Hi-Fi Equipment

[Xann]

Compression squeezes the audio signal at the top and bottom.

In layman's terms it boosts a soft signal and restrains a loud signal. This helps prevent distortion through clipping further down the signal path.

Used creatively it's very useful.

Essentially the difference between the Stooges' and Metallica's guitar sound is hard compression between guitar and distortion/amp.

It can also be used to correct or enhance - The reason for their invention was for making long range radio more intelligible. One of the most desirable vintage compressors, Fairchild, was a derived from a box attached the the radio set of US bombers. God I'm boring.

Used on hi hats or a ride it'll boost the softer strokes and stop clumsy lunges going into the red, making your drummer sound more uniform.

Applied softly across a whole mix it thickens the sound bringing up quieter detail.

Applied hard across a whole mix it sounds like the ad break on a cable channel - Everything squished into the middle and really LOUD.

 

Record company business types got rather too heavy handed with compression, wanting their product to sound more punchy than the previous track on the radio playlist.

Hence loudness wars and the expression 'brickwalling' for offensive OTT compression. 

 

So big numbers in that database mean there's little compression, engineers refer to these as open recordings. It used to be something to strive for.

Not everything conforms to this, dance gear especially. Compressed to feck and in your face. A dance mix on an otherwise regular band album would account for a low DR min on an album that has a high average Dynamic Range.

 

After all that, it sounds like your CD wasn't well EQ'd 

'Queen Of The Wave' is a masterpiece, it'll sound stunning on your player.

[chrisp65]

On 6/3/2017 at 19:53, Xann said:

'Queen Of The Wave' is a masterpiece, it'll sound stunning on your player.

Well, I don't know if I've been in this thread a week ago and then forgotten, or I'm just a bit psychic for Xann, but I've had Queen of the Wave in the car for the last week or so and it just superb. I'd say it wasn't my usual thing, but I think I'm just kidding myself, as I've also got Super Furries and Tame Impala in there at the moment and to me there's a broad sort of connection.

Whoever ordered my car from new had the extra speakers and bass put in and it makes Queen of the Wave just stunning. The stereo in my 10 year old car is probably the best piece of kit I have!

Xann, Blandy, out of interest, at home do you guys carefully position speakers and worry about hard surfaces and the like (appreciate for some it could be a bus man's holiday!)? My main stereo in the house is not set up for optimum sound. Rather, it's set up to sit square in a convenient alcove and look 'neat'. But then, it's in a smallish room with hard walls and a great slab of an 8 seater table and a few token bean bags. Plus the speakers are actually 40 years old and much of the music played in that room was recorded by Jamaican space cadets not overly concerned with detail. It does some people's heads in that I resolutely will not angle my speakers.

But yeah, reason I ask is that I know a few people that take it all quite seriously. Whereas when I'm 'really really listening' I stick the headphones on.

 

[Xann]

My room isn't set up optimally, no. Doors, windows, alcoves, telly and my other half make sure of that. One of the things I miss about working in a studio is having a proper stereo set up to hand. It does play a big part in the stereo listening experience, if that's what floats your boat? If your room isn't set up properly there isn't much point in spending really big money on kit. Positioned absolutely correctly, your speakers' locations should be just about impossible to locate from the sweet spot, when you're eyes are closed - Obviously As for toeing them in? Depends - follow the manufacturer's advice. Hopefully they've taken the time to test them? I have a pair that are geared for off axis sound, so the face of the speaker is parallel to the wall behind no matter what. Some makes do recommend toeing in however.

The tweeters should be at the same level as your ears btw..

My personal preference for speakers is something made within the last quarter century. Mid and top are much more refined than earlier models.

Incidentally Pepe use these... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Event-20-20-Passive-Studio-Monitors-Speakers-/162549942802?hash=item25d8bb4a12:g:Lt8AAOSwdzVXuBi to mix.

It's their mastering guy that has the posh set up.

 

 

 

[blandy]

My set up is, er, set up so that if there's no-one around to annoy, if the neighbours are out, that I can move the table and chairs to the next room, and move the sofa the other way and then sit in it and all's good with the world. Speakers are toed in a bit, but not as much as the guide that came with them says. Still tweaking their position to see if I can make things better, I kind of put them where the old ones were and started from there. But there's hard floor, hard walls - it's not really optimal.

[Xann]

The Oppo is looking to be a pretty serious piece of kit.

I know what @Chindie was talking about earlier in the thread.

A multiformat player usually isn't going to outperform a specialist, but the response from the audio heads so far has been one of surprise.

It's got two posh new DACs that can turn their attention to whatever's in the tray, or stuck in its backside.

A hefty toroidal PSU cleans up the power, the video circuitry is shut down in pure audio mode, great headphone output and it's built like a tank.

@Kingman must have noticed it? It's supposedly one of the best machines out there when it comes to quality visuals.

 

I'd discounted the Oppo as an unnecessary expense, as the picture side of it is of little interest to me and the Marantz is less than half the price.

Though with many ditching physical digital media, a machine like this takes charity shop marauding to another dimension.

That may be more of a selling point than its ability to play 768 KHz files, which is actually just silly considering the operating parameters of the important bit - Your ears

 

[Xann]

The tank was acquired. The lounge has been fairly messy since.

The first 48 hrs it was just powered up, plugged into the amp and bombarded with titles from the stack.

CDs sound so clear it's crazy. SACD DSD classical recordings are out there!

Last thing on day 2 Abba went on. Abba is already a polished product, the combination with the player put my teeth on edge.

Next day the telly was connected and fired up to get at the audio options.

Abba went on again - It still sounded awful - Couldn't believe it. The player was going back to the shop.

Then I realised the HDMI cable was carrying audio to the panel telly

So after the offensive telly speakers were muted, it was this...

The top setting, Brick Wall, is for testing or masochists. The others were a mystery, had to refer to the web.

It's effectively 6 different sounding players, with the bottom two options being modeled on legacy characteristics.

Abba returned in all their glory.  @mjmooney - Soft Machine II is unreal, 'We Did It Again' sounds like I've never heard it before - Posh  

Interestingly it's done wonders with the bootlegs on the Fallout label, going to try a Goldmine Soul Supply comp in a bit.

Right now it's 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' OST and the 'Journey to Blofeld's Hideaway' is properly soaring.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Xann

[Xann]

Finally got it chatting to the computer yesterday.

Had been waiting for a patch.

After scratching about with 3 different USB cables and every device and permission menu in both machines, it seems Sierra has a problem with some Hi-Res audio devices.

It hadn't occurred to me to use the mini displayport for audio until yesterday, when the telly was connected and the sound menu was open. Up popped the Telly's audio option via HDMI out.

Now the HDMI cable from the computer, carrying both audio and video, is going into the HDMI in on the Oppo rather than direct to the telly.

Been playing lossless audio from the computer's HDD and streams from the web.

It's difficult not to be impressed with the Oppo now it's actually delivering what it was bought for.

It is a tidy and focused standalone player, but it raises the performance of everything from USB sticks, through my £30 non smart phone, laptop and then supposedly all the way up to the luxury man cave cinema kit for the film lovers.

It also makes streamed porn look amazing on the telly.

[rjw63]

Porn? Disgusting!

[Xela]

Years ago (maybe 10-15) when I couldn't afford it, I used to lust after a hi-fi separates system. Not a modern one, but a retro 70s/80s one with switches, knobs and LEDs galore. Something that wouldn't look out of place in Bladerunner or a similar vision of a dystopian future. Big and solid behemoths of audiophile joy... maybe a Nakamichi Dragon cassette deck or a Yamaha 580... a Sansui amp and a big old FM tuner... that SAE MK6 from earlier in this thread is delightful. Perhaps chuck in a classic Technics turntable and a Pioneer graphic equalizer/spectrum analyser and i'd be in hi-fidelity wonderland

Alas it wasn't to be and I spent my meagre salary at the time on other things like a BMW that I couldn't afford, designer clothes and going out getting drunk every weekend and chasing tail. My desire for audiophile excellence waned and I moved from wanting the best sound to downloading poor quality mp3s from Limewire and listening on my iPod! All my physical media is now stored in a 40ft steel container in some part of the black country alongside all the other family stuff that is no longer used. 

I appreciate it is a different landscape now in the separates world. What constitutes a good system now if I don't have any physical media? I guess its all streamers, network players and DAB and internet radio now? What would a good £1000 separate system look like? 

My requirements are:

- Spotify compatible

- DAB radio -  FM as well if possible

- Internet radio streaming

 

Cheers 

[chrisp65]

I haven't got a clue! I'm dead proud of myself, getting albums on a usb for the car.

Perhaps you just go in to Richer Sounds and tell them you've got £700 and see where it goes?

Richer

One of the guys in work loves his whole house being speakered up to a Sonos system he raves about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chrisp65]

yep, I've found what you need @Xela

stick this on a table somewhere

 

then get someone from Currys to do full Sonos around the whole house, and sit there looking at your tape machine whilst you stream

sex on a stick

[Xela]

Some nice pieces of kit in that store!

I came across this online - what a chunk of vintage hi-fi

 

[rjw63]

My set up isn't overly expensive but IMO sounds decent enough. Rega Planar 3 turntable with a Linn K9 catridge, Yamaha amp, Technics CD player, akai speakers. TT was £140, amp £35, I got the CD player as a freebie with the deck, and the speakers were a bargain ten quid.

[Xann]

Had the place to myself yesterday, got a chance to listen to some tunes. The Oppo downloaded an update, it was this.

Quote

 

MQA Aims to “fundamentally change the way we all enjoy music”. It’s a method of digitally storing recorded music as a file that’s small and convenient enough to download, or even stream, without the sonic sacrifices traditionally associated with compressed files. 

MQA claims its tracks use a similar bandwidth to that required for CD-quality streams. So if you’re able to stream Tidal’s hi-fi tier with relative ease then the new Tidal Masters tier using MQA shouldn’t be a problem. 

This means hi-res audio streaming can (and has) become a reality, with songs being delivered exactly how they were recorded in the studio, without requiring huge amounts of bandwidth.

 

 

What HiFi

 

CD still clings on as a digital format and a measure because it's transparent, lossless and mathematically it sits plonk on good human hearing.

 

This is going to sound like an infomercial now.

The 'Best Albums 2017' thread bought it home. I've been frustrated in buying new music, because more and more what I'm liking rudely doesn't exist in a physical format.

If you actually like the music more than indulging let's say, a vinyl fetish? You've got to be across the formats and the streams. There's just so much out there, Jazz archives, Techno tape archives, The British Library archives and everything else archives to go with the new stuff.

An Oppo, a record deck and optional tape deck with your computer is a mental audio set up for the money.

As for visuals. Still haven't watched a Blu Ray and the UHD stuff will have to wait til the telly dies, but we did plug the camera in. The pics and films looked amazing from a bridge camera. I imagine a more serious DSLR would look well spangly.

This is why the Oppo is so amazing. As well as being a great player that plays silly high spec audio in all the surround formats, it raises the functionality of all your digital AV: memory and stream sticks/boxes, stuff from your phone or drives - You can plug a USB turntable into it, there's a post for the ground

What I thought was quite a scary price tag is actually a bargain for the audio alone. I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[chrisp65]

for those that are interested, looks like Shure are dropping out of the accessory market

so if anyone has a fave needle or cartridge, might be worth grabbing a couple of spares

 

[chrisp65]

My second hand scruffy speakers have turned up and the gang are all out at some local am dram musical!

So Friday night is speaker test night!

They're Wharfdale Chevin XP's for what its worth. Nice enough, made in about '77 I believe so slotting right in with the rest of it. A quick brief google up of Wharfdale suggests these came out just a couple of years after the company went down the quality ladder from great to mid range. Good enough, for the shite I play. I'll give them a cosmetic clean up and see if I can at least get matching screws!

Quite chuffed with them for £20.

[chrisp65]

  

Getting there, but annoyingly a different shade to my Ikea chopping boards, sorry, hi fi equipment plinths.

A stanley blade to winkle off the larger snobs of paint. Some wire wool to knock off some ropey flaky varnish and splinters. Then some hygenic wipes to get rid of grime. Then a wetting with some warm soapy water to lift some dings and dents. Then a light soapy scrub and a buff up with a tan polish. Pretty much my own personal hygene regime really.

Still not exactly pristine, but a world of difference from when they arrived.

Also now on a great long length of Screwfix speaker cable. A tenner for 25 metres, so they reach as far as the patio now.

[bickster]

 

Thinking of buying an Onkyo 9010 and a pair of Q Acoustics 3020's to go with my Project Debut 3 USB.

Currently, £309 for both in Richer Sounds, am I making the correct choice or can I do better for roughly the same money?

[chrisp65]

On 15/08/2018 at 09:54, bickster said:

 

Thinking of buying an Onkyo 9010 and a pair of Q Acoustics 3020's to go with my Project Debut 3 USB.

Currently, £309 for both in Richer Sounds, am I making the correct choice or can I do better for roughly the same money?

Clearly a bit late to the party here sorry!

Rave reviews for the Onkyo on a couple of sites so that's got to be promising.

Part of me thinks it depends on what you like to hear, and perhaps you should try and get a listen before you buy.

Part of me thinks, what the hell, it's new, it's good names, your house probably isn't optimally set up, so it'll be just fine.

Part of me knows I only came here because I saw a picture of what you bought, so its all a bit academic!

[bickster]

3 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Clearly a bit late to the party here sorry!

Rave reviews for the Onkyo on a couple of sites so that's got to be promising.

Part of me thinks it depends on what you like to hear, and perhaps you should try and get a listen before you buy.

Part of me thinks, what the hell, it's new, it's good names, your house probably isn't optimally set up, so it'll be just fine.

Part of me knows I only came here because I saw a picture of what you bought, so its all a bit academic!

I'd have prefered the Q Acoustics but they were out of stock so had to spend a little bit more to buy the Missions but I'm happy with the purchase.

The Onkyo Amp pretty much owns the £200 section of the Amp market, I knew that before I went into the shop today but even the bloke helping me in the shop said as much. He wasn't advising me on the Amp because it was a given, I was asking his advice on speakers as the ones I wanted were out of stock. He said you'd have to move up to about the £450 mark before you found a better one