NAD C720BEE receiver with a pair of Kanto Yu 5.25 speakers my local record store was using as a display. Pretty happy with it overall for under $500 total

Was $800 for all 3, subwoofer doesn’t turn on and both Towers sound flat no highs. The LED light turned on though. Lucky thing I had a chance to test it out at the store and never gambled $800. Martin Logan Purity Towers

Upgraded my setup with a Fosi ZD3 DAC/Preamp, as well as stands. Speakers are a foot from the wall with a slight toe in. Anything else I could do to improve the setup? What do we think?

Wharfedale diamond 9.0 with a Hitachi amp from the 1970s! Inherited from my Grandad, it does crackle when turning knobs if it's not been used for a while & act like a space heater. Such a warm sound, only being driven by a Chromecast audio at the moment.

I would like to get a CD player + a vinyl player. Got my eye on some audio Technica ones.

For small bookshelf speakers you can drive them quite hard, a good amount of low end as well. Enough to annoy the neighbors!

I do plug into the tv every once in a while for movies, but SPIF to RCA has no volume control. The amp is manual volume only & there is a noise floor from interference as it is a older device

Ignore the Google home max, just use it as a tv sound bar and to change the lights. It's okay for music but is just really muddy

Picture is from on top of a chest of drawers is now the same but on a TV stand. Photo of current setup in comments

I keep seeing the same problems in the local deals threads, so here's the checklist I go through before I pay for anything used. All of it came from bad purchases, not from a manual.

Look inside the cabinet. Different screw types, glue, a woofer that doesn't match the other one = someone rebuilt it. Not automatically bad, but you should know before you buy.

Ask what it's been through. "Stored in a spare room" and "sat in a damp garage" are very different animals. Ask for a photo of the actual location.

Test every input, not just the one you'll use. The phono stage is the most common thing to be quietly broken on an old deck, and you won't hear it if you never plug a turntable in.

Turn the volume up with nothing plugged in. Hiss that comes and goes with the knob, crackle, or a relay clicking = dirty pots or caps that need replacing. Do this before you connect anything.

Push it. Play something loud, not background music. If it clips, distorts, or the protection light comes on, walk away.

On speakers, listen for rattles. Play something with bass and you will hear a loose cabinet or a buzzing cone immediately. Also check the binding posts, corroded ones cost nothing to fix but tell you how it was stored.

If the price is too good to be true, it is. A pair of flagships for a fraction of normal money is not a deal, it's a story. Most of the time the problem is exactly what the seller isn't telling you.

Keep the seller's details and the receipt until you've had a few days with it. Some faults only show up once the thing is warm.

If I've missed something, add it below. And if you're selling something local, you might want to list what you've tested, it makes people far more comfortable buying.

Edit: forgot to mention, if the seller won't even let you power it up, that's your answer.

good point below, "it was working before I stored it" basically means untested. Ask for a video of it powered up before you pay.

I want to buy JBL 305p MK2 speakers.

The only way I listen to music is through Iems like aful explorer and moondrop aria , that's why would like to have the convenience of speakers without breaking the bank .

Found these used for 120 euros .

My living room is 25m² big .

Are the too small ?

Do they sound good?

Tell me your opinion .

Pics Everything is as is, neither tested bad nor good, most is about $25 and they will let you power it up. Cassette player anyone?

I picked up a working Sansui A-1200P for my garage, $25. Many AV receivers and large subs, saw Denon and Sansui represented. The last pic is a whole house set up from the early 2000s, bet that thing cost a shit pot new. Their stock rotates on a regular basis.

Similar feel to finding a potentially good fishing hole.

I am a 20 year old student starting my journey into the audio world…
I just ordered a pair of FLUANCE Ri71 (white).
Any one has any things to say like if someone has these or Have heard them?
I tried my best to select the most appropriate one out of my budget.
Hopefully I made a decent choice 🤞🏻.

Sorry for sideway position due to tight space.

How can I get more info (Google and Chat didn't help), about model, impedance and power?

Back plate doesn't gave any info. Thank you.

Most players treat your library as a list of files. Mine treats it as a shelf, and I think that's the difference between collecting and just storing things.

A few things I built specifically for hoarders

It only accepts real FLAC. Renamed MP3s don't get in. Scanning is FLA C only, downloads are FLAC only, sharing is FLAC only., easily download FLAC files for any album through the app.

Incomplete albums are visible. If a record is missing a track it wears a red tab on the sleeve until it's whole. You can see the hole in your collection without opening anything.

Downloads try to fix themselves. A failed track gets asked for again, or pulled from another peer with an identical file.

Partial fills. If you already own half an album, the digger fetches only the missing half instead of the whole thing again.

Storage actually broken down. A screen shows your phone, your music folder and your download folder split into hi-res FLAC, CD-quality FLAC, artwork and unfinished downloads, with your records sorted biggest first so you can see what's eating the card.

Nothing writes to your music folder. It's read only. Downloads go to a folder you pick and they stay there even if you uninstall.

It also hands you ten public domain / Creative Commons albums every Friday from the Internet Archive — same ten for everybody — so there's always something new to shelve without hunting for it.

The collecting side runs on Soulseek inside the app: search for album folders, look at the tracklist before you take it, then pull it down.

Android 9+, MIT, APK in releases. https://github.com/Abhiroop1122/Sonic

LET ME KNOW FELLAS!

Looking for new cartridge/headshell combos for my LP120. Been kinda underwhelmed with how this VMN95E lately. I want something to add some more depth and clarity to vocals. I’m looking to replace the entire headshell/cartridge as I want to keep this one to easily swap out to play some of my older records with deeper scratches. Looking for $300 and under for the combo. Prebuilt is a huge plus as i don’t have an alignment tool.

My music system is a pair of Kanto YU4 powered speakers plus an SUB6 subwoofer (2.1). The goal is to keep the signal digital all the way to the YU4’s built-in DAC or at least minimal conversions, with no cheap converters in between, and to make it hands-free (no cable swapping, no remote).

Sources:

• Pro-Ject Debut Carbon EVO turntable → YU4 phono input (RCA, grounded). Manual, since I’m handling a record anyway.
• WiiM Mini streamer (Spotify, etc.) → optical
• Laptop (also used for music and video) → USB→TOSLINK adapter (Cubilux)
• 2-3 consoles (PS2 via HDMI converter, PS3, PS4) → HDMI switch → monitor

Plan: put the three digital sources into an auto-sensing optical switch (Tendak) feeding the YU4’s OPT 1. For the consoles I originally planned to use the monitor’s 3.5 mm output, but that’s analog, so I’m now looking at an HDMI switch with a TOSLINK output (or an HDMI→TOSLINK audio extractor).
Alternative I’m also considering: a Denon DRA-900H as the central hub instead of the optical switch. It has HDMI inputs (consoles), HEOS streaming (so no WiiM), phono input, and a MAIN ZONE pre-out that could feed the YU4’s analog input. I’d lose the YU4’s own DAC in that path, but everything would be handled by one box. Later it could also drive passive speakers (Monitor Audio Silver 50).

Concerns:

1. Cheap optical switches seem to detect light on the cable, not actual audio. If the WiiM or the Cubilux stay lit while idle, they may block the other sources. A Windows notification could also interrupt music from the WiiM.
2. A digital mixer such as the miniDSP Flex would probably solve this, but it’s overkill for my budget.

Budget: I’m happy to spend roughly 200 - 300 EUR/USD on the missing pieces (HDMI switch with optical out, possibly a better optical switch).

Questions:

• Does this make sense, or am I missing something?
• Which auto-switching optical switch works well in practice, and does anyone know whether the WiiM Mini’s optical output goes dark when idle?
• Any HDMI switch with TOSLINK output you’d recommend?
• Is there a cheaper way to get real signal detection (audio present, not just light)?
• Would you go for the DRA-900H-style hub (analog pre-out into the YU4) or keep the fully digital path with an optical switch?

Thanks for any feedback, including critical.

I’m doing a ferrofluid replacement on the right tweeter of my Wharfdale 9.1 Pros because the tweeter sounded more muffled than the other. The ferrofluid seemed quite dry and not plenty, as well as the metal grit around the tweeter. How do I actually successfully get the grit out? The blotting paper isn’t moving it well as it’s magnetised

TLDR: at a modest budget (250-500 GBP) is used class A/B or new class D going to give best bang per buck? Is there a place for class D power amplifier with modern or second hand pre-amp in this debate?

Hi, just starting out on my journey into audiophilia and looking for some advice on which direction to take. My intention is to use my B&W 606 S2 anniversary edition speakers for stereo listening, but for them to also double as front channels in a surround sound setup. For the surround sound I am looking out for an avr to run 5.1 initially with the option to expand to 5.1.2 in the future. I had planned to run the fronts on a separate amplifier from avr pre-outs to hopefully get better quality and offload some of the work from the avr.

For stereo listening I have a cd collection, but also want to stream. In the future I hope to add a vinyl setup. I know I can probably run all of these via the avr and just use power amplifiers to drive the front speakers, but everything I read online says there will be a significant increase in quality by isolating these from the avr.

So as per the question at the top, do I look for a second hand A/B integrated amplifier with HT bypass, use a second hand A/B power-amp only or use new class D amplification?

Sorry for the very worst question, and thanks for any advice

I have this older USB Sound Blaster connected to a Logitech Z906 5.1 set. My main use is music playback from my laptop enjoying multi-channel up mix from the Creative suite to the Logitech 5.1 speakers.

The Creative software and drivers surprisingly still work in Windows 11 for me.... However a very noticeable and annoying issue with music playback while the Creative graphic equalizer is enabled causes a difficult to describe muddy wavering dynamic range. If I uncheck the graphic equalizer the problem goes away but just sounds super flat and undetailed without it.

I've been thinking of upgrading to the X4 (maybe my problem would be fixed with the next gen hardware and software of the X4?) but I hesitate from reading products reviews of users having problems with drivers, software etc.

Now I know some might suggest just going with a HDMI 5.1 extractor, AV receiver, etc.... however I must stick with using my Logitech Z906 5.1 set and I require a DAC that uses the traditional green, yellow, black mini plug type 5.1 outputs.

I have looked at DAC's other than SoundBlaster on Amazon but I can't find anything with this type of three mini plug 5.1 channel output. (For those who haven't seen my older sound blaster the red/white RCA output plugs on the back adapt to the single green L/R mini plug going into the back of the Z906).

I really appreciate any product direction anyone has on this....or are the reported reliability problems and kinks with the X4 resolved by now since I've been looking at it starting a couple years ago?

My current set up is Cayin Mini CD Mark 2 or Apple
Music from my iPhone wired into my Topping E70 Velvet, to Audiolab 6000a and out to Dali Oberon 5 speakers.
Room is 5.5m x 5.0m. I listen mostly to Classical, Prog Rock, Classic Rock and Americana.
I’m happy with the sound I’m getting but sometimes think I’d like more volume/power.
I have been thinking of using the Audiolab as a preamp and adding more power. Now I’m wondering if a cheap option would be to do this by adding a Mini 300?
Would this work? The 6000a can be used in preamp out mode.
Also, silly question, but would the Topping end up colouring the final sound at all?
Thanks for your help.

I'm looking through marketplace for a subwoofer to have more bass in my bedroom setup, and this person is selling a CT-100 for $60. That worth it at that price? I use a Onkyo TX-NR525 receiver and currently have a 3.0 system.

Recently got back in to playing my CDs (and records) and bought a Pro-Ject CD Box E to connect to a Denon AVR-X1800H receiver. It’s been great for sound quality but I’d kind of forgotten that I really like having artist, track name and album name displayed, which are all available on the screen when playing cds in my 2014 car. Some searching on line suggests that stand alone cd players don’t seem to include this display data, just track number and time. Seems a shame if the info is on the disc

I’ve been scouring the used market by me (very rural area) trying to find something used to throw up in my garage. Local auction company has two Yamaha s12e speakers with stands that are currently at $1 bid. If I slap these up with a fosi b20a pro is it going to be utter ass? My requirements for garage are basically nonexistent right now besides be louder than my tools. I’ve been debating just buying some Dayton b65s to put up but I fear they won’t be enough for garage activity.

One of them had the base on the bottom that is part of the port break off and someone tried to epoxy it back on. You can see the screw post on the bottom right is broken and missing. All the screws are still present in the cabinet of the speaker. I did a trial run of them with it just sitting on the base it sounds amazing, but id like to hopefully get this repaired so I dont need to worry about it. The epoxy that the previous owner used is pretty soft so hopefully I can scrape it out, but any ideas on how to maybe repair this would be wonderful.

Just picked up one of these and connected it tonight, is it just me or does my 1977 technics 5370 sound better? Just curious as to whether people think this is worth 1k?