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Your Hi-Fi Journey

I started off with,

Micro Seiki MB10, AR Cambridge A60 and Mordaunt Pagent speakers in the late 70's.
Linn LP12, Naim Nait 2, TDL2 speakers in the 80's
From around 2001, same LP12, via Naim Nait 3 and Monitor Audio 7's to end swapping out the amp and speakers for Naim pre & power 90/110 with flatcap power supplies, Naim cable to Dynaudio Audience 42's on Atacama stands filled with kitty litter of all things.

All working fine from the 80's and 90's. Only thing new was the LP12.

Loads of tweeks and cables and cartridges along the way

Anybody have a similar journey to share ?

Comments

  • A tweek that anyone can do after watching a YouTube video. I’m not sure if it’s a great improvement to the overall sound quality but it looks neater and a bit more expensive than it really is.  
    Make and terminate your own speaker cables. 

  • Nothing quite as sophisticated I'm afraid.

    Started off in 1980 with a very basic all-in-one Waltham turntable/radio/cassette system.

    Then bought an Akai system in 1985 that I added a CD player & graphic equaliser to.

    Replaced that in the mid 90's with Technics separates.


  • I remember buying an extension speaker for my parents Bush record player,  By trailing a lead across the room and plugging in a 5 pin din plug at each end I created stereophonic sound!  Youngsters will never get this, but experiencing the difference was a true moment of epiphany.  Playing my newly acquired Led Zep 2 album literally 'sent me man' (to use the vernacular of the time). 

    Soon after that I'd started to work and with my parents away on holiday I traded in the existing stuff for a beautiful Dynatron system.  I thought that my folks would be well pleased when they returned, but all mum could say is, 'Where's my little record player?'  To be fair I hadn't even given it a thought, I'd upgraded the family set up, but as she said 'What happens when you move out, how am I going to play my records?'

    Anyway for all the quality of that system - and it was quality - it seemed my Dad struggled to appreciate the finer nuances and concepts of loud rock music.  He never really got Led Zep, Deep Purple or the Stones.  To make matters worse he was a night worker and constantly yelled out, 'Turn that noise down' as he tried to get a bit of kip.  In fact I'm almost certain that Chas and Dave must've been passing my house when they came up with the song bearing the same name - so accurate are the lyrics.

    Over the years I visited Richer Sounds and bought various bits of kit, some of which remains in the loft.  I presently have a NAD system that sits in the corner unused and all my vinyl is newly relocated at my son's house.

    Since the Dynatron I have been on a downhill slide - all very sad.  I do have a Spotify account and get Alexa to play my stuff for me.  One thing though, I did get a second Alexa speaker, worked through prompts on the app and have regained a stereo sound.  History repeating itself! 

      


  • edited March 5
    Was a bloke back in the day that had all sorts of seemingly crackpot ideas to improve the sound. Peter Belt, anybody else heard of him?. Things like pinning up a corner of your curtains and cutting a corner off LP inserts also had something like electrostatic cream which for the life of me if I have remembered the name correctly I have no clue as to it's use.

    And I still have the Nait3 and AR60 taking up space and gathering dust.

    Bought some ART illusion floor standers at an auction many years ago. Turned out it was a bankruptcy sale and when I asked ART about their best placement it turned out they had been loaned for demo !!. They were very helpful and said they had written them off anyway.
  • I made a pair of these below for my son. My wife thinks they are hideous, she may or may not have a point. My Acoustic Energy floor standers, which are hidden behind them, I thought they were good are not in the same league. They sound as good as anything I have come across for the money. The guy who designed them, is Joesph Crowe, a Canadian audio designer, he has some weird looking stuff, worth a google. I could bore people to sleep talking about making theses so I’ll keeps it short  
    They were a very rewarding project  
  • A house full of Sonos kit here
  • Rothko said:
    A house full of Sonos kit here
    Thats the way I've been moving.

    Did all the separates to death during the late 80's and 90's, then went along the Ruark type route, now outside of records I have mostly for nostalgia it's all streamed. Sonos are a good eco system if a tad expensive. The Ikea Sonos speakers aren't bad value TBH.
  • Separates bought from Richer sounds in 1996 which still work fine (though I ditched the tape deck) but for the last 5 years I have had a Brennan B2 so all my CDs are stored on that and I can then play it through my amp/speakers. Marvellous!
  • Technics all the way baby!  Sold it to one of ours off here I remember.  Still haven't worked out what the Graphics Equaliser did, I just used to flip the slidders up and down...
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  • Have had all sorts of tosh separates (panasonic mainly) over the years before binning them all and going digital.

    recently splashed out on a Naim Uniti Atom, rega pre-amp, rega planar 8 with the fancy stylis and a pair of bowers and wilkins 600 series bookshelf speakers.

    sounds amazing and no idea how input up with the sonos etc speakers and iphone combo for so long
  • edited March 6
    Began with a Marantz system in the 80's, now running a Bluesound PowerNode edge box with KEF speakers and a Project 1 turntable. The sound is delicious! 
  • Rothko said:
    A house full of Sonos kit here
    Yep, Sonos throughout my house now.

    Back in 1988, I remember it well, my Dad went to Richer Sounds in The Cut and brought back his Technics separates.



    I was tasked with setting it all up.  Dad bought 4 giant speakers.  Well, giant compared to the Sonos speakers of today.  And he got two small ball shaped surround sound speakers.

    I've never heard sound like it. Simple as that.  Metallica's Black Album (circa 1990) sounded absolutely magnificent on it.  The opening bars of Sad But True shook the house on its foundations.

    Obviously, when Mum & Dad went out, the system got tested properly, especially when we knew our neighbours were out.

    Until one day it was so bloody loud, we didn't hear Mum come back in and she hit me so fecking hard as she said she'd heard the bass about 3 streets away and she had to come back!  Ah the teenage years.

    Dad's just got a couple of Alexa/Sonos speakers through their house now they've downsized.  The technics separates are still up in his loft.  One day they'll see the light again :)
  • Being a bit of an early adaptor and liking my music, you think that my house would be brimming with the latest Hi Fi kit. But it isn't. I've got a now ancient Philips thing that plays CDs but also has a hard drive for MP3s. It plays in two rooms at the same time and I've always thought my ears were just not up to the job of being a discerning music buff and spending a small fortune on a decent system/speakers.

    However, I now have a car which has a surround sound 17-speaker Bowers & Wilkins system knocking out 1280W. It also has some algorithm thing called Clari-Fi which attempts to get your MP3s back to the original waveform. I must say it is superb and has made me think that I need something better indoors too. But no idea what.
  • Rarely listen to music. 

    Had an all in one Phillips hi-Fi cube thing in the 80’s that had graphic equaliser sliding buttons on it, two tape cassettes and a turntable up top 
  • I've been very happy with my old ish Bose system for a number of years, however my son has been working with a music company for the last year, and the systems he has been listening to and showing me are pretty incredible, it's not going to be long before he gets me too upgrade before he finally disappears.
  • Mission  Cyrus amp, Marantz cd player, technics receiver, Nakamichi tape deck, RegaxPlansr 2. Mission speakers, various over the years, had to leave my 735'scinnEngland but have a later set. All bought in the mid 90's all still going strong. The amp has been repaired a couple of times. 
  • edited March 6
    Solidgone said:
    I started off this and now I use my iPad/iphone or Alexa…what a journey through time 🥸
    My first record player, as five year old back in 1970, was a wind-up gramophone with a bunch of old 78s. I used to play them in the back room of my mum's shop after school. God knows what the customers would have thought, but it kept me amused. I used to love letting the spring wind down so that the record would slowly stop, then suddenly cranking it full, making a glorious racket that made it easy for me to fall in love with avant-garde and industrial genre's later in life. The only records I can remember were The Liberty Bell; that's The Monty Python theme, but my version would have pre-dated that by a long way, and an early pressing of All Shook Up. I expect the Elvis would be worth a fortune nowadays, but back then it was just considered old junk that you could let a clumsy kid play with. I also had a record that was 16rpm, the only one I've ever seen, I'd play it at 78 though, just for the giggles. I've no idea what it was. Just thought of another one, a strange and violent ditty called The Spaniard That Blighted My Life. Google tells me it was an Al Jolson song, but I don't know if I had his version or someone else's (Blimey, I sound like Roy Hudd now).

    I've had a number of machines since then (obviously), my first  proper one was a Hitachi 140.  I then got an upright record deck. I'm not really sure why I wanted it other than because it was different. I think the theory was that your records would last longer because they didn't have the weight of the arm pressing down on them. Ultimately it was just frustrating though, because to play a record you had to wait for the door to open. Have since gone through Akai and Technics set ups. Currently use my computer, for the most part Spotify just on the internal speaker. If I want a little louder or better quality sound I bluetooth it to a pair of PreSonas studio monitors. 
  • As a teenager I started with a Philips all in one (still working in the garage) and upgraded to a few different units until being able to afford separates. 

    Current Main set up
    Amp Nad C 370 (over 25 years old now still sounds amazing)
    pre-amp Nad PP 2e
    Cd Nad 521i
    Turntable Nad C558
    Cass Yamaha KX-580
    speakers Kef cresta 2 (about to be replaced by Acoustic Energy AE300)

    second set up
    Yamaha amp R-N500
    Yamaha cd-N301
    Yamaha tuner T-D500
    Speakers Wharfedale Diamond 220
    Turntable Audio Technica

    I also have 2 vintage Fidelity turntables, a sony discman and a panasonic walkman. 

    Never downloaded a song and wouldn’t know how to.






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  • The problem I have with Hi-Fi is I can never own what I would really call Hi-Fi. I went the HiFi show at Ascot last September and everything is out of the reach of 99% of the people there. But it is nice to see a SME turntable that costs 55k and listen to speakers that cost a similar amount. They had, at the show,  13 amp fuses that cost stupid money. 

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvqlAmaXE6w

    I have an Onkyo  RZ 820 AV amp and use  a A9070 amp as a power amp for Bi-wired  Acoustic Energy Radiance 3 speakers also have matching centre speaker and sub woofer. I have 6 Cambridge Audio Minx 22 for the rest of the Atmos setup. I want to add a streamer soon, probably the dearer Eversolo or the cheaper end of the Hi-Fi Rose range. 
  • sholland said:
    As a teenager I started with a Philips all in one (still working in the garage) and upgraded to a few different units until being able to afford separates. 

    Current Main set up
    Amp Nad C 370 (over 25 years old now still sounds amazing)
    pre-amp Nad PP 2e
    Cd Nad 521i
    Turntable Nad C558
    Cass Yamaha KX-580
    speakers Kef cresta 2 (about to be replaced by Acoustic Energy AE300)

    second set up
    Yamaha amp R-N500
    Yamaha cd-N301
    Yamaha tuner T-D500
    Speakers Wharfedale Diamond 220
    Turntable Audio Technica

    I also have 2 vintage Fidelity turntables, a sony discman and a panasonic walkman. 

    Never downloaded a song and wouldn’t know how to.






    You could do with a couple of florins taped onto the top of the cartridge there mate 😄
  • The problem I have with Hi-Fi is I can never own what I would really call Hi-Fi. I went the HiFi show at Ascot last September and everything is out of the reach of 99% of the people there. But it is nice to see a SME turntable that costs 55k and listen to speakers that cost a similar amount. They had, at the show,  13 amp fuses that cost stupid money. 

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvqlAmaXE6w

    I have an Onkyo  RZ 820 AV amp and use  a A9070 amp as a power amp for Bi-wired  Acoustic Energy Radiance 3 speakers also have matching centre speaker and sub woofer. I have 6 Cambridge Audio Minx 22 for the rest of the Atmos setup. I want to add a streamer soon, probably the dearer Eversolo or the cheaper end of the Hi-Fi Rose range. 

    Thing is, it's all about the law of diminishing returns. As you climb higher up the audio food chain the improvements become smaller and are you actually any happier given the outlay. I have reached my limit, don't need anything else especially as the ears are getting older by the minute.
  • As mentioned, most of the kit ranges from the mid 80's to 2000. All going well but I may consider getting it serviced if I think I might live long enough. Reckon it's as tough as old boots and would see me out regardless!!


  • ozaddick said:
    Began with a Marantz system in the 80's, now running a Bluesound PowerNode edge box with KEF speakers and a Project 1 turntable. The sound is delicious! 
    No idea what an edge box is? but happy somebody else has a ProJect turntable, made in Litovel, CZ ;)  I have Kef speakers too. Just swapped out my ProJect for an Audio Technica deck, tho. New ProJect decks are not the bargains they once were. Got a Creek amp and CD player, a Sonos Connect box for streaming, and a 35 year old Pioneer analogue tuner which is on most of the day. 
  • edited March 6
    Roksan Kandy KA1 Amplifier
    Roksan Kandy KA1 CD player
    Roksan Kandy KA2 Power Amp
    Rega Planar 3 50th  Anniversary Turntable
    WiiM Pro Plus streamer
    Bowers and Wilkins 603 Anniversary Speakers
    Been adding to this since the 2000s, so a slow burn.
    I've also got a pioneer system from the 80s. Now in the loft but until recently I was still using the turntable.
    The WiiM streamer is a great piece of kit. Streaming HQ music from Amazon music at UltraHD quality is a breeze and keeps the system up to date at minimal cost.
  • Rega Planar 3
    Cambridge amp
    Can’t remember the speakers but the sound is great. 
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