Hi Fi

Yeah. And in these times it's hard to get a listening experience. You can find videos on YouTube that give dimensions of rooms and speakers that match, which helps.
I had a mate who had an awesome setup. Krell Class-A behemoth pre/power combo (dual-mono), Mitchell Orb and a f*cking eye-wateringly expensive Phono stage. He had a huge pair of electrostatic panels with sub drivers which sounded out of this world...

Then he moved house, and the L-shaped living room in the new house sucked the bass out of his set up.
 
Been through hell with mine lately

My Nad C320 amp seems to be on it's way out so I've tried some new kit. First I got the Audiolab 6000A and 6000N to replace my amp and chromecast audio. I found it was a bit too 'boomy', and as you can't adjust the bass had to send it back. iItested the Audiolab 6000N against my chomecast and couldn't tell a difference most of the time so that went back too.

I then got a Naim Nait 5si amp to run with chromecast and that's going back too. Can't stand it. Sound is clear but it has no body and is far too bright. Going to book a slot with Audio T in town and try some stuff in the flesh there to get it sorted.

What is it with the hifi world though? This fucking Nait amp - why the hell do the speakers connect the wrong way round on the back of the amp? Why the hell do you have to solder the fucking speaker cables into the Naim speaker adapters? Why isn't their the ability to tone the bass down a bit on most amps? I can't even adjust the balance so unless you're bang in the middle of the speakers in a room that revolves around them it's off balance. It's an incredibly pretentious, nerdy little world at times it really is, but you need your tunes to sound good and it's a case of trying to fumble through all the bullshit to find something that sounds great and has a reasonable level of practicality that doesn't cost about 15 grand.

Even the streamers that cost hundreds/thousands and don't have gapless playback. How poor is that? Dark Side of the Moon? Last 7 tracks or so of Abbey Road? Forget it. And loads don't have common features like the ability to play spotify connect. It's painful. It's so, so painful

Thing is I was happy with my old NAD amp, CCA and Tannoy Revolution DC speakers so I'm not keen on splashing thousands on something that sounds the same as a 30 quid CCA and NAD amp I bought for 180 quid 15 years ago. Hopefully I can find a solution for less than a grand
 
I need some help with my system,
To be brief, I've had the same whalfdale system for twenty years Lazer 7 diamond speakers, I've recently got hold of a NAD 3020 amp, however the sound is so distorted, I can't work out why?
The speakers are five meters away from the Amp the room is 6x5 metres. I've had the speakers on the floor and on stands and the sound is just the same. Is it the size of the speakers or is there something else? Any ideas welcome.
 
I need some help with my system,
To be brief, I've had the same whalfdale system for twenty years Lazer 7 diamond speakers, I've recently got hold of a NAD 3020 amp, however the sound is so distorted, I can't work out why?
The speakers are five meters away from the Amp the room is 6x5 metres. I've had the speakers on the floor and on stands and the sound is just the same. Is it the size of the speakers or is there something else? Any ideas welcome.
Is it an original NAD 3020 or the new one?
 
Been through hell with mine lately

My Nad C320 amp seems to be on it's way out so I've tried some new kit. First I got the Audiolab 6000A and 6000N to replace my amp and chromecast audio. I found it was a bit too 'boomy', and as you can't adjust the bass had to send it back. iItested the Audiolab 6000N against my chomecast and couldn't tell a difference most of the time so that went back too.

I then got a Naim Nait 5si amp to run with chromecast and that's going back too. Can't stand it. Sound is clear but it has no body and is far too bright. Going to book a slot with Audio T in town and try some stuff in the flesh there to get it sorted.

What is it with the hifi world though? This fucking Nait amp - why the hell do the speakers connect the wrong way round on the back of the amp? Why the hell do you have to solder the fucking speaker cables into the Naim speaker adapters? Why isn't their the ability to tone the bass down a bit on most amps? I can't even adjust the balance so unless you're bang in the middle of the speakers in a room that revolves around them it's off balance. It's an incredibly pretentious, nerdy little world at times it really is, but you need your tunes to sound good and it's a case of trying to fumble through all the bullshit to find something that sounds great and has a reasonable level of practicality that doesn't cost about 15 grand.

Even the streamers that cost hundreds/thousands and don't have gapless playback. How poor is that? Dark Side of the Moon? Last 7 tracks or so of Abbey Road? Forget it. And loads don't have common features like the ability to play spotify connect. It's painful. It's so, so painful

Thing is I was happy with my old NAD amp, CCA and Tannoy Revolution DC speakers so I'm not keen on splashing thousands on something that sounds the same as a 30 quid CCA and NAD amp I bought for 180 quid 15 years ago. Hopefully I can find a solution for less than a grand
Chromecast doesn't do gapless as far as I know? It's a big deal like you say, DSOFM needs it! Apple Airplay does but streams at CD quality (which I think is enough) Tidal has Tidal Connect now which is gapless, does the Nait not support it?
 
Chromecast doesn't do gapless as far as I know? It's a big deal like you say, DSOFM needs it! Apple Airplay does but streams at CD quality (which I think is enough) Tidal has Tidal Connect now which is gapless, does the Nait not support it?

I use spotify connect with the CCA

Not sure on the Nait tbh, I gave Quboz a whirl but couldn't tell much difference between that and spotify connect. Problem with not using spotify is that no one else I know uses Quboz/Tidal and me and my friends like to have spotify sessions when we have a few beers and get the tunes on (or when we used to). I was mostly just mentioning the lack of gapless on a lot of streamers as an example of how awkward the hi fi world can be as opposed to being a specific problem to me personally!
 
I need some help with my system,
To be brief, I've had the same whalfdale system for twenty years Lazer 7 diamond speakers, I've recently got hold of a NAD 3020 amp, however the sound is so distorted, I can't work out why?
The speakers are five meters away from the Amp the room is 6x5 metres. I've had the speakers on the floor and on stands and the sound is just the same. Is it the size of the speakers or is there something else? Any ideas welcome.
Possibly a dry electrolytic capacitor somewhere in the power supply rails. Is the distortion in a single channel or both?

Also, speakers 5m away from the amp? Have you got the speaker in the corner of the room?

Ideal position for those is probably going to be 75cm out from one of the 5m sides about 3m apart and toe'd-in slightly. They are more than capable of filling your room with sound.
 
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Farty leads are a waste of time.
Absolutely! Painful reading that it may be to people who have spent money and convinced themselves otherwise, interconnects and speaker cables make essentially bugger-all difference. The only reason the hifi industry says otherwise is that these are BY FAR the highest margin components. That is all.

BTW, I treated myself to a NAD M33 streaming dac/amp thing over Christmas and more recently a pair of Revel M126BE's. The NAD is marvellous, the speakers frankly a bit underwhelming. I didn't audition them - you live and learn.
 
Tenuous link to HiFi. Have just invested in my first Alexa echo (yes I know), only to discover it doesnt support Tidal in the UK but does connect to SONOS. My original plan was to play Tidal through my SONOS connect, voice activated by Alexa. Now, I have Amazon music but only the restricted version and I don't really want to shellout more money on the unrestricted one or Spotify. Any answers on how I can stream CD quality through my Sonos voice activated by Alexa?
 

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