Some pics of what I'm using and not using right now.

Synergy......my word for things I can't totally explain 🤣

"Seriously though it was so sweet on stuff like vocal harmonies that it used to have me laughing out load. deffo not 'Neutral'. But lovely to listen to."

It's an age thing Macca  

I like the look of the Topping that's why it's still there. I like that it's dinky and I like the display.

Didn't think the R-2R DACs brought anything extra to the party. At least not enough to be worth changing to.

lol

You might have to take into account that after thirty-odd years chasing the dream I might be a bit jaded.

Ha, jaded or not an improvement is a bonus.

I spent may years with a mediocre sound, Quad 405, so I'll take step ups in performance at reasonable money.

Had Marco from AoS here last week, he wanted to cross-compare everything I have in the shop. I mean house. Lots of plugging and unplugging.

He was quite taken with the Audiovector X3 Super speakers, I had not tried them with my best equipment previously, have to say I was quite impressed too and have left them in. We were listening to some Dylan (Blood On The Tracks) and Mark Knopfler (Rag Picker's Dream) and they sounded exquisite.



Think I will abandon my plan to sell them and elevate them to official back-up status.

Only bought that Knopfler album last week. I was in the s/h record shop going through the CDs and this youth about 20 comes in with his girlfriend. You know what he bought? Dire Straits 'Love Over Gold' and 'Making Movies'. On vinyl! I didn't think anyone his age would even have heard of those records let alone be buying them on vinyl.

I will have to check them out, I never really bothered with him or Dire Straits after 'Brothers In Arms.'

I agree his mastery of the guitar is humbling.

It's the summer of 1985. 'Back To The Future' is playing in the cinemas. 'Live Aid' only just happened. I went round to a mate's house to take a look at his new stereo.

He had been to Richer Sounds and bought a Rotel turntable, Rotel tape deck, QED amp and some tiny little Mordaunt Short speakers. Fantastic but no big deal really.

But a week later I went back and he had added a Sony tuner and a Sony equaliser with spectrum analyser. Ah those little bars going up and down in time to the music. So cool. Now I was jealous. But he'd had some rich relative die and leave him some money and I although I had relatives dying all the time none of them were rich and none ever left me jack.

So I had no money at all for a proper hi-fi let alone a flashing lights machine.

And that was a situation that was to continue for a couple of decades. In the meantime I did follow his example and go to Richer Sounds and avail myself of their bin-end bargains, but I didn't even have enough cash to add the tape deck, that took another year. And it was only sixty quid, but at the time I was a poxy student living off the land so it was a wonder I found the money at all.

Anyway I soon learned the rules - that is you don't need an equaliser or the flashing lights and they were in fact bad things that ruin the purity of the analogue signal.

Time passes though and eventually I get to the point where, within reason, I can have anything I want. Main system is sorted but I also have the A/V system to play about with so my thoughts again turned to getting the coveted flashy light machine. This is 2020, surely people are practically giving them away on eBay?

But no. Prices are stupid. £200 for a knackered up Pioneer unit? Dream on. Decent high-spec Kenwood tested and working? That's a monkey to you son.

No chance I was paying those sort of prices so I left it. But it was nagging at me especially with retirement coming up. If I don't get one now I'm never going to get one. So I had another look the other day and I don't know whether it's the pandemic, or Brexit or the phase of the moon but prices were down across the board. So I picked on a tasty looking 1989 Technics SH8058 unit, tested and working.

It was a battle to get it set up as the A/V system is in an alcove against the wall and it's so hard to get at to do connections and so forth. It took me an hour and I sustained a badly bruised knuckle, but here it is gentlemen, set up and working, the resolution of a 36 year dream, a flashing lights machine:

I just wired it up so the little bars go up and down with the sound, it isn't actually passing any signal back to the amp so the EQ settings do nothing.



The amp doesn't have tape circuit at all so actually getting it to EQ would mean swapping in an amp that has them. Which I did consider but the XTZ is handy for A/V as the DAC is built in.



I could use the Black Tulip pre/power and have both analogue and digital level meters going at the same time. Might think about that but it would mean giving up remote control of volume. I can live without that for Hifi no problem but it's really handy when watching the telly.

I've just been sat here for an hour watching the little bars. I suppose the novelty will wear off eventually. 

My first ever amplifier - on sale on ebay.


image uploader

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255151395786?hash=item3b683553ca:g:xwAAAOSwT-5hHusz&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5336643969&toolid=10001&customid=2113X565594X70bfc8e6ea822f4a93dc813e5384dd0e

Should I buy it? I've absolutely no use for it but I am tempted. I look occasionally and there's always loads of Fisher on there but never this exact model.

Fisher started as an American brand and their valve tuners and amplifiers are still highly regarded. But in the 1970s they folded and Sanyo bought the name and used it as their 'Lexus' brand with the 'Studio Standard' logo.

They issued a new range about every 18 months, like a lot of the Japanese companies back in the day so there's literally dozens of different Studio Standard ranges out there, this amp is from one of the last, possibly the last, and dates about 1985

So just re-badged Sanyo really but totally clean and reliable kit. Forget trying to drive any difficult speaker load with it though. But would sound sweet and clean through any decent vintage two-way.

This one has the little connector clip at the back which you flip up and then it mates with the component on top so the whole stack is interlinked for remote control purposes. I'd like to collect the whole stack (there's a matching tuner, tape deck, CD player and turntable) but you just never see them come up for sale.

e=mail me some pics and I'll put them up.

Not made any changes to my main system for a long, long time now, must be getting on for a year. That's unprecedented since I discovered hi-fi forums back in 2009.

One thing I am toying with is getting another CD transport. Don't have any SQ issues with the Audiolab but have to admit the slot-loading does get on my tits a bit. I can live with it but I'm wondering if I should make that compromise or should I get a really fancy transport that gives me more pleasure of use? Just keep the Audiolab as a back up. Suggestions appreciated, new or used.


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Increasingly feel like the odd one out on this forum nowadays. Am I the only one here who thinks

Digital playback is obviously superior sounding to vinyl

mains leads, mains cables, mains supplies, sockets, magic fuses etc etc are all a complete waste of money

DACs all sound so similar that they're really not worth the bother of thinking about

Subjective reviews (including mine) aren't worth the paper they are written on at least as a buying guide

 'Competes with units in much higher price bracket' or 'You'd have to spend £XXX more to better it.' are two of the most absurd statements anyone can make about hi-fi

Everything relevant to sound quality can be measured and quantified (although sometimes/often isn't)

Common sense and education seem to go right out the window when it comes to hi-fi

'Hi Rez' digital was a total scam right from the get-go

'Trust your ears' is such reductively simple exhortation that it's completely meaningless in any context.

Hans Beekhuyzen is either a liar or an idiot, there is no other possibility.

is anyone with me on any of these things?