So what is your HiFi story and views, has your journey been worth is?

[AJSki2fly]

An earlier thread today prompted me into considering my own particular journey back into hifi over the last 5 years, and I thought it would be interesting to share it as honestly as I can. Also and opportunity for other s to offer views, opinions and experiences of their own.

So here goes.....


I have been round the hifi merry-go-round several times, multiple speakers, amplifiers, several CDP's, 5 Turntables, and a variety of other gear, and all in the last 5 years. Before this I have had at least what could be considered four very nice hifi systems that sounded very good, and then for 10 years I became completely disillusioned with it all and stopped listening to music except for casual listening.

At several points in the last 5 years I have been pretty satisfied with the overall system sound and yet I have allowed myself to get suckered into changing a major component, only because I have been lead to believe by a dealer or a magazine review that I can improve on what I have or something I have is inferior in some way, generally as I now realise IMO this is a complete load of tosh.:doh: This has usually resulted in a higher financial spend and a leap of audio faith. In one case a well known TT turned out to be a particular disappointment sonically and the more I delved into why the more disillusioned I became with it, and I finally realised that there is a load of hype and crap out their surrounding HiFi products just trying to sucker Joe Public into get his/her wallet out.

Before you all shout at me yes I know and accept my system is not exactly cheap if it was purchased new off the shelf, but it is not into the higher echelons of Audiophile gear costing tens of thousands. What I have now is as a result of purchasing previously used along with a mix of new, and ex-demo, and a couple of very luck part exchanges. My last and most recent change was the loudspeakers, which was more to appease my better half as the previous speakers were rather large in the lounge, something that even I had to admit to, so this change was more cosmetic rather than on audio grounds. My last TT change was an attempt to get as good a sound as possible for a sensible amount of cost without personally shelling out, I achieved this by selling my previous TT and Arm and selling some other gear, and has been a success IMO.

So looking back at my recent hifi journey over the last 5 years and trying to be as honest as possible I would make these observations.

I definitely got suckered into buying a TT on its perceived popularity and longevity in the market, I assumed it had to be good, a big mistake:doh:.

I had a rather expensive arm, which was very good, but actually as I found out there was just as good for a 1/3 the price, luckily I got my money back on the original arm.

I originally had a vey nice Meridian 557 amp and used it with a Tisbury passive amp(£140), all these owed me together was just £690, and it actually they sounded superb. I heard my friends valve set up and thought that was for me, well the answer was yes and no. I purchased a pair of previously used 300B valve mono blocks for nearly 5 times the cost of the 557 and Tisbury, they sounded lovely but actually turned out to be unreliable due to capacitor age, very disappointing. So I shelled out on a new 300B amp the same as my friends that cost nearly 10 times my Meridian 557, does it sound any better than the Meridian actually, a difficult question but probably, even my best friend with the 300B thought that the Meridian/Tisbury set up sounded great. Thinking about it I could have spent just £300-400 on the main caps on the 557 and a couple of other upgrades and made it even better. :doh::doh::doh: By the way the same friend lent me a Vincent integrated amp (£2.2K new) to tied me over whilst I waited for the new 300B amp, this was actually extremely good and I could have kept it for just £1.1K and was probably as good as the 557.

Now we come to speakers:- I went from Dali Ikons 6's to Wilson Benesch ARC's(ex-demos), a general improvement and not too costly for me. But I felt the bass of the ARCS's was a little lacking unless played at higher volumes. So onto a pair of Impulse H2's, great bass but I had lost some mid-range smoothness. Initially I kept the ARC's as I was not sure about parting with them. You see even I was confused by what I was hearing. Then onto a pair of Vienna Acoustic Mozart SE's from the same friend, I just broke even on this selling the H2's on, result was better mids and top, and the bass was somewhere in between the H2s and ARC's, and the wife was much happier with the smaller footprint and aesthetics. Now do not misunderstand me some of the changes between the speakers were subjectively quite subtle, certainly for others listening to the system, not like being hit in the face with a wet kipper. What I am saying here is that I was was being critical rather than listening to the music. Then along came a pair of Tannoy Legacy Ardens(ex-demos) so I traded the Mozarts, and some other unused gear and only had to outlay a few hundred ponds, a good deal. This was an improvement in what can only be described as a more natural sounding presentation overall. But as already said these went for a more sensible sized speaker that could still deliver sonically and I knew would meet my expectations. So I now have the Wilson Benesch Vectors, and these definitely hit the spot for me, very musical and detailed, the bass goes surprisingly low and is very controlled, and they look good in the room. Would I go back to the Ardens, yes but only if I have a room at least 50 larger or I lived on my own.

Cartridges:-
Well I now own 5, and have a stylus loan that fits the Ortofon OM. An Ortofon OM(MM) with DN165E stylus (£70), the loaned Ortofon 40 stylus, an Ortofon Rondo Blue(MC) (£600 in its days), a Goldring 2500 (MI) (£400), Michell Cusis(MC) a re-bodied Benz Micro Wood S(£1100) and finally a Benz Micro LP-S(MC) (£2.8-3.2K).
Some may know that I recently experimented with MM cartridges and this resulted in me purchasing the Goldring 2500, the reason is it actually produces about 95-98% of the detail and musical/sound experience that the LP-S does and is easily a match for the Michell Cusis. In fact I would say that on some records which are not that well recorded or produced in the first place that it is irrelevant which cartridge you listen with. The Ortofon OM with DN165E is actually a pretty good performer, missing some detail bu quite acceptable for a casual listen. The Ortofon OM with the 40 stylus is actually very good and gives a very good experience, the Goldring 2500 just pips it on detail and bass, but maybe that is just my preference.

Turntables:

These in my experience very tricky, my advice is ignore how it looks, go on how it sounds. I used to have a Pro-Ject Experience II (about £1K) which actually sounded great with the Rondo Blue, and in fact looking back at it now a Gyrodec with SME arm and £1K MC cartridge was probably only a 5-10% better but cost 4 times the Pro-Ject. However an older Voyd with a Jelco TK-850M 10″ Tonearm and the same cartridge sounded much more musical and was a pleasure to listen to and was less than half the cost of the Gyrodec/SME combo IMHO. For me the best affordable solution I have found is the Pro-Ject Signature 10, I think this is for several reasons, it has a very high mass platter, a excellent bearing and as a result is very stable. Also it has a Signature designed arm specifically for it, and the combination works very well, giving great detail, musicality and soundstage. I think similar well made high mass platter turntables with a quality arm like a Jelco would work well as well. If you are into vinyl and want great resolution and musicality then spending £3-4k is probably justifiable if you can afford it, but I still think that you can get great results for sub £1k.

So what is the point of my ramblings, well mainly to try and point out that I have formed the opinion that spending lots of hard earned dosh on hifi will not necessarily get you a system that sounds good for you or your room. As can be seen from my experiences I probably could have spent at least half of what I have and ended up with a lovely sounding system. One thing though that I am now convinced about is with respect to speakers. Finding a loudspeaker that suits you and your room is one of the most important things in the system, the other is that they work with your amplifier. I think if you get the speakers right then you are well on they way, there are a lot of very good amps out there and you do not have to spend huge sums to get a very good sounding one, I believe the Quad Vena II would be a very good example of this, and as I found with the older Meridian 557 and the Vincent SV-234 (£2K new), and I am sure there must be lots of other sub £2k amps just as good or even sub £1K for that matter.

In my opinion and experience cartridges are a minefield, I am no longer convinced that vast amounts on expensive ones what ever they may be is actually worth it. Yes I do accept that some very expensive ones get more detail but how much and what will actually experience and hear on your system is questionable. I suppose if you are cash rich then it does not really matter, but most of us aren't.

I have not mentioned CDP's, well yes I have had several and used to swear by 20 year old Meridian 508, and probably would still if pushed. However I think you can get very good if not better results with a reasonably priced DAC and sensibly priced CDP used as a transport. In my case I now use a Beresford Caiman SEG DAC, for its £300 or so outlay with good PSU it is a no brainer, you could easily pay 3 or 4 times that to get anything better, and I use a good Sony Blu-ray player as a transport, and it sounds as good as the Meridian CDP, although I am sure this could be improved upon but I hardly ever listen to CD's nowadays.



Thinking about it most hifi systems set ups, (separates that is) are likely to be pretty unique, i.e not many people will have that exact combination, secondly it will definitely be unique in a specific listening environment, and thirdly and most important it sounds as good as it does to the listeners ears and brain. So if you like how your system sounds stick with it.

[RobbieGong]

Respect for the Thread Adrian.

We used to get posts like this a while back and they are always welcome in my book.

Makes for a long post, but thanks for the share.

Been into music and hifi as long as I can remember. My passion and love for music brought me to hifi, they went hand in hand for me and I always got a buzz whenever i saw a set-up/system.

Any opportunity to visit a hifi store was taken, Comet, Superfi - Leeds back in the '70's and then the West End when I hit London in '81.

I always had whatever I could afford, even when I was at home and what ever set up I had brought me untold joy - it's the music !

I promised myself, when my wife and i got our first house together 20 years ago this year, that I'd have a space for a decent system, so I guess that's when it started in the true sense of hifi - that all consuming intent and desire to build the best system I could, fettling, fiddling, changing, upgrading and all that goes with it.

From that point I got into the idea of forums, informing myself about components and so on.

I wont go through the whole what I've had thing but the Technics SL1210 MK5G I purchased new took me on a long upgrade path and a lot of spending until I took it as far as I could or even wanted to, to be honest.

I learned a lot about hifi going on that journey, so very glad I did, in that regard, doing that and being here has been invaluable.

The Ortofon 2M Black was an eye-opener too. My first experience of a stellar/top quality cart and what they bring to the hi-fidelity arena, including the all important criticality of tonearm/cartridge/stylus set up, especially so when it comes to using the more sophisticated stylus profiles - priceless learning.

Only tried a few speakers, including B&W CM7, but the one that i regard as a stone cold bargain to this day and an excellent floor-stander is the Mission 752 Freedom, was smitten from first listen.

I had those for years and it was hard to let them go, but I did in the end after plenty of informing myself, for the Spendor D7, which are an excellent speaker, so much so that I will at some point upgrade to the new/revised D7.2 - More selling, more saving.......

I also have a passion for high end / big Japanese amps, so been on a journey with a few nice ones there, which led me to the Sansui's, my amp of choice.

I found the Sansui AU 919 to be another revelation in terms of what a properly designed, quality integrated can do, which led me to my current Sansui Alpha AU a707DR - effortless, balanced sound, just gets out of the way and lets the music through, unhindered.

I always felt that a good cdp should take pride of place on the rack, to finish things off nicely. After much of the usual, informing etc it had to be the Pioneer PD91, for looks and from what I'd read, great 'analogue' presentation.

When I finally got to giving it some proper time, years after purchase, it gave me the best two weeks or so of music, I'd ever heard from a cdp and then it went from sounding fab to sounding wring, without any warning. I believe the laser has died and that's the risk with vintage, no matter how good.

Thankfully, My current and recently acquired Technics SP10 MKII is doing the business, thrilling me no end with the Cadenza Black-Fritz Gyger S re-tip - Serious hi-fidelity, no gloss-over just forensic vinyl replay, warts an all, just as I always intended, worked to and hoped.

There's been a lot of pain on the journey, downtime, waiting time, money spent, without going into the half. My advise to anyone just getting into this thing is if you haven't got patience but really want to be in the getting to where you want to get, for the long haul then you'd better find some or just keep things very simple ie: buy a few fairly informed pieces and leave it a that. Really getting into this, isnt for everyone, so look before you leap....

Any regrets - no! Simply because I wouldn't know what I've learned if hadn't have taken the journey I have. I got there in the end, Twas the smooth roads, rough roads, twists and turns that got me there and currently - the best system and SQ I could have ever hoped for, it's a joy and happy days ! :)

[Macca]

Good thread , we've not had one like this in a long while. other peoples journeys are always fascinating. Those 'reader's systems' articles in the mags were always popular I remember, but they stopped them as they were wasting print space that didn't help sell new product.

I've had that much kit over the last 30 years I could probably write a book but got to start work in a bit so I won't.

Stand out lessons - we are not all chasing the same sound. So may times been with others listening to systems I thought were magnificent when they said 'No, not keen on it at all.' And systems I thought were terrible which others loved. So other people's recommendations on what to get are nothing to go by. Especially hi-fi journalists and people who work in the trade. Too often they can't see the woods for the trees.

A rookie mistake is to blame the speakers for a bad sound. There are some rubbish speakers out there but they are fairly few nowadays. Unless the room is not a good match then if there is a problem it is rarely the fault of the loudspeaker. People underestimate how much difference the amplification can make. Likewise with phono stages. Vinyl replay is so easy to get wrong, it has so many variables, so it is hard to know which element is at fault.

I like to buy used kit just to try it out. I'm lucky that I don't have to sell it again to try something else so can always go back to what worked for me when the new thing doesn't so I don't need to be that careful and I can try stuff just for a laugh or out of curiosity. It's a scattergun approach but as Robbie said above, that's how you get experience and start being able to make more informed decisions.

[AJSki2fly]

Hi Robbie

Yes I remember hearing a pair of Mission 752 Freedom, a very good speaker and not too pricey if I recall correctly. I heard the Sansui AU919 when a friend was audition a large number of amps on his upgrade path, I really liked it, in fact most of the Sansui gear I have heard has generally been pretty good. At the moment I am using a Sansui TU-S7 Tuner which is pretty good, but looking for an even more sensitive FM tuner, which I may have found, the Sansui is very good but I live in a weak signal area one the edge of a major transmitter area, most frustrating.

When I went through my TT debacle I very nearly went for a Technics SP10 MKII, I just could not find one in the condition/price I was happy with, and then the Pro-Ject Signature 10 came along at a good price.

I looked up your Sansui Alpha AU a707DR and when I saw it I remembered the alpha series, a highly respected amp at the time and still is, and they still command quite high prices which just confirms how good they are.

Like you I have been quite frustrated at times trying to get to a happy sound feeling, and I definitely had made some bad choices, and sometimes listened to others when I really should have listened to my ears.:doh:

Looking at your setup I bet it sounds really good and really up there on the SQ front, what is impressive IMO is it probably was/is very good VFM.

Happy listening,

Adrian

[AJSki2fly]

Good thread , we've not had one like this in a long while. other peoples journeys are always fascinating. Those 'reader's systems' articles in the mags were always popular I remember, but they stopped them as they were wasting print space that didn't help sell new product.

..............

Stand out lessons - we are not all chasing the same sound. So may times been with others listening to systems I thought were magnificent when they said 'No, not keen on it at all.' And systems I thought were terrible which others loved. So other people's recommendations on what to get are nothing to go by. Especially hi-fi journalists and people who work in the trade. Too often they can't see the woods for the trees.

.............

Thanks Martin, I was/am hoping people will chip in with their thoughts and journey in HiFi, I find hearing what others have done and why interesting, it does not matter at what level or cost as IMO they are good and bad at all levels of HiFi. As most know there are some real gems and some real bummers out their, so sharing our experience may save others from the bummers.

Completely agree, our ears and brains are all different to a certain extent, and we listen and prefer different types of music which can affect whats sort of system is best for one and not another, "One size doesn't necessarily fit all". As for Hi-Fi reviews and journalist reports, yes I read them but I am pretty cautious, I rarely ever see a review with less than 4 out 5 stars, certainly nowadays, that has to tell you something. Unless I can back a review up with something independently then I tend to air on caution, after all most journalists get paid in some way for what they write. Having said that I recently took a risk on the newly out KLH headphones based on a couple reviews in mags, and they are pretty true to what was written.

Martin's HiFi Book might be very interesting, even the abridged version, so why not share it with us.:D

Cheers

Adrian

[chris@panteg]

With my current system, I've tried to replicate or even improve on what I had 20 years ago but in a more compact set up.
My old system was a Voyd. 5 reference SME 310 music maker, with Concordant Excelsior two box valve pre, and a Marantz cd player.
With 2nd Audio monos with two border patrol psu's and snell type J.

But it was just too many boxes, took up too much space.

My current setup of Voyd /SMEV AT33EV Puresound T10 /P10 Marantz cd player and Puresound 2a3 amplifier into living voice avatars is the set up I've had in mind for the last ten years and it's much more compact and sonically I feel is superior to my old system, though in the last decade I've improved my electrics with an up to date consumer unit and improved earthing, so that possibly has made a big difference.

All in all very happy but still fancy a border patrol 300b se but showing some restraint, I don't need to go so far as I'd need a top notch line level pre as well.

[Macca]

Martin's HiFi Book might be very interesting, even the abridged version, so why not share it with us.:D

Cheers

Adrian

Well I started out with a mono 'Murphy' cassette recorder which belonged to my mother. She was a music teacher but there was no other hi-fi in the house.
When I was about 15 she lost a gold necklace and with the insurance money bought a Saisho music centre from Dixons. Turntable, tuner and double tape deck. So I started buying LPs.

At 16 I was around at a mate's house and his old man had a JVC-JBL system, JBL L100 Century speakers on the little stands. He played us 'Brothers In Arms' album that had just come out and which I had already played to death on the Saisho. My god the difference was just unbelievable! I decided I wanted to hear my music sound that good too. That was the start of it. Little did I know.

I had a Saturday job stacking shelves at Gateway. Tenner a day for a nine hour shift. Started saving up. 17 weeks later had enough to buy an Aiwa midi system. It wasn't much but it was better than the Saisho. Then discovered Richer Sounds who at the time sold all the bin-end Jap electronics.

Was now at college and back then you could sign on over the summer. Went to Richer and spent my dole money on my first separates system. It was better than the Aiwa but still not a patch on the JVC-JBL set up. This was about the point where I realised I wasn't going to be easily satisfied.

Started buying hi-fi mags. Probably a mistake. A bit like going to a strip joint, no point looking at what you can't have, it only makes it worse. After some running about after college eventually found myself on the dole, so started buying and selling equipment and had a lot of 1970s kit come and go, too much to list it all even if I remembered it. No internet then, not much money so had to take what I could get. The quality of that JBL-JVC system still a pipe dream.

Got a job in a warehouse, hard work but paid quite well. Moved up to Systemdeck IIX, Nagaoka MP30, Denon PMA250, Wharfedale CRS3 speakers. Finally had a system that actually sounded pretty good.

Got into designing and building speakers. Then the Denon amp died, the Nag got worn out, ended up back at square one again. Went through some dreadful tat and a lot of house moves in quick succession. Bought a house, made sure it had a good room for hi-fi, started again with Cambridge P70, Systemdeck, Goldring Eroica, little Mission speakers and a sub.

Bought a CD player! Speakers not big enough for room. Got B&W 601 which had just come out. Still not big enough. Got Celestion A2 speakers in a fire sale. Big enough! But amp could not drive them. Bought a big Rotel. That could not drive them. Due to this I started to learn how hi-fi actually worked - a revelation. Bought Linn Pre-power, that could drive them. settled with that for about 8 years. Still not as good as the JVC-JBL.

Discovered hi-fi forums, started buying kit almost at random, just as a hobby. Amassed piles of the stuff. Tried valves. Tried idiotic tweaks. Tried everything. Got into passive pre-amps, realised CD was a lot better than I'd thought. Started buying lots of CD players. Started trying to get vinyl to sound like that. Got a Technics Sl1200. Then got another one.

Bought lots of vintage speakers, Celestion, IMF, B&O, Akai etc. Got bored with them, thought I'd buy something more modern, got Focal/JM Lab speakers. Another revelation!

Bought a Krell KSA50s on a whim, had no idea what it would be like. My god it was excellent. Added DCB1 pre-amp - now, finally, after 30 years, I had something even better than I recall the JVC-JBL system being! Done. Finished. Finito. Then the Krell died. And so we go on....

[Opti-cal]

Love that concise writing style there Martin. Interesting stuff too.

Thanks for that. Also Robbie, Adrian and Chris, good reads too.

I'll get around to my "story" soon I hope. Albeit likely less interesting, containing less kit and useful information in general but will be much more wordy and convoluted.

Yes I know what the people want . . .

[dreamer69]

Great read. Do I take it that the Gyrodec was the turntable you were referring to? And the Goldring 2500 is a new one on me. Is it really that good?

[Pigmy Pony]

Ok here goes, and I should warn you it won't be very interesting, nor educational except perhaps as a cautionary tale...

1971: given an old radio! The Tams, The Faces, Middle of the Road, all in glorious tinny mono :)

Christmas 1972: My first record player! Fidelity HF43. I started out with two albums to play on it: "Electric Warrior" and "School's Out". But if you listened carefully it also picked up chat from passing taxis.

1974: Called at my new best mate's house, where his older brother was playing "Ummagumma" through an ERA turntable, Trio amp and Dynaco speakers. So this is how it should sound! "Hifi" bug had bitten.

Christmas 1974: My parents gave me a choice of either driving lessons or a stereo. So they bought me a BSR MP60 deck, a Bush Arena amp and some Wharfedale Denton speakers. Played "Echoes", and a couple of minutes in the bass started. "Where on earth did that come from?" Welcome to the wonderful world of bass!

1978: Upgraded the amp. For eight weeks I gave ther nice man at RSC a tenner, then the half price Rotel RA712 was mine. It kept me happy for a good 7 years, and even forgave me when I accidentally vomited a chicken curry/Toby Light cocktail all over it. Wish I still had that old thing.

1980: gave a tenner plus my Dentons for a pair of Marantz 4G speakers, with foam grilles that looked like bars of chocolate. Unfortunately an impromptu party (I blame my parents for going away for the weekend) saw the demise (almost) of both bass cones. They stayed like that, held together with duct tape for about four years, a testament to my engineering skills and attention to detail.

!982: The year before I got married. I went ito town with £300 to buy an engagement ring, came back with a £200 ring and a JVC cassette deck. I was seduced by the flashy meters.

1984: Seduced by the "Giant Killer" blurb on the Cyrus 1 amp. It was a nice wee thing and had more clout than you'd think, and certainly more clout than my Marantz speakers with the duct tape cones wanted. So upgraded to a pair of AR 48LS speakers. Propa bass!

1984 (still): On a roll now, went and bought a Mission 774/775 LC deck. Surprisingly much better than the BSR. No really it was. By then I was buying Hifi mags, and fell for the hype. So I put a want ad in "Hifi Answers" for an LP12. Some guy in London said he had one, with Grace arm and MP11 Boron cartridge for £300. My car at the time, a MK 2 1.1L Escort wasn't up to the 450 mile round trip. so a friend drove me there in his Cal-Look Beetle.

When I got back, fist thing wifie said was "Oh a bloke in Lostock Hall has one for £300". Four bloody miles away! No mobile phones in those days. Sounded great though, and to this day probably the biggest improvement form a single component.

1987: Monitor Audio MA352 speakers. A bit less bass, but lovely sweet sound. Could listen all day :) Happy bunny for next 7 years.

1994: In the midst of my ravey period, and wanted a sound that the neighbours could enjoy. So got some Prodigy-friendly B&W DM603s. Had some clout, but lost the sweetness somewhat. but who cares, it's all good when you're off yer face :):):)

1996: An upgrade to a Musical Fidelity Electra E100 gave the B&Ws something to chew on.

Nothing of note for about 15 years, while motorbikes took centre-stage, until

2012: When I got my current stuff, all of which I've bored you with before. Besides, my two typing fingers are getting sore. So I'll leave it at that for now.

[AJSki2fly]

Well I started out with a mono 'Murphy' cassette recorder which belonged to my mother. She was a music teacher but there was no other hi-fi in the house.
When I was about 15 she lost a gold necklace and with the insurance money bought a Saisho music centre from Dixons. Turntable, tuner and double tape deck. So I started buying LPs.

At 16 I was around at a mate's house and his old man had a JVC-JBL system, JBL L100 Century speakers on the little stands. He played us 'Brothers In Arms' album that had just come out and which I had already played to death on the Saisho. My god the difference was just unbelievable! I decided I wanted to hear my music sound that good too. That was the start of it. Little did I know.

I had a Saturday job stacking shelves at Gateway. Tenner a day for a nine hour shift. Started saving up. 17 weeks later had enough to buy an Aiwa midi system. It wasn't much but it was better than the Saisho. Then discovered Richer Sounds who at the time sold all the bin-end Jap electronics.

Was now at college and back then you could sign on over the summer. Went to Richer and spent my dole money on my first separates system. It was better than the Aiwa but still not a patch on the JVC-JBL set up. This was about the point where I realised I wasn't going to be easily satisfied.

Started buying hi-fi mags. Probably a mistake. A bit like going to a strip joint, no point looking at what you can't have, it only makes it worse. After some running about after college eventually found myself on the dole, so started buying and selling equipment and had a lot of 1970s kit come and go, too much to list it all even if I remembered it. No internet then, not much money so had to take what I could get. The quality of that JBL-JVC system still a pipe dream.

Got a job in a warehouse, hard work but paid quite well. Moved up to Systemdeck IIX, Nagaoka MP30, Denon PMA250, Wharfedale CRS3 speakers. Finally had a system that actually sounded pretty good.

Got into designing and building speakers. Then the Denon amp died, the Nag got worn out, ended up back at square one again. Went through some dreadful tat and a lot of house moves in quick succession. Bought a house, made sure it had a good room for hi-fi, started again with Cambridge P70, Systemdeck, Goldring Eroica, little Mission speakers and a sub.

Bought a CD player! Speakers not big enough for room. Got B&W 601 which had just come out. Still not big enough. Got Celestion A2 speakers in a fire sale. Big enough! But amp could not drive them. Bought a big Rotel. That could not drive them. Due to this I started to learn how hi-fi actually worked - a revelation. Bought Linn Pre-power, that could drive them. settled with that for about 8 years. Still not as good as the JVC-JBL.

Discovered hi-fi forums, started buying kit almost at random, just as a hobby. Amassed piles of the stuff. Tried valves. Tried idiotic tweaks. Tried everything. Got into passive pre-amps, realised CD was a lot better than I'd thought. Started buying lots of CD players. Started trying to get vinyl to sound like that. Got a Technics Sl1200. Then got another one.

Bought lots of vintage speakers, Celestion, IMF, B&O, Akai etc. Got bored with them, thought I'd buy something more modern, got Focal/JM Lab speakers. Another revelation!

Bought a Krell KSA50s on a whim, had no idea what it would be like. My god it was excellent. Added DCB1 pre-amp - now, finally, after 30 years, I had something even better than I recall the JVC-JBL system being! Done. Finished. Finito. Then the Krell died. And so we go on....

Great read Martin[emoji846]


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[AJSki2fly]

Great read. Do I take it that the Gyrodec was the turntable you were referring to? And the Goldring 2500 is a new one on me. Is it really that good?

The Michell has some inherent design issues imo, shame really. The Goldring is a moving iron cartridge and is excellent vfm


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[AJSki2fly]

Ok here goes, and I should warn you it won't be very interesting, nor educational except perhaps as a cautionary tale...

1971: given an old radio! The Tams, The Faces, Middle of the Road, all in glorious tinny mono :)

Christmas 1972: My first record player! Fidelity HF43. I started out with two albums to play on it: "Electric Warrior" and "School's Out". But if you listened carefully it also picked up chat from passing taxis.

1974: Called at my new best mate's house, where his older brother was playing "Ummagumma" through an ERA turntable, Trio amp and Dynaco speakers. So this is how it should sound! "Hifi" bug had bitten.

Christmas 1974: My parents gave me a choice of either driving lessons or a stereo. So they bought me a BSR MP60 deck, a Bush Arena amp and some Wharfedale Denton speakers. Played "Echoes", and a couple of minutes in the bass started. "Where on earth did that come from?" Welcome to the wonderful world of bass!

1978: Upgraded the amp. For eight weeks I gave ther nice man at RSC a tenner, then the half price Rotel RA712 was mine. It kept me happy for a good 7 years, and even forgave me when I accidentally vomited a chicken curry/Toby Light cocktail all over it. Wish I still had that old thing.

1980: gave a tenner plus my Dentons for a pair of Marantz 4G speakers, with foam grilles that looked like bars of chocolate. Unfortunately an impromptu party (I blame my parents for going away for the weekend) saw the demise (almost) of both bass cones. They stayed like that, held together with duct tape for about four years, a testament to my engineering skills and attention to detail.

!982: The year before I got married. I went ito town with £300 to buy an engagement ring, came back with a £200 ring and a JVC cassette deck. I was seduced by the flashy meters.

1984: Seduced by the "Giant Killer" blurb on the Cyrus 1 amp. It was a nice wee thing and had more clout than you'd think, and certainly more clout than my Marantz speakers with the duct tape cones wanted. So upgraded to a pair of AR 48LS speakers. Propa bass!

1984 (still): On a roll now, went and bought a Mission 774/775 LC deck. Surprisingly much better than the BSR. No really it was. By then I was buying Hifi mags, and fell for the hype. So I put a want ad in "Hifi Answers" for an LP12. Some guy in London said he had one, with Grace arm and MP11 Boron cartridge for £300. My car at the time, a MK 2 1.1L Escort wasn't up to the 450 mile round trip. so a friend drove me there in his Cal-Look Beetle.

When I got back, fist thing wifie said was "Oh a bloke in Lostock Hall has one for £300". Four bloody miles away! No mobile phones in those days. Sounded great though, and to this day probably the biggest improvement form a single component.

1987: Monitor Audio MA352 speakers. A bit less bass, but lovely sweet sound. Could listen all day :) Happy bunny for next 7 years.

1994: In the midst of my ravey period, and wanted a sound that the neighbours could enjoy. So got some Prodigy-friendly B&W DM603s. Had some clout, but lost the sweetness somewhat. but who cares, it's all good when you're off yer face :):):)

1996: An upgrade to a Musical Fidelity Electra E100 gave the B&Ws something to chew on.

Nothing of note for about 15 years, while motorbikes took centre-stage, until

2012: When I got my current stuff, all of which I've bored you with before. Besides, my two typing fingers are getting sore. So I'll leave it at that for now.

Lovely detail Steve, I did similar upgrades at comet and richer sounds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eldarvanyar]

Steve , loves the way you retold your HiFi journey it really made me laugh and reminisce. It’s late and I will have to try tomorrow
Lee

[Opti-cal]

WARNING - Not to be held responsible for dozing off after five lines from me. . . . . There is some boring detail for those interested, apologies to everyone else, just scroll past!

1991(ish):

Queen - Radio.

"What the heck is that sub sonic sound coming from those things that live in my lounge."

Thought a 4 or 5 year old me. It was of course some fine production of a legendary band playing through my dads Gale 401s' (the shiny ended ones) via his Linn LP12 and Carver amp. Musical fidelity "The Preamp II" glowing at me from its little rack too.

This image, situation and atmosphere are imprinted on my brain and I will never and have never forgotten it.

This was the first time I noticed my dads hifi. Knobs dials and spinney things. Big lounge, fire place, big speakers and lots of records.

Took me a few years to realise that not everyone was bothered about or indeed could afford proper hifi. However some sort of dedicated playback setup quickly became a staple which I could not be without. I've gone through fallow periods where my interests deviated (momentarily) and it occasionally took a back seat, but I've always come back to it, often with renewed enthusiasm appreciation.

Although I would say I've now been solidly stuck in the fanatical camp for the last 6 years or so and don't see any viable way out . . .

1995:

First bit of hifi was a little all-in-one JVC 'mini' system. CD player (early 90's), radio, tape. Actually sounded very good given its diminutive size. Had a remote control so I could record from the radio onto tape (yes we still did that in the 90's!) whilst sitting in bed as an 8yr old. Oh the decadence.

1996:

Got a much older 'midi' system for £10 quid, I do believe it was a Sansui. It had a turntable which meant I could play all of my dads LP's upstairs!

I wasn't really allowed to play with his system by myself, a rule I never respected or understood until one day a mate of mine (we used to get home from school and use dads system to play VHS's via the TV's RCA outputs) switched his power amp on THEN the pre-amp and bang. His lovely little cuboid Carver amp was no more. My dad still hasn't forgiven me for that . . . .

Next came a donation from my older (and much wealthier) cousin. A Cambridge Audio P40 amplifier, some Wharfdale Diamond speakers and a Kenwood CD player. I thought I was the king and at around 10 years of age system-wise, I probably was. How could my cousin just not need this stuff ! Friends whom had never actually paid attention to music before, let alone heard it on a hifi system, were mesmerized by it. As was I.

Got me reading some hi-fi mags as my dad used to have quite a few. Walked into a shop in my local town, bloke looks up and rolls his eyes, "whats this kid doing in my hifi shop and where are his parents" I could tell he was thinking.
I asked him if he knew the technical specs on the upcoming Quad system (77 or 99?) and how it compared to the latest offerings from Arcam and Linn. As well as if he had heard a new Meridian CD player. I was of course just reeling off word bites from the pages I had just read in HF Choice or similar, but he humored me all the same and we talked for a good hour or so.

1998:

A big JVC receiver came next (saved up and bought this for £20). "Surround" along with a Loudness button were in constant use. I paired these with another lucky find, a pair of Sansui S-750 speakers. They could play at genuine disco levels but were equally at home playing Chiltern FM (it had the best reception near me) at midnight on low volume in my bedroom while everyone else slept. Heaven. Then a bit of a break I guess, girls, school etc seemed to take up more of my time.

My best mate still has the speakers mentioned above, sold the whole system to him for £50 so I get to hear it every so often too. It still stands up today and I'm not kidding. He (we) took it to university so its been in various houses and been the absolute life of a few parties.
Beer (and worse) has been spilled on them, had to hoover the occasional 'crease' from the drivers but they have been absolutely bomb proof and stood up to the most unbelievable amount of wear and abuse. Long may they continue!

2005 - 2010:

Then, it was time to get myself a 'proper' system. Got an old Sherwood receiver (60wpc) and some TDL 6 speakers. Turntables - (part owned as we all chipped in a hundred quid or so) Technics 1210's were the only source apart from playing the odd tune from a computer/laptop. Didn't even know what a DAC was at this point still! Another house mate brought his Tannoy Mercury's into the system and wow. It was now verging on something quite nice and reignited my desire for better sound still.

That year my dad bought me an Edwards Audio TT1 for Xmas, I quickly changed the cart out for an Audio Technica 440MLa and randomly bought a CR Developments Kalypso EL84 tube amplifier. Some very good advice recommended a pair of Ruark Rhapsody speakers as the large paper drivers mated very well with tube amps. By complete chance this combination was the best sound I had ever heard. Better than my dads setup, oh yes, and then some!

I've since sold all of these components for one reason or another, boredom, grass-is-greener/I can do better mentality. In some ways elements of that system were better than any system I have had since. I'd pay good money to put that system together again, but alas, its been and gone.

2012:

Got into SET's (don't we all at some point!). Couldn't believe the intimate delicacy that could be had from a cheap chinese amp with a few better tubes and some horn (type) speakers. Chanced on some Loth X BS1's. Still have them today and don't think I will sell. They have a small scale musicality about them that is not matched by anything I've heard.

Also bought a Marantz PM7200 amplifier. Now there is a VFM bang for buck component if ever there was one. Class A 25w, phono stage, by-passable tone controls, even a remote. Ended up having two or three of those and actually intend to get another one day. Champagne gold of course!

2014 - present

Bought some Quad 57's . . . now things were getting really interesting. Paired them with a Yaqin MS-300b tube amp which had been modified and upgraded with much better hand wired circuitry and upgraded caps. Not the greatest match on paper but it did drive the 57's well. A tube rectified 300b amplifier driving Quad 57's playing John Martyn - "Solid Air" in my loft at two in the morning was another moment I'll never forget. For the first time instruments WERE there in front of me as well as around in various parts of the room. The part where an Oboe (I think) comes in and plays with the other instruments on the track "Solid Air" genuinely flawed everyone who listened to it on my system. It cut the air with texture (sorry I'm waffling in subjective description) and leaves you enveloped in a performance.

In the pursuit of (illusive) improvement the amp builder assured me more was to be had from it, so it went off for the pre-amp section to be improved. Unfortunately that was the last I ever saw of it. It got lost in the International mail . . . . The amp had to go to Italy for its modifications and they went and lost it. The builder was genuinely gutted too and sent me two or three amps to try, all worth twice as much as the Yaqin. But none could recreate the magic I had with the Quads . . . I'd genuinely give up all my equipment to have that amplifier and those Quads back.

I settled on another 300b amplifier, N-core transformers all hand wired etc but by now I'd swapped the Quad 57's for some 63's. Do they have a wider frequency response? Yes. Are they more dynamic? Yes. Do they have a bigger soundstage and wider 'sweet spot'? Absolutely. Are they better than 57's? . . .
I'm still deciding . . . . For truly intimate immersion into a certain type of acoustic (as well as some other) music reproduction the 57's have no equal, nothing will ever convince me otherwise. Until I hear it, but I doubt it.

The 63's however play anything you throw at them and remain dynamic and immersive (enough) to justify their place in my system.

These latest ones have all the upgrades possible. 'Pro' grill, Black Gate capacitors, the works.

To drive them properly I've got a Ming-Da KT88 beast and they're a lovely match, that was until I bought a Neurochrome 686 (basically copied others who were raving about them anyway!). It deserves its praise and then some. It's a very special amp. I think I'm still trying to find its synergy brother of a pre-amp but its fun trying. I don't think I'm too far off.

Unfortunately my Quad 63's went bad after servicing recently and have developed a nasty rattle so I can't get them re-repaired until . . . well we'll see won't we.

This gave me the opportunity to call upon my new project, a pair of Cambridge Acoustic 'Grand Master Evolution' speakers.
Serious bass, they have pretty much eliminated the subs from my system. Not quite the ultimate resolution of the Quads but overall a more 'well rounded' speaker.

As the Quads are still out of service I'm living with them and very happily too. Although ultimately I still suspect the Quads will work their way back in when fit to do so. They certainly have a hold on me . . . .

That's all folks.

Can't believe anyone has read this far but cheers.

Chris

[Macca]

'Cambridge Acoustic 'Grand Master Evolution.' Had to look them up -Serious speakers!

[Firebottle]

Good read Chris, yes I did read it all.

Wondering whether to do my history, could take a while.

[Pigmy Pony]

Good read Chris, yes I did read it all.

Wondering whether to do my history, could take a while.

Go on Alan, it's not like we're going anywhere anytime soon :)

[Pigmy Pony]

And don't forget to mention the pants

[tapid]

Crazy idea No 1... Drove from London to Warrington to buy a pair of speaker stands to match my Shan Shimna s (concrete ) standmounts
I think the Doug Brady guy thought I was a bit sad and refunded me a tenner for return petrol journey. Worth it actually for sound improvement though.

Crazy idea No 2... Coach trip to Middlesborough to buy Audionote Meisu amp ( 23kgs ) :eek: Dear me that was stupid or at least my back told me so afterwards
Sold 2 years later at a decent loss :eyebrows:

Crazy idea No 3... Accepted offer on Ipay for Finite Elemente audio stand ( superb, okay Bri so why sell it ? ), the guy then sold it straight away for a 300 pound profit. :eyebrows:

Crazy idea No 4.... Made at best sideway move to exchange Audio note Z Series pre amp, mono blocs and Clearaudio concept turntable to buy Townshend Rock,
Audio Innovation, Border Patrol power supply. Hmm, that set up was good but still miss that bit of audio note,, vinyl magic !

Last few years has been pretty good, buying Lenco gl75, Decca s/g cart and mayware tonearm for glorious record playing.
cd replay is sooo much better now also with Marantz 6000 ose Trichord clocked player, Audio Synthesis pro passion pre amp
and Quad 909 power amp making lovely noises.

Almost forgot the 90 s with my dedication to anything Audio Alchemy from the Cornflake shop, anyone remember them ?
And my much loved Stax Lamda pro headphones ( kj west )
So has it all been worth it ? YES, yes and yes. Good idea this one Adrian

[struth]

I came, I saw I conked out. Pretty much sums my journey up.

just when i get a great system, my ears go awol.. sums up life really.;)

ps good stories

[walpurgis]

the Cornflake shop, anyone remember them ?

Yes. My mate had endless home demoes from them, he was a favoured customer, hardly surprising as he must have spent over a hundred grand there. Usually when pissed! :rolleyes:

[RobbieGong]

I came, I saw I conked out. Pretty much sums my journey up.

just when i get a great system, my ears go awol.. sums up life really.;)

ps good stories


Absolute quality Grant - love it !! :lol:

Thats the AOS quote of all time I reckon - brilliant ! :D

I know what you mean though. Been times I've felt exactly the same, journey can be very frustrating, challenging, even painful at times.

[RobbieGong]

Yes. My mate had endless home demoes from them, he was a favoured customer, hardly surprising as he must have spent over a hundred grand there. Usually when pissed! :rolleyes:

lol - you guys are on form this morning :D

[Haselsh1]

My journey started in 1979 while I was recovering from a motorbike accident. Comet special lol, Garrard GT something turntable, Trio amp and Goodmans RB 20 speakers. Within two years I had a Thorens TD160 BC/Mayware Formula IV arm/Ortofon VMS20 cart. Amp was then changed for a Naim NAC42/NAP 110 combo. Speakers became IMF Super Compacts.

Around 1982 things changed yet again with the arrival of a Logic DM101 first fitted with a Linn LVV arm and Lentek Entre 1 cart. The arm and cart went through numerous changes. 1983 I bought a Yamaha CDX1 CD player. Speakers then became QLN Mk1's.

1988 Yamaha CDX1 became a Cambridge Audio CD2 which then became a Meridian 200/203 due to the amazing story behind the CD2 and Cambridge Audio. At this time I changed amps to a Musical Fidelity A100X and Musical Fidelity MC4 speakers with the transparent cones. The Logic was sold off.

Moving along into the 90's I went through a pair of Rogers LS3/5a's which didn't stay long but gave way to Castle Harlech's and then I fell for the sound of valves. WAD 300B PP with WAD KLP1 pre.

I then, around 2003, settled on an Audion Sterling ETSE EL34 amp and an Audion 300B SE with Audio Note AZ-2's. Turntable was an Alphason Sonata with an Alphason HR100S MCS arm and Ortofon Kontrapunkt b cart. Phono stage was by EAR.

At this point I had to rebuild my life and my music system. Things didn't go well.

I ended up with a Cambridge Audio CXC transport into an Audiolab MDAC. I had a PrimaLuna Prologue 3 preamp into a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium power amp which then went into Spendor S3/5R2's. Good system very disappointing sound.

Complete rethink. Denon DCD2500NE SACD/CD player. PrimaLuna Prologue 3 preamp into a mono'd pair of Crown XLS1002 power amps which then feed into KEF R5's.

Cables: Atlas Hyper asymmetrical interconnects. Tellurium Q Blue speaker cables.

Loads of stuff missed out, way too much faff to mention.

[AJSki2fly]

Great write up chris, seems quite a lot end up with 300B amps, I joined you there.

[Firebottle]

Right Steve you asked for it. Get Anita to nudge you occasionally to keep you awake.

OK where to start, ‘at the very beginning’ a little ditty says.
I got interested in electronics at an early age of about 11, so during my early teens I was always after ‘junk’ that could be stripped down for parts. Old TV’s played a big part.

For vinyl playback I guess it was an old BSR deck or similar, I really can’t remember what. I am fairly sure it was mono at the time and using the audio section of an old valve TV for amplification. I am also pretty sure it would have been a ceramic cartridge of some sort as there was no preamplifier required.
Speakers started with ex-TV drivers, quite a few were elliptical in shape but not that large. I recall the joy at getting an 8 inch speaker, mounted I think in the large (ex) TV cabinet and thinking wow I really have bass now. I marvelled at the bass drum thump on ‘Hey Joe’, though by today's standards it wasn’t great, not helped by the weeny output transformer in the TV audio stage. I did lust after some cheap EMI 13x8 inch drivers that were advertised in the electronics magazines at the time but I didn’t have any cash.

Being back stage crew at secondary school introduced me to some quality kit including Ferrograph tape decks, a nice valve amp jobbie, possibly a Leak, an early Sony solid state amp and I think a Garrard 301 though the memory is hazy. I think it may have even had a Decca cart on it.
L and R speakers were completely different, probably due to one being bought a long time before the other. One was a large Wharfedale corner enclosure and the other a large Westrex with horn loaded mid/tweeter.

The next milestone was being away from home in digs for the polytechnic. Lots of different kit, someone had Quad II amplifiers, I was quite envious but they were well outside my income. I recall getting an Akai GXC-40D cassette deck but speakers were some awful Rextone (or something) flimsy box crap.
I also bought a ubiquitous Pioneer PL-12D TT with shure M75-ED, whoo bliss.

Getting married and starting a family in my 20’s didn’t do a lot for the hi-fi budget but I do recall a few items of kit.
Speakers were Soundlab (I hasten to add not the Electrostatic manufacturers) dual cone 6 and 1/2 inch drivers bought from Stan Willets in West Bromwich, fitted in old Wharfedale or Celestion ported cabinets. I have to say not that great.

The amplifier was a home brew on a badly etched pcb from a design in Practical Wireless, but the preamp was a bit special, a Lecson AC1 bought from a junk shop in Birmingham for £25. Unfortunately it was an early one and suffered with bad via connections on the pcb and as I learnt later the phono stage was fairly dire.

I bought a CD player from a radio rally that was quite unique, it had two disc trays but one mechanism. When you selected the other tray the mechanism detached then slid underneath to engage the other tray. It played, it cost probably £10 or £15 but it was a hard and toppy sound like a lot of the early CD players.

I bought a Quad 303 from my brother and that was in use for a good while, replacing the home brew amp.

I then bought some populated Quad 405 pcbs for £15 each, again from a radio rally, and made up a 405 clone in a steel box I had kicking around. I also converted a standard volume pot into a remote pot by drilling the back and attaching a shaft, then converting a motor drive system from an early auto-tune car radio. Money was tight at the time as I was the only breadwinner. The 303 got sold.


Skip forward a good few years, after an acrimonious divorce I bought some ESL57’s in a tatty state from a friend of my fathers and did them up, including getting the grilles professionally sprayed (at the then present companies expense).
I acquired a Dual 505 TT with Nagaoka MP-10 cart and sold the PL-12D to a friend for £40.


The CD player was now a Philips CD-610, the second of which I still use as a transport.
I have had a few tuners over the years and converted one with a built in timer to switch on the whole hi-fi system, it’s an Aiwai TX-110 that I still use in my little workshop.

The amplifier was still the Quad 405 clone, however I was never 100% happy that the performance was that good so I decided to build an OTL valve amp.
I built the Bruce Rosenblit Transcendence Audio design thinking if I don’t like it I can always sell it. It pissed over the 405 so that was the start of my re-awakening for valve design.

I had made a simple valve amp in my teens to convert a mono record player to stereo for my mother.
My valve designs progressed through phono stages and other OTL power amps but I will jump forward to more recent times.

Nov 2017

An EE’s progress over the last few months for system improvement.
A lot has happened over the past months with sometimes startling success.

One important factor IMO is having a chain of components that are of equal performance, such that improvements throughout the chain can be heard and appreciated. Having low distortion wide bandwidth amplification helps here.

I love valves for small signal amplification. Choosing the best can be tricky, see the developments made further on. Good circuit design is crucial for best results.

As a techie I do have test equipment (obviously) but only use it to confirm functionality, check bandwidth and measure gain figures. The ultimate tool for performance evaluation is a good pair of ears and here I have a secret weapon. A younger and more acute pair of ears by the name of Bigman80, who has been extremely helpful, apart from pushing me down the path of lightening the wallet to achieve the improvements.

A quick run down of the kit in use and some background details.
The speakers. The ubiquitous Quad ESL57, not perfect by any means but what they do well is beyond reproach. Exceedingly low colouration and no enclosure resonances. As a lot of folks say, mid-range to die for, but the extremes can be bolstered as shown later.

The power amp. My own design dual mono valve hybrid using a valve for amplification and MOSFETS for output drivers. Good low output impedance, a bit of overkill with 90W driving Quads so easy going on the output levels. Not much to look at but the case was a donor.


The sub woofer. A copy of the REL Stadium, a kit enclosure from Wilmslow Audio many moons ago fitted with a 10 inch car subwoofer with a good response down to 25Hz.
Downward firing, the legs are the originals from the ESL57’s.


The sub amplifier. Rather than build it into the sub enclosure I chose to have it in a separate enclosure, the original one wasn’t pretty and the twin toroidal transformers had an annoying mechanical hum. So recently I rebuilt it into an AIR case and replaced the mains transformer with a single quiet one. MOSFET output putting 50W into 4 ohm.


The preamp. My own design KIN valve hybrid with ‘super linear’ triode amplification stages. The unit uses a mu circuit that tricks the valves into thinking they are in valve utopia. The result is better linearity, more gain and vanishingly low distortions. MM and MC capability via a JFET cascode input, improvements later.


The turntable. A humble Goldring Lenco GL 75 in stock form apart from new V blocks and a delrin ball in the main bearing. Oh and additional weight on the counterweight necessary for the fitting of a DL-103, it’s a heavy beast.


The cartridge. One of the recent additions, a fabulous ZYX R-100. It does everything that the 103 does with fantastic drive but so much more. More detail, separation, frequency extension and image depth, fabulous. A bonus was that I didn’t have to remove the extra counterweight, with the combined weight right up against the bearing assembly the R-100 balanced perfectly. Synergy or what?



So the improvements over the last few months:

The purchase of the Z-100. I won’t be looking to better this, all the detail and tremendous imaging are first class. Helped of course by the balance of performance with the rest of the kit, see further on.
This really is a stella performer, with the final improvements the music detail and focus are some of the best I have ever heard.
___________________

Re-building the sub amplifier. I managed to lower the bleed through of the internal variable clock and the background noise as well as removing the transformer hum.
___________________

Adding tweeters to the ESL57’s. One of the limitations is the treble dispersion and adding the additional tweeters has so overcome this. The crossover components are mounted behind the tweeters and the variable L pads at the bottom rear of each panel within easy reach for adjustment.


___________________

Re-visiting the design of the KIN preamp. After attending the bake off at Huddersfield it was realised that the performance was lacking and could be improved.
One comment made was a lack of downward dynamic range (DDR), a term used by Nick Gorham. It’s difficult to detect if you are not sure what to listen for or it’s not something that is pointed out. An analogy is contrast in a picture, you might get a lot of brightness in the picture but without portraying the darker areas correctly.

After consulting the design notes for the mu circuit I realised I had made too much of a compromise in limiting device dissipation, both valve and FET. Increasing the current levels brought back the DDR. I also lowered the anode voltages to better match published characteristics. More image depth and better dynamics ensued, this really was a worthwhile step.


Another initial compromise, as it turned out, was the choice of valves to use, originally chosen to enable JFET cascode operation for MC, with a very simple circuit. (KISS principle)
Anyone who has had any Firebottle kit will know I avoid the most common valve types because obtaining the best examples can be fearsomely expensive.

As it turned out the PCC189 originally used is bettered in the linearity stakes by the PCC88, so with the ‘super linear’ circuit the improvements are doubly good, as has been heard.


So now we have PCC88’s fitted, getting top class NOS examples is easier. I have a Telefunken and a Tesla fitted to the KIN and 2 Tesla’s in the latest Vivant build.
It’s not that I wasn’t a believer in tube rolling, as everything matters, it’s just that I have been trying for the best sound without reliance on the best performing valves.
So when Bigman80 insisted I go down this route I was very pleased with the improvements made. Again more image depth and width and more detail, a palpable sense of placement accuracy and focus.
________________________

One more big improvement to come, but some details of the stand alone phono amp design in the latest Vivant build first.
The circuitry is essentially identical to that in the KIN after the improvements, but with very minor component value differences in some areas. Now fitted with Tesla PCC88’s it is indistinguishable from the performance of the KIN.


Exceedingly good performance but ….. another small compromise was initially made to keep the MM to MC switching simple (KISS principle again). This was potentially restricting the ultimate performance achievable with a JFET input, as the operating characteristics couldn’t be altered. So to explore the alternative of using an SUT directly into a valve MM input (just the flick of a switch) I purchased a Denon AU-320 SUT.


Discussion and testing has been undertaken on the loading of MC cartridges. As resistive loading is altered then different cartridges have different changes to their performance. Some seem to lose focus above say 300 ohm yet others are happy with loadings up to 1000 ohms. What I don’t quite understand is how a reflected impedance (through the SUT) of 470 ohms can can have such a dramatic improvement on the whole sound stage of the Z-100 in particular. I know it is now a reactive source (the cartridge coils) into a reactive load (the SUT) but the improvement is literally phenomenal.

The design mods to the KIN gave good improvement, the change to PCC88’s gave good improvement, the change to quality NOS gave good improvement, but the change to quality SUT into MM has given an improvement equivalent to all the previous combined.

I’m staggered, over the moon and an extremely happy bunny all at the same time.

__________________________________________________ _____

I will pause here and continue in a Part 2, including the following:


Chinese relay ladder pre.

Acoustic Dimension stepped attenuator.

Croft 5C power amp.

Better cartridge.

[AJSki2fly]

As my opener only covered the 2016 onwards, I thought I would try and offer my history from my year dot, and pictures and a few words seemed best, a few comments that may be of use to some are in italics, so here goes.

1966 donated from Mum and Dad.

Pye 35 Valve radio
https://i.postimg.cc/VsFv1zFf/Pye-35.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

1968 saved up for this 2nd hand tape deck, plus some birthday money, recorded top 20 and Radio Caroline regularly

Grundig TK120
https://i.postimg.cc/WpZm7qj9/Grundig-TK120.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Arrival of first vinyl player, Christmas present 1970, first 2 singles Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile and Dave Edmunds - I hear You Knocking, album Moody Blues - One Threshold of a Dream

Decca record player
https://i.postimg.cc/cHgR2r3L/Decca.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Murphy cassette arrives on the scene 1972 I think, purchased from Currys, I paid for it over 6 months from jobs I did, my mum took out the payment plan

https://i.postimg.cc/tTx6D801/Murphy-Vintage-Cassette-Player.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

1975 Murphy fails and I want a better system for tapes, still using Decca record player, so Pye stereo unit is purchased

Pye-Tuner-Cassette with a pair of iffy speakers
https://i.postimg.cc/kXX4gLjx/Pye-Tuner-Cassette.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


1976 My best friend has purchased some hifi separates and this opens my ears to a better sound, so this is my first proper system I save up and end up with these
Dual 502
https://i.postimg.cc/63krXtVL/dual-502.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
Trio-Kr-3400 receiver
https://i.postimg.cc/pd8VSvTt/Trio-Kr-3400.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
Trio-KX910 brought from my friend
https://i.postimg.cc/JnL7VFDH/Trio-KX910.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
Wharfdale-XP2 - good old faithfuls of the time
https://i.postimg.cc/HnSTMsSb/Wharfdale-XP2.jpg (https://postimg.cc/JHkwVmCh)

1978, I have a year out before Uni and do a bit of upgrading, this system went to my Parents-in-Law, who a few years later brought a better system and then gave my one away.

NAD-3020
https://i.postimg.cc/fTZdjH8L/NAD-3020.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
Nad-4020
https://i.postimg.cc/1X0q163s/Nad-4020.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


1985, I have been married 2 years and I start looking at various CD options and more upgrades, I and sue are tempted by a complete solution known as a stacking system, this was a higher range system on offer, we purchased it in Yeovil and I think all in it was £795, which was quite a sum back then. It came with speakers that were not that bad, in fact it sounded quite reasonable.

Aiwa-LX-330 (parallel tracking), missing from the picture is a double tape deck we added on
https://i.postimg.cc/rppCGhFW/Aiwa-LX-330.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
aiwa-dx-1200 system
https://i.postimg.cc/Vs4fpDY5/aiwa-dx-1200.png (https://postimages.org/)

1987, my earnings in IT Consultancy had become much better, so along came what I call my first higher end hifi system, note no TT as I had moved to CD completely :doh:

luxman-d105u CD, Take note a big mistake selling this baby, if you come across one and it is working and in good condition it is well worth having
https://i.postimg.cc/t4BFghtg/luxman-d105u.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Audio Innovations S500 - a wonderful integrated amp, the early ones sound better but can have main transformer issue, which is not hard to sort out, with a good set of valves they sing and a good one is currently around £800-£1K, so not a bank breaker
https://i.postimg.cc/mr63mQtn/AN-S500.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Snell Type K's which sat on the substantial Pirate stands, IMO these speakers with a good Valve amp are the business and if you want to go 2nd hand are well worth considering
https://i.postimg.cc/KvqYkQVC/Snell-type-K.jpg (https://postimg.cc/svWzbP3J)

1989, I think, I read about Meridian CDs being the best at the time and got tempted, and silly me sold the Luxman CDP

Meridian 508 20 bit
https://i.postimg.cc/kGPbHw9T/Meridian-508-1.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

1998 It was my 40th birthday and my lovely wife asked me what I would like so these were the result, more bass(maybe) but not necessarily an improvement but different.

KEF-REFModel-Three-Two - Another very good vintage speaker, just make sure the internal bass drivers surrounds are OK, they can be re-foamed but are tricky to get out the cabinet
https://i.postimg.cc/sgjpynW8/KEF-REF-Model-Three-Two.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

1998 to 2002 the system above remained stable with the the odd cable upgrade

2003 Whilst working away from home I came across these 2nd hand for a very good price in a Milton Keynes hifi shop, so I thought I would try them out

NVA P50 Passive Pre and NVA A70 power amps, these actually sounded very good with the KEF's, I got NVA to upgrade the Volume attenuator to a stepped one. These can be picked up quite cheaply and if you are on a budget are well worth checking out IMO

https://i.postimg.cc/SxxzHnFb/Nva-P50-Passive-Pre-Amp-Two-Nva-A70.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

The above resulted in me selling the Audio Innovations, don't ask why I just had a brain fart at the time.

2004 my interest in cassette came back as when we moved I came across my large collection of pre-recorded and home recorded cassette so this was purchase for £200

Nakamichi-CR-3-A-2
https://i.postimg.cc/sg5D6y1C/Nakamichi-CR-3-A-2.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


In 2006 I had started down the surround sound route with a Mission NX system and a high DVD/CD player and Blu-Ray, I went and sold the stereo gear which was a big mistake!


2011-12 Having gone down the surround sound route and missing a better system these came along all as second hand purchases

Meridian-502-Pre-Amp
https://i.postimg.cc/ncYvy8XB/Meridian-502-Pre-Amp.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Meridian-562-and-565 digital controller and surround sound
https://i.postimg.cc/tRFP60tw/Meridian-562-and-565.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

508-24-bit CDP
https://i.postimg.cc/VkgWCy1m/508-24-bit.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


Dali-Ikon-6-MK2 (purchased new)
https://i.postimg.cc/bNjxVYwq/Dali-Ikon-6-MK2.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


Late 2015 I purchased this as I was offered some vinyl by a friend selling off his LP collection

Dual 505-2, these are actually well worth considering if you want to get back into vinyl, especially if it has an Ortofon OM cartridge and then you can buy a better Ortofon stylus for it.
https://i.postimg.cc/8cLhk9t8/Dual-505-2.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Early 2016 my best friend offer me this so I jumped at it as I was again hooked on Vinyl

Project-2-Xperience-2-Pack
https://i.postimg.cc/J0KzQQhD/Project-2-Xperience-2-Pack.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Through 2016 I decided to separate the Stereo side from the surround sound so the Meridian amps were gradually sold off.

And the result by early 2017 was as below

Renaissance RA-01 300b mono block power amps, Tisbury Passive Pre, Michell Gyro with SME IV arm, Cambridge 640P Azur phono, Meridian 508 24 bit, Dali Ikon 6 speakers

The Phono was replaced 2 months later with a LFD MMC phono amp.

https://i.postimg.cc/rsy8zt98/System-2016.jpg (https://postimg.cc/vgjRNTjj)

Mid 2017 I was coming to the conclusion that the Dali's although good were letting the side down, so these below were acquired having heard a pair a friend had

System with Impulse H2's, if you have a large listening room 20+' by 14' then they are definitely worth considering, very musical, although some do not like the mid-range as there is a cross-over hump but this can be cheaply sorted with a tweak to the cross-over.

https://i.postimg.cc/zfm8KQk2/System-2016-H2-s.jpg (https://postimg.cc/gxKCPNQ3)

The above was a great improvement all round, but the impact on the lounge was not appreciated by Sue, so I started looking to replace them in early 2018 and these came along, they were a great ex-demo deal

Wilson Benesch ARCs -

IMO Wilson Benesch speakers generally are hidden gems in the UK, they are also British, they are not cheap but they are exceptionally good, ARC's, Vector's or Discoveries are well worth considering pre-used. They are pretty expensive new but often 5-10 year old ones can be picked up for reasonable prices, in fact ARC's at the moment are going for £1200-1500 which IMO is a bargain for such an excellent speaker. The ARCs are very transparent and put out what you put in them, they do put out quite low bass, I would recommend for a standard room 12' to 20' by 10' to 15'. The Discovery's produce more low end umph at lower volumes but can be hard to come by.

https://i.postimg.cc/tTNqXzWS/WB-ARCs.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Early 2018 I decided that I wanted to have a new amplifier, some funds had come in and I was able to do a PX deal so the amp below arrived

Allnic T1500 mk-2 - ALLNIC amps are superb, they are not cheap but are extremely well made and ooze quality inside and out, just read any review about them. This amp is a 300b Set putting out 12watt. If you are looking for a class valve amp then Allnic is definitely worth looking at and listening to.
https://i.postimg.cc/tT3TsbQz/Allnic-T1500-mk-2.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Mid 2018 my audiophile friend suggested I tried out his speakers he was not using so these arrive, meaning I now had 3 pairs of speakers, Sue was becoming un-amused.


Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grand SE - These are lovely speakers, very natural and musical sounding, placement with these can be an issues as twin port rear firing, if you have the room 1m minimum from rear wall and they will be great, the Beethovens if you can afford them are superb

https://i.postimg.cc/MKFWKHfS/vienna-acoustics-mozart-grand-se-loudspeakers-21109-p-ekm-390x390-ekm.png (https://postimages.org/)


Later in 2018 after much playing around with the Gyrodec to improve its isolation and resonance issues as I perceived them, I decided to change turntable and this arrive and the Gyrodec was sold

Voyd-the-Voyd - This and other Voyds are great TT's, very musical presentation and put a reasonably priced arm or an SME on one and it will sing, mids and top are are very, very good, they produce good bass but if you want deep blackness and very tight bottom end control then go for a heavy platter deck. This does not mean that a Voyd is not a great deck. The 3 motor Voyds are extremely stable for speed with low woo/flutter.
https://i.postimg.cc/mrQRwSXL/Voyd-the-Voyd.jpg (https://postimg.cc/7CYpPSrd)

I tried out a Jelco TK850M 10" arm on a sale or return basis and this worked extremely well and in fact performed as well as the SME IV as far as I am concerned and for 1/3 the price at the time, don't over-look JELCO arms, and the new range are very good VFM.

During 2019 I was given a pair of these which needed just light restoration and new foam grills, and they took me by surprise.

JBL L100 Century - These are excellent vintage speakers, if you want a great sound with a little warmth they should be on your list.
https://i.postimg.cc/qMTjWxvh/JBL-L100.jpg (https://postimg.cc/4nW69tts)

I came across these in 2019, ex-demos for a great price, so I trade some gear and into the lounge they came, not quite as bad as the H2's but still quite large.

Tannoy Legacy Ardens - a great speaker with plenty of bass as you would expect from a 15" drive, the concentric horn is not everyones cup of tea for mid and upper, but on the Lagacy's I found it to be very good.
https://i.postimg.cc/Vk0zSwXb/System-2019.jpg (https://postimg.cc/pmvw7gG2)

Early 2020 and the Ardens were causing the beginning of domestic disharmony, not bad but it was not going away. I was still hankering after the Wilson Benesch sound and purity but I wanted more push from the bottom end. I had heard a pair of Vectors 2 year previously and knew these would fit the bill or the other possibility was a pair of Discovery's. So I was extremely lucky and did a deal for these below.

https://i.postimg.cc/K8pgbmxk/IMG-0033.jpg (https://postimg.cc/186zchgs)

If you look carefully in the above picture you will notice a Beresford Caiman SEG DAC (an excellent DAC - VGFM) this is feed by a RPI with HiFi-Berry HAT for digital streaming with Volumio and Audirvana. These came along during 2018, and I also feed it with digital for CD's from a Blu-Ray/CD player an inexpensive but solution but good on SQ.

The most recent additions are below

KLH Ultimate One - VGFM headphones that sound great

https://i.postimg.cc/Qtjn1gKW/ultimate-one-zebra-with-cord-900-x-900-62473-1556123363.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Schiit Heresy 3 headphone Amp - these little amps are wonderful, have a read about them, for the cost they are a great for getting good SQ at an affordable price.
https://i.postimg.cc/gJM4hCPf/Schiit-Heresy-3-headphone-Amp.png (https://postimages.org/)

So that is my story to date, I don't think I have missed anything worth talking about out, but it has been a 54 year journey so I may have. There are various interconnect, speaker and power cables, most have been with me for years sat in several drawers.

I am very happy with my current prime system setup, that is for vinyl TT, Phono stage, Amp, and speakers, streaming is fine for now although I suppose I would like to go to a single box solution but the cost puts me off at present. I might look out for an older but good CD player to use as a transport as I will be keeping some CDs, mainly Classical, Jazz and Blues. Currently I am playing around with FM tuners, it is relatively cheap to do and get a very good sound quality. I will add to this when I at then of that journey, IMHO FM definitely sounds better than DAB certainly for speech and also classical sounds better to me.

[Lurch]

Well here goes my story.

No really early audio memories except being given a valve sw/mw radio in 1970 at age 11 for my room as dad said he not want to listen to my shit (early 70s radio 1) and an apple green transistor radio for my 14th birthday.
I did buy a pye stereo record player when I was 18 it was white and the lid split to become a pair of speakers (£15 from the local classifieds). Next up was a sharps stack system (half height all in one electronics block with a glass doored record cupboard under).
My 1st experience of proper hifi was in 86 I'd not long got married and bought my 1st house and was helping a neighbour with a DIY project. At the end of the day he fired up his system, Rega 3, A&R A60, Linn Kans, I'd never heard records I knew sound so good. Anyway at this time I was waiting for a compensation payout for a motorcycle accident and the wife agreed I could have £1000 of it for myself so buried my head in hifi mags to get genned up. When it paid out in April 87 I cam howe with a Manticore Mantra, Moth arm, A&R P77Mg, Rotel 840BX2, Celestion DL6 & Sennheiser SL440 headphones.
Over the next year I added a Sansui T500L, & Sony TC-FX150 + upgraded to A&R Alpha2s and Cambridge C50/A50 ( I still own the TC-FX150, T500L and C50/A50 ).
All stayed pretty static for the next 13 years although I did add a Technics SLP440 cdp in 94.
Xmas 01 saw the moth arm changed for an RB300 and the speakers from Alpha2s to KEF Cresta 3 + Rega Elys2. I then ran this system quite happily until 2016 when my uncle who I was a carer for carced it and left me some money.

So having had what I considered to be a upper budget system for 30 yrs, I thought I would treat myself and upgrade to an upper mid-range setup. This is the point where (August 2016) I made the most errors initially, as I forgot about the research I'd carried out in the 80s but worked with my out of date 80s knowledge when trawling ebay for replacement kit.

I know Linn is well rated stuff I will get a Linn pre and power amps thought I, so in came a Linn Wakonda and a pair of LK140s.
YUK!!! Sounded okay but then started to grate after a few hours. Thin and screechy. Back on fleabay and an Icon Audio LA4 pre and a pair on Tag Maclaren 125Ms caught my eye (followed by a 2nd pair to bi-amp) l also bought a pair of B&W 683 S2, ahh that's better thought I, now we're cooking on gas, only problem was no phonostage in the LA4. Back on ebay I go and grab an IA PS1.2SE and whilst there get tempted by a Node2, CXC & DacMagic Plus.
It's also during this 2nd wave of buying that I discover forums, forum classifieds and bakeoffs.
Yep you guessed it the bug had well and truly got me and pretty soon my Mantra was being stored under the bed and an OL AURORA GOLD Mk2/Encounter3C/MP500 was in its place. The MP quickly changed for a Hana SL picked up for £20 at a boot sale.
November 2016 was also when I made the fatal mistake of holding a BO and permitting people to bring kit, and allowing some of it to be plugged into my rig. A rig which up until then I thought was bloody amazing and well beyond what I thought I could achieve.

Anyway suffice to say that every piece of kit that got plugged into my rig that day made me realise I was a long way from where I thought I was.
In particular it was an Aurorasound Vida damn! That sounded special. So leading on from that BO I started on the real journey to my current system.
Xmas 16 drove to Cardiff and picked up a pair of Usher Dancer Mini 2 DMDs, had never heard them, and on getting them home I thought meh, 2 hours later once they'd warmed up from their freezing journey, it was WOW!!!
Feb 17 with another BO under my belt and the Vida still the elephant in the room I acquire an IA PS3SE & MasterSound PHL5 Pre, now we're getting somewhere.
August 17, a pair of IA MB845s SEs pops up on eBay and they're only 30 miles away in Bordon at HiFi Hangar, think I will pop and have a listen for something to do. We'll somehow they managed to persuade me to take them home with me, ohh dear that's another £1500 I hadn't planned on spending.
In the meantime I'm still going to or holding BOs and visiting hifi friends and the Vida is still haunting me.
January 18, Out goes the PS3SE px'd for an MFA Classic Baby SUT, ohh yes the Hana likes the 470 Ohms, more of everything.
August 18, Out goes the OL deck, in comes a Rock mk2 and the Hana changed for a Sumiko Pearwood Celebration2, now that's more like it.

October 18, I have a brain fart whilst looking the AoS classifieds and buy Drews Lector CDP7TL mk3, and yes it deserves its reputation, its a fantastic, analogue sounding cdp.

January 2019 and its my 60th birthday BO. Amongst the guests is Barrington bearing a bigbottle phono to put up against the MFA + PS in my MasterSound pre. Damn if the BB didn't sound better and by a large margin, something that also surprised Barrington. Another more fortuitous thing happened at this BO, I sold my motorbike to an attendee which gave me some pennies to play with 🤔
Feb 19 l, Playing on eBay as you do when your bored I spot a Brinkmann Bardo with best offer so I take a punt a get it for 2.5k, bargain. But this still doesn't solve the issue with the PS, then a Tron Seven pops up in the classifieds which I grab.
The next time Barrington brings the BB It's more a case of which flavour you like rather than one being better than the other.

July 19, I get a loan of a Quad 989s as the owner had just bought 2905s, wow, wow, wow. These aren't going anywhere so the Ushers are sold after 2 1/2 yrs.
Yes I've had problems with the 989s, 3 trips to OTA (one for each speaker in Sept, then as a in Feb) but we'll worth my perseverance on their last trip to OTA beside getting a full check up and clearing of an intermittent fault I had the OTA widgets fitted and they now sound absolutely stunning.
January 20, I grab a bargain Transfiguration Axia S and sell the Sumiko back to original owner.

April 20, Bloody eBay again, this time round I grab a Jolida FX Glass dac to lift the SQ of my Node2, and a year old ex demo OL Conqueror 3C to replace the Encounter 3C. So glad I did as I reckon it's the final piece of the puzzle. 😂 😂 😂

Over the last 6 months I've also rebuilt my 80s system with an Ariston RD80/Lvx/A&R P77, Phillips CD600 & JPW Sonatas to go with my original gear I've had for over 30 years, and very musical it sounds.

What have I learnt during the last 3 1/2 years. I've finally learnt to identify the type of sound I'm after, and you can have champagne tastes, but on good beer rather than lemonade money.
I've always enjoyed music, I just enjoy more of it now.

[AJSki2fly]

Lovely right up, your system sounds very interesting[emoji846]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Firebottle]

Great journey John, glad you are now at the point you are.

[Macca]

November 2016 was also when I made the fatal mistake of holding a BO and permitting people to bring kit, and allowing some of it to be plugged into my rig. A rig which up until then I thought was bloody amazing and well beyond what I thought I could achieve.

Anyway suffice to say that every piece of kit that got plugged into my rig that day made me realise I was a long way from where I thought I was.
.

lol - the bake-offs are deadly aren't they? I mean I knew that there was better out there than what I had - or had heard at shows or dealers - but until you experience it, it's only theoretical.

[Lurch]

Thanks, here's a couple of photos from my journey. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200429/dcdf5eca9927b009deab13d0f038ef72.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200429/ef12ea6a598f997365de5a66d68ca422.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200429/aefc3bfc4a01a4cb7ce4693f63f72aa0.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200429/c9d783bb8660f4c5531b401fdbddd48f.jpg

Sent from my I3312 using Tapatalk

[AJSki2fly]

Brinkman Bardo lovely TT, one day maybe


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mikeandvan]

A lot of people here and other forums seem to end up with valves, is that herd behaviour or because valves offer the most pleasing performance for home listening, even though it seems apparent to me that a big solid state amp would likely give a beefier and more realistic soundstage?

[RobbieGong]

A lot of people here and other forums seem to end up with valves, is that herd behaviour or because valves offer the most pleasing performance for home listening, even though it seems apparent to me that a big solid state amp would likely give a beefier and more realistic soundstage?

Dont have comprehensive answers to all of that Mike and never owned a valve based set-up but I believe there's a rather enjoyable warmth to the music, maybe richness too that people really like.

They look cool to my eyes as well, although with the luck i have, I'd be scared to own valves.

[Macca]

A lot of people here and other forums seem to end up with valves, is that herd behaviour or because valves offer the most pleasing performance for home listening, even though it seems apparent to me that a big solid state amp would likely give a beefier and more realistic soundstage?

I'd say it's possible to get superb ampfication in either valve or solid state. It's not that simple.

[Mikeandvan]

I'd say it's possible to get superb ampfication in either valve or solid state. It's not that simple.

I hope so, I've just sent off my S500 for service/mods!

[karma67]

though it seems apparent to me that a big solid state amp would likely give a beefier and more realistic soundstage?
why?

[Pharos]

SS has in general a greater ability to supply current, and superior damping factors.

[Mikeandvan]

why?

Guess cos I've just plugged in my HK 6500 after listening to a valve amp for a month or so, instantly bigger soundstage, real feel to instruments, most of them have loads of power on tap as well. You yourself went from a Sony beastie to a valve amp, why did you stick with the valve? I look forward to getting my valve amp back, but just wish I had room for two systems, I really would separate my record collecting into what sounds best with valve or solid state.

[Mikeandvan]

Dont have comprehensive answers to all of that Mike and never owned a valve based set-up but I believe there's a rather enjoyable warmth to the music, maybe richness too that people really like.

They look cool to my eyes as well, although with the luck i have, I'd be scared to own valves.

Yes I'm guessing that's why too, I'd like to try the amp you have someday, if one ever came up for auction.

[karma67]

You yourself went from a Sony beastie to a valve amp, why did you stick with the valve? I look forward to getting my valve amp back, but just wish I had room for two systems, I really would separate my record collecting into what sounds best with valve or solid state.

a good question,well i spotted it browsing the forums as you do,took note of the comments others were leaving about it,did some more research and arranged to view it. i liked what i heard and took a gamble,it wasn't until i got it home and in my system that i knew id made the right choice,the sony i had was a very good amp but my jw kt88 was miles better. i noticed straight away a big step up in clarity no cuddly warmth here!

[bosa]

There are some great stories here so this is mine...

I became interested in music in my teens early seventies and bought a kit system with a turntable, amp and speakers with a self build cabinet in vinyl coated chipboard. Not the greatest but a start. The next step was a Pioneer PL12d and courtesy of a genius teenage brother an amplifier he built from his own design! I pestered many a hifi shop in Norwich at the time and had a soft spot for Kef Cadenzas. Woodwork lessons at school produced some cabinets for a B200/T27 kit which I was very pleased with. The guy at Basically Sound tested them and gave them the thumbs up.

Next came a PL112D and then a Rega Planar 3. I seem to remember a few cartridges but an Ultimo was probably the best. I upgraded the amp and speakers when I was 21 to Cambridge A21 and Heybrook HB2s.

Next up was an upgrade to Exposure X amp which was lovely albeit prone to earth hum.

Then came the kids! I decided to ditch vinyl and move to CD. In hindsight probably a wrong move especially since I sold all my records!

Ruark Talisman II speakers gave me more bass and the next step was to move to AV and sell the Exposure.

Several years later and after the kids went off to Uni I decided to give vinyl another go. This was about 9 years ago.

First stab was a Project Debut into a basic phono into the AV amp. The bug started. Next was secondhand Arcam pre amp and two 9p power amps into the Ruarks. Sounded great but the TT needed upgrading. Next was a Roksan Radius 5 and an Ortofon Red cartridge. After I managed to blow one of the power amps I thought I would try valves in the form of a Minimax pre and Audion KT88 power amp. Loved the midrange and thought a change if speakers would be the next step. Next a secondhand pair of Living Voice Avatars. These really brought out the best of the amps. Next upgrade was the phono stage to Edwards Audio MC3 and an older model Zyx cartridge from 2Juki. Getting better but never satisfied I bought a John Wood EL84 power amp and changed the pre to a TVC passive.

The next upgrade was to a Michell Orbe and SME IV both secondhand.

Then I moved house. The speakers did not suit a smaller listening room and I had an opportunity to treat myself. After a trip to the North West Audio Show I ended up with Tune Audio Prime speakers and Grandinote Shinai amp. I also moved up the Zyx range to an Airy 3.

I now really loved the range of sound and involvement it gave me, plus a lot more clarity and treble refinement. Still not satisfied I dabbled with a Whest PS30RDT SE phono stage and this gave me more detail and bass definition.

The latest upgrade was to the phono stage and cartridge to give me greater dynamics, a Whest PS40RDT SE and Audio Technica ART9.

I am very happy. I don’t think I could get any better without a significant spend so am holding tight and enjoying the music. I do have a CD player (Simaudio Moon) and DAC (Audiolab MDAC) but listen mostly to records.

Lately I have been building a second system in the workshop and this has been fun getting a good sound from vinyl with a reasonable outlay.

I don’t have a favourite piece of kit, I think that they all work together to give me the enveloping involving sound I have been after.

[Mikeandvan]

a good question,well i spotted it browsing the forums as you do,took note of the comments others were leaving about it,did some more research and arranged to view it. i liked what i heard and took a gamble,it wasn't until i got it home and in my system that i knew id made the right choice,the sony i had was a very good amp but my jw kt88 was miles better. i noticed straight away a big step up in clarity no cuddly warmth here!

Be good to do a mini bake off sometime.

[AJSki2fly]

There are some great stories here so this is mine...

I became interested in music in my teens early seventies and bought a kit system with a turntable, amp and speakers with a self build cabinet in vinyl coated chipboard. Not the greatest but a start. The next step was a Pioneer PL12d and courtesy of a genius teenage brother an amplifier he built from his own design! I pestered many a hifi shop in Norwich at the time and had a soft spot for Kef Cadenzas. Woodwork lessons at school produced some cabinets for a B200/T27 kit which I was very pleased with. The guy at Basically Sound tested them and gave them the thumbs up.

Next came a PL112D and then a Rega Planar 3. I seem to remember a few cartridges but an Ultimo was probably the best. I upgraded the amp and speakers when I was 21 to Cambridge A21 and Heybrook HB2s.

Next up was an upgrade to Exposure X amp which was lovely albeit prone to earth hum.

Then came the kids! I decided to ditch vinyl and move to CD. In hindsight probably a wrong move especially since I sold all my records!

Ruark Talisman II speakers gave me more bass and the next step was to move to AV and sell the Exposure.

Several years later and after the kids went off to Uni I decided to give vinyl another go. This was about 9 years ago.

First stab was a Project Debut into a basic phono into the AV amp. The bug started. Next was secondhand Arcam pre amp and two 9p power amps into the Ruarks. Sounded great but the TT needed upgrading. Next was a Roksan Radius 5 and an Ortofon Red cartridge. After I managed to blow one of the power amps I thought I would try valves in the form of a Minimax pre and Audion KT88 power amp. Loved the midrange and thought a change if speakers would be the next step. Next a secondhand pair of Living Voice Avatars. These really brought out the best of the amps. Next upgrade was the phono stage to Edwards Audio MC3 and an older model Zyx cartridge from 2Juki. Getting better but never satisfied I bought a John Wood EL84 power amp and changed the pre to a TVC passive.

The next upgrade was to a Michell Orbe and SME IV both secondhand.

Then I moved house. The speakers did not suit a smaller listening room and I had an opportunity to treat myself. After a trip to the North West Audio Show I ended up with Tune Audio Prime speakers and Grandinote Shinai amp. I also moved up the Zyx range to an Airy 3.

I now really loved the range of sound and involvement it gave me, plus a lot more clarity and treble refinement. Still not satisfied I dabbled with a Whest PS30RDT SE phono stage and this gave me more detail and bass definition.

The latest upgrade was to the phono stage and cartridge to give me greater dynamics, a Whest PS40RDT SE and Audio Technica ART9.

I am very happy. I don’t think I could get any better without a significant spend so am holding tight and enjoying the music. I do have a CD player (Simaudio Moon) and DAC (Audiolab MDAC) but listen mostly to records.

Lately I have been building a second system in the workshop and this has been fun getting a good sound from vinyl with a reasonable outlay.

I don’t have a favourite piece of kit, I think that they all work together to give me the enveloping involving sound I have been after.

Great story and read, lovely to here another happy ending enjoying the music [emoji846]

[drSM]

Really enjoyable read gents. Some really interesting hifi journeys.

Jamie, NS1000 s sound great driven by push pull valve amps 40 to 75 wpc and altho i havent heard the JW I am sure it does a great job.
I have an unadulterated pair of NS1000 s that sound good driven by an old valve sansui .

[karma67]

yes they do,i also run mine on 4 ohms.

[oldius]

I'd say it's possible to get superb ampfication in either valve or solid state. It's not that simple.Spot on. Good results can be achieved from either. I have a preference for SS but I have heard lovely valve systems.

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