Hi-Fi, Lo-Fi, Mid-Fi, No-Fi.

[VinylHanger]

I hate to admit this, but I use my Casio Commando phone speaker most of the time at work these days. I just turn on Spotify and stick it in my cell holder. It follows me all over the job site and is loud enough I need to turn it down to talk to others.

 

[SteveinAlaska]

I didn't bother to take off the $7.99 Value Village price tag from the Panasonic AM/FM clock radio with which I tune into Coast to Coast for the bigfoot reports. But there are nights when I put the trick $29.99 Radio Shack tunable antenna next to it & listen to KNOM Nome, Alaska or the oldies rock show from Juneau!!(looonng winters)

 

[Splatter Pak]

I retired my wife's powered computer speakers, and wired her laptop and my mac mini to play thru the Klipsch Hereseys. I took the retired speakers apart, to find that the chip amp was rated at 10% distortion. I'm sure almost all computer speakers are in the same Lo-Fi league. Oh, the things you learn by taking things apart...

 

[bogle111]

it has decent volume for its size

That is punny, not puny.

 

[Frank Sol]

...tuned in to Coasttocoastam then drift off to sleep hoping to get abducted by aliens

...I tune into Coast to Coast for the bigfoot reports.

:thmbsp:

 

[AnalogDigit]

I have a Panasonic portable cassette tape recorder that takes 4 C cells that I listen to on occasion. I also have several Panasonic AM/FM portable radios that take 4 C Cells that I listen to in case the power goes off. I have another boom box in the shed that has CD, cassette and AM/FM stereo, but the cassette portion is going flaky.

 

[xlbee]

I still listen to my original hand crank Freeplay radio sometimes at our cottage where there is no electricity. Clear blue plastic, single speaker, spring loaded. You crank it 50 turns and it plays for 30 minutes. Very lo-fi but great if you want to get the current weather report or listen to the news.

 

[gongli]

I used to enjoy a lot the JVC Kaboom boombox - perhaps the best out there for the money.

If anyone needs all in one system with a sub built in, try this one - you probably like them as much as I liked mine. Has warm sounding bass, nice mid and the highs are tamed so they don't give you a listening fatigue...

 

[melofelo]

Lo-fi is fun... i 'beam' the sound from my laptop using a £0.99p made in somewhere fm transmitter to a sharp gf-9090... great for online media and mp3s... and i still use cassettes in my mini through some quite lo-fi speaker arrangement...and reclaimed wood... and it sounds glorious!
('anything' sounds 'glorious' compared to carb induction roar on a 998cc engine at 60 mph)

 

[matteos]

The lowest fi I've done is to put my phone in a glass jar to amplify the sound on speaker..

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Rick: nah, Emmett is more of a push buttons and twist knobs on the tapedeck kind of boy....

And he's my listening buddy.

In my (vast) experience not many 2-year-olds will sit and rock out with ya.


Matt

I was quite-fond of it at that age. That's how the parents used to keep me busy, especially while visiting a close friend of theirs who had a really-nice system with reel-to-reel (I have a picture I used for my avatar for a while that shows me at age 1&1/2 to 2 wearing headphones and staring into space). I learned all about "veg'ing-out" at a VERY-young age...

 

[KrisM]

Rick: nah, Emmett is more of a push buttons and twist knobs on the tapedeck kind of boy....

And he's my listening buddy.

In my (vast) experience not many 2-year-olds will sit and rock out with ya.


Matt

Mine, now 4 1/2, does. She's the reason I get to enjoy lo-fi/mid-fi gear as much as I do. I made a "don't let her see what is behind the speaker grills" rule, though. I'm about 99% sure she would have been jabbing at them.

My garage system is a revolving door of mid(or lower)-fi. It brings much enjoyment when we're hanging out in the backyard. Currently it has a Nikko receiver, Realistic monkey coffins, and a 5 disc Sony CD recorder. I've used better in there, but this one works just fine for it's location.

Her playroom has a Sansui 221, Minimus 7Ws, and a Rotel CD player.
She also has my old Fisher Price record player in there. It sounds AWFUL, but I embrace the fact that she picks out one of her lps and spins it.

And I've done the cellphone speaker thing. I was once stuck painting on the top floor utility floor of a downtown office building, with no windows, for hours. The poor sounds out of my phone were way better than listening to only the sounds of the air movers and the spray cans.:yes:

 

[KrisM]

I was quite-fond of it at that age. That's how the parents used to keep me busy, especially while visiting a close friend of theirs who had a really-nice system with reel-to-reel (I have a picture I used for my avatar for a while that shows me at age 1&1/2 to 2 wearing headphones and staring into space). I learned all about "veg'ing-out" at a VERY-young age...

I have a similar picture(don't we all?).
I also have one of my kid listening to my XA, with headphones, the night that Villchur passed.

 

[Gang-Twanger]

Here's about as lo-fi as I get these days... It's my Dell DJ 20GB digital-music-player...

Possibly the best-sounding portable digital-audio-player ever made, due to it's well-built hard drive (not a flash drive) and it's lack of video-playback and other bells & whistles I don't need (No point in complicating the circuit anymore than necessary). They don't make these anymore, as Dell has since gotten out of the mp3-player business. Gets plenty of use from me though, either with headphones or hooked up to a car stereo (It's got a great battery that lasts longer than any others players I've tried, so no fears on long, 9-hour car trips). I run it with the EQ off and use my Grado SR80's when I can (It does very-well with the Grados). It's quite a heavy unit though.

 

[zenith2134]

Califone cassette deck they use in schools

 

[bermnerfs]

I have a little portable 3 way sound bar thing made by Coby that runs a lithium ion battery and can run on DC power as well. It takes a 3.5mm, USB, or SD card as a source. It has 2- 1.5" drivers and a 3" oval passive radiator.

The highs are actually surprisingly good. I like how it sounds. No bottom end though. Can't complain as I got it for free for opening a checking acct at the local bank.

 

[HPuser9557]

For me, lo-fi would be a Beats Pill.

 

[DeeCee]

My oldest was born in 2008, so God willing if she lives to 70, her favorite track from Steely Dan will be 100 years old when she listens to it in her latter years.

With that statement, please tell me her favorite Steely Dan song is "Reelin' In The Years"!

Back on topic, when one of my old PCs crapped out and my old "el cheap-o" speakers developed a hum, I ended up building a new PC from scratch and then bought a new speaker set... Cambridge Soundworks PCworks (B-Stock) for around thirtyish dollars.

This turned out to be one of the best moves I ever made as I never really listened much to music over the net; I started listening more seriously as the sound quality was much approved.

Considering the quality differential this really worked out nicely (although I am poorer for it due to future purchases!)

You don't need lot of bucks to get passable sound.

 

[Radfordman]

For me it's this Sony ICF-38 that I found on the curb several years ago.
The only thing wrong with it was a failed tracing at the detector stage.
Has good fidelity and reception. I play NPR on it every morning for several hours.

I have the ICF-390, which seems to be similar, it's on a good part of the night. I use eneloop rechargeable cells in it, they last ages before needing recharging.

 

[Tinnkindling]

Thread takes me back to teenage years when we would crank the bass to max, and the treble to minimum on our parent's Clairtone console. All you could hear was a sort of boomy mid bass mellow mush.