Entertainment For Lively Minds
Cheapo HiFi Improvements
Much as I’d love to splash out on a proper hi-fi setup, it’s out of the question for the foreseeable future. I’d appreciate any advice from the massive on (very) cheap ways I could improve my listening experience.
One problem is that the focal point of my living room is a large feature fireplace. The sofa is directly opposite this, with the TV on shelves in the left alcove and the hi-fi and speakers on shelves in the right alcove. This is obviously not an optimum listening arrangement. In light of the usual mention of names such as Linn and Mission on these threads, I’m slightly embarrassed to state that my hi-fi is a Technics midi / micro system (can’t remember the exact model and I’m not typing this at home, but I’m sure it has ‘301’ in it somewhere).
Because the room is quite narrow, I can’t really place the existing speakers on stands in front of the fireplace, and I can’t see the GLW/FPO allowing speaker brackets on the chimney breast. This will make audiophiles come out in a cold sweat, but the current ‘configuration’ involves the speakers and hi-fi placed together in one of the shelf spaces, with only a couple of inches space at the back and the top.
Do you reckon upgrading cables etc would be worthwhile, or alternatively, are there any (very) small speakers recommended that could potentially be placed on brackets either side of the fireplace?
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Speakers
When I was at college one of my house mates had a cheap midi system thingy for which he bought some budget Mission speakers and it improved the sound no end; the same was true of Wharfedales attached to a 70s 'music centre' (as they were called) that my brother-in-law owned, so that's the way I would go. Wharfedale's new Diamonds are getting very good reviews and are FPO-friendly in size I believe?
I wouldn't
spend money on cables etc. if you haven't got your kit ear level and the speakers aiming the sound either side of your ears where you normally sit.
You could try some nxt speakers but not sure of how good they will sound. Don't dismiss some attractive floorstanding speakers either side of the fire place. The FPO may actually prefer them to brackets (mine did). Use good cable (don't need to spend more than £3 quid per metre really) but make sure that your amp will take the new cable before you buy (some speaker clips on amps are quite small).
Richer Sounds is often a good place to start. But don't look at the Sonos system, its probably the answer to all hifi is big and ugly, especially the wires type comments. But it will set you back a few quid.
slight tangent
does you system have an audio input if so I bought a Motorola DC900 for £18 quid recently and a tenner for a usb blutetooth dongle for my laptop this set up lets me stream spotify and mp3 to my stereo sounds good for 30 quid.
as to general sound an upgrade to your speakers is the way forward can you run cable round the edge of the room etc so can a speaker on the other side of the chimmney.
Pictures
My brother, a sound engineer in the past, uses these
http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/4686
though they are not audiophile they are fine for the lounge. in the thread they mention other little speakers. Or get some decent headphones - proper over the ear good ones will sound fantastic.
Cheap cable
Cheap cable causes discernible discoloration in the bass range, with pronounced stigmata and hadron-compression. Mid-ranges are markedly fermented, with significant quantum insurgence. Overall your sound will be less amplitude-lathered and low-frequency felching is reduced.
This is you isn't it?
I hardly understand
any of that, and can't tell if it is factual, or just nonsense trying to bamboozle some of us.
For sure though, if you stick "felching" into Google, it brings up stuff that I didn't want to know about.............
Cobblers.
I've seen some crap written on these forums and this is up there with the worst.
Of course cheap cable can cause quantum insurgence and the stigmata will be prominent but only if you offer it up blind when the polarity is reversed. Schoolboy error.
Inverse-spline gangle pins mop up the hadrons - Maplins do them for £4 a doz - and as long as you've got the bias hard over with at least 8 ohms of convergence on the reverse bi-wire the felch is barely there. Mind you, the RMS on the rebound's got to be hitting 40Db on the high-pass filter otherwise the transients bleed all over it. As for the amplitude lathering.. if you can't taper off the sides with the primary EQ you're lost.
yes
but wow and flutter may continue to be an issue unless spindle rectitude is facilitated via a post-anterior nippler valve arrangement.
Also co-axial intensifiers - needless to say - should only be deployed if Stonehenge is to the East
In other words, Dougie, I fear that any improvements in sound quality will be imperceptible unless the position of the system itself can somehow be rectified - with the unit in the centre and the speakers either side.
Blah blah blah.
Sheev's bringing up the old spindle rectitude post-anterior nippler valve thing again.
Yawn.
That got done over some years ago when the new high-pass filters came in on the preamp multiphase oversamplers. All the problems with the 256kbs bleed-over went with the passive Nakamitchi chipset in the crossover circuitry.
Mind you, I preferred it the old way with the trumpets in reverse polarity.
All very well, but
should the gangle sprockets be electrically continuous or discontinuous, and furthermore, should I avoid touching them with a bargepole?
BTW - serious question:
Sand for speaker stands?
Live in seaside town.
Availability of said commodity not in short supply.
Is this acceptable, or is only wind-blown Albanian class B permissable?
Sand is good
but if you buy a bag of sandpit sand its all clean and won't harbour stuff that may rot over time.
Make sure you buy the negative ionised sand though......
Cheers
for the advice. Some interesting avenues to explore.
My advice would be
to blow £60 on some Wharfdale Diamond 9s from Richer Sounds. They're probably as good as you can get for that money, and also probably miles better than the ones you got with the system.
Then run a decentish cable (i.e. the cheapest 'decent' stuff you can get from the same supplier) around to the left of the fireplace, so that you have one speaker either side of the chimney breast. Use the same length of the same cable for both speakers, just lose the extra loops under a shelf somewhere, or down the back of a bookcase. Mine are set up very like this, and as we have hard wood floors I've run the cable to the left speaker through the surround that goes on the floor around the edge of the hearth so that it's invisible. If you have carpet hiding the cable is even easier.
Either make yourself some little stands to raise the speakers off the floor by 6 inches or more, or bung them on brackets attached to the sides of the chimney breast. If you make your own stands, as I did for decades, just make two identical good solid wooden boxes, seal 'em well on the inside with silicone sealant, and fill them to the brim with the finest sand you can find; you end up with bloody heavy acoustically dead lumps, basically, that're going to do their intended job easily as well as any poncy stands costing as much as a new mini-system.
Then start saving for the inevitable eventual upgrade.
or just
get divorced
Some other excellent small speakers
I have recently replaced some aged JPW Mini Monitors, and went for the very cute JBL Control Ones - £60 from Richer Sounds, and I suspect these may be what you are looking for. Look up any review site and these come out pretty well, and they sound good in our front room!
I'm still using JPW Minis
in the kitchen - aren't they good for the size/money? I use them there as they have to contend with my stir-frying shenanigans, and so far they have coped magnificently for 4 or 5 years.
Mine held up pretty well
As they managed five years of small children before one push off the shelf onto the floor too many caused the bass to give out in one. They lasted out three CD players and two amplifiers.