There's a lot of pretentious nonsense spoken about hi-fi equipment. Sure you need to spend more than £99, but it doesn't need to be in the thousands before you get a good sound.

My few hundred quids worth of vintage kit sounds good to me, although, as I've said elsewhere my hearing is shot after years of standing close to racing engines and the speakers at rock concerts.

Thing is, if it sounds good to you, that's all that matters.

There is a lot of truth in that. Obviously money buys you quality but a lot of hi fi buffs start believing the marketing nonsense and once you have spent a fortune on some kit, you are going to convince yourself that it is great and tell everyone else too.

I run a Cyrus digital amp with a couple of old Linn Kelifths from the '90s and they sound pretty good to me. If I want to upgrade, then you are into power amps, tri wiring and all that malarkey

Is it worth the money and bother?

Edited by Hrolf The Ganger (26 Mar 2021 6.25pm)

i have a large mp3 / flac collection, but in general I play Tidal through Bang & Olfson speaker or a Naim system in kitchen, not high end but pretty good
(well sounds ok to me)

Kids,tired of being bothered by your pesky parents?
Then leave home, get a job & pay your own bills, while you still know everything.

Both albums are no more than weak efforts to sound like Pink Floyd as far as I'm concerned. As is the over hyped DSOTM.

I saw them live on 3 occasions. The first time was at Eel Pie Island when Syd Barrett was in his glory. The light show was a bloke up a step ladder with an oil lamp and a blow torch to make patterns in tune with their playing. They played a mind blowing version of Interstellar Overdrive that lasted forever. I don't think I've ever been the same since.

That was the real Pink Floyd and their only true album is Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. They were never the same since they kicked Syd out, just made loadsamoney by using the name.

Their drummer, Nick Mason, makes a pretty good fist of replicating Floyd's early days with his group Saucerful Of Secrets. Tour had to be cancelled of course, but if ever you get the chance to see them, go. It's the closest you'll get to the real thing.

My music buying habit started in the 60s so vinyl was the only option.

One thing I'd say about vinyl, and particularly LPs, is that if you have spent money on purchasing a physical item (as opposed to a download) you might be more prepared to be patient with it if after on first listening it doesn't grab you.

I can recall buying albums where it took several listenings to really fully appreciate it - if however it exists as an intangible entity on a computer disk I think it is easier to just forget about it and bother no further.

And of course it is a lot easier now to skip over tracks you are not so keen on, as opposed to playing vinyl where you'd often just let the record run its course, and again, perhaps find certain tracks growing on you.

'selling England by the pound' for me ,chick !
one of the few albums I can tolerate from start to completion.
Dont think I've listened to 'piper at the gates..' ? will Tidal it tomo, when im scrubbing the curry pots.

Kids,tired of being bothered by your pesky parents?
Then leave home, get a job & pay your own bills, while you still know everything.