o/t Suround Sound, Marantz amp, Mordaunt Short speakers

[Tim Reid]

Does anyone have an interested in a great suround sound set-up? The wip in my house has been cracked by SWMBO and so a new living room layout is required.

 

Marantz SR4200 AV Surround Receiverwhich produces all great quality sound that you expect from a £400 unit. What HiFi and other awards.

5.1, DTS, Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Pro Logic II

Enough inputs and outputs to cater for even the most complex set-up. including Optical and Coaxial digital audio.

70 Watts per channel

Very high quility unit which you can tell from just trying to lift it... it must be about 15kg!

Remote and manual included.

 

Mordaunt Short Avant 902i speakers x4 (2 pairs) in black, a perfect balance of size and presence. These are wonderfully accurate speakers. What HiFi and other awards.

Biwirable

Includes issolation feet and gold banna plugs.

 

Mordaunt Short MS304 center speaker, wood colour. This is a more compact model than what is often used with the above speakers because I didn't want a large center speaker, it works really well and I could not tell the difference to the larger centers in the demo room.

Includes issolation feet and gold banna plugs.

 

 Cost me about £800... what are they worth today??? £200?

 

Location: nr Reading, Berkshire.

 

[blue ass fly]

Hi tim

Dont want to depress you but ive just bought my lad 2x902 and a 304 in beech for £35.00

Used av is awkward to price , most people wouldnt know a decent system if it fell on them so go and buy a sound bar or an asda surround for £49

Try it on ebay and put a reserve on them

Ide also sell them seperately , 2 pairs of 902's a 304 and the receiver

[Onliest Smeg David]

I agree Mr Fly,

people generally do not comprehend proper hi-fi until forced to close there eyes and listen

And it's worse for AV with all the packages offered through retail park stores!

 

You could try dedicated sites such as http://www.hifi-forsale.co.uk/  

but I think they may be aimed more at higher end equipment.

 

My advice - don't give in to the whip, unless you can bargain with SWMBO to purchase better AV to fit in with the new layout!

 

* when looking at purchasing our house, I only had two absolutes (lounge suitable for my hi-fi & a garage for Westie) the rest I gave way to her preferences.

[Tim Reid]

Cheers for the replies. I had feared this would be the case 

 

My balance point is that we plan to get a Sonos Playbar and Sub which althought not the best sound for the money the streaming service is excellent and I have already started to Sonos my house.

Also I am aiming for a garage re-build project to double it's size so I need to earn some points

[Stuart]

Squeezeboxed our house a couple of years ago and best thing I ever did for our music.  Every scrap of music we've bought, begged, borrowed or stolen accessible all over the house in lossless quality.  Will doubtless have to switch to Sonos if/when the Squeezeboxes die as this superb stuff has sadly been discontinued by Logitech.

 

Also recently flogged a Pioneer PL12D turntable on eBay and noticed that once popular decks like this go for more money than significantly better but less known decks (I also have a Dual CS505 which is at least 2x as good as the Pioneer - and they were going for next to nothing).  As Mr. Smeg said, in this portable digital age people aren't as hifi savvy as they used to be.    

[blue ass fly]

Yup

I had a mint cs505 with all original packaging,including the little case with a spare stylus

Got just under £50 for it - gutted

They were the best budget tt for years

Recently sold my nad separates - nearly 2k new for less than £400 - double gutted

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Trouble is, and it's hard to put diplomatically, although not cheap, NAD, Dual etc is essentially budget Hi Fi, and it's second hand prices reflect that.

 

I'm afraid the buoyant second hand prices generally don't kick in till you're dealing with brands that are perceived as more premium products, or niche manufacturers/products that have more of a cult following.

 

The funny thing is though, even within the premium brands there are still products that just defy all logic as far as their second hand value goes. (it's sometime hard to see why, too.) But none the less, they have rock solid values despite newer/better stuff coming along and being available on the second hand market for less.

[Onliest Smeg David]

Exactly what I was trying to infer Dave, ref higher end equipment.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

To give an idea of the other end of the spectrum, (and I'm aware, they aren't even what some aficionado's would consider true high end). When I first built my Westfield, I had a good clear out of the junk that had piled up over the years.

 

Cutting a long story short, I had some bodies of old Linn Moving Coil cartridges, (no pick ups/cantilevers, just the alloy bodies), a couple of Troika's and a Karma. So none were usable without rebuilds. The Troiks'a went for three to four hundred each! They only cost around £750 brand new, many years before. They'd been rattling round in a drawer for years!

[blue ass fly]

I know what you mean dave,most of us can only ever dream of anything other than budget stuff

You can spend four figures on headphones

I got a pioneer av receiver out of it so ime reasonably satisfied

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

My first ever record deck was a Dual; cracking piece of kit.

 

But that very sentence is what condemns it, "my first". I wouldn't want my first car again either, though I loved it at the time!

 

The thing to remember, or console yourself with, is that at least it does have value! Unlike the soul destroying mass produced clag that did little else but destroy peoples natural, in-born enjoyment of music, which is as worthless as the sound it emits.

[blue ass fly]

Nice to know ime not alone

Sometimes i think ime the only one who hears the difference

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

The differences are easily demonstrable to the vast majority. Whether any importance is attached to the difference, is a different thing entirely!

 

Those that "can't hear the difference" most strongly usually just have some other agenda at work, even if their not conscious of it. Sometimes it's as simple as never having really heard music properly. ie on a system good enough to allow the piece to provoke the appropriate emotional response in the listener. Those were always great cases to deal with, as it was like watching an awakening as it just clicked.

[Norman Verona]

I've set my 20 year old system up correctly with the two speaker making a perfect triangle with the couch. If I play orchestral music I can hear where every instrument is located. Playing jazz is the same. Joni Mitchel is even better.

 

One of the best albums to listen to for stereo sound is Carly Simons, the one where she whispers "son of a gun" on the opening. It can only be heard on good kit. Then again is the Stereo checkout Album with the chap who used to do the breakfast show and got the time wrong, can't think of his name with digging the record out.

 

Seeing as I've got your attention (you haven't fallen asleep again, have you), I have an old amp which produces a rich sound from vinyl and a Arcam amp which is better with CD's. I want to play both through one set of speakers. I need a switch to switch one set of speaker wires to two different amps. Any ideas. (I tried a speaker switch wired up back to frong but it didn't work, one side was just about audible)

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

None of my 'proper' stuff is less than twenty years old; some older. Much of it is either second hand or remaindered discontinued ReVox stuff: linear tracking LP deck, semi-pro open reel tape, FM tuner. Only the amp is not ReVox and that's an old Technics model. I recently repaired the rolled edges on the AR18 speakers because they suit my aged ears. Bought new or when current would have needed a mortgage. Still pulls reasonable money on Fleabay if you can find someone who knows about the history.