HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

SteveTheShadow wrote: ↑Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:02 pm

...So after the disaster (for me that is) that was the Owston meet the weekend before last...

Did I miss something?
I didn't see nor hear any disasters at Owston.

Edit: Your Fane full range speakers are so fantastic for the time and money that I find myself looking at threads on other forums and thinking that a variation on your Fanes would be perfect for the person's needs. Far better than the Sevenoaks type slimline ported low efficiency speakers that they always end up buying instead of following my suggestion.
So that even if one demo of yours at Owston were to be a miss, you have provided more than enough great demos there for it to be a small bump in an otherwise triumphal march.

Nice of you to say so Lindsay. I appreciate that.
I’ve now abandoned the low power SE amp/high efficiency speaker scene. It was fun while it lasted, but ultimately I find high efficiency speakers far too demanding of the upstream components and I simply don’t have the funds to continue down the route of expensive amplification. The output transformer requirements are too far out of my financial league to make it a realistic proposition.
Yes, the Fane full range drivers are relatively inexpensive and good sound can be got out of them for not a lot of money compared to some of the more exotic drivers. However like much of the rest of the full range crowd they are just too coloured and in your face and I’ve had it with that kind of sound. It’s too stressful.
The tall, slim mini tower Mission 737 speakers are a revelation. They may not be the most exciting speakers if you are used to the roar and rort of high efficiency speakers, but they are even-handed across the frequency range and tonally uncoloured. They image like crazy and disappear on the right recordings. They play my oldest rattiest recordings without the slightest hint of shout or nasality and complement the NVA based amp perfectly, setting the music free. They are 85dB efficient: way lower than the 87/88 dB of most commercial speaker offerings these days, but The 60W NVA based amp drives them beautifully and kicks them along with gusto. The 5W EL34 amp does well with them but unfortunately the dynamics are missing in action, which is only to be expected with such low power.
I’ve never been happier with the sound.

Now I just need to get to grips with the anxiety and the goddam catastrophic thinking.

Mission made some good speakers.

Where is the bookshelf Mission speakers, Steve?

S.

southall-1998 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 05, 2022 5:02 am Mission made some good speakers.

Where is the bookshelf Mission speakers, Steve?

S.

The bookshelf Missions are in the spare room where I do my writing. I hope to set up a second system in there at some point.

Aren't these mission driver cones made out of aerogel or some such ?

karatestu wrote: ↑Sat Nov 05, 2022 7:42 am Aren't these mission driver cones made out of aerogel or some such ?

Yep, they have aerogel cones on the bass/mid driver

Our mental and physical health are the most important things in our lives. Without them it's difficult to enjoy life.
Followed by relationships and earning money. I personally think that relationships are more important than the money earning. Some people think it's the other way round, or that they are equally important. Both of which are valid points of view.

Everything else is rather less important than those 3 areas. Hi-fi is unimportant - for those of us that don't make our money from it.

I know what I do when I feel anxious or down. I know what mechanisms I have for coping with the stresses and setbacks in life. I know what sort of lifestyle I have.

I was an anxious worrying little 7 year old. Starting from that age I learnt some big lessons on anxiety. I'm still learning and aiming to get better at maintaining my mental health. As well as my physical health, as well as relationships, and earning money.

I can't wave a magic wand and cure your anxiety and depression Steve. I wish I could. But I can't.
I could throw out a few suggestions as to what I do. Or tell you a few anecdotes. There's a chance you'd be thinking that I was being a patronising twat if I did. So I'll keep these to myself. Unless someone starts a separate thread titled "Tips and anecdotes related to mental health"

My attitude tries to be one of “this too shall pass” and it always does, until something else comes up, which of course passes and something else comes up, which passes and something else comes up ad infinitum. It is this cycle that is an absolute b’stard to interrupt. That’s why I said earlier that the depression part of the disorder is easier to bring under control and is the reason why the local IAPT services try to concentrate on this aspect of GAD as a way to ease the suffering.

However, all that aside, the system is sounding fine and is doing a sterling job of lifting the low mood up to somewhere near reasonable, which has a knock-on positive effect on the underlying anxiety.

Inbetween the things coming up, isn't there an awful lot of good to great stuff that happens?

Nope. That’s the problem with GAD. It is a constant feeling of being under threat. You’re on permanent red alert. Can’t relax for one second in case you miss something, fail to account for it, then because you took your eye off the ball something terrible happens. And to understand GAD, you must understand that that sort of thing absolutely cannot be allowed, because the fear is you will not cope, a chain reaction of negative events will occur and things will spiral out of control. Intolerance of uncertainty is the main underlying theme in all of this or so the IAPT people told me.

I live with it the best I can and try to manage it but sometimes one just gets weary of it all. I take things one day at a time. It’s no way to live, but battling with it is not the right way to go about managing the disorder.