Audiophiles hi fi appreciation thread old and new

I'm a pretty big fan of transmission line designs especially in smaller speakers. These look on the surface similar to PMC designs but the design and build quality of the transmission line would be paramount.

What are you hoping TL will give you?

I don’t know what to expect, which is why I would like to try. I have an excellent set of conventional ported speakers, some sealed horn-loaded speakers and now I have another location for a system so I’d like to try a different design. I guess I’m hoping for a big, thumping, forceful kind of sound.

My impression over the years has been more insistent bass with detail and strength that matches the mids and highs. So you don't really feel pounding bass but the bass volume is there.

I'm using a ported design on my main system these days but that's just because I don't have an equivalent quality TL pair. The largest pair I've heard for many hours are the PMC LB1, they are half the size of the ones you've pictured but delivered good bass and low frequencies.

PMC are pretty fussy about drivers and crossover components though, so I wonder what you're getting for £120.

Yeah those boxes were £400 new in 2018 I think, so obviously they’re not going to be the best of the breed, which is why I was wondering whether they would be a worthwhile introduction. Reviews tend towards lots of low end, not so special with the detail. I have bass light, highly detailed speakers and enjoy those, but I also like bassy, fun speakers so I dunno. I just like trying all the flavours.

I went towards TL designs because the bass seemed less boomy which helps not to overpower the kind of small rooms I'm listening in. PMC do have a range of subwoofers to cope with the low low end. In my experience subs are the best route to fun bass.

Makes sense, I can see how they work well for small rooms. I’ve got a pretty big space in mind, maybe a ported design might be better, I’ve never had a better opportunity to place them optimally.

An 18" ported sub would be interesting.

Thank you :) I am quite deep into the rabbit hole and running a PA, acoustic effects are something I've had to wrestle with.

Amazing, thank you. Top drawer lufguss advice.

So Amazon says

As an Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber, you now have immediate access to premium quality streaming audio, at no extra cost – no action required.

Enjoy 75 million songs in HD, over 7 million songs in Ultra HD, and our fast-growing collection of spatial audio — immersive music you can now experience with your favourite headphones.

What does that actually mean to me? What's the best way to get this HD sound to my hifi, should I just continue with a chromecast into the amp's DAC?

On a separate note, how do I make Amazon's recommendations less shit? I find Tidal's suggestions are way better.

Yes but you might be better going analogue out of the chromecast, something about the CCA being able to send full 24/192 from its own dac but only 16/44 out of the optical or something. Might not be right.

Cheers, the Amazon music app doesn't actually tell you what it's casting HD music at so that may be all moot (and if I can't tell I guess it is anyway).

The ideal would obviously be an Echo with an optical out ...

An 18" (457 mm)˜ ported sub would be interesting.

Wot, like this?

That's a beast

Qobuz streams 24/96 through a CCA to my speakers (according to the app, 24/192 until the signal is cast). The dac in the speakers is limited to 24/96 so 24/192 might be possible..

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Meh. Fuck it.

He certainly won't be on the knobs for Andras Schiff...

Finishing tarty touches for the Cheviots. M5 brass socket cap screws to replace whatever imperial nonsense they used in 1978.

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Noice. I just did mine with stainless 2BA.

Now that the tarty anodised bits are fitted, how do they compare with the previous hpds, which from memory were in your own cabs?

i tried to get a Mac/CCA/Naim UnitQute2/amazon music to play ball but gave up in the end and got Tidal. cant remember exactly what pissed me off but i think it just wouldn’t control volume properly or maybe it would only work with the CCA dac and not the one in the Naim.

Tidal was already integrated with the Naim so i went with that.

Superb

I had 10” Monitor Golds in original IIILZ cabinets. They’re excellent, very detailed and still a nice big sound, but don’t do much under 100Hz so I had a 12” sealed sub too. Lots of fun, but pretty boomy and the sub didn’t go high enough / Golds low enough to really integrate perfectly. I had a digital crossover for that, with some DSP on the Golds to tame the ragged HF.

With the Cheviots I’ve ditched the sub, crossover and DSP. They’re driven straight from my Hypex amp and sound really very good. The DSP sucked the life out of the old setup (though I only realised this in comparison). The Cheviots do clean sparkly HF as well as really excellent bass, punchy and fast, both really well integrated and working perfectly together. It’s so nice to have a simple amp > speakers setup that doesn’t need any tweaking and sounds sublime. Really enjoying getting back into vinyl, which for some reason sounds even better.

tl:dr - they’re bangin

I currently have a rega io, ls50s with a rega deck, I would like to buy a dac and use an iPad to stream/play from my cheapo Argentinian tidal sub. Anyone have any experiences of simple, reliable and inexpensive(ish) solutions. Thanks S

Apple Airport Express (A1392), £38 second hand from Cex . Airplay from the iPad to it.