Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2019 16:27:18 GMT
To get the thread rolling. I'll start with the Audio Origami PU7 Tonearm. To my ears it was nothing special, the sound performance was average at best. In 2010 the price was something like £1,600 for a regular PU7.
Will think of some more stuff to list.
S.
|
|
|
|
Post by antonio on Jul 18, 2019 16:31:10 GMT
That's surprised me Shane, I always thought that was the arm I would buy if I had a windfall.
|
|
|
|
Post by antonio on Jul 18, 2019 16:31:56 GMT
Kudos speakers.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2019 16:46:27 GMT
monitor audio speakers..complete n utter shite the lot of em
valve amps..owned a few..all utter shite.
lp12 biggest heap of excrement ever created.
marantz cd players..ear splitting shite
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2019 17:01:48 GMT
Audio Innovations S500. Oh yes it has the 16 ohm tap. The one I had was fully serviced by David Wright. The sound was OK. I'd rather own a Leak Stereo 20.
Croft Audio Series V with Basic Micro Pre. To my ears it was pleasant but nothing special, and the V was fully serviced by Glenn. The Leak Stereo 20 will musically piss all over the Croft.
Schiit Audio Magni 3 Headphone Amp. Below average sound and quite crude.
Some more to come....
S.
|
|
Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,400
|
Post by Bigman80 on Jul 18, 2019 20:51:36 GMT
S500 wasn’t great. Mine had an upgraded man board and still didn’t really excel. On,y the mk1s had the 16 ohm tap. Not sure if they were better or worse. TBH I don’t like EL34s much. They are the Broccoli of valves.
Some others:
Roksan Caspian amps are Sh#t.
Heybrook HB1. Just buy a blackboard and some chalk.
Rega Bias, Ely’s and Exakt. All Sesame Street attempts at making a cartridge.
Linn Basik/Basik Plus arms. Awful things. I couldn’t listen to a deck with one.
Anything with a Marantz badge, especially CD players
Pioneer A400
Musical Fidelity MC4..... worst speakers I’ve ever owned
Cambridge Audio 640/651P phono stages. Dismal things.
.
|
|
|
|
Post by nonuffin on Jul 18, 2019 22:45:35 GMT
Amen to that. Especially driven by Naim.
YEUK
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2019 22:50:20 GMT
Many speakers: Neat, Kudos, Wilson Benesch for a kick-off. And Nytech amplifiers (well, the one I bought, anyway) absolutely rubbish construction. Most CD players; Rotel, Marantz, Technics, Rotel, Sony. Pink Triangle turntable.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2019 23:04:42 GMT
Some more.
NVA Cubette. I'm sorry, but those things sounded nasty!
Tannoy System 600. Hard treble and unmusical.
Eclipse CD101. Crap!!
Sansui AU-101.
S.
|
|
Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,400
|
Post by Bigman80 on Jul 19, 2019 4:54:41 GMT
Many speakers: Neat, Kudos, Wilson Benesch for a kick-off. And Nytech amplifiers (well, the one I bought, anyway) absolutely rubbish construction. Most CD players; Rotel, Marantz, Technics, Rotel, Sony. Pink Triangle turntable. I didn’t like the Nytech and Ion amps I’ve had. Sound quality aside, they always seem to be playing up. |
|
|
|
Post by antonio on Jul 19, 2019 4:57:53 GMT
S500 wasn’t great. Mine had an upgraded man board and still didn’t really excel. On,y the mk1s had the 16 ohm tap. Not sure if they were better or worse. TBH I don’t like EL34s much. They are the Broccoli of valves. Some others: Roksan Caspian amps are Sh#t. Heybrook HB1. Just buy a blackboard and some chalk. Rega Bias, Ely’s and Exakt. All Sesame Street attempts at making a cartridge. Linn Basik/Basik Plus arms. Awful things. I couldn’t listen to a deck with one. Anything with a Marantz badge, especially CD players Pioneer A400 Musical Fidelity MC4..... worst speakers I’ve ever owned Cambridge Audio 640/651P phono stages. Dismal things. . You've shocked me Westie, I thought your list would be as long as your arm, or are you just getting started. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 5:27:40 GMT
S500 wasn’t great. Mine had an upgraded man board and still didn’t really excel. On,y the mk1s had the 16 ohm tap. Not sure if they were better or worse. TBH I don’t like EL34s much. They are the Broccoli of valves. Some others: Roksan Caspian amps are Sh#t. Heybrook HB1. Just buy a blackboard and some chalk. Rega Bias, Ely’s and Exakt. All Sesame Street attempts at making a cartridge. Linn Basik/Basik Plus arms. Awful things. I couldn’t listen to a deck with one. Anything with a Marantz badge, especially CD players Pioneer A400 Musical Fidelity MC4..... worst speakers I’ve ever owned Cambridge Audio 640/651P phono stages. Dismal things. . The Cambridge phono stages - i never did understand the hype surrounding these. Dull as ditch water . But dirt cheap. People on pfm were having orgasms about these. Bonkers. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 5:43:16 GMT
trichod dino aswell
i have one here..ear splitting shite
michell iso aswell..utter fucking junk
audio technica carts..utter junk
oc9 is the worst piece of hifi kit ever created..
roksan xerxes..never ever managed to get any bass from that deck.. over hyped up garbage
in fact imho 99% of kit is junk..well all the kit i have owned and home demoed..i used to live near an audio-t and tried tons of stuff..b&w speakers utter fucking junk
quad 11's utter shite.
easier for me to say things that are good
only bits of kit i have ever used i would recomend are
VDH CS122 speaker cable
acoustic energy ae109 speakers
DENON DL304. only cart i have ever used that i would recomend
ONKYO av amps..brilliant amps and sound better than most dedicated stereo amps..got 3 here and love them all..warm and realistic and never harsh
bose acoustimas 5 cube speakers...will wipe the floor with most speakers
only modern speaker i would buy are dynaudios.
thats it..everything else i have had is junk
|
|
|
|
Post by dsjr on Jul 19, 2019 7:54:31 GMT
Croft Audio Series V with Basic Micro Pre. To my ears it was pleasant but nothing special, and the V was fully serviced by Glenn. The Leak Stereo 20 will musically piss all over the Croft. Some more to come.... S. I wish you'd kept stuff long enough to learn how to use it and try it with different things. I knew the Series V on and off for some years and it's a bloody nice little power amp (I think you only kept yours for a fortnight from memory). The Stereo 20 isn't as good all round *in direct comparison* although it's very 'funky' in sonics and potentially lethal with the bottom open...
My hate was Snell E II's. They're fine on low Pirate stands in a large room where you sit a few metres away and I think they like the smothering effect of an AI 500 valve amp too, which looks the business still, but there's nasties in the crossover region if listened to on ss amps close to and the bass can boom.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 8:02:03 GMT
Westie you've just listed half my kit..... git! Rega Bias, Rotel CDP, EL34 amps.... Just add Tannoy DCs on there and you've got a full house  |
|
Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,400
|
Post by Bigman80 on Jul 19, 2019 8:08:30 GMT
S500 wasn’t great. Mine had an upgraded man board and still didn’t really excel. On,y the mk1s had the 16 ohm tap. Not sure if they were better or worse. TBH I don’t like EL34s much. They are the Broccoli of valves. Some others: Roksan Caspian amps are Sh#t. Heybrook HB1. Just buy a blackboard and some chalk. Rega Bias, Ely’s and Exakt. All Sesame Street attempts at making a cartridge. Linn Basik/Basik Plus arms. Awful things. I couldn’t listen to a deck with one. Anything with a Marantz badge, especially CD players Pioneer A400 Musical Fidelity MC4..... worst speakers I’ve ever owned Cambridge Audio 640/651P phono stages. Dismal things. You've shocked me Westie, I thought your list would be as long as your arm, or are you just getting started. That’s probably about it, although quite a few cables have been poor. Even then, I’m prepared to be surprised on another encounter with kit or cables. That said, I’ve had enough Rega MMs, A400s, Linn Basik arms and some cables to know they are a write off AFAIC. The Cambridge Phonos are so duff I’d see no point in plugging one in. There are other things such as PT decks where I just can’t get on with them long term, but I can recognise qualities that others would value. |
|
|
|
Post by macca on Jul 19, 2019 8:53:51 GMT
S500 wasn’t great. Mine had an upgraded man board and still didn’t really excel. On,y the mk1s had the 16 ohm tap. Not sure if they were better or worse. TBH I don’t like EL34s much. They are the Broccoli of valves. Some others: Roksan Caspian amps are Sh#t. Heybrook HB1. Just buy a blackboard and some chalk. Rega Bias, Ely’s and Exakt. All Sesame Street attempts at making a cartridge. Linn Basik/Basik Plus arms. Awful things. I couldn’t listen to a deck with one. Anything with a Marantz badge, especially CD players Pioneer A400 Musical Fidelity MC4..... worst speakers I’ve ever owned Cambridge Audio 640/651P phono stages. Dismal things. . The Cambridge phono stages - i never did understand the hype surrounding these. Dull as ditch water . But dirt cheap. People on pfm were having orgasms about these. Bonkers. I think the PFM thing was for the Arkless version, which was a whole new phono stage just using the Cambridge case and power supply. Never heard one myself. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 9:04:39 GMT
I tried a 640P out of curiosity and quite honestly, I don't see how anybody could complain at the peanuts price. You want better? You pay more!
I tried a Pro Ject Tube Box SE immediately afterwards and found that disappointingly dull. The Bellari VP129 that followed it was way more fun, nice musical little thing.
I was just playing around with various phono stages at the time and my main one was an EAR 834P, which was OK. The Graham Slee ERA Gold V bettered it though. The more expensive Reflex was no more enjoyable, in fact I missed the ERA Gold V more.
I've been using a very rare Sugden Optima MM/MC phono stage for a few years now, it does all I need.
|
|
|
|
Post by antonio on Jul 19, 2019 9:27:06 GMT
I thought Arkless pushed his phono amp on AoS first. I bought one on a forum (can't remember which) and was happy enough with it until I had a dem of the NVA phono 1 which really did show it a clean pair of heels.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 11:55:56 GMT
The Cambridge phono stages - i never did understand the hype surrounding these. Dull as ditch water . But dirt cheap. People on pfm were having orgasms about these. Bonkers. I think the PFM thing was for the Arkless version, which was a whole new phono stage just using the Cambridge case and power supply. Never heard one myself. No i was talking about the standard version. I think they went nuts for the arkless one as well. Never heard an arkless modified version and not likely to either as i am very happy with my NVA phono 1 which is going to get hod rodded into a phono 3 with 4 psu's and regulators. That is at the end of a very long to do list mind you. |
|
|
|
Post by dsjr on Jul 19, 2019 14:18:51 GMT
Re, HB1's and Basik Plus arms.
How many HB1's did you hear and which era were they? First ones were well behaved but the later ones were spitty on digital sources.
I set up so many Basik LVV, LVX and Basik Plus arms I've lost count and on a variety of decks too. LVV's will be effed now through frailty and user abuse I reckon and same with LVX's with loose headshell sockets and overtightened pillars. The Basik Plus was a damned good if lively toned arm and it will take more than a K9 you know, if not a 1042 to best advantage. Cymbiosis get Audio origami to service them i believe and sell them often with an AT520 if not an Adikt, and with counterweight insert sorted and a proper check over, they're absolutely fine today. No Akito I've heard so far, including the current £1600 version, is as satisfying musically to me.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 16:48:38 GMT
Croft Audio Series V with Basic Micro Pre. To my ears it was pleasant but nothing special, and the V was fully serviced by Glenn. The Leak Stereo 20 will musically piss all over the Croft. Some more to come.... S. I wish you'd kept stuff long enough to learn how to use it and try it with different things. I knew the Series V on and off for some years and it's a bloody nice little power amp (I think you only kept yours for a fortnight from memory). The Stereo 20 isn't as good all round *in direct comparison* although it's very 'funky' in sonics and potentially lethal with the bottom open...
My hate was Snell E II's. They're fine on low Pirate stands in a large room where you sit a few metres away and I think they like the smothering effect of an AI 500 valve amp too, which looks the business still, but there's nasties in the crossover region if listened to on ss amps close to and the bass can boom.
Have tried the V with many different speakers and sources. Musically the Croft is average tier to my ears. 4 weeks is plenty enough to evaluate equipment. S. |
|
Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,400
|
Post by Bigman80 on Jul 19, 2019 18:00:58 GMT
Re, HB1's and Basik Plus arms. How many HB1's did you hear and which era were they? First ones were well behaved but the later ones were spitty on digital sources. I set up so many Basik LVV, LVX and Basik Plus arms I've lost count and on a variety of decks too. LVV's will be effed now through frailty and user abuse I reckon and same with LVX's with loose headshell sockets and overtightened pillars. The Basik Plus was a damned good if lively toned arm and it will take more than a K9 you know, if not a 1042 to best advantage. Cymbiosis get Audio origami to service them i believe and sell them often with an AT520 if not an Adikt, and with counterweight insert sorted and a proper check over, they're absolutely fine today. No Akito I've heard so far, including the current £1600 version, is as satisfying musically to me. I heard the great and white logo and the gold HB1. I was in the shop,during the changeover, Not sure what came before and after but both of those were painful to my ears. I think they had been out a good while earlier apsomim assuming mine were the spitty ones. Basik Plus was awful AFAIC, and I’ve had and heard dozens from 1987 onwards. Even a Jelco 250 annihilates it. They make a mess of any cart but they simply cannot handle MC cartridges, which makes them a waste of time for me. Akito is in another universe IME so our views are (as happens so often with us two ) polar opposites on this one. I actually prefer Akito to Ittok LV2. |
|
|
|
Post by dsjr on Jul 19, 2019 18:14:12 GMT
You don't hear the grain then? I heard a brand new Akito a couple of months back and the similar price (I think ) Javelin wiped it's nose comfortably..
The LV II can sound clanky on the wrong deck, but as with all these things, you choose the cartridge carefully I suppose. Some of the modern non AT MC's don't seem so fussy these days it appears. The short lived LV III may be similar to the first Ekos's (so the story goes), but I really loved that one (the Ekos was at least 50% more expensive) and I don't think the bearings became clogged on that one compared to the early Ekos either.
Well, I suppose four weeks is long enough to condemn a Croft Series V, but I loved the ones I heard and I think the Pro-Ac Response 2's were good enough to show what it could do. Preamp was always a Croft model, either a Micro 4SA, 4PP like the ones I had or the two box Mega Micro, so maybe there was a synergy thing going on there...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 18:16:04 GMT
God knows, Dave. Perhaps I just don't understand Croft. But as always, each to their own.
S.
|
|
|
|
Post by dsjr on Jul 19, 2019 18:29:46 GMT
I've told the story about the AVI S2000MP+P and the big ATC preamp I owned in comparison. I slightly preferred the AVI at the time after buying the ATC as this complex latter gave the impression that it needed a Supercap or summat to wake it up a bit, but later experiences I had and thoughts today (I really do think about most of the stuff I post afterwards you know) I think my impressions back then in the late 90's were wrong, as the AVI all but forced the sound out via short interconnects (it came into its own driving several metres plus via RCA cables) where the ATC may have only underplayed the music a little and was intended to be used balanced mode to a remote power amp or speaker amp-pack. I'm a tune dem bod remember, 'HiFi detail' coming second to this aspect..
I can't believe I/we're talking often about THIRTY PLUS YEARS OLD audio antiques... The Ekos was late 80's I recall, the Ittok went in 89 or so as did the Basik Plus and I think the ARO was inflicted on us (just joking) in 2005 or thereabouts. Croft was absorbed into something else for a good few years sometime in the early 90's (nearly thirty years ago) and came back in 2009 or so as an independent (thank the lord). The LP12 was all but transformed sonically in the early to mid 90's (massive plinth update inside and the Cirkus bearing and original Cirkus sub-chassis) and the amps I use day to day are from the early 70's - EEK!!!!! Biggie/macca's Krell 100mk2? is mid 80's and the sick KSA50S is mid 90's now, so nearly twenty five years old..... Sh#t I feel ancient  |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2019 6:15:47 GMT
and I think the ARO was inflicted on us (just joking) in 2005 Just wait until i try mine on a PL71. Will let you know how it goes. |
|
|
|
Post by macca on Jul 20, 2019 7:25:30 GMT
I thought the Aro came out about 1989?
|
|
|
|
Post by antonio on Jul 20, 2019 7:32:19 GMT
Came out same time as the Ekos, give or take. I dem'd em both.  |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2019 7:34:33 GMT
ittok and ekos both too good for that pos lp12
lvx plus with k18 was the best combo i owned on the lp12
yep aro came out about 89.. i owned an ittok and ekos..both sold off within a few weeks of buying them..
|
|
