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(Message started by: TiberiuS on May 8th, 2008, 1:52am)
Title: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 8th, 2008, 1:52am
Hi guys.

Couldn't decide whether to post this here so here goes.

Take a look at this (http://www.briarsfield-hifi.co.uk) site, tell me what you think. It's a long story but basically eBay were getting really funny and kept pulling my listings because they thought I was using them to get private work. Trading on eBay is expensive so even if I only get a tiny amount of work to pay the hosting fees, I'll leave the site up a while and see what happens.

This is not a living, don't get me wrong. It's never going to earn anywhere near that, I doubt I could give up work to repair audio gear to get rich ;D. But for a hobby which I do for a couple of hours in the evening sometimes the site gives me a place to advertise, and if it does bring in a bit of work and a couple of quid to put petrol in the car etc then great.

It went up on Monday morning and I've been here the last 3 nights trying to learn some code just to get it working. Before the weekend I was so green about web design you couldn't have set fire to me, the last couple of nights have been a nightmare just trying to get everything working.

Everything on the site except the basic page template is mine (yes, even the photos are all of my old junk ::)), it's a premium hosting package so tonight I've sent the stuff to get it listed on Google. If it does pick up some business I'll get some proper software and redesign it in a few months. Otherwise I'll let the year run and have a rethink.

If you're not interested in that sort of thing then the site might come accross a bit anoraky but then again I like my music and I wanted it to seem like it'd been written by someone who was interested, I think I managed that at least :-/

Too many late nights, I'll regret posting this in the morning ;D

Regards, Bruce :)
Title: Re: New site
Post by Tompion on May 8th, 2008, 2:35am
Looks good to me, elegant simple layout, quick to load – wish more sites were like it, I just move on if there’s to many gimmicks/slow pages.

I’d prefer a ‘home’ tab on all the pages.
Viewed on IE 6.

Dave
Title: Re: New site
Post by peteHull on May 8th, 2008, 6:38am
Hi Bruce,
I like the site and I think everything works well.  I used to go to all the Hifi shows back in the early seventies and remember drooling over equipment which I thought I would never be able to afford, I remember the Warfdale Airdales and Senhieser speakers with all the tweeters placed at different angles on the top, also those big flat panel radiator speakers (can't remember the name) But when they demo'd them they would almost lift you off the floor..... ya, great times, now of course much of the equipment is stored away in lofts etc.

Yes, It needs a bit of publicity.... your site looks good and I wish you all the best with it....

Pete
Title: Re: New site
Post by Snoopy on May 8th, 2008, 6:50am
Seems to work well in Firefox looks good and as stated loads fast , nice and staightforward  ... GOOD LUCK ...
Title: Re: New site
Post by Kjetil S on May 8th, 2008, 8:45am
Looks nice Bruce, but (here comes the constructive criticism  ;))

You should run the site through the W3C Validator (checks for errors in the html code)
here (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.briarsfield-hifi.co.uk%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0)

Apart from that, it's great  :)
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 8th, 2008, 10:39am
Hi guys, thanks for the feedback. It got lost in my 2am translation but it's constructive crit I'm after, I know there's errors because the online editing software is buggy, sometimes things work and sometimes all the formatting goes funny, being a novice and trying to write code directly isn't funny. I'd rather hear it from people on here rather than start getting emails saying 'Oi, your site doesn't work' ::)

So there's likely many errors in the code, but if it's working for the moment I'll let it run a couple of months and think about redesigning it with some proper software (any advice on software? MS Front page?). I'd love to have a funky looking modern site but thought an elegant, staid style fitted better, hence the muted colours. Logos still need some work too, graphics aren't a problem though, just the coding and techy stuff.

Dave, 'Home' tab on the pages? Instead of or as well as the 'Up' tab? Not a problem, could be changed easily.

Pete, I'm not old enough to remember all this stuff first time around mate ;). But my old man was very into hi-fi and always had quite a good system, many memories of Pink Floyd's 'Brick in the wall' and old jazz and classic being thundered through good speakers ;D. I'm getting into newer gear now, got my Celestions and trying to pick up a Musical Fidelity amp, wanted one of those 250w/ch Nu-vista valve things for years. But, the vintage gear is popular and brings in a lot of interest when I list on eBay, and it's pretty rugged and serviceable...so seemed a good choice.

Anyone else? ;D

Regards, Bruce.
Title: Re: New site
Post by 98scenic on May 8th, 2008, 5:16pm
Looks good, also well done for taking it on yourself, I recruited my wife to run my online business website :)
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 8th, 2008, 10:13pm
Well, I'm not expecting a rush, it's too much of a niche thing for that, I'm more hoping once it's on Google that people will stray accross it and I'll start to pick up some interest here and there.

But then it's not like I've started a shop format and had to buy loads of stock and do inventories, apart from the annual hosting fees the overheads are non existent and the only input it needs to keep running from me is to check the emails every evening. Apart from that, if I leave it up and develop it a bit over a year or two it's a good portfolio if I want to change jobs later down the line.

Anyhow, it's early days, I'm just testing the water with it really :)

Regards, Bruce.
Title: Re: New site
Post by Geoff_W on May 8th, 2008, 11:36pm
Bruce,

Have a look at Google Analytics to help see where your visits are coming from and how they are finding you.

Have been using the free version with my blog for about a month now and very impressed, it will also help you see which key words are working for you.

Incidentally, this may not be a money spinner but do you know if it may be possible to retro fit a socket for mp3 players to play through Scorp radios, I have been using a cassette adaptor which does the trick and actually doubles as a car phone, playing incoming calls through the radio however I think an input socket hooked up as an auxiliary would be an even better solution.

Geoff

;)
Title: Re: New site
Post by peteHull on May 9th, 2008, 7:31am

on 05/08/08 at 10:39:07, TiberiuS wrote:
Pete, I'm not old enough to remember all this stuff first time around mate ;). But my old man was very into hi-fi and always had quite a good system, many memories of Pink Floyd's 'Brick in the wall' and old jazz and classic being thundered through good speakers ;D. I'm getting into newer gear now, got my Celestions and trying to pick up a Musical Fidelity amp, wanted one of those 250w/ch Nu-vista valve things for years. But, the vintage gear is popular and brings in a lot of interest when I list on eBay, and it's pretty rugged and serviceable...so seemed a good choice.

Anyone else? ;D

Regards, Bruce.


This is the gear you want Bruce these amps were the bees knees, always fancied one myself but didn't hold out much hope.  Now the possibility is there it seems irrelevent cos my ears don't work the same now.... Pardon... ;D

http://www.hifisounds.co.uk/

Pete
Title: Re: New site
Post by Highlander on May 9th, 2008, 9:24pm

on 05/08/08 at 23:36:24, Geoff_W wrote:
Bruce,

Have a look at Google Analytics to help see where your visits are coming from and how they are finding you.

Have been using the free version with my blog for about a month now and very impressed, it will also help you see which key words are working for you.

Incidentally, this may not be a money spinner but do you know if it may be possible to retro fit a socket for mp3 players to play through Scorp radios, I have been using a cassette adaptor which does the trick and actually doubles as a car phone, playing incoming calls through the radio however I think an input socket hooked up as an auxiliary would be an even better solution.

Geoff

;)


You're far too old for an Ipod Geoff!! ;)

I've got an adaptor that connects into the multichanger socket behind the radio and allows you to play it that way
Title: Re: New site
Post by 98scenic on May 9th, 2008, 9:30pm
As Homer would say "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm valve amplifier"  ;D
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 10th, 2008, 1:07am
Pete, weren't they the ones which were based on matched pairs of EL34 valves? I know Quad made something based on EL34's but can't remember which it was, from memory these are too powerful, don't you need beam pentodes or something over a certain power output?


Quote:
also those big flat panel radiator speakers (can't remember the name)


Electrostatics? The big ones with giant mylar sheets...apparently they work well with valves too. Didn't Quad make some of those back in the day?

Tubes are great, transistors sound so hard after them...and vintage Jap gear can be bright even for transistors. Probably why I like the sound of vinyl so much, has a deeper, more rounded sound than digital.

Years ago when I was at school I heard a big old Technics on a pair of Wharfedale E70's. From that day on I wanted a pair, in the end I bought a pair of Valdus 500...what a let down :(. Cheap build, thin boxy bass, made in China :-/. Ok, not a mega expensive pair of speakers in the grand scheme of things but still a lot ot me at the time. What happened to Wharfedale along the way? :-/

Regards, Bruce.
Title: Re: New site
Post by peteHull on May 10th, 2008, 2:03pm

on 05/10/08 at 01:07:29, TiberiuS wrote:
Pete, weren't they the ones which were based on matched pairs of EL34 valves? I know Quad made something based on EL34's but can't remember which it was, from memory these are too powerful, don't you need beam pentodes or something over a certain power output?


Electrostatics? The big ones with giant mylar sheets...apparently they work well with valves too. Didn't Quad make some of those back in the day?

Tubes are great, transistors sound so hard after them...and vintage Jap gear can be bright even for transistors. Probably why I like the sound of vinyl so much, has a deeper, more rounded sound than digital.

Years ago when I was at school I heard a big old Technics on a pair of Wharfedale E70's. From that day on I wanted a pair, in the end I bought a pair of Valdus 500...what a let down :(. Cheap build, thin boxy bass, made in China :-/. Ok, not a mega expensive pair of speakers in the grand scheme of things but still a lot ot me at the time. What happened to Wharfedale along the way? :-/

Regards, Bruce.


They are still there producing ever better kit... www.wharfedale.co.uk

Yeah the electrostatics,  :o like great big trampolines stood on a side, if you stood in front of them you sure felt the shock waves. ???

I remember when they were demoing the Airdales at one of the shows, the demonstrator took out the lead from the back of the speaker and connected it to a 100w bulb which lit up and flashed with the music....

They used to have every model of speaker on a switching network so they could show the differences in quality, another good display was always put on by Bose too. Very good quality stuff...  ;) eee, memories eh...
Title: Re: New site
Post by Geoff_W on May 10th, 2008, 6:25pm
Stuart

Resisted the ipod temptation so far but my phone has a 1gb mem chip and about five cds on it.

Assorted bits of music from Ealing Film Themes, through Chris Rea Road to hell via Mark Knopfler and Golden Heart.

Ditched the Victor Sylvestor.

First family car that I can remember was a Ford Consul with a bench seat and a valve radio, in the days when motor racing was broadcast on the Home Service. Does your multi-changer socket adaptor mean that you can use the column stalk as well?

Where did you get it from and any chance of a picture?

Sorry Bruce, not trying to pinch your thread. Incidentally Good Luck, really impressed with the work that you did on the OBD diagnostic box
Title: Re: New site
Post by taliban aka Cheekyboy2 on May 11th, 2008, 12:04am
love the site, love old hi fi stuff though i dont know much about it other than the quality in general is far better. i've got loads of vinyl and use an old ferguson system 25 t/table, the strobe pitch control works a treat and the sound quality is pretty good through my bose speakers which must be at least 25 years old now, the amp is more modern though, cambridge audio A1 and cd player is a full size kenwood but i do use an age old technics tape deck as a headphone pre amp as i never got around to buying one of those funny little amps...
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 11th, 2008, 7:50pm
Hi Tali. Yup, I've done a few Fergusons, the turntables are sometimes rebadged BSRs with idler wheel drive, nice simple idea but murder to get running when the old idlers have hardened up and new ones cost more than the value of the set. If you're on belt drive though you're ok ;).

Had one once which played not only 78's but 16's, I've never even seen a 16rpm record before ;D

Geoff, yup I'll take a look at the Google statistics :). As for input for the Scorp, you're better off doing what Stuart says and tapping into the CD input, wiring new inputs isn't something you'd want to try when it's all controlled through microprocessor, my limit was pulling mine to bits when the display died and that was enough ;D

Regards, Bruce :)
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 11th, 2008, 11:22pm

on 05/10/08 at 14:03:55, peteHull wrote:
They are still there producing ever better kit... www.wharfedale.co.uk


Hi Pete. Not my Wharfies mate, I've had 3 pairs and they've all been dissapointing. Seems all the hifi companies have an obsession now with cheap consumer grade gear, and if you do get something at the top end it's still low grade inside. Even the Celestions now, I saw a couple of pairs in an audio store a few months back...ok, from an aesthetic point they looked nice but as speakers, come on...what happened to quality in the 5 years since they dropped the A series?

Reading between the lines I think you're saying to me that there's better high end gear out there to get involved with, I guess in a way you're right. I like my old silver gear, used to buy a lot of it at one time. I'm getting older now, I've sold most of it except for a couple of amps and a receiver and I know what I'd like to get to replace the stuff I've sold. I'd love to spend the evenings fixing vintage Garrads and Quads, but I need to start with what I understand and what there's a mainstream market for :)
Title: Re: New site
Post by peteHull on May 12th, 2008, 7:03am

on 05/11/08 at 23:22:39, TiberiuS wrote:
Hi Pete. Not my Wharfies mate, I've had 3 pairs and they've all been dissapointing.

Ha Ha, yes I suppose you're right, but nowadays anything sounds good to me 'cos my lugs are just about shot, I have a high frequency hearing loss, can't even listen to the telly now without it being very load...

Quote:
Seems all the hifi companies have an obsession now with cheap consumer grade gear, and if you do get something at the top end it's still low grade inside. Even the Celestions now, I saw a couple of pairs in an audio store a few months back...ok, from an aesthetic point they looked nice but as speakers, come on...what happened to quality in the 5 years since they dropped the A series?


Sign of the times I'm afraid, young'uns don't need more than a load of Bass boost including it's megadistortion effects, you only have to listen to the boy racers in thier boom boom clio's and corsa's.
Makes you laugh doesn't it?


Quote:
Reading between the lines I think you're saying to me that there's better high end gear out there to get involved with, I guess in a way you're right. I like my old silver gear, used to buy a lot of it at one time. I'm getting older now, I've sold most of it except for a couple of amps and a receiver and I know what I'd like to get to replace the stuff I've sold. I'd love to spend the evenings fixing vintage Garrads and Quads, but I need to start with what I understand and what there's a mainstream market for :)


I actually threw a load of good gear out a couple of years ago, wish I hadn't now but there ya go... I have just bought one of thes 7.1 surround systems to hook up to our telly when I get the repairs finnished, an LG system, the full works for about £200,,, We'll see if I can hear them, I kept my direct drive TT so should still be able to play my vinyls....

Pete
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 13th, 2008, 12:47am
Hi Pete.

The Wharfies aren't bad, don't get me wrong - but nowhere near what they used to be, the laminate started peeling off 2 of my pairs when they were less than a year old, in the space of 2 years I blew 2 tweeters and a woofer and they didn't get treated hard...I like my sounds but not '130dB death metal' loud, they got run with decent amps so no problems with clipping killing the tweeters.

I tend to run straight through the tone circuits now, no bass or treble boost, nothing. On a speaker that can handle the transients on the low end, any kind of bass or loudness filter kills the sound and makes it muddy :-/
Title: Re: New site
Post by taliban aka Cheekyboy2 on May 13th, 2008, 1:16am
got me looking now.......i like the look of these....

Item number: 110251180872

there are 2 of these as well which could be good replacements or if you're building a pair of speakers....

Item number: 250247278286
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 13th, 2008, 12:21pm
Hmm...those look interesting. Never had a pair of KEFs before, as long as the drivers aren't foam surrounds you should be ok. TBH speakers are one thing which have really improved with time, I've had a few pairs of vintage speakers and they can't hold a candle to modern ones. Nice, but don't pay too much for a vintage speaker unless you really like the sound beforehand, forget what's meant to be good, it's what sounds good to you.

Anyhow, no work today so doing some work setting up the site. Applied for a couple of trade accounts for parts, just set up Google and MSN ad words. Apparently Google search takes 6-8 weeks???, now they want to sell me 'Hypersubmit' or someting? ???. Does anyone more internet savvy than me know whether it's worth spending another £45 a year on a Google ranking booster or could I do the same thing myself with a bit of work?

Yes, the site needs some redesign, I found there's some errors in different browsers...not much but a few misplaced graphics, it's bothering me that it looks unprofessional so I'm going to try and get some software to redesign parts of it. Graphics are no problem, it's just the coding part that's hard to get to grips with. I want to keep the basic layout and colour scheme, just tweak a few parts.

Early days yet but getting there :)

Regards, Bruce.
Title: Re: New site
Post by peteHull on May 13th, 2008, 1:34pm
I admire your talent Bruce, I once tried to get interested in HTML, I went to night school for a short while but couldn't dedicate a lot of time to it, I eventually got sidetracked and never returned.... maybe one day I'll get some software too and have another go.

Pete
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 14th, 2008, 10:25pm
Hi Pete. Well, talent, hmm..thanks ::). But it's not really talent, I'll try anything once and see how it goes, including web design...it normally goes ok, get the programs and read a couple of tutorials and bungle my first attempt at it, hammer away at the code with my keyboard sledgehammer ;D. The HTML is a nightmare, I can understand a bit of code in general but not a great deal, it doesn't help that the editor supplied by the hosting company makes a real mess of it before you even start trying to edit parts of it. Got myself a copy of Microsoft Front Page 2003 on the way, not cheap but then start as I mean to go on, it worries me if the site isn't right on some people's computers.

Anyway, early days but I'm already getting customers, I've only been on Google ad words for 4 days :o

Had a few emails and have a chap sending me a turntable to repair, sounds like quite a simple fault but then it's better than nothing. Of course it might peter out after a while but I hope not, it's generating far more interest than I thought I'd be getting.

You've got me lusting after those Quad valve monoblocks, TBH like most valve gear they're overpriced for what's inside them, but then they do look nicely put together and I've bought valve spares before with no problem, easier to get vintage valves and high power wirewound resistors and things than some modern Pioneer/Technics components..

Regards, Bruce :)
Title: Re: New site
Post by Pegasus on May 16th, 2008, 9:23pm
Hi Bruce,
nice site - simple and easy to navigate - less is more.

Like the pix on the equipment sites - great work (the repairs)

I've still got the equipment I bought 40 years ago (in loft), still works, including the Garrard turntable.

About 7/8 years ago bought the latest kit (only the 3rd): Arcams + Yamaha tape deck + Systemdek turntable. Looked at the best speakers they had (big specialist store) but nothing could touch the sound from my old (38 yrs) Celestion Ditton 25s - but putting them up on 12" Target stands improved them even more - great sound. Still think vinyl is better than CD.

Like what you did with the speaker posts - those with the Dittons really are too small - I'll have to do the same.

All the best,

Paul
Title: Re: New site
Post by taliban aka Cheekyboy2 on May 16th, 2008, 10:08pm
one of my first jobs after leaving school was working for dixons (terrible company) who sold complete systems, back then around 1982 they were good quality systems, akai, pioneer etc, but a few years earlier they had also sold seperates. being the shop junior i got the job of sorting the stockroom, i came across a box full of various makes styli, but also various cartridges including stanton (gold 500/900?). the boss said they're not on any stock list so throw them all in the bin (he was a photographic man not hi fi), so i renamed my bag 'bin'. i remember using one of the stanton cartridges on my own akai system but i kept all the others in a safe place..................can i find them  ::)
Title: Re: New site
Post by TiberiuS on May 22nd, 2008, 7:53pm
Hi Paul, thanks for the comments mate, didn't notice your post before. The site needs some editing, I've not quite got it 'right' yet. I'll add a few sections soon, getting a lot of questions about my fees, what courier I use etc. So more info needs to go up there.

I could do with getting some higher end gear to restore and put on the site, problem is that I've only got decent photos of a few that I've sold myself, so at the moment it looks quite limited. Most of what I get to repair are low end, not the type of thing which looks good on the site, getting something high end which would make a good project to repair is unusual and the prices on eBay at the moment are barmy, I can't even get one myself to put up as a project.

Strange thing, I've had a couple of pairs of Dittons (2 pairs of 15's, pair of 33's) and they just weren't for me, yet the later (lesser) ones I love the sound of. I should really try another pair of vintage Dittons, set up on proper stands etc. After I sold my last Wharfedales I bought a pair of Ditton 4's, early 90's speakers so unknown and unloved. Nice dark walnut effect finish, twin 8" drivers, near mint and boxed for £125. Wow, what a difference after the Wharfedales, so much more depth to the sound, more projected midrange and softer treble. Not as rugged in the bass and nowhere near the sound levels the Wharfies could put out but so much deeper sounding and more open, upgraded to a couple more pairs of Celestions since, very happy with them.

The Garrads are lovely, even today. At least with those you can buy the sets of idler wheels, you can get hold of arm rewire kits, anything. Same with turntables in general, you can strip them to component parts and rebuild them by hand, even the humble old Pioneers...you can't do that with a CD player or DVD receiver. That's why I do the old PL-12's, they're always for sale and cheap, very simple but they can still sound quite good if you set them up right. I can rebuild one in a few hours, if then I do some custom paintwork and a heavier plinth it takes longer but it makes them just that little bit different and I used to sell them painted for £100 a time, more with new plinths.

Same with the old cassette decks, I can get belt kits and pinch rollers, motors and switches are obsolete but with a bit of work, newer ones work fine. You can tune the entire thing with a couple of test tapes recorded with test tones on a good deck and a scope, you can align the heads and everything else by ear..

Blimey Tib, you don't 'arf go on ::)

Regards, Bruce :)
Title: Re: New site
Post by taliban aka Cheekyboy2 on May 22nd, 2008, 8:14pm
thanks to this topic i've now dug out all my vinyl  ;D i'd forgotten how deep and rich vinyl sounds compared to cd's, i just hope that when i get around transferring it all to my pc it doesnt lose that quality, oh well, back to listening to Rod Stewarts classic album 'smiler'.......
Title: Re: New site
Post by peteHull on May 22nd, 2008, 11:41pm
Hi Bruce
I'm just clearing out all my old gear and found the following kit:

Akai AM2250 Amp, I believe it's 25+25, now't special but working.
An Akai AP 206 direct drive TT
and a Sharp RT 1157.

Any ideas, I may put it on e-bay....

Pete


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