The Alfa Romeo awards ...

[petrat]

Clarkson et al. on Top Gear used to say that you weren't a proper petrolhead until you had owned an Alfa.

What are the audio equivalents?

We're talking here things that probably looked beautiful, gave you sonic thrills and ownership pride, but maybe not the most reliable, or were so on the edge that you could never quite relax with them. Loved them and hated them ...

[Pieoftheday]

a pair of castle knight 3 speakers, I liked the sound they produced and their look, the drivers on both speaker's failed, twice!! Edit, within 6 months!!!

[Ammonite Audio]

Quad ESL - simultaneously one of the world's best and worst loudspeakers.

[topoxforddoc]

Decca cartridge

(Loved my Alfa - a 75 2.5V6 Quadrifoglio)

[shane]

Lecson AC1/AP3. Beautiful to see and hear, but you have your heart in your mouth every time you switch it on.

[Gazjam]

Have to include the Gyrodec..
Industrial design done right, she's a looker.

[struth]

The JR149,s were a design icon imo

[Barry]

Most Decca cartridges, unless the utmost care is taken with their installation and operating environment. The lousy workmanship didn't help.

Mark Levinson gear. Fabulous quality but not the last word in reliability.

Quad ESL 57s. I love mine and wouldn't be without them, but they do have their shortcomings.

Linn Isobaraks. The early versions I still regard as the worse sounding speakers I have ever heard, though some Linn enthusiasts thought them the best thing since sliced bread.

[danilo]

Quad ESL - simultaneously one of the world's best and worst loudspeakers.

+1 on Both... Alfas and Quads.
Best as a memory than in the flesh. My 1750 GTV and my Alfetta were both brilliant and Crap.
Inspired design decisions and incredibly stupid ones ... disguised in a lovely Giugiaro styled package.
Quads were initially impressive... then they weren't.
Still a helluvalot Better.. than Bose 901's, a memory best left sleeping

[Joe]

Nytech integrated amp. Loved the looks and the sliding volume control; hated the frequent returns to base for repairs. I know some claim that their Nytechs have worked faultlessly for 30 years, so maybe I was just unlucky.

[wee tee cee]

Speakers, I have to agree about statics 57s or 63s. Also horns and maybe a BBC Spendor model.

A valve amp.

A pre/power set up.

An off board DAC

[hermit]

In my more affluent youth I went mad for Alfas: Alfasud TI Green Cloverleaf, Alfasud Sprint Speciale, 1600 GT Junior, 33 Green Cloverleaf, 75 2.5 V6, 75 3.0 V6 Green Cloverleaf.

To my mind the hifi brand that most reminds me of Alfa is Yamaha: great sounding, distinctive designs and they built several classics over the years that remain collectable.

http://audiovintage.su/images/hifi/kassettenrecorder_5.jpg

http://img.canuckaudiomart.com/uploads/large/744188-yamaha_b6_power_amplifier_120_volts.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2STVV2UOSpM/maxresdefault.jpg

http://www.audio-heritage.jp/YAMAHA/player/gt-1000(1).JPG

http://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio-visual/hifi-components/hifi-history/cd-player/images/cd-1_fig.jpg

http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/p753/neradi/cars/scan0005_zps5a858727.jpg

http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/p753/neradi/cars/scan0003_zps75a56d33.jpg

http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/p753/neradi/cars/scan0001_zps14c53367.jpg

http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/p753/neradi/cars/scan0006_zpsc20adf62.jpg

[petrat]

That Yamaha gear looks awesome, Paul.

Surprised no-one has mentioned a certain Fink company yet ... even if only to annoy a particular forum fan :D

My personal Alfa moment was a pair of Audio Physics Tempo 2 speakers. Contemporary styling, beautifully made, and possibly the only speakers I've owned that my wife actually wanted in the living room. Trouble was, they worked best well out in the room, about a cricket-pitch apart, with the listener more or less sat in the middle. Brilliant imaging, but never did find an amp that made them sound anything but teutonically precise.


http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff384/petrat56/Mobile%20Uploads/435_0_4_050420_audiophysic_tempo_noGrill_side_zpso f19dkaf.jpg (http://s1233.photobucket.com/user/petrat56/media/Mobile%20Uploads/435_0_4_050420_audiophysic_tempo_noGrill_side_zpso f19dkaf.jpg.html)

[Jason P]

Gotta be an LP12 hasn't it? Looks lovely, but temperamental and hard to keep in fettle, sounds nice but not to everyone's taste... ;-)

[walpurgis]

Gotta be an LP12 hasn't it? Looks lovely, but temperamental and hard to keep in fettle, sounds nice but not to everyone's taste... ;-)

Surely a Sondek is more like a Lada. An old design concept pinched from somebody else. Basic in principle, but prone to being temperamental and requiring regular attention. It does the job but but time has moved on and modern products are so much easier to live with. ;)

[sumday]

nad 3020
any 1970s british cottage built speaker sporting kef b200 bass and audax softdome tweeter
nagaoka cartridge
and my personal favorite....any silver Japanese tuner from the 70s with a balanced tuning wheel allowing a quick span of the fm band with one fast turn....

if the above jap tuner lights up in the dark like frikkin blackpool....award yourself an extra prize!!!!

NIGE.

[BTH K10A]

Wonderful sound and great retro looks but is so easy to damage

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f120/emttsd15/IMG_0342_zpspmxc68rp.jpeg (http://s46.photobucket.com/user/emttsd15/media/IMG_0342_zpspmxc68rp.jpeg.html)

However I'm not sure any piece of hifi can match up to this

http://otoworls.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/alfa-romeo-2600-coupe-by-pininfarina.html

[tannoy man]

I love an Alfa, Ive owned a GTV 6 2.5 and my brother had an Alfetta 1.8, and two Sprints, the earlier 1.5 Sprint was more fun to drive in the wet than any other car Ive driven. I once went to view an Alfetta 2.0 at a dealers and he had a Lancia Beta coupe, it was one of the last production 2.0 IE so no rust issues. I bought it and it was the best handling car Ive ever owned.

Back to HI FI, My Sondeck LP12 would drive me nuts, sounded great one week and shit a week later:(
Audiolab 8000a was always shutting itself down when using my Electrostatic Headphones:rolleyes:
Logic DM101 MK1, The belt would slip when playing at 45rpm:steam:

[Macca]

Never owned an Alfa but my hi-fi equiv would most likely be the Lowther Acoustas I once had. £20 punt so can't complain but they were not for me. I sold the drivers to a dealer who had my arm off for them (so clearly some do like them) and turned the cabs into a PA system.

[Barry]

Never owned an Alfa but my hi-fi equiv would most likely be the Lowther Acoustas I once had. £20 punt so can't complain but they were not for me. I sold the drivers to a dealer who had my arm off for them (so clearly some do like them) and turned the cabs into a PA system.

I lived with a pair of Lowther Acoustas (fitted with PM6 drive units). Like most horn speakers they were sensitive (6W maximum), and displayed great transient behaviour: percussive instruments such as piano sounded very realistic, but they were coloured much like Heinz tomato soup.

[danilo]

Never owned an Alfa but my hi-fi equiv would most likely be the Lowther Acoustas I once had.
Shame... you missed something, that said; Alfas quickly devolve into a Love / Hate relation ship. A few Lucid moments erases All the horrid ones
Things were made of Chocolate and suck up one's time, energy and $$$ like a sponge. Whilst dissolving in the rain
Ditto with the Lowthers I spent 2 years trying to get a pair working well enough to keep. Finally gave up.
Reassuring to hear I wasn't alone in struggling with those rascals.

It feels soooo good... when the hurt stops :eyebrows:

[Michael loves music]

These cars had the looks but poor reliability and still the same today that's why us Brits avoid them

[Macca]

These cars had the looks but poor reliability and still the same today that's why us Brits avoid them

There are quite a lot of them on the roads round here. MTOs, mainly. When I was in Rome a few weeks back I noticed a lot of much older ones, a bit battered but still running so there must be ways to keep them going.

[hifi_dave]

Decca cartridges are wonderful whilst they are working as were Decca Ribbon speakers. Pink Triangle TTs were good but poorly built. Speakers with foam surrounds.