like – steve malkmus and the jicks
dislike – northern uproar

Yes, unvented hot water cylinder is what we are after.

Think I’ll stick to simple studio monitors!

Now that’s good thinking. If you really want an upgrade, a modest amount of acoustic treatment will do far more. The picture joolsburger posted sums it up….a fortune on hifi and supports with make no difference and no room treatment. How did the dealer allow that to happen?

It means that some British hifi manufactures make/made hifi gear with a very bright tonal balance which emphasises the transients. They ‘educated’ their customer base that timing was everything and everything else was ‘boring’.

They combined it with clearly laid out upgrade paths and clever marketing, so if you thought your hifi was bright, you might need another power supply/power amp/go active/better CD player to give it that final tweak.

Basically, sell a flawed product, but market it well and make a killing on the upgrades ;-)

It was said that salesmen of Naim and Linn kit (as the main proponents of the “flat earth” sound) would seek to accentuate the famed rhythm and timing of the kit by sitting next to you tapping their foot as you listened.

Bloody hell..that’s spooky…posted at the same time!

Surely you just take a selection of your favourite CDs? – and if they sound better on the new system then Bobs ‘ya mothers brother!

I agree, take some music your currently enjoying, and turn it up loud. If you have to ‘try’ to hear if you like it, don’t buy it.

Dealers make subtle comments and tap their feet more vigorously when demoing the more expensive options and if your not careful, you can convince yourself the differences are greater then they are. This is especially true for the brands which try to put you on the upgrade ladder. If you can’t hear much of a difference, then there ain’t much of a difference.

It’s also important to try some less well recorded material, it’s no good having a Hi-Fi which only sounds good with well produced material. This is especially true for the brands which have a brightish tonal balance ;-)

Good luck!

G12 or S95 or LX5.

I’m eating the Sainsburys organic ones…no husk problems, but I do cook them for 5-10mins on the hob. Are you microwaving?

Love the guitar build pic’s. This is turning into an awesome thread it’s it’s only a couple of hours old ;-)

I need to buy something…..NOW!

wife’s life a lot harder looking after the kids on her own during the week

That’s a key point…it’s hard for the Mrs if you have kids.

You sure?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shinkansen-Water-Sharpener-Black-Red/dp/B0000A33LJ

I love it. It’s made the bond w/mrs and family stronger, we love time together at weekends and it works well for both of us. I’d Second Mr Mingues’s suggestion of getting into a house, so you can have a bike / hobbies midweek (hotel’s descend into drinking / eating hell after more than a few weeks).

When I was at home, I found very little quality time together midweek, it’s much better at the moment. Job wise, it’s much better, as you have freedom to work where you like…this has a big effect on your relationship w/your employer.

Can’t recommend it highly enough.

Office 2007 does this as well, but I think it’s an option you have to install.

I think roller sharpener is another name for the water sharpener.

I must admit, it’s not something I know much about, but all the ones I’ve heard don’t offer much in the way of a sustained bass sound, they only seem to generate the attack of the note, with nothing behind.

How much is not too pricey?

this interests anybody I’ll get the photos.

….anything guitar related interests me…get the photos :-)

MrN…I’ve been fancying a Gretsch too…never played one, but they look awesome, and I fancy something fun.

Nice playing GH….wish my fingers would move like that ;-)

What are we doing about blues for CG? We need to get something moving!

That 62 strat looks lovely….did you buy it or was it handed down through the family?

How do you find the EJ strat? I tried a few on one I liked, and two (one of which I owned) I could not get on with (looked good though!)

Love the two SG’s too, sweet!

Yes, compression is usually applied when mixing (I’m talking about audio compression, which reduces the level of the volume peaks, not data compression like converting to mp3). Myspace does tend to mangle quality though (dunno if it’s got better recently?).

Bottom line, sounds like she has real talent, and deserves some time in a quality studio.

Great voice, really like the songs. Too much compression on the guitar and vocal (IMHO), but if it was recorded better it would be great by any standard. A+++.

We bought the 200mps Ebuyer own brand ones….fantastic, not a single problem since. I could never get Windows wireless to work reliably on my desktop machines, despite trying several different adapters and routers, fresh installs blah blah…. It would work for a couple of months, then for no reason stop. Since using the powerline adapters, no problems. Cost c.£100…probably best money I have spent for a long while.

There is an existing tarmac drive, so drainage should not be a problem.

I’ve had a 2.5T Tit X estate for a couple of years now…I love it. Cheap as chips to buy nearly new and good fun to drive. As mentioned, computer does not like low temperatures, but otherwise it’s been good.

Lewins have gone down the pan, no longer buy their shirts

I bought 5 Lewin shirts before Christmas…they are almost unusable. Even after ironing they look like rags. Never again.

I used a 3 dongle a few years ago, and it was totally pants, pretty much unusable. I recently bought another 3 dongle, which also has a wireless transmitter (so it does not have to have a wired connection to you PC) and it’s been amazing. It never drops out, you can share the connection with others, and because it’s not wired, you can position it near a window.

Really good for ipads to, because you can buy the cheap non-3G versions, and connect to the wireless dongle.

Thanks TJ, looks like we might be OK.

I bought a Maverick buggy / truck crossover from Modelsport for my (nearly) 5 year old, really impressed w/build quality. I liked the look of the Traxxas cars, as they are OK for use in the snow and they have a speed limiter for beginners (or children). They are c.£180 though.

Thought Goldie was pretty funny on CDWM?

TBH, I think it’s throwing good money after bad….

The average cost per prisoner place in 2008-2009 was £31,106

I would have thought that a heavy fine would have been a lot more appropriate. When you add up the cost of prosecuting him, plus cost of keeping him in prison, does it really serve the public to waste more money on this?

Yup, sounds like frost protection to me too.

Personally I hold a strong view that cheap 5.1 systems are a total waste of time, I have never heard one that didn’t sound anything other than a toy. There is no feeling of being ‘surrounded’, you typically have one of the rear speakers so close to your ear that occasionally during a film there is a noise, and you think ‘what was that?….oh yeah…. surround sound’

Next time you go to a cinema, listen out for how much surround sound information there is in a typical film…..not much IMHO. A decent pair of active 2 ch. speakers will sound so much better and provide a much greater sense of space than any surround sound system. It will also provide realistic bass, which does not sound totally disconnected to the rest of the audio. You can also avoid descending into remote control switching hell, just drive the active speakers from the headphone jack and no additional boxes or remotes.

Unless you have a big budget, and a big room to get the rear speakers a decent distance from the viewers, I would not bother…they are toys.

Can’t see the problem, you don’t sleep now, you won’t sleep with a baby, it will be easier to adjust than for most?

How about this for an action plan…..

1. S-M Return to forum.

2. We are all a bit nicer to each other.

+1 for Transcends.

+1 for Slings. For our first born we had an expensive travel system. We have just had our 3rd, and we bought the cheapest, lightest buggy we could get. IMHO the fancy stuff is just a pain in the ass, it’s too heavy too big in town an too expensive to leave hanging around.

Our 4 year old loves Mario Kart an unhealthy amount…last week he repeatedly beat me for the first time ;-(. Think the Karting abilities have come at the expense of reading, writing and talking ability though.

+1 for Rayman Rabbids, good family fun

I’m sure someone sent me a link to enable an Andriod phone work with iTunes. If you want to carry on using iTunes a goggle search should throw it up. Personally I use Media Monkey as I rip FLAC for using on the stereo and convert to .mp3 for the phone, it’s a bug ridden piece of tat, but there are some nice features.

Come back S-M, we need you! :-)