Cool gadgets?

[Spectrum]

My first serious pair of speakers where Wharfedale E70s. Bought them in Comet marked down to half price because they were not a matched pair. One was walnut veneered and the other was teak. They were still way too expensive for me but I pulled the trigger anyway. I absolutely loved those speakers for years but had to sell them when I moved onto the boat. Back on land here in France I tried to duplicate them but couldn't manage it, even after making contact with a member of the original design team not retired in Australia. Matching the original drivers was a critical factor.

Here in France I bought some French built ones "Mosscade" they were very good, after an accident I went all British. But speakers are a very personal thing, on some of the HiFi forums people used to get into big arguments over which is best and of which cable to use.

[hughnique]

Brings back memories of a little shop in Eltham, first real "hi fi" system a Teleton amp, garrard turntable and a pair of unknown speakers, must have been less than £50 the lot. My son gifted me a Kenwood stand alone sub woofer that sits by the side of the TV, what a rumble that makes when the cinema system is on, sadly not very often nowadays. The soundbar I bought for the other TV was a bit disappointing, got that from Richer Sounds made by a company called Polk, don't bother using it at all now.

[Hotrodder]

That brings to mind another personal gripe I have about modern consumerism. Why on earth should people have to buy a seperate box of tricks to get decent sound out of an expensive new TV? I was idly browsing the TV section in Boulanger a while back and noticed these add-on soundbars were costing anything up to €600 on top of the price of the TV. Then I read reviews on new TVs and found that poor sound reproduction is one of the main complaints about almost all models of wonderful new flat screen tellys.

[Polarengineer]

I have a great system on the TV. A central signal processer that takes input from all the other periferals and pokes it to the TV while driving a surround sound set of big boxes and tweeters. It would be even better if I could get it to start up. It connects together with HDMI plugs and has eARC control over these cables. It allows the central system to start or stop the periferal gadgets. That is the problem, When I start it up it works starting the periferals, but then shuts down the other gadgets. I have no idea which gadget is telling which other to do what. Obviously designed for the village idiot by the village idiot.

[RobertArthur]

@ Hotrodder, a simple speaker output, there is somewhere a little power amplifier hiding inside on the printed circuit board, should be enough to get decent sound levels with a pair of efficient external speakers. Whatever happened to the simple line output, an audio signal of 100 or perhaps 500 millivolts, cable (prehistoric) to the aux input of an amplifier. Stereo, also for Fred Flintstone. But what a diifference with the tiny speakers inside the still shrinking size of flatscreen TVs or these soundbar "systems". Give me some plywood, a set of decommissioned little speakers and access to the output signal of the power amp. Costs: about 20 euros and several hours of DIY pleasure.

[Spectrum]

As said the slimness of modem TVs usually for wall mounting does not allow for proper speakers, two ways round this, ie a sound bar, which I have on top of the wall mounted Tv, or re-route the audio outputs of the Tv to another amp device, I set mine up to do both, while watching normal Tv the sound is from the sound bar "Sony" louder than standard but Iam able to alter the sound depending on what we are watching, for films and YouTube the sound goes through the HiFi system, so very loud if we feel so inclined, a mixture of HDMI and optic cables carry the signals. When we designed the house I put all the cables in place before they plaster boarded, there is ten outlets for various speakers and a projector system, and not a cable in sight, **** knows what will happen if I have to replace one

[Hotrodder]

Respect!
That is the benefit of doing your own work and having the foresight to plan ahead before drylining. I've done just the same. Now just waiting for our ancient CRT telly to go belly up so I can upgrade to a flatscreen job. I have a tiny high powered amp and a pair of vintage Bower & Wilkins bookshelf speakers waiting to provide the audio.

[hughnique]

Can you turn it up a bit, leaves room and upon return, "have you got that on loud enough", that's why I don't use the hi fi much as I like it whoomping out.

[RobertArthur]

@ Hotrodder, not bad at all these vintage B&W bookshelf speakers. My DM1400 set being considered by some as too big, I saw a pair of B&W LM1 speakers, flea market, probably defective, tres petit prix. Much distortion from one of these guys. Did a speaker die because of a party of kids, too much power to enhance the disco feeling? No, speakers OK. Problem in the filter. Size matters in such a small cabinet, which brings us to capacitors in audio crossover networks. Two little bipolair electrolytic capacitors produced an almost short when measured. Replaced by professional caps, high temp, LL and low ESR.

They didn't disappoint me. To be fair, I must add that I did not dare to put the B&W DM1400 speakers next to them for an A-B test.

[hughnique]

Respect!
That is the benefit of doing your own work and having the foresight to plan ahead before drylining. I've done just the same. Now just waiting for our ancient CRT telly to go belly up so I can upgrade to a flatscreen job. I have a tiny high powered amp and a pair of vintage Bower & Wilkins bookshelf speakers waiting to provide the audio.

That's when the fun will start again, what tele do you get, it is a nightmare out there with all the newer different types. About 4 years ago, my son bought me a new 47" flatscreen, gotta say I was a bit disappointed when I clocked the make, "Bush", really, however damn good picture, I did eventually reimburse him the £400 it cost him, so actually bought it myself. I would suspect that the Bush name is only on there for effect and it is probably made by a well known company who want to get rid of some older technology, which changes every 10 seconds