good, CD £10, oldish Vinyl £20 (needs a clean££), Remastered SACD £20. The SACD sounds a bit better, probably due to the remastering, but have only listened to it once, compared to about 5 mins of the others.
I have 3 copies of Kraftwerk the mix, Cassette 50p, new vinyl £20 and CD £2. They all sound the same???
I once had a (charity shop) copy of "living voice" Mussorgsky pictures at an exhibition on vinyl, a truly excellent recording, which I stupidly got rid off the second time I got rid of all my records. Eventually tracked down what I though was the same thing on discogs from the US £35. Damaged record, unlistenable. Now have the SACD which is pretty good, still miss my original version.
For no particular reason I wanted a copy of Graceland on vinyl. Eventually got (given) a new copy £22, sounds like it is played through a cheap midi system. I could go on and on.
If you're going to play them on a Dansette you should know what to expect 😂
 
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Lawrence001

Mega Wammer
Wammer
Jul 21, 2015
5,953
3,535
168
London
AKA
Lawrence
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Plenty of people must have seen the guy at shows who used to do cable (Nordost IIRC) demos? He would play something through a standard cable and then plug in the Fancy cable, he’d play the same tune again but this time nod his head vigorously and tap his feet. He’d then ask his audience if they could hear a difference, a few people said yes. Nobody in my recollection ever challenged him.

Cheers BB
I couldn't do that if you paid me £1,000 per demo, I'd be too embarrassed.
 

Lawrence001

Mega Wammer
Wammer
Jul 21, 2015
5,953
3,535
168
London
AKA
Lawrence
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
The deluded are the people who feel there are not great examples to be found in SS amps (as well as in valve amps). In fact the dear old Gale 401s sound far better on a SS amp than a valve amp (well it did in all the trials we did years ago), probably due the less than 4 ohm load and a need for a good 100 watts (at sub 4 ohm) to get them on song.

I am not saying there may not be a valve amp out there that can do the business on a pair of 401s but I have yet to hear it (amongst the valve amps we tried we used the EAR509 monoblocks, Luxman, and TVA)

At the end of the day it is the synergy of amp and speakers that matters and some speakers just need a tad more than most if not all valve amps can give
Ah but then there are people who would say those speakers have been poorly designed. As apparently have any speakers with less than 99db sensitivity 🤣
 

Blacksabbath25

blacksabbath25
Wammer
Aug 6, 2018
1,828
670
148
ely cambridgeshire
AKA
Darren
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Well the laser can burn out on your CD player. The drawer mechanism can fail. You can get jam on your CDs.
It can do but that might take years or if your unlucky but i have CDs that i have had 30 years still work as good the day i brought them as long as you look after them .
In that time i have never had a CD player go wrong .
streaming is good but your hard drive could go wrong or your PC , NAS drive , internet then your stuck then you have no way of playing any music .
But with a CD player i can still play my music unless the electric goes off and the fact your still playing the same quality as CDs anyway streaming just that you have all your music in one place and to make things less a pain with streaming i use ROON server but see the reasoning behind streaming but still play my CDs .
 

Lawrence001

Mega Wammer
Wammer
Jul 21, 2015
5,953
3,535
168
London
AKA
Lawrence
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
It can do but that might take years or if your unlucky but i have CDs that i have had 30 years still work as good the day i brought them as long as you look after them .
In that time i have never had a CD player go wrong .
streaming is good but your hard drive could go wrong or your PC , NAS drive , internet then your stuck then you have no way of playing any music .
But with a CD player i can still play my music unless the electric goes off and the fact your still playing the same quality as CDs anyway streaming just that you have all your music in one place and to make things less a pain with streaming i use ROON server but see the reasoning behind streaming but still play my CDs .
Something went in my first CDP (Kenwood) after about 5 years, the discs started spinning and scraping when you closed the drawer and they wouldn't play. I've not had any problems with a CDP since though (touch wood).

I'm keeping my Meridian 508 in reserve in case I need it. You never know, streaming may not last forever but my discs and CDP hopefully will. (Well my lifetime anyway.)
 

Blacksabbath25

blacksabbath25
Wammer
Aug 6, 2018
1,828
670
148
ely cambridgeshire
AKA
Darren
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Something went in my first CDP (Kenwood) after about 5 years, the discs started spinning and scraping when you closed the drawer and they wouldn't play. I've not had any problems with a CDP since though (touch wood).

I'm keeping my Meridian 508 in reserve in case I need it. You never know, streaming may not last forever but my discs and CDP hopefully will. (Well my lifetime anyway.)
Its just a bad luck thing if the CD player goes wrong but its like anything in your Hifi chain can go wrong too but if bad luck happens i try and get it fixed or a buy a new one but still like playing my CDs and having a collection to look at .
 

StingRay

Legend Wammer
Wammer
Apr 27, 2016
13,040
8,521
163
Suffolk coast, UK
AKA
Ray
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Its just a bad luck thing if the CD player goes wrong but its like anything in your Hifi chain can go wrong too but if bad luck happens i try and get it fixed or a buy a new one but still like playing my CDs and having a collection to look at .
CDP are probably the least reliable HiFi product apart from Turntables. Recently they seem even less reliable. Even back in the 90s my first Marantz did not work, had to be replaced. Some cds can get corrupted, had to take one back after about 9 months.
 

Chumpchops

From the safest places come the bravest words.
Wammer
Oct 3, 2014
2,183
1,573
148
Bristol
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
It can do but that might take years or if your unlucky but i have CDs that i have had 30 years still work as good the day i brought them as long as you look after them .
In that time i have never had a CD player go wrong .
streaming is good but your hard drive could go wrong or your PC , NAS drive , internet then your stuck then you have no way of playing any music .
But with a CD player i can still play my music unless the electric goes off and the fact your still playing the same quality as CDs anyway streaming just that you have all your music in one place and to make things less a pain with streaming i use ROON server but see the reasoning behind streaming but still play my CDs .

Bit rot is a well known and accepted phenomenon for stored CDs, so ripped them and created a back up is sensible, even if you don’t want to stream. Or you can make individual copies in CDr.

For CDP, or more relevantl, their transports, having sold CD/r/Rw mechanisms in their 10,000s back in the day (worked for Philips/HP), they are by and large very reliable, particularly in the low (relative to IT usage) duty cycle audio application. But it is still surprising how many folk replace mechs without having cleaned the lens and optical parts as a part of their regular maintenance. Glass needs cleaning…
 

Blacksabbath25

blacksabbath25
Wammer
Aug 6, 2018
1,828
670
148
ely cambridgeshire
AKA
Darren
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
CDP are probably the least reliable HiFi product apart from Turntables. Recently they seem even less reliable. Even back in the 90s my first Marantz did not work, had to be replaced. Some cds can get corrupted, had to take one back
Its been ok for me over the years CD players it happens things do go wrong with anything you have but there has only been a coupler CDs i replaced as when i was younger i probably didn't take care of them as much as i do now but at least you can still get hold of them still .
I have vinyl as well that can have its issues as well but both are great in there own ways
 

audio_PHIL_e

audioPHILe
Wammer
Jul 21, 2020
13,379
1
10,393
163
The wrong planet
soundcloud.com
AKA
Phil
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Most people have a network at home.
I have 2 computers plugged via different LAN cables into different ports on an EE hub. One computer is a Raspberry Pi, the other is a windoz-y thing that I use for work but I mainly use VMware to do the job using Linux.

I'm not sure that counts as a "network". I certainly have never had one for audio purposes.
 

George 47

Subjectivist
Staff member
Jan 1, 2006
8,423
6,070
193
United Kingdom
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Plenty of people must have seen the guy at shows who used to do cable (Nordost IIRC) demos? He would play something through a standard cable and then plug in the Fancy cable, he’d play the same tune again but this time nod his head vigorously and tap his feet. He’d then ask his audience if they could hear a difference, a few people said yes. Nobody in my recollection ever challenged him.

Cheers BB
You should go with @Strider , at a demo of a de-static machine after the vinyl was de-static'ed the announcer says you can clearly hear.......gets a response of, 'I can't hear a difference and I work with this just stuff every day'. Or into the Wilson speaker room 'Your speakers are in the wrong place' got a nervous 'we wanted to show how good they sound in the wrong place' HA!.

Always great fun.
 

tuga

. . .
Wammer
Aug 17, 2007
14,341
7,001
173
Oxen's ford, UK
AKA
Ricardo
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I have 2 computers plugged via different LAN cables into different ports on an EE hub. One computer is a Raspberry Pi, the other is a windoz-y thing that I use for work but I mainly use VMware to do the job using Linux.

I'm not sure that counts as a "network". I certainly have never had one for audio purposes.
It’s more than enough for local or web streaming. You can add a switch to improve performance but your network is fit for purpose
 

Tony T

Tony T
Wammer
Jul 14, 2020
178
203
63
London
AKA
Tony
HiFi Trade?
  1. No

stylesound

Wammer
Wammer
Dec 30, 2009
342
173
58
Kendal, Cumbria ,
AKA
Mike
Once upon a time, a man named Russ Andrews had a strange dream....
I choose to keep my opinions on Russ Andrews' business activity and philosophy to myself because firstly he is a really nice guy and secondly he is a personal friend. He used to live 3 miles away and a few years back he invited me to listen to his own home set-up. His system included many of his own branded items (speakers, amps, power supplies etc.). What I listened to on CD and vinyl was undoubtedly the best ever I had ever heard. Just stunning. Obviously it was specially built and hot-rodded, helped by being able to take advantage of selecting and matching from the stocks of very expensive high quality components he holds in his Kendal based works. I was gobsmacked when he told me how much he was paying for components such as resistors. Now he has semi-retired to his new home in the Scottish Highlands which includes his own purpose designed listening room no doubt his rig will sound even better.
His dream has turned into reality.

On a number of occasions he has come round to advise on my home set-ups and knowing he is blessed with golden ears I really valued his opinion (mine is in a simple small domestic room whereas his was more like a small theatre). He doesn't know it but the main thing I learnt from him was how to listen.
 
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steve 57

Wammer Plus
Wammer Plus
Dec 7, 2008
1,141
652
178
east yorks, , UK
AKA
steve
HiFi Trade?
  1. Yes
  2. No
He doesn't know it but the main thing I learnt from him was how to listen.


I think that's where the hifi skill is.. being able to hear faults in reproduction and being able to identify what's causing them..

I've been lucky, I consider my self partially trained, but i know at the wam show there's such a diverse bunch.. some very highly skilled listeners too.
 

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