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What sound system do you have on boat?


Rambling Boater

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19 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is anyone really saying they are listening to Hifi in to confines of a Narrowboat. I will say I am with Jen and I cant sing or whistle in tune ether.

Depends what you mean by hi fi. As above, I have managed to arrange things so that I get a proper stereo sound, with a soundstage and imaging, and where the speakers actually “disappear”, (sonically, not visibly, of course).

 

I haven’t managed to get the depth that is available but, as I said, I think that is because it’s not possible to get the speakers far enough from the walls.... I’m working on it.

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1 hour ago, Richard10002 said:

Depends what you mean by hi fi. As above, I have managed to arrange things so that I get a proper stereo sound, with a soundstage and imaging, and where the speakers actually “disappear”, (sonically, not visibly, of course).

 

I haven’t managed to get the depth that is available but, as I said, I think that is because it’s not possible to get the speakers far enough from the walls.... I’m working on it.

 

Saving up for a widebeam Richard?

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4 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

There you are, then. Music blasting out over your (and somebody else's) garden is definitely public. Spotify isn't noted for its fair treatment of performers and composers, though.

 

And exploited the musicians at the same time.

Not sure how I was exploiting the musicians.

I had no objections to buying the original CD's

I had no objections to paying PRS fees to be allowed to play the music in public (until the fees went from around £1500 to almost half a million)

I did object to being charged thousands each year for the convenience of using copies of the original cd's we had already purchased in mp3 format (MCPS)

 

Had it been permitted (even at a higher price than spotify premium) the only cost that would have been eliminated would have been the MCPS costs.
instead of purchasing new cd's we would have been paying for spotify, and in a way it may have helped some artists since there would be an accurate record of what we were playing rather than the usual "current top 3 manufactured boy/girl bands" being assumed to get the majority of our plays

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I had a cheapo car stereo, but I used a pair of Wharfdale speakers, small but perfectly formed, and the sound was as good as I wanted it to be. Friends used to spend long thousands on stereo equipment, I didn't.

Fair enough I have a 30% or more loss of hearing through attending live bands and when on the radio as a DJ I wore headphones a lot of the time, so quality is a matter of what suits me and my damaged hearing.

Providing I like the music (and I like most music - not modern jazz, yeuch) then I'm happy, which is more than I can say for the people who have to listen to me singing along!

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On 10/03/2021 at 16:44, Machpoint005 said:

 

 

I very rarely hear anything said about the acoustics of the space into which the music is played. I would suggest that is probably the most important factor in the sound you hear.

 

 

But the sound response of your ears is the biggest factor. Many years ago I thought about writing an app to calibrate our hearing response to sound so that you could set a graphic equaliser to compensate for the gaps. 

 

Sadly, it remained just a thought!

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10 hours ago, Rambling Boater said:

 

But the sound response of your ears is the biggest factor. Many years ago I thought about writing an app to calibrate our hearing response to sound so that you could set a graphic equaliser to compensate for the gaps. 

 

Sadly, it remained just a thought!

Interesting obit of the creator of tape cassettes and CDs in the Guardian yesterday. It seems he did not have much time for those who thought that tape and vinyl were 'a good thing'. But he was proud of his products as being ground breaking in their time.

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10 hours ago, Rambling Boater said:

 

But the sound response of your ears is the biggest factor. Many years ago I thought about writing an app to calibrate our hearing response to sound so that you could set a graphic equaliser to compensate for the gaps. 

 

Sadly, it remained just a thought!

I think the glass ware may break before I hear some of the notes

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I watched a film last week where one character had a 1970's car in which - she said - the cassette player had "got stuck one track" so it always played that track, starting from the beginning, as soon as she switched on the ignition. I thought to myself, I guess nobody in the film studio was around in the 70s.

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6 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

I watched a film last week where one character had a 1970's car in which - she said - the cassette player had "got stuck one track" so it always played that track, starting from the beginning, as soon as she switched on the ignition. I thought to myself, I guess nobody in the film studio was around in the 70s.

Pratchett reckoned any CD left in a car glove compartment turned into a Queen album.  All mine turn into Leonard Cohen.

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47 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

I watched a film last week where one character had a 1970's car in which - she said - the cassette player had "got stuck one track" so it always played that track, starting from the beginning, as soon as she switched on the ignition. I thought to myself, I guess nobody in the film studio was around in the 70s.

Why? I'm sure I remember cassette players in cars in the '70s. I remember them getting stuck too - always carry a biro pen in the car!

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11 minutes ago, Athy said:

Why? I'm sure I remember cassette players in cars in the '70s. I remember them getting stuck too - always carry a biro pen in the car!

 

Stuck, maybe.  I've never seen a cassette tape that skips back to start of the track without being rewound though.

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I've got a mains CD and a minidisc player connected to a reasonable amplifier and a pair of Monitor Audio Gold speakers that I use while on shore power. When I'm away the I've got a 35w/channel car stereo/MD player connected to the two speakers in the middle. I've got hundreds of minidiscs. It's 90s technology but they're still good.

 

The thing on the top is a bluetooth speaker which is good for when I'm doing jobs outside or just sitting outside on a nice day. I don't know whats happened with speaker technology in the past few years but these things have unbelievable power and sound quality for small portable units.

 

 

IMG_20210313_114458.jpg

Edited by blackrose
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4 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Stuck, maybe.  I've never seen a cassette tape that skips back to start of the track without being rewound though.

I see what you mean. The terminology used in the film was inaccurate.

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1 hour ago, Keeping Up said:

I watched a film last week where one character had a 1970's car in which - she said - the cassette player had "got stuck one track" so it always played that track, starting from the beginning, as soon as she switched on the ignition. I thought to myself, I guess nobody in the film studio was around in the 70s.

Would that have been an 8 track cassette? 

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

I see what you mean. The terminology used in the film was inaccurate.

It wasn't just terminology, the film made a big issue about the fact that this track was always playing at full volume whenever she was driving (the volume knob was missing), and it played on the soundtrack every time.

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Would that have been an 8 track cassette? 

 

But if that got stuck it would keep playing the same quarter of an album.

 

I had one of these infernal things in my first car and they were always slowing down before finally jamming up. The tape was lubricated with graphite on one side and slipped against itself in a spiral, at least it did when it was working properly.

 

Once when I took one apart to fix it, I put the tape in upside down. It sounded very different to anything I have ever heard as it played backwards! ?

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1 hour ago, cuthound said:

Once when I took one apart to fix it, I put the tape in upside down. It sounded very different to anything I have ever heard as it played backwards! ?

 

let's hope it wasn't Judas Priest or you'd have thrown a seven according to the US courts :) 

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On 12/03/2021 at 15:22, Jess-- said:

>>Not sure how I was exploiting the musicians.<<

 

Don't take it personally - it was not intended that way. Spotify was, and continues to do so. 

 

 

16 hours ago, Rambling Boater said:

 

But the sound response of your ears is the biggest factor. Many years ago I thought about writing an app to calibrate our hearing response to sound so that you could set a graphic equaliser to compensate for the gaps. 

 

Sadly, it remained just a thought!

 

The sound response (I presume you mean frequency response) of your ears is the same regardless of what you are putting into them.

 

If you boost a frequency where you have a noticeable hearing loss, that loss is likely to get steadily worse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Machpoint005
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1 hour ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

The sound response (I presume you mean frequency response) of your ears is the same regardless of what you are putting into them.

 

If you boost a frequency where you have a noticeable hearing loss, that loss is likely to get steadily worse.

 

To listen to speech in the car or on the TV now, I've been turning the treble up to compensate for my loss of upper frequency response (which is considerable). If what you say is correct, I shouldn't be able to hear any better, but I do think that I can hear the difference. I do have to lower the bass, too.

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1 hour ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

 

If you boost a frequency where you have a noticeable hearing loss, that loss is likely to get steadily worse.

 

That's not true, if it was, then graphic equalisers would be frowned upon. It's also how hearing aids work. (i.e boosting certain frequencies, especially high). 

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20 minutes ago, Rambling Boater said:

That's not true, if it was, then graphic equalisers would be frowned upon. It's also how hearing aids work. (i.e boosting certain frequencies, especially high). 

It could be true if you're listening at levels.which are so high that they're close to the damage thresholds -- which of course you shouldn't be doing. Most hearing loss is either due to damage from occupational noise (less common nowadays), stupidly loud music at venues standing in front of the speakers, or just plain old age. Using equalisation to compensate for hearing loss is extremely unlikely to cause further damage for most people.

Edited by IanD
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