The HiFi thread

silentbutdeadly

has some good things to say
Another soundbar request.

Will prob look at moving our stuff to the theater room soon (currently used as storage hah).

Briefly looked at a JBL 9.1 soundbar with a sub. Sounded pretty good. Then again so did the others.

Tossing up between something like that, or a scalable system like Sonos.

Is Sonos any good these days?
If you can find one then the Polk Signa S2 tested really well soundwise in a recent Choice comparison.
 

Squidfayce

Eats Squid
Is Sonos any good these days?
Its not audiophile gear, but its pretty darn good for consumer grade stuff. I've got a fair bit of the new gen stauff ( a couple of ones and fives) and they perform flawlessly. You can take a listen to them in at harvey norman stores. They have a sonos stand you can self navigate with different music etc)
 

MasterOfReality

After forever
Excellent. I'm pretty sure I saw a Polk one at JB as well........

Not terribly fussed if it's not top shelf but don't want rubbish either. For reference the gear we are moving from the everyday living room to the theatre room is Cambridge Audio/Paradigm/Wharfedale stuff. For anything better for my ears I prefer my B&O over ear cans.

The Sonos does sound ok to my ears, I tend to think of them more like a Bose competitor. Just need to figure out how I can control what in each zone.
 

\m/ Moshboy \m/

Likes Dirt
Another soundbar request.

Will prob look at moving our stuff to the theater room soon (currently used as storage hah).

Briefly looked at a JBL 9.1 soundbar with a sub. Sounded pretty good. Then again so did the others.

Tossing up between something like that, or a scalable system like Sonos.

Is Sonos any good these days?
No soundbars that I can see, but IKEA do a range of cheaper rebranded Sonos speakers under SYMFONISK-:
 

Tubbsy

Packin' a small bird
Staff member
@MasterOfReality The Sonos Beam reviews very well:


I just picked one up for $100 off on sale (ends today).

I have quite a few Sonos products so it made sense for me; sometimes I like being able to have the same music or podcast playing in different rooms so I can move around the house listening to it.

If you don't have other Sonos stuff I don't think there's anything particularly special about the sound quality compared to competing products.
 

creaky

XMAS Plumper
I ended up getting the Sony one (HT700 or something), being lazy and knowing that it’d be an easy setup / integration on my Sony TV, which it is.

Sounds OK for movies, tv and music but I wouldn’t say it blows me away in performance. I didn’t expect it to and I’m not a critical audiophile.

My wife hates it, especially the subwoofer box, so that’s a win:D She did soften to it last night when I showed her it would auto turn on as a Bluetooth speaker from her phone!
 

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
She did soften to it last night when I showed her it would auto turn on as a Bluetooth speaker from her phone!
Auto-connect commences.

"Oi, I'm watching a movie!"

"But I want to listen to music!"

This is how divorces occur.
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
@MasterOfReality The Sonos Beam reviews very well:


I just picked one up for $100 off on sale (ends today).

I have quite a few Sonos products so it made sense for me; sometimes I like being able to have the same music or podcast playing in different rooms so I can move around the house listening to it.

If you don't have other Sonos stuff I don't think there's anything particularly special about the sound quality compared to competing products.
Please tell me that I'm not the first person to mention you could have achieved the same thing with Bluetooth headphones.

Sent from my M2012K11AG using Tapatalk
 

Tubbsy

Packin' a small bird
Staff member
Please tell me that I'm not the first person to mention you could have achieved the same thing with Bluetooth headphones.
Would make for interesting parties having everyone with headphones in.

Although to be serious, yes I have those and do it while working in the garden sometimes, but feels a bit disconnected from the environment and I find they start getting uncomfortable after a while and I just want to take them out.

Wasn't really the plan in the beginning anyway, started with a couple of speakers years ago, then got a couple more and found I quite liked having them all going at once.
 

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
re: Sonos products. I have a couple of Play:5 and the Sub. IMO the sub is basically unnecessary unless you hate your neighbours and like listening to your windows rattle. It is stupidly overpowering on stock settings, I run it turned down a lot from standard.

The Play:5's are quite good (not absolutely outstanding, but good all-rounders). I had one fail out of warranty (seemed to be a WiFi communications bit inside the unit failed). They attempted to run some remote diagnostics, then when they could see the unit wasn't communicating replaced it no cost.

I aim to buy more in time, as like Tubbsy I would like a couple more around the house but dislike wearing headphones.
 
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MasterOfReality

After forever
Went back and had a look at the JBL 9.1, Sonos Beam, Samsung Q990B and Bose 900. All with subs.

They all sounded good to me, will end up coming down to appearance and functions.
 

iconic

Likes Dirt
Asking for the experts here.. I have a modernish Hisense 55" TV that has HDMI ARC currently connected to a Yamaha soundbar. I also have a Google Chromecast connected to the TV

I have some half decent 90s/00s 2 channel setup - Apogee Mini-DAC with USB, ME24 pre amp, ME240 integrated amplifier, and Orpheus Aurora 3.2 floorstanders

Ideally I would like the items connected to the TV where the TV/Chromecast can be controlled through the one remote (understanding that I would need to switch on the DAC / amp separately).

In addition I also have a Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen that I would like connected to run Spotify, and have it be controlled by the same remote.

Is this even possible? Is there a component/s would I need to buy?

Thanks in advance!



Sent from my RMX2001 using Tapatalk
 

wesdadude

ウェスド アドゥーデ
I'll preface this by quoting the Kodi docs "the industry is silly".

You should be able to control HDMI connected devices with CEC. It'll be a case of turning it on in the TV and hoping all the connected devices support enough of it. I think the Nest Hub might be designed to use a phone as a remote. I'm pretty de-Googled so I can't be more helpful there.

It looks like your DAC's got S/PDIF and optical inputs. Your TV should be able to output audio through either of those.

This is assuming you're using the TV as a hub, otherwise you mightneed to buy a switching hub and plug everything into that.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
Asking for the experts here.. I have a modernish Hisense 55" TV that has HDMI ARC currently connected to a Yamaha soundbar. I also have a Google Chromecast connected to the TV

I have some half decent 90s/00s 2 channel setup - Apogee Mini-DAC with USB, ME24 pre amp, ME240 integrated amplifier, and Orpheus Aurora 3.2 floorstanders

Ideally I would like the items connected to the TV where the TV/Chromecast can be controlled through the one remote (understanding that I would need to switch on the DAC / amp separately).

In addition I also have a Google Nest Hub 2nd Gen that I would like connected to run Spotify, and have it be controlled by the same remote.

Is this even possible? Is there a component/s would I need to buy?

Thanks in advance!



Sent from my RMX2001 using Tapatalk

Sorry the price isn’t very friendly, home theatre processors aren’t budget friendly. You could opt for a Denon AVR with pre outs.
 

iconic

Likes Dirt
Thanks for the responses! Will look into the cost effective option of using the TV as a hub and see if that works!

Sent from my RMX2001 using Tapatalk
 

k3n!f

leaking out the other end
I'm not a HiFi snob (obviously), but I'm looking for some wifi speakers for my house and would like some advice. The new house where I'll be listening to music is open planned, so it is pretty large (4m x 15m). I've been looking at the Sonos Five which seems to get good reviews both for the sound quality and the connectivity with devices. Are there any alternative lesser known brands I should check out? I'd be happy with a single speaker if the sounds is good, or a pair of bookshelf speakers if they are foolproof to connect.

Thanks!
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
I'm not a HiFi snob (obviously), but I'm looking for some wifi speakers for my house and would like some advice. The new house where I'll be listening to music is open planned, so it is pretty large (4m x 15m). I've been looking at the Sonos Five which seems to get good reviews both for the sound quality and the connectivity with devices. Are there any alternative lesser known brands I should check out? I'd be happy with a single speaker if the sounds is good, or a pair of bookshelf speakers if they are foolproof to connect.

Thanks!
How much sound quality do you want?

The min/max king at the moment is a Topping Dac with Bluetooth like the Dx3 pro+ and hook it up to powered studio speakers like JBL 306P mkii. This will deliver state of the art sound for around $1,000. The JBL 308P mkii will get you more volume. Add a powered subwoofer with passthrough for more bass.

If you just want something simple go the Sonos speakers from IKEA but you're looking at a substantial drop in sound quality and volume.

An AVR or anything from any of the major brands won't touch the performance of the Topping DAC. If you decide to stream music from a NAS or a service with HD streaming like Tidal in the future, the Topping DAC can accept USB from a cheap thin client, laptop or raspberry pi which can all be controlled by your phone.

Sent from my M2012K11AG using Tapatalk
 
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k3n!f

leaking out the other end
Amazing, thank you! I'm going to fall into a google rabbit hole for a few days investigating :cool:
 
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