Jerry's Hifi Blog

Well, I've always admired those B & O's whenever you've shown them on forums, and having three MC-1's is a great idea if and when one of them fails.

Current electronics line up.



The most recent newcomer is top left; a Wyred 4 Sound DAC1. Very pleased with it.
It's rather put into the shade both the XiangSheng DAC05Aii and also the onboard DAC in the EAD processor, I'm only using it as a preamp now.

Also shown are Goosey, Froggie and a vaguely locust-like green thing that wobbles when you touch it.

Oh, and a brace of Primaluna Prologue 7 valve monoblocks, a Quad 303, and the Chinese JLH amp that is currently supplying the tunes.

I do have a new GE 5670 tube to try in the XiangSheng, that might up its game a bit compared to the W4S.

Stack of current favourite preamps, placed immediately next to my listening chair as two of them don't have remote control and I prefer to adjust volume level from my chair.

From the top, Chinese stepped passive with remote handset & twin piggies, Concordant Exhilarant valve pre, Densen DM20 solid state.

I can swap between them in about 30 seconds, including valve power amps' warmup



The differences in sonic presentation are subtle but quite noticeable. I find that I stay with one for about a week then do a swap to enjoy the presentation of one of the others.

The most euphonic, to my ears, is the Densen, surprisingly. A definite touch of added niceness, 'pretty' is the word that came to mind when I swapped over to it yesterday. The best clarity is from the passive, with a touch of added zing. The Concordant falls in between, almost as transparent as the passive but with an extra soupcon of dynamic push and 3D imagery, and would probably be my choice if I only kept one.

Aye, I remember the Concordant from my dark and murky past 

It looks like a proper bit of kit. That was high end back in the day.

Looks like a simple circuit. The KISS principle in action.

Ah, the midi Sony preamp. Yes, I fancied trying it due to its rep, but it didn't do much for me.

I've no plans to move on or mod the little B&O speakers, they have been recapped and fully refurbished, they sound genuinely excellent to me. They do benefit from a gutsy pro solid state amp.

Well, you could both be right about the lack of dynamic impact of the B&O speakers. I can't say I've tried them with heavy material.

In the environment where the speakers are used I don't try to play recordings of steam riveters going flat out, but they sound really good on small to medium scale classical music! There's excellent clarity and tonal neutrality, and a well lit kind of openness about them. Anyway, they meet my needs.

I've tried quite a few speakers in that system - including Ushers, Magnepan 1.6qr, KEF R500 - and the B&O are the only ones I've felt really settled with. They certainly tick my boxes for the particular requirement.

B&O people tended in my day to be different depending on the area. In the home counties, it was highly successful tradespeople with a business and employees, who wanted to show off how successful they were. Out of this area, it seemed to be older people, possibly retired, who wanted something nicely made and finished that would fit into their home environment (their wall speakers of the 80's were sometimes hidden behind curtains for example). Back then in my youthful audiophile ignorance, I all but sneered at these people who cared not for sound quality (they took it for granted it'd be good).

Forty years later, I feel very differently and see only too well my wife's all-but-refusal to play the stereos here, as it's too much 'faff' to fire it up. B&O long ago mastered the art of 'inviting' the user in, glass doors sliding open and illuminating the 'play area' in the 2300/2500/Ouverture (and whatever it was called later before being replaced after so many years) - the Ouvertture actually made for a good basic preamp to drive remote amps although it's not for audiophiles really. Aftersales service wasn't an issue back then but no idea now and aforementioned 'Ouverture-style' products are now rather old. Early streaming stuff appeared to be MP3 based (as you'd expect from the customer base) but no idea now.

Not sure if anyone's interested, but the Beolab 4000 active stand/shelf speakers I thought were very good indeed if treated like a proper speaker (slightly larger bass-mid driver not needing so much eq for bass), the plain cylindrical 6000 floor stander worked brilliantly near corners and the well known 'pencil' models (8000 in my day) were good on a long wall well out from corners. Prices now aren't silly-high on the used market, but watch out for some of the small driver surrounds crumbling away. I've been fighting this, but as top little actives from Neumann and Genelec are so expensive and not good looking domestically, the B&O's just might possibly offer a small-scale alternative for second systems away from the man-cave. The very thin Belden based (I think) Powerlink connecting cables actually worked quite well as an interconnect too if wired for this - I still have a home made DIN to RCA cable I once made up somewhere.

Apologies if I'm crapping on your thread Jerry

No worries, Dave, that's fine.

I can't recall now what first got me interested in B&O speakers - mix and match specialist that I am, they aren't an obvious brand for me to be attracted to. Probably the positive comments I kept on coming across on t'internet.

I bought one CX100 pair from the ebay seller who refurbs them, with a wide choice of vinyl wrap colour, for £180 or so to go in a 2nd system in a conservatory. They look absolutely immaculate, he does a fabulous job. I was so impressed with their appearance and sound that I bought another pair to go in the main system in our 2nd home.

It's a couple of years or more now, I think, and I remain impressed and very happy with them.

Very spoilt and a nice pair you have there

This is impressing me with its clarity and strength of sound.



An Ayre AX-7e integrated amp. As per Art Dudley's Stereophile review, it works best in balanced mode although the difference is a bit marginal. Happily I've got 2 DACs with balanced outputs - currently enjoying the Wyred 4 Sound DAC 1.

I did a px deal for my Primaluna monoblocks. Very happy with the new sound of my system.

Thats interesting Jerry, how do you find a change of sound from the iron fist in a velevet glove to the realtive dryness of the Ayre?

I was laughing my head off as I wrote that.

It's true though.