advice sought for poorly concieved hifi project

[Woodencow]

Hi,
I am new to the forum and hifi projects and was hoping to get some advice as feeling a little out of my depth at the moment.
I bought some 1978 Pioneer CS-E 731 speakers from a chap near my home. They were reasonably cheap and sound and look nicer than anything I have ever owned so thought it was a good place to start.15060
I then bought a used Naim Unitiqute 1 off a friend but I am not sure if it is bit underpowered for the speakers.
I was hoping to buy a turntable next, possible a used Rega P3 or RP3 as I currently do not have anything to play my vinyl on, then a CD seperate.
As you can tell I am on a bit of a budget and not too fussed about mixing vintages as long as it sounds nice.
I was hoping for some opinions on the Naim v's vintage speakers as well as some advice on where to go from here.

Thanks,

John

[struth]

The naim is 30w so not overly powerful for less sensitive speakers. Not sure what your piobeers are but probably 88/89db so if your having to turn the amp up really high that may be your problem

[rubber duck]

The brochure attached says 90dB/W so 30W is not a problem. Does it sound underpowered?

[walpurgis]

Pioneer, like most Japanese makers, turned out some rather nice speakers back in the seventies. I'd imagine your 731s are capable of some decent sounds. They are the kind of speaker that may respond quite well to running with a valve amplifier. Just a thought.

[Gordon Steadman]

I know someone out here who has these speakers. They sound pretty good to me even on the end of an old Philips all in one amplifier/CD/radio thingie. That probably has all of 10 watts a channel but goes loud enough in his lounge. Mind you, Neil Diamond sounds loud enough with the volume off.

I reckon we all suffered from the UK press back in the 70s and 80s and missed out on some cracking hi-fi from Japan. Pioneer, Sony and Akai made some great speakers and I'm really enjoying the Pioneer and Sony amps that we have from that period. I'm still looking for a decent Yamaha from that time as well.

[Macca]

30 watts may not be enough if the room is large and/or you are sat a fair distance from the speakers. They may be 90dB at 1 metre but you lose something like 9dB a metre as you move away so it doesn't take much before you are clipping the amp on peaks. Can you add an off-board power amp to the Naim thngy?

[Desmo]

Hi,
I am new to the forum and hifi projects and was hoping to get some advice as feeling a little out of my depth at the moment....

I bought a used Naim Unitiqute 1 off a friend but I am not sure if it is bit underpowered for the speakers.
I was hoping to buy a turntable next, possible a used Rega P3 or RP3 as I currently do not have anything to play my vinyl on, then a CD seperate.
As you can tell I am on a bit of a budget and not too fussed about mixing vintages as long as it sounds nice.
I was hoping for some opinions on the Naim v's vintage speakers as well as some advice on where to go from here....

I'll leave the subject of speakers and amp power to others, as I don't know these speakers. But you should certainly be aware that if you want to add a turntable at a later date, then you will need to also buy a separate phono stage, as I'm pretty sure that the Naim Unitoqute 1 does not have an integrated phono capability.

[Woodencow]

Thanks for all that.
It sounds pretty good really, loads better than the zensor 2s I was comparing them too. I am listening at about 75% of the the amp output and it's fairly loud across the room. I am sat only about 3m from the speakers. By the sounds of it, it will do for now but could maybe do with something extra in the not too distant future.
Thanks Graeme, I suspected I would need a phono stage but hadn't looked fully into it.
That's all really helpful. Thanks again.

[sumday]

speakers of this vintage will benefit from a little fettling.
open them up via the bass driver and take a peek inside. you will probably notice the wiring is very light gauge and if you have basic soldering skills you could upgauge this and achieve a noticeable improvement.
I had a pair of pioneer speakers of this vintage a few years back and there was not much in the line of wadding inside...I calmed them down and made them much smoother by lining the walls with some audiograde wadding.

a final tip would be to rotate the bass drivers 180 degrees as the suspensions tend to sag over time and may cause voicecoil rubbing.

NIGE

[walpurgis]

speakers of this vintage will benefit from a little fettling.
open them up via the bass driver and take a peek inside. you will probably notice the wiring is very light gauge and if you have basic soldering skills you could upgauge this and achieve a noticeable improvement.
I had a pair of pioneer speakers of this vintage a few years back and there was not much in the line of wadding inside...I calmed them down and made them much smoother by lining the walls with some audiograde wadding.

a final tip would be to rotate the bass drivers 180 degrees as the suspensions tend to sag over time and may cause voicecoil rubbing.

NIGE

Decent advice, but don't overdamp them. It may be worth checking crossover capacitor values if you know how to do this and have a suitable meter. They can go off spec with age.

[Woodencow]

Thanks, I have had a quick look inside and reckon I could have good crack at all of that.
Not the best at soldering but it doesn't have to be pretty!

[walpurgis]

Thanks, I have had a quick look inside and reckon I could have good crack at all of that.
Not the best at soldering but it doesn't have to be pretty!

The more you do the better you get! :)

[Woodencow]

I saw on ebay a technics 150 TT with SME 3009 and a shure cartridge for £345.
As far as I can tell that seems like an ok price. Could anyone tell me if that would be a sensible starter turntable for that sort of money? I have not bought one before, I initially planned to get a Planer 3 but got a bit distracted.