I’ve just served 10 years time with my current employer and they’ve given me £250 to spend on (or put towards to) a special gift to myself. I have to hand in a receipt (via an expense claim) to get the dosh, so I can’t go to my local drug dealer/lady of leisure, or up in a balloon and throw fivers onto the plebs below.
Any ideas? Box sets? A better Fiio? Some decent in-ear cans?
I’m a bit stumped as I can easily spend a lot more (new car/bike) or a lot less (records… lots of records).
Groceries.
Only six CDs in the box but an amazing box & amazing music.
On The Corner, like Bitches Brew, is an album I admire rather than enjoy.
Six CDs would be five (or possibly six) too many for me.
It’s not just On The Corner, it’s also Big Fun and Get Up With It.
Does that help?
Only “Ife” is present from Big Fun. “Great Expectations” and “Lonely Fire” are to be found on The Complete Bitches Brew. “Go Ahead John” appears unedited on The Complete Jack Johnson.
“Honky Tonk” from Get Up With It is also missing in this collection. The unedited version can be found on The Complete Jack Johnson.
Whereas the original albums were all compiled from various different sessions between 1969 and 1974, the box sets are chronological.
Quite so. I gave a brief reply thinking he was unlikely to read a longer one.
🙂
I prefer Tigg’s 1CD answer to Mike’s 6CD reply box set.
I was just picking nits for something to do.
Talk about time on one’s hands …
The Bitches Brew 4-CD set is currently £14.99 from Amazon Prime. The Complete Jack Johnson, OTOH, is £45.94 plus £9.17 delivery and will take up to 3 weeks to arrive. The Complete On The Corner is currently unavailable, as is The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions
Sonos.
*ducks for cover*
Sonos not popular round here? I love it myself. Probably what I’d go for TBH.
It is popular but its a locked down system and allows little or no tweaking. And there will be a little known old school product that works if all of your music is on a hard drive in your server room/spare room and some will consider Sonos the Apple of speakers.
I love my new Audio Pro bluetooth speaker with my FiiO M7- see the C5 or T5 and also recommend trying ‘memory foam’ ear tips on any hi-spec in-ear phones before upgrading. Sonos speakers did not excite me.
I can honestly say I’ve never felt remotely like tweaking my Sonos system. I have sound engineers to do that for me. It just works (SWIDT?). Now I’ve got it hooked up to Roon it just works even better.
Mine tweaked themselves. They seem to sound very good by themselves. And I move about a fair bit anyway (gone are the days when I would sit in a chair, Pete Murphy style, to listen to a album) so especially like the fact I can have the same music playing in the kitchen and the conservatory. I’ve not encountered a problem with them in three years – I only touch them to dust them.
I added a couple of those IKEA speakers to the setup, so now I have sort-of surround sound coming from behind me as well as in front when I’m watching TV.
I had a surround sound set up in the lounge so added a Sonos box to my amp. Are the Ikea speakers good?
For £99 a pop, yes. A little lacking in bass perhaps, but they blend in perfectly. Reassuringly heavy, too.
Sonos with Spotify from phone or for analogue vinyl almost exclusively. I never turn on my laptop for music purposes. All this talk of exasperating software and organising files leaves me bewildered and glad I don’t live in that world.
I think that to. I just don’t feel the need to own music anymore.
Amen to that
This guy does a tear down of the Ikea speaker – what he finds is very interesting
Playback should start at the best bit
While I don’t disagree with the conclusion that the Ikea speaker is at least designed by Sonus, if not supplied by them as well, I find his observations a bit wonky.
Look! This speaker has two drive units and a circuit board! Yes, pal, and so does every other speaker out there…
What HiFi give it 4 stars.
Fairplay, I hate cocking around with tech as it’s my day job anyhow so happy to get something that just works. Keen to expand my system in fact.
It’s very good. Richer Sounds will often give a bit of discount if you’re buying more than one. The 5 is a really good thing but not cheap. But it is good value I think.
I have two Play 5s but they’re the early model. I like them but they’re a little wooly and lack a bit of clarity. I believe the newer ones are better.
The mem and I splashed out on two Play 5s for our Australian residence a couple of years ago (one at a time). Can confirm that theyre terrific. Having trouble hooking them up to the UK network, unfortunately.
Have you tried turning them the right way up?
Arf!
Have you tried resetting it?
https://itweakit.com/2019/08/23/reset-sonos-this-is-how-it-works-with-one-play-1-play-5-co/
“Does it play my 78s?”
Yes.*
* as long as you have ripped them first (or they are available on streaming services…)
Only if coated in a slimline salad cream dressing.
Arf!
I thought you were eyeing up the Fiio M11 Pro ? Its probably twice your $250 budget, but you know you want it…….
Yeah, it is, but yes, I do want one.
Maybe some posh earbuds – any suggestions? I quite fancy some of those Noble ones moulded to your ear canal (to block noise and stop them falling out) but they were £850 last time I looked.
I just splashed out on some posh earbuds, after years of cheapo headphones. Sony WF-1000XM3s. The sound is fantastic, an app controls EQ and various settings depending on your environment and they feel very comfortable and secure. Around £160 from amazon
I got the FiiO FH7 earbuds when I got my M11 Pro. They do sound good and satisfy any geek tendencies by coming with about 500 different ear tips and three different sound filters that can be screwed into the earbuds. You can even get balanced cables for them.
https://www.fiio.com/fh7
I think they are about £400 in the UK though, so not cheap either. There is a FH5 model which is a step down – not sure on the differences and the difference in price.
Fiio earbud pricing in the UK is weird. There are several under £100 and several around £250, and nothing inbetween.
FH5 is around £230 (£20 less than the FA7), FH7 is £450.
Sorry lol! Happy birthday, enjoy it whatever you spend it on.
Obviously this windfall must not be spent on anything remotely sensible including boxed cd sets (no matter how wonderful they are).
I have been eyeing one of these for a while – we’re not great pizza fans to be honest but to nip outside, fire it up and make a pizza exactly how you want it is just what I would want to do with 250 smackeroonies
https://uk.ooni.com/collections/ovens
Buy an extravagant box set (or two) that you know is way overpriced. You may never have the chance, or excuse, again.
You’re a bit of an audiophile, aren’t you, fentonsteve?
Why not invest in Audioquest Niagara 7000 UK Power Conditioner?
https://petertyson.co.uk/audioquest-niagara-7000-uk-power-conditioner
Why let that dirty, dodgy AC power go straight into your lovely hi-fi? Clean the power up first with the aforementioned power conditioner. You know it makes sense. And of course it’s a bargain at the modest price of £7,995.00. Nice.
I appreciate that your £250 won’t cover this, but it will make a very significant contribution to the cost. Sort of.
My friendly local hi-fi dealer has offered me a lockdown discount of 10% off an external power supply unit for my Naim pre-amp. Still 15 times my budget, though, even after discount.
I just splashed out just over that on a book from Genesis publications…Hamburg Days with all of Astrid’s photos and artwork by Klaus Vormann, signed by both. They are offering £75 off several titles until 30th April, so be quick! Code is 75ART on checkout. The reason for the splashing on my part was a treat as we aren’t spending anything going to gigs at the moment!
https://www.genesis-publications.com/browse/books
Can I interest you in (another) vintage analog desk? “Buffs flight case”
Having recently sold my little Mackie, I currently only have five Soundcrafts.
I have bought a sixth to replace it – paid for, but not yet collected (due to lockdown).
I know someone who is keen to get rid of a Soundcraft K1. A great desk, with a matrix. Pretty old now but I used to own it and it sounded fab.
Maybe not to yours or Mrs F’s taste but you can get some great original cinema posters for that sort of money. As with everything, you can spend a lot more too but they look great framed on the wall. I have a large Ealing comedy one (The Ladykillers) and my daughter has the Japanese poster for Spirited Away.
I’d like a Pencilsqueezer, but Mrs F hates modern art. I need to get the garaged soundproofed first…
I was scrolling down to suggest a Squeezer. Tell him fentonmrs doesn’t like modern art, not that I’d call him that, possibly abstract, and he’ll change her mind. Mine was a commission for my old workplace when I left, but when we saw it, I gave ‘em a speech and an excuse for a party instead! Too bloody good for a surgery wall.
He did me a beautiful collage landscape for my wife’s birthday a few years ago, it was the place where I proposed to her in the middle of a snowstorm!
Buy something you wouldn’t normally spring for. A nice watch?
Couple of toilet rolls and some pasta?
Five trips to FOPP
5 x £50-man
Take your better half to a posh hotel for a weekend away. When hotels re-open and it is safe to do so.
After the experience of my 50th, where my wife took me to a ‘health’ spa, but the chef there cooked something containing some non-approved ingredients which gave me a ‘birthday surprise’ of the trots for 24 hours, I’m never* again eating anything I haven’t cooked myself.
The thought of going away fills me with enough dread to make my guts grumble.
(*) not until I’ve had long enough to forget, anyhow.
Ah forgot – so a pizza oven doesn’t really turn you on?
The old me loved pizza, but pizza doesn’t love the new me. Anything containing yeast (e.g. brown beer, sob…) comes to (comes out of?) the same messy end.
Being too wiped out to eat the birthday cake your daughter made, and going to bed at 8pm on the big day, is a real downer.
If I could pay £250 to switch Crohn’s off for a day, that would be ace. Make mine three pints of Adnams and a chicken Madras, please.
I have asked you before @fentonsteve if you have tried Humira, cant remember if you have. Mind you 250 quid would buy you only one epi-pen if it isn’t on the NHS.
Has worked pretty well for me.
Sadly not, I’ve been on Mercaptopurine for about 4 years now.
My pal Andy also has Crohn’s, he was on 6-MP for 9 years before it stopped working and is now on Infliximab infusions. So I can see where I’m heading.
I’ve been on Humira (together with methotrexate until recently) for 5 years and have had no severe attacks since, last couple of colonsoscopies had my specialist beaming, saying he didn’t want to see me for a year.
I’m absolutely fine as long as I don’t eat or drink anything I’m not supposed to. What’s really annoying is when I give an expensive health spa the list of what I can eat and they then make me something containing things I can’t eat and make me unwell as a result. And then refuse to apologise for doing it. I wasn’t after a refund, but a simple “we’re sorry, we admit we messed up” would have done. But, no, total denial. Makes me angry just thinking about it.
I didn’t know about your health problems @fentonsteve, I wish you well.
No need, Baron, there are plenty worse off than me, but thanks anyway. I take some pills every morning, eat a lot of rice and don’t drink. What I save on restaurants and booze, I spend on records.
Gentle Giant “Unburied Treasure” box set back in print soon and exactly £250. 29 CDs should see you through most of the lockdown.
What more could you want
Probably 28 or 29 too many Gentle Giant CDs for me.
I have the Pepper big box but not the White Album or Abbey Road boxes. Hmmm.
Wouldn’t bother with the Abbey Road one.
6 Months Craft Gin Club subscription? What could be better?
Just about anything.
I should have mentioned: I’m teetotal due to meds. The old me used to love a G&T. The new me is on the floor after one sniff.
I’ll refer the honourable gentleman to my earlier answer.*
* Sonos
Maybe not such a crazy idea – since I already have a Naim streamer in the hi-fi, perhaps a Mu-so Qbe for the kitchen. Three times my budget, though.
https://www.naimaudio.com/mu-so-qb
If you’re really stumped for ideas I can supply my bank account details.
Do you do vat receipts?
I recently (well ,a year ago) got a Loyalty Voucher from work – I know I thought, I’ll exchange it for one of those 5 Star Luxury Fine Dining Do F**k-All Weekends with the current Mrs D.
All planned – we were going this weekend for our 15th Anniversary.
I’ve just extended the Voucher date to next year …
My original plan was to get a couple of those Track Days they had an offer – 4 hours tuition, 4 hours driving fast cars very fast.
But the Wedding Anniversary became the subject of a hard stare …
Spend £250? Records, CDs, Books (and Beer).
Belated birthday wishes, @fentonsteve. Might not be your taste, but there’s a lot to be said in favour of a decent tweed jacket. I’ve got four, all with their own “personalities”, just like my various acoustic guitars, also four in fact. Now could be the time y’know.
😉
I’m more of a t-shirt and jeans man. Years ago Mrs F worked somewhere and her boss was into sailing. We would be invited out for the day’s sailing and she insisted I buy a blue blazer. Then she left there and the invitations dried up. The blazer is in the wardrobe, still with the price tag on.
I’m a bassist (root-note plodder) with two basses but my daughter has my Jazz and my Eko Ranger 6-string acoustic. I bet £250 buys a really nice acoustic guitar nowadays. The Eko is anything but nice, more of a cheese/finger slicer.
The Vintage brand are excellent value, especially after a decent setup.
You’re a vinly lover aren’t you, fentonsteve?
Why not invest in a new MC phono cartridge – you’re a moving coil man, aren’t you?
I like the look of the Koetsu Coralstone Platinum. A snip at £8,498.
https://www.oxfordaudio.co.uk/product/coralstone-platinum-moving-coil-cartridge/
I am, I currently rock an Audio Technica MC. I have my eye on an Orofon Cadenza Bronze for when the AT wears out. But the Ortofon is three times the price of my perfectly fine-sounding AT. Gulp.
https://www.criterionaudio.com/product/ortofon-cadenza-bronze-moving-coil-cartridge/
Or get some vinyl from these guys,…..
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/arts/music/electric-recording-co-vinyl.html?referringSource=articleShare&fbclid=IwAR3niw7YjqpS9qCL1BkOIQlVRtbN2xXeHey3M_BS3pKhbs_J3bx0mELlTgw
For that kind of money you could have 50 brand new sealed vinyl albums delivered to your door courtesy the great http://www.365games.co.uk clearance “combo deal” sale!
https://www.365games.co.uk/music-and-books
Pick any three items marked “combo deal” for a mere £15 – a fiver each – so no, you can’t have the “White Album” – and in a couple of days the well-packaged parcel arrives.
The choice is limited – tbh I struggled to find three – but if you’re missing that late period Commander Cody live album or the legendary Bevis Frond first album then you’re in luck. Makes you realise that in the first flush of the “vinyls revival” a large amount of rubbish was released and I suspect there must be a warehouse somewhere full of the unsaleable, the unknown and unwanted that these folks have bought a pallet from.
You never know though…might be something worth having…the first Martin Carthy album on Topic sealed for a fiver anyone?
Oh good grief… I went a bit bonkers in the recent HMV sale and promised I’d rein it in this month.
I agree though, there’s an awful lot of vinyl madness. My local RSD participant store has the full set of Peter Hook & The Light live albums. They are nailed to the racks. Every time I visit they’re a fiver cheaper. I really like New Order and even I haven’t bought them. I’ve never worked out exactly who would.
People who were at the gigs?
The thing is, I’ve bought job lots of music before and I don’t really bond with it. I prefer one at a time and getting to know it. Otherwise a year later you’re looking at the shelves and you think “I didn’t know I had that…oh”.
My peak for falling in love with albums was when I did a paper round. My weekly wages would stretch to 1 LP and a couple of bars of chocolate. That made me very careful and, also, listen to the stuff I bought over the course of at least a week (and maybe longer). It also made me very appreciative of Sandinista and the Billy Bragg albums.
12 month subscription at Daunt books?