I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions for removing spray paint from speaker cones without damaging them, or is it impossible?

We’re moving into a new house and got it repainted before we move in. The previous owner had installed a large movie screen and left audio equipment that included 4 in-wall speakers downstairs and 4 ceiling speakers in several rooms upstairs. I’m pissed to discover that the painter did not protect the speakers before he and a helper spray painted the whole interior of the house. At least they moved the screen and the equipment out of the way! But not the speakers! Replacement cost is over C$1000

Are these speakers toast as I suspect or is there a way to gently remove the paint or restore them to good working condition?

Edit: It’s still early in the timeline of dealing with this issue. I just got into the house last night after being away on work while this job was being done. My wife and brother-in-law saw it first and told me. It sucks to see it for myself!!

I was just looking for input from Reddit on possible remedies and have gotten way more than I expected!! Thanks everyone!!

Combined sub and speaker stand for my Buchardt bookshelf speakers.

10” SB acoustics drivers, powered by a fosi amp out of Lyngdorf receiver. Each sub is around 30kg - there’s about 10kg of steel shot in each. Sorbothane pads between sub and floor and sub and speaker. Made little wafers using rubber grip tape either side of the sorbothane to stop it damaging surfaces but maintain grip on place.

My current listening setup after about 15 years of swapping gear around and moving it through five different homes.

The system is built around a pair of 1975 Tannoy Arden Mk1s with HPD385 drivers and a Line Magnetic LM-34IA valve amp (with Ray Tubes). Two Technics 1210s feed a modified Condesa Lucia X, with an Audio-Technica VM540ML for dedicated listening and XP7s for DJing. Digital comes through a Bluesound Node.

I used to chase a neutral, studio-style sound, but having a separate Genelec setup for production eventually made me realise I didn’t need the living room to do the same job.

What I wanted here was something warm, natural and easy to listen to for hours... something the tunes and Tannoy combination does really well.

I work in the music industry and often host listening nights here.. 4-6 music friends bringing over records and chatting music for hours, so good!

A friend recently photographed the space for a listening-room feature, so I wanted to share the series of the setup.

No major upgrades planned, which may be the first sign I’ve actually finished.

Over the last month or so I’ve made some tweaks to my simple and modest system (NAD C700 feeding Dali Oberon 7’s via Tidal or Quboz). 

Just speaker positioning and moving some furniture and placing some triple velvet fabric over my TV for serious listening.

Those tweaks have achieved pretty much everything I want from a system in regards to micro detail, tone/harmoncs, soundstage, etc. surpassing a kora tube mono blocks/Silverline Sonatina’s and then Merlin VSM’s system I used to have (albeit in a more difficult room)

And while the results are tangible I think the biggest difference in how I’m experiencing the music and - something I couldn’t have really conceived of without being here - comes from my own growth into someone who can be quite still and present and listen from that space. I may be wrong but it seems like the all tweaks in the world wouldn’t consistently add up to the experience I’m now having with that.

After watching Poe'sAcoustics YouTube video 'Better Speakers or Better Acoustics?', I might have gotten a bit carried away with his cheap diffusion recommendation. However, after installing the panels and checking my center image using Emmylou Harris’s 'Ballad of a Runaway Horse,' I noticed an immediate difference in how her voice carries and in the trailing echo after she sings. I'm loving this budget upgrade!

A few months ago, in a post titled "I've always wanted to own a Rega," I showed you my newly acquired Rega Mira3 amp.

Now I've grabbed these "relatively" small beauties to keep me company with my Mira 3. I would like to present to you my Rega RS5s. Before these, I was using Castle Knight 2 bookshelves, also a British brand, and I still own them and will continue using them elsewhere.

The person I bought the RS5s from included a DH Labs Silver Sonic T-14 cable as a gift with the speakers, which is a complete surprise.

The second-hand price of these cables also ranges from 200 to 250 dollars in the country where I live. $500 might seem a bit much, but unfortunately, music as a hobby is quite expensive in the country where I live.

Anyway... long story short, I'm very happy with the Mira 3 and RS5 combination for now.

Stay with music!

May not look like much but I feel it punches way above its weight! My setup: An AT-LP120-USB (w/ older Shure M97 x) > Heed Quasar pre > Schiit Sys > Aiyama A07 Premium > Stax SRD-7/SB (w/ Stax SR-X MK 3 cans) > Klipsch Heresy E’s. I also have an SMSL CD transport going into the sys, using the built-in DAC.

The speaker placement is not great, I basically use them as enormous near field monitors placed about six feet behind each ear (my desk faces the opposite wall, the room is not big). It’s sort of a diffuse sound when I face away and not suitable for really critical listening but perfect for zoning out while working, and when I spin around in my chair I have a little golden triangle with six foot sides.

I’m 40 and I finally feel like I have exactly the system I want. I’m listening to a Terumasa Hino album and hearing everything I want to be hearing, spread out enough to have some dimension, never fatiguing. Sure I could have more low end (much more I bet) and unquestionably better sources exists than my AT turntable, but I just hooked up the Stax and feel like for now the job is done.

Thanks for looking!

Found this beauty in my father’s collection of vintage audio equipment; I wanted to share given how beautiful and rare these things are. The Model 7000 Mark 2 is a vintage, high-end 3-head stereo cassette deck manufactured in Japan from 1980 to 1983. It is the American-market rebadge of the Pioneer CT-A1. These things represent the absolute pinnacle of cassette tape engineering from the golden era of audio.

I was happy to see the unit power on and after testing a cassette that the capstans are working but unfortunately the two pinch rollers aren’t moving the tape.

This device used two capstans instead of one to create a closed loop around the recording and playback heads. The right capstan is engineered to spin a microscopic fraction of a percent faster than the left capstan. This minor speed difference creates constant, precise tension that stretches the tape perfectly flat across the audio heads. It completely isolates the tape from any vibrations or pulling coming from the plastic cassette shell housings, virtually eliminating "wow and flutter" (pitch instability).

Fortunately, what I’ve discovered are the electronics are working and the coreless quartz motor is functional. It’s a big deal because this is the component that cannot be replaced. The pinch rollers failure seems to be strictly isolated to the mechanical linkage driving those upper spindles.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time like I used to restore or the space to keep it so I’ll probably end up listing it for sale at some point.

Hello everyone, I’ve been looking forward to writing this, I started from scratch and wanted to build a listening room in my house. I’ve gone through several iterations and a lot of frustration, but I think I’m finally there.

My equipment is as follows

Wiim Ultra
SPL Vitalizer
Mini - DSP
Buckeye NC502MP
4X PSA MTM 212k ran in double stereo
2X PSA EV 1813

GIK corner bass traps
2x 242
1x 244

I started with Klipsch RF7iii front stage and Klipsch rp8000fii rear stage which I did and still do enjoy quite a lot. I had this for a few months but found myself wanting more spl.

In my ignorance I was hoping to get that rf7 sound but much much more of it. That didn’t happen.

I upgraded to the psa towers and ya, they were quite a lot louder. Unfortunately, as a sealed speaker they lacked quite a lot of the bass and mid bass punch I was looking for. When I’d raise the crossover on the subs I didn’t enjoy the sound.

For a month or so I was worried I made a mistake. I purchased the mini dsp, plugged it in and ran the rear towers with a slight delay and with their own peq settings. This helped but I was still missing out on a lot.

Then I put in the GIK equipment which helped get me closer.

Then I added a drawmer 1976 which took me the wrong way in terms of what I was looking for. Luckily that had a great return process from sweet water and I swapped it to the spl vitalizer which really helped.

After this was set up I purchased a umik mic and raw tree software. I corrected my towers alone and with the subs. Lots of tower moving and couch moving to get things right.

After that I went through about 200 eq settings and I’ve finally landed about where I want to be! I’d say I’m 85-90% of the tone and sound I was looking for and about 120% of the volume I was looking for.

My only trade offs are as follows:

Low volume listening has its on eq settings

High volume uses the same eq but depending on the type of music I adjust the sub

I did all of this by myself with (a lot of) help from AI.

So for now it’s capable of huge volume and plenty of midbass and bass. I’m very happy and wanted to share

I think someone needs to write an aide memoir of turntables. I’ve been doing this for years… I checked it’s Nappy, checked it was fed, checked it was as warm, checked it wasn’t sleepy…still nah!!

Story time:

Got a new humming guru cleaner at the weekend, sound job on, get to cleaning and reserving records in nice sheaths etc etc.

Decide to put a few on and se how clean they are, as you do..admire my weekends clean.

Well if about 20 secs into every record I “cleaned” is it not just randomly skipping. None of my records skip!! Some are bit fluffy, none skip!

Dddeeeevasted…that new hummingbird guru has ruined my records therefore my life etc etc..suitable cry in front of wife.

So put on an old fave to cheer me up that had not been newly ultrasonic’d.

Lo and behold 20 secs in…skip skip skip!! WTAF.

1 hour of obsession, on VTA, VTF, angle alignment…all prefect.

Anti skate!? Nah no way…way! Was ripping outwards like it was being dragged (I am on weights not a dial) sceptically went..nah..but fixed it anyway. Voila!!?

No more skips..stunned and lesson learned. Step by step guide on laminate above my deck required

Also…the pops and clicks have gone (I thought the humming guru was shit at first) photo added..cause that is where I have been x

I’m wondering because I’m looking to buy a pair of one or the other. I played a gig last weekend and they told me my set up was too small. This was a premier place to play at in my state so I took this seriously!

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to share my new speakers: a pair of Neat in white. This is my first real step into the world of hi-fi, and honestly, I'm completely smitten.
For their size, they sound incredible: detailed, airy, and with way more bass than I expected. The ribbon tweeter makes the highs so refined without ever getting fatiguing.

Went to check out an open box-fair condition KC 92 listed at $1400 online. It was the display model and tested fine in person, no damage to the woofers, but there is a chip in the edge of the black finish down to the wood case, which alarmed me a little because seems like it was from dropping it instead of bumped into something.

Anyways, I pulled the trigger and at the register it rang up at $700 instead! The guy said they sold a similar condition one for $1200 recently as well. This is out in the sticks of Indiana.

I am using it with kef q concerto also purchased for $899 open box from same Best Buy. I have a small gaming room/bedroom, and the speaker is a good size but outputs incredible bass for the space. I am playing at low-moderate volumes and will not drive the sub hard (only listen at 60dB-80dB). I hope no internal components were affected too badly from the drop. If I can get 4-5 years of use from it, I’ll be pleased. Ever since using IEMs and the Concertos I still always missed the “booming car stereo” experience from my setup and this subwoofer has restored that for me!

Recently went through moving to a different state, and had to deal with a long selling and buying process.. so happy to have everything back out of storage and connected

I think that for a good system, the most important thing is the room, solid acoustic treatment, application and sound source.

Cables come only at the end of that story and their choice must be in line with the quality of the rest of the HiFi system.
One should not strictly follow some recommendations that 10% of the total budget is enough.

Most audiophile forums agree that speaker cables and analog interconnects make little difference to the sound. For digital cables it is already debatable.

What do you think about it?

Just wanted to share my current minimal setup. Recently reoriented my room by 90 degrees and things are sounding fantastic. Roadie case is purely a surface until I can find/ afford a stereo rack. I’d love to locate my equipment on the wall opposite the speakers and run speaker wire beneath the floor. So much of audiophilia feels either like baby steps toward some imagined ideal or 4 steps back, 1 step forward in pursuit thereof.

Sp*tify 320 kbps, Hegel H190, Snell C/V. Sonic bliss on a rainy day.

I am looking for a system that can save my cd’s to HD in lossless format and can play them afterwards. Preferably the system puts all the names correct for the titles. I saw this but is this any good? Link is in Dutch.

My little slice of heaven on earth has been restored. Spinning El-P - I'll Sleep When Youre Dead

Howdy all! I got some new records for the first time in a while. New records always breathe some new life into my relationship with my turntable. Figured I’d take some updated photos to share.

I wanted to make it the ultimate expression of a 1200 and have spent time adding little upgrades here and there to get it there. I suffer from the type of ADHD that usually makes me want to tweak things to no end, but I think this machine is actually done. I haven’t had any urges to change things for a couple of years now. Feels nice to simply be happy with a piece of equipment knowing it can’t get much better.

Specs:
-Technics SL1200GAE
-Sumiko Starling cartridge
-Luxman OPPD-SH1 magnesium alloy headshell
-Precision Sound Lab EPS-01 Mk2 power supply
-KAB TD-1000 tonearm damper
-Herbie’s Audio Lab mat
-Precision Sound Lab balanced XLR sockets (not pictured)

Currently listening to boards of Canada’s new album Inferno.

Sorry if I might be a bit late to the MQA debating game. So in the past 3-5 years or so, Cap Music Thailand has been pushing out Thai oldies from Grand Ex' and Chatree. In the MQA CD form, although I have heard that MQA is a weird corporate scheme, I still wanted to listen to the new mastering of my fav band. There are not many times I get to actually listen to a real CD remaster from the 24-track master. Most of them aren't even on streaming platforms, or if they are on streaming platforms, they sound horribly bad, so I'm here to ask if the CD needed an MQA-decoded DAC for the decoding, or if it's just another weird corporate scheme waiting for me to fall for the trap.

I have had them for over a week now and I must say I was floored from day one. These speakers use an isabaric push-pull confg with dual dynaudio woofers back to back allowing for 29hz(+/-3hz). They require a proper welder to push them (yamaha pc2002) and even though I have appreciated my used / second hand journey so far with all the nice vintage legends I have had over the years, these were the first were I said to myself "oh.. alright.. I think I can sell my other stuff now"

I wanted to share that

Technics SL1500C with Nagaoka MP200
Darlington Labs MP7B
Shanling EC3
WiiM Ultra
Willsenton R8
Klipsch RP600MII

New components are the R8 with NOS Sylvania 6SLTWGT’s, Darlington Labs MP7B, Herbie’s Way Excellent mat and MP200.

Upgrading from Dayton Audio HTA100, Ortofon Blue and SL1500C internal phono.

Very happy with the balance of authority, slam, warmth and musicality. I think Super Linton’s are next on my wish list. Building my system brick by brick.

Not your typical DAC post my fellow audiophiles...instead of makes and models of whole units, I'm looking for opinions on chipsets, years and versions. I'm currently looking at a preamp with a Qualcomm aptx lossless Bluetooth 5.3 chipset, and a Texas Instruments PCM5101A DAC chipset with optical and USB ports. What are everyone's fav go-to chipsets?