Reply With QuoteHere is my setup at the min but hoping to move house soon so I can get the rest of my gear out
Like my rack and CD player and DAC but will have to replace the ATC SCM40 speakers with with HST7s
Here is the rest of the kit
Hi-Fi in our house is a compromise... I’m able to buy what I want (within reason, obviously) but it can’t go on a dedicated rack and has to fit in with the decor. A bit of a compromise but not stupid, but it means I can only really have bookshelf speakers and my separates have to go in a cupboard.
System is
B&W 805d
Naim NDX-2 streamer with XPS-2power supply
Naim 250.2 power amp
Naim 272 pre-amp... temporary, until I find a 252 and supercap at the right price.
Plus focal elear headphones and graham slee amp
Roon core and NAS drive, plus tidal.
It works for me despite the compromises... but I do want to sort the stopgap pre-amp soon.
Here is my setup at the min but hoping to move house soon so I can get the rest of my gear out
Like my rack and CD player and DAC but will have to replace the ATC SCM40 speakers with with HST7s
Here is the rest of the kit
Last edited by bazza.; 2nd December 2020 at 17:16.
Amazing kit, do you not have problems with vibration and feedback playing vinyl with the turntables so close to the speakers though? It’s been a while since I had a decent separates system but I thought it was always advisable to position the TT as far away from the speakers as possible.Originally Posted by bazza.
Here is my setup at the min but hoping to move house soon so I can get the rest of my gear out
Like my rack and CD player and DAC but will have to replace the ATC SCM40 speakers with with HST7s
Here is the rest of the kit
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
No never had any problems so far the new place I'm hoping to get the HiFi can be placed well away behind a wall
But I won't have space for the speakers so will have to go for the ATC in wall model which should be interesting
Wow.
There are a lot of flat earthers on here!
I have just moved so my system is still in boxes.
Hoping to get it set up this weekend.
Kuzma Stabi S Turntable with external power supply
Stogi tonearm
Audio Note Io1 cart
Kondo S6c SUT
Rogers PA 1A phono stage (loaner) New LCR phonostage being built.
I no longer own a CD player but use a 3TB SYnology NAS with all CDs ripped to FLAC
Cambridge Audio 851N Streamer
Kondo M7 Pre-Amp
Bespoke 300B PP Monoblocks (3 valve stage all DHT) Nickel interstage and Amorphous O/P Transformers
Living Voice OBX R2 Loudspeakers
Last edited by Kevin; 2nd December 2020 at 18:59.
Managed to get the record rack built
I've been thinking about getting some Focal Clears. Are they worth it? I have a decent set of closed backs but would like some open backs tooSent from my SM-A405FN using TZ-UK mobile app
They’re considered decent vfm but you should really have a demo with whatever source you’re using to determine if you think they perform for you. They do scale up well when driven from a headamp.
Don’t you mean XPS ps on the CD player, didn’t think they can work with Supercap ?
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Now you’re talkingManaged to get the record rack built
I love nice hifi - but, occasionally we can forget that it’s all about the music!
I have my thoughtfully acquired vinyl and CD collection which I’m very proud of and enjoy playing
Give me a brilliant record collection over any amp with twin overhead cam and nox injected fuel injectors
By the way I will rocking a borrowed lumley reference valve amp with Ruark speakers - pics in the New Year!
I currently don't have a Hi-Fi, however I have tons of records that I would love to be able to listen to again.
I'm really pleased to see how many people have turntables out there. Long live vinyl!
Yes that was a typo on my part, it is indeed a XPS.
Thanks mate. Will try to get a demoSent from my SM-A405FN using TZ-UK mobile app
Oh lovely, a Lowrider S.
Anyway, this thread has reminded me that I need new belts for my Marantz CD10. Again.
Another Shahinian user....
I went through dynavector , naim 82 , super cap, 135s to get my Shahinians to sing at their best. Finally I stopped at good old Avondale audio which clobbered them all into the weeds. Nice Grad 1 and a set of Voyagers. Bet you’d love them with your Arcs. You should try the Obelisks , they make arcs sound like toy town in comparison even to my 40 year old ears.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yes the Obelisks are the better speaker, they should be at the price but you would be surprised at the number of people who claim to prefer the Arcs. Evidently Arcs are less fussy about positioning but I have never seen let alone hear a set of Obelisks so I can't really comment.
Previous:
Those speakers starting their life being carved out of 200Kg of marble...
This was an all-analogue setup*, the Denon DL103LC being fed into a Denon AU340 step-up transformer, before passing into a Triode valve phono amp and onwards to the Triode 300B SET.
Speakers were the Norh Marble, with ScanSpeak drivers and internal 99.5% solid silver wiring. The silver wire was a hangover from the time I built my own valve amp, using high-silver content solder and "boutique" paper-in-oil capacitors supplied by Tim de Paravicini.
I also had this in the bedroom: an iPod with HD650s connected to a Little Dot III headphone amp:
Current: All gone now except for the iPod/HD650 and incomparable 1978 Denon DP-50L turntable.
The turntable is still in use, but fed via a solid state Cambridge phono-amp into a Denon N10 receiver. The big tube amps and 30+ Kg speakers had to go - too many small kids around.
The iPod was upgraded to 256GB of solid state storage and still syncs perfectly with iTunes, all my CDs having being ripped into ALAC lossless. The iPod 5.5 plugs directly into the HD650s - it really is a good amp. I found no difference powering these headphones with the Little Dot.
Paul
*I had a home-made streamer plugged in in that photo, but that has gone now too as the current Denon amp has Airplay built-in.
Last edited by Tokyo Tokei; 9th December 2020 at 06:12. Reason: pics
Some nice set up guys.
My set up is a little more minimalist , a Linn Majik DSM4 powering Linn 104 speaker's. I'm feeding it my ripped CD music collection through a NAS server and a current Tidal Sub.
Last edited by zippy; 30th December 2020 at 12:09.
Was my setup till recent, amps just sold this week. Still have turntable but looking for something simpler, one box and girlfriend friendly
Can’t seem to download image, any ideas around this , tried tapatalk as well
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Attachment 18563
Last edited by LRB255; 9th December 2020 at 22:58.
Obelisk can be picked up for 2-3k so not really that expensive. Arcs are better for little rooms though but they were lost in our old house lounge. Moved to PMC IB2i in the end which wiped the floor with all of them. So they should at 13k!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Just a shameless bump really as I have thoroughly enjoyed living vicariously through your hifi set ups... I currently have a stereo Sonos One set up in our main living area but during the early days of lockdown I picked up a good quality DAC and headphones which really opened my eyes to the possibilities of hifi even with Spotify as the source.
The question is what should I do to upgrade the main system? Been looking at Quad and Rega, my preference is for the latter as it is still a "proper" UK brand. Perhaps the Brio amp and Apollo CD player, pairs with a Bluesound Node 2i for streaming... albeit I think that is pushing my initial budget and still without speakers!
Can’t help on the hifi but have some feedback on the current crop of streamers.
I had a £500 node 2i recently and returned it. The sound quality was good but the digital output was so high it was only about 4 volume steps from nothing to obnoxiously loud. Also the app wasn’t that good on my iPad and kept losing connection to the device.
I then tried the £450 Primare NP5 and it was easy to set up via google home and was more solid in terms of connection, the app was even worse with no more than 50 folders available via connected drive. Plus despite what they tell you it can’t play tidal high res unless it’s via Roon which is pointless. And finally not gapless so that also went back.
In the end I bought an Audio Pro Link 1 for £84 with an eBay discount and it’s brilliant. Rock solid connectivity and it streams everything except hi res tidal, which might be a pain but unless you are in the high end isn't the end of the world. The only other drawback is only having optical as I’d always run digital coaxial if I could, and the iPad app only runs in portrait mode weirdly. But it’s cheap, well made, does a million radio stations (node often told me the station was unavailable in my country so needed a vpn), plays great from my NAS and Spotify connect works a charm.
Thanks that's useful to know, hadnt seen the Audio Pro before so will check that out. I am conscious that streamers are reliant on longterm app support and do want to keep that component separate from the rest of the hifi so it can be updated in future.. I may even go Raspberry Pi; a chap I follow on Instagram must have a £15k system and is using a £100 Pi as a digital source!!
I've had the same setup for more than five years now, quite happy with it. The Linn DS system is still supported with all new software upgrades.
My setup :
Sony XH9505 65" FALD TV
Yamaha Aventage RX-A3080 Receiver (recently upgraded from Denon X3400H)
QA 3050i Fronts
QA 3090ci centre
QA 3020i surrounds
Monoprice Monolith Ultra THX Certified 12" subwoofer (sub 30 Hz goodness😳)
Front main speakers will be upgraded to KEF R3 standpoints this year, along with matching centre.
Philips Hue Playbars all round for ambient lighting
This is the most "Hifi" equipment at my house!
Well, I am not a hi-fi or techie buff and I feel a little inadequate after reading through some of the posts on this thread - many of which read like gobbledegook to me!
My twenty-year old Teac midi system (CD player, radio tuner and cassette player(!)) finally gave up the ghost recently so I popped into Richer Sounds to replace it. I just wanted to listen to the radio and CDs.
It didn't take long for me to realise that a lot had changed in the intervening period. For a start hardly anybody buys a radio tuner anymore - apparently they listen to radio via the internet. What sort of wizardry is that?! Even CDs are apparently old-hat - streaming is where it's at.
Anyway, the chap at Richer was extremely patient with me and eventually I ended up with an Audiolab 6000A amplifier, Audiolab 6000CDT CD transport and a Cambridge Audio CXN V2 network audio streamer with Dali Opticon 6 speakers.
I have to say that I am blown away by this set-up. I really wasn't confident it would be as easy to use the streamer as my old system but it is fantastic. I use my IPhone as a remote control and can use it for internet radio very easily. Even better, I have signed up for Tidal and that gives me access to all the music I could ever want in very high quality and again controlled from my IPhone. The sound quality is absolutely amazing to my ears (although probably doesn't quite match some of the set-ups in this thread).
My main system as it is at the moment.
Systemdek 3D Signature turntable, SME 312 12 inch arm, Hanu ML cartridge, Naim Superline Phono stage powered by a Teddy Pardo SuperCap, Naim Nac252/SuperCapDR, Naim Nap300DR, Naim HDX Music Store/Streamer powered by a Teddy Pardo XPS. Quad ESL2805 electrostatic speakers.
The turntable is normally fitted (and works better) with a 12 inch Audio Origami PU7, but that is U/S at the moment and needs to go back to AO to be repaired.
And that's why I love this thread, I have never seen the Naim HDX before looks like exactly the sort of thing I need, of course discontinued now, that must have been lightyears ahead of the competitiion when it came out on 2009!
Interesting to see how much “vintage” stuff is still being used to good effect.
As much as the streaming revolution is killing some of the CD market and old DACs, some of the amps and speakers from yesteryear were OTT engineered compared to some modern stuff.
I bought a pair of Celestion A1 speakers in about 1999 for my hifi to replace some Mission 701’s, but when upgrading I kept them for TV and they still sound fantastic.
My Kef Reference 105/3 speakers and Michi passive pre/power combo are still doing fine, though using a £20 echo input and Spotify as the source most of the time.
I tried replacing the belts on my rarely-used Marantz CD-10 over Christmas and now it doesn't work at all... Off to the repair shop methinks. All I use if for is a transport as I have a lovely musical Rega DAC, but it still needs to work!
I've been considering a change of speakers, I have an offer of another(better?) set of proacs but they are floor standers and my wife says they are "too big", our present speakers are on decent stands so the footprint is practically the same but she cannot see this, any advice to help her understand or should I trade her in first before I change speakers?
My Kefs arrived before Mrs Gyp did.
She can't lift them.
Solves the problem
Difficult one, and that depends on the 'mechanical' coupling between your existing standmount Proacs and stands, and the position in the room.
Sometimes a good standmount speaker on a good stand can have a more accurate bass than a floor standing speaker depending on positioning in the room.
If your existing speakers are near a wall or corner, they will sound better in my view than a bass heavier floor stand speaker, which will need more space round it.
The answer is to ask the dealer for a home demo and listen to them.
You could also tune a good subwoofer into your existing speakers for that extra depth and slam.
Now we have moved, and finally found the pair of speakers after a year or so searching, I'm pretty happy!
Michell Syncro / AT33 PTG II / Ray Samuels F-117 Nighthawk
Yamaha CD-NT670D (CD/Spotify/Musicast/Radio)
Bryston B60R
Tannoy Stirling TWW
System by Robert Seymour, on Flickr
Last edited by hoopsontoast; 31st December 2020 at 15:35.
Speakers are on filled dreadnought stands co joined by blu tac and sound good, I think anyway.
My local dealer is more than happy for me to try either, once they re open due to lockdown at the moment, thanks guys.
Posting Permissions
