Haiee-Faiee.
I am a man of very little ambition and even less achievement. I am also an inveterate miser, and so my pitiful earnings tend to form a nice pile of savings in short order. Mostly this has been heading towards a deposit for a place of my own, but I have made an indulgence.

I am fairly passionate about music, and I have always appreciated great sound reproduction and have fussy ears that are irked by crappy equipment. I know my stuff, and I've counselled wealthier friends to audio nirvana, and then sat listening to their amazing systems in a slightly confused state of happiness and raw envy.

Having lived in South Africa for most of my life and having pitiful African currency mocking my dreams of hearing my carefully assembled CD collection in all its glory, I moved to Australia and every day on the way back to my room in a sharehouse, I'd pass the local high-end audio shop. Torture.

This year, after about 20 years of unconsummated lust and saving, I sprung for it.

I got myself a Squeezebox Touch, a NAD T747 receiver and Hsu Research Ultra speakers and subwoofer setup, with all centre channel speakers at the front. I ordered the speakers from the manufacturer in America, who consulted with me about my selection and rotated the speaker horns to suit my setup. No PayPal or anything like that, so I went to the bank one Saturday afternoon and organised a transfer.

The day the speakers arrived, my landlord (who signed the papers) texted me to ask if I was mad. There was an absolute mountain of boxes in my hallway, including 40kgs of subwoofer in a box the size of a small fridge. Unpacking them before my girlfriend got home was a kind of kid-at-Christmas moment. Just figuring out how to get something as heavy as a 15" sub out of the box was a challenge (luckily there were instructions). I'd clipped and terminated wiring in advance, so plugging in was a formality.

Am I happy with it? Oh, fuck me, yes. There's a special thrill in owning equipment that you can't even remotely strain without doing your ears in. And this stuff isn't just loud, it's detailed, revealing so much that I'm hearing new things in tracks I've heard hundreds of times on decent headphones and movies on Blu-ray sound much, much better than the cinema. When I sit in the sweetspot, my favourite artists are right in the room with me. And games? So, so good.

Don't settle for iPods.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Sat 30 Jul 2011, 3:55, 10 replies)

Well done. Your absolute enjoyment just emanates with this story.

(boozehound is drinking your bar dry, Sat 30 Jul 2011, 12:41, closed)

This doesn't sound like wallowing or overly ostentatious.
It sounds like something well and duly earnt!
(Smysha Tra la la!, Sat 30 Jul 2011, 15:37, closed)

Sounds like a massive waste of money, to me,
thus fitting the bill for this week.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Sat 30 Jul 2011, 19:42, closed)

I definitely find it hard to reconcile my miserliness with how much it all cost.
But the sound. THE SOUND.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Sun 31 Jul 2011, 5:46, closed)

Oh, it cost...
About AU$4,000.
(Ladyfingers is in your wardrobe,, Sun 31 Jul 2011, 5:49, closed)

So I'm guessing it'll be shared-house for a little while longer then?

(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Sun 31 Jul 2011, 23:03, closed)

Does it have a wipe-clean surface?

( flake has nothing against your right leg, Sun 31 Jul 2011, 21:43, closed)

CD?
Vinyl for the true audiophile Shirley?
(ParaSitius is an Optimistic Pessimist, Mon 1 Aug 2011, 14:11, closed)

the true audiophile
who likes listening to music on a medium that cannot carry all that much information or frequencies.

Back to the OP - it's not a hugely indulgent system, but I bet it sounds good. I have Tannoy Eyrises all round, and a Yamaha 1700 receiver, and going back to listening to sounds out of the telly makes me ill. But I do listen to mp3s from my iPod through the system, which seems like a waste sometimes..
(trevorthecat, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 17:51, closed)

Yes

(Cancer Joy was short lived, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 4:33, closed)