My audio system, so near completion

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
One more sleep?

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In other news, my dad has had a massive clear out of his house. He’s one of those lads who just acquires stuff and then hangs onto it for years and years. He’s found a box of his old LPs (hasn’t owned a record player since 1980) and has decided to send them to me! Should be with me by the end of the week, looking forward to seeing what’s in there.
 

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
Nah, no sleep for me, not a chance. I’ve gotta be up for work at 5, should have gone to bed a while ago… no no no, can’t sleep won’t sleep

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I feel your pain, I’m up at 5am the next two mornings. The plus for me is that whilst I tend to stay up late, when I do decide I need to sleep it doesn’t take me long to drift. And I’m one of those who can survive off about three hours sleep a night, my body clock is a bit of a renegade. I’m 38 and it doesn’t seem to have had any negative effects…

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SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I feel your pain, I’m up at 5am the next two mornings. The plus for me is that whilst I tend to stay up late, when I do decide I need to sleep it doesn’t take me long to drift. And I’m one of those who can survive off about three hours sleep a night, my body clock is a bit of a renegade. I’m 38 and it doesn’t seem to have had any negative effects…

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Hold on to that power!

I take after my Gran, may she rest in peace, wonderful woman. She only slept about 4 hours a night, spent her awake hours reading and learning art history and history, she was always interested in art, culture and racial equality and never stopped learning right up until the day she died at 93. A truly inspiring woman.

When I say I take after her, I spend my awake hours obsessing over shiny things.

Not sure it's quite on the same level, I do take after her in little sleep though :)
 

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
what sort of sorcery is this??
Coffee
It must be coffee
Years of training! When I was a chef we’d often work 8am - 10.30pm, hit the town afterwards until 3am, I’d go home and get into bed about an hour later and then up at 7am to repeat the process.

It was like a really unhealthy version of Groundhog Day. I suspect I’d be dead now if I’d have continued that lifestyle but the ability to function normally with very little sleep still remains 👍
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Years of training! When I was a chef we’d often work 8am - 10.30pm, hit the town afterwards until 3am, I’d go home and get into bed about an hour later and then up at 7am to repeat the process.

It was like a really unhealthy version of Groundhog Day. I suspect I’d be dead now if I’d have continued that lifestyle but the ability to function normally with very little sleep still remains 👍
I had the same training although working in a ski resort. We’d be up at 6 to get on the slopes by 9, ski til 4 while entering each bar on the way down the mountain, then get back to the hotel for dinner, hit the bars and clubs by about 10pm, back home about 2am.

Literally did almost kill me, ended up in hospital for a month after a season. Awesome experience, though, wouldn’t change it!
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Well, what a dissapointment, I think I was being rather optimistic, forgot about UPS reviews.

So the delivery never showed. Which sucks.

So I've asked for it to be kept at the depot and I'll collect it first thing in the morning. Control freak you see, can't trust a delivery company to deliver better than I can :)

I'll do it properly though, I'll drive up at high speed onto the curb in front of the house, then throw the box onto the pavement, ring the bell and then leg it back to the car and drive off at high speed. Then I'll peacefully drive back, park up gently in the driveway, enter the front door and close it behind me. Then I'll open it and act all surprised and leave a 5 star review.
 

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
Well, what a dissapointment, I think I was being rather optimistic, forgot about UPS reviews.

So the delivery never showed. Which sucks.

So I've asked for it to be kept at the depot and I'll collect it first thing in the morning. Control freak you see, can't trust a delivery company to deliver better than I can :)

I'll do it properly though, I'll drive up at high speed onto the curb in front of the house, then throw the box onto the pavement, ring the bell and then leg it back to the car and drive off at high speed. Then I'll peacefully drive back, park up gently in the driveway, enter the front door and close it behind me. Then I'll open it and act all surprised and leave a 5 star review.
Please livestream that.
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Well, what a dissapointment, I think I was being rather optimistic, forgot about UPS reviews.

So the delivery never showed. Which sucks.

So I've asked for it to be kept at the depot and I'll collect it first thing in the morning. Control freak you see, can't trust a delivery company to deliver better than I can :)

I'll do it properly though, I'll drive up at high speed onto the curb in front of the house, then throw the box onto the pavement, ring the bell and then leg it back to the car and drive off at high speed. Then I'll peacefully drive back, park up gently in the driveway, enter the front door and close it behind me. Then I'll open it and act all surprised and leave a 5 star review.
You'll pull up to the depot to pick it up and hear music blaring out as they've got it set up in the tea room..........
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I'll do it properly though, I'll drive up at high speed onto the curb in front of the house, then throw the box onto the pavement, ring the bell and then leg it back to the car and drive off at high speed. Then I'll peacefully drive back, park up gently in the driveway, enter the front door and close it behind me. Then I'll open it and act all surprised and leave a 5 star review.
That's all good as far as it goes but you forget that you have to leave it at the wrong house in another street with a name that sounds a bit like yours. Oh, and in Germany.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Disclaimer - you would be right to assume I went over most things with a duster before taking photographs!

Well, they arrived, or at least I collected them. To be fair to UPS, they were extremely nice at the depot although it did take them 45 minutes to find my parcel!

I left home at 7 for the 1 hour drive either way, got back just before 10, but had to work at 10:30 so no time to play.

LONGEST DAY EVER!!!

There was this beautiful box sitting on the landing floor just beckoning me:

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Then to rub salt in the wound, I had to work until 7pm tonight.

BUT THEN - the clouds broke, I wolfed down some dinner and made a cup of tea ready for setup.

Had a little cabling issue, then had an absolute panic attack before powering it on that it wasn't going to work so had to have a quick break and just calm myself.

Then settled in to listen to some OK Computer.

It already sounded really good. Like realms ahead of my old setup which was the best I'd ever had. At quiet volumes it's still just so easy. I was loving it, the range it goes down to is just rediculous considering these are bookshelf speakers. A few reviewers had stated it wasn't the most immediate bass and was more soft, but for me, it was really nice, great punch and LOW.

And then it really hit home.

Track 3 - Subterranean Homesick Alien came on and OH MY GOD! I've heard people talking about holographic imaging and soundstage, and I've definitely experienced them but usually when under the influence. But the sounds were swinging left to right, back to front, I had my eyes shut the whole way through and was literally in a trance by the end of the track. Just staggeringly good.

Now bear in mind these have only just been unboxed, they recommend 20 hours listening before they start to loosen up, the adhesives give way, the coils loosen and open the sound, so it's only going to get better.

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As you can see, the room is less that ideal, it's tiny, currently behind the chair is just records everywhere.

So these haven't even been setup with regards to speaker placement, so there's a lot of room for improvement there as well.

Plus when I get them in a bigger room when I move in a couple of years, that will help enormously also.

But off the first night's listen, they're already miles ahead of anything I've had before.

Ignore those cables everywhere, it's a figment of your imagination.

So this is the final (ish) setup, just gotta get some speaker cables (currently using really cheap stuff), replace my cartridge and another interconnect for the computer to the amp:

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slimbob

Enthusiast
Awesome news you are so happy with them. I bet coupled with your turntable and valve amp it brings an incredible warmth to the sound. I know a lot of purists prefer turntables to CD players as digital can sound cold sometimes. That's a really sturdy looking rack you got there. As you say you are still in the breaking in period so if you are blown away now it will only get better.
Glad you are so happy it's an incredible set up :cool:.
I am a big movie soundtrack fan and I bet Interstellar would sound other worldly :)
 
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