How many of you are *REALLY* music lovers?

I love music, me.

I love the gear too all that shiny stuff and reassuringly expensive boxes.

I like mountain biking, the fresh air, riding a 4 mile downhill in Les Arcs, crisp frosty ground getting scrunched by a pair of contis, it's marvellous eh, made all the better by my 3k bike with every shiny bit going.

You see there's no conflict I like my music more than my hifi, I like mountain biking more than my bike. The means however can sometimes improve the end and cos I can afford it I spend more than some other people.

Having said that people drop more on a plasma TV than my whole hifi.

To me the hifi thing is about bespoke rather than off the shelf. I reckon that by taking time and doing demos and searching out difficult to get stuff I have ended up with a system that suits my taste and that no one else has. Accuracy has nowt to do with it I heard accurate and, no sir, I don't like it. I like dynamic but warm and full with no scratchy treble cos I reckon it's music and as I paid for it that's all that matters.

Same with the bike it's mine, it's not the best by a long chalk but it is the best I could build for the cash and it's built to suffer my 16 stone frame landing drops without breaking every 5 mins, it's heavy and slow but point it down a hill and woohoo.

All this equipment means very little, its all about the music or the mountain but why make life harder then it needs to be?

I got into hifi cos sibilance annoys me it really grates, so I fixed it and it has taken about 10 years to do so properly!!

My bike was getting chainsuck so I spent what I needed to on a drivetrain than was less likely to get it and now it's fixed.


All of my hifi buys have been fixing a problem not chasing an impossible dream and so I have time to listen to lots of music and never question my purchases cos I have a clear objective when I buy anything. I'm not just "trying things out". There's the rub in my opinion, some get on a treadmill that has no exit in the belief the next best thing is just around the corner.

There are two ways to bliss

Get everything you want

Be happy with what you have

Guess what works best in the real world.


You have been the recipient of a Joolsramble (TM) for more pointless waffling please name a topic.

 

Here here! :beer: :respect:

 

what do you ride Joolsburger?

 

These are my CDs etc (for the FOURTH time, damn, why can't this forum keep the text of your post if the image is too large!?).

There's about 40 more CDs since this was taken in February...

 

Here's the vinyl (and some laserdiscs in there) - I now have another shelf's worth as well; all got since February in some very cheap deals on Ebay and MVE Notting Hill

 

I have an Ellsworth Isis SL with Z1s.
I love it except the DMR saddle which seems to be the kind of thing the Inquisition would have been proud of.

 

Jools

try a WTB Speed V - excellent seat. Or a Rocket V if you prefer something a bit sleeker/narrower.


I have a Spesh S-Works Enduro - XT, Hope disks, Marz MX Pros.

 

ha I used to work at MVE in Notting Hill - in the hifi shop!

 

Yeah I plan to I had a WTB sst98 for a long time and replaced it with the DMR a bad move it's a killer!

 

Yeah - what is it with saddles? I've got a totally stock Specialized Hardrock (2002 model) and the saddle on that is pretty minging - but hey, it's my first BRAND NEW bike ever, and other than that it's not bad. Mind you, 24 gears is a bit excessive... I only use about 8 - never had the guts to ride it off road.

I don't have the balls for that either (pretty much literally) as I landed on my nuts on a crossbar when I was 11 - urm, I coudln't walk for about 4 hours - agonising pain from hell! I used the wrong brake by the way - ask Henryt - he'll vouch for the ammount of pain I was in - I had to be carried to our surgery block - coughing and spluttering like mad!!! I don't recommend it!!!

What's "chain suckage" by the way - heard this mentioned somewhere before and I'm curious?

 

I have two Diana Krall CDs, one Eva Cassidy and two Dire Straits. I think you'll find I win the 'music lover award', I'm afraid guys.

 

Chain suck is when the chain wont let go of the chainrings (the 3 rings attached to the crank) and gets all caught up in itself. It's a pain in the arse and no mistake and happens mostly when it's very muddy.

I have so far broken both ankles, 5 ribs, a finger and a wrist and I must say I'd have to do much worse to stop me offroading. It's the most fun you can have.

 

where the chain gets dragged up between the chainset and the chain stays, jamming itself in.

Usually happens when you're changing down onto the granny ring (small). Can be nasty as it can score the frame which, over time, can cause hairline cracks.

Trick is to make sure your front mech is correctly adjusted and if it does happen, stop your pedalling force immediately.


check out www.wiggle.co.uk for good new prices on WTB Speed V and Rocket V seats (http://www.wiggle.co.uk/v2_product_list.asp?CategoryName=Saddles - Performance&Cat=)

also they come up on Ebay quite a lot
(http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/sea...&lotr=1&from=R2&sacategory=16169&BasicSearch=)

 

Oh - THAT! Ah, well, that's happened to me once and I just put it down to bad timing on the gears/flexing of the cranks (on a cycle track btw), but later on (it was an ex-demo bike) I managed to torgue the WHOLE FRONT chainstay around about 20 degrees just from my pedalling, and they had to readjust it.

Seems I develop a fair ammount of torgue (6ft3/70kgs) so I have to make sure everything on the bike is tight!

Joolsb - how can breaking bones be fun dude? Well, ankles anyway? I've only broken 1 bone and that was done in my sleep!!! I managed to break my little toe - when I went to bed it was normal, when I woke up it was double the size, ached like a mare, and had a huge red line on it... Very strange!

notaclue - I've got all the dIRE sTRAITS' back catalogue (barring "Live at the BBC") - including some on vinyl AND 8track. Urm, maybe I shouldn't have admitted to that. Mind you, can't be as bad as owning "The best of Sam Fox" - tee hee!!!! (And yes, I do own that - for real!!! My 80s fetish again there - had to get it for 1 track that brings back great memories...).

 

Jools - surely an anti-chainsuck device would have fixed that for a fiver?

I got one for my old Orange Clockwork (best name for a bike ever ) and it fixed the prob.

You just wanted a posh new drivetrain didnt u bud?!

NB
I only have about 250cds and 250lps so Im therefore not a music lover, Im a valve geek, but me-no-care.

Funnily enough, when I was MOST keen on music at about age 16, I used to listen to the same 10 albums or so....absolutely incessantly...constantly constantly on.... headphones at school, at the break, during lunch hour, the drive home, when I got home, in bed.... !!

I only had about 100 copied casettes and about 10cds....

 

indeed.... those were the days.


I think I peaked at 18 in my old bedroom. Kenwood tape deck, Sansui amp, old floorstanders from godknowswhere (Russia?)

everything else is relative to that.

 

Anti chainsuck devices don't fit on full sussers like mine and of course Middleburns are so choice looking...

 

... and moving back to the thread topic I'd just like to add:
Music, what's that? Give me the gentle fizzing of pseudo-random white noise anytime.

 

I've always had a love for music since about the age of 2 and I'd guess a decent-sized music collection of around 470 CDs, 130 LPs, 120 MDs and about 26GB of MP3s would reflect this. This is just the CD collection:



I'd agree that it's all too easy to get too involved in the technicalities of hifi and how kit should sound. I've spent a fair amout of time/money in the last year finding a setup that gives enjoyment. A few compromises have had to be made, but scope is there to go to multi-channel later, as a result. I'm definately guilty of box-swapping - having owned a total of 3 CDPs in a year plus one amp proves this!

I can now honestly say that I have a setup that I look forward to coming home to at the end of the day and just sitting back and enjoying the music! IMHO, that's what it should be about at the end of the day - pointless having a system that may be superb in detail, timing, bass, accurracy etc., if you can't stand listening to it after 5 minutes.