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. 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.
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. 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.