Meine Neues Hi-Fi
Wanted some decent sounding kit for a while. So went out today to look at Media Markt’s selection of Hi-Fi.
Initially thinking that when I’d arrive, all I would get are loads of Sony systems and big oversized speakers with some useless twat trying to sell me it based on the number of lights.
Pleasantly surprised! Not only did they have a large selection of seperates, speakers and cable, they had an audition room too. All wired up with nice interconnects and a sealing (kinda) door to keep the floor noise out.
It’s way different than visiting high end stores like Audio T or the like, but it’s near, next to the tube and they have a good range.
I looked at several amplifiers, including this hilarious massive one that required a huge preamp, on the back said ‘Power consumption: <700W’. Fun times. That was way too expensive, and I eyed up some Onkyo kit in it’s place. They had several AV receivers too that were awesome, but I thought, rather than upgrade the DTS kit I have got, let’s get some nice 2 channel stuff.
So out of the simple amps I got it down to a handful. There was a nice Sony, a Pioneer, then I saw the Onkyo A-9155. great design, the power transformation components inside are huge and nicely seperated, the construction looks good and the ports are good quality with lots of room for huge cable.
Wide selection of speakers, but the prices went out of my range quickly, so narrowed it down to a pair of awesome Monitor Audio BR2 - not floorstanders, so will need stands at some point. They have a great look to them, and when I heard them, great stuff. The bloke insisted on putting on an MP3 CD to listen to… not the best, but I could hear the bass travel nicely, punchy amplification from the Onkyo, so I chose them.
Good hi-fi is nothing without a good input, so I also got a new Creative sound card for my PC. It was running on onboard sound previously, so I thought time for an upgrade. Tying it in also with my half-arsed attempts at recording some guitar and keys - got the Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty, with drive bay controls and headphone jacks. Loads of inputs, outputs, DSP, great clear analogue signals, plenty of voltage regulation on the board to take out noise and it GLOWS WHITE in your PC. So yeh, I admit I paid more for the ‘gaming wvr’ edition but whatever I wanted it, it’s a great board with useful good quality features. Plus it glows. And there are lights. Volume control in the drive bay is a nice touch.
Hope to order some sort of CD player from eBay at some point tho. Maybe SACD or a DVD player with nice analogue outputs and play some Eagles live 5.1 DTS through it.
Initial results, I am nothing short of impressed, can’t wait until tomorrow when it’s the day time, and I can turn it up a bit without annoying the neighbours.
Pictures on Flickr soon. Drink Whisky irresponsibly.
3 years ago