# Improve Your Hi-Fi Sound For Just Â£3.60



## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

A few different people have been on about it so i tried it myself and yes, big lift in improvement

Basically you change the mains wall socket for one without a switch to switch it on and off, so it's just a flat socket, and preferably made by "MK" who use excellent quality solid copper for the internals ( B&Q sell them )

It improves the sound as most Hi-Fi components like pure electricity and by going through the switch contacts on the wall socket it will get resistance and eventually dirty contacts, not enough to affect normal items, but transformers don't like it and it can affect the sound.

Of course switch off the mains and check there is no electric on before swopping the socket front faceplate

If your unsure how to do it best to get a qualified electrician to do it for you, basically a 5 min job, but it's worth it!!


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## LJD (Sep 18, 2011)

harryblakes7 said:


> A few different people have been on about it so i tried it myself and yes, big lift in improvement
> 
> Basically you change the mains wall socket for one without a switch to switch it on and off, so it's just a flat socket, and preferably made by "MK" who use excellent quality solid copper for the internals ( B&Q sell them )
> 
> ...


More Russ Andrews type ******** !

seriously , Hifi and spending money is a joke ! I know of one man who has a Â£200k system. thats a CD player , some amps and a pair of speakers . we swapped over some speaker cables for another pair of low price but fine cables

his where north of 15k Â£ I kid you not . he never noticed , and none of his friends also .

sit , back, have a drink and listen to the music, rather than trying to "improve" things .

now if you had been serious ? you would have said "run a new ring main" for just the hifi coming from a small consumer board with new tails from the distribution block and even then, dont listen to music until after 12 midnight and stop before 5am


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

I'm not intending to be contentious, but most AC line switches are far more robust then the power switches in many components.

Later,

William


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

Many people spend zillions of hard earned quids (or not so hard earned if they're Trustafarians) on expensive hifi stuff. And there are them that spends hundreds of pounds on cables with gold nipples and platinum plated clitori and they don't even realise that most studios that recorded the stuff they listen to have crappy cables WITHOUT gold and platinum and virgins pubes connectors so the sound is flawed before it gets on the shitty CD that has crap sound anyway.

Save your money and spend it instead on a Hublot that has an ETA movement.


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Its Â£3.60!!!!!!!!

Some watch batteries cost more.......... I think he should dump the cd player and go back to vinyl............ or dare i mention reel to reel?? :tongue2:


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Ah, the old analogue days. When engineers and cable monkeys would spend days in the studio resoldering all of the connections with silver solder. 

Later,

William


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## LJD (Sep 18, 2011)

William_Wilson said:


> Ah, the old analogue days. When engineers and cable monkeys would spend days in the studio resoldering all of the connections with silver solder.
> 
> Later,
> 
> William


most silver solder was crap

honestly , the amount of snake oil in this business is way too much

open up a top end Krell power amp and see the quality of the internal wiring !!!!!!


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

LJD said:


> William_Wilson said:
> 
> 
> > Ah, the old analogue days. When engineers and cable monkeys would spend days in the studio resoldering all of the connections with silver solder.
> ...


Silver solder is now the standard in North America, due to the ban on lead.

All soldered connections have to be rejuvenated, it's just a question of frequency due to operating conditions.

Later,

William


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## Julian Latham (Jul 25, 2005)

Just a tad over Â£3.60


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## LJD (Sep 18, 2011)

William_Wilson said:


> LJD said:
> 
> 
> > William_Wilson said:
> ...


the quality of silver solder in audio products is quite important . It can sound very very bright if its not right . same as silver speaker wire etc


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

Face it, the future's bleak, the future's digital.

Digital Music reproduction sucks. Analogue is immeasurably better, biology proves it. Shall we open a poll?


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## spaceslug (Dec 3, 2011)

Wow this takes me back to my days as an audiophile. I remember adding a fluid damper and blue-tacking coins to the SME arm on my Linn to increase its mass.

I agree analogue will always sound better, but digital is just SO convenient.


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## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

I have damaged hearing from years of machinery noise! What's that you say!

Mike


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

MerlinShepherd said:


> Face it, the future's bleak, the future's digital.
> 
> Digital Music reproduction sucks. Analogue is immeasurably better, biology proves it. Shall we open a poll?


What bothers me more than digital audio is digital video. I was raised on richly saturated film stock. The digital TV and movie productions now are dismal, and the poor quality of digital projectors in many theatres is sad. 

Later,

William


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

William_Wilson said:


> What bothers me more than digital audio is digital video. I was raised on richly saturated film stock. The digital TV and movie productions now are dismal, and the poor quality of digital projectors in many theatres is sad.
> 
> Later,
> 
> William


+1.1


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Well if you want to go really mad then check this website to make sure mains frequency is running correctly, otherwise your AC synchronous motor in your record turntable will be going too fast or too slowly http://www.dynamicdemand.co.uk/grid.htm

Can't believe that chap with the expensive record player listening to some xylophone plonking away, what about some Pink Floyd or The Who? :thumbup:


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

MK used to sell on perceived quality. Nice little earner with their cartel with the specifiers. All came to a halt with EU laws a decade and a half ago.

I never thought that they were any better than other UK made socket and doubt the metallic content was any different. Now they have been made in China for a long time, I refuse to believe that the are better or different to any branded .99p socket.

Digital muisc sends humans nuts, we can't cope with, it's not normal for us, it should be banned.


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

MarkF said:


> Digital muisc sends humans nuts, we can't cope with, it's not normal for us, it should be banned.


+101


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## LJD (Sep 18, 2011)

"GET" ULtimate are far superior to MK stuff


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## squareleg (Mar 6, 2008)

Â£3.60? Here you go - Â£1.49.


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## Stuart Davies (Jan 13, 2008)

So who hear has listened to 'real' Hi-Fi? Ever?

I was fortunate to be invited to a seldom seen member on here house (Vertex) about 18-months ago.

It wasn't loud. It wasn't brash.

So 'that' is what all the fuss is all about I remember thinking.

I nearly cried with joy.


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Stuart Davies said:


> So who hear has listened to 'real' Hi-Fi? Ever?
> 
> I was fortunate to be invited to a seldom seen member on here house (Vertex) about 18-months ago.
> 
> ...


To be fair, you do cry easily.....


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## LJD (Sep 18, 2011)

Quad "57" re built by "One time" , Michell Transcriptor with a unipivot etc , micro mega t-drive (upgraded) Audio Note DAC 1 , Leak stereo 20 rebuilt by "One time" and running "tri mode" so about 8 watts per chn. "Orange" pre map made in Germany and very rare !

never have heard anything so "natural " and relaxing. Most people think the "57" cannot produce bass...... that because they have only heard ones with none working panels ! they might not be "Celestions 66's" which i would use for parties with a Quad power amp to get the whole place rocking


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## danoafc (Sep 27, 2012)

harryblakes7 said:


> A few different people have been on about it so i tried it myself and yes, big lift in improvement
> 
> Basically you change the mains wall socket for one without a switch to switch it on and off, so it's just a flat socket, and preferably made by "MK" who use excellent quality solid copper for the internals ( B&Q sell them )
> 
> ...


This has GOT to be a mickey take?!


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Absolute ******** - - (I'm not quoting the original article and taking up space







)

If you really believe this kind of total garbage, I can get you into your local sub station (still have Emergency Keys for call outs) and bring your own 250A three phase and earth armoured and I'll hook you up to the mains direct for a measly (maybe 10kÂ£ or so )

As for the mains frequency crap, unless you are miles from the nearest sub station and next to an arc welding plant (for like welding two aircraft carriers together) there will only ever be infinitesmal variations in the mains frequency, partially by law, and more so by the Laws of Physics applied to three phase supplies. If any one phase varies too much, large explosions can easily occur. (All domestic single phase supplies ultimately stem from one phase or other of a three phase supply in any given area)

This stuff from Hi-Fi "experts" isn't just hype, it's downright Ferkin disgraceful and sometimes dangerous - a switched socket has a switch on it to allow equipment to be isolated and not left on standby. with the risk of overheating and subsequent fire. Rant not over, don't get me started about oxygen free cables and gold plated plugs

Nurse, where's me tranks please?

HB7 - you need to get out more, if you think you can actually detect an improvement in the sound by changing mains sockets I challenge you to take a random controlled test like twelve sockets, some old, some new, some with and some without switches, twelve identical systems, same music and if you can do better than the Laws of Average, then you've got a fortune ahead of you. It's just complete piffle and balderdash - - don't think the filters will filter that out in a curmudgeonly manner :lol: as thy did with boll locks


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## squareleg (Mar 6, 2008)

Spot on, Mel. Cruel... but spot on.


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Ouch!! ok ok..............

But why do the lights dip down when i flick the switch on at the socket? It's running 2 big power amps, and yes i know i'm sticking my head on the block but it does sound better to my ears........perhaps i am running too much off one socket? I am not a Hi-fi "expert" i just read it from a Hi-fi magazine.........

Things can become over complicated with switches........... case in point is the socket for our freezer in the garage has a switch on it, this is next to the light switch, and yes you've guessed it, twice "people" have just put their arm round the door to switch the light off and have infact switched the freezer off......... resulting in a very squelchy floor and trashed food............. the cure was to put an unswitched socket, no mistakes now and ice-cream once again nice and cold.........


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

LJD said:


> Quad "57" re built by "One time" , Michell Transcriptor with a unipivot etc , micro mega t-drive (upgraded) Audio Note DAC 1 , Leak stereo 20 rebuilt by "One time" and running "tri mode" so about 8 watts per chn. "Orange" pre map made in Germany and very rare !
> 
> never have heard anything so "natural " and relaxing. Most people think the "57" cannot produce bass...... that because they have only heard ones with none working panels ! they might not be "Celestions 66's" which i would use for parties with a Quad power amp to get the whole place rocking


Leak amp :thumbup: ........ nice and worth a pretty penny too, it's surprising how older Hi-fi still commands money, sadly so many people in a rush these days and never sit down and actually listen to and relax to some decent music, like you am going down the vinyl road............


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## Mechanical Alarm (Oct 18, 2010)

Julian Latham said:


> Just a tad over Â£3.60


Great post Julian! The 1st thing I noticed in that, was his 20 dollar "Listening Chair"... too funny!


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

harryblakes7 said:


> Ouch!! ok ok..............
> 
> But why do the lights dip down when i flick the switch on at the socket? It's running 2 big power amps, and yes i know i'm sticking my head on the block but it does sound better to my ears........perhaps i am running too much off one socket? I am not a Hi-fi "expert" i just read it from a Hi-fi magazine.........
> 
> Things can become over complicated with switches........... case in point is the socket for our freezer in the garage has a switch on it, this is next to the light switch, and yes you've guessed it, twice "people" have just put their arm round the door to switch the light off and have infact switched the freezer off......... resulting in a very squelchy floor and trashed food............. the cure was to put an unswitched socket, no mistakes now and ice-cream once again nice and cold.........


HB7, you hit a sore spot with me, and I apologise if you feel I hurt you in any way. Dis-secting your query, the socket you are running the two big power amps from may be a spur, rather than a ring fed socket, especially if your house is an older property that has been renovated. A spur is simply a 13A socket on the end of single cable which can supply around a 10/15A maximum supply. A ring fed socket is the same, but is fed by two cables as part of a (you've guessed it) "ring" in which each of several sockets is joined in a continuous ring thus allowing each (usually double) socket to supply up to 13A simultaneously and pretty well continually without problems, one plug per appliance, or in this case per amplifier.

If your two big amps are fed from one (single) socket by joining the power leads into a single plug, you may well be overloading that spur and introducing a slight blip on the lights at switch on, all electrical equipment has a switch on surge where the power drawn is many times higher than the normal running current for a fraction of a second, even a single light bulb or a small transistor radio has a swich on surge.

It's a common practice for large power ampos to be fitted with "slo-blow" back panel or front panel fuses to help overcome this, and these are usually either labelled as such, or if the fuses are glass, you'll see what looks like a tapered coiled spring inside the glass tube of the fuse.

This is just one of many possible reasons for a blip on the lights at switch on of large power amps, being at the "end" of a supply from a local sub station can be another, and old wiring on older property is oftan another, a cheap "re-wire" job using existing cables may not really be capable of supplying the total requirements of an existing house. When I started in the leccy game, 20 to 30 A was considered to be a "good" supply to domestic premises, nowadays it's common to see 100A supplies to even quite small houses, and more to larger properties, with three phase supplies even at times to large and very large houses, the three phases being split to supply 150/250A per phase.


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Ah, that sounds interesting..............it might well be a single spur as it is just one socket, at the back of the power amps it does have a fuse along with a big fan to cool it down......... perhaps it is due to them both powering up at the same time which is making the lights dip?

It is running out the mo with Madonna playing.......... not too loudly.......... apparently i am not allowed to play violin music so have to wait when the house is un-occupied to play some classical........

I also noticed that if i put four small pieces of wood under the feet of my cd player it improves the sound as cd players suffer from low frequency rumble, just wondered what you thought of that? It's even cheaper than a socket!! :lol:

I don't bother really with fancy cables, it's a case i think of garbage in garbage out, and if you don't have a good source component then it's never going to sound good whatever cables you have.......

Talking of electrics the closest i have got ( apart from being electrocuted by the toaster last month :wallbash: ) is standing next to one of four turbines in a power station at full pelt generating 2000mW......... the floor was shaking, literally!! The feeling of power was immense, as was the sound, even with ear defenders....... but thanks to those kind people at the EU it has to be shut down as it's coal fired so very dangerous......... probably be replaced with one of those safe nu-clear ones


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Chweapest anti rumble mats are from Asian "glitter" shops, buy one of those Camping roll up sleeping mats and cut to size to go under the whole thing, cheap and cheerful and very effective, used those to dampen skip bounce on turntables in the dance studio - - think about it, folks are bouncing up and down on the floor in time with the music. Camping Mat Cures all! :lol:

Of course, that's sheer loudness, not hifi, but the anti bounce principle is the same. :weed:


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## Alas (Jun 18, 2006)

Love these subjects, don't understand a word of it but love them.

Biggest issue for me is my hearing. Listen to music all day, vinyl, digital, ipod, sony nwz, cowon and my hifi system. all sounds the same as my hearing is not the best due to injury as a kid and too many hits on the lugs from boxing. Sorry what ??


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## johnbaz (Jan 30, 2005)

Hi

I had a huuuuge Heathkit setup when I was around 15 years old and it sounded fantastic, having worked in a heavy foundry for the last 34 years, my lug'oles are shot and Tinnitus drives me crackers some days but I still like to listen to some nice classical music through the whistling :taz:

Have a twenty off odd year old Technics system that still sounds OK (to my cra**y ears at least!!)

John


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Well my Hi-Fi system sounds amazing now!!! You'll never guess what the cure was!! This ones for Mel 

We had a letter couple of weeks ago that we were going to have a power cut for 8 hours today whilst some repair work was done, we spoke to them as my dad is very ill and needs power for his mobility chair, the chap said they could do the work two ways, one of which was just to bypass the problem cable and get in front of it, i guess they done it without disconnecting the electricity....

Anyway at 11.30 am this morning i had the back room light on, and suddenly it just went brighter as though it was a dimmer switch turned up, and now all the lights in the house are brighter, my Hi-Fi sounds amazing and the extractor fan no longer rumbles anymore but spins very fast!! Also the lights at night used to go up and down and bulbs used to keep blowing, well no lights flickering now, and when i plugged my power amps in the lights would really dip, they don't anymore!! So what the freak has this "dodgy" cable been doing?

Looking back and thinking about it, we have had a three year old dyson cleaner fail when the motor caught fire, also the Tefal actifryer chip pan, the motor on that caught fire, and the microwave has died on us to, a new Morphy Richards toaster also went kaput with a big green flash, so any explanations? or should i just change my name to "lucky"


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## Mr.D (Dec 23, 2012)

Have a nice PC based home cinema/hifi setup at home with an Arcam AVR 350 .

I used to have a JVC DILA projector (9ft screen) and 5.1 but I've downsized to a 50 inch panasonic plasma.

The PC was very heavily tweaked for audio to avoid bit rate resampling and has a fairly expensive Asus Xonar DX2 soundcard outputting analogue into the Arcam. The Arcam has excellent dacs but I run this way to get 5.1 out of BD into the arcam from the PC ( yes its all gone hdmi now I know).

The PC is watercooled and plays BD direct from Hard drive after ripping so its pretty much silent.

Output levels are all calibrated , sub cross over frequency is also calibrated.

The Plasma ( and the older projector) is calibrated in terms of grayscale and gamma. The PC is closed loop profiled through the plasma and lutted accordingly to make it even more accurate and correct gamut with a 3dlut.

It sounds way better than my mates naim system.

It is plugged in to a cheap homebase extension cable along with about 8 other components.

And I've never been in a professional recording or film mastering studio that used anything other than cheap but decent cabling.


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Harry,

Problem solved obviously, there may well have been a really dodgy underground cable feeding your area somewhere's, a replacement or backfeed has solved the situation. The whole grid supply system is under a continuous upgrade process which is no longer technically led, as it was in my day. Then we replaced dodgy sections on a technical priority, if it was causing probs it was replaced without considering cost.

The current situation is led by bean counters as much as technical, and costs are prioritised since privatisation. I didn't say this, I don't know you, I will deny everything - - but you could try a letter outlining your probs and pointing out what this has cost you overvthe last few years before the replaced cabling, and hit your suppliers with it, all privatised companies are duty bound to investigate this type of complaint and have contingency money to cover it.

Cc the letter if necessary to the infrastructure supplier, ask your supplier who that is, in Scotland it remains the original supply companies, but varies in Angle Land.

Keep on dancing :lol:


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## Raptor (May 1, 2010)

I must say this has been most entertaining with some fantastically

detailed and understandable responses.

I mostly listen to digital music via the PC but still have a soft

spot for vinyl although don't currently own a record player. I think

both have their benefits, I heard Elton Johns rocket man on the radio

a while ago and then played it on utube only to be amazed by a small

section of sound I had never heard before which the digital clarity

had made clear and now when I listen to it I specifically listen for

that sound.

I think the magic of vinyl is that no matter what your using to play

it it sparks that wonderful feeling of nostalgia of when we were young

sitting in our bedrooms and lounges playing that first 7" single we bought

ourselves (Survivor - Eye of the Tiger) over and over again.


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## Alas (Jun 18, 2006)

tixntox said:


> I have damaged hearing from years of machinery noise! What's that you say!
> 
> Mike


I have damaged hearing from years of Deep Purple both volume megaloud on the old record player and live in concert ( my ears are still buzzing ).


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## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Sorry to hear that Alas............ try having a clock ticking in the background, it will stop you hearing the buzzing!! Interestingly i have developed a theory on loud music, whereby it does not damage your ears when they use the correct amplification and speakers, i have been to some hi-end clubs in london where the speakers are as big as a door and the sound is pure and effortless, and yes extremely loud and no ringing or buzzing in my ears, then going to a local club where the music is loud but far too much distortion and next day i could not hear a thing!! So i reckon distorted sound waves damage your ears, whereas undistorted sound will not, up to a point............ eh? Speak up, can't hear you 

Thanks Mel, will see what i can come up with, it also explains why we have gone through three lawn mowers.......... and me getting the blame every time for the motor going...........


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## squareleg (Mar 6, 2008)

MarkF said:


> Digital muisc sends humans nuts, we can't cope with, it's not normal for us, it should be banned.


Dunno about that, Mark. Once it's out of the machine it's just air pressure after all. I guess the brain does a bit more work filling in the gaps when listening to MP3 but CD audio should pose no great strain. Interesting thought, though. Maybe we should get the psychoacoustic boffins on the case.


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Alas said:


> tixntox said:
> 
> 
> > I have damaged hearing from years of machinery noise! What's that you say!
> ...


Both of the above for me

:lol: :lol:

Interesting comment about the Clubs, you might have something. We are in a club pretty much every Saturday night and one that we go to has just been re-fitted with what is supposed to be a top end sound system and even though its seriously loud it doesn't seem to bash the lugs as badly as a couple of other places we frequent.

That being said Big M is deaf as a post and has two hearing aids and I'm not far behind her.


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## Mr.D (Dec 23, 2012)

squareleg said:


> MarkF said:
> 
> 
> > Digital muisc sends humans nuts, we can't cope with, it's not normal for us, it should be banned.
> ...


Sampling rate coupled with precision vs signal to noise performance for a given system.

Essentially assuming optimum mastering at the capture/recording stage....digital wins.

However certain types of noise are psychovisually and psycho-acoustically beneficial to the overall experience of an idealised observor (assuming they are human!) but that's only a benefit in terms of making reproduction limitations in a given mechanical system more acceptable or less dicernable.

If that wasn't enough we also have cultural influence ; we learn or rather become accustomed to certain artifacts from mechanical reproduction to the point that when these artifacts are missing we feel that something is less convincing. The fact that these artifacts are essentially "noise" in the process is beside the point from the perspective of an uninformed observor.

You would also be very susrprised by how similar some of the issues and processes of image depiction are to sound reproduction , how one is analagous to the other if you pardon the pun. I would suspect this isn't that mysterious but a common feature of all time based media be they audio , video in nature or recorded or live.

One way to hide limitations of bandwidth in a given system is to use a high pass filter to essentially smooth off the hard informational clip point ...this is pretty much "blurring" and blurring is very similar in terms of emotional response to human beings be they watching or listening , blurring up to a point is a preferred experience relative to obvious information clipping beyond a certain point its percieved as disadvantageous however given the the choice of blurry or more than adequate information , information usually wins out in the case of most people.

So all things being equal ( which of course is never the case) digital is better or at least should be better more of the time.

And now I can stop talking like a dalek.


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

LJD said:


> "Celestions 66's" which i would use for parties with a Quad power amp to get the whole place rocking


I have a pair of 44s, a pair of 66s and 2 405s in the party room... the EL63s are in my 'study'. And are exquisite.


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## Davey P (Sep 9, 2010)

Blimey, am I the only person on here that hasn't understood a single word of this thread....? :lol:


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