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'Okay, so it's still just sound?'
That thought crossed my mind when I was wiring up my home soundsystem today.
My NAD[1] amplifier arrived in the afternoon. Okay I was technically working-from-home today but I may have spent some of that time splitting my speaker cables and getting my components set up so I could be ready to spin my first records as soon as I'd finished. As it hit 5pm I dropped everything and made a big fuck ol' mess in my room digging through boxes of tools for the right kit (firstly to try and remove the binding station plugs so I could fit some banana plugs, then temporarily giving up on that and going straight for wiring the speaker cables in raw).
I was fully wired up by around 5:30 and tried some initial experiments. Yes, its still *just* sound but it's a hell of an improvement on what I've been using to amplify sounds previously - there's a real richness and fullness to the tunes I've been pouring through the amp and speakers all evening.
So far I'm just at two inputs: a digital input and the phono input from my turntable[2]. What's surprised me to no end is the quality coming out of the digital input. I'm using mopidy and ncmpcpp to stream from spotify (I know I know... streaming.. is bad) and what struck me was running through some songs I listen to regularly from digital sources (either just from desktop computer speakers whilst working, or in the evening, or from my phone headphones when out and about). Hearing some of the songs I often listen to from a digital source for the first time through this *rich* setup really switched me on to how much of a difference this has made - so I am super-happy with the kit. This is, by all means, still a 'budget' system, but for me it's as far as my dollar can stretch and it's damn good for what it is.
Admittedly, I was initially a little less blown away by some of my vinyl than I would have *expected* but I think that says more about my expectations than the kit. I have previously run my turntables through some hefty speakers whilst out DJing, and many of the albums I have on vinyl are really special to me and I've often listened to in a quality setting - most often through headphones.
I had a little zing of excitement when choosing what records to listen to first of all. The first tune I decided to spin was a classic from my mid-to-late teenage years, Turquoise Hexagon Sun by boards of canada, from the album Music has the Right to Children. I've got some really emotive memories first listening to this tune back in the late 90s, most often on my minidisc player walking at night in the suburbs where I grew up. Those disjointed, fading drums and melodic chords are so familiar to me (even though at the time of writing I hadn't listened to this possibly for a couple of years) so it seemed like a good choice to run through the system. Sure enough, the richness and completeness of the track was pouring out of my soundsystem as I'd hoped.
A few other tracks I've been playing this evening from my records:
The Flaming Lips - What is the Light?
Flying Lotus - Parisian Goldfish
J Dilla - Waves
VHS Head - Jealousy
From digital sources, my housemate popped in and we gave a spin to a few tracks:
Pearl Jam - Even Flow
Tomega - Bluest
Yussef Kamaal - Strings of Light
Johnny Greenwood - Amethyst (from the Inherent Vice soundtrack)
Right now, as I'm winding down, I just dug out my LP of Nightmares on Wax - In a Space Outta Sound and I've toured half way through this classic. And... hell yeah... now I'm really hearing it. The choral background ('..who gives a damn about me..') has a glowing thickness against the pulsing strings... fuck yeah this sounds great.
photograph of turntable in motion
Tags: #hifi
