Starting from scratch...

[icehockeyboy]

As you may recall, the wife persuaded me there’d be no room for my Hifi In our new place, (not factual )
So I ended up with a Naim Muso.

But now, for my bedroom system I have been given a Pioneer A203 amp from my local Cash Generator store, (who says they’re rip off merchants? and bought a pair of Gale 3010’s.
Hooked together by some cheap ic’s, they are actually the ones that the staff and one customer preferred at Sevenoaks over Chord Anthems some time back.

It sounds nowhere near as good as my old set up, but for the princely sum of £30, including £5 for the speaker cable, which is just B&Q mains cable, it’s not too bad.

Has anyone else managed to put a system together for such a silly price?
Although it’s being fed by my old Squeezebox Touch, which I haven’t included in the price! ��

[icehockeyboy]

Added my redundant REL Quake to the system.

Very nice sound!

[jandl100]

Turn the sub up a bit - well, OK, a LOT - give the missus a good shaking. She deserves it. :D

[icehockeyboy]

Ha ha ha!

Very true my old friend!

[Macca]

As you may recall, the wife persuaded me there’d be no room for my Hifi In our new place, (not factual )
So I ended up with a Naim Muso.

But now, for my bedroom system I have been given a Pioneer A203 amp from my local Cash Generator store, (who says they’re rip off merchants? and bought a pair of Gale 3010’s.
Hooked together by some cheap ic’s, they are actually the ones that the staff and one customer preferred at Sevenoaks over Chord Anthems some time back.

It sounds nowhere near as good as my old set up, but for the princely sum of £30, including £5 for the speaker cable, which is just B&Q mains cable, it’s not too bad.

Has anyone else managed to put a system together for such a silly price?
Although it’s being fed by my old Squeezebox Touch, which I haven’t included in the price! ��

Bargains to be had everywhere these days. You can put together a high-end system for 2 grand now (unless you want high end vinyl ofc). You want to flog that Muso thing and use the money to upgrade the bedroom system. We'll soon have you back into the nuttiness :D

[icehockeyboy]

Just wondering, and taking into consideration it’s level in the world of Hifi , if some decent speaker cables are worth getting?

Oh no...it’s starting again!

[Pigmy Pony]

A few years ago an electrician who was wiring a house I was working at for speakers everywhere, left a big reel of speaker wire lying around (don't know what make, but pretty thick) and when he wasn't looking I snipped 4 or 5 metres off it. Last year I acquired a mint pair of Celestion 5's minus tweeters from a fellow member for free, got some mint tweeters off Ebay for £18, bought an Amptastic Mini 1 for £80 and connected it to an Echo Dot that was doing nothing. Along with Spotify (which I didn't know I had) on my laptop, I'm getting some pretty good sounds.

At a total cost of £128 not as cheap as Craig's set up, but still cheap enough to pass under Mrs. P's radar. And now I've just added my 8 year old Bk sub for added chunkiness.

It is about 1/100th the cost of the main set up, and probably gives about 70% of the sound, so happy days!

Next I'm going to make my own stands for the speakers, try and get another 5% improvement!

[walpurgis]

If you want a really good sounding amp for peanuts try one of these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TPA3116-2-0-Class-D-Amplifier-Board-2-50W-DC18V-DC24V-ATF/192431936152?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

The TPA3116 chip is getting good reviews. I have one of these amps and it sounds bloody amazing.

Benchtest here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6WkVSr_Hn8

This is the power supply I bought to go with it: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/96W-Universal-Laptop-Power-Supply-110-220v-AC-To-DC-12V-16V-20V-24V-Adapter-ZY/113212786620?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

[icehockeyboy]

In all honesty, I didn’t factor in the Squeezebox Touch (£275) or original cost of the Quake(£350)
Sadly it totals a lot more than the £30!
Or am I allowed to not include the price of stuff I had before? :)

Anyway, is it worth spending a bob or two on speaker cable?
Richer have some at less than £2 a metre!
Or wouldn’t I tell the difference with it and my copper mains cable I’m using now?

[Macca]

Amp and speakers first! You need a pre-power combo, that's where I'd start. :D

[Pigmy Pony]

Amp and speakers first! You need a pre-power combo, that's where I'd start. :D

And don't forget some top quality stands for those Gales - get the best you can afford.

[icehockeyboy]

And don't forget some top quality stands for those Gales - get the best you can afford.

Got some Atacama nexus 6i which are really too big for the tiny Gales, but they do sound better on them.

Now, can someone please advise if ‘better’ speaker cables are going to make any difference in a cheap as chips system please?

[nonuffin]

Yes

[icehockeyboy]

Yes

I must admit I was hoping for a recommendation...:)

I see you have a Lyngdorf amp, makes me wish I still had mine!
Paired it with a Classe pre and they sounded sublime!

[struth]

maybe'ss aye, maybe's naw... alas its a suck it and see situation.. no doubt some will but there is no hard and fast rules bar the obvious ones. Ive tried lots of cables and found most of them different to some extent but not necessarily better.

might add my homemade ones are best ive used..

[icehockeyboy]

Before I sold up my system I was using Talk Cable 3.1, and that was in a set up costing many times more, having gone up and down the price scale, so yes, agree on your thoughts, as to my ears they sounded as good as some prototype Chord Siggy cables that I acquired with a supposed RRP of £300 a metre, so I was told.

[Pigmy Pony]

Can you still get QED 79 strand? That was always recommended in the 80's, and probably quite cheap. If better cables are an itch you need to scratch, just go for it - unlikely to make things worse.

[hifinutt]

got a lovely little system within walking distance of yourself which i really love , an 89 pound teac receiver/amp , revolver speakers at 150 quid and some heavy duty but cheap copper wire . i love it . always reminds me of what you can do with very little

[nonuffin]

I must admit I was hoping for a recommendation...:)

I see you have a Lyngdorf amp, makes me wish I still had mine!
Paired it with a Classe pre and they sounded sublime!

The Lyngdorf power amp is something I wish I had bought years ago. Even with a Rotel pre it sounds fabulous.

I gave a "yes" answer because even the cheapest system has no relevance at all to the quality of the cabling, because it is the wire itself that is the question. A cheap cable has flaws and is imperfect which ultimately affects and limits the sound, whereas a good/high quality cable has less flaws and will affect the sound less. The real question that people ask themselves is "how much am I prepared to pay for a quality cable for a budget system?" and without fail they always pay less than they should do and blame the system if the resulting sound does not please.

[Gaz]

I put together a fairly decent sounding system for the princely sum of £30.
An Acoustic Solutions amp, free to collector on Gumtree, a pair of Celestion F1s £30 on Ebay, a 3.5mm to RCA lead and some old speaker cable I had already, just plugged a phone in via headphone socket & it sounded pretty good considering.
Gave it to a young colleague when he moved into his own place & he was amazed at the sound having previously listened to music on a wireless speaker

[Pigmy Pony]

I put together a fairly decent sounding system for the princely sum of £30.
An Acoustic Solutions amp, free to collector on Gumtree, a pair of Celestion F1s £30 on Ebay, a 3.5mm to RCA lead and some old speaker cable I had already, just plugged a phone in via headphone socket & it sounded pretty good considering.
Gave it to a young colleague when he moved into his own place & he was amazed at the sound having previously listened to music on a wireless speaker

That's the spirit! Show a friend how good his music can sound for not much outlay, then leave him to upgrade his way to financial ruin!

[icehockeyboy]

Just done a major upgrade, plumbed in some Cambridge Audio Symphony speaker cable priced at a staggering £2.19 a metre!

[Gaz]

Just done a major upgrade, plumbed in some Cambridge Audio Symphony speaker cable priced at a staggering £2.19 a metre!

Sounds sensible to me, but then I am a confirmed cable aetheist

[Wakefield Turntables]

Solid core Cu is all you need. Why not take a trip to your local Wickes and buy the biggest cross section diameter copper cable they have. I used to use Nordost SPM speaker cables at stuipd pounds per meter. I then went onto Van dan Hul Blue 6mm Studio grade at far less cost and then 6mm solid copper from Wickes (no difference) in sound quality and cheaper than Van den Hul.

[Lawrence001]

In all honesty, I didn’t factor in the Squeezebox Touch (£275) or original cost of the Quake(£350)
Sadly it totals a lot more than the £30!
Or am I allowed to not include the price of stuff I had before? :)

Anyway, is it worth spending a bob or two on speaker cable?
Richer have some at less than £2 a metre!
Or wouldn’t I tell the difference with it and my copper mains cable I’m using now?Nah you're allowed to include what you already have without adding to the cost.

I bought a Cambridge audio reference cable off ebay for £10 the other day. Chucked it in with some kit I already had. It sounded amazing. You'd literally think it cost thousands. All for a tenner!!! (Plus a few bits I had before.)

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

[Gaz]

Nah you're allowed to include what you already have without adding to the cost.

I bought a Cambridge audio reference cable off ebay for £10 the other day. Chucked it in with some kit I already had. It sounded amazing. You'd literally think it cost thousands. All for a tenner!!! (Plus a few bits I had before.)

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

Me too, I got a pair of Cambridge Audio Studio Reference cables on Ebay for £20, some poor sucker paid £120 new.

To me they sounded exactly the same as my Cambridge Audio Pacific ones which in turn sounded the same as the Chord Indigos I borrowed.

I'm sure the devout will say my equipment isn't good enough to exploit the better cables or it's my hearing or something similar.

I won't convince them and until I do actually hear a difference they won't convince me either lol

[Barry]

Solid core Cu is all you need. Why not take a trip to your local Wickes and buy the biggest cross section diameter copper cable they have. I used to use Nordost SPM speaker cables at stuipd pounds per meter. I then went onto Van dan Hul Blue 6mm Studio grade at far less cost and then 6mm solid copper from Wickes (no difference) in sound quality and cheaper than Van den Hul.

The use of twin and earth cable used for permanent mains wiring as speaker cable was all the rage in the '80s.

I don't like solid core cables as I believe cables should be as flexible as possible. Actually I don't like (unbalanced) cables at all: so use monoblock power amplifiers located directly behind each speaker and run balanced line cables back to the preamp. That way my speaker cables can be as short as 30cm.

But I agree with you - there really is no need to spend a lot on decent speaker cables. Or for that matter on interconnects.

[jandl100]

Coo. This has turned into a proppa cable sceptic thread. :lol:

Well, I love my foo speaker cables (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audiophile-High-End-Speaker-Cable-Chord-SPECIALIST-EXTREME-HIGH-END-AMAZING-/251276797309?nma=true&si=eHrXPNFeEu%252Bg8ko0pqYxt5BmiHw%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557) and I think they sound great! :ner:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/S1gAAOxycERRloG-/s-l500.jpg

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Firebottle]

'SPECIALIST EXTREME HIGH END AMAZING!!!!' (from the link)

Coorrr, wow. :rolleyes:

[jandl100]

:D

I have to confess that the outrageous hyperbolic blurb was what attracted me to try them.

And, amazingly, expectation bias led me to actually agree with the hype. :eek:
They really are very good. :)

They are made by W&M, a well established Dutch company. Very well made. I also have a pair of balanced interconnects made by them which could be used to tow quite a large ocean going liner!

[Pigmy Pony]

Me too, I got a pair of Cambridge Audio Studio Reference cables on Ebay for £20, some poor sucker paid £120 new.

To me they sounded exactly the same as my Cambridge Audio Pacific ones which in turn sounded the same as the Chord Indigos I borrowed.

I'm sure the devout will say my equipment isn't good enough to exploit the better cables or it's my hearing or something similar.

I won't convince them and until I do actually hear a difference they won't convince me either lol


Yes I'm no longer sure changing cables makes much difference.

Last year I accidentally touched a live while changing an extractor fan (not nice). A few weeks later I got a belt while changing a light fitting. And you know what? I noticed NO DIFFERENCE. Came as a bit of a shock. :D

[Pigmy Pony]

:D

I have to confess that the outrageous hyperbolic blurb was what attracted me to try them.

And, amazingly, expectation bias led me to actually agree with the hype. :eek:
They really are very good. :)

They are made by W&M, a well established Dutch company. Very well made. I also have a pair of balanced interconnects made by them which could be used to tow quite a large ocean going liner!

Or some rather large MBL speakers.

[Pigmy Pony]

Sorry, you did say interconnects. I haven't woken up yet.

[icehockeyboy]

Solid core Cu is all you need. Why not take a trip to your local Wickes and buy the biggest cross section diameter copper cable they have. I used to use Nordost SPM speaker cables at stuipd pounds per meter. I then went onto Van dan Hul Blue 6mm Studio grade at far less cost and then 6mm solid copper from Wickes (no difference) in sound quality and cheaper than Van den Hul.

Surely you mean Van Damme Blue?