Record Players

[badabec]

Putting the cat amongst the pigeons: when I listen to a live band I don't hear the drums in one ear, guitar in the other and vocals in the middle. When I saw Black Sabbath (Romford pub, 14 shillings to get in), James Brown (Finsbury Park £1) and dozens and dozens of others, there were giant stacks of speakers (Marshall or Orange), all in mono.
So why do we bother with stereo?

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Putting the cat amongst the pigeons: when I listen to a live band I don't hear the drums in one ear, guitar in the other and vocals in the middle. When I saw Black Sabbath (Romford pub, 14 shillings to get in), James Brown (Finsbury Park £1) and dozens and dozens of others, there were giant stacks of speakers (Marshall or Orange), all in mono.
So why do we bother with stereo?

I don't all my synths and drum machines are mono and I mix/master in mono for the most

Most live gigs and clubs are gonna be playing your stereo mix in mono anyway

 

[fizzy]

Its a two horse race
Linn Sonndeck
Or for a lesser budget
Rega
The rest come in 3rd etc
Now Budget decks
Winchboy has a Pioneer PL12d he is happy it has a £30 cartridge on it.
Old rega's or Moth ( Same deck rebadged)
Get a set of British manufactured speakers from the 80's especially of you have never heard of the brand
Musical Fidelity
Principal Design
Ram Audio
Any Many others.
Naim Nac4 cable Nac5 if you can afford it
Good set of speaker stands and you will rediscover your collection.

Yes definitely. British audio equipment the best in the World.
Get a valve amp and a set of Tannoy horn speakers!

 

[fizzy]

Its a two horse race
Linn Sonndeck
Or for a lesser budget
Rega
The rest come in 3rd etc
Now Budget decks
Winchboy has a Pioneer PL12d he is happy it has a £30 cartridge on it.
Old rega's or Moth ( Same deck rebadged)
Get a set of British manufactured speakers from the 80's especially of you have never heard of the brand
Musical Fidelity
Principal Design
Ram Audio
Any Many others.
Naim Nac4 cable Nac5 if you can afford it
Good set of speaker stands and you will rediscover your collection.

You forgot Roksan! Used to have a factory in Wales but think they moved.

https://www.roksan.com/en/product-ranges/

 

[slim_boy_fat]

All this talk of different settings/qualities/outputs/specification(s) etc leaves me a bit confused.

Unless you live in a concert hall, are you ever going to get that same audio experience in a room in a 'normal' house?

 

[Dcal]

Putting the cat amongst the pigeons: when I listen to a live band I don't hear the drums in one ear, guitar in the other and vocals in the middle. When I saw Black Sabbath (Romford pub, 14 shillings to get in), James Brown (Finsbury Park £1) and dozens and dozens of others, there were giant stacks of speakers (Marshall or Orange), all in mono.
So why do we bother with stereo?

Because we have two ears.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Because we have two ears.

Well best not tell the classical crowd or they will think there missing out.

The concert pianist. The violinist. The chellist they all perform live yet we hear and enjoy it perfectly with our two ears

Tbh. There's so little headroom in today's music thanks to the loudness wars the Fidelity's lost anyway

 

[Dcal]

All this talk of different settings/qualities/outputs/specification(s) etc leaves me a bit confused.

Unless you live in a concert hall, are you ever going to get that same audio experience in a room in a 'normal' house?

No it's a con,
but done well it can be glorious and can fool you into thinking you are.
Good headphones can make it work almost anywhere and I find darkness and drink helps as well.

I prefer live small scale music and my kit does it well enough for me, but I'm old, getting deaf and am probably relying on my memory mote than anything, but still enjoy my Sondec and 50 year old Quad electrostatics.

 

[Dcal]

Well best not tell the classical crowd or they will think there missing out.

The concert pianist. The violinist. The chellist they all perform live yet we hear and enjoy it perfectly with our two ears

Tbh. There's so little headroom in today's music thanks to the loudness wars the Fidelity's lost anyway

For an orchestra, can you not hear the piano is in the middle the violins to the left, the brass to the right and the precession at the back?
Fair enough in a crap hall with sound reinforcement it becomes more complicated but I don't see the issue.

I agree about headroom ( or lack thereof) and it's one of the reasons I still like analogue and live acoustic music.

I don't much care for super exaggerated stereo separation but liked dark side of the moon well enough when it came out so I think everything has it's place but when you start listening to the equipment and not to the music you are lost.

 

[Olderisbetter]

A guy i do jobs for has a laser record player, i bet that wasn't cheap.

 

[Parm]

All this talk of different settings/qualities/outputs/specification(s) etc leaves me a bit confused.

Unless you live in a concert hall, are you ever going to get that same audio experience in a room in a 'normal' house?

almost certainly no. (After a certain threshold) But there is a great deal of money to be made from those that want to try.

All this stuff is exponential

 

[Parm]

It all gets a bit anal sometimes. Years ago I remember going to the hi fi show at a hotel near Heathrow.

Folk were getting excited that the could hear the singer drawing breath on the recording

track was Sadness by Enigma

 

[Parm]

First time in years I didn’t experience this at Nottinghill Carnival

 

[fizzy]

I fancy a pair of Tannoy Westminsters - only £52k a pair

 

[northwest]

I don't much care for super exaggerated stereo separation but liked dark side of the moon well enough when it came out so I think everything has it's place but when you start listening to the equipment and not to the music you are lost.

I love music, ergo I have quite a bit of Hi-Fi kit. I have been "really into" Hi-Fi for donkeys years and I have some really nice kit, very big vinyl collection. The thing that did it for me with the Hi Fi crowd was one day, the senior admin on one of the Hi-Fi forums claimed he could tell the difference when the fuse was put in the mains plug for the amplifier the "wrong way around". That just confirmed what I suspected, they were more interested in the kit than the actual music. Haven't been back since.

A guy i do jobs for has a laser record player, i bet that wasn't cheap.

Crikey! I thought a total restoration of my ESL52's was being extravagant.

 

[winchman]

I love music, ergo I have quite a bit of Hi-Fi kit. I have been "really into" Hi-Fi for donkeys years and I have some really nice kit, very big vinyl collection. The thing that did it for me with the Hi Fi crowd was one day, the senior admin on one of the Hi-Fi forums claimed he could tell the difference when the fuse was put in the mains plug for the amplifier the "wrong way around". That just confirmed what I suspected, they were more interested in the kit than the actual music. Haven't been back since.



Crikey! I thought a total restoration of my ESL52's was being extravagant.

Its just like cameras, some people listen to music some collect Hi Fi, the judging factor for me is I have had the current set up for about 30 years and I am still 100% happy with it.
The Turntable (Rega 3) went when winchboy was small as he couldn't leave it alone, so I still have my Nytech amp (Made in Wales) Principal Design PD300 speakers ( Made in London) and Linn Sara Stands (Glasgow), Naim Cables, it cost about £500 in the late 80's still as good now as the day I bought it. I mainly listen to the radio or stream stuff via this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[Robert.]

One of my best friends has worked for Linn HiFi over 30 years . His system is something very special indeed , it's been built over the years with prototypes and "damaged" stock , the real cost of it to a non employee without his access would probably buy a house , it's a bit of an issue as after listening to it for an evening , you have to let your ears and brain recalibrate and forget as everything sounds rubbish for weeks afterwards haha

 

[winchman]

This Forum is good, lots of high end money no object stuff but also plenty like me with cheap but great systems, when my daughter wanted a record player for uni they came up trumps and we got a basic system for about £100 via the small ads
https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/system-pics-2020.235557/


@northwest Just off to check my fuse direction! That must be one of the best I have heard

 

[winchman]

Have you seen this?

 

[julianf]

Someone I used to know said that a resonable hifi and a spliff made the music sound way better than a setup 10x the price....