"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
: In article , TT
: wrote:
:
: [snip]
:
: Again it makes it very difficult to evaluate because it
has a noisy
: power supply so straight away I have a negative opinion.
One of my pet
: hates is 50Hz hum :-(
:
: Mine also. Indeed. I regard it as unacceptable that
domestic audio
: equipment should produce *any* 'mechanical noises' which
can be heard in
: normal use. This is one of the reasons I have a distinct
aversion of units
: that have things like cooling fans or hard discs. They may
be 'quiet', but
: that isn't necesarily the same as 'silent' or 'inaudible'.
Even some CD
: players/drives in my experience make audible noises
produced by the disc
: rotation.
:
: More than one of the items I have bought, I had to
dissassemble to fit
: various acoustic damping materials, or to alter the
physical constuction,
: simply to stop the item making noises that were a
distraction in use. Given
: that this generally only takes a bit of thought and/or
50p-worth of
: materials I find it depressing that manufacturers don't
all do this as
: routine.
:
: FWIW It also baffles me that magazines often review
products which can make
: such noises, yet make no reference to it whatsoever.
:
: Slainte,
:
: Jim
:
I have had a similar argument with Cambridge Audio and their
640H music server. For a supposedly Audiophile product they
put in the cheapest, nastiest, noisiest CPU cooling fan they
could find that drove me nuts!

What still amazes me is that we have made this giant leap
into transparent optical/HD media that eradicates any medium
noise only to build machines that put their own noise back
into it! Why go from "noisy" LP to "quiet" CD only to have
the machine generate all the hum/hiss/wish that you have
just eradicated with the technology. One step forward and
two back IMHO :-(

Some of these insidious noises only become really apparent
when you have lived with the unit for a short while in your
domestic environment. So now when someone says to me "have
you hear a chip amp?" I can now say "Hum a few bars and
I'll let you know." :-))

Whinge mode OFF

Cheers TT