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View Full Version : A trip to Casa RichB's



Jac Hawk
22-04-2012, 14:21
Popped up to Rich's place last week, 1st off to do a cartridge exchange and help him set up his Turntable, but I also fancied a nosey at his kit as you do. Rich has some very nice gear, which gives a very clear detailed sound, all good so far:) however in his lounge the position of his speakers kills the sound stage dead, (sorry mate, it just does) So it got me thinking, Rich has a Mrs Rich and although he has some lovely kit, (his Rega speakers in particular) he has them tucked away in the bay window of his lounge, which just killed the sound stage, we talked about this, and I was tempted to roll my sleeves up and do a bit of re-arranging, but I don't think Rich was too keen, I commented that when I was living with my ex, I had my speakers in a similar position and got the same closed in sound that he was getting. So I'm wondering how many more of you have had to sacrifice optimum sound quality from you equipment, to please the Mrs? or if you haven't had to, why? and what was the winning argument that tipped it in your favour?

twelvebears
22-04-2012, 14:28
Fortunately Susy's always appreciated how my system sounds and has been happy to put up with less than idea speaker sizes and positioning.

Obviously solved all that by building the Man Cave....

Jac Hawk
22-04-2012, 14:36
When i was with my ex anything vaguely HiFi oriented had to be out of sight, she just didn't get it, and still doesn't, I suppose it was one of the reasons I lost interest in HiFi, not being able to have it set up properly or have a spare room that was just for me and my stuff, strangely though she did say she liked the sound my setup made when she brought the kids over for the easter break:eek: will wonders never cease

RichB
22-04-2012, 14:45
Yes, Cheers for popping over mike... the deck is now sounding great and I've added a Behringer U-Phono UFO202 for doing the vinyl rips to the PC, much better than the line out from the Pioneer A400. I've also cleaned another batch of records for ripping since the other night, they are really quiet and static free now and I can vouch for the 'disco antistat' as a decent way to clean up old vinyl on the cheap.

Totally agree with your comments on the speaker positioning. I had thought of other speakers which might suit the space better but i do love my regas so, the soundstage really goes to pot with loud stuff but actually its not too bad at the more sedate volume, i tend to do most of my listening quite late at night but dont really like headphones for anything outside of a recording environment. It might be that in the future I just chuck the mission speakers and stands in there for tv watching and reconfigure the spare room to give me a dedicated listening den. The other option is to move the TV to the other alcove and put the speakers against the back wall as you first come into the room. That would let me point the side firing drivers outwards and space them a few more feet apart.

As an aside my Belkin Pure AV RCA cables arrived yesterday and i swapped the QED i was using for my dac to amp for them, wow! I'm not clever enough to try and describe how they sound in audio terms but they have certainly gave more separation to the sound and it all seems a bit less cluttered.

Anyway, heres to AoS and member meetups :cool: With Mike's help and advice I've now got a rocking TT and some properly clean vinyl! (One of which we dropped in the cat litter :lol:, anyway it still sounded great after cleaning) As such I haven't really had to resort to the old Magic Eraser quite yet, i think the trick is to use very sparingly if necessary.

Jac Hawk
22-04-2012, 15:00
Mate the way you handle your vinyl makes me want to cry:eek:

RichB
22-04-2012, 15:11
I handle that vinyl like a p**sed up club 18-30s DJ! I'm learning Mike, I'm learning... the look on your face was mint tho!:lol:

Jac Hawk
22-04-2012, 15:34
I handle that vinyl like a p**sed up club 18-30s DJ!

That's one way of putting it mate:lol: what really got me was that inner sleeves don't seem to be in your vocabulary at all, it's the thin cover the record goes in before you put it in the colourful cardboard outer sleeve, it isn't like the cellophane that covers a new record and so shouldn't be thrown away with the cellophane, please use them, if you do i'll be able to sleep again:lol:

RichB
22-04-2012, 15:47
Yes there are actually some inner sleves amongst them... Its a miracle that the vinyl has survived at all after what they were subjected to years ago... Both myself and Gman (another member of this forum) have been trying to recover our 'lost' vinyl in recent times. The lot of records I had have sat in various dusty cupboards and lofts for the last 15 year or so and been badly handled by inebriated DJ's at many parties on less than ideal set-ups... still we had a lot of fun at the time!

I'm not intending on seriously persuing a vinyl as a source for the future, the main objective is really to get good quality rips I can stream to the various systems and bring some of the tunes back from the dead. Once the ripping project is complete I'll be offloading it all to someone who either wants to look after them for the future or will sell them to buy more music on CD.

Puffin
22-04-2012, 17:46
Women and hifi! You're avin a larf aint cha. I was never "allowed" to have the hifi on when I wanted to (insert any and every excuse known to man (women) so I spent some of my money on converting the integral garage. There....Mrs....didn't think of that one did ya:lol::lol::lol:

When we moved I had the small study to myself....well as a man I am only "small" in comparison. Last year I converted half the double garage to a much larger than ever room. Women and hifi....don't get me started, Control freaks:doh:

Macca
22-04-2012, 17:59
Hmm, only girlfriend I ever lived with had no issues with the hi-fi, and a good job too as I was into DIY speaker building at the time and the living room resembled a workshop. What she did object to was televisions - we just had a black and white portable for years and when she came back one day to find I had upgraded to a 28'' colour Hitachi (the DB's at the time) she was most unimpressed.

Marco
23-04-2012, 23:00
Women and hifi....don't get me started, Control freaks:doh:

I find that a firm slap on the arse works wonders! ;)

Marco.

Jac Hawk
23-04-2012, 23:27
I find that a firm slap on the arse works wonders! ;)

Marco.

Does your missus read the stuff on the forum, i'm guessing not ;)

Marco
23-04-2012, 23:34
Yes, all the time - she's a member here! Seriously, she'd laugh at that and give as good as she gets :eyebrows:

There are too many subservient married men in the world ;)

Marco.

RichB
24-04-2012, 11:27
There are too many subservient married men in the world ;)


Believe me chaps, I get away with more than my fair share... speaker placement is pretty small sacrifcie to make!:lol:

Jac Hawk
24-04-2012, 12:28
it's weird though, when I was with Silvia the car and anything vaguely technical was down to me no arguments, but when it came to decorating or anything to do with the way the room looked I didn't get a look in