My old stomping ground's changed a bit...

[Classicrock]

Having heard the DCS system at a couple of shows I can confirm a Rega TT sounds far better. £100K rip off. A member on here has a lower order DCS and got upset at my view on their lack of music playing ability.

[Classicrock]

If you look at discogs the most expensive near mint copies of any collectable record are always Russian Federation followed by Ukraine. I do wonder if you will ever see a mint record for your outlay or indeed any record at all. It's about time we had a government that stood up to these people coming in and booted them including the Chelsea owner.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

There are mint people who just wanted to get away from it like Nadia, so don't judge them all. Abramovich is an odd one, Chelsea is straight, it has to be, too much in the searchlights. It is a toy and ego thing for him. He makes sure he never falls out with Putin etc, he gives the right gifts, like he gave Putin a yacht recently. BUT he never made him self part of the system. I am not so sure we would want some of the other Premier League owners in preference at Chelsea, we just have to accept they are all dodgy.

[Lindsayt]

If we want honest administrators to run football we can always turn to the Swiss...








...like Sepp Blatter.

[tomblackford]

I must confess to actually auditioning the little Harbeth P3's (pretty much the cheapest item they sell) in there a couple of months back... it's a short walk from my office and I just couldn't resist.

As ghastly as a lot of the stuff they carry is (and the clientele who buy it probably are), I have to say they were accommodating enough, despite me clearly not being in their usual demographic in terms of spending power (I actually took my Quad 303 in the first time I think, which could have elicited a lot more flak / mirth than it did).

There was one nice touch that did strike me... after the second visit, I called to say I wasn't going to buy the Harbeths and explained what I had chosen instead. This would have been an open invitation for the salesperson (an older chap, who's name I actually can't remember) to start some kind of persuasion routine, but to his credit, the chap actually said that I wasn't the first person to make exactly the same choice, and wished me luck with them.

Perhaps the commission on such a 'low price' item was so negligible that it wasn't worth his time, or perhaps they had me sussed from the start, but either way, I was pleasantly surprised I didn't have to justify my choice.

[Classicrock]

There are mint people who just wanted to get away from it like Nadia, so don't judge them all. Abramovich is an odd one, Chelsea is straight, it has to be, too much in the searchlights. It is a toy and ego thing for him. He makes sure he never falls out with Putin etc, he gives the right gifts, like he gave Putin a yacht recently. BUT he never made him self part of the system. I am not so sure we would want some of the other Premier League owners in preference at Chelsea, we just have to accept they are all dodgy.

I was referring to the rich that buy up property and help fuel prices as well as the gangsters and Putin agents wandering about with radioactive isotopes. Abramovich and other wealthy (and dodgy) foreign owners have just pushed up transfer fees, players wages and ticket prices. Ordinary people can't afford football matches so pay Sky rip off amounts to watch on telly. With the amount premier league are getting from TV £10 match tickets should be made available.

[Classicrock]

I must confess to actually auditioning the little Harbeth P3's (pretty much the cheapest item they sell) in there a couple of months back... it's a short walk from my office and I just couldn't resist.

As ghastly as a lot of the stuff they carry is (and the clientele who buy it probably are), I have to say they were accommodating enough, despite me clearly not being in their usual demographic in terms of spending power (I actually took my Quad 303 in the first time I think, which could have elicited a lot more flak / mirth than it did).

There was one nice touch that did strike me... after the second visit, I called to say I wasn't going to buy the Harbeths and explained what I had chosen instead. This would have been an open invitation for the salesperson (an older chap, who's name I actually can't remember) to start some kind of persuasion routine, but to his credit, the chap actually said that I wasn't the first person to make exactly the same choice, and wished me luck with them.
Perhaps the commission on such a 'low price' item was so negligible that it wasn't worth his time, or perhaps they had me sussed from the start, but either way, I was pleasantly surprised I didn't have to justify my choice.

What speaker did you settle on in the end?

[antonio66]

Having heard the DCS system at a couple of shows I can confirm a Rega TT sounds far better. £100K rip off. A member on here has a lower order DCS and got upset at my view on their lack of music playing ability.

That could be me you are referring to, although it is not mine but my brothers. I did not get upset but told you as it is. The dac is a dCS Rossini with a built in cd player and is their latest release except for the Vivaldi mk2. It is by far a more musical player than earlier dCS products which I told you before I did not like. Have you heard the later model or are you comparing a Rega turntable to the older models. I'm pleased you think my brother owns one of their lower models but I did explain all this to you before.

[tomblackford]

What speaker did you settle on in the end?

At the risk of re-igniting a recent argument, the little Spendor S3/5r2. I had some quite specific criteria... sealed box, work tolerably on a shelf (to keep them safe from my turntable destroying kids), work ok with my old 303...

Although I never heard them at the same time, I thought the Harbeths sounded pretty great, I just couldn't justify them being 2x the price of the Spendors. I thought the listening room at KJ was perhaps a little big for them too, which didn't help... they just didn't ever quite do 'dramatic'.

The other contenders (auditioned elsewhere against the Spendors) were the ATC SCM7 which I thought were very impressive indeed (really punchy and dynamic). With a very powerful 500wpc solid-state amp behind them, they made the Spendors sound quite small. I was toying with investing in more powerful amp and getting them, but then I heard the Spendors with a little valve amp (which I hoped might be more akin to the capabilities of my 303) and it all made a bit more sense...

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

You want to deal with a Hi-Fi retailer then accept that you just stick between 30 and 60% of the money you pass straight into their pocket - and for what