Acoustic Solutions C/D

My help is: Ask Steady Mike.

Also don't get whatever stereo system I have because it gnaws up ALL MY TAPES curse the dammed thing, curse it.

I like the 'cleverness' of the name - it's Acoustic Energy (makers of world-renowned loudspeakers) meets Sonic Solutions (world leaders in DVD authoring hardware and D/A converter technology) in the same way that Michael Barrymore is Michael Redgrave meets Lionel Barrymore.

My snobby not-quite-reformed audiophile attitude towards this gear is not to touch it with a pair of binaural bargepoles - I'm suspicious of Yamada and Eltax and their ilk just cos it looks like knock-off stuff that will only work as long as its under warranty. I'm probably wrong and spending that bit extra on Sony, Technics and the like is so much label lust.

I'm emphatically unqualified to comment on good-value consumer electronics cos (back when I had the money and no external life to speak of) I leapfrogged that sector and headed straight for bizarre poor-value audio exotica.

they just arn't that good, and dont trust 4rgo5. Cambridge Audio exclusively at Richer Sounds is a much safer bet. There is absolutely no point in going the seperates rout unless you invest in decent speakers, which free ones will never ever be.

Hasn't Cambridge Audio been owned by Richer Sounds for some years now? Not that that means their products are worse than they used to be (and they were pretty well-regarded when they were independent, back in the early-mid '90s) but RS will push the CA line fairly keenly if you're in the market for that sort of stuff.

peter, what's your budget?

Try this thread - awfully good and funnyL

Tell me your favourite bad joke

Whoops, wrong thread!

yep I think CA are RS owned, but CA stuff still gets good reviews. And I would never buy basic HIFI stuff anywhere other than RS.

Thank you all very much. I think I will look elsewhere. I knew they would be shit, I just needed confirmation (and comfort).

I haven't really got a budget, Koogs, it's all hypothetical. There was an all-in-one thing from Richer Sounds for, I think, 200 or 250, but then you have to get speakers as well and (and this is the killer for me) speaker cables. I might have to stick with my ghetto blaster. It's got bass boost if you want to make it sound really shit.

I could just get an amplifier and speakers and plug everything in. To it.

Denon DM31. SCM101 speakers. That's all I'm saying. It's my secondary system, my bedroom stereo, and it's taken over my £1500 seperates set-up in terms of being my main listening thingamabob.

well, i have What HiFi's best of the year thing and it mentions the Denon DM31 (Best System Over £150 at £250) and the Goodmans 1104DAB (Best System Under £150 at £100) (which, as the name suggests, has a DAB tuner)(only 2x5W though so probably more of a bedroom system) and the Panasonic SC-PM39 which is 'Best Home Cinema In A Box Under £300' (£250)(5xCD / DVD / Cassette / Tuner, 2x35W)

elsewhere: Richer Sounds has a nice Marantz / Mission system for £300 (no tuner but you could always get a Freeview box for £50 and use that)(and something like a nice Toshiba DVD player could replace the CD player and give you DVD/MP3 capabilities). they also have a cheaper (but well regarded) Cambridge Audio based system on their web site. (i find the trouble with RS is erratic stock levels but CA stuff should be ok as they own it). http://www.richersounds.co.uk/index.php?f=hifisystem.htm

(btw, the Acoustic Solutions SP101 amp (£80) gets 4 stars but no other Acoustic Solutions kit is reviewed. mike'll tell you to take What HiFi's ratings with a pinch of salt. i stopped buying it last year when issue after issue seemed to review nothing but plasma tvs and dolby digital amps...)

Thanks. Denon DM31 is the one I was looking at in Richer Sounds.

Anyone have any experience of these people? http://www.digitaldirectuk.com/dd3/index.asp

I will check out Cambridge Audio.

Actually, I am seduced by smallness. Perhaps I will save up for Denon. It has a 'digital out'.

PJ, mail me, we may be able to help in a wee while

I have mailed the Porker.

Those Cambridge Audio 'combos' look nice.

My new stereo, from the little-known Porkpie Solutions HiFi Separates range, which arrived today by very special couriers, is great. I can plug my minidisc in and listen to my collection from the obscure Mooro Archive Recordings label without recourse to unsightly and unhygenic 'ear buds'. I can also plug my DAB radio in, and my DVD player. If it do that, the picture is on the telly, but the sound is at either end of the mantel piece! Also, the CD player came with a free CD. I haven't listened to it yet, but it looks as if it's about some very specific stateside gardening problems - it is called 'American Roots - The Essential Collection'. I don't know whether perhaps I should send it home.

The people next door are having a party, but I can hardly hear it. I'm thinking of banging on the door and telling them to turn it up.

I have a pciture of Mr and Mrs Porkpie inspecting the Henley Speciality Sausage Regatta. I will 'upload' it.

Bumpity-bump-bump-bump! (With special reference to the stray CD part, cos I don't know whether you've seen this.)

PS. It's a picture, not a pciture.