Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,400
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Post by Bigman80 on Sept 10, 2019 21:18:24 GMT
It’s always fascinated me that there are many ways of doing this hifi thing. Analogue in all its varieties, CD, streaming, solid state and valve amps, pre/power or integrated, passives,TVCs, SUTs, various speaker designs and sizes etc. We seem to encompass a few variations here, largely because we are probably seeking different things. Whilst I do like several different approaches, here is my favourite recipe.
Source: Vinyl belt drive wins for me. It just communicates better. Cartridge has to be MC. MMs suck.
Amps: Solid state integrateds preferred. I’m not convinced by class A and I have no need for powerhouses. I don’t like extra cables and I don’t enjoy the hassle of preamp matching.
Speakers: Has to be smallish semi omnis for me. I don’t like major room resonances and I value a big soundstage.
I’ve had many other systems and enjoyed other ways of making music, but I can’t see me changing from this preference. The shoe fits.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2019 21:33:26 GMT
I'm not too fussy anymore. My ears likes the sound, I couldn't care what system is playing. The drive units could be worth pennies for all I care.
Many years of having high expectations has only ended with miserable results. Honestly, there are folks out there that take Hi-Fi way overly serious. I'm sorry, but those kind of people anger me. It's the ones who have knowledge and are humble about it, they get my respect.
I still do favour amps with decent heavy toroidal transformers.
S.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2019 21:34:02 GMT
In the past, going into different things blind.. Best way for me was
Turntable - Flywheel [J.A Michell].. Low Mass Arm/High Compliance Cart
Amps - Vintage Solid state Intergrated Amplifier [Proper T03 Transistors]
Speakers - Vintage High Efficiency Paper cones/Soft Dome Tweeters
.....
These Days, i dont give a crap, what ever sounds good enough, simple enough.
Lossless Files/passive Pre/Active Monitors. Set out in the most unconventional fashion that would make any obsessed Hi-Fi fan cringe.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2019 21:59:33 GMT
High efficiency full range speakers, Ultra Linear EL 34 amp, a non analytical CDP, rather fond of bit stream players (shoot Me), a plug and play turntable, Rega or Technics DD, MM cartridge. Sorry Westie, MM's rock.
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Post by dsjr on Sept 11, 2019 8:40:52 GMT
The music always wins and increasingly and worryingly for me, I increasingly don't (can't afford to) give a toss what it's played through...
I don't wish to preach again, but for me, digital, solid state and big speakers with properly damped bass rule. I'll get the latter again - one day I hope...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2019 9:44:25 GMT
Since Re modelling the living room into somewhere you relax & watch TV instead of Engineering it around a flaming stereo. I now have the speakers on a sideboard bottom shelf side by side, cos at the end of the day i do not want a pair of speakers taking over the living room staring at me all day, I do not give a crap about 'you do it this way' & that bull Sh#t. I just put them on when i want a bit of music. Who cares where they are & how they are. Just who cares?
I understand that a lot of people live the Hi-Fi & Music in general comes second, I do not care what they say & hiw many time they try justifying that.. I advice is a get out more.
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Post by macca on Sept 11, 2019 12:05:03 GMT
I understand that a lot of people live the Hi-Fi & Music in general comes second, I do not care what they say & hiw many time they try justifying that.. I advice is a get out more. I seem to see this a lot and all over the web - usually from people who have spent mega money on their equipment (you're probably the exception to that Andre).
Not sure if it is some sort of mantra to quell any doubts they have about what they bought for so much brass.
Personally speaking I enjoy music from a crappy car stereo or a mono radio - as long as it is good music ofc - but I still want 'the best' when I'm at home because why not have the best? And yes I'm into the equipment for its own sake as well. Why not?
Don't feel that I need to justify it even to myself. It's my hobby same as some people do golf or soup up their car. It passes the time between birth and death, that's all.
Interesting that we've all been at this game for several decades but have different ideas as to how it should be done. I'm with DSJR I think - digital source, big solid state amplifier and big speakers that don't have any serious flaws. (All speakers have some flaws so there's no point getting obsessive there).
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Post by dsjr on Sept 11, 2019 13:46:27 GMT
I admit I do enjoy vinyl, but it's a hiding to nothing I reckon as far as maximum fidelity (to the cutting session) is concerned. I have too many records to abandon the format completely and anyway, tinkering with vinyl spinners is very much my lifelong thing...
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Post by macca on Sept 11, 2019 15:05:32 GMT
I was always die hard vinyl as CD did not sound right to me. Then I got a cd player because they stopped doing vinyl releases. I think over the years digital sound just sort of grew on me until vinyl sounded wrong and cd sounded right.
Or something.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2019 15:55:36 GMT
i like vinyl for a change but I use whichever format has the music I fancy at the time. The immediacy of clicking a couple of buttons and hearing music within seconds means I listen to a lot more now than when it took longer to fire things up. But sometimes it is nice to go through the routine of popping on a record. When I have some clear time to enjoy it.
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Post by dsjr on Sept 11, 2019 15:58:31 GMT
I had this short circuited once I'd compared vinyl with master tape (played on the very machine that played the tape for the vinyl cut). My times with ATC's kind of re-enforced all this, so apologies for being so assertive (before he became a full half of AVI, Ashley used a Sony 555ES at home). Interestingly, the ATC monitors did 'sound' quite ok with vinyl as long as I used a neutral cartridge - the Decca Gold Microscanner was amazing on the Mentor and a V15VMR was 'acceptable' in the Dual 701, the sound being smaller in scale but the right proportion, if you see what I mean. Thing was, if I started a session with vinyl, I had to stay with the format as if I played records and switched to the CD player, the record player was switched off and not used for the rest of the session.
I remember how incrementally 'better' my CD players became in terms of 3-D believability (sighted comparisons of course) - Meridian MCD-Pro, Meridian 207, Nakamichi OMS7e, Deltec PDM1mk2 with mains filter and an assortment of donor machines as CD transports (all sounded the same pretty much), AVI S2000 which cured any hf harshness perceived still in some players and then my current now very geriatric Micro Seiki which compared very well with a Linn karik III/Numerik III and their Ikemi replacement which wasn't better than them at first but at least equal to the later Karik/Numerik by it's end. From the mid 90's, it seemed as though 'best' CD quality just got cheaper each generation so now we have dacs costing peanuts that 'sound' great (what about the Apple USB C dac/headphone adaptor for £10 or so that 'measures' so well and apparently sounds great too?
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Post by macca on Sept 11, 2019 17:40:26 GMT
If it measures really well then it shouldn't sound like anything though should it? Except whatever the recording sounds like.
IME most people want the equipment to have a sound of its own. One they think is good. That means none-perfect measurements.
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