Author Topic: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system  (Read 2628 times)

Paul

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Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« on: 08 April, 2023, 04:56:52 pm »
(I had a search for similar threads and found none, but I'm happy to be spliced if I missed it.)

I'm looking for something to play stuff on. Definitely CDs. Preferably vinyl and cassette tapes too. A radio would be nice but not essential.

If it could work with some wireless headphones all the better.

I was never really very knowledgeable about these things and I am even less so now. I think I understand blue tooth but don't know an mp-wotsit from a ripped doodad.

Is there something that would tick all of my boxes? I'm prepared to spend some money.

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #1 on: 08 April, 2023, 06:41:34 pm »
Sorry I can't help as my music equipment buying days are long in the past, but this is kinda obligatory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPXQ9fotZM

As you were...

Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #2 on: 08 April, 2023, 06:54:12 pm »
Separates:
Amplifier
CD player
Turntable
Cassette deck
Tuner
Speakers

Wireless headphones: some sort of bluetooth box that plugs into the amp



Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #3 on: 08 April, 2023, 07:15:04 pm »
Rega make decent turntables, but aren't cheap. Can you still get cassette decks?

A trip to Richer Sounds could be in order, but you might want to start by kitting yourself out with one or two media players: e.g. a turntable and a CD player first. Do you really need audiophile quality for radio listening? If it's for Radio 3, then maybe; if Radio 4, then possibly not.
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Kim

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #4 on: 08 April, 2023, 07:30:16 pm »
For high-quality radio, what you want is a DVB-T or preferably (higher bitrates) DVB-S receiver with a line output - it doesn't have to have a telly attached.  No point fucking about with FM or DAB these days.  Or just use some sort of internet streaming device (assuming the codecs used by your preferred radio stations aren't too awful), preferably one that can play arbitrary audio files, possibly even from CDs.  (A computer with a digital audio output goes a long way in this respect.  Possibly a new lease of life for an obsolete machine, or a Raspberry Pi project or something.)

A decent cassette player may be challenging.  I doubt anyone's made a good one for years, and anything from the 90s or earlier is likely to need some TLC (belt replacement, grease, etc) by now.

Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #5 on: 08 April, 2023, 07:47:03 pm »
You can buy top quality, UK made (and supported) CD players, turntables, amps & speakers.  Rega has already been mentioned.   


FM tuners & cassette or reel to reel tape mean vintage.  There are people who'll service this stuff.


Hifi enthusiasts are always trading up, so you can get some very good bargains on the used market. 


My best advice would be to sign up to one of the specialist hifi forums,  lurk for a while and see what other people are using.  There are thriving "for sale" sections but they mostly require a minimum post count.  https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/ is my favourite,  https://www.hifiwigwam.com is also OK.


I don't know anything about streaming or specialist music servers,  I've too many CD's to contemplate ripping them to a server!
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #6 on: 08 April, 2023, 08:22:57 pm »
I believe TEAC* still make cassette decks, which I have heard are crap.  Get a decent older one off Fleabay and digitise your cassettes with Audacity or similar before it breaks.

* no, not Thames Estuary Automobile Club
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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #7 on: 09 April, 2023, 07:37:32 am »
Not being particularly techie nor an audiophile myself, I looked into all this a couple of years ago. Richer Sounds were very helpful. Yes, I could buy all his tech but it would be expensive. In the end, I bought a Sonos smart speaker and a subscription to Amazon music which allows me to play everything in my music collection and the radio. Perhaps this is not the answer you were hoping for but it reflects the modern world.
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Paul

  • L'enfer, c'est les autos.
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?


Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #11 on: 09 April, 2023, 08:15:24 pm »
I'm looking for something to play stuff on. Definitely CDs. Preferably vinyl and cassette tapes too. A radio would be nice but not essential.

At the risk of answering the question that was not asked, I'd suggest you start by working out if you really do want to be able to play all those things. Have you got anything that's especially rare or irreplaceable?

Almost everything is available on Spotify or Amazon or Apple (with a few notable exceptions). Why not check if everything you already own is on one of those services? In which case all you'll need is an amp, speakers and streaming box. Or even just an all-in-one unit like the Sonos (doesn't have to be smart) or similar. They'll also do radio.

You don't need to know anything about ripping or bitrates, if you can operate a phone you can operate a streamer (or even just stream to hifi from your phone).

You're also unlikely to be able to discern any difference in quality between streaming and CD without (a) quite expensive kit and (b) younger ears.
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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #12 on: 09 April, 2023, 10:10:10 pm »
I’ve just been down this route. With building work completed I bought my HiFi out of storage only to find it no longer worked properly.

What sort of sound quality do you want?

Unless you’re after the full audiophile experience any of the £100+ range of Radio & CD Players from Currys or Argos will provide an acceptable listening experience. My criteria were more on what looked okay where it would be placed, ease of radio tuning and a remote control. I also prefer a rotary volume control.

I also inherited a stack of vinyl. Here budget prices (£100) give budget reproduction, but the vinyl is a bit of fun for me, so I’m happy enough with that. I went with a Victrola Eastwood, reason below.

You also mentioned using wireless headphones, I presume you want Bluetooth wireless. Something to be aware of is that many systems will have Bluetooth in their specification, but it is almost invariably receive only, i.e. you can stream Bluetooth tracks from your phone to the HiFi to listen to, but you can’t use it to transmit from your HiFi to BT Headphones. I don’t know why this is, and I spent a long time trying to figure why it wouldn’t work on my previous system. You can buy a BT transmitter which you plug into the HiFi earphone socket (if it has one, not all do) but to be honest it’s more hassle than it’s worth. My Record Player, Victrola Eastwood, is an exception, it receives and transmits BT.

Bluetooth Headphones are great, I often use mine while MrsB is watching her serial killer documentaries. I do this as suggested in the previous post, Streaming from Spotify(1) on my Tablet. Easy to do, lots of choice, the sound quality is fine, for me, and I can choose tracks and control it without getting off the sofa.

(1)   Other Stream services are available

Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #13 on: 10 April, 2023, 08:04:49 am »
We have ripped all our cd's as FLAC's (higher quality) to a rasbperry pi NAS running open media vault* and play them on another pi running moode audio player - streaming, net radio. It does need a bit of homebrewing, but we are not locked into hardware or provider. Was it Sonos who recently dropped support for some not very old kit? Throw it away and buy a new one ..

*A 'proper' NAS would have been OTT

Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #14 on: 10 April, 2023, 10:19:56 am »
My youngest son has invested in some Denon separates and a turntable (brand escapes me) and he loves it.  He treats his vinyl better than he treats his partner and he adores her. 

I'm terribly happy listening through B&O Beoplay B7 bluetooth headphones from my phone, tablet or pc.  I have never been an audiophile so you can ignore my drivel and I will not be offended.  🙂

Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #15 on: 10 April, 2023, 12:04:52 pm »
I have a Denon CD/Radio and Wharfedale speakers, at least ten years old and about £300 - £400 for the current equivalent. I've always been happy enough with that, I've listened to other people systems costing much more and been unable to tell the difference, though my hearing probably isn't as good as it used to be!
The only thing I have been impressed with recently is my daughter's Bose, it doesn't look much yet has the clearest sound, if I needed a replacement, and had the dosh, it's what I'd be looking at.

Bluebottle

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #16 on: 10 April, 2023, 01:48:54 pm »
I'm generally happy with my separates built up over the years, but bit expensive if trying to buy as a job lot. What about a mini-hifi with a phono input for a separate record deck?
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DaveJ

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #17 on: 10 April, 2023, 06:09:21 pm »
Was it Sonos who recently dropped support for some not very old kit? Throw it away and buy a new one ..

That wasn't true of Sonos, but I suspect that it was Sonos you were thinking about.  There was some quite emotive mischaracterisation around the introduction of some new hardware and the software to support it.

There was a thread about it somewhere....

   

Kim

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #18 on: 10 April, 2023, 07:53:47 pm »
I'm looking for something to play stuff on. Definitely CDs. Preferably vinyl and cassette tapes too. A radio would be nice but not essential.

At the risk of answering the question that was not asked, I'd suggest you start by working out if you really do want to be able to play all those things. Have you got anything that's especially rare or irreplaceable?

And if you do, it's probably old enough that you should probably back it up on something that's not going to disintegrate or get eaten by fungus or something.
 Vinyl seems pretty stable when kept properly, but any tapes worth keeping are shirley getting on a bit and therefore delicate, and we seem to be getting to the point where old CDs (especially the recordable flavours, and presumably by extension magneto-optical stuff) can't be relied on.

IMHO if you have a *recording* that you want to last, it's best to digitise it (preferably in an open, and ideally lossless format so you don't need anyone's specific product to play it back) sooner rather than later, at which point it just becomes some more data to curate.

If you just want to be able to play your record collection, there's a strong convenience argument for one of those music-as-a-service services.  Just anticipate the usual medium-term shittery due to commercial pressures and you'll be fine.  Although I suspect a more subtle disadvantage is that with those you get the groovy funky compressed-to-hell-and-back early noughties remaster, rather than the proper version that's on your crackly vinyl.

Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #19 on: 10 April, 2023, 11:27:04 pm »
It depends on how integrated you want the system to be.
The NAD D 3045 has most of what you want in a compact single box, including a RIAA phono input and  two-way bluetooth with Aptx, so you can connect bluetooth speakers and headphones, or use your phone to stream music to the system. It also have ARC HDMI, so you can connect it to your TV. It has plenty of digtial inputs too, and a DAC*, and a remote.

However: it is only 2x60Watt and has only 3 analogue inputs. So you have to match speakers and listening room carefully, and think about how many analogue devices you want to connect.
The NAD C 389 is a step up from the NAD D 3045 when it comes to power and connectivity.

A DAC* is a device that converts digital signals into analogue signals. A great thing about DAC's these days are that they are cheap and insanely good. DAC's are a great match with CD-players. If you connect your CD-player with a "digital cable" (called Coax or Toslink), the DAC will convert the signal, completely bypassing the DAC inside the CD-player. So you don't need to choose a CD-player based on reviews on how it sounds. Even the cheapest CD-player will sound good when connected to a quality DAC like the one in the above NAD. So choose your CD-player on looks and ergonomics, not its alleged "HiFi" qualities.

The flipside of these integrated solutions is that if a single component dies, the whole system may be useless. These integrated systems are practically impossible for third-parties to repair, and consist of proprietary parts that may be impossible to source after a few years.

The biggest game changers in HiFi when it comes to sound the last decades are: cheap and good DACs, "Digital Room Correction" via DSP's, quality digital amplifiers (Purify, nCore), and perhaps active speakers too.
"Room Correction": every normal room influence the sound, and sometimes in a very negative way. With "Digital Room Correction" you measure this influence, and "subtract" it from the sound before it comes out the speakers, thereby removing the rooms negative influence when listening. This is of course very simplified, but "Digital Room Correction" can sometime improve the listening experience more than anything else. It is still somewhat expensive to have if you want an "easy to use" integrated solution.

"Digital Amplifiers" using modules from Purify or nCore is able to deliver a huge amount of power without distortion, while still being fairly small and not consuming a lot of electricity, and are comparatively cheapish too.

The NAD C399  is an example of a digtial amplifier with a DAC, and "Digital Room Correction".
I am using NAD products just as examples because I recently researched them, and they showcase modern developments very well. But it is not a personal recommendation, since I haven't even heard any of their new amplifiers, and personally prefer a more "modular" HiFi system.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #20 on: 11 April, 2023, 09:39:39 am »
The room wot I'm currently sitting in has a D3045 powering a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 607s.  Sounds pretty good to my untutored ears in spite of the squeakers' small size and consequent shortfall in bass oomph.  Though I doubt I could tell the difference between this setup and the Wharfedale Diamond/35 y/o NAD 3220 setup in the kitchen at Larrington Towers.
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Afasoas

Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #21 on: 13 October, 2023, 01:10:24 pm »
Paul,

How did you get on?


Paul

  • L'enfer, c'est les autos.
Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #22 on: 18 October, 2023, 01:12:10 pm »
Paul,

How did you get on?

I postponed the project. I started buying a house instead. Which was funny, because I didn't need any milk.
What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

Jaded

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Re: Recommendations/advice for a music/sound system
« Reply #23 on: 18 October, 2023, 05:01:37 pm »
 ;D
It is simpler than it looks.