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I think we all have the same fear of our wives... that when we die they sell our audio gear for what we said we paid for it, rather than what its actually worth!

Sigur Ros, ágætis byrjun - Simply stunning???

The idea doesn't translate very well to subwoofers. You can often identify good speakers in a bad room. With subs it's different. You can have a bad sub in a good room and a good sub in a bad room - quite often you won't know which you are hearing, because we typically can't discern the difference just by listening. Retail demos will often not show the kind of acoustic problems you will have at home. We also offer a remote service. If you want to minimise the visual impact of the sub/s on your living room, a few things to consider. Firstly, from a performance point of view, many audiophile music systems don't benefit significantly from more than one sub. The benefit is not automatic and quite often adding more subs will create some issues. Secondly, in some rooms, two smaller subs can outperform a single much larger sub, minimising visual impact and giving you a great result. This might be the case where every possible position has a big dip in the middle of the bass - this is where a second sub in the right position can solve the problem. This requires testing. If you're not wanting to do any testing, I'd suggest sticking with just one sub. Otherwise, step two might be a step backwards. An example might help. Black shows an existing sub in a fairly typical position. There is a big peak at 26 Hz which makes a fairly small sub perform quite impressively on LFE effects. It's about 15 dB above the average sub level. On the other hand, notice the big dip in the midbass from around 30 - 50 Hz? This was making the bass a bit underwhelming, especially on movies where much of the action is happening. With just this one sub, you could bring down the peaks and you'd have to leave the dips. You'd get a much more balanced bass as a result. However, this example really does call for a second sub. The red line shows the same sub in a different position. You can see that this second position doesn't suffer from any of the same dips. The final result after calibration is one that would not have been possible with any single sub. So you've seen a good example of how you might benefit from a second sub (with optimal positions) but now let's look at a different room in which one sub is just fine. Three different positions tested. This room has a few positions like the black, which is near ideal for a sub without any EQ. There are no significant dips and where a position like this is feasible, you just need a little EQ to adjust the balance - you can see the upper bass has a bit too much emphasis. Otherwise, there is no real performance reason for more than one. Armed with this knowledge, you might make a different sub choice than going in blind. You can also see, the other positions are not so good. The red position has no real impact below 50 Hz - a sub there would sound anemic. The green position is even worse. It has about 18 dB less than the ideal position. This means you would need 8 subs in the green position to do the same job as one in the right place, in that particular room. If you were to walk into these two rooms, you would not be able to guess which is which. However, the strategy that makes sense for these two rooms is entirely different. The best answer is very room and system specific.

It was all heading toward this Gospeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada

Hi All, Started the day with some Deutsche music from Kraftwerk JJ

1962 Nippon Columbia (Denon) Valve Phono Stage & SUT Restoration Work has begun on restoring 2 x 1962 Nippon Columbia (Denon) Valve Phono Stages. Both were built & supplied to feed the 1962 Denon RP53 turntables I restored a couple of years ago. I also found in a box of Tamura transformers I have a pair of very very rare Tamura SUT built especially to step up the Denon 103R MC cartridge that was invented at this time. I am excited to think I will have an all Tamur/Tamradio Nippon Columbia Denon vinyl playback system ? Detailed build thread to come. Any advice or suggestions will be welcome because as yet I have not seen another on the net. All parts are branded.

Laser cut/etched cart alignment tool I knocked up on my laser machine based on Conrad Hoffman's custom tonearm arc tool (http://conradhoffman.com/chsw.htm) I call it the A-Track Could make them available to purchase if enough interest is shown. Edit: There seems to be a bit of interest so I'll go the next level with it. I'm going to perfect the design and then offer it for commercial sale. I'll most likely setup a website where you can order them. Put in your turntable's variables and I will generate a protractor specific to your table. I've got a decent file for a strobe disc also so I'l make that available. The other thing I was thinking is using mirror acrylic so might offer a special edition in mirror gold or silver. I'll keep this post updated over the next week or so with some photo progress.

Hi All, Some Bowie after dinner JJ

Only a few years ago eltech was a fervent hater of things digital just give him some time he might come back to the dark side

Hey Marty, I'm Mark Gusew, the other half of Doehmann and Gusew. I'm very pleased that your early Continuum is still working well and sounding great. They were absolutely great tables and as Mark Doehmann said they are certainly giant killers as far as performance goes. Much of the research and work done on these early tables had a direct bearing in later state of the art production tables, including the current Helix range, some of the best sounding tables on the planet! Marty, what you have there is a piece of audio history. Of course, I believe that it's priceless but unless you intend to buy something rather more costly, or heaven forbid get out of vinyl altogether, why not keep it and put a nice cartridge on it and fall in love with it again?

A Day In The Life - The Beatles

I think the cork mat looks good on it. A couple of snaps from my phone

and missed this one Max Richter - memoryhouse

No direct arctic related references (not even hypothermia)

Hey JJ, Not underrated at my place, I really like this one! It's definitely a bit more out there than some of their earlier albums but that suits me I've been letting the good time roll with some Cars and then onto - The Costello Show - King Of America

Working at home today ? - persistent soundtrack time!

Don't. Just don't. If you had obtained a large collection of records and you were keen to hear them, I'd say go ahead.... But since you have zero records.. Don't do it! We all do this "hobby" to enjoy the music. Digital is superior in every single way possible. I expoused using vinyl back in the days when digital sounded a bit edgy. Modern DACs and low jitter transports have completely eliminated this problem. Vinyl is a gigantic rabbit hole where enthusiasts will tell you if you just spend a little more you'll get the perfect sound... So you keep spending more. New cartridge, new preamps, upgrade bearing, new tonearm... It keeps going, and that perfect sound remains elusive..... Because vinyl wears out. Stylus wear out. There's always some colouration you hear which requires an adjustment or upgrade. It's endless. Oh, and the noise of clicks and pops, rumble, swooshes, random noises, hum, buzz. YUK!!! Vinyl is OK, good even, if you have a good turntable and cartridge, its not terrible, but digital sounds better. For the most part, vinyl and digital sound the same. It's just that vinyl always has more noise and distortion, even on new records. Any form of special or magical sound you may have heard about on the grapevine is simply noise and distortion. If you have any complaints about digital audio, you need to audition some modern digital players and find one you like.

Item: Vinnie Rossi LIO Integrated Amp + DAC 2.0 + Autoformer Volume Control with Tubestage Location: Sydney Price: $8,900 including postage Aus wide, negotiable Item Condition: Excellent Reason for selling: No Longer Required Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal, COD Only Extra Info: Highly spec'd and modular 'super integrated' amplifier from Vinnie Rossi in the USA. Key features include: - Ultracapacitor power supply isolates audio circuitry from the noise and voltage fluctuations of AC mains power - Modular approach, allowing owners to enjoy the benefits of additional features and future technologies I have this one spec'd up to include the highly rated DAC 2.0 and Autoformer Volume Control (AVC) with tubestage. It sounds superb. Currently have it driving a pair of Boenicke W5 bookshelf speakers. Have also used it with KEF LS50. No problems driving either. There are lots of reviews, here are a couple from DAR https://darko.audio/2015/05/vinnie-rossi-lio-review-part-2-modularity/ https://darko.audio/2018/06/giant-steps-from-the-vinnie-rossi-dac-2-0/ DAC 2.0 performance puts it in good company https://darko.audio/the-darko-dac-index/ Pricing it up new from the Australian distributor http://www.audiomagic.com.au/product/detail/677/lio-integrated-amplifier LIO amp $7,990 + AVC $1,550 + DAC 2.0 $4,950 = $14,490. I'm moving house and will no longer have a dedicated listening room. Therefore have decided to sell the LIO. It comes with all original packaging including user manual and power supply. Happy to answer any questions. Pictures:

I was reading Stephen King today, but this is the stuff of nightmares!

OK the feet arrived Friday, same as @Happy put on the chopping boards, originally I was looking at sorbothane hemispheres but heard the good wood on the springs. They were a little taller so I routered them in 12mm so the cover would come down nice and low set up time: I used a premium silica sand I had left over from an epoxy floor, the granules are a bit larger than the norm with the smaller particles sifted out. Should settle in quicker and leave more air between the grains? lid on I levelled with a laser, probably need to check in a week or twoRohmann digging out Beck's Morning Phase definitely reduced the footfall tenfold got a bit of experimenting to do, give the dust cover a good tap and the needle jumps a track, easy fix don't tap it! I took out the centre spring on each foot as suggested maybe could go a few more to get it on the hover verge. SQ? hard to tell this early on, I only use this TT one record in ten so I'm not that in tune with it. I'll see if I can hear a difference with the Rega in a month or so. Fool for your stockings is sounding mighty fine

thanks Bass - Some would say i have a lot of crap as well . I have been buying records since 17 and have not stopped. I sometimes think being a drug addict may have been better for my bank balance - seriously thou - for me, music is the elixir of life. my kids can't wait til I die as they see the discogs collection values ?

too many records? fccuk no!! I have always tried to buy albums when they have been released, so keeping the price down, especially during the vinyl going out of business 1990's. a few times I have not bought something when released and suffered the BS of the album going for well over $200 on discogs, so I don't buy it. To suggest anyone buys albums they don't like is ludicrous - you may not like it as much in 10 years or you may appreciate some albums 20 years later than when you bought.

A well set-up Technics Sl 1200 should be a great starting point, though you also need to look at a phono stage and a cartridge(?). If its something you want to try, and you can afford it, then give it a try. If it's not for you, you should be able to sell the Technics fairly easily without losing too much on it, The most significant cost will probably be the records. New vinyl is expensive, and second hand vinyl is getting more expensive as its getting more popular. What sort of music do you listen to , and is it available on vinyl? Music from about 1990- 2010 can be difficult, and very expensive , to get on vinyl as not much was pressed. I got into vinyl only 5 years ago. I bought my first TT , a Clearaudio concept, at about the same time I bought my first records , and I've never looked back. If you want a cost-efficient, convenient way of accessing as much music as possible, then dont buy a TT. Stick with streaming, downloads, etc, Even the most ardent supporters of vinyl would probably agree that it will usually take a lot more time and effort ( and sometimes money), to achieve a similar result to digital. However, when done right, it can sound fantastic and be a lot of fun. Having listened to some top end digital and vinyl setups, I prefer the sound of vinyl, regardless of whether its more accurate or not, an much prefer the physical medium of vinyl , to any other form of accessing music ( CD comes second, and I have absolutely no interest in streaming or downloads, but that's a personal preference as I dislike computers intensely )

Might as well join you - seeing them on Saturday. personally my fav is "rated R" but Lullabies and Deaf are great as well. I much prefer the vinyl cover of Lullabies

I was. But that's because, my vinyl rig was better than my digital rig, and I really couldn't envisage digital ever getting good. But, it did. Times change. Technology improves. Thank goodness. It was looking grim for a while.

The OP has the desire to build a SE amplifier and his willingness to venture into building a speaker to suit means he is keen to experiment. One can tell he is not expecting to build a high end amplifier. The trouble with listening to to many cooks is that you newer will end up cooking a meal just because it will never taste like a five star restaurant meal. So I would encourage him to build it with the help of diyadio forum and then build a suitable full range speaker. SE amps are very well suited to the right commercial speakers like the ZU's and other high efficient full range designs.

I am going with a electrocompaniet emi3 that seems to cover everything needed maybe a little less power but looks like it can cover the loads necessary. Picked it up cheap. Let people know how it turns out.

Before and after some TLC same units, this is the one thing that lets NAD down the faceplates/cases are so easily scratched today I attacked these small scratches with an HB pencil, turned out alright thought I'd share this it may help some of you.

Hart - Pulmonary - Venous - Venus - Goddess of Love - Alone Again Or: Love

I read it differently. There's an opportunity, that he's been thinking about for a while. He really wants to take the plunge (otherwise why would he even post in the first place?). But just needs a bit of reassurance. We could argue all day long about the merits of sound quality (arguably a very subjective and personal preference thing). But the OP also needs to consider the other advantages of vinyl - also subjective/personal (ownership of a physical medium, the tactility, the psychology of nostalgia, forcing you to actually listen, the liner notes, the collectability etc or whatever else may float your boat). And how much they rate for him. Only he knows! You only live once...

Not supposed to happen. Every update of IP Board, Viglink gets reactivated by default. Sorry! Edit: should be fixed.

A Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra La La Band He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms

I collected all of them but only have time to listened to 1, 2, 3, 7 and 9, I like 3 the best so far.

The Sony cycle would be a good standard introduction. But I prefer Haitink/ASO Philips set better for the standard interpretation. However, if you wanna know how Mahler sounds when Lenny did it over the top, the DG is the one. A must have set for a Mahler fan anyway. A great modern catalogue in amazing SQ from Exton label is highly recommended too. Get a Tidal free trial to find out if you’re curious. Good numbers to get you hooked 1, 2, 3, 6, 8 and 9. I find the Fourth a little boring. Typically preferred by those who don’t really enjoy Mahler. My faves are 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. Must have recordings other than the DG set: 2 - Mehta/VPO 5 - Shipway 6 - Karajan/BPO 8 - Solti/CSO (with flair) 9 - Giullini/CSO 10 - Wyn Morris

Haha! And you've had me thinking about Kraftwerk all morning and the great weekend I had in Sydney when they did the 3D shows at the Opera House. Even though Tour De France wasn't one of the shows we saw, they did have a bit from the album in some of the other shows. The futuristic electronic sounds paired with the old historical black and white footage of those crazy guys thrashing it out up steep, winding and incredibly dangerous looking cobbled roads really got my heart racing. Awesome stuff! Time for a spin...

I will contact an electrician ASAP. Will report once I have found a solution to the problem.

Geeze talk about getting things back to front, have another read of my comment and you will see I was agreeing with your quote while addressing the OP's original comment and again if you read it you would see I was agreeing that maybe records wasn't for him. Mind you I was only agreeing with you in part, you don't rate vinyl and that is fine but in my limited experience my analogue system to my ears out rates SQ and listening wise my digital system which includes a reasonable CD player (Oppo205) and for playing Tidal a BlueSound Node 2 and both through a Grobb DAC. While I rate records as my preference I have no interest in putting down or rubbishing the other sources as all three bring listening enjoyment and serve a purpose. When it comes to expense if I had put all the money I have recently spent on turntables, Phono Stages and Carts and records towards a internet source based digital system then it would be very impressive and I know that but I like playing records and still for me I prefer the sound they produce, even with the odd crackle and pop thrown in for good measure. cheers Terry

@Happy You're absolutley right. One analogy could be that somene asks if they should buy a classic car as a daily driver for commuting to work. Fuel consumption, and saftey are not the only aspects to owning a car. Sometimes people need to own and drive that classic car just becuase they want to, because its different, because they like the looks of it etc. Practicality isnt everything. People need to live their own lives and have their own experiences and come to their own conclusions. But its still always worthwhile asking oneself the question - what do I hope to achieve / experience?

I have exactly the same version but with Photostage which purchased three years ago .. the sound is superb ... it came with modules, which means it can upgrade easily in the future with trade in your old module (with very reasonable trade in price). Highly recommended

Here's Joe!

It was a bit of a grey rainy day today in ol' BrisVegas town, so I headed out to Brighton to get a moody shot of the mangrove tree: Nikon D750 camera + Nikkor 16-35 lens @ 16mm, f/16, ISO 50, 30 seconds.

Not sure if I'm the right one to ask about them. I mean sure, I've heard about them on amps, even seen a few, but I haven't used one yet. I still spin silver discs. My computer revolution has yet to occur. The Classe Sigma 2200i has one, so I'd have to default to it I think. I really loved that amp. I don't know about a pay rise but I have asked Marc for a T shirt, a few times now, actually. Even supplied my size at one point. Nope, still shirtless. I blame the state of the economy. (And the shoddy leadership of the Liberal Party, but that goes without saying ATM.)

You have mentioned this a couple of times and I agree this is critical. The key is proper integration of the sub(s) with your mains. Done properly, the sub(s) are not heard i.e. bass is not directional, not coming from sub(s). Noted room is small, not treated. Have you done any measuring using REW? (and there is a Mac version!) You will need to have a calibrated microphone e.g. UMIK-1 as well. Your room will room modes and bass dips. Have a read of this Bass integration guide which will give you a good idea of the challenges on integrating bass. It was written by Paul Spencer (Red Spade Audio) and a SNA member. If this is all too hard, hire Paul. Until you understand your room and have measured it, putting in a sub by itself is guesswork. ------------------------ Your room is small and does not need a big sub. Putting in 2 smaller subs is better to even out the bass and better aesthetically. I suggest you consider 2 small REL or SVS subs. (and way below your budget) but do the integration properly with a DSP.

You can never have too many Records, only not enough