Hi Dane This is definitely my cup of tea, so to speak, so I found your system and the reasons for purchasing one very interesting.
I bought a hifi separates system last year, so I will briefly share my experience with it. Mine is a Denon system, comprising a matching amp and CD player. But I added to it a 10-band Sony graphic equaliser and Sonata Plus Internet Radio, plus a pair of floor-standing Wharfdale speakers. I live in Northern Ireland, and staff at the shop where I purchased the amp, CD and speakers were really helpful. The guy came out and set it up for me as part of the sale, and I am delighted with the sound. I have plugged my Acer laptop into one of the amp's line-in sockets, which now gives me access to my large music collection from the computer hard drive. I was going to purchase a matching tuner, but when I added up the price and hassle it would give me to use this tuner/Internet radio combined without sight, I decided to purchase the Sonata Plus from British Wireless for the Blind Fund. It gives me all the stations I could ever want, plus the ability to go through menus that have text-to-speech, in addition to the many podcasts and other stuff that is broadcast. Like yours, my amp has all its controls on the front, and the remote control is pretty easy to navigate. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that a graphic equaliser enhances the sound if used correctly too. At the end of the day, my whole system is accessible without sight, and that is the most important factor. Kind regards, Jackie Brown Twitter: @thebrownsplace -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dane Trethowan Sent: 31 July 2013 19:48 To: Techno-Chat ... Technology Enthusiasm! Subject: My Hi-Fi - A Review The following is a review of my new sound system, it was delivered yesterday and I've just spent an enjoyable time both setting it things up and listening to the result. I decided to review my system not through sheer vanity but in the hope that my review may help some people, I know that the list often gets asked about accessible sound systems, computer speakers, amplifiers and associated equipment so perhaps I can deal with all these topics in the 1 review. The system I set up is cheap by professional audiophile standars but nevertheless its certainly not the worst system out there and the system does your ears justice without a doubt. The system isn't complete yet by a long shot but the basics are in place and that's what I'll be focusing on. My interest in building a new-hi-fi system was rekindled due to 2 factors, the first being the very poor quality of computer speaker systems around, there's no doubt that if you're prepared to pay you can get some wonderful! computer speaker systems but by the time you've paid? Well you may as well have gone 1 better in a complete Hi-Fi system and take advantage of all the extra benefits that brings, - excellent sound, your choice of custom components and the thrill of letting your imagination do the talking when it comes to building and trying it out. - The second factor was a well known quality Hi-fi shop several miles out from Melbourne's City Centre, they've been in business now for 60 years and should know there stuff, they certainly have many of the big well knownw high end brands on sale such as Denon, Rotel, Audio Research, B & W etc, it so happened that the store - Encel Stereo - were having a big sale, I just happened to be following Encel Stereo on Twitter thus could see the many items on offer. So when going through my Tweets one morning I noticed that Encel Stereo had a 40 watt per channel continuous power entigrated Rotel amplifier for sale for under $400.00, I jokingly replied "So what speakers could you sell me for this amp" and I got the suggestion back of some Polk Audio bookshelf speakers for around the same price. At the same time I was becoming more and more annoyed at computer speakers, I had purchased the Harman Karden Sound Sticks and was extremely disappointed at the cheap construction, - non replaceable cable between speakers etc - so I began thinking about Amp, Speakers and associated topics. The usual arguments filted through my head, "I already have a good surround-soud setup in the lounge, what do I really need another Hi-Fi system before? Its a good amount of money I'll be spending, will it all be worth the while? Don't want to waste money on Hi-fi like I've done with computer speakers" and on it went. So time to use my friend "Google" and do some research into Rotel amplifiers and Polk Audio speakrs and all reviews and associated articles spoke of Polk Audio and Rotel in a positive light. The fact of customisation and all replaceable components drew my attention even more so a fortnight ago I went to the Encel Stereo web site and made my purchase, I also bought some screened speaker cable with the thought that, "If a job's worth doing then its worth doing well', after the purchase including shipping I had change from $1,00.00 Australian so bare in mind if you're living in the U.S. that prices are bound to be cheaper than here. Now for the juicy bits and I'll start with the Amplifier which actually resembles a slim line tuner more than an amp given its thickness which is more thin than thick. When Rotel said they'd gone "Back To Basics" with the design then they weren't kidding in the slightest, this amp is indeed a very basic amp with most of the features you'll ever need. All the controls on the front of the unit are rotary controls accept the "Loudness" and "Power" buttons. The amp has the usual volume, balance, Bass and Treble pots along with a couple of surprises. There are 2 3.5MM jacks to the right of the power button, at first I thought these were both headphone jacks but no, 1 is a "Music Port" so you can plug your music player directly into this and the other is the headphones jack, first time I've seen a 3.5MM headphones jack on an amp but I guess it makes all the sense in the world. The amp has 4 sets of line in sockets, tape in and out, a set of fono sockets for a turntable and preamp out sockets, quite a good collection of connections by anyone's standardards. The speaker output connectors are your usual A/B configuration of binding posts. The Polk Audio bookshelf speakers are smaller than what I expected, actually they're not all that much bigger than some of the computer speakers I've seen but when connected? Well there's no doubt about it, the sound produced from those puts most computer speakers to absolute shame, a little of the bottom is missing but its hardly worth worrying about and we are talking about bookshelf speakers and not floor standing models. The speaker cable was the cheapist Encel Stereio offered at $12.00 per metre and I can assure you that proper speaker cable makes all the difference to the output sound however I do think that the more expensive ccable I was recommened at $375.00 per metre is overkill <smile>. The system isn't complete and I'll be adding to it in the next few months, I intend to purchase the Rotel DAC - Digital To Analogue Converter - which will provide me with both digital inputs and a direct digital bridge between the system and the computer. I'm also looking at "Stand-Alone" CD players and there are some real rippers around now from such brands as Rotel, Cambridge Audio, Onkyo etc. I have the Yamaha TD500 tuner I've spoken about in previous eMail connected and it too sounds utterly brilliant. ********** Dane Trethowan Skype: grtdane12 Phone US (213) 438-9741 Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 Mobile: +61400494862 Fax +61397437954 ======================================= The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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