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webby
09-06-2009, 16:46
Here's my little hifi struggling to swim in the deep waters of the AOS gallery!

The Audiolab 8000CD and 8000S amp beneath my old Sony 32" CRT!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2462/3611404896_9f29d0914b.jpg

A closer view.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3329/3610591493_ccdc0105cf.jpg

The Dynaudio 42. A very nice small speaker :)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3609/3611403272_4a0c745dc0.jpg

DSJR
09-06-2009, 19:24
Kan stands ahoy.......

Nothing wrong with that system. You haven't seen my setup yet.....

Spectral Morn
09-06-2009, 20:20
Here's my little hifi struggling to swim in the deep waters of the AOS gallery!

The Audiolab 8000CD and 8000S amp beneath my old Sony 32" CRT!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2462/3611404896_9f29d0914b.jpg

A closer view.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3329/3610591493_ccdc0105cf.jpg

The Dynaudio 42. A very nice small speaker :)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3609/3611403272_4a0c745dc0.jpg


Hi webby

That looks like a Sony FQ 75 TV ......very nice best picture from a 100htz/line doubling tv....excellent stuff. I used to have one until I upgraded to a Panasonic 36in CRT TV (no flat screens in my house). The Panasonic has better sound than the Sony and on aerial based TV better picture, but the Sony was/is better on digital tv pictures...the line doubling setting is amazing.

Your set up is very nice, thanks for posting the pictures.


Regards D S D L

Beechwoods
09-06-2009, 20:44
That Audiolab stuff looks nice. I like kit that looks like the effort went into the bits inside, and the sound it makes, rather than on some fancy fascia! How does it sound? I bet it sounds better than you give it credit for :)

DSJR
09-06-2009, 20:58
A little bright and crisp, but clean as a whistle and no harshness, even with Flatline cabling... The CD player had some tweaking when it evolved into the Tag version, but the original was fine IMO and reliable.

webby
09-06-2009, 21:37
Hi webby

That looks like a Sony FQ 75 TV ......

Your set up is very nice, thanks for posting the pictures.


Regards D S D L

Yes, it is a FQ75. Great TV that I bought, ooh, 7 or 8 years ago for a grand. It's a bit of a beast. I now have a Panny 42px80. The photos are from an upstairs room. The gear is at the narrow end of a 8ft by 16ft room. I don't know if you can tell by the pictures but the ceiling at that end of the room slopes down, so it's the ideal place to put this huge tv. It's as deep as it is wide!

Thanks for your comments.


That Audiolab stuff looks nice. I like kit that looks like the effort went into the bits inside, and the sound it makes, rather than on some fancy fascia! How does it sound? I bet it sounds better than you give it credit for :)

Yeah, it sounds good. I'm not a hifi addict I have to say, but I like decent gear and like to get the best I can afford, even if it's 2nd hand. Both Audiolabs are 2nd hand. I started off with an old grey 8000A back in the very early 90's I guess. The weight of it gave me some indication of the quality. I then got the 8000CD for around £400 before eventually upgrading the amp to the 8000S for £290 I think. Back then I had a pair of 2nd hand Linn Index II speakers, but I think they'd had their day by the 2000's. I've still got 'em in the garage though. Bought the 42's last year.

Actually, I've still got the 8000A cos the S doesn't have a phono stage, but I haven't used my Rega for years.


A little bright and crisp, but clean as a whistle and no harshness, even with Flatline cabling... The CD player had some tweaking when it evolved into the Tag version, but the original was fine IMO and reliable.

Yes, it is clean and bright. Quite Neutral really. Too bright with the Linn's I felt, especially at higher volumes. The Dyn's are a little more refined.

Thanks for all your comments. I feel a little better about my modest hifi now :)

Spectral Morn
09-06-2009, 23:04
Yes, it is a FQ75. Great TV that I bought, ooh, 7 or 8 years ago for a grand. It's a bit of a beast. I now have a Panny 42px80. The photos are from an upstairs room. The gear is at the narrow end of a 8ft by 16ft room. I don't know if you can tell by the pictures but the ceiling at that end of the room slopes down, so it's the ideal place to put this huge tv. It's as deep as it is wide!

Thanks for your comments.

Hi webby

£1000 not bad price for a £1600 TV. Sounds crazy now for a CRT TV but this Sony was the best they ever made, the next model which was near enough their last quality CRT was not quite as good IMHO. I gave my FQ75 to a friend. The crazy thing about the 36 in Panasonic is it is the same size as the Sony just slightly taller but depth and width are the same....its what allowed me to go for it. I bet you had fun getting that upstairs, rather you than me.


regards D S D L

lovejoy
10-06-2009, 07:42
That's ace.
Always gives me a nice warm glow to see one of those TVs in someone's house. I had one on my desk at work for months - in bits - as I was writing software for it.

Love the 8000S too. Really good amp.

webby
10-06-2009, 09:10
Hi webby

£1000 not bad price for a £1600 TV. Sounds crazy now for a CRT TV but this Sony was the best they ever made, the next model which was near enough their last quality CRT was not quite as good IMHO. I gave my FQ75 to a friend. The crazy thing about the 36 in Panasonic is it is the same size as the Sony just slightly taller but depth and width are the same....its what allowed me to go for it. I bet you had fun getting that upstairs, rather you than me.


regards D S D L

Yes, that was the tv I wanted but I couldn't justify the price, so I was intending to get the next one down in the range. However, my local Sony centre had this refurbed model for a grand, so I bought it.

Actually, it's always had a little problem. Now and again, it has a colour problem in a small area just left of centre. This results in, say, the red BBC logo screen looking pink in that section. I called an engineer out for it within the warranty period but the problem didn't show itself and he checked it over and said it was fine. He also said that the colour whatsit on these tv's were the best. I learned to live with it in the end and it doesn't do it all the time. It still does it now though. I wish I knew how to fix it.

A friend helped me up the stairs with it! If you know this tv, then you know the stand is heavy and very sturdy too.


That's ace.
Always gives me a nice warm glow to see one of those TVs in someone's house. I had one on my desk at work for months - in bits - as I was writing software for it.

Love the 8000S too. Really good amp.

I wonder if Lovejoy knows how to fix it? I found how to enter the service menu once, but decided not to alter anything! :)

lovejoy
10-06-2009, 09:22
Is the problem on the edge of the screen or in the middle?

If it's on the edge then there was a bit of a design flaw with quite a few of the Sony TVs in that the speaker magnet was not quite well shielded enough and was too close to the tube, which could cause some discolouration in the corner of the screen where the speaker was. My old Sony did this and I removed the speakers as all of my sound was going through the hi-fi anyway. That did the trick.

If it's not the edge of the screen then maybe it just needs a good de-gaussing. If the Degauss coil in your TV is still working fine then it could be just a matter of disconnecting from the mains and reconnecting after a few minutes and switching the TV off and on a couple of times. You'll know if the Degauss coil has kicked in as you'll hear the *BUMP* as the TV switches on. If you normally leave your TV in standby or plugged into the wall then the Degauss coil won't be getting much use as it is goverened by a big cap and will only kick in if this cap is discharged - hence the need to disconnect from the mains for a bit.

webby
10-06-2009, 09:31
It's not near the edge Rich. If you split the screen in half down the middle, then it would be in the bottom right quarter of the left hand side.

You removed the internal speakers?!

I think I've read about the de-gaussing trick before. Maybe I just didn't switch it off and on enough. I'll give it a go.

Cheers Rich

lovejoy
10-06-2009, 09:44
Very unlikely it's your speakers causing a problem in that position, in which case, it could well be that the screen isn't being Degaussed enough. The coil in the TV will only do so much - generally enough, but in some cases it either needs to be used repeatedly in a short space of time, or you need to get hold of a handheld Degauss coil which will sort it out with a couple of waves in front of the screen. Recommended to get a TV engineer to perform this trick for you though.

lovejoy
10-06-2009, 09:49
One other thing worth investigating...

I'm assuming that you see this problem when watching TV via your Thomson box or some other external input, and not (or probably don't use) the internal tuner.

How good is your SCART cable and are you using an RGB connection? I have seen colour problems just like you describe caused by SCARTs with less than ideal shielding.

webby
10-06-2009, 10:24
One other thing worth investigating...

I'm assuming that you see this problem when watching TV via your Thomson box or some other external input, and not (or probably don't use) the internal tuner.

How good is your SCART cable and are you using an RGB connection? I have seen colour problems just like you describe caused by SCARTs with less than ideal shielding.

Well, upstairs there is only a sky dish input, no aerial. Before that, it was used downstairs with all kinds of inputs, but mostly the sky dish. But saying that, before I moved house, I used it with the internal tuner and like I say, it happened right from the start. Maybe it IS the scart. I don't know what kind it is, it's nothing special. TBH, this tv doesn't get watched much now that it's in the spare upstairs room, but, ya know, it'd be great to get rid of the problem :)

webby
10-06-2009, 10:27
Back to my hifi, and *hangs head in shame* I use a bog standard interconnect!

I would like a Chord Chameleon or similar but I can't afford £90 on a cable. Well, I could, but the missus wouldn't like it.

Again, I will scour the used market :)

lovejoy
10-06-2009, 10:31
Ah OK, if you've seen it happen on all inputs including the internal tuner, then I'd definitely give it a good Degaussing. Just try disconnecting and reconnecting the set 2-3 times with a power on/off cycle and see if the problem is reduced at all. If there's an improvement then do it a couple more times. If you can't get rid of it completely but there's definitely an improvement then find someone with a hand held degausser to go over it. If there's no improvement then it's probably, and unfortunately, a manufacturing defect with the tube itself.

Spectral Morn
10-06-2009, 13:55
Hi Guys

Yes there were issues with this TV and most of the flat screen wega sets. The positioning of various magnets round the back of the tube casing solves it but it is a pain in the ass. My set had to be tweaked like this, I paid for our local engineer to come to the house to sort it out which he did. However these sets don't reproduce white backgrounds very well. With my FQ75 there was always a very faint stain like vomit at the edges of the screen. The electron gun and the beam it produced always with flat screens is at a disadvantage to sets that were curved as the scanning lines could loose focus at the outside edges (more obvious with an aerial derived picture IME, than digital). The extra magnets helped to focus the beams. Reproduction of white is hard for a CRT and quite often you will hear extra hum from the set as it tries to do it. Despite the Panasonic I have being a flat 36 in set it actually does white well.


Regards D S D L

Marco
11-06-2009, 21:43
Back to my hifi, and *hangs head in shame* I use a bog standard interconnect!

I would like a Chord Chameleon or similar but I can't afford £90 on a cable. Well, I could, but the missus wouldn't like it.

Again, I will scour the used market :)

Hi Webby,

No need to, Mark Grant Cables are your friend:

http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=43_1&products_id=1&zenid=fvisamlub908cod0qnh9tai9b0

Trust me, these are all you need. I use them myself :)

Marco.

webby
12-06-2009, 08:46
Thanks Marco, I'll check 'em out.

Any idea how they may compare to the cables in this (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=49002#post49002) thread?

Marco
12-06-2009, 08:53
Nope, sorry, I don't have any experience of those, but they seem pretty good.

All I can tell you is that the Mark Grant ones outperformed and replaced my £800 Transparent Reference interconnects, as they did with Steve Toy's similarly expensive Siltech cables...

That should tell you all you need to know about how good they are! :)

Marco.

webby
19-06-2009, 17:50
I am currently dabbling with the idea of upgrading my mac's 160gb drive to a new 500gb drive. I don't like the idea of running my iTunes library from an external drive.

I will use an external for backup.

With 500gb I can rip everything to ALAC and even have AAC versions for the ipod!

Beechwoods
20-06-2009, 07:32
I really wouldn't worry about running your iTunes library from an external drive. They sometimes take a second or two to spin up on first use, but otherwise you wouldn't notice.

webby
21-08-2009, 17:11
As a few of you here know about this TV, may I ask if any of you know what this new problem it's exhibiting may be?

It's started making clicking noises from around the back, and the screen flickers at the same time.

Any thoughts?

DSJR
21-08-2009, 17:25
if it's a CRT, then the main thing could be a failing EHT cable from lopty (line output transformer) to tube, but it can also be dry solder joints on the main board around this transformer and line-output stage. Get it seen to, as prolonged clicks/discharges like this can take out various components, as happened with an old Mitsubishi we had. A dozen or so capacitors and a line-output transistor later, it's fine again and too good to chuck out.

webby
21-08-2009, 17:30
The TV is beneath a velux window and 'may' have got a little rain water on it a while back. Could that have caused a problem if it's gotten inside?

DSJR
21-08-2009, 17:41
Yes, of course. Allow it to dry thoroughly before using it again...

webby
21-08-2009, 17:47
Ok, cheers Dave.

webby
21-08-2009, 17:53
if it's a CRT, then the main thing could be a failing EHT cable from lopty (line output transformer) to tube, but it can also be dry solder joints on the main board around this transformer and line-output stage. Get it seen to, as prolonged clicks/discharges like this can take out various components, as happened with an old Mitsubishi we had. A dozen or so capacitors and a line-output transistor later, it's fine again and too good to chuck out.

Yikes! EHT cables aren't cheap are they?

DSJR
21-08-2009, 21:53
Yes they are, but you ought to let an experienced TV engineer to look at it for you, there's still lethal voltages in these CRT sets and the EHT lead carries the highest.

webby
03-12-2009, 14:58
What could I add, or replace in my system, for under £500, that would make the biggest/best improvement? A power amp? A Caiman?

Themis
03-12-2009, 17:07
If I were you, I would save the money for a future upgrade of speakers or amp, eventually.

To me, your system is balanced as it is, and £500 could bring not enough improvent for the buck.

Nevertheless, if you listen to your AE a lot (more than your CDP) then a better dac would be an improvement, indeed.

St3v3
03-12-2009, 17:33
How about a Cambridge Audio DAC? It'll leave you with change to spare aaaaand should last a couple o' upgrades either side of the chain.

webby
03-12-2009, 17:45
How about a Cambridge Audio DAC? It'll leave you with change to spare aaaaand should last a couple o' upgrades either side of the chain.

Surely you mean a Caiman, no?

St3v3
04-12-2009, 18:49
Surely you mean a Caiman, no?

Ah yes, forgot these were Caiman infested waters ;) :lolsign:

Themis
04-12-2009, 18:52
Cambridge is a balanced dac, but too expensive imho. All the people I know have sold theirs... ;) Even a BMC-2 is way better, anyway.

The Vinyl Adventure
04-12-2009, 18:57
Join the caiman club :)

The Vinyl Adventure
04-12-2009, 18:58
... Oops, bit late with that post then...

webby
16-02-2010, 11:38
A wee little update....

I had quite a moment recently when I removed the bungs from my Dyn's, at the same time removing the cd racks (and cds) from behind the speakers.

I now find that my system rather rocks, with pretty damn good bass. In fact, it could be a tad boomy to some. I think the bass is helped greatly by the fact that the wall behind is not flat but slopes towards and over the speakers. Here's a pic:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4361609155_c99f4a2f8c.jpg
The speakers are 18inches in from the back and 12inches from the side. They look a lot closer in this pic. The wall starts to slope at the exact height of the top of the speaker.

There's a velux window above the tv, between the speakers, and if I stand with my head up in that space and speak, it really adds some bottom end to my voice.

Anyhow, I was just playing Green Day's American Idiot and with the volume set to about 10 o'clock it was fantastic. The bass drum was big and solid, and the separation and attack of all the other drums was awesome.

On another track, Crowded House's Fingers of Love, the bass guitar note that comes in at around 40 secs was positively huge. Incidentally, the guitar break that comes in at 2:16 is SO beautiful, but that's just a musical highlight rather than a system one :)

Filterlab
16-02-2010, 13:03
Here's my little hifi struggling to swim in the deep waters of the AOS gallery!

The Audiolab 8000CD and 8000S amp...

Don't underestimate Audiolab my friend. Spend a few hundred on modifications and you'll end up with serious top end-annihilating equipment. ;)

webby
16-02-2010, 14:21
Don't underestimate Audiolab my friend. Spend a few hundred on modifications and you'll end up with serious top end-annihilating equipment. ;)

Tell me about those mods Rob.

Filterlab
16-02-2010, 22:18
PM'd and pointed in a few directions. :)

webby
31-07-2010, 18:43
Here's the latest addition to my kit. A pair of sand filled Atacama 24" speaker stands from my local Cash Converters for the princely sum of £11. :)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_J7HU2sJiE_Y/TFRuUaYBS5I/AAAAAAAAAR4/DndbsiiBu3o/s640/DSC04322.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_J7HU2sJiE_Y/TFRuVC600oI/AAAAAAAAAR8/jQlKT_x3LQY/s640/DSC04323.JPG

It's too early to say what they've done to the sound but they certainly look nicer.

quadsugdenman
31-07-2010, 18:53
Great buy Lee.

I use these and I think they provide a pretty solid base for most standmounters. I use them with Harbeths and they certainly keep the music focused with no hint of feedback or vibration.