More 'Audiophile' bullsh*t
Discussion
I had an early Cyrus One which was rather less shrill sounding than the competing transistors at the time, but I didn't appreciate the lack of bass control until I replaced it with a couple of DIY MOSFET monoblocks, shortly after that I sold it.
It's nice that they are a UK company but I really can't stir up enough enthusiasm to buy from them. TBH I get bored of class B transistor amps for hi-fi, we really has Sansui perfect those in the 1970s and Pioneer were doing good DC coupled stuff too. Etc.
One of my criteria for modern hifi is that it sounds better than in the 1970s, an acid test that's fairly easy as I have some 1970s gear still
It's nice that they are a UK company but I really can't stir up enough enthusiasm to buy from them. TBH I get bored of class B transistor amps for hi-fi, we really has Sansui perfect those in the 1970s and Pioneer were doing good DC coupled stuff too. Etc.
One of my criteria for modern hifi is that it sounds better than in the 1970s, an acid test that's fairly easy as I have some 1970s gear still
TonyRPH said:
Crackie said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Certainly not.Just overhyped and overrated IMHO.
DavidY said:
I think the issue here is that What HiFi must have the dullest sounding test room in the world, as they always recommend kit which to eveyone else sound bright and shrill, eg Cyrus with Monitor Audio!!!! In a real world living room this combination will usually strip the enamel from your teeth!!!
But then to my ears so much sounds bright these days! I owned both a Cyrus One and Cyrus2/PSX from new and although they could be bright if partnered with the wrong speakers what they they did better than any of their contemporaries is generate a fantastic soundstage.dudleybloke said:
Mr Whippy said:
dudleybloke said:
i have a stunning set of magic beans that when nano-bonded to the atomic matrix of the huygenphonic trans-inversion parametric flutes (sold seperatly) increase both sub-tweeter efficiancy and resofluxing of the boundry layer condensates whilst also reducing wand-tang spike flashing.
You write for Star Trek don't you 
anonymous said:
[redacted]
True story:I used to have a Chord Integrated stereo amp. About £4000 worth - that that was a decade ago. Weighed a ton. Even the remote control was a 'brick' of CNCed metal about two inches thick.
After I had it a few years, a couple of things happened to the remote, some of the buttons got a bit 'sticky' and the response waned - it needs new batteries.
So, I unscrew the metal section at the back which I presume is the battery compartment. It is - and underneath is another plastic battery compartment, like in a common or garden remote control...
Hmm, I thought, so I worked out while I was there how to open the whole thing metal remote control to see why the keys were sticky...
And inside the big chunky metal enclosure was not just the guts, but a whole (JVC if I remember rightly) 1990esque remote control. It worked completely independently from the big, heavy suit of armour around it - you could use it by itself. The little window at the top of the Chord unit simply let the IR from the JVC control through, and the milled metal buttons on the Chord casing were simply designed to be above to the plasticy JVC buttons. Hence why the buttons got sticky.
It was at that point I rethought my attitude to hi-fi 'style' over substance. In this case the £200 Chord 'casing' on the remote actually stopped the cheapo but perfectly good components woking properly.
JustinP1 said:
True story:
I used to have a Chord Integrated stereo amp. About £4000 worth - that that was a decade ago. Weighed a ton. Even the remote control was a 'brick' of CNCed metal about two inches thick.
After I had it a few years, a couple of things happened to the remote, some of the buttons got a bit 'sticky' and the response waned - it needs new batteries.
So, I unscrew the metal section at the back which I presume is the battery compartment. It is - and underneath is another plastic battery compartment, like in a common or garden remote control...
Hmm, I thought, so I worked out while I was there how to open the whole thing metal remote control to see why the keys were sticky...
And inside the big chunky metal enclosure was not just the guts, but a whole (JVC if I remember rightly) 1990esque remote control. It worked completely independently from the big, heavy suit of armour around it - you could use it by itself. The little window at the top of the Chord unit simply let the IR from the JVC control through, and the milled metal buttons on the Chord casing were simply designed to be above to the plasticy JVC buttons. Hence why the buttons got sticky.
It was at that point I rethought my attitude to hi-fi 'style' over substance. In this case the £200 Chord 'casing' on the remote actually stopped the cheapo but perfectly good components woking properly.
Sounds like bI used to have a Chord Integrated stereo amp. About £4000 worth - that that was a decade ago. Weighed a ton. Even the remote control was a 'brick' of CNCed metal about two inches thick.
After I had it a few years, a couple of things happened to the remote, some of the buttons got a bit 'sticky' and the response waned - it needs new batteries.
So, I unscrew the metal section at the back which I presume is the battery compartment. It is - and underneath is another plastic battery compartment, like in a common or garden remote control...
Hmm, I thought, so I worked out while I was there how to open the whole thing metal remote control to see why the keys were sticky...
And inside the big chunky metal enclosure was not just the guts, but a whole (JVC if I remember rightly) 1990esque remote control. It worked completely independently from the big, heavy suit of armour around it - you could use it by itself. The little window at the top of the Chord unit simply let the IR from the JVC control through, and the milled metal buttons on the Chord casing were simply designed to be above to the plasticy JVC buttons. Hence why the buttons got sticky.
It was at that point I rethought my attitude to hi-fi 'style' over substance. In this case the £200 Chord 'casing' on the remote actually stopped the cheapo but perfectly good components woking properly.
ks to me to be fair..sure it can be googled.
kayc said:
Sounds like bks to me to be fair..sure it can be googled.
It happens.ks to me to be fair..sure it can be googled.Just in the same way that "high end" 'manufacturer' Goldmund took a bog standard Pioneer DVD player...
Added a fancy plate to the top of the mechanism and a new transformer (inside a posh new chassis)
And behold, the Goldmund DVD player at about 10x the price of the Pioneer.
And probably inferior in many ways, because of all the wires running to the rear panel sockets...
ETA: Original threads here and here
Edited by TonyRPH on Friday 1st February 14:58
TonyRPH said:
kayc said:
Sounds like bks to me to be fair..sure it can be googled.
It happens.ks to me to be fair..sure it can be googled.Just in the same way that "high end" 'manufacturer' Goldmund took a bog standard Pioneer DVD player...
Added a fancy plate to the top of the mechanism and a new transformer (inside a posh new chassis)
And behold, the Goldmund DVD player at about 10x the price of the Pioneer.
And probably inferior in many ways, because of all the wires running to the rear panel sockets...
ETA: Original threads here and here
Edited by TonyRPH on Friday 1st February 14:58
HTH
TonyRPH said:
It happens.
Just in the same way that "high end" 'manufacturer' Goldmund took a bog standard Pioneer DVD player...
Added a fancy plate to the top of the mechanism and a new transformer (inside a posh new chassis)
And behold, the Goldmund DVD player at about 10x the price of the Pioneer.
And probably inferior in many ways, because of all the wires running to the rear panel sockets...
ETA: Original threads here and here
Do those 2 pics look remotely the same?Just in the same way that "high end" 'manufacturer' Goldmund took a bog standard Pioneer DVD player...
Added a fancy plate to the top of the mechanism and a new transformer (inside a posh new chassis)
And behold, the Goldmund DVD player at about 10x the price of the Pioneer.
And probably inferior in many ways, because of all the wires running to the rear panel sockets...
ETA: Original threads here and here
Edited by TonyRPH on Friday 1st February 14:58
aizvara said:
Are you joking?
Not at all..they are rectangle yes..think 90% cd/dvd players would have similar internals..coz there is right or clearly wrong..most designers would get close but cost of components relative to retail price would restrict them to what they could do.Edited by kayc on Friday 1st February 15:24
Edited by kayc on Friday 1st February 15:25
kayc said:
aizvara said:
Are you joking?
Not at all..they are rectangle yes..think 90% cd/dvd players would have similar internalsAnd no - platforms are not *that* shared.
Usually only the 'no name' brands which cost £20 in Asda use shared electronics from deepest China.
kayc said:
JustinP1 said:
True story:
I used to have a Chord Integrated stereo amp. About £4000 worth - that that was a decade ago. Weighed a ton. Even the remote control was a 'brick' of CNCed metal about two inches thick.
After I had it a few years, a couple of things happened to the remote, some of the buttons got a bit 'sticky' and the response waned - it needs new batteries.
So, I unscrew the metal section at the back which I presume is the battery compartment. It is - and underneath is another plastic battery compartment, like in a common or garden remote control...
Hmm, I thought, so I worked out while I was there how to open the whole thing metal remote control to see why the keys were sticky...
And inside the big chunky metal enclosure was not just the guts, but a whole (JVC if I remember rightly) 1990esque remote control. It worked completely independently from the big, heavy suit of armour around it - you could use it by itself. The little window at the top of the Chord unit simply let the IR from the JVC control through, and the milled metal buttons on the Chord casing were simply designed to be above to the plasticy JVC buttons. Hence why the buttons got sticky.
It was at that point I rethought my attitude to hi-fi 'style' over substance. In this case the £200 Chord 'casing' on the remote actually stopped the cheapo but perfectly good components woking properly.
Sounds like bI used to have a Chord Integrated stereo amp. About £4000 worth - that that was a decade ago. Weighed a ton. Even the remote control was a 'brick' of CNCed metal about two inches thick.
After I had it a few years, a couple of things happened to the remote, some of the buttons got a bit 'sticky' and the response waned - it needs new batteries.
So, I unscrew the metal section at the back which I presume is the battery compartment. It is - and underneath is another plastic battery compartment, like in a common or garden remote control...
Hmm, I thought, so I worked out while I was there how to open the whole thing metal remote control to see why the keys were sticky...
And inside the big chunky metal enclosure was not just the guts, but a whole (JVC if I remember rightly) 1990esque remote control. It worked completely independently from the big, heavy suit of armour around it - you could use it by itself. The little window at the top of the Chord unit simply let the IR from the JVC control through, and the milled metal buttons on the Chord casing were simply designed to be above to the plasticy JVC buttons. Hence why the buttons got sticky.
It was at that point I rethought my attitude to hi-fi 'style' over substance. In this case the £200 Chord 'casing' on the remote actually stopped the cheapo but perfectly good components woking properly.
ks to me to be fair..sure it can be googled.Back in the nineties I had a touchscreen universal remote, it was a generic job from either Lektropacks or Keene that at the time the exact same remote was sold by Chord with a massively thick aluminium body for over 5 times the price.
From memory I think the Lektropacks one I had was about £50, this is the Chord version http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_p... It even looks like an add on body from that picture.
Also JVC remote codes seem to be quite popular on lower volume HiFi stuff for some reason, for example original the Squeezebox before Slim Devices were bought by Logitech used JVC remote codes (DVD ones IIRC). I had a JVC DVD recorder and the remote also controlled my old Squeezebox 1 until I worked out how to change the code on the JVC
TonyRPH said:
Apart form the toroidal transformer added by Goldmund (bottom left corner) those are identical.
And no - platforms are not *that* shared.
Usually only the 'no name' brands which cost £20 in Asda use shared electronics from deepest China.
Just out of interest..what kit you kit have you got?I have lots so i dont have to be defensive or justify,i just listen to what sounds best..currently have speakers from £300 to £5k..Amps/Cd players of similar price range and some sound great and some sound sAnd no - platforms are not *that* shared.
Usually only the 'no name' brands which cost £20 in Asda use shared electronics from deepest China.
t ..how anyone can find out without owning the whole spectrum is impossible..so whats the ultimate in your opinion?..bearing i mind of probably heard it or owned it!I briefly owned a Roksan Kandy DVD.
Bought off eBay. It made a mechanical noise when playing a DVD.
Lid off and discovered a cheapo internal PC DVD drive with the lid removed and a chunk of aluminium glue to the tray.
If i'd paid the best part of a £k for it i would have not been impressed, for th £150 i paid i was unamused and sold it pretty quickly and bought a £200 NAD which was better in pretty much every way except the cheap casing.
Bought off eBay. It made a mechanical noise when playing a DVD.
Lid off and discovered a cheapo internal PC DVD drive with the lid removed and a chunk of aluminium glue to the tray.
If i'd paid the best part of a £k for it i would have not been impressed, for th £150 i paid i was unamused and sold it pretty quickly and bought a £200 NAD which was better in pretty much every way except the cheap casing.
The_Burg said:
I briefly owned a Roksan Kandy DVD.
Bought off eBay. It made a mechanical noise when playing a DVD.
Lid off and discovered a cheapo internal PC DVD drive with the lid removed and a chunk of aluminium glue to the tray.
If i'd paid the best part of a £k for it i would have not been impressed, for th £150 i paid i was unamused and sold it pretty quickly and bought a £200 NAD which was better in pretty much every way except the cheap casing.
No disrespect but not sure Roksan ever got considered as any good by anyone who actually bothered to listen to one..probably was a classic e-bay purchase.Bought off eBay. It made a mechanical noise when playing a DVD.
Lid off and discovered a cheapo internal PC DVD drive with the lid removed and a chunk of aluminium glue to the tray.
If i'd paid the best part of a £k for it i would have not been impressed, for th £150 i paid i was unamused and sold it pretty quickly and bought a £200 NAD which was better in pretty much every way except the cheap casing.
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