Entertainment For Lively Minds
So what are you listening with?
Posted by Lenny Law on 8 August 2009 - 11:20pm.
David Rothon's "Hi-Fi Nonesense" thread has been a fascinating read and it begs the question:
What's your current audio equipment?
For me..
Arcam Alpha 7se CD
Arcam Alpha 9 amp
Audio Fidelity X-DAC
SONOS multi-room super-duper digital thingywhatsit
Sodding great Eltax floorstanding speakers in the main room.
All primary units linked with oxygen-free connectors, apart from the fbre-optic Sonos-to-X-DAC link.
Whacking great ribbony speaker cables. Bi-wired.
- More from Lenny Law.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Show-off....
.
a brief history
When we die, they say all our previous...
I'd like it to be record players, music machines if you will:
1. a 14" semi cardboard box with one speaker. Made by Bush, it smelled as it warmed up too.
2. a Murphy stereo, two speakers!
3. a bAmstrad 10W amp (with Loudness switch), Garrard turntable and a pair of Wharfedale white (with rounded corners) speakers, Hannimex 8-Track player
4. Goodmans Mezzo SL speakers*, Sansui 30W amp (with Loudness switch)
5. Sony 30W amp (with actual wood panels, groovy, but no Loudness switch), Technics ST 7200 Tuner, Wharfedale top loading chromdioxid + Dolby B tape deck
6. Technics 50W amp (with Loudness switch), Technics top loading chromdioxid + Dolby B tape deck
7. Technics front loading tape deck, chromdioxid + Dolby B
years pass
8. Technics 20W amp (I was skint and the old one blew up when I tried to play my bass through it) worst amp I ever owned, Technics Dolby B + C tape deck*
9. Kenwood 60W valve amp* (beautiful sound, I still have it plugged into the TV/Cable set-up), Denon CD player (lasted 4 years and died)
10. Sony 3-Head Dolby S tape deck (Fuct! or when it feels like working)*
11. Yamaha Turbo Nutter Bastard! 150W amp and the good old Goodmans Mezzos are still plugged into it
*still used to this day
blimey, that feels good getting all that out
'ere we go...
Stand by for the invective when the anti-hifi faction spot this thread! Anyway:
PT TOO / Alphason Xenon / Denon DL304
Quad CDP-2 / Quad 99 / Quad 909 / Quad FM4 linked by "quad bus"
Creek OBH-21 headphone amp
KEF Q5s wired with Black & Decker "orange" mains cable!
In my office, I've got an old Quad valve amp set-up - sweet and lovely, but a bit underpowered for the main room. Cambridge Audio DACMagic to play the computer files while working...valves to take off the digital edge...niiice.
Ooh.. nice..
Valves..
Do they always stay turned on?
No.
Small room, lotsa heat, you get the picture...
What's wrong with a dedicated a/c unit?
A gentleman's musical reproduction system should ALWAYS be kept at ambient temperature.
Correction
A gentleman's reproduction system should be kept at ambient temperature.
All in one box
We've got an Arcam Solo and some Mission speakers in the living room and a couple of Denon mini stereos in other rooms. Music is streamed round the house with a few Soundbridges with a MacMini as a server. We'd probably still be using a 15 year old Technics separates system if some bastards hadn't decided that they were more entitled to it than we were!
Funnily enough, in my flat it is a
Solo and some Missions also-but 770s like these:
http://seventiesstereo.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-mission-770-freedom-pict...
as I can't yet bear to part with them-sound great. The benefit of the one box is rather lost as it lives under a flat screen telly, and is also fed by a Philips hard disk/DVD PVR (cheap, will do until Freeview HD), JVC S-VHS VCR (a few tapes left), and Pioneer DVD player (also plays SACD and multiregion). Hence the wires mentioned in another post, though I added a nice stand from these people:
http://www.spectral-moebel.de/?lang=en
last week to replace the stand from an old CRT.
In neighbouring bookcase and connected all this lot is an old IBM Thinkpad used now for Spotify, iPlayer, iTunes etc, and also a Squeezebox which isn't strictly necessary but is a great way to get at stuff quickly, e.g. listen again or a track you just fell like hearing.
So a system that still needs much rationalisation, but which way to jump not so clear in view of all the flux in the AV markets-have been tempted by kit as diverse in approach as this:
http://www.avihifi.co.uk/neutron.html
this:
http://www.arcam.co.uk/products,solo,Movie-Systems,SoloMovie21.htm
and Sony VAIOs, Dells, Mac Minis etc etc.
I want tidier kit nowadays (flat is a gallery, small floor area), and would be interested in people's experiences-but I want to keep the sort of quality I have now i.e. good speakers, big screens (32" at the moment) etc.
Macbook
through a pair of Audioengine 2s. Brilliant little speakers (I may have mentioned this before).
My first "proper" system was (from memory, so model numbers may be incorrect):
Pioneer PL12D turntable
Trio KA3500 amp
Solavox PR40 speakers (Comet's very own!)
My last hi-fi was:
Cyrus Discmaster
Cyrus DACmaster
Cyrus Pre & Power amps
Mission 753 speakers
"So what are you listening with?"
Easing myself into my comfy chair next to my small library of reference books and spotters guides and smoothing the blanket over my knees I take out my trusty parker.... Dear Sir, I fear I would have to say "I'm listening with" my MK1 standard issue Ears....
yours
chris G
Pedantry Corner
I believe that said corner has been renamed.
Following an unseemly argument regarding apostrophes and the exact meaning of "pedant", it is now known as:
The Corner Wherein Those Who Dedicate Themselves To The Pursuit Of Pedantry May Be Found.
Although I did ask Lynne Truss once and she said it should be Pedants' Corner. And she should know.
Touché
Like it.
I would have thought, Chris
It would be, at least, a Mont Blanc?
Here we go...
In the "den" its
-Marantz CD63mkII KI Signature CD Player
- Audio Alchemy DDE v1.1 DAC
- Audiolab 8000i Amp
- Monitor Audio 702 Speakers
Also have the iMac wired in via an optical cable to the DAC to play stuff from iTunes
In the Living Room its
- Pioneer DVD / SACD
- Yamaha A2 AV amp
- Monitor Audio Speakers
- Airport Express connected via optical to the AV amp to stream from the iMac
- Apple TV
Three main systems
In the music room: QUAD II mono valve amps feeding QUAD ESL57s
In the living room: QUAD 33/303 amp feeding QUAD ESL57s
In the office: Cyrus II amp feeding Kef Carlton IIIs
(and, yes, they all stay powered on permanently)
Emphatically not left on all the time...
NAD 320BEE Amplifier
NAD 521i CD Player
Pioneer MJ-D508 Minidisc recorder
JBL speakers
please don't laugh
Macbook through Bose Companion 1 speakers
or
Apple TV through JBL speakers that look like white flowers (this is all about what looks right in our living room)
or
Macbook or iPod through either Grado SR60s, Bose folding over-ear things, or standard iPod phones
or
Harmon Kardon stereo in my Mini
Clearly I am not an audiophile, but recently I've started to think about it. The Grado phones seem to open up music for me. I have never owned a turntable or a proper hifi. Portability and convenience always seemed more important to me, also I don't consider I've listened to a piece of music unless I hear it on headphones.
The same stuff i bought here
20 years ago. 2x sl1210s, 1986 sony cd player via knackered old mixer into a Nad 3020i, Bose 301's. N91 8gb for mp3s. Does the job still.
Turntable is
Linn Sondek w. Ittok arm and Ortofon MC10 needs upgrading)cartridge, CD is Pioneer PDS801, Tuner is Meridian 104, Preamp is Meridian 101, power amp/power supply is Linn LK280/Spark. Obviously painstakingly installed using spikes, good cables, etc.
Bedroom system has Audiolab B1, Denon Minidisk, Nakamichi cassette, Yamaha tuner, into small Mordaunt Short speakers and Bayer headphones.
1975 Amstrad music centre…
(Only joking readers! Although some of it's just about as old (albeit a grade or two better)
Rotel Ra01 amplifier (couple of years old. Great budget amp, IMHO)
Sansui X211E CD player (early 90s. Possibly on its last legs)
Yamaha KX493 cassette deck. Oddly, this doesn't get a lot of use these days, but I can't bring myself to get rid.
Rega Planar 2 turntable (70s model with wooden frame, but reconditioned a couple of years ago so runs a treat as well as being a thing of beauty)
Wharefdale Diamond speakers (about 25 years old. Maybe I need an upgrade? Any recommendations? (Small is beautiful))
Is anyone running a Mac Mini into their TV ?
I know plenty of you are using laptops, iPods etc for watching TV/films, but it seems to me the most drastic tidying I could do with the pile of boxes I mentioned above would be to go to recording Freeview and watching DVDs with a Mac Mini instead of the Philips and the Pioneer, and finally let go of the VCR.
I'd use the iPlayer etc as well but I would prefer to keep ability to record for myself, and dub to DVD.
I'd want to get same picture quality as I used to get with the traditional AV kit though-have any of *you* made this switch ? If you have how do you do the multi-region thing, and can you upscale etc ? Will there ever be Blu-Ray drives for the Mac ?
And what questions have I forgotten ?
I've connected a MacBook to my TV
for watching .movs and it worked fine. Apple do a cable for exactly that purpose
Thanks for responding
but, like my use of a Thinkpad to look at iPlayer downloads etc that's something I can *only* do with a computer, as opposed to something I could choose to do more than one way.
What sort of results do you get if you play a DVD on your MacBook and view it on the TV screen ? Compared to the quality of your existing player ?
I know results are likely to be good using DVI/HDMI but getting meaningful trials/demos quite hard and other peoples' experience is v useful here. Only representative trials I have seen are a v expensive but good Media PC a couple of years ago, and a much cheaper "biscuit tin" VAIO.
To be honest, I haven't tried DVDs
I've only used the TV link for playing .mov files from the MacBook. The quality is as good as the MacBook screen
Apple TV
also does a good job getting video (and of course music) to your TV setup, although its a little more limited than an actual computer. It can be hacked fairly easily, but even then the browser etc isn't great.
I can watch BBC iPlayer via Boxee on the Apple TV, but I believe iplayer is coming to Freeview next year, so that will be another one ticked off.
Also great for streaming your itunes library (if you use it,of course) to a music set up in a room that isn't where you keep your PC.
Freeview iPlayer
>but I believe iplayer is coming to Freeview next year, so that >will be another one ticked off.
had wondered what this means. Presumably the box would just have the iPlayer software installed, and would need to talk to an ADSL phone line to actually grab the programmes, much as Virgin's box now does over cable.
So you'd pay whatever you pay for your existing broadband.
Quite taken with the big font version of iPlayer on my TV,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/
though as this seems to have been originally designed for the PSP or something it doesn't support the downloads unfortunately, just the streaming.
*Blushes*
£10 Trust Speaker 'setup' from Tesco is where I do all my Spotifying. Actually not bad!
Anyone recommend decent PC speakers? Also, does the issue of wiring apply equally in this area?
I'm not stalking, but...
Honestly, the Audioengine 2s that I keep banging on about are brilliant little speakers.
http://www.ecodigital.co.uk/estore/index.php?main_page=product_info&prod...
And....
http://www.audioengineusa.com/a2_home.php
Not sure any of it is HiFi....
...but it can access a hell of a lot of music quickly.
QNAP 401 Pro server with 3TB of RAID V space, containing c. 20000 songs ripped to lossless FLAC. Internet-connected Netgear Routers connecting server to assorted Squeezeboxes and a Squeezebox Boom, enabling selection of any track from the library, or any Internet Radio channel or music service - no Spotify in the US, so I use Rhapsody which does the same thing. Main amp is an Onkyo 605 Home Theatre job.
If you use the Squeezebox Duet
can you comment on whether the headphone socket works yet ? My local dealer doesn't know and web searches weren't clear. Possibility of using this to listen in bed to late night Radio3, previous day(s) Late Junction etc is quite appealing.
I don't have a Duet
...but this thread kind of indicates that it isn't working yet...
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=65799
Want to improve my sound
My set-up is
iMac
Beresford DAC (A kind-of home made one I found on the internet)
http://www.homehifi.co.uk/main/main.html
Arcam Solo
Pair of Avance Concrete Pyramid speakers that a mate lent to me that sound quite meaty
Project USB turntable
B&W Sub
Open to any recommendation, esp.re speakers -this is for 'the den' so space is a factor - but was interested in the a http://www.avihifi.co.uk/neutron.html
Solo
That's interesting-do you play the iMac into the Solo analogue inputs via that DAC ? Apple lossless ? Do you prefer that or the Solo's own CD player ?
I have tried quite a few small speakers with a view to replacing my old, large Missions (see above) including some from B&W, Monitor Audio, Spendor etc, but not yet the Neutrons. Have yet to hear any passive designs that I prefer but I was impressed by the active ADM9s.
The really interesting thing about the latest Neutrons apart from their size would seem to be the new active remote controlled sub with its own digital and analogue inputs, which would allow you to use the Solo purely as a source if you wanted to.
It's interesting that 3 people in this thread so far have Solos, rather underlines Arcam's decision to get out of the "cheap" separates market.
Good point I may be doing
Good point I may be doing something completly stupid
The DAC outputs to the AV in on the Solo - good idea to benchmark via playing the same source through the imac and the solo - will look at the Neutrons
I suggest…
… you try reversing the polarity of the Neutron flow
Flux capacitors
No criticism implied-just wondered what the mac actually did in the system. Do you play DVDs with it at all (see my comments above, I am interested in getting one as a media PC and to reduce my box count) ?
And as far as reversing polarity goes, David, better attend to the quantum flux first ...
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/sci_fi_writer_attributes?utm_source...
Mac Mini
I read this about the Mac Mini as a media centre. Worthy of consideration.
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/how-to-turn-the-mac-mini-i...
Thanks.
There's also quite a bit of older coverage, such as
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2006...
but it's the up to date stuff, and especially the comparisons with more traditional methods that I am really after, so that piece and Tim's experiences are useful to me.
I see that the people from AVI commented on the Tech Radar article, they have been very strident in their "traditional hi fi is dead" line, ironically rather reminiscent of Ivor Tiefenbrun in his heyday 30 years ago ... but I do find their arguments quite plausible ... and I like the simplicity of the systems,
http://www.avihifi.co.uk/adm9.html
I am just trying not to lose quality en route to more simplicity.
The mac is for my itunes
The mac is for my itunes library - a bloated 340gb - but it still runs smoothly, at that size it was always slow on a PC
Dont use it for DVD but when I have I dont think it nearly meets what i get off a good standard def or certainly a dedicated blu-ray player
I do like the AppleTV thing but that is in the sitting room for accessing itunes/photos/youtube - that is linked via HDMI and works well. I have tried HD movies over that link (connected via ethernet) and IMHO these are not up to the standard of even standard DVDs
Old School
Linn LP12
Pioneer PD-s801 (it plays the cds upside down, you know)
Creek 4140 (no tones)
Rega Ela speakers
Using....
Acoustic Solutions Amp
Bush Turntable
Macbook(for CD's and Spotify!)
B&W Speakers (1982 models!)
80s budget dinosaurs service my aural needs...
which is odd because the 80s is when music and I parted company for a few years.
Dual CS-505 with Ortofon VMS20E(originally ARCam cartridges)
Nad 3020e (rather than the original 3020-a?)
Kef Codas (II's?)
Any other cheap'n'cheeerful bits I connect to the amp
I got used to a particular cheap but likeable setup at one time, got attached to it then reconstituted the system via ebay after a few itinerant years. The Quad Electrostatics, valve amps, etc. that I've listened through elsewhere would be great if I could find ways to beg/steal/borrow them - but there's no way I could afford that.
I'm fairly sceptical about ability to determine differences in sensory input on a blind basis - I did a Pychology degree many years ago including a special option chunk of auditory perception. Whatever floats your boat in the audio sense is my rule, though if your ears - and only your ears - tell you something else is much better, AND (more importantly) you can afford it then why not go ahead.
Just for perspective, I've driven the same model of car for the last 17 years. Perhaps I'm easily pleased....
Psychology
rather than Phycology of course....I've never been quite sure how the "edit" option works here.
Glad I'm not alone - thought it was all iPods out there!
Don't get me wrong, they are great little gadgets when you are on the move, but nothing beats a belting stereo system! I was as sceptical as anyone about diminishing returns until I listened to the CD player below with my previous(Arcam)amp and the guy suggested I try the Audiolab 8000s as they had one second hand. The difference was astonishing, and I then added the power amp a bit later. It's not 'high end', but beats budget stuff hollow - the music has space and depth and the stereo sound stage seems to go beyond the speakers so you can hear the individual musicians.
For the record...
Arcam CD192 CD player
Revolver record deck
Audiolab 8000s pre-amp
Audiolab 8oooSX power amp
B&W DM602.5 S3 speakers