What Is Your Favourite Bit of Kit?

[ekfc63]

It's gotta be my turntable Roksan Xerxes 20+, Naim ARO and Roksan Shiraz cartridge. They're all individually excellent but sound even better together. Very good synergy. For me turntables are easy to love because they're mechanical and hence highly interactive.

Following closely are my Naim SL2 speakers. As an engineering type I really appreciate the science that has gone into these speakers. Love or hate the sound, no one makes speakers like Naim. The concept was to focus primarily on isolation and vibration control in the cabinets and less on the drivers which are excellent but not state of the art like some other speakers (such as Magico with their esoteric cutting edge driver materials). I often wonder what the result would be if the SL2 cabinets were combined with some Magico drivers.

[oldius]

I wish this didn't change almost daily!

I don't currently wish to change any of my gear which is unusual for me. I do think that some gear will be with me for life though, especially my TTS8000/SME IV and Art 1, my Technics SH-X1000 DAC and my NS1000M. Picking one amp only would be an issue though; on different days I put one on and love it then I will swap again and love again. They are the Nakamichi CA7/PA7 and the Lentek integrated. I really love them both sonically and aesthetically.

[Alp]

My B&W 804N speakers. Every time I improve the source and amplification they just get better and better, and still look great, despite being over a decade old.

[Edwardlon]

My favourite bit of kit is the bit of kit I have yet to buy.

I love the way (usually) a new bit of kit lifts the music to an even better place.

But as to 'now' - I guess it is my music collection, all digital (approaching 2tb), which I would be gutted to lose, so I have it backed up twice - once in the cloud.

But current hardware I would say is the Radford Revival STA25 and the non oversampling Chevron Paradox DAC (modded a few months ago). The PMC speakers are also high up there.

The bit of kit that would be a pain to lose is the fanless SSD windows 10 renderer I spent some time building and optimising.

[Lawrence001]

This is a hard one for me. I love my whole system.

The Tannoys bring me huge pleasure, as does my amazingly capable Monarchy Audio gear. I'm very fond of the remarkably good Pioneer PD-S505 Precision CD players. The 774 arm is a class act on my turntable.

The recently purchased Quad 306 power amp and vintage KEF Corelli speakers have proved to be excellent.

Hmm, It's got to be the irreplaceable MingDa MC-9 TVC pre-amp I think. What this does with music astonishes me each time I connect it into the system.



What are you favourites?

Funny you mention a TVC as today I picked this up and it is my new favourite bit of kit.


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[57charles]

It has to be my Yamaha Z9 in 2 channel direct mode - it's an effortless refined powerhouse followed by my cultured Spendor SP2/3r2.

[Yomanze]

Tonight it has to be my Royd RR3 standmount speakers, most of the boogie of old Royds with way more refinement. They need a serious amp to wake up though, so think Naim NAP135s instead of a Nait 2. Currently listening to some death metal (90s) while my girlfriend and daughter are out of the house, so when the double kick drums come in fast with a rhythm and guitar solo on top am reminded of why these speakers are so good. No blur or feeling of 'behind time notes', everything arrives in one go as recorded, which seems to be a very difficult thing to achieve with speakers! Phase and transient response seem to have been forgotten during the BBC days, but at least we have some Royd fanboys around...

[Puffin]

"Tonight Matthew I am Going to Be........." my Muse TDA1543 Dac....Ta Da.....!

Sorry, Friday night early wine imbibing . I got this from someone on here and checked it to make sure it worked and put it to one side. I dug it out the other week and have been using it with both a battery PS and a linear PS. Iam now using it with a linear PS, a ripple eater and a teddyreg (regulated to 10v - said to be the optimum for this Dac) and it sounds....SoooooPerb

[Yomanze]

"Tonight Matthew I am Going to Be........." my Muse TDA1543 Dac....Ta Da.....!

Sorry, Friday night early wine imbibing . I got this from someone on here and checked it to make sure it worked and put it to one side. I dug it out the other week and have been using it with both a battery PS and a linear PS. Iam now using it with a linear PS, a ripple eater and a teddyreg (regulated to 10v - said to be the optimum for this Dac) and it sounds....SoooooPerb

The 'immediacy' and close-up yet deep soundstage nature of these DACs are indeed great.

Get some Joni Mitchell on and the TDA1543 can shred modern DACs.

[magiccarpetride]

This is a hard one for me. I love my whole system.

The Tannoys bring me huge pleasure, as does my amazingly capable Monarchy Audio gear. I'm very fond of the remarkably good Pioneer PD-S505 Precision CD players. The 774 arm is a class act on my turntable.

The recently purchased Quad 306 power amp and vintage KEF Corelli speakers have proved to be excellent.

Hmm, It's got to be the irreplaceable MingDa MC-9 TVC pre-amp I think. What this does with music astonishes me each time I connect it into the system.



What are you favourites?

I'm having trouble picking between my Maggies planar speakers and my Denon DL-103 cartridge. Both are magical products that create breathtaking music.