Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Sept 7, 2019 14:20:23 GMT
Speaks for itself really: I’d like to hear of the parts of your hifi journey which turned out to be fruitless or even retrograde with the benefit of hindsight.
Here are some of mine.
1. Selling my Epos ES14 and replacing them with Proac Tablettes. Welcome to Lilliput! Worse still I was persuaded by the mags that CD was the way to go and sold the Rock. The Denon 1520 Inreplaced it with was a decent player, but I’d gone from great to adequate.
2. It only got worse when I bought an Arcam Alpha CD, Nam 43.5/Hi Cap/140 and IBLs. All of these are items I rate, but together they sounded awful. The guy who bought the IBLs brought an Audiolab and somehow it sounded way better.
3. Next I was at Uni and skint. I had acquired an LP12/Ekos/OC9, NVA P50/PSU and A60, Denon 1520 with DPA PDM1 series 2, together with Linn Kans. My best ever pair. This system absolutely rocked. I was spending lots of time studying and flogged the lot. The money just seemed to disappear and I was out of hifi for years.
The way back was quick. I was at uni for a long time and just forgot about hifi. In 2002 I was done with education but not well off. I bought an Arcam Alpha amp at a boot sale, a Philips CD624 from Cash Converters and a Pair of Eltax Liberty 3 from Richer Sounds. It was lovely to have music back. I quickly upgraded the speakers to MA 352, bought a Project Debut 2 and sold it in a week. I can’t recall what deck I bought but it would either be a Rock, a Xerxes or an LP12. Hifi was back in my life and I haven’t really took any wrong turns since.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 14:41:12 GMT
I made a mistake right at the very beginning of my Hi-Fi journey, Should have just stuck with the first real Hi-Fi i bought back then.
The worse ever period was delving into the American high end junk
All is not lost light was certainly at the end of the tunnel nowadays
However i cannot get back the 35 years of money wasted.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Sept 7, 2019 15:18:02 GMT
I actually missed my first wrong turn. I had a Mission 775 turntable with 774lct arm, a Cyrus One and a Pair of MA 252. I got rid of the Mission and bought a Linn Axis. At tensae, time I traded the 252s for Neybrook HB1s. The Axis was inferior to the Mission, especially the arm. The Heybrooks sounded loke chalk across a blackboard. Still, it drove me to buy a Myst Tma3 and ES14s.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 17:30:57 GMT
B&W, never again bought so many of their crap speakers trying to get something that did not want me to poke my eardrums out. Accurate my bum, as irritating as a bleeding hemorrhoid.
NAD 5120 table nasty thing very nasty. Got nicked, poor sod, insurance bought me a Technics DD chalk and cheese, still have that one.
Rotel amps same thing. God knows how many cables I bought trying to rectify what was basically shyte amps and speakers.
Both these brands have a cult following here, and I bought into the hype. Fortunately both are easy to sell, and they hold value heaven knows why cause they are both crap to my ear. I abandon'd the cult, and bought the Vandersteens and my first valve amp, and have never looked back. All those years of fiddling and frustration, at least it kept me off the streets.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Sept 7, 2019 17:53:28 GMT
B&W, never again bought so many of their crap speakers trying to get something that did not want me to poke my eardrums out. Accurate my bum, as irritating as a bleeding hemorrhoid. NAD 5120 table nasty thing very nasty. Got nicked, poor sod, insurance bought me a Technics DD chalk and cheese, still have that one. Rotel amps same thing. God knows how many cables I bought trying to rectify what was basically shyte amps and speakers. Both these brands have a cult following here, and I bought into the hype. Fortunately both are easy to sell, and they hold value heaven knows why cause they are both crap to my ear. I abandon'd the cult, and bought the Vandersteens and my first valve amp, and have never looked back. All those years of fiddling and frustration, at least it kept me off the streets. Vandersteens are still on my radar. They don’t seem to appear up north though. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 17:57:06 GMT
The only B&W Speaker I liked were the DM601, the first generation with the copper tweeter. The later incarnations sounded way too brash.
S.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 17:57:36 GMT
It's mostly been fun trying things out, and I don't box-swap much anyway. My first (and only) direct-drive turntable was awful; other than that I've enjoyed valve-based and solid state systems, active and passive pre-amps, you name it.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Sept 7, 2019 18:02:17 GMT
The only B&W Speaker I liked were the DM601, the first generation with the copper tweeter. The later incarnations sounded way too brash. S. I’ve still never heard any B&Ws |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 18:04:59 GMT
The only B&W Speaker I liked were the DM601, the first generation with the copper tweeter. The later incarnations sounded way too brash. S. I’ve still never heard any B&Ws You have some nice quirky speakers. So you are really not missing out on anything, because of not trying any B&W's. S. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 18:12:05 GMT
Vandersteens are still on my radar. They don’t seem to appear up north though. Want to drool and get a fright, check out his system 9 starting at $152,898 USD. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 18:22:52 GMT
The only B&W Speaker I liked were the DM601, the first generation with the copper tweeter. The later incarnations sounded way too brash. S. I’ve still never heard any B&Ws You are not missing a thing, I have even heard the Nautilus, the things only sounded decent at a ridiculous volume level just like the 800's. Plus they are all so power hungry it is ridiculous. If a speaker does not sound good at a volume where you can talk then it is not a choice for me. Have to admit I had 805 Matrix's, and they were quite pleasant at low volumes using the ever so rare bass alignment filter, at louder volumes they were shredders. |
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Post by sq225917 on Sept 7, 2019 19:22:53 GMT
Shouldn't have moved house, old hifi room was 22 x 12 feet with double dorma. Sounded mint, new room is 18 x 12 with wood click floor over cellar void, sounds W#nk
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Bigman80
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The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,400
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Post by Bigman80 on Sept 7, 2019 19:39:16 GMT
Vandersteens are still on my radar. They don’t seem to appear up north though. Want to drool and get a fright, check out his system 9 starting at $152,898 USD. I’m pretty certain I will get some Vanderstees before I’m done. Ensemble PA1s too. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 19:41:52 GMT
I actually missed my first wrong turn. I had a Mission 775 turntable with 774lct arm, a Cyrus One and a Pair of MA 252. I got rid of the Mission and bought a Linn Axis. At tensae, time I traded the 252s for Neybrook HB1s. The Axis was inferior to the Mission, especially the arm. The Heybrooks sounded loke chalk across a blackboard. Still, it drove me to buy a Myst Tma3 and ES14s. I bought the original Mission '775' with the hammer finish with the original '774' low mass arm. They were made of MDF but they were a good solid deck.. The Cyrus '2' Amp i had was a Mk.2 was better than the '1' & better than the last version of the '2' imho.. You just had to be careful as not to partner it with bright speakers.. Right also had an 'Axis' Linnies aint gonna like this but i thought it sounded better than the 'LP12' .. Yep you guessed it ive had a lot of Hi-Fi, i was a mad box swapper. The 'Myst TMA3' was one of my fav Intergrated amps. Had the Blue/Silver, Awesome build & layout inside. 'HB-1' were my first real pair of speakers, as with the Cyrus amp they need careful matching or they are too bright. The Epos i never ever liked. Only Monitor Audio ive had were 'R352' |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 19:46:05 GMT
B&W ive had & can speak for are 'DM2a', 'DM4', 'DM2/2, 'D2'& DM6' But these were all in my Vintage phases
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 19:46:36 GMT
Briefly had a Cyrus 1 amp. One of the most open sounding amps I ever heard. Sounds better than the Nait 1, IMO.
S.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Sept 7, 2019 19:56:48 GMT
I actually missed my first wrong turn. I had a Mission 775 turntable with 774lct arm, a Cyrus One and a Pair of MA 252. I got rid of the Mission and bought a Linn Axis. At tensae, time I traded the 252s for Neybrook HB1s. The Axis was inferior to the Mission, especially the arm. The Heybrooks sounded loke chalk across a blackboard. Still, it drove me to buy a Myst Tma3 and ES14s. I bought the original Mission '775' with the hammer finish with the original '774' low mass arm. They were made of MDF but they were a good solid deck.. The Cyrus '2' Amp i had was a Mk.2 was better than the '1' & better than the last version of the '2' imho.. You just had to be careful as not to partner it with bright speakers.. Right also had an 'Axis' Linnies aint gonna like this but i thought it sounded better than the 'LP12' .. Yep you guessed it ive had a lot of Hi-Fi, i was a mad box swapper. The 'Myst TMA3' was one of my fav Intergrated amps. Had the Blue/Silver, Awesome build & layout inside. 'HB-1' were my first real pair of speakers, as with the Cyrus amp they need careful matching or they are too bright. The Epos i never ever liked. Only Monitor Audio ive had were 'R352' You’re dead right about Cyrus amps. Good as long as you don’t go bright with speakers. I used to build LP12s from bits and I once tried an Axis platter on one, It brought it to life and really took away that lumpy bass. Axis with Akito is a nice deck. I never liked the LVX or Nasik plus. Never heard the LVV. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 20:41:12 GMT
'LVV' was a better arm than the 'LVX' imho..
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 20:42:08 GMT
'LVV' was a better arm than the 'LVX' imho.. That's why I've still got one. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 20:46:51 GMT
Aye. You used to see em fitted to the J.A Michell 'Focus One' & C.J Walker 'CJ55' a lot
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 21:05:10 GMT
Aye. You used to see em fitted to the J.A Michell 'Focus One' & C.J Walker 'CJ55' a lot It'll actually work well with any decent MC cart, regardless of what the 'gear snobs' think. (as I'm sure you know  ) |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 22:13:06 GMT
Briefly had a Cyrus 1 amp. One of the most open sounding amps I ever heard. Sounds better than the Nait 1, IMO. S. Only being a young un you wont remember the precursor to the Cyrus 1, the Mission '778' |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 22:20:48 GMT
Yes, the 778 was before my time.
S.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 22:34:04 GMT
Cyrus did not come along for at least 6/7 years in Mission,.. The Mission amps were Stan Curtis designed '771'/'772' + '776'/'777' Pre/Pwr amps & ofc the '778'..
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Post by nonuffin on Sept 7, 2019 22:38:30 GMT
I once bought a pair of B&W 603 S2's out of curiosity and I have never heard a more disjointed sound from a speaker in my life. Truly awful and they went back on ebay an hour after they arrived.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 22:42:54 GMT
Never heard a B&W speaker I liked apart from the old DM2.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 22:58:48 GMT
Never heard a B&W speaker I liked apart from the old DM2. Yeh thats the era of B&W i had geoff. The latest was the 'DM6' which was around 1977 |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2019 23:00:20 GMT
The little 'D2' [Not DM2] were a good little speaker, be around 1972, they used a peerless tweeter
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Post by dsjr on Sept 8, 2019 10:36:51 GMT
I'm like a reformed smoker who now hates tobacco and anything related to it! I've made so many wrong turns over the decades it embarrasses me..
ES14's to some huge prototype Celef speakers that sounded dynamically bland (Volt 10" bass too heavily ported, 6" white cone SEAS? mid in separate internal chamber and matching tweeter).
These Celef's gave way to Harbeth HL5's (slow, boomy and soft) but then I went the ATC route and never looked back.
Tube Technology Genesis Mono amps which ate their caned quad of EL34's in ten months (not at all a soft toned amp as pre conceived views of EL34's paint them until the valves went down along with most of the hf clarity)
Croft OTL. Sounded delightful and the last unregulated one Glenn made. Popped supply fuses even idling at random and I ended up with an internal firework display one Saturday evening with friends round and it playing very quietly in the background. Never again!
Snell E II's, which were fine in a dedicated Audio Innovations/Voyd system with some distance from them but crossover-nasty and boomy in other systems - ugh!
Technics SL110 turntable - at the time a feedback disaster as was the original mid 70's 1200/120. I'm sure I could do better with it today
Lastly for now - Wilson Benesch Act Ones, which were beautifully constructed and finished but totally spoiled by an 'organ pipe' bass tuning (a real problem with tall column speakers) and the Tactic drivers still retained the (worse than kans) 1khz peak. HF was one note and tinselly as well - a great 'HiFi Impressive speaker but not in the slightest bit musical unless the rest of the system was compromised around them.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2019 10:46:10 GMT
Had a pair of DM 5's bought them in 76 or there about new. gave them to my dad. Got them back when he died in 2002, only then did I realise how awful they were, nasty grainy things.
Sold them to some clot who loved them, for more than I paid for them.
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