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Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 11:17 pm
by Fran
Well, the title says it all. What is the best geegaw, faldal, widget, gadget, apparatus, tool, contrivance, device or gizmo that you have in your hifi room?

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 4:01 pm
by HiFiFan
Probably my FIIO Compact Fully Balanced USB DAC/AMP (dongle) that lets me use my balanced IEMs with my phone.

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 4:12 pm
by Diapason
My WiFi router. The fact that I now have a world of recorded music throughout history at my immediate disposal in at least CD quality boggles my mind.

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 10:04 pm
by hudo
Laser distance meter probably:)

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 11:48 pm
by Fran
I'm torn between a few gadgets....

Something I only use now and again is a Feickert alignment gauge, but very useful thing to have
If you are testing equipment, a sound level app on the phone is very handy indeed to make sure you are not fooling yourself with a louder/quieter playback
Hard drive with lots of choice is another one - bluetooth is another

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 10:53 am
by Adrian
Probably turntable set up / alignment tools, used very infrequently but when required are an absolute must. Spirit level is handy too.

Most used gadget would be remote control for the amp.

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 12:54 pm
by tony
Hard drive. What a space saver. I can now fill the room up with bass traps and other paraphernalia instead of Cd's and Lps!

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:49 pm
by Brutus1968
Definitely the Dspeaker antinode 2.0. When in Italy my hifi room had a terrible resonant peak around 50Hz (where most of the bookshelf speakers reflex tube emits). After trying a number of "passive" solutions and changing several speakers I finally decided to buy it, and it brilliantly solved all my problems. To my surprise the effect of removing unwanted bass boosts come together with a lot of details in the mid-high region that now could flourish. And with such a tool I could use any speaker in the room now, saving a correction curve for each one (up to 4).
Where I am living now I am not using it as digital corrector, but as DAC for both my digital files on the PC and the optical signal from a CD player. A very flexible item indeed.

Best

Max

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2024 5:29 pm
by cybot
My favourite essential gadgets are definitely my Vinyl Passion Dust Buster stylus cleaner and Deram Record Cleaning Brush. The DB is used before and at the end of my session. The Deram brush is not used in the recommended fashion for cleaning records. I use it per side of listening on the stylus! It contains just a single row of very fine carbon fibres and it’s very effective indeed but only if it is used regularly.

Re: Best hifi gadget you own?

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2024 7:43 pm
by peelaaa
Is it a gadget or not?, who knows but I use a magic eraser for removing dirt/dust from the stylus. Reading Cybot post above, the dust buster could be an alternative I may try.
I also use a disco anti-stat record cleaner. Great results from this, using the supplied liquid.