My Stuff

[ellison]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/912/Uemexa.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/Rx9TXD.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/BrfKNM.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/904/YSovpL.jpg

[Gordon Steadman]

Nice to see a place lived in rather than a showroom.

Feels like a home:)

[ellison]

Nice to see a place lived in rather than a showroom.

Feels like a home:)

Thanks..
My two year old has a lot to do with that :bike:

[Gordon Steadman]

Thanks..
My two year old has a lot to do with that :bike:

We don't have that excuse:lol:

Just us and four cats - still looks lived in though.

[ellison]

We don't have that excuse:lol:

Just us and four cats - still looks lived in though.
Im not sure which of us has the easier job....the child or four cats :grouphug: :)

[RochaCullen]

Glad to see another Justin fan!! :)

[ellison]

Glad to see another Justin fan!! :)
The boy :) loves him....he"s only two and a half but has picked up lots of the sign language too

[Barry]

Nice to see a place lived in rather than a showroom.

Feels like a home:)

Lived in? The clothes on the radiator are obviously part of the acoustic treatment of the room! It must have taken Michael quite some time to find the optimum arrangement and choice of absorbing material. :D

[Gordon Steadman]

Lived in? The clothes on the radiator are obviously part of the acoustic treatment of the room! It must have taken Michael quite some time to find the optimum arrangement and choice of absorbing material. :D

I would have hoped that, at two and a half years old, the kid is out of nappies!!

[ellison]

Lived in? The clothes on the radiator are obviously part of the acoustic treatment of the room! It must have taken Michael quite some time to find the optimum arrangement and choice of absorbing material. :D

The clothing was the easy bit...it took a lot more working out where to put stuff on top of the speakers to get the desired acoustic effect :doh:

[Gordon Steadman]

Right.... we've done all that stuff. What's the equipment? Do you listen to music on it?

[ellison]

Right.... we've done all that stuff. What's the equipment? Do you listen to music on it?

Yes of course....amp is a Vincent sv236 mk. The CD player is CA 840c azure which needs attention due to a known fault of dodgy capacitors.Will have this fixed probably after Xmas as the fault is intermittent and not constant so I can put up with it for the present.The DVD player is old arcam dv79 mostly used for playing DVD audio.There's also the cheap goldring gr1 record player which is used occasionally and finally CA 650t azure dab player which is rarely used these days.

[Quadraphonic]

Hi Michael,

Wow I'm highly impressed with your set up, I like how you fit it into your living space. As someone else said on here, it looks like home, not some demo room! I am particularly impressed with the tree!!....well done you finding the space! I am guilty here, we have all block floors in our house and that is on 6 inch concrete, 1930s build, so solid, and good for floorstander speakers, but freezing cold also at times. We finally carpeted out both downstairs rooms, and it has killed the boominess as a result. I used that as an excuse not have any more real trees at Christmas.....! cos of the needles and that waxy sticky stuff that sticks to the floor like glue! Every year my son would want to go up and get a "small tree"....yeah right. It would end up about 8 feet tall, touching the ceiling and spreading out, and I couldn't listen to anything as I couldn't get near anything! Now he is 16 he's happy with a artificial one, and...... it's in the back room!!! He he he.

What's the finish on those speakers? Looks like Walnut? I love the colour, and is that a valve amp? I must confess to never having heard one. I keep meaning to. I got two NAD370s which are heavy things, very powerful, but they are also pretty thin on upper bass, but with a lot of very low end grunt which suits my speakers (which can sound bass heavy with the wrong amp). The nads sound very "fluid" but I often wonder how a valve amp would sound. I read lots about their purity and transparency, which are qualities I like. I used to use a stand like yours, but recently put the lot up in an alcove on a big shelf double width. Like you it's a living room, we all use it, so that's good. And is that a Guitar amp? My brother had one and it looked a bit like that.

All best,

Richard

[ellison]

Hi Richard...
The speakers are burled walnut I believe.The amp is hybrid and has 3 x12ax7 tubes in pre amp stage and solid state in output.The guitar amp is vox ac30.I actually borrowed 3 tubes from the vox when 1 of the Vincent tubes needed changing but now have tad valves in there now.There is a big difference in sound of the different valves.The speakers are what governs my amp selection.I've had a few over the years.The musical fidelity a5.5 was probably the best pairing but unfortunatley a constant hum from its transformer put me off....though MF said the hum was reasonable....in the end I sold the a5.5 and got the Vincent. The build quality of the Vincent easily surpassed the a5.5. And the sound is 95% as good for my tastes.Are you biamping with the 2 nads or two different systems?

[Quadraphonic]

Hi Michael,

Yep thought so, veeery nice wood figuration, it shouts class! Nice design too. Do you use any polish on them? I use Teak oil on mine as they were never sealed.

No I don't bi amp, I use 4 channels, so have identical fronts and backs, quadraphonic and SACD stuff.

I did consider valve, but wondered if it might be too "warm" for these speakers? These Nads are pretty cold, so work pretty well.

I know of the humming issue, but there should be a sweet listening spot where it cancels itself out? And also, I am told valve is so much better than they were years ago, when it really did hum. I have not read of that as a criticism, everyone always waxes lyrical over valve amps, which really makes me curious.

Thanks for getting back to me, it's always nice to get a response and be acknowledged!

Best wishes,

Richard

[synsei]

Ooh, exposed tweeters + two year old :eek: You may want to think about using protection (for the tweeters silly :D ) before the inevitable happens, I reckon you have around a year :)

[ellison]

Hi Michael,

Yep thought so, veeery nice wood figuration, it shouts class! Nice design too. Do you use any polish on them? I use Teak oil on mine as they were never sealed.

No I don't bi amp, I use 4 channels, so have identical fronts and backs, quadraphonic and SACD stuff.

I did consider valve, but wondered if it might be too "warm" for these speakers? These Nads are pretty cold, so work pretty well.

I know of the humming issue, but there should be a sweet listening spot where it cancels itself out? And also, I am told valve is so much better than they were years ago, when it really did hum. I have not read of that as a criticism, everyone always waxes lyrical over valve amps, which really makes me curious.

Thanks for getting back to me, it's always nice to get a response and be acknowledged!

Best wishes,

Richard

Hi Richard..the humming from transformer was from the MF a5.5 amp not the Vincent which is perfectly quiet and a better build quality.The only way I can describe the Vincent sound which only has preamp valves is that it sort of makes CDs sound like vinyl somehow,poorly recorded CDs sound half decent.What speakers are you using?

[ellison]

Ooh, exposed tweeters + two year old :eek: You may want to think about using protection (for the tweeters silly :D ) before the inevitable happens, I reckon you have around a year :)

To be honest the boys pretty good,although he does put his cars in the bass port on the front.The ports fairly lar4ge though so I don't mind ..:)

[Quadraphonic]

Hi Richard..the humming from transformer was from the MF a5.5 amp not the Vincent which is perfectly quiet and a better build quality.The only way I can describe the Vincent sound which only has preamp valves is that it sort of makes CDs sound like vinyl somehow,poorly recorded CDs sound half decent.What speakers are you using?

Hi Michael,

They're Celestion Ditton 44s. I've also got a pair of KEF IQ5Se speakers, now hardly used if ever. I like them because the tweeter is in the middle of the midrange, ie dual drivers. I don't think this is a new idea, but a good one I reckon!

Valve making CDs sound analogue? That can only be a good quality surely! Some Cds really do sound nasty.

R:)

[ellison]

I haven't heard the celestions or the kefs but know that they seem to be the sort of speakers that become part of the family rather than just hifi tools.I've had speakers that have come and gone but the adagios downstairs and quad 22ls upstairs have become part of the family.....and I have a feeling you probably feel the same way about those celestions and kefs. :)

[Quadraphonic]

I haven't heard the celestions or the kefs but know that they seem to be the sort of speakers that become part of the family rather than just hifi tools.I've had speakers that have come and gone but the adagios downstairs and quad 22ls upstairs have become part of the family.....and I have a feeling you probably feel the same way about those celestions and kefs. :)

Hi Michael,

LOL!!! Yeah, you could say that, part of the family is just about it. No getting around it, or them!! I had always wanted Dittons but they were always outside my pocket, and I just never managed to get any until the past few years. Now I guard them carefully. By the way, I like the bit about your son putting cars in the ports of yours, that's highly tolerant of you! I have always had the problem of feet, being floorstanders. And things like Scalectric cars going flying in all directions.......my lad had all that out the other week, and he's 16 now!!

R

[Quadraphonic]

Hi Michael,

LOL!!! Yeah, you could say that, part of the family is just about it. No getting around it, or them!! I had always wanted Dittons but they were always outside my pocket, and I just never managed to get any until the past few years. Now I guard them carefully. By the way, I like the bit about your son putting cars in the ports of yours, that's highly tolerant of you! I have always had the problem of feet, being floorstanders. And things like Scalectric cars going flying in all directions.......my lad had all that out the other week, and he's 16 now!!

R

reply message above did not post properly?

[costerdock]

Nice looking setup - I have the same CA CD Player - very nice - and I like the VOX amp.