| Non-motoring > Hi-fi needs | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: Westpig | Replies: 22 |
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New Mon 13 Oct 14 23:01
Hi-fi needs - Westpig
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I need some help with a new purchase for a hi-fi or equivalent. I am unfortunately a technophobe, yet wish to listen to music. I used to play CDs and still have loads, but very rarely play them nowadays. I would like to have my own playlist and plan to ask a mate's tech savvy 19 year old son to help me in this quest with either my i-phone or wife's i -pad... and presumably use cloud (whatever that is). We have just done up a small building in the garden to be an office/classroom (for my wife to do some private tuition and me to use as an office) and it is ripe for setting up for me to use as a man cave and let rip with whatever sounds I want without anyone else moaning about my taste in music (no neighbours) or wanting to watch shi*e on the t.v. etc. I've been looking at Panasonic (for the perceived quality) but am not set in stone on that. I know I need compatibility with other things (i-pad/phone etc?), but do I need Bluetooth or USB ports, etc. I've looked on Amazon and just got myself totally confused. What do I need? Budget wise I'd stretch to £150... but don't tell 'er indoors.. I do know that you get what you pay for and for that budget I'm not going to get miracles, I just want a half decent sound, playlist, CD capability and FM radio. Please bear in mind that the above might suggest I sort of know what I'm talking about..I don't. |
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New Mon 13 Oct 14 23:19
Hi-fi needs - No FM2R
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| Are you comfortable if you need to plug everything in when you need it, or do you particularly want it wireless so that when you walk in the room with iPhone/iPad/whatever it automatically picks it up? |
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New Tue 14 Oct 14 09:24
Hi-fi needs - Ambo
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I am not sure you can get anything properly called hi-fi with your budget but you might consider the Yamaha MCR-042 from Tesco, at £150. (mine was a bit more, from Hyperfi). It is basically a CD player/VHF & DAB radio but also has inputs for USB and i-Pod. Don't be misled by illustrations , it is not one-piece but a control unit plus two speakers. Using the full length of the leads provided, a decent stereo image is possible. It is easy to set up and has a remote control. I have only had mine a week or so and can't quite make up my mind about it. The bass is amazing for 4" speakers and I have had to take it down a couple of Db to reduce the speech chestiness that is always a challenge for speakers. The top is very bright and I have taken that down as well. However, my hearing, via aids, is distorted anyway. It has an unusually clear and simple handbook. |
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New Tue 14 Oct 14 09:41
Hi-fi needs - car4play
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In our office we just use a pair of Karman Soundsticks which now have audio jack input. These are around £100 on Amazon. We plug these into the airport express which also gives us WIFI there and then anyone who feels like it streams sound to it, be it from our own music libraries, or increasingly from services like Spotify and Deezer (which comes with our phone contract). I realise now there isn't much point in owning music anymore when practically all that you want is on these streaming services. The sound is not high end hifi, but pretty decent (an understatement) and given that few of us can hear anything above 14KHz what's the point? I also like the fact they are small and stylish and we don't have to fiddle with them. |
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New Tue 14 Oct 14 12:04
Hi-fi needs - Fenlander
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>>>The sound is not high end hifi, but pretty decent (an understatement) and given that few of us can hear anything above 14KHz what's the point? Because the hi-fi bit of hi-fi is right across the spectrum and for me most impressive when bass is properly reproduced which is where small systems fall down. |
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New Tue 14 Oct 14 12:40
Hi-fi needs - Ambo
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By coincidence, I had a hearing test an hour after my posting. My response to lower frequencies is better than average, which might account for my reaction to the Yamaha bass. On the other hand, my high frequency response is very poor, not much showing above 6Kz, which makes my reaction to the treble strange. Such test however are geared to speech rather than music. |
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New Tue 14 Oct 14 13:15
Hi-fi needs - WillDeBeest
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Playlist plus iPhone says Bluetooth to me. Assuming the shed is within reach of the house wifi you'll be able to stream what you want from, say, Spotify. At £150 it won't matter that the iPhone is limited to the A2DP protocol, which effectively limits your quality to 320k. (I use a £30 Logitech A2DP receiver to stream music into my £3,000+ rig at home and it's quite adequate for casual listening or R4 comedies.) Trouble is, if you want volume that might bother the neighbours you don't have, £150 doesn't buy much in the way of amp and speaker quality. If you want radio and CD in the package too, you're in the ghetto blaster market and you might as well buy wherever Currys has on offer. Better to put the CDs on Amazon Cloudplayer or similar and rely on the iPhone for radio over the internet. Then your budget might just buy a Bose Soundlink Mini, which I've heard and been pleasantly surprised by. Or one of Pure's Jongo speakers, which you could then expand into a system that will play simultaneously in other parts of the house. Or if you must have radio too, Pure's Contour D1 ought to sound OK if the predecessor model we have at home is any guide. Won't be loud, though. |
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New Tue 14 Oct 14 13:10
Hi-fi needs - TheManWithNoName
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You may find what you want here... www.richersounds.com/ Click on the link to Streaming/Wireless and Multiroom |
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New Tue 14 Oct 14 21:00
Hi-fi needs - WillDeBeest
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Had another think about this, and your best bet for eking out a tight budget is to go end-of-line or secondhand. Our own Fenlander (or a scan of the classifieds) could probably find you a serviceable FM receiver (i.e. tuner-amp combo) for £50 and a pair of speakers for the same again. Rigging an FM aerial to the shed roof should be a doddle. Then all you need is a Bluetooth receiver like my little £30 Logitech and you have lift off. You play either your own stored music from a cloud drive, or whatever you like from your choice of free and subscription streaming services. You have better sound and more of it than you'd get from any £150 - or even £300 - all in one. And you have £20 left to spend on beer. Mine's a pint, please. }:---) |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 09:33
Hi-fi needs - WillDeBeest
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Me again. I may have overestimated. I did a quick google for the first speakers I had and found I could probably buy a pair for £20. theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?24408-FS-Celestion-DL4-Series-2-cheap-as!!! Then I found an eBay listing in which an Arcam Delta 60 integrated amp, such as I still have somewhere, sold for £51. There must be loads of 1990s Rotels, NADs and Arcams about for the same or less. It's only the Bluetooth device you'd need to buy new. |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 10:53
Hi-fi needs - RattleandSmoke
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My workshop system sounds very good and was very cheap. Yamaha AX 390 amp (paid £30 for it on ebay), Wharfedale 9.0 speakers £60 new (small, not much bass compared to my 9.1s but capable of a very good sound with a good soundstage). I also bought a cheap Marantz CD5400 which is a low end one and frankly a bit crap. I had to completely trip it down to get the transport to work, it now at least plays most CDs but it is still jumpy so it really needs a new transport, not worth it. My main system is a lot more expensive, but doesn't sound twice as good as my budget workshop system. I really like my Yamaha amp though, the sound is what I call Japanese commercial, it does say it was tuned for the UK market but to me it sounds a bit bright but in a workshop environment I am not really listening to the music properly anyway so a brighter sound can be more enjoyable. As for hearing, I have high frequency hearing loss, and that makes me more sensitive to other low down frequencies, which is one reason I think I find it much easier to enjoy music playing through better systems. Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Wed 15 Oct 14 at 10:56
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 14:28
Hi-fi needs - Westpig
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Thanks all for the input, looks like 19 yr old has some work to do. Added complication is outbuilding is not close enough for wi-fi and I want/need that space for computer, so I've got to figure that out as well. |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 15:03
Hi-fi needs - J Bonington Jagworth
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"not close enough for wi-fi" You say you've got a good collection of CD's - are you looking to play them directly, or to 'rip' them onto your computer (which you may have already done) and play them from there? Although my computer is the main repository for music, which I stream downstairs (wi-fi can be extended fairly easily), I have to say that directly played CD's do sound better - there is a crispness and range that is still noticeable, even though I admit to some upper hearing loss through age. However, convenience tends to win the day the rest of the time, as once on a computer, music files (e.g. MP3) can be easily copied to a memory stick or player, and space is no longer a real issue (at least 150 tracks per Gigabyte). Most mobile phones have a passable MP3 player built-in, too, but whether it qualifies as hi-fi is debatable. Depends on rest of the system, perhaps! If you've got plenty of space, you could probably pick up some nice s/hand floor-standing speakers from someone who has fallen for a plastic surround-sound system, and s/h amps are as cheap as chips .. :-) |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 15:17
Hi-fi needs - J Bonington Jagworth
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E.g Gumtree.. www.gumtree.com/stereos-audio/uk/floor+standing+speakers |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 17:49
Hi-fi needs - Westpig
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>> "not close enough for wi-fi" >> >> You say you've got a good collection of CD's - are you looking to play >> them directly, or to 'rip' them onto your computer (which you may have already done) >> and play them from there? Play direct for now as I don't know how to do anything else, but the cunning plan is to get my mate's son to help me up my game.. and I do know plenty of people have their own playlist, I'd like to learn how to do that. |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 15:18
Hi-fi needs - No FM2R
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>>Added complication is outbuilding is not close enough for wi-fi Go to eBay or similar, buy several of the cheapest ethernet cables you can find and simply lay one along the top of a fence, wall or like a washing line. When it deteriorates, which it will although not very quickly, chuck it and put another one there. e.g. 50 metres, £7 www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50m-Metre-Cat5e-Network-Ethernet-Cable-Lead-UTP-Patch-Internet-LAN-Router-Long-/351107675370?pt=UK_Computing_NetworkingCables_RL&hash=item51bfa5f4ea Perhaps you remember my security camera saga? All of those use cheap throwaway cables outside as it was easier and cheaper than a proper job. In two years I've replaced one out of 6. And whilst they may not be the best quality, they're good enough. |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 15:43
Hi-fi needs - Zero
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>> >>Added complication is outbuilding is not close enough for wi-fi Pringles www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3htRMNmss |
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 17:05
Hi-fi needs - WillDeBeest
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Presumably there are power cables to the outhouse. You could either lay the Ethernet cables in the same channel, or use Powerline or similar. One of the Connected Home products BT keeps emailing me about - and that I don't need - might suit you here. Incidentally, I've discovered today that my 23-year-old Delta 60 makes a good passive preamplifier. Trouble is, I've only the vaguest idea of what one of those is, and none at all of whether or how it would do any good to the bigger integrated amp that replaced it. Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Wed 15 Oct 14 at 17:08
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 17:45
Hi-fi needs - Westpig
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It's this place: photos removed as revealed other details about the OP - emailed to notify reason why - VX Fan It's about 40 feet from the main building. It has power and light, although the roaming main phone won't reach and I've yet to get my head around how the computer will work. I was thinking of getting BT to sort the broadband out, but don't want the cost of another phone line. Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 16 Oct 14 at 01:47
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New Wed 15 Oct 14 17:48
Hi-fi needs - Westpig
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>> Go to eBay or similar, buy several of the cheapest ethernet cables you can find >> and simply lay one along the top of a fence, wall or like a washing >> line. When it deteriorates, which it will although not very quickly, chuck it and put >> another one there. Any wires etc need to negotiate a gravel drive and turning bay. |
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New Thu 16 Oct 14 16:11
Hi-fi needs - car4play
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40 ft doesn't sound like a lot for wifi, but it really depends on what units you use. We have 2 Apple airport expresses and these together allow for roaming between 2 buildings around 80ft apart. I have also used some of Belkin's kit with higher power antennae to get longer range from one building to another. In that case it also had to clear another building in the way. In the Belkin it connected access point to access point. i.e. merely connected two ethernet switches together in each location acting like wireless cable. In terms of telephone, we are also experimenting with IP phones, but these will need a reasonably good network to work well. A hosted solution starts at around £5 with someone like soho66 which effectively gives you 4 lines on the one number. We use a 9 line upgrade with a cheap Grandstream handset wired straight into the ethernet and a VOIP client on the iPhone such as Groundwire. There are others such as MediaFire etc. but this one seems to work the best. Incidently these VOIP soft phones also allow you to make and receive calls whenever you have any Wifi on your mobile, so you don't have nasty call charges when abroad provided you can find a wifi hotspot. |
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New Thu 16 Oct 14 18:36
Hi-fi needs - Alastairw
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| I hate VOIP phones with a passion. We are stuck with them at work and even after no end of server tweeking the call quality is really variable, between irritating and appalling. Almost every incoming call to our office begins with an apology for the 'bad line'. |
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New Thu 16 Oct 14 22:09
Hi-fi needs - WillDeBeest
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Weird, isn't it? Those of us who came of age in the 1990s had maybe six years of near-perfect call quality, where the silence when someone stopped speaking was complete enough to make you wonder if they were still there. The old excuses of 'bad line' or 'got cut off' were no longer valid. It as good to talk. Then along came first mobiles, then conference calls and IP phones, and suddenly it's the 1970s all over again, only worse. "You're breaking up," or "There's a terrible echo," or "A is deafening but B is barely audible." It is, of course, vastly cheaper than it was then, but it can be awfully hard work. Personal peeve: BBC news programmes taking contributions over Skype. OK, I suppose, if it's from a correspondent in a war zone and it's the only way, but for the typical PM item about a pet rabbit and a carrot in the shape of Alex Salmond (I don't share Bromp's admiration for the Eddie Mair Vanity Programme) to be ornamented with the signature Skype resonance just won't do. |
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