I’m just pointing out that the OP is starting from a false premise. If you’ve already decided that it will sound better, then it will.

I thought he was asking what is it about better systems that make them sound better. It is not difficult to find two systems where one is better than the other so what are the sort of differences between them?

At the high end it’s not really about better it’s what gets you closer to what you want so that really is subjective.

How does that prove it’s better?

Its obvious to even the most argumentative fool that some music systems sound substantially better than some others. What people actually want from a music system does vary but bass slam is an easy one to notice in suitable systems.

He listened to some maybe?

It won’t just be the speakers I bet, the room will be engineered to show them off.

Tannoy Kingdom Royals are going to sound impressive to anyone – need a big room though and suitable amplification.

Joe Morello’s Solo From Take Five is a good test of how well a system replicates drums. Need a good bit of slam to make them sound real(ish).

So I have an idea. Instead of selling mixed recordings, artists should sell recordings of the signals from all the microphones in the recording studio (after the pedal boards for the guitars). You then have a device to playback with mulitiple outputs, one for each signal. For the guitar signal you buy the amp head and cab you like, for the voices a PA and select your favourite effects, for the bass a bass combo etc. It would all cost a lot less than many people spend on their HiFi and sound exactly as it would in a studio once you’ve covered the walls with absorbent materials.

I was thinking about this the other day as I was listening to my latest Naim power amp change. I think the problem is that one system is expected to replicate a wide variety of instruments and musical styles. One thing a good system does better than a cheaper one is the soundstage thing and multiple speakers won’t deal with that unless you position the multiple speakers required as necessary for each recording?!

Bigger power supplies with more separate power rails is one thing.

I have nothing to hide but I don’t want anyone to find out my income details, what’s the point? We need to trust our MPs, so maybe there’s a point there, but for the rest of us? Tax inspectors are there to ensure we are declaring what we should.

What are we expecting to see on returns that’s of any use to finding out dodgy people? We can do something tax inspectors can’t?

Urine used to be sterile but not these days.

Try getting a pee in to liven things up.

😉
Castelli is my high end brand of choice. Found a nice soft shell in Aldi though.

I tell my 5 yr old son to pee in the shower as he usually seems to want to go at that point. Next job is showing him how to shave so got a few years.

The only useful thing about cash ISAs is that you can keep them year on year so the tax free bit keeps going. If this isn’t needed then just use a normal a/c, such as Santander 123, and keep the interest tax free.

As a society we need to make people feel these things aren’t acceptable – hopefully without getting punched. It does seem the norm for smokers is to drop fag ends after use, and gum gets spat out. To many litter isn’t their responsibility so they don’t feel bad about dropping it and must be challenged!

Reheated rice

I turned off the reminders, happy now.

I work in consultancy and my last employer would have the odd evening meeting as impossible to get everyone otherwise. They provided beer and snacks, I was happy enough to go.

Are you getting beer?

I just can’t bring myself to look into pensions, they’re just soulless.

It’s the same as any investment to me – hence my preference to shove anything into my SIPP when I get the chance – such as when moving jobs. I studied investment from 16 and was interested but mostly decided not interested in equities and it’s just about choosing good funds for me.

HL’s Wealth 150 funds are worth looking at but the way that list is put together is a bit suspect – performance isn’t that great overall. Really you just need solid funds – A few of the big ones really, say one for each of the major geographical markets – Europe, UK, US.

Some guidance on past performance here:

http://www.fundexpert.co.uk/best-investment-funds/by-sector.htm

Some SIPPs have fixed fees so definite cost disadvantage in having more than one, far easier to keep in one place anyway.

My SIPP (II) gives me the option to reinvest dividends automatically but I prefer to choose where I invest funds, I’m more proactive than most I’m sure.

I’d question whether unit trusts out perform property long term

Well it depends on time scales and when looking – shares haven’t done well over the last year but property have gone up around 5%. Thing is we know that London and the SE (10%?) have done a lot better than Wales and Scotland (0%?) but the places with the best capital rises often have lower rental yields. Another problem with property is most people would only have 1 or 2 properties so if you need to get at some of the capital you can’t just sell a small part of it – though you could borrow against it with the associated costs.

I like to keep things simple really.

Not sure I could be bothered with managing rental properties plus I think as most of my money is in the house I live in makes sense to have invested money in another type of investment – I choose unit trusts. Easy to get capital out of too and in the longer run outperform property returns anyway. Advantage with property is you can borrow to invest in it so be heavily geared – great in a rising market, potentially disastrous in a downturn.

Worth checking this before committing to HL as it shows the fees associated with various SIPPs:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/sipps/11700655/Do-you-have-money-in-a-Sipp-This-table-shows-you-could-pay-94pc-less.html

Yep – put it all into HL and decide on some unit trusts. But then that’s the trick really! Lots of advice out there.

Assuming all money purchase find a SIPP and shove it all in there and choose a few unit trusts. I like HL for lower value pots and II for larger ones.

In 2015 the cost of buying an annual pension income of £1000 would cost £32453. Now it would need £37070 – an increase of 14% in one year!

The maths on that is interesting.

Does that £1000 increase with inflation and start at 65?

Thing is, if you took that £37070 and stuffed it under a mattress you’d run out after 37 years at £1000/yr. So planning to live to over 100?

Would insurance company pay out on a car with a failed MOT?

Well – if prices are falling or need to move around a lot renting is best.

Often it would be financially more rewarding to invest capital in the stock market and rent. Some years not! This is most relevant to people with a lot of capital, mortgages have been good in the past as can leverage a big investment in property. Easy to double your money but also easy to get wiped out – doesn’t happen much though in recent times just those who bought close to a house price crash.

Suck on it or poor whisky on it – not sure.

Absolute amount isn’t a problem assuming cash flow ok for monthly payments. If house price growth is greater than interest rate then you win.

Don’t really see a downside to it, I do get people wanting to connect to me for no good reason that I can see. A lot of agents, some I reject. As I do projects I tend to connect to people I’ve worked with each time so a useful way of keeping a connection. Had a few good jobs come my way through it – and a lot of ones that show the agent hasn’t read my profile properly.

I have an array of single malts, no idea how many bottles I drink though – ‘not a lot’ really….

I’m adding money to my mortgage in order to put money into a couple of 123 a/cs, will cost me 1% and will get 3% and it’s all tax free 🙂

I suppose some people would be worried about looking mean if drinking tap water – either at a restaurant or just around town? We have a lot of water bottles in my house but my wife still buys little bottles of water to take with her for days out, bit annoying….

Why the downer on bottled water?

There’s also the damage to the environment from delivery – some comes from other countries – crazy really.

Before the 70s we were quite happy with tap water but Perrier got this crazy thing going.

Paying rent is a short term view – you are paying your landlord’s rent and won’t have an asset at the end.

Assuming house prices rise and rent is more than return that could be had by buying other assets such as equities. The reason so many of us have done well out of property ownership is the combination of leverage and price increases.

Do we need to tighten this definition?!

Another tax on the poor?

Do pubs still charge silly money for soft drinks on tap? Forward thinkers?!

Seems to me for most of us one’s car choice is one of the biggest influences on personal wealth. A workmate thinks I spend a silly amount on bikes and related gear but his Audi Q7 depreciates by far more than I spend – plus he spends a grand on tyres/year he tells me.

or just use death tax.

Paid off mortgage in my late 30s, wouldn’t mind moving house but stamp duty says no.

I did well out of buying in London in the late 90s, such a shame that luck(?) on the housing market has so much impact on our wealth.

Could struggle for decent income in coming years as Indians taking over my niche area of IT, could retire as wife works but not sure I can rely on her as she never seems happy with her jobs and changes them too often.