The high life

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Rotch
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Mike Rotch

Mike Rotch

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[cliche]Life is weird[/cliche]. Here I am, working like most other sods so I can pay off my car and whatever. I get home after a long hard day, collapse onto the couch, and in order to rest my weary feet, rest them on....a $40,000 hi-fi amplifier :scared:

You see, my dad is the exclusive repair agent here for Bose, Rotel, Russland and Jamo hi-fi equipment. This particular item was a Jamo amplifier (excluding CD player and surround sound speakers). Its absolutely nuts that people buy such expensive amps. As I understand it Bose is a bit passe in the States, but here it is considered arty, modern, quality systems. We have at least 10 +-$6000 dollar units sitting in the spare room at any one time due to space constraints in his workshop.

Anyway, back to the Jamo. So basically I was resting my feet on a new car. Thats a weird feeling. More unpleasant though is being asked to carry a 50 pound (three thumbs up for heat sinks) $2000 Rotel Amplifier from our house to the on-property workshop. No room for untied shoelaces there.

Anyway, back to the point of all of this. Being the only Bose agent, we just got a free +-$10,000 Bose entertainment system from the suppliers, a free Ipod-mini and a free most-awesome Bose Soundport plug-and-play cradle for the Ipod that charges the Apple and doubles as a speaker box for it too. Fantastic sounds quality for two very small speakers. All this because we "need a working unit to test the faulty ones we get".

Only he wont let me use the Ipod :grumpy:

Oh, yea. If you are wondering why they cost so much, I calculated it as the retailer does. Dollar/pounds cost to import from the US/UK, covert to local currency, add import duty and retailers mark up, converted back to dollars/pounds. More then an awesome. And, we have ten systems waiting for repair because some bright fellows bought their systems in the States (to save on import duties etc) and plugged it in without a stepdown converter. :dopey: Systems designed for 110v dont cope to well with a 220v power source :smokey:
 
Steal his iPod!

And give me the entertainment system.

Now!

But jeebus, $40,000 dollars for a hifi system is a bit much.
 
Yeah, those things can get insanely expensive. They're for people who have a plasma screen in their fireplaces and get 80,000EUR sportscars stolen.
 
And I'd be keying every pololololo i could find. :D

SA :grumpy:

I found some computer speakers made by Jamo, on the net, for like 450 quid 👍 Quite a bargain in anybody's book :scared:

But jeebus, $40,000 dollars for a hifi system is a bit much.
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Just the amp, not the speakers or input systems either.
 
Mike Rotch
And I'd be keying every pololololo i could find. :D

SA :grumpy:

I found some computer speakers made by Jamo, on the net, for like 450 quid 👍 Quite a bargain in anybody's book :scared:



Just the amp, not the speakers or input systems either.
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Haha, I suppose i'm not much of an Audiophile. All I have is an old Kenwood amp and a mission speaker setup. Oh and an old Sony CD player unit which skips allot, so it's mainly hooked up to my pc.

As for Polos, there are two other identical ones on my street.
 
:suckstobeapolodriverinlondonifIeverwenttoliveinlondon:

And DQuan, if you ever forget where I live, its teh country that was robbed at Wembley 10 or so years ago when Ian Wright punched the ball into the net. In front of the ref. Whilst on the shoulders of his teammates.

I listened to the Bose Soundport. Freakin good quality sound, I must admit. Bose make amazing speakers - tiny, but with bags of quality sound output. If my hifi ever packed up, I'd look to get an iPod and one of those ports.
 
You know, I just read a review of a $2000 tube amp docking base for iPods. You want to talk about a stupid device.

High-end audiophiles prefer tube amps because they insist that tubes sound warmer and smoother than a solid-state amp. Tube amps are delicate, expensive, and low power for what you get, yet some audiophiles insist the subtle sound quality is worth it.

So into this expensive, inefficient, but natural-sounding analog amp, you're going to plug a digital music device playing a compressed file format?
:dunce:
There's $1800 out of your $2000 flushed right down the drain.
 
Cheaper, certainly. 'Better' is a matter of opinion.
 
neon_duke
Cheaper, certainly. 'Better' is a matter of opinion.
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Yes better, my Creative Zen sounds better than the same iPod of it's generation. Ok, yes mine is massive (not massive, slightly bigger than the iPod) due to the fact that it has a replaceable battery, but I very much doubt the iPod is the best HDD based player.
 
While shopping around for stereo equipment, a Salesman tried to convince me to buy a pair of last years bottom of the rung B&W speakers (Floor Demo models) for $2500.

What I couldn't fathom was that the top of the line speakers (the Conk shell design)
example_image.jpg
went for over $50,000 for a pair. The Nautilus speakers.

I just can't fathom spending that much money on sound for my living room.

AO
 
Actually, they sound simply amazingly truly beautiful. (I listened to the $2500 pair)

I listened to one of my favorite songs on it, and was amazed. However, that being said, there was no way they sounded $2500 beautiful. Given the same environment, a set of $150 infinity speakers on a $200 HK amp would suit me quite fine.

AO
 
I've done a comparison between high quality sound and what is considered so-so sound. I can't tell the difference so I'm not paying for it.

I can, on the other hand, see the difference in high end TV's (only to a point though) and so there is some worthwhile money there.


40,000 is getting to be too much to spend on a car, let alone an amp.
 
the thing with sound is that you're going to have to spend a lot to get a little after you reach a certain price point.

Personally, I wouldn't spend more than 1k on a full set of speakers. I'd prefer to spend the rest of my money on getting a high quality amp and such in order to get the full sound quality.

On the other hand... i'm looking towards investing in a $300+ set of headphones so I guess my audio priorities are pretty odd.
 

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