Hi chums, my upstairs stereo (3-disc CD drawer, double cassette, radio), bought from the Co-op circa 1905, is getting rather creaky now, and I need something to replace it. These are my demands:
1. Ability to play CDs and if possible cassettes too. My old stereo is now struggling with CDRs, so it either needs to be able to play those with no problems, or failing that maybe an SD slot or USB port would be kinda groovy, then I could could rip and chuck all the CDRs. Not bothered about radio, bluetooth or any kind of streaming capability.
2. Small size. It’ll be sitting on the landing just outside the bathroom, so needs to be fairly compact.
3. Sub £200 price. As sub as possible please.
4. Available via mail order. I live in the sticks.
5. It mustn’t sound shit or fall to pieces.
6. The moon on a stick, please!
Thanks in advance xx
Here’s a suitable song. When I was little I thought it was called “Hi, Penelope!”
Should have recorded it on a Maxell tape.
Ohh, ohhh, me ears are alight etc
Or Memorex.
“Is it live, or is Bela Lugosi dead”
Your optimism is adorable… whenever these things cone up it becomes apparent that most Afterworders regard £200 as a bargain price for a pair of earbuds.
I picked up a Sony one for about £100 about 18 months ago, based on the brand. Not too impressed with it, to be honest, as the speakers are far too small, and have fairly short cables.
This was the kind of thing I was considering (no cassette deck tho): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DTTMFP2/ref=psdc_560876_t1_B00TTYOG2Q
Does anyone still make cassette players ? That’s an eBay adventure. For something new I’d suggest a trip to Curry’s to check out the Sony, Panasonic and Phillips gear. I don’t have recent experience to offer though…I have a preference for Panasonic, and I have been let down by Sony before.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_keywords_4?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A560798%2Cn%3A%21560800%2Cn%3A4085821%2Cn%3A560876%2Cp_36%3A138896031%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A1060092031&bbn=560876&ie=UTF8&qid=1494582659&rnid=1059975031
Do you need speakers as well? In mini systems, the answer is nearly always Denon and Richer Sounds (who do mail order).
No, my old ones will probably do. Cheers.
This then -> https://www.richersounds.com/product/mini-hi-fi/denon/dm40-dab/deno-dm40-blk
or if you don’t like black -> https://www.richersounds.com/product/mini-hi-fi/denon/dm40-dab/deno-dm40-sil
Good luck with the tape deck mind.
Cheers! It would be the silver for me – shiny shiny!
I got this from Richer Sounds last year and would recommend. They sometimes bundle in speakers too.
Excellent. Do you use the USB port much?
Yep, you can plug an i-pod in then control it with the remote.
Cool! Thanks.
Is the right answer. I’m listening to mine right now – the new “Songs from the wood” box, whilst “working”. I use the USB for the iPod. Get an old Walkman for cassette duties. I’ve got one you’re welcome to if you need one.
You still got this @Twang ? Want to sell it?
Yes still got it. You’re very welcome to it – I don’t want anything for it. It’s not a Sony though, it’s an Aiwa HS T220A (I had a look…) Like this…
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/aiwa/hs-t220.shtml
Ooh, 1989, it’ll match the age of lots of my tapes. I’d like to give you something for it though, as well as postage costs. Will DM you. Thanks!
Yamaha and Teac do similar units, but Denon got there first and, looking at Richer, cost
moreedit: less.I’d be tempted to call them for this deal (if you exisitng speakers are very old these would probably sound much better). You may get it in your budget (or near enough).
https://www.richersounds.com/package/system-savers/mini-hi-fi-system-deals/pah012825
Why don’t they display the price on the site?
The theory is that its so good, the manufacturers (or other retailers) will complain. Might be true, might be marketing.
Thanks. I bet it’s marketing, to get you captive on the phone.
Richer Sounds are pretty good and they may get a deal from the manufacturers that they are not allowed to advertise. Speakers are on sale at £59 so any price below £228 would be good. I would expect at least £10 to £15 off.
Just called them, they want £248.
I go the price wrong (posting whilst on a work call!). That’s a £10 saving only as the speakers are on sale at £79 not £59. Sorry…..
Worth looking at though, so thanks. Now get back to work.
I have a Denon that I bought about fifteen years ago. Still sounds amazing.
Good to know, thank you.
Us too. The only thing is the volume knob gave up a while back, if used the volume goes to max. It works fine off the remote though. I seem to remember someone else here saying it was a common fault on older units. They should have fixed it by now.
Yes, I have a DM30 which did that. Still works as a CD player, though.
I just Googled it as I’m in the warehouse, not at home and ours is a DM30. All functions still work fine, just don’t touch the volume knob, use the remote! It lives under the TV and only gets used for TV audio these days.
I used to have that, or rather the three CD version. It was the CD shuffling mechanism which failed predictably enough, but I remember problems with the volume control too.
Noted. Thanks guys.
Something like the Denon DM40 DAB (£169 at Richer Sounds). Pair it with speakers like Wharfedale Diamond 9 (£59) or my preferred JBL Control 1 (which have shot up to £99). I have several of these around the house. The unit is the size of a shoe box and sounds great, within the limits of the 30W/ch amplifier.
No cassette deck but I have an nearly new old stock Sony deck (full-size model, though) I’m about to put on eBay. It was my wife’s when we were courting, bought to copy CDs to tape for her car. Used it a few times, then someone broke into her car and nicked the stereo, and she got an in-dash CD player with the insurance money. Saying that, I’d best check it still works first.
Thanks, the Denon is looking best at the moment, certainly. My old speakers are fine but a bit tatty, so at £59 those Wharfdale ones are tempting. I can probably live without cassette – I have a little portable bought off ebay for shits n giggles.
You have several around the house? Do you live in a castle?
I don’t live in a castle but I do have them in my “home office”, both kids’ bedrooms, the spare room (which houses the drum kit) – the lad plays along to it, and one which should go in the ktchen but was ousted by a Pure DAB radio – and now I fancy one of those Naim things I coerced Bri into buying. They’re all connected to JBL Control 1 speakers which were designed as studio nearfield monitors in the 1970s and were available for years (when they were unfashionable) from Richer for 40 or 50 quid a pair.
When I used to work in town, Richer was next door to the sandwich shop, so I would pick them up cheap in the sales on the lunchtime sarnie run.
Do they sell the cables separately?
Edit: I just read review where someone mentioned “banana cables” and I felt a bit faint. I think I’m in over my head.
Hi @fentonsteve, sorry to be so demanding, but if I get the Denon/Wharfdale combo what kind of connectors would be required, and how many? It looks like the bare wire option isn’t, erm, an option. Also, cheapish speaker wire will do, won’t it? Sorry for being a dumbass. Ta gorgeous xx
I would have thought you’d be used to things going “over your head”, Ms B?😉
(Unkind shortarse joke)
Oho! Why do you think I need a compact system? So I can reach the top! (I’ll still need the stepladder to get in the bath, though.)
No problem. I recommend “Banana” plugs as they don’t fall out or cause short circuits. Bare wires have a nasty habit of strands going awry, shorting to the other terminal and blowing up amplifier outputs.
Richer Sounds sell speaker cable by the metre, their cheapest is the Symphony 100 at £1.19/m. Banana plugs should cost in the region of 50p each. They are best soldered to the cable ends, Richer should be able to do this for you – give them a ring. Screw-terminal banana plugs are available but cost more and are worse (as the screws always come undone over time).
If you buy some cable and banana plugs elsewhere, be sure to get 4mm size plugs. You will need 8 in total, 4 red + 4 black. The amp has two terminals – one positive (red) and one negative (black) per channel. Each speaker has one red terminal and one black one. Plugs are easy to solder to the cable if you can source a friend with an iron and some solder.
Alternatively, buy a pre-made set such as these (which are currently out of stock):
http://cpc.farnell.com/unbranded/av21859/speaker-lead-2x-banana-0-8mm2/dp/AV21859?ost=av21859&anyFilterApplied=false&searchView=table&iscrfnonsku=false&ddkey=http%3Aen-CPC%2FCPC_United_Kingdom%2Fsearch
Thanks Steve!
Top tip – Wilco electric cable – get 2 core solid copper. Cost rock all and perform brilliantly.
Still needs banana plugs soldering on, though…
Ideally. You can get screw on ones, but the solid copper goes nicely through the hole in the post.
I’m not entirely convinced the posts on either amp or speakers have holes for bare wires. I did try to find out. Banana plugs make better connections, anyway.
Banana connector,
I’m gonna give it to you,
Ain’t no pretender, gonna ride in my canoe…
…yes, I’m in a silly mood.
How do we tell the difference?
As usual, I can’t help you there.
As I understand it, banana plugs are preferable, as they’re more strong and stable…..
Only straight banana plugs, though. Not those nasty foreign bent bananas
Just don’t eat them.
No problem. If Richer can’t help, have an eBay or Amazon search for “speaker cable terminated”, plenty of 2m pairs for 10-15 quid. You don’t need fancy thick cable for a 30W amp.
If you’re not sure, just ask.
The pre-made set you linked to above are available from the middle of next week and are a good price. I can’t tell from the photo and description if I’ll need to order one or two sets though?
It’s not obvious, is it? Looking again, I suspect that’s only one channel’s worth.
CPC can be funny about postage on small-value orders, if you have any grief PM me and I could order on my account (which has free postage).
Thank you (again!), especially for speaking slowly and patiently to someone used to buying idiot-proof all-in-one equipment. Looks like free postage on orders over £5, so should be okay with two sets.
When I’ve hummed and ha’d for a bit longer I may eventually pull the trigger.
I feel I/we now have a fairly good handle on sub £250 radiograms. But Mr F Steve, ‘courting’?
I am confuse.
In reply to attackdog (the reply button’s disappeared), ‘courting’ means ‘stepping out with’. Before she was Mrs F, like.
I’m sure the opportunity to live with a nerd in a house bugling at the seams with music, music systems and a bass amp the size of a wardrobe in the front room was the winning factor. It’s what every* girl wants.
(*) Almost none, if my previous experience is anything to go by. Some people….
Bugling at the seams. Coalminer brass band?
^ that is fantastic.
That got your attention? I’m more interested in the obvious stereo upgrade insurance scam…
Courting, stepping out, going steady, wooing, making whoopee: all these arcane romantic words!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ROhJ1bu1hY
Now it’s all Netflix n chill and Hotline Bling.
I have Diamond 9s on the spare hi fi in the dining/everything room. They’re astonishingly ace for the price.
Designed by Peter Comeau, director of acoustic design at IAG, designer of the legendary Heybrook HB1, Mission 780 & 782. Then manufactured in high volume in IAG’s own factory in China, so you get a much better end product than one built in the UK.
He’s a lovely bloke, too.
(absence of reply button up there). I’m jesting of course – just wanted to be sure that ‘courting’ was not some new fangled means of ‘bi-wiring’ or ‘attenuation’ or whatevs. I like to appear to keep up with highly-fidelity issues.
Hi @fentonsteve, did you ever put the Sony tape deck mentioned up there ^^^^ on eBay?
I never got round to it. It is in the box, awaiting testing. The long and short is, with two active teens and no buses at weekends, dad’s taxi is busy. So I don’t have much spare time – and the little I do have I spend listening to records rather than flogging stuff on eBay.
I’ll test it later in the week and PM you, @minibreakfast
Do you have a Walkman or CD Walkman? You could get a half decent Bluetooth speaker for that price (Base or Marshall, say). If you have your music in the cloud you could just connect your phone or a chrome cast to it.
Cheers Hawky. We got my brother something like that for his birthday, and he’s well chuffed with it.
You can get old cassette decks or ghetto blasters for bugger all can’t you? I’ve got several scattered around the gaff.
Well, I’ve placed an order for the Denon and Wharfedale combo, plus the cabling gubbins. Am expecting a call from my bank any minute investigating unusual activity, i.e. spending more than a fiver in one go.
Thanks to all for the advice, and especially to Steve our resident gear head. Hopefully the stuff will see me through years to come, come hell or Heaven 17.
Always a pleasure to help other people spend their money on the important things in life.
And it stops me spending mine for a while.
Helping other people buy hifi is fun.
I’d have recommended the Denon too, so good call! I had that volume control problem referred to above with my first one after about ten years excellent service. My current one has the USB connection and I use it all the time for Spotify off the phone or iPad. It’s great value
How do you send the Spotty stream to it? I have a cable but I wonder if there’s another way? Can you send audio by USB?
I expect you can do it with one of those Chromecast type thingys.
I was half asleep when I wrote that. I know in theory you can send audio over a USB cable but when I tried it in the car it didn’t work but I think this is a car thing. It doesn’t seem obvious how you set it up at first glance.
I guess to a certain extent it depends what you mean by “send audio”. USB is a for digital data*. If you want to send data containing audio information then you need the devices at either end to be able to ‘talk’ to each other and negotiate how they’re going to achieve that. In my car, I can plug an ipod touch into the USB connector or my cheap and cheerful Sandisk MP3 player and control either through the steering wheel controls but if I plug in my Android phone it knows it’s there but won’t talk to it at all.
In any event, when it all works OK, I’m assume I’m sending or streaming an MP3 file to the car audio system and it’s dealing with that file type. If it was only accessing the audio content, it wouldn’t be able to display the meta data on the screen.
*pedant alert – well the data lines are anyway!
Twang, you should just be able to plug it in via USB and if it doesn’t automatically select, find the iPod/USB channel via the Source button on the Denon. In the car I use Bluetooth to stream downloaded Spoty music – it’s revolutionised my journey to work…
Sure I can plug it in and for the ipod it plays fine, just the phone doesn’t. As John W says, it’s not decoding the incoming audio. If indeed it is incoming at all. In the car I have a little bluetooth receiver which conncts to the phone, and another one on my main stereo which is plugged into the Aux phone jacks. I just hoped the Denon/phone combo could do the same – it’s a Samsung…
When the Denon plays music off the phone, it’s using the phone as if it was a USB memory stick and doing the track selection/controlling/decoding in the amp. If you can make the Spotty app on the phone look like an external drive, you’re in luck.
I note that this year’s model, the DM41, has a BT receiver built in.
In that case you do control what you send from the phone – the phone ‘renders’ the wifi stream to an audio BT stream. This is how I listen to listen again radio streams – play on my tablet, select BT input on my DAC/preamp, sound comes out of speakers as if by magic.
I guess that’s what the phone does when it sends audio via Bluetooth to a Bluetooth speaker.
Hmm, can’t help I’m afraid – I have an iPhone and it works fine off the Spotify app. I’m certainly not technical enough to have done anything in particular so I guess it’s down to different phones.
Exactly. Some BT speakers have USB controllers in them, too, for the wired up way.
Yes my Cambridge has. It also charges the phone – so you can play through the bluetooth and charge the phone simultaneously.
Yep, We’ve got the volume control problem with the Denon in the kitchen but we rarely touch the system at all anyway because the remote is fine. That system must be over 15 years old now. Mainly used for the Sonos plugged into it. They’re a lot cheaper than they used to be so these days they’re a real no brainer.
Hi @fentonsteve , I have sent you a PM. Please let me know it if hasn’t reached you. Cheers, mini.
Just a quick update. The dinky little Denon sounds great, looks great, and the USB function (which is is not guaranteed to work with all devices, just certain iPhones) works a treat with my SanDisk flash drive. Am absolutely loving it, and the Wharfedale Diamonds are fab too. Thanks all for the advice, and especially to Steve.
There can surely be no greater pleasure than helping other people spend their money on music.
what happened regarding the cassette player bit
Seems one can’t have it all, J. This will do for the time being 🙂
http://i1350.photobucket.com/albums/p773/minibreakfast/DSCN0003_zpsqbewmxbc.jpg
Ohhhh, big chunky buttons.
That’s what I do for one system. Surprising how good the sound is using the headphone output into aux.
Yep, that’s what I plan to do.
As Twang said above, you could get a decent Walkman and take the headphone out into the Denon.
The Sony Walkman Pro DC6 was a true 3-head deck widely used by broadcasters. I had/have the playback-only version, the DC2, which sounded as good as my ‘normal’ Denon deck. It came out under several model numbers, see
http://www.walkman-archive.com/gadgets/walkman_sony_04_dd100_v2.htm
Coo, if you ever get rid of yours they go for a pretty penny on fleabay!
They’re very satisfying to use.
Does it have a nice, firm, knob as well?
High speed dubbing, perchance?