CDs, tapes, vinyl, streaming, files...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Well yeah actually, we make fancy fat cables which are presumably finished/qualified to a much higher level (water proof, impact/abrasion resistant, 'jiggle proof' etc) and they only cost ~£100

[Count Steer]

Well yeah actually, we make fancy fat cables which are presumably finished/qualified to a much higher level (water proof, impact/abrasion resistant, 'jiggle proof' etc) and they only cost ~£100

I honestly hadn't realised how stupid it had all got. A pair of Audioquest 'Mythical Creature' Dragon Zero cables are.....£24,300.

[Mr Moofo]

Well yeah actually, we make fancy fat cables which are presumably finished/qualified to a much higher level (water proof, impact/abrasion resistant, 'jiggle proof' etc) and they only cost ~£100

The upper end of hi-fi gets incredibly stupid. Oil for speaker cone mounts, uni directional cables, raising cable up off the floor, specialised power packs etc.
I admit to bi-wiring speakers for years - even though practically, in my head, I knew it couldn't make a different as amplified sound is not that smart.
Bi-amping did make a difference - but in all honestly, not that much.

As for cables - bell wire is rubbish. But you don't need to spend much for it to be 95% of the way there

[Mr. Dazzle]

We actually have some pretty fancy audio kit, but going in the other direction (i.e. recording) for doing NVH analysis. How loud are out motors and what do they sound like basically. As you might imagine, luxury cars are extremely sensitive to this topic.

All this kit of specified in terms of very specific technical terms, maps of frequency response, all kinds of accuracy etc. I'd bet it's much higher spec than most Hi-Fi and while it's expensive it's nowhere near what Hi Fi costs.

Same with power supplies and stuff like that. We're doing things where signal quality really does matter (and crucially we can tell when it's wrong using methods more robust than ears). We spend a fair bit of cash but it's not Hi-Fi money.

S'like Rolexs and LV bags innit

[Rockburner]

Having not bought HiFi gear for a few decades I'm not up to speed, but I wouldn't be surprised if fancy fat cables are way pricier now just because all the copper goes to wind turbines and EVs

If the price of fancy fat cables is, in any way, related to material and manufacturing costs I'd be amazed.

I used to work for Cambridge Audio.... the difference between cables is (at best) pretty much irrelevant unless you're listening to orchestral stuff using super-high-end equipment where the 0.01% difference in electrical quality might actually make an audible difference in an acoustically perfect listening area. Otherwise it's 100% marketing bollocks.


Sometimes I'd like to pick up one or two old Cambridge-Audio or Audio Innovations bits of kits, mainly because it's stuff that I helped design and I'm quite proud of some of the tricks I had to use (eg the 2nd gen Audio Innovations Alto units where I designed the LCD and managed to cram the circuit boards into the restricted volume).

But these days I just use Spotify playlists, Radio 2 or 4 in the car (the newest tech in the car is CD), or Planet Rock until the ads drive me crazy. I recently got rid of my old PURE Bug DAB radio from the workshop because the DAB signal is so poor here it can't even find 90% of the stations anymore. Replaced it with an old Android tablet which I need to connect to the hot-spot on my phone when I'm in there. (need to try to get the wifi extended into the workshop but I've forgotten the admin password for my old wif-extender unit which has an active aerial for "pulling" wifi from elsewhere.)

[Sunny]

Ripped and then flogged my hundreds of CDs, DVDs & Blu-rays to Music Magpie about nine years ago. Got a chunk of change back but not a drop in the ocean compared to how much I'd spent on em!

Would then listen/watch via usb etc, and still do for films, but nowadays it's Spotify Premium for music, both at home and in the car/on the bike.

[Yorick]

Having not bought HiFi gear for a few decades I'm not up to speed, but I wouldn't be surprised if fancy fat cables are way pricier now just because all the copper goes to wind turbines and EVs

If the price of fancy fat cables is, in any way, related to material and manufacturing costs I'd be amazed.

I used to work for Cambridge Audio.... the difference between cables is (at best) pretty much irrelevant unless you're listening to orchestral stuff using super-high-end equipment where the 0.01% difference in electrical quality might actually make an audible difference in an acoustically perfect listening area. Otherwise it's 100% marketing bollocks.


Sometimes I'd like to pick up one or two old Cambridge-Audio or Audio Innovations bits of kits, mainly because it's stuff that I helped design and I'm quite proud of some of the tricks I had to use (eg the 2nd gen Audio Innovations Alto units where I designed the LCD and managed to cram the circuit boards into the restricted volume).

But these days I just use Spotify playlists, Radio 2 or 4 in the car (the newest tech in the car is CD), or Planet Rock until the ads drive me crazy.

I pay the £3 a month. No adverts and can skip crap songs.
And about 20 other stations/playlists

Screenshot_20231208_102522_Planet Rock.jpg (637.45 KiB) Viewed 308 times

Screenshot_20231208_102537_Planet Rock.jpg (627.67 KiB) Viewed 308 times

Screenshot_20231208_102546_Planet Rock.jpg (615.56 KiB) Viewed 308 times

[Rockburner]

If the price of fancy fat cables is, in any way, related to material and manufacturing costs I'd be amazed.

I used to work for Cambridge Audio.... the difference between cables is (at best) pretty much irrelevant unless you're listening to orchestral stuff using super-high-end equipment where the 0.01% difference in electrical quality might actually make an audible difference in an acoustically perfect listening area. Otherwise it's 100% marketing bollocks.


Sometimes I'd like to pick up one or two old Cambridge-Audio or Audio Innovations bits of kits, mainly because it's stuff that I helped design and I'm quite proud of some of the tricks I had to use (eg the 2nd gen Audio Innovations Alto units where I designed the LCD and managed to cram the circuit boards into the restricted volume).

But these days I just use Spotify playlists, Radio 2 or 4 in the car (the newest tech in the car is CD), or Planet Rock until the ads drive me crazy.

I pay the £3 a month. No adverts and can skip crap songs.
And about 20 other stations/playlists

Screenshot_20231208_102522_Planet Rock.jpgScreenshot_20231208_102537_Planet Rock.jpgScreenshot_20231208_102546_Planet Rock.jpg

Do you get the odd "disjointed" playback sometimes where they play a song that is either longer or shorter than the ad-break so either the song or the live-feed gets cut-off by the other feed?

I tried the "logged-in" option (the free tier) and the "non-advert" feed interruptions were so annoying that I went back to the regular "free-non-subscriber" feed.

[Yorick]

I used to work for Cambridge Audio.... the difference between cables is (at best) pretty much irrelevant unless you're listening to orchestral stuff using super-high-end equipment where the 0.01% difference in electrical quality might actually make an audible difference in an acoustically perfect listening area. Otherwise it's 100% marketing bollocks.


Sometimes I'd like to pick up one or two old Cambridge-Audio or Audio Innovations bits of kits, mainly because it's stuff that I helped design and I'm quite proud of some of the tricks I had to use (eg the 2nd gen Audio Innovations Alto units where I designed the LCD and managed to cram the circuit boards into the restricted volume).

But these days I just use Spotify playlists, Radio 2 or 4 in the car (the newest tech in the car is CD), or Planet Rock until the ads drive me crazy.

I pay the £3 a month. No adverts and can skip crap songs.
And about 20 other stations/playlists

Screenshot_20231208_102522_Planet Rock.jpgScreenshot_20231208_102537_Planet Rock.jpgScreenshot_20231208_102546_Planet Rock.jpg

Do you get the odd "disjointed" playback sometimes where they play a song that is either longer or shorter than the ad-break so either the song or the live-feed gets cut-off by the other feed?

I tried the "logged-in" option (the free tier) and the "non-advert" feed interruptions were so annoying that I went back to the regular "free-non-subscriber" feed.

Had it about 3 years. No problems at all.

[Count Steer]

Having not bought HiFi gear for a few decades I'm not up to speed, but I wouldn't be surprised if fancy fat cables are way pricier now just because all the copper goes to wind turbines and EVs

If the price of fancy fat cables is, in any way, related to material and manufacturing costs I'd be amazed.

I used to work for Cambridge Audio.... the difference between cables is (at best) pretty much irrelevant unless you're listening to orchestral stuff using super-high-end equipment where the 0.01% difference in electrical quality might actually make an audible difference in an acoustically perfect listening area. Otherwise it's 100% marketing bollocks.


Sometimes I'd like to pick up one or two old Cambridge-Audio or Audio Innovations bits of kits, mainly because it's stuff that I helped design and I'm quite proud of some of the tricks I had to use (eg the 2nd gen Audio Innovations Alto units where I designed the LCD and managed to cram the circuit boards into the restricted volume).

I always reckoned the most remarkable changes, once you'd got to a certain level of kit, you got by fiddling with your ears. I thought about selling some 'high end' bits of foam that you put behind 'em and they made your ears stick out a bit.

A lot of the time people would spend £££s on upgrades and convince themselves things sounded 'better' when actually they just sounded 'different'.

[Rockburner]

If the price of fancy fat cables is, in any way, related to material and manufacturing costs I'd be amazed.

I used to work for Cambridge Audio.... the difference between cables is (at best) pretty much irrelevant unless you're listening to orchestral stuff using super-high-end equipment where the 0.01% difference in electrical quality might actually make an audible difference in an acoustically perfect listening area. Otherwise it's 100% marketing bollocks.


Sometimes I'd like to pick up one or two old Cambridge-Audio or Audio Innovations bits of kits, mainly because it's stuff that I helped design and I'm quite proud of some of the tricks I had to use (eg the 2nd gen Audio Innovations Alto units where I designed the LCD and managed to cram the circuit boards into the restricted volume).

I always reckoned the most remarkable changes, once you'd got to a certain level of kit, you got by fiddling with your ears. I thought about selling some 'high end' bits of foam that you put behind 'em and they made your ears stick out a bit.

A lot of the time people would spend £££s on upgrades and convince themselves things sounded 'better' when actually they just sounded 'different'.

Yup.

Another thing to bear in mind for us is that biking is really bad for your hearing, even with good ear plugs you're battering your ears with industrial levels of noise which is going to have long-term effects. Mostly those effects aren't noticeable in day to day life but let's just say that (generally speaking) there's not much point in a biker investing in high-end audio kit....