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hi-fi separates help please


rs32
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Personally I believe that once you spend more than a grand, 99.9% of the population can't hear the difference

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that's a good shout - I do have a real preference for how a setup should sound, hate too much bass but it has to be punchy and clear even at loud volumes (as per my car setup). But when you get to silly money stakes- pre-amps, bi-wiring etc - I'm not sure I could pinpoint exact differences.

looking forward to noticing a difference between the current Sony amp and the Cambridge one when it's delivered though - expecting to notice an improvement 169144-ok.gif

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Don't quite agree with that. Yes you get diminishing returns the more you spend. But a £200 speaker will sound a lot better than a £50 one. A £500 will be better than the £200, but the jump is not as much. Same is true for the other components in any system. The thing is (and IMO) I believe you learn to spot the improvements. When we got our last system (mostly Arcam, with Mission speakers) I was hearing things in the music that I did not know was there, once I had been hearing some things, I started listening for things, and then found other things.

Would I spend 20K on a sound system, not unless I has all the other toys I ever needed, but I did spend about 3K on an Amp, DVD player, CD player, Tuner, record deck and speakers. Next steps will be 5.1 (or even 7.1 surround) at some point, but not for a while as my PC has THX 5.1 and so I can get my Surround sound fix there.

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[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Personally I believe that once you spend more than a grand, 99.9% of the population can't hear the difference

[/ QUOTE ]

that's a good shout - I do have a real preference for how a setup should sound, hate too much bass but it has to be punchy and clear even at loud volumes (as per my car setup). But when you get to silly money stakes- pre-amps, bi-wiring etc - I'm not sure I could pinpoint exact differences.

looking forward to noticing a difference between the current Sony amp and the Cambridge one when it's delivered though - expecting to notice an improvement 169144-ok.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't quite agree with that. Yes you get diminishing returns the more you spend. But a £200 speaker will sound a lot better than a £50 one. A £500 will be better than the £200, but the jump is not as much. Same is true for the other components in any system. The thing is (and IMO) I believe you learn to spot the improvements. When we got our last system (mostly Arcam, with Mission speakers) I was hearing things in the music that I did not know was there, once I had been hearing some things, I started listening for things, and then found other things.

Would I spend 20K on a sound system, not unless I has all the other toys I ever needed, but I did spend about 3K on an Amp, DVD player, CD player, Tuner, record deck and speakers. Next steps will be 5.1 (or even 7.1 surround) at some point, but not for a while as my PC has THX 5.1 and so I can get my Surround sound fix there.

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You buy based on what you feel you are getting true value from.

For me that was £2k on a pair of speakers and an amp but I'm sure that there are plenty of guys on here that have spent much more and felt justified in doing so.

I for one hear the difference and its much bigger than some of you may think. However one the cheapest and best ways to get your kit sounding good is positioning them properly.

Hence why I have to look away every time I go to mum and dad's and see the speakers in the top corners of the room on wall brackets Flush.gif

Enjoy your new kit grin.gif

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Simon, the spund from a 7.1 system is very rewarding. I have my Denon amp going through a Kef 7 channel system. THe speaker package was £3.5k, but well worth the spend. I did listen very carefully to the THX package but I am not sure that I would have benefitted from the difference in the size of the room I have. The Kefs are fantastic.

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well this looks reasonably OK and now sounds a bit cleaner, as you might expect.

have also bought new bi-wire cable and banana plugs for when the new amp arrives, couldn't resist the temptation in the shop coffee.gif

1008447-stands.jpg

any tips on distance between speakers, straight or angled slightly, distance from rear of speaker to the wall ?

Bearing in mind I only have this one wall to work with...

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On those speakers I would put them slightly closer together than you are sitting from them, ring them out at least 6" from the wall and keep experimenting, I would guess that around 10" would be ideal. You also need to toe them in so that an imaginary line crosses over about 2ft in font of you.

This should give them a nice solid soundstage with everything central, with the sound only moving out and around teh room whne it is meant to.

A little tip, if you have any ring mains cable lying around try it for your speakers, I love the stuff, solid core with a nice smooth sound, takes that edgyness out of teh top end at higher volumes on systems under a few grand.

Not being able to tell the difference on systems under/over a grand is nonsense, I think most people can tell the difference, most people can't tell you why they think it sounds better/worse, but they can tell you which they prefer.

I think with hi-fi alot of people try too hard to and look for differences, you need to just listen and decide which you prefer.

My wife really isn't into all this stuff, but she can tell straight away when I have swapped something, even if it is just a cable, I sold an interconect recently and put a Nordost Blue Heaven cable in between the cd and amp that I had lying about, I didn't say anything byt when I got back from being away she asked what I had done as it sounded awful, when I asked what she meant exactly she couldn't answer, but she knew she didn't like it. I put a cable I had made from Chord Rhumour speaker cable in and staright away it sounded much better, alot warmer.

Jamie Cullums new album is one of the best for hearing changes in a system, there are some bits that sound really harsh if the system isn't right.

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now sounds better with them pointing inwards more and further from the wall beerchug.gif

have to say that given the speakers were effectively free (£150 quid off package price), they are pretty good. Easily better than 6-yr old Sony's, much more presence and much cleaner, lively sound.

Thumbs up for MS 902i speakers 169144-ok.gif

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And they will get better as you run them in, as the surround on the mid range loosens up you will get a tighter cleaner bass from them.

Molokos, Do You Like My Tight Sweater, is a great album to get them run in, it is a great album full stop actually, might have to dig my copy out!! smile.gif

I love getting a new bit of kit, end up finding loads of old music again. Enjoy!! 169144-ok.gif

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amplifier now delivered and installed, feck me it's a bit louder than the old Sony AV unit yelrotflmao.gif

unfortunately there is a problem with the paint finish on the volume control - so swopping for a replacement later this week frown.gif Richer Sounds are convinced it's easier to replace the whole unit rather than just posting me a new volume control part confused.gif Never mind.

sound-wise though, an improvement over the old kit - mostly I would imagine because the speakers are being properly driven with matched kit now. One really neat touch with this CA kit is the remote control covers both CD & Amp, so the on-off button works both units in tandem - very neat and integrated smile.gif

we need a "I'm currently jumping round my living room listening to a new sound system" smilie grin.gif

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