h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.h2g2.com/A444395

Here we have a broad introduction to the world of hi-fi. Any suggested improvements would be most welcome, especially any that might shorten it a bit!

Excellent! Bravo! Etc.

It could probably be cut a bit by the sub[etha! Hahaha!] editors, but to be honest the details all have their place. You're obviously a big HI-FI fan... I just don't have the money to splash out on gold cables and suchlike.

I like it.

Its not that I am a fan, its just that I have had the opportunity to acquire at minimal cost and listen to stupidly expensive kit over the years, and even my cloth ears can get the differences, or some of them anyway, and I get cross when people spend their very hard earned money on 'crap' when there is a better way.

You don't need gold cables, though gold plated contacts, plugs and sockets will not corrode or oxidise over the years and MAY be a good idea. For speakers there is a school that advocates pure silver as the 'ideal' but you can get a pretty good upgrade from 'bell wire' by using a multistranded cable (eg QED 79strand) which is not expensive.

After much scepticism, I think its generally accepted now that you need to put 10-15% of your budget aside for cables. Personally, I would have thought maybe $15/£10 for the speaker cable - as above - and $40/£25 for decent interconnects.

I use the 30 Amp cable used to wire cookers for my speaker cable. The results are surprisingly good - often better than equivalent cables costing 30+ pounds/metre.
You can also bend it, so it neatly follows the route you put it in.

Why are you connecting speakers to your cooker? I've heard of a record label called cooking vinyl, and somewhere I have a CD that is 'multimedia' and has recipes on it. Is there a whole science here that I had never heard of?, until now! And did you really compare side by side with expensive cable?

Actually, there is of course no reason why heavy gauge single strand copper wire wouldn't work very well. You may hear a slight difference if you changed to the multistrand mentioned above, which would cost little more than your copper wires. Like much in Hi-Fi there is a quantum leap when you first change from the tiny wires that may come with the speakers, and thereafter changes are incremental, subjective and not necessarily related to price paid.

I personally didn't compare side by side, but a UK Hi Fi mag did about 2 or 3 years ago, and did all the lab tests and all that.

All my other leads are horrendously expensive (for me anyway)!

I've recommended this excellent article. We await developments....

I thank you kindly Mr Tunes.

(Nothing to do with above, but you advised me in another place about guideML, and I think I might be able to get the hang of it, but, when I went to convert a guide entry from text to guideML, the title came back as an error. What am I doing wrong, do I have to start right from the beginning?)

Make sure there are no conflicting bits of code. GuideML and HTML don't like each other. You can't mix and match.

For a more specialised answer to your query check out one of the h2g2 gurus. They are helpful people. There is a link to their page from the front page.

Hey, I've cracked it! I'm on my way, thanks for assistance here and elsewhere.

Pheroneous, exciting news. This yarn has successfully passed through the rigourous h2g2 selection process. Now, if through some fluke of the random sub selection procees, I get to sub it, then Tubular Bells will indeed ring through the land.

I am duly excited. Even more so now that my next proposed entry is now written in guideML! Give me footnotes (zillions), give me links (easy peasy). Thanks again for your help.

btw how can I chase up the similarly accepted (two months ago) CEMENT entry, and would it help if I was now to put that up into guideML? Or is it too late? Or shall I just leave it be.

While you have access to the edit button you can make changes to the article. Once it is sent to a sub you lose access to the edit function. This ensures the sub is working on the latest version of the yarn.

Thanks, all is clear.

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

Hi Loonytunes et al.

A few months ago I started the Hi Fi Club Rooms http://www.h2g2.com/A411977 and didn't do very much to publicise it through a disease of mine called abject laziness. However, if you all wish to pop along there, I'd love to welcome you. It's just a place where we audiophiles can have some debate over the things that seem to matter to us and nobody else - to spike or not to spike, pre/power versus integrated - anyhing else you care to bring up. Who knows, we might even get on to talking about music...