Hifi of Yesteryear vs Today's effort!

[swordstoke]

[greenstripe]

My other half has moved in with me and with both our stuff there isn't currently room for my HiFi with all the furniture, so the Roksan Caspians and B&W CDM1NT have been safely packed away pending a remodelling of the downstairs of our house. In the interim I've bought a Naim Mu-so, I always liked Naim kit (but not their speakers for some reason). The Mu-so is a mighty impressive piece of kit for a one box system, obviously not in the same league as the Roksan etc. but for £800 in today's money versus the £3K of 15 years ago it's pretty damn good.

 

Also have a Logitech Harmony Companion to tame all the gadgets -it's taken a while to get the hang of it as it doesn't work like a regular universal remote - everything is in 'activities'. Rather than individual devices you group your devices within each activities - like 'Watch TV' - TV on, sound system set to aux, volume control handled by amp. Took ages to figure out that you can tell it not to power on and off devices - I wasn't keen on my amp being turned on and off continuously 

[Chris GB]

Bit of thread resurrection here!

 

I've had cause to be looking very specifically at todays effort when it comes to Hi Fi just recently. The first thing that struck me is the comparative cost of Hi Fi gear today. Back in 1989, my MF A1 was £300, my Rega Planar 3 with Elys cartridge was £180. So in todays money, that equates to £522 for an amp and £313 for a turntable and cartridge. What I can say is that with these equivalent amounts to spend today, you will get nowhere near the sound quality that you would have in 1989. Listening to the best reviewed amps in the £500 - £1000 retail region was quite surprising, in a bad way. What Hifi's best amp under £700 proved to have a cluttered and opaque sound with lots of missing detail and no imaging, an old MF B200 or A&R Cambridge AR60 would comfortably blitz it. Moving up to their best amp under £1600 retail bought some serous improvement, but even then, nothing remarkable, nothing near matching the A1 in most respects.

 

I'm a big fan of class A amps, so I was intrigued by Arcam's FMJ A39. This runs class G, where allegedly, the amplifier runs in class A up to 20W then switches to class AB on higher voltage rails for bigger transients or signal up to 120WRMS.With my high efficiency, easy to drive speakers, it should do nearly everything in class A, so I gave one a try while I was borrowing a car full of stuff. Well firstly, I simply cannot believe that it runs in real class A at any time. But its not the sound quality that makes me think this, just the lack of heat from the case. In fact, much like a classic class AB amp. the harder you drive it, the warmer (well barely) it gets. What is a revelation with this amp is the very clean, immensely detailed, open and refined sound, which is very class A like indeed. Add the piledriver bottom end control and drive, sweet, detailed and airy treble and you have an amp that simply lets the music through without imposing its own flavour. Some reviews place it as too polite, but it seemed to have no problem conveying the very impolite brutality of the opening number of Pixies Trompe le Monde or the visceral savagery of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds track Stagger Lee, so we'll ignore those reviews. The amp maybe lacks some of the A1's sweet intimacy, but that's for comparison at a later date. in other areas, it is obviously superior.

 

Turntable wise, I wanted to see what the latest Rega Planar 3 could do with it's new RB330 arm and Elys 2 cartridge. Well, compared to the 1989 Planar 3, it has more detail, deeper, tighter bass, much lower motor noise and better pace, treble seems more open and sweeter. On the downside, microphony may be an issue at high listening volumes. The latest Planar 3 uses a very light composite foam plinth, so I may need to upgrade my isolation a little. But I like the sound very much.

 

When I returned the gear after a 4 day home demo, some post crimbo sales prices and light haggling yielded a decent price for the pairing, so some modern gear is making it's way into my system. I will update once it's all run in and settled down. What I do know though, is that good sound quality costs more in real terms than it used to.

[swordstoke]

Anyone run a Garrard 301/401? Happy with it?

 

Getting the LP12 serviced but also looking at further upgrades in PSU and cartridge. Looking at alternatives also.

[Aspman]

We bought a Ruark R4 recently it was from John Lewis as a refurb grade B but still over £500. I was a bit wary it was first delve into higher end music kit.

 

However we've been blown away. Little bugger could mek the concrete floor of the kitchen rumble. I'm not sure if older kit would give us half the quality and power in such a small package.

 

[skomaz]

Talking of old hi-fi resurrection...   I've got a little job for my father in law tomorrow to resurrect his old Dual 604 turntable after fixing his Teac A150 tape deck...   

[skomaz]

On 04/04/2019 at 22:04, skomaz said:

Talking of old hi-fi resurrection...   I've got a little job for my father in law tomorrow to resurrect his old Dual 604 turntable after fixing his Teac A150 tape deck...   

 

Well...  Got the Dual plugged in and only one channel working and lots of hum...   Think there could be some bad connections and an earth problem somewhere...

[skomaz]

On 05/04/2019 at 22:23, skomaz said:

 

Well...  Got the Dual plugged in and only one channel working and lots of hum...   Think there could be some bad connections and an earth problem somewhere...

 

Fixed it...   Woo hoo...   

 

Checked a few things on line, found the service manual, cleaned up the headshell sled contacts and then took it apart to get at the wiring.  Cleaned the mute switch and soldered a couple of new earth connections in and all is good.

 

It now works really well.  Nice clear sound and pretty impressive for a 50 year old turntable.  Father in law is well pleased!

 

 

[VWD]

Runs on Bottles, I'd suspect, as ( as young ones are finding) you can't get better sound than by using them . but FIL possibly is finding that with age comes the reduction in the ear bandwidth.

[Chris GB]

5 hours ago, skomaz said:

 

Fixed it...   Woo hoo...   

 

Checked a few things on line, found the service manual, cleaned up the headshell sled contacts and then took it apart to get at the wiring.  Cleaned the mute switch and soldered a couple of new earth connections in and all is good.

 

It now works really well.  Nice clear sound and pretty impressive for a 50 year old turntable.  Father in law is well pleased!

 

 

Note that the cantilever material in an old cartridge could be dried out and hardened, which could damage the vinyl.

[skomaz]

6 hours ago, VWD said:

Runs on Bottles, I'd suspect, as ( as young ones are finding) you can't get better sound than by using them . but FIL possibly is finding that with age comes the reduction in the ear bandwidth.

 

Indeed he could well be at 80 but he was a happy man this afternoon...   We had gone out but came back to find him in an easy chair pulled out into the middle of the room in prime listening spot and a record on loud...   

 

2 hours ago, Chris GB said:

Note that the cantilever material in an old cartridge could be dried out and hardened, which could damage the vinyl.

 

Cheers...   I will let him know but I doubt he'll be too bothered.  His collection's not precious and he's undergoing palliative chemotherapy at the moment so even if the cartridge is knackered it will likely outlast him...   

Edited 7 April, 2019 by skomaz

[Chris GB]

16 minutes ago, skomaz said:

 

Indeed he could well be at 80 but he was a happy man this afternoon...   We had gone out but came back to find him in an easy chair pulled out into the middle of the room in prime listening spot and a record on loud...   

 

 

Cheers...   I will let him know but I doubt he'll be too bothered.  His collection's not precious and he's undergoing palliative chemotherapy at the moment so even if the cartridge is knackered it will likely outlast him...   

Sorry to hear he is unwell, but lovely that music can still bring joy to him!

[skomaz]

37 minutes ago, Chris GB said:

Sorry to hear he is unwell, but lovely that music can still bring joy to him!

 

No worries...   It is what it is...   But he did have a huge great grin on his face.  

[skomaz]

On 07/04/2019 at 22:32, skomaz said:

 

Indeed he could well be at 80 but he was a happy man this afternoon...   We had gone out but came back to find him in an easy chair pulled out into the middle of the room in prime listening spot and a record on loud...   

 

 

Cheers...   I will let him know but I doubt he'll be too bothered.  His collection's not precious and he's undergoing palliative chemotherapy at the moment so even if the cartridge is knackered it will likely outlast him...   

 

Probably not the best place to post this but just to close the circle...   My father in law passed away last Wednesday and the funeral was today.  So he got a couple of months use out of the turntable I fixed for him.

 

On a lighter note some of the music played at today's service for him was the very same that he was listening to when we found him in that prime listening spot....

[Lady Elanore]

My day job used to be working with Studer A80s. Happiest working days of my life  

[skomaz]

Had some fun with my youngest today...   she'd heard Abba Super Trouper somewhere and asked if she could listen to it again so I remembered I'd got some Abba albums from a collection of an uncle of mine when he died...

 

She couldn't quite believe that the music was in the grooves of the record and that they were double sided...   

 

Apologies for crappy pictures (crappy phone)

 

Edited 9 November, 2019 by skomaz

[swordstoke]

Vinyl very much alive here! 👍🏻😄

[skomaz]

7 hours ago, swordstoke said:

Vinyl very much alive here! 👍🏻😄

 

Do I spy a Linn Sondek LP12 with Ekos arm???

[swordstoke]

On 09/02/2020 at 23:11, skomaz said:

 

Do I spy a Linn Sondek LP12 with Ekos arm???

 

Well spotted! LP12 but with an Ittok 👍🏻

[Lady Elanore]

That's a great combination. A hyper expensive turntable and arm (no doubt a high end cartridge too), playing Bagpus      

 

 

I did love the mice singing 'the mending song'

 

 

 

Edited 17 February, 2020 by Lady Elanore

[skomaz]

Figured a minor thread revival was due...

 

Spent some time fixing my daughters headphones today (moments of joy thread) and that got me thinking about the Leak 3000 headphones that my late father in law had which in turn got me thinking about vinyl and playing some records...

 

So a strange afternoon ensued with me decidingto play some Jean Michel Jarre and my youngest enjoying it so much we played five of his albums back to back...   She was quite intrigued by the story behind Rendezvous and the connection with the ill-fated space shuttle.

[Jfhuk]

Many years ago I used to work as a consultant for a company that provided IT systems to Linn. Marcus Tiefenbrun the then Finance Director was a real character. When he heard that he was getting a new salesperson he asked for a meeting.

 

His introduction was “Do you know I’m a salespersons worse nightmare? Because A I’m Scottish and B I’m Jewish” The poor guy was looking white as a ghost till Marcus burst out laughing 😆 

[Phil-E]

We have a Chillout/guest room (sofa bed). We have some 90s Pioneer separates hifi that I picked up for 20€ (cracking sound I have to say) and a record player.

 

We'll often spend evening chilling out sat on the floor cussions and pulling out random records (anything from Spice girls to heavy metal. But a lot of German elektro Punk).

 

But for everyday music listening in the living room we have a pair of Xiaomi Mi smart speakers that support Google assistant/Chromecast. Can't complain at their price in comparison to the big speakers from Google etc. Great sound and super convenient being to just quickly cast music or speak to Google to play something from Spotify etc.

[P6bJOHN]

I have an ancient Panasonic deck through a Cambridge A5 amp and Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 speakers in the house office. In the Garage, AKA The Doghouse, a pair of Stanton decks with a big old amp of unknown parentage, through a freebie mixer desk, and into a pair of 400w speakers of dubious antecedents. A set up purely for playing Northern Soul on.

[skomaz]

Been inspired this evening to get some old vinyl out tomorrow...   Been listening to New Order on Sky Arts...