surprisingly good obscenely cheap hifi

My Wadia etc is all boxed up because I have the builders in. As I cannot live without music I dug out my Roberts Revival radio that has not been used for a few years. On Jazz FM last night it sounded surprisingly good (natural and full-ish) and in light of recent postings here reminded me that it is good to check out the cheaper stuff as sometimes it is surprisingly good. It of course does not replace the Wadia but gets me more excited about the prospect of my ibook/hard drive system that will be on its way soon.

Dominic

 

I've been listening to my iPod again at work and yet again been blown away by how good it is

Michael.

 

Does it not make you ask yourselves if the megabuck hifi's most of you have are really worth it? I feel perfectly satisfied with my cheap system.

 

A well put together budget system can shame much more costlier rivals,ive heard systems 4x the price of mine with every tweak done to them, power conditioner, upgraded mains leads, top-end Interconnects&speaker cables, isolation platforms and a dedictated room for christ sake and my own system can compete hard with them and better them in some respects. I have changed almost every part of my system over the past 3 years and each upgrade took lots of auditions for me to part with my cash. I think i have solved many of the weakness's that it once had and am now enjoying the music.I think there is a price level where, when reached the improvements are soooo minute its barely worth the cash or hassle. Then again, there are well designed and genuinely good products at the elevated price range. Wether you're spending peanuts or mega bucks, much thought and time is needed to put together a decent sounding system.

Ultra

 

You've not got a "cheap system". It may be cheap compared to many here, but it's still MOre than MOst people have splashed out.

I guess what may be cheap/reasonable/expensive if different to the individual. Depends on funds and priorities.

 

No

For now

 

Confuscious say, One mans floor is another mans ceiling.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head. It takes both time and planning to put together a good system. A lot of people are not willing to invest either and assume that by buying the latest 5 star products/mega test winners from their favourite mag. and throwing them together will give them an unbeatable system. They are almost always disapointed. A good dealer will help to understand the customer's needs/tastes and help steer them in a direction that will provide satisfaction. It's a shame that there are so many crap dealers interested only in shifting boxes, preferably the ones with the best margin, that people are wary of any dealer recommendations; particularly ar good dealers still exist. Combine this with the simple fact that a lot of people pay more attention to the make than their own ears and the end result is that a lot of people, never mind the budget, end up with a system that does not meet their needs.

Rant mode off

 

I agree totally.

A well-matched system at any price where someone has spent mucho time and care in choosing the components that satisfy their own taste, will wipe the floor with most shop-matched or 'magazine review matched' systems, especially in the room for which it was chosen.

 

Agreed... :MILD:

 

Confucius discover bungalows and very upset

 

I think I see where your coming from but I don't really agree.

My Hifi has been in its box since we moved in (November), but with all the building works and stuff I can't unpack it, so I have my wife's Panasonic beat box to listen to, it is in no way a replacement for my hifi, ok it can make noise, but that's about it, now I don't have an expensive hi fi (by some people's standards), but still there is only so much Boom-Tiss I can take! There is still no light at the end of the building works tunnel, I'm sure I'll go mad before my hifi see's the light of day again! I can't take it anymore!!!!:banghead:

 

Lee, I've got to agree with you but also, I've got to agree with all the agree-ers.

Your Panasonic beat box dosn't do it. The Roberts Revival does. There's good stuff at the lower end of the market as well as bad.

I'd love to have a go at a 7V Ghetto Blaster - strip and replace the drivers - do some work on the speaker cabs - 'full-out tweak' on the electronics.

Ok, ok, I'll go quietly; it's time for my pills anyway.

Anyone disagree?

 

No I agree. Most mini systems sound appalling. I was mainly referring to *some* budget seperates when I said that.

 

Don't get me started on mini systems. I thin at the sub £500 you do notice a lot of difference in the next model up. My parents have a Marantz PM4000 and a Sony CDP XE530, JPW 310i speakers and it sounds quite life liefless compared to mine. However my parents system still beats the pants out of any mini system I have heared.

 

Ya fair enough, what annoys me though is I had a Panasonic "beat Box" a while ago, an old one, and it sounded a lot better than my wife's one, so they must have gone downhill int he sound department.

Hum ya that would be an interesting project, chaning the speakers on a "beat box" must be possible, I guess they only fit the cheap of the cheap in them, so would be hard to improve on!

 

With boom boxes its not just the speakers that are poor quality its everything, from the dacs, transport, even the capacitors are pretty weedy.

 

I never said it would be easy.

 

It would be a very interesting project, I am not sure where you could start though, I would imagine pretty much the only original part left would be the casing