Why I love my cat and Radford Revivial
I owe thanks not only to Will from Radford Revival and Paul of RFC but also to my wife and our cat. Two years ago I was the happy owner of Magnaplanar .7 speakers which were driven by a Naim Nap 200 and Nac 202 (I won’t go into the rest of the system as its listed below other than to say I used a MM phono stage and SUT). The speakers sat close to the back wall of our living-room for most of the time but were sometimes brought further into the room when an opportunity arose. I was quite content until my better half suggested we buy a kitten for our daughter. I knew then that the Maggies were doomed to become a kitten play thing and cause me considerable stress. And it proved to be so - I would often find the little bastard atop one of the speakers, a trail of fabric pulls marking his course. I sold the Magnaplanars a couple of months after the cat arrived and replaced them with…..Tannoy Cheviots! Paul from RFC did some wonderful work on them despite being unwell and injured. I collected the speakers from Paul and listened to his system which featured a Radford Revival STA25. I was impressed by the Radford/Tannoy combination. Back at home the Cheviots sounded very good. The cat continued to demand food by pulling at the speaker cloth but I was more relaxed as he couldn’t get to the drivers themselves.
However, I was not satisfied with the sound I was getting. Records sounded so so, streamed music sounded ok and the CD player was probably my least favourite source. I was fairly sure that the Transfiguration Spirit could sound better and I was surprised that the CD player sounded pedestrian. I wanted to ditch the Naim kit; I knew it when I had heard Paul’s Radford. It bothered me that my set up had not been the result of a careful plan with a vision of a final destination. The decision was made, I planned to build a system which was well matched and that included a Radford to match the Tannoys.
I sold the Naim kit, phonostage and SUT on this site and ordered the Radford. The chap who bought the Naim pre/power was selling an Audiolab 8000C and I mentioned this to Will during a phone conversation about preamps. Once Will told me that he used Audiolab 8000 preamps with his Radfords as they worked particularly well together, I jumped at the chance to buy it. I travelled to his home and picked up the Audiolab. I also got to see my Naim amps in his system - which sounded very good indeed.
Then I sat and waited; the Audiolab sat on a shelf and the Unitiqute 2 served as my integrated amp. The turntable ceased to turn. The Unitiqute didn’t sound half bad and I really had no regrets at selling the amps but I missed my records.
The day arrived when my Radford was ready, packed by Will’s father it arrived in perfect condition. I expected to hear a significant increase in sound quality over the venerable little Unitiqute. I will try to avoid the hyperbole that I might so easily write about the first few hours listening to the new system. I played records first of all and was immediately impressed, then elated. It reminded me of being 9 years old when I first heard a good hifi system. My Dad went from a budget music centre to a Hifi system comprising Royd Coniston R speakers, Arcam amps and an Arison Icon deck. It blew my tiny mind, sat in the living room, in the dark until bedtime (he sold the lightbulbs to buy the kit) and I’ve never forgotten that experience. The difference in quality and enjoyment was huge. It’s rare to get that feeling again once you have a decent system. Most of us change stuff and can perhaps measure an appreciable difference but nothing so fundamentally better as those first few steps into the world of proper kit. My new system did that again for me on a lesser scale. So much so, in fact that I was convinced it couldn’t be solely the change of amps. Records I knew sounded bigger, bolder, wider and deeper. The bass was, without a shadow of a doubt more defined and textured. I’m sure that the MC phono in the Audiolab is better matched to the Transfiguration Spirit. The star of the show is undoubtedly the Radford and I now have a lovely analogue system that I can live with long term. The CD player is now a clear second in terms of sound quality and much improved. The streamer is definitely third, I suspect as a result of not being able to bypass the preamp built into the Unitiqute.
All in all I am very pleased that I opted for the Radford/Audiolab combination. It has brought the system to life - my Dad had a listen, said it sounded ‘chewy’ and then asked how much a Radford would set him back. I don’t know that I have entirely avoided the hyperbole I mentioned above but that might have been a difficult ask. Thanks to Will, Paul, Kate and Theo the blasted cat.
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Originally Posted by clive7164
