What is your reason for hi-fi?

[MartinT]

Steve - I agree with you and further suggest that all four properties are vital in a high end, well balanced system. Any deficiency in any of these will lead to disappointment.

[Hypnotoad]

It seems to be a man thing, how many women are on this forum?

Boys love to tinker with things and when they grow up they love to tinker with more expensive things.

What better to tinker with than a shiny turntable, an amp with lots of buttons, knobs and settings to play with and a myriad of different speakers to try.

Then at the end of it you can have glorious stereophonic sound and collect as many records as you can. It's not harmful to your health, maybe your hearing and you're not staying out late at night.

What's not to like about hifi music at home?

[The Grand Wazoo]

It seems to be a man thing, how many women are on this forum?

Boys love to tinker with things and when they grow up they love to tinker with more expensive things.

I'd say you were a little shy of the mark there. I think the ladies just aren't interested in the tinkering about or discussing of it - there are just as many females who recognise the value in high quality sound.

[Filterlab]

What is your reason for hi-fi?

One day back in the late 80s a friend of mine brought his Tannoy speakers round to my place. We hooked them up to my midi system and the sound just blew me away!

Since then it's been a search for really crisp and accurate sound, and that's what I have now (which is nice).

[Beechwoods]

My reason for hi-fi? To get sound off media, best I can Primarily tape, but I'm not fussy! I'm also a collector, an 'archiver' of gear and recordings... so sometimes I like gear for it's historic value as much as it's performance. Sometimes, as in Elcaset, there's great performance and great historic interest. Sometimes, as in 8-Track just the latter! But it's all fun!

[Steve Toy]

What better to tinker with than a shiny turntable, an amp with lots of buttons, knobs and settings to play with

?

Answer: an amp (preamp) with an on-off switch, preferably round the back, a volume control, an input selector and f*ck all else!

[MartinT]

My preamp has no on/off switch (it's always left on), an input selector and a nice big volume control. As you say, nothing else is required.

[Joe]

My preamp has no on/off switch (it's always left on), an input selector and a nice big volume control. As you say, nothing else is required.

Surely you need a source, power amp and speakers too?

[MartinT]

Surely you need a source, power amp and speakers too?

[Joe]

I'm currently having great fun re-discovering my upstairs system. Last night was a Motown marathon featuring Stevie Wonder, The Temptations and Marvin Gaye.

Most of my listening here is done via Stax headphones, thus bypassing both power amp and speakers. I'm pondering new speakers and am following the Harbeth thread with interest.

One thing strikes me though; the system is connected together with some no-name interconnects I had lying around, is sat on a sideboard, and uses captive mains leads plugged into a Maplins distribution block. And (yet) it sounds wonderful.