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Your Audio Systems
Topic Started: Jun 23 2008, 07:10 PM (2,041 Views)
Pacey
Admin
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Hi all,
Just wondering what kind of stereo set-ups you're running? Vintage? Shop fresh? Any quirky turntables?

Mine's pretty basic, mostly old gear which is great as it's a) cheap and b ) well made. I'm surprised how flimsy a lot of the newer Denon and Sony stuff can be :unsure:
Turntable is a Technics SL-BD22D which is not bad at all!! Adjustable tonearm, 33/45 switch and laser adjustment, suspension on the feet, T4P cartridge mount which is really convenient. I've currently got an Ortofon 320U cart on it and it sounds beautifully clear, a really very good stylus which for some insane reason doesn't seem to be sold in the UK.
Amp is an original NAD 3020, appears to be an early model so around 1980. I don't know if I've heard a better amp (esp. phono stage) for less than £200! This thing is LOUD too.
My small speakers are a pair of Eltax Liberty 1's, cheap bookshelf ones but really smooth sounding and punchy. I recently picked up a pair of Celestion County's from the mid-70s which are really nice! Great for when you want to hear the bass ;)

Nothing special in my system, just all solid stuff. I'm not knocking new equipment as a lot of it does benefit from new technology and enhancements, it's just the old stuff can be picked up for around the same price (or far less) and can actually be higher quality.

Pacey

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Paul
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Hi Pacey

Voyd turntable/Kuzma arm/Audio Note cartridge.

Art Audio push-pull valve amps.

Living Voice IBX speakers.

cheers
Paul
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rockinrobyn
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Hi;

Vintage turntable: Thorens 125, with an SMC IIIs tonearm, Stanton 681EEE cartridge

Vintage speakers: ESS AMT 1b

Contemporary electronics...not worth discussing, but Kenworth, Sony...usual stuff.

Rob
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Nowhere Man
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Hi,

Linn LP12 Turntable with Lingo Power Supply, Ittok Arm and Ortofon Tango cartridge.

Audiolab 8000P/8000A Amps.

Ruark Sabre speakers.

Other than the cartridge (!) I've had this system for something like 15 years plus, and haven't found any reason to change. Lovely open natural sound with just enough punch. Besides, children etc preclude any budget being available!! :(
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rockinrobyn
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Hi!

I can really relate about the expense. My wife hates the hugeness of the AMT's so she offered to let me buy a new pair of speakers. Went out to the "Audio Boutiques" and checked out systems up to $5,000 per pair. After sampling about six systems in that range, she begrudgingly admitted that my old ESS's were FAR superior in playback and clarity to anything we heard...and by a LONG way.

Somehow, that late '70's gear is about the best there is out there for analog playback. I've read some complaints about the ESS speakers on hifi forums, but they're all generally from HipHop and EMO fans that enjoy that sound with so much bass and no midrange response that I don't much care for their opinion. I've been an audio engineer (read "sound guy") for a lot of years (I once got to help mix sound for a Grateful Dead concert in Honolulu in 1969), and I like all of the sounds to articulate clearly!
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Pacey
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rockinrobyn,Jun 25 2008
12:21 AM
I've read some complaints about the ESS speakers on hifi forums, but they're all generally from HipHop and EMO fans that enjoy that sound with so much bass and no midrange response that I don't much care for their opinion.

Hahaha classic!! :D

Nowhere Man - What's that Tango like? I was looking at one of those but it was a little out of my price range in the end.
I've usually found 70s gear to be quite good. 60s is just a little too old and primitive for me and 80s equipment tends to sound harsh. Of course there are exceptions...
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Nowhere Man
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Hi Pacey,

I'm no technical expert when it comes to Hi-Fi equipment, so I can't give you any info like that. I also didn't conduct any in-depth comparative studies. I just went along to the hi-fi emporium where I make most of my increasingly infrequent purchases and told them my budget (making them swear not to tell the wife!) and asked their advice.

To me it gives a nice natural sound with no 'colouring' that I'm aware of. Doubtless others, who have undertaken some proper research :P can give you a more informed opinion.

By the way, the store also lent me a proper guide to correctly align the cartridge, which I'm sure really helps to get the best out of the cartridge, and avoid damaging the vinyl.
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harveyw
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Classic late-60s hi-fi set up, ie: Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntable w/SME series 3009 arm & Ortofon 30 cartridge into Quad 33/303 amplifiers & (rather more contemporary) Wharfedale loudspeakers.
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rockinrobyn
Level 2
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Hi again!

As a long-time concert/club sound man, my criteria for buying a system comes down to two primary factors...first and foremost, over 90% of the overall sound quality of a system comes from the speakers, and NO speaker gives absolutely, sonically "flat" sound reproduction. So, the important thing to do when shopping for a system, is to go out and listen to as many pairs as you can find in your budget range. When a system was primarily a receiver, turntable, tape deck and speakers, I would usually advise a buyer to figure out how much real money they had to spend, divide that in half and spend that much on speakers that YOU like the sound of. I would also be wary of "demonstration theaters" in audio salons. These rooms have been designed and engineered to bring out the very best of the speakers (a real problem back in the days that the Bose 901's came out...sounded great in the store but almost never when installed in a real home). Once the choice was made on the speakers, the rest of the money needed to be carefully spent as well. To avoid damage to a speaker system, it is important that the RMS power output of the amplifier is at or higher than the RMS rating of the speaker system at the same Ohm resistance (ie. if the speakers are rated at 300 W capability at 2 ohms, that doesn't mean that they have the same capacity at 8 ohms!). Many a nice speaker has been fried by amplifier clipping, which is caused by overdriving an under powered amplifier.

The second criteria was always the combination of the phono cartridge (another 8% of the sound reproduction) and the tonearm. Between the speaker and cart was nearly 100% of the playback result. The rest of it, particularly the audio specifications of the receiver and so forth, by the late '70's the specs of "total harmonic distortion" and so forth were WAY beyond the ability of the human ear to differentiate, so it matters not what electronics are between the cart and the speakers. The turntable, for vinyl, is mostly critical for the protection of the vinyl itself. A tonearm that can track accurately at less than one gram will cause virtually no wear in the grooves, assuming that the stylus tip is clean and undamaged. I am a fanatic for cleaning records before playing them, using the old Discwasher system complete with antistatic dust removal of both the record surface and the stylus. I have fifty year old records that have been played hundreds of times and show no trace lines, scratches or other external signs of (ab)use, and sound as good today as they did back in the late '50's. The tiniest chip in a diamond stylus can cause irreparable damage upon only one playing.

I don't know if this will help any one, but at least it's a layer of protection against overly aggressive component salesmen intent on unloading whatever is on hand to the interested customer.
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Baard
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Here's my setup :)

Turntables:
My main player is a Thorens TD124II with SME 3009II, currently with JICO SAS needle in a Shure V15II house.
Other turntables; EMT 938 with SME IIIs, Thorens 125 LB with SME s2.

Amp; a modified Music Angel XD800 KT88 tube amp with a Marantz 7 (clone) pre. A DIY EAR 834P phono stage.

My speakers are a pair of home built Dallas II horns designed by Ron Clarke.
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gzzsbj
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I've got two systems, one for music only, and one for Digital audio, and music combined.

System 1, Music:

Vinyl: Linn Sondek LP12, Linn LVX arm, Audio Tecknica moving coil cartidge.
Amplification: Quad 44 pre-amp, Quad 405/2 amp.
Reel: Akai GX4000D
Cassette: Nakamichi 600 cassette console and Nakamichi 482Z.
C.D.: Yamaha CD-R 1300 hard drive recorder.
Minidisc: Yamaha MDX596.
Graphic: Technics SH 8045
Speakers: Kenwood LS P9300 (15" woofer +6 other drivers of various sizes).

System 2, digital/analogue:

Vinyl: Technics SL150 mk 2 Quartz locked direct drive. SME arm.
Amplification: Yamaha DSP A2 Digital amp.
C.D. Yamaha CD-R 1300 hard drive recorder.
Cassette: Yamaha KX582 special edition.
DVD: Playstation 3 Blue Ray, and JVC hard drive video/DVD recorder.
Speakers Acoustic Energy 5.1 surround set.
T.V.: Sony KVH40V4000 LCD panel
Sky: Sky H.D.

Put 'Close encounters' Blue Ray on and listen to the china rattling in the cupboard.

Keep on rocking!

Richard

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billstiggins
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I'm right at the budget end of the spectrum with my system:

  • Turntable: Goldring GR2 with Ortofon 1012GX cart
  • Amplifier: Sugden A25
  • Speakers: Acoustic Energy AE 509 floorstanders (won in a competition - replacing a pair of Mission standmounters)
All perfectly adequate to my VG+ ears :lol:

I do have one other piece of hi-fi - purchased after buying one too many poor quality singles from online auction sites that I couldn't risk playing on my system. I decided that a second system - for the bedroom - was in order. So what better 'system' to go for than an old Dansette?

So I bagged a Dansette Minor from ebaY for £16 - and occasionally live the life of 1960s teenager upstairs while the rest of the family live their 21st Century life below. :D
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PMC7070
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billstiggins,May 9 2009
10:43 PM
So I bagged a Dansette Minor from ebaY for £16 - and occasionally live the life of  1960s teenager upstairs while the rest of the family live their 21st Century life below. :D


And I bet you get just as much enjoyment listening to the dansette - I certainly would.
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billstiggins
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PMC7070,May 10 2009
04:54 PM
And I bet you get just as much enjoyment listening to the dansette - I certainly would.

:) You know, I think I do - it has a very authentic feel about it & I'm a pushover for anything nostalgic (even for an age that I never really knew).
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yarvelling
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Mine system is of a reasonable vintage too....80's and 90's:
Technics SL-Q303 Quartz direct-drive turntable,
Pickering V-15 Cartridge,
Yamaha RX-V390RDS A/V Receiver,
Sony CDP-470 CD Player
Acoustic Solutions AV20 Speakers,
Wharfedale Powered Sub.
Sounds smooth, yet dynamic, can go BLOODY loud, and still caries so much detail, articulation, and fluidity :)
Nothing fancy, or terribly expensive (Technics turntable was a tenner off Ebay, and is PERFECT!!!), but it does make music well, and whether it's vintage Beatles, 70's and 80's punk/new-wave, it sounds great!
Cheers,
Steve.
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