Tekforums
Chat => Entertainment & Technology => Topic started by: zpyder on July 02, 2016, 13:18:04 PM
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I'm not in the know in the slightest, the wife is more musically inclined.
We're after a decent sound system for the lounge. Separate speakers etc, not an all in one jobby.
My only spec request is something that would be easy to input to from spotify or a phone or laptop etc.
Suggestions?
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If you want something of decent but not break the bank quality look at Denon's range, they offer seperate and all in one solutions and you can probably get a dock for your phone. British made too :)
This is probably as compact as you will get with seperates:
https://www.hifix.co.uk/denon-df109dab-network-cd-player-micro-hifi-system?gclid=CInYnuzn1M0CFcFsGwodp3oHjQ (https://www.hifix.co.uk/denon-df109dab-network-cd-player-micro-hifi-system?gclid=CInYnuzn1M0CFcFsGwodp3oHjQ)
With regard to speakers depends if you want bookshelf or floorstanders and how much you're looking at spending, but a look in Richer Sounds should give you an idea.
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Just an audio amp or AV? Most AV amps have Bluetooth/ AirPlay etc. now...
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Well, the wife has bookmarked these on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JPH8XMQ/ref=cm_sw_r_pi_dp_UgLoxbNTTGP86
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IG7PNBK/ref=cm_sw_r_pi_dp_EfLoxbM242FYN
I've only just looked at them, didn't realise she wanted to spend quite so much :o
It's Sony so I'm assuming it's overpriced...(not necessarily bad quality, just a lot of £ for what you get)
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You could do a lot better for that money, in fact any of them in Richer Sounds for that money will likely sound a lot better, and 6 year warranty if you buy from them, go into Bournemouth and demo some in store. If I was dropping that much I'd be looking at these:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/standmount-speakers/monitor-audio/silver-1/moni-audi-silv-1-blk
All in one:
http://www.richersounds.com/package/system-savers/mini-hi-fi-system-deals/pah012737
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Go into Bournemouth and demo some in store.
Bit of a trek...I live in Norfolk now ;)
Will have to pop in to Norwich sometime!
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Need to consider the devices you will use it with, iPhone and iTunes I expect will be fine with the Sony via AirPlay, but may want to consider something Bluetooth if android.. Something like this maybe? http://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/p-15794-mar-mcr611-blk.aspx?gclid=Cj0KEQjw7-K7BRCkkIH3t_WwoskBEiQAD8oY3thyq4KV19jUk04uJhoEUVBVXuJ8OWADDFPV5ys8JUsaAiVm8P8HAQ
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Norwich was a bust, richer sounds was pretty pants with very little choice and what they had seemed really poor.
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I would still stand by my original recommendations, its obviously better to go with an audition first but I'd say Sony are good for the receivers, amps, etc, but you can do much better on the speakers for the money.
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Yeah. The wife and I were pretty shocked by Richer sounds, I'd been into the Bournemouth store a couple of times in years past and it seemed quite high end and professional with a good range. Norwich on the other hand was in quite a grotty building with a lot of cheap end stuff on the ground floor, and then a small selection of quite expensive stuff in an overheated room upstairs, nothing inbetween, and pretty poor customer service.
The wife seems quite happy with her own suggestions but I might do a bit of a comparison search on speakers to see if I can find better or similar for less.
Thanks for the help!
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Modern electronics means most hi-fi is pretty decent, the bit that stands out is the speakers. That's the area a lot of low end companies skip on in their systems. Quite often seemingly poor stuff can be massively improved just by swapping speakers.
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Richer has a flash sale today.
keep an eye out.
http://www.richersounds.com/information/flash_deals?utm_source=emailmarketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160712__flash__actives&utm_content=2016-07-12_0657
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Modern electronics means most hi-fi is pretty decent, the bit that stands out is the speakers. That's the area a lot of low end companies skip on in their systems. Quite often seemingly poor stuff can be massively improved just by swapping speakers.
strange to find myself agreeing with serious
Hi Fi is an area full of absolute bollocks - if you go on some Hi Fi forums you'll find a whole bunch of complete morons spending silly money on magical speaker cables* or convincing themselves that some CD player is somehow giving them better 1s and 0s than some other CD player or maybe that spending more money on a £50 HDMI cable is going to have some magical effect on a digital signal! (which makes about as much sense as spending more money on a gold plated RJ45 network cable to get 'better internet')
The reality is that modern amplifiers have minimal distortion and people generally can't tell the difference between them in controlled, blind tests. Ditto to CD players - modern DACs are pretty much a solved problem and can be mass produced cheaply - if you're going to send a digital signal to your amp anyway and use its DAC then a CD player is a CD player... they're all literally just sending the same bunch of 1s and 0s.
The factors that make a difference are the layout of the room, position of the speakers, what sort of surfaces you have (wooden floor vs carpets etc..) and there are noticeable differences between speakers.
So long as your amp is powerful enough to drive your speakers then you're sorted and really you should just pick the amp based on it having the features you require.
*they ignore the fact the inside of the amplifier contains ordinary printed circuit board and ordinary connectors and ignore the fact that inside the speaker is several meters of ordinary coiled copper cable the few ft of super special magic speaker cable connecting the amp to the speaker somehow enhances the sound in ways that make a wine snob sound unpretentious
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But it's 100% oxygen free copper!
OK that's bullsh*t too, if it wasn't then it would be copper oxide. The cheapest copper bell wire is 100% oxygen free copper.
Personal ideals and opinion makes far more difference than the cables. If you think something is better then your brain will make it sound, smell, taste or look better.
And sometimes a large wodge of money into the reviewer's pocket has been known to have created the same effect.
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The wife ended up buying a more compact Sony system with small speakers. I think she pretty much regrets not spending 2x as much on getting better speakers, as she says it sounds a bit flat. To my untrained ear though it sounds fine, and it's quite nice being able to stream music from my computer to listen to!
Next step will be figuring out how to set up the multi-room thingy.
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She could still swap the speakers out at some point so it's not the end of the world
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In most systems except high end ones you are going to find that the speakers are the bit they skimp on, that also means they have the most room to be upgraded. There are plenty of really good 3rd party speakers on the market.
Most people wouldn't notice a speaker sounding flat, the human brain is incredibly good at processing music and making it sound better than the source can produce.
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Sadly my wife isn't most people, she's incredibly musical, used to be in a band and can play many many instruments. As such to her it doesn't sound great, to me it sounds fine. As you guys say though, we can always upgrade the speakers. I'm thinking once we move we'll get some good speakers for the main room and then look in to how to use these lesser speakers remotely in another room.