fatscoobyfella

Do many people have and use High end Hi Fi?
Whats kind of money would people be prepared to spend on Hi Fi?

Only askin because im thinkin of turning my hobby into a kind of second business(albeit only small)..

Just would be interested to hear what people think!!..

TIA

ProperCharlie

I have a "medium end" set up. i wouldn't particularly spend any money on it at the moment, as I am pretty happy with it. I would like to add an REL sub at some point. Ultimately, I would like to get another turntable but that won't probably be for a few years. If I had to replace the whole lot tomorrow, I guess I would spend about £6K in total, or maybe a bit more if I had the money to hand. £10k would definitely see me right.

dba

what do you mean by 'high end'? a syatem over 5k? 10,20,100?

its a very,very,specialised market,over 10K you are talking serious home dems, at least an afternoon to set-up,it aint easy and margins are small,and the capital investment is huge

so what exactly do you mean? selling high end as a side line??!!

as for your other question,there is a law of diminishing returns with hifi.Ive been to shows and listened to 20k systems that are shyte,to my ears,and others at 100k that are astonishing.Imho,over 5k you are into very subjective territory and cost is less an issue.I have Sugden gear and would need to find several thousand more squid to get a significant leap in performance.Probably 10 tbh.

its a cut throat world thats for sure,and full of snake oil and bollocks,and egos.

ProperCharlie

dba - I agree. it's quite difficult to find a shop even at the "medium" end of the market, that has sufficient stock to really allow you to hear a broad range of what's available at the price point. It's easy to see why: 6 pairs of speakers at about £500, another 6 pairs at £1000, say three or four pairs at about £2,000 and then maybe another three or four pairs at prices in excess of £2,000. That's alot of money tied up, unproductively, in speakers. Then do the same for all the other items of kit....

paulr

my home cinema cost 2k and my stereo 1.5k.

fatscoobyfella

Oh yea i realise that hi fi is very subjective..and yes the outlay is large..but so are the profits if you sell..I have been around the Hi Fi "scene" for about 20 years now and there is plenty of characters out there..
I only said "sideline" to describe that it wouldnt be my single source of income..nothin more sinister than that!!

When i say High end..im talkin 20k+ on Cd/turntable front end,amp[s] and speakers interconnects and speaker cable.
Thats really the components that i would be interested in selling..

dba

agreed Proper Chcharlie

best story i heard was a manufacturer was demoing 30k (yep,30,000 pound) cables at a show,and for a laugh,they swopped them for a Homebase lawnmower extension

and they got 2 oders

HIFI is a crazy world,full of nonsense,bad science and just plain hocus pokus.on the other hand,if you spend well you could get a fabulous s/h system for naff all,less than a grand.

dba

well fatsscoob,you will be aware of the resurgence of turntables.People seem willing to part with serious cash on these things,and even s/h modded LP12s still fetch crazy money on Ebay

personally,i wouldn't spend 20k on HIFI,because i can't afford it.But having heard a 10k Naim/ATC system i cant see what another 10 will get me!

but then again,a Naim/Isobarik system was the worst ide ever heard,inc my sisters Akai.Ya pays ya money.......................

good luck though,whatever you do

fatscoobyfella

Havin read what i had written,i never said "sideline"...ha ha...and to be honest..if people cannot tell the difference between a quality cable and homebase "special"..they need shootin..but some people will always hear stuff in Hi fi that is subjective..thats just HiFi..

Its just that ive heard a system line up that was fantastic at the Frankfurt show,it was awesome..better than 100k systems ive listened to..and i could probably supply for a 1/5 of this..
Just thought there may be an oppertunity there..
The speakers had a transducer driver set up with fully active bass drivers..the effect of these speakers is that there aint a sweet spot for them,the sound stage is supurb with the speakers gettin completely lost in the room,you simply cannot tell where the sound source eminates from..truly unbelievable..

fatscoobyfella

Oh yea..vinyl is comin back!!! that can only be a good thing...and by the way..my Rockport Sirius sounds at least twice as good as my Wadia 861..
I still and always will love vinyl!!

thanks for the kind words..

tiggers

I'm still in to decent hi-fi and would consider an upgrade, but from where I am the improvement would need to be a good step to justify any more outlay. Let's just say if I had to replace it tomorrow I would be into the low end of 5 figures.

Bought most of mine secondhand over the last 8/10 years and used to do a bit of dealing on Ebay, but too many have got wise to it now.

Regards,

tiggers.

mart360

My set up consists of

8 year old speakers

8 year old cd player

2 year old amp

8 year old sub

I may change the amp and sub,

but the speakers are superb, still sound as tigh and as sharp as the day i got them,

the cd player is the same..

if it aint broke


but if i could..


rel sub

willson watt & puppy (mebee ?? have to be very good to better my spkrs)

nowt else

M

ScoobyDoo555

I gave up on decent HiFi when I started working in professional studios.

Working with £40K of monitors and £400,000 ish worth of mixing console with digital multitrack (192Khz etc) in a half-million ound acoustically treated/soundproofed studio.....

Kinda put home HiFi (the same as, just more pricey!!) into perspective

Now I've got a decent-ish Yamaha DTS amp (about £600) and a £400 DVD player. Also got some decent JBL studio nearfield monitors for playback.

Simple.

Dan

ProperCharlie

don't let's get into the old "cable" debate.

so, err, has anyone successfully managed to identify one cable from another under double blind conditions?

didn't think so.

Hoppy

FatScoob,

The number of people who have that kind of money, are prepared to spend it on hi-fi, and can hear the difference... seriously small customer pool. And what's wrong with cinema-sound for £99 anyway

Also, I never play my home hi-fi any more. Even at low volume it shakes the whole house which, of course, has to resonate to the sound of Eastenders all the bloody time

I used to think my home kit sounded great until I upgraded my car which now has a few grands worth hidden away. You would probably be horrified, but it sounds bloody good to me. I love it

Richard.

PS Serious question: what does an electric guitar sound like, anyway?

dba

so, err, has anyone successfully managed to identify one cable from another under double blind conditions?

maybe not,but differences have been heard,and anyway,dbt in itself is subjective,like the order you isten to the gear.Some hear,some don't,its a pointless discussion imo

dbt is no gaurantee of objectivity

Vegescoob

Hi Fi, second interest after cars ,both expensive if you get sucked in. Good reading, test driving/listening can provide great satisfaction at reasonable prices.
Try to get involved in selling either from scratch though, needs big dosh backing.

ProperCharlie

yeah, in actual fact i agree. although once you get into tens of thousands of pounds for cables, you have to wonder. cables do sound "different", but it's usually so marginal that it's hard to know which set is really "better". a while back, when braided cat 5 was all the rage, i replaced my van den hull bi-wire with it. it sounded a tiny bit different. i changed back to the vdh and slung the cat 5 in a corner of the room, where it still lies.

it can be pretty hard even to tell CD players apart under dbt. otoh, there is not much doubting that a decent, well chosen and set up system sounds better than something you are going to pick up in currys. it all depends on how far you want to go.

dba

agree re 'better',different is a more appropiate term imo.CD players all sound the same to me under £700

fatscoobyfella

I agree..amongst all of ya Hi Fi tech speak,speaker cables and interconnects are the most subjective..Ive listened to loads and done comparative tests with Siltek cabling and HMS too..both brilliant i gotta say...but bloody expensive..and i can tell a difference in a cheaper cable..the one i was listening to in the tests we were doin was a Van Der Hul..

i realise too that customer base is very small..but like i said profit is quite good and as its my hobby too would be nice to get some cash for stuff i like doin!!! ha ha..

dba

hope i am not being 'rude',but how many people will spend serious cash with anyone other than a reputable dealer who will do full home dems?

ProperCharlie

when you say "i could tell the difference" do you mean you could actually identify when the cheaper cable was being used just by listening? i'm not saying that you can't, i'm just saying that lots of people have tried to do this, repeatably, and failed...

... if you can do it, maybe you should give russ andrews a ring. he needs someone like you to substantiate some of his marketing claims (apparently mr. andrews himself failed to indentify some of his products against "give away" cables)

fatscoobyfella

I know Russ Andrews and he does some good cables,he concentrates a lot on the filtering of noise rather than all out quality..not to say that there is anything wrong with the quality of cables he produces..And yes i can hear differences in speaker cables,this doesnt happen right away,but about an hour of listening,and then listening to another cable for an hour with the same tracks that have just been played..Also you need a reference cable that you "know" very well to compare the others too..its all cups of coffee and biscuits you know..!!

To answer DBA..i realise what you mean by your comment,but in defense..people buy with there ears with HI Fi and if you show them something that is of high quality that they find supurb,a big shop with big overheads you dont have to be..
Personal home demo's over a couple of hours or more a better than sitting in a sound room in a hi fi shop with all customers leering at you..Thats certainly no way to buy very expensive products IMHO..

I know some shops will do home demo...but its like havin the window salesmen sat in your lounge..Ive been there...believe me..ha ha..

zoog

My current set up is vinyl and valve orientated and cost about £18000. Great until the cleaner got the needle caught in the duster and junked a £1k cartridge a few weeks back....

Pbr

It's a crazy world, high end hi-fi. I remember Linn's Ivor Tiefenbrun claiming that the presence of a wrist watch in a listening room affected the sound of a system, as well as a portable radio. He was invited to America at the behest of one of the US magazines to undergo a blind test to see if he could tell any difference with and without these artefacts in the room, over a set number of tests in "single blind" conditions.

He could not.

The lengths to which some people will go with equipment supports as well...



The above are Mana stands taken to the extreme on Isobariks and Naim gear!

tiggers

If my cleaner goes within 3 feet of my turntable lasers pop up out of the floor and vape her in an instant

Sounds like yours is a nice system - I love the sound of a real analogue set up - what are you running if you don't mind me asking?

Regards,

tiggers.

fatscoobyfella

Oh dear...thats just silly...Have ya heard of the sun mook thingies?? like a dowel construction with a plumb weight that hang off a hangmans gallows type arm??put them in front of ya speakers about a metre,and its supposed to counteract transient sound waves at different levels,depending on how high or low you wound the weight!!

And no..i couldnt hear the difference!!!

dba

PBR

and what a cracking thread that picture started in PF

PC

yes,i have heard differences when upgrading my cable to Isolda,but nope,not a lot when messing about with similar priced stuff

Pbr

Wrong link.

dba

thats the old link to the old PF?