My preamp died mid side B and I panicked for nothing. Last Saturday I was spinning a fresh thrift store find, side B about halfway through, and the sound just cut to this awful hum. Turns out my cheap preamp finally gave up after 4 years of daily use. I freaked out thinking my cartridge was toast, but swapped in an old backup preamp I had in a drawer and everything was fine. Anyone else had a component die out of nowhere and assume the worst?
Honestly, I ran a pair of old Pioneer bookshelves on a cheap shelf for like 6 years in my 12x14 living room in Austin, and I thought they sounded fine. Last month I swapped to some used floorstanders I found for $300, and now bass actually hits my chest instead of just buzzing. For anyone with a similar sized space, did you need to add a subwoofer after going bigger, or was the floorstander output enough?