Spurred on by the chance purchase of a fine pair of Technics speakers (£20!) from a local charity shop… I’ve relocated my old hi-fi separates from the lounge downstairs, and dusted them off (literally 😮💨) to upgrade my home-office’s audio capabilities.
I bought the Technics amp and CD player in 1998; they still work fine. In 2019, I added a Majority Fitzwilliam (a combo DAB/FM tuner/BT audio/USB audio/network audio “separate”); this is now awaiting a passthrough powerline network adapter. 🧵 1/
Why does the Majority Fitzwilliam “need” a powerline Ethernet adapter? Well: when I try and switch the thing to WiFi, the device gets into a crash/reboot loop until I put it back to Ethernet.
Sadly, the existing powerline adapter seems to pick up interference from the strip-plug next to it on the 2-socket adapter (which I need, as this room only has two mains outlets 🤦🏻♂️), so it won’t link. I’ve got a passthrough powerline plug on order; hope that works 🙏🏻
(Speakers: Technics SB-HD310 🤓)
🧵 2/
The Technics amp has no shortage of inputs (including two for “tape”, and one doubling as “DCC” (??!! - not even MiniDisc!). I’m now using these:
- CD (CD (duh))
- TUNER (the Majority)
- AUX (I’ve put an HDMI extractor inline between my KVM switch and monitor, so whatever computer I’m using, I can pipe its audio to the hi-fi)
That’s already a pretty versatile setup… once the Majority gets a stable Ethernet link, I’ve got Spotify, radio, BT and all, and I could add a turntable one day.
🧵 3/
So yes… the simple serendipitous act of finding a pair of decent hi-fi speakers for a knockdown price in a charity shop, has led to me reviving my venerable audio system for my home-office.
Can’t think why I never thought of this earlier… oh right: my old speakers (Wharfedale) are massive, and would never fit in the room!
(Now I’ve got a hi-fi with a working CD player, maybe I’ll dig out some discs and give streaming a rest…)
🧵/ends
POSTSCRIPT: When I first powered up the CD player for the first time in a good couple of years, and opened the disc tray… inside was my copy of “Heartleap” by Vashti Bunyan.
No idea how long it was sleeping in there? The next step will be trying to track down the slip-case…
T.A. Walker