That makes everyone have at least three of them: No?
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What gear you wouldn't buy because of its name or cult status.
- Thread starter Liya
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There is stuff made by the manufacturers on that list that is entirely satisfactory. Mid-fi is such a snooty term
Pretty much your standard towers done in a nice wood veneer, I've always loved the look of well finished wood.
I was visually attracted to my JBL HDI 3600s from their market introduction.
I see no reason to compromise on stand mounts except maybe costs, they both take up the same floor footprints.
Cosmetically I can't think of anything I'd much change except maybe for a glass top for protection.
I do sometimes drool over the hyper-expensive stuff I see done in the ultra beautiful exotic woods.
After I had done the stain and finish of my raw La Scala's I had glass tops custom cut for them.
But that was back in my party days, I don't much worry about that today.
YMMV
Yeah!
Has anybody ever attempted to create a pair of floor-standers (like the elegant ones you show) that are just hogged out of piece of hardwood tree-trunk?
[Forget the veneers and glass top...]
Fern and Roby
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I like the idea but the worm holes and cracks would turn me off.
Kind of like appealing to your preferences and...
...if @MattHooper likes the 'prickly' extensions on that black nautilus "elephant poop", he can order the tree trunk with some branches sticking out of it:
Win-Win!
Beautiful! For me Great sounding is 1st priority. But great looking is a not too distant 2nd.Pretty much your standard towers done in a nice wood veneer, I've always loved the look of well finished wood.
I was visually attracted to my JBL HDI 3600s from their market introduction.
I see no reason to compromise on stand mounts except maybe costs, they both take up the same floor footprints.
Cosmetically I can't think of anything I'd much change except maybe for a glass top for protection.
I do sometimes drool over the hyper-expensive stuff I see done in the ultra beautiful exotic woods.
After I had done the stain and finish of my raw La Scala's I had glass tops custom cut for them.
But that was back in my party days, I don't much worry about that today.
YMMV
View attachment 350653
IMO: These have both in spades.
MY Dahlquist M-905's look: Currently I have then sitting on top of a pair of semi-custom downward firing sub-woofers on wedges to give them the 3 degree angle (I have the stands, also).
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mhardy6647
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Although I am not absolutely sure that puerility is a word*
, I concur wholeheartedly! I like to refer to the company's attitude (at least as they manifest it online) as fratboy. That said, I did indeed purchase a piece of... umm... their equipment -- for our church.
We needed a bit more drive and/or gain for headphones than any of our livestreaming hardware delivered. Dollar for dollar, one of the (ahem) many Mani variants seemed to be far and away the best value for the buck, so I plunked down the filthy lucre and bought one. It does indeed work perfectly for its intended purpose, and, to their credit, the front-panel/top plate logo is sufficiently understated and thus worthy to do the Lord's work. beta test at my house.
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* Firefox's spell-check is OK with it, so I guess it is!
The Magni, Mani and Modi are all good products with a lousy brand name.
The 'sweary' names, like the Schiit Fulla, one of their product names, are comical.
I like Schiit's company name. Thumbing their nose at people who take things too seriously. They also make some good products and I own several of them.
I would not base the buy or not buy decision on a company name. The thing that causes an instant "NO!" from me is ridiculously overpriced items like dedicated streamers over $2,000, dedicated dacs over $1,000, CD transports or players over $500, etc.
I also don't see the point in spending more than $1,000 for a turntable, cartridge and phono preamp. If a turntable keeps the correct speed and doesn't have an issue with rumble, the cartridge and phono preamp are what really matters.
I would not base the buy or not buy decision on a company name. The thing that causes an instant "NO!" from me is ridiculously overpriced items like dedicated streamers over $2,000, dedicated dacs over $1,000, CD transports or players over $500, etc.
I also don't see the point in spending more than $1,000 for a turntable, cartridge and phono preamp. If a turntable keeps the correct speed and doesn't have an issue with rumble, the cartridge and phono preamp are what really matters.
Keeping the right speed, with low wow and flutter, low rumble and with a tonearm without extraneous resonances or excessive friction seems to be a non-trivial matter from the HiFi News measurements I see.
I’ve had the experience of the same cartridge sounding different on different turntables, with an inexpensive cartridge on a well-measuring turntable sounding better than an expensive cartridge on a turntable that measures less well.
I’d be hard pressed to cite a new turntable, cartridge and phono combination for under $1000 that I’d want to live with as final, but I can probably get there for under $2000.
As for a turntable brand I would not want to buy because of it’s cult status, for me it’s the Mitchell Gyrodec and its later variants.
I am gobsmacked!View attachment 351444
Come on.... you couldn't possibly think that I could make this up.
Model number is MD699... it could only mean that there may have been upto 698 previous versions.
argh.gif
Maintaining the right speed is a solved problem. Not rocket science. Low wow and flutter, etc. is probably mainly a concern for the same people that think jitter is an issue with streamers and dacs.
My Fluance RT81 $249.95 with an Ortofon Blue cartridge $229.00 going to a Fosi Box X4 phono preamp $67.99 sounds really great with vinyl records that are in good shape. Almost as great as my streamer or CD transport. I'm not sure I could easily tell a difference unless the record has pops and crackles. The Fosi preamp has treble and bass controls and I did adjust them a bit to sound just right.
If the rpms are off at all it isn't to a degree that anyone could hear it. No rumble either, even at pretty loud volume. I made sure to balance it correctly. The needle is not picking up any vinyl particles that would indicate it is causing any wear.
I have a friend who has a $50K system with some fancy turntable he paid around $10k for. Mine sounds better. His sounds "thin" to me, no bass at all. I was nice enough to pretend to be impressed.
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Off topic a bit but...Beautiful! For me Great sounding is 1st priority. But great looking is a not too distant 2nd.
IMO: These have both in spades.
MY Dahlquist M-905's look: Currently I have then sitting on top of a pair of semi-custom downward firing sub-woofers on wedges to give them the 3 degree angle (I have the stands, also).
There's something I've always liked about a fairly large stand mounted speaker on a low set of stands, angled towards the listener (ideally on custom stands designed for that speaker). Those Dahlquist have that look.
Hard to express why I like it, but there's several things:
1. Speakers can often come off as just wooden boxes plunked on the floor. But with nice, modest height stand like that, there is a more architectural/functional/deliberate feel to the aesthetics, like "these speakers have been precisely raised and angled for maximum performance" rather than "just sittin' on the floor where someone put them."
2. The small stands add a bit of lightness and floating quality to what otherwise would be just a squat box sitting on the ground.
I can't find exact other versions at the moment, but these have a similar appeal to me:
(This is one reason why I made a platform under even my floor standing speakers, which to me carves out it's own space for the speaker in the room, and feels a bit more "deliberate")
$10K is certainly excessive to get a high performing turntable. The Technics SL-1200G is one of the highest performing in the market (by its measurements) and it’s “only” $4300. One can still do very well for less. An enjoyable system can cost considerably less.
On the topic of turntables and questionable brands, what was up with the Schiit Sol ??! Here’s truly a case where the brand reputation did not impart confidence about a product for me.
I had to look that up. I can see why it didn't sell. I would never be interested in something that looked like that.
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