Anyone here into HiFi? If So... Show Us Your HiFi...
#61
I'm saving up for an Amstrad with a twin tape deck.
Auto reverse on one tape, with a tape counter.
you can get the amp, tuner, cd and tape deck in one handy unit.
none of this wiring nonsense
Black Ash, smoked glass door.
Oh Yeah !!!!
Auto reverse on one tape, with a tape counter.
you can get the amp, tuner, cd and tape deck in one handy unit.
none of this wiring nonsense
Black Ash, smoked glass door.
Oh Yeah !!!!
#65
Scooby Regular
my 2 channel system consists of-
michell gyrodec, michell tecnoarm and dynavector dv17d3 cartridge
Dynavector p-75 phono stage
macbook and cambridge audio dac magic
Bryston bp-25 preamplifier
isotek mains distribution block
PMC AML1 active monitors.
pretty happy at the moment, but im thinking about a dac change before the summer..
michell gyrodec, michell tecnoarm and dynavector dv17d3 cartridge
Dynavector p-75 phono stage
macbook and cambridge audio dac magic
Bryston bp-25 preamplifier
isotek mains distribution block
PMC AML1 active monitors.
pretty happy at the moment, but im thinking about a dac change before the summer..
PMC rule
#67
Scooby Regular
Trout,
Nice system there, we have discussed Naim before.
Will try and get a pic up soon, but system as follows:
Linn Sondek LP12 turntable/Ekos arm/Archiv cartridge/Lingo power supply
Naim CD2 D player
Naim 102 pre amp
Naim Hi-Cap power supply
Naim NAXO2-4 active crossover
Naim Hi-Cap power supply no.2
Naim 135 x 4
Naim Credos in active mode
Naim AV2 sound processor
Naim NAV-173 3 channel power amp
B&W centre and surrounds
Naim NAC A5 speaker cables
Chord/Naim interconnects
Nice system there, we have discussed Naim before.
Will try and get a pic up soon, but system as follows:
Linn Sondek LP12 turntable/Ekos arm/Archiv cartridge/Lingo power supply
Naim CD2 D player
Naim 102 pre amp
Naim Hi-Cap power supply
Naim NAXO2-4 active crossover
Naim Hi-Cap power supply no.2
Naim 135 x 4
Naim Credos in active mode
Naim AV2 sound processor
Naim NAV-173 3 channel power amp
B&W centre and surrounds
Naim NAC A5 speaker cables
Chord/Naim interconnects
#68
Scooby Regular
Very expensive cables are a waste of money and usually bought by the sort of moron who reads What HiFi. The same moron then usually swears blind that they can hear extra detail or see more vivid colours
I've got about £20k's worth of AV kit (I note that others here have some high end kit as well) and there is no way I would spend £2k on cables. I think I may have spent £350.
Stu, you described your Chord speaker cable as 'directional', could you explain what that means?
#69
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Interesting post - why would you believe in spending £20k on hifi and then not believe that cables make a difference.
Cables can make a tremendous difference to tonality if nothing else, and balancing cable to kit can make a big difference to the subjective experience.
Having said that my kit would be a lot of money at new prices and I haven't spent that much on cable - but the cable I have is specifically designed for the kit that I use.
Cables can make a tremendous difference to tonality if nothing else, and balancing cable to kit can make a big difference to the subjective experience.
Having said that my kit would be a lot of money at new prices and I haven't spent that much on cable - but the cable I have is specifically designed for the kit that I use.
#70
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I dont know if you frequent the Wigwam but if you do you might remember a lot of guys binning £3-400 interconnects for Hitachi replacements at £15! I got a pair and they were streets ahead of my Chord Calypso (Iknow, not exactly cutting edge). People will always be sucked in by cable company promises and snake oil bragging! That is why they are all so rich!
#72
Scooby Regular
Interesting post - why would you believe in spending £20k on hifi and then not believe that cables make a difference.
Cables can make a tremendous difference to tonality if nothing else, and balancing cable to kit can make a big difference to the subjective experience.
Having said that my kit would be a lot of money at new prices and I haven't spent that much on cable - but the cable I have is specifically designed for the kit that I use.
Cables can make a tremendous difference to tonality if nothing else, and balancing cable to kit can make a big difference to the subjective experience.
Having said that my kit would be a lot of money at new prices and I haven't spent that much on cable - but the cable I have is specifically designed for the kit that I use.
Because every bit of kit I've bought is after hours of auditioning. Then I'll spend money if there is a difference (up to the most I can afford of course)
The biggest difference is made by speakers, and hence I bought the best ones I could afford. My left, right and centre speaker retail at about £8k together.
There is really no difference in Blu Ray players if you are not using them for decoding and so I have a £150 one. Spend money where it makes a difference and not where it doesn't.
Similarly, cables etc make very little difference, so why waste the money just because the people selling them are brain washing the public into thinking they do?
I don't believe in buying poor quality cables btw, but thats not the same as buying into all the hype.
AV Cables and Interconnects, UK Cables Shop
These are all the cables you will ever need, and made up to custom terminations etc by a no bull**** seller. The stuff he sells for £50-£80 is the stuff that Chord etc sell for £400+
All imho of course!
#74
Similarly, cables etc make very little difference, so why waste the money just because the people selling them are brain washing the public into thinking they do?
Sorry but that's wrong!
Sorry but that's wrong!
#75
Scooby Regular
If the big cheese of SN can't use the search function of this forum, what chance do plebs have of using it? I believe we already have a show us your hifi section.
My stereo setup in the back bedroom, speakers need to be positioned better but its a nice system that never gets used.
Monitor Audio GR10 Bookshelf speakers on Arc 360 stands filled with cat litter for extra weight. Connected with a custom made copper speaker cable.
Marantz PM17 Ki-sig mk2 Amplifier
Marantz CD17 mk2 connected to amp via Ixos Ixotic IX2 phono cables.
Myryad MCD500 cd player as backup.
All nestled in an Apollo rack oh and all power cables swapped from Russ Andrews powercords.
As for the subject of cables not making a difference, my phono cables and custom made speaker cable spoke for themselves.
My stereo setup in the back bedroom, speakers need to be positioned better but its a nice system that never gets used.
Monitor Audio GR10 Bookshelf speakers on Arc 360 stands filled with cat litter for extra weight. Connected with a custom made copper speaker cable.
Marantz PM17 Ki-sig mk2 Amplifier
Marantz CD17 mk2 connected to amp via Ixos Ixotic IX2 phono cables.
Myryad MCD500 cd player as backup.
All nestled in an Apollo rack oh and all power cables swapped from Russ Andrews powercords.
As for the subject of cables not making a difference, my phono cables and custom made speaker cable spoke for themselves.
Last edited by Jamz3k; 12 March 2010 at 08:52 PM.
#77
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Not sure I understand your question mate. Why should I spend £20k on AV kit but not believe that cables make a significant difference?
Because every bit of kit I've bought is after hours of auditioning. Then I'll spend money if there is a difference (up to the most I can afford of course)
The biggest difference is made by speakers, and hence I bought the best ones I could afford. My left, right and centre speaker retail at about £8k together.
There is really no difference in Blu Ray players if you are not using them for decoding and so I have a £150 one. Spend money where it makes a difference and not where it doesn't.
Similarly, cables etc make very little difference, so why waste the money just because the people selling them are brain washing the public into thinking they do?
I don't believe in buying poor quality cables btw, but thats not the same as buying into all the hype.
AV Cables and Interconnects, UK Cables Shop
These are all the cables you will ever need, and made up to custom terminations etc by a no bull**** seller. The stuff he sells for £50-£80 is the stuff that Chord etc sell for £400+
All imho of course!
Because every bit of kit I've bought is after hours of auditioning. Then I'll spend money if there is a difference (up to the most I can afford of course)
The biggest difference is made by speakers, and hence I bought the best ones I could afford. My left, right and centre speaker retail at about £8k together.
There is really no difference in Blu Ray players if you are not using them for decoding and so I have a £150 one. Spend money where it makes a difference and not where it doesn't.
Similarly, cables etc make very little difference, so why waste the money just because the people selling them are brain washing the public into thinking they do?
I don't believe in buying poor quality cables btw, but thats not the same as buying into all the hype.
AV Cables and Interconnects, UK Cables Shop
These are all the cables you will ever need, and made up to custom terminations etc by a no bull**** seller. The stuff he sells for £50-£80 is the stuff that Chord etc sell for £400+
All imho of course!
You selected your product based on audition and yet you are critical of others who may audition cables and select based on their choice!
The implication of your statement is that cables don't make a difference - so wouldn't that be true all the way up the chain to electrical components too? So why pay more?
As for your system architecture I find that even more intriguing - you spent hours auditioning and spent a LOT of money - and yet your system goes against the grain of just about every high end architecture. It is also a system architecture that is likely to be less revealing of changes in interconnects, IMHO of course!
Without a great source the best speakers in the world will still sound pretty ropey. Garbage in, garbage out and all that.
But, and it is a big but. The best value system that anyone has is the one they are prepared to spend their money on because it sounds best to them (and surely that also applies to cables should one wish to pursue that path!).
BTW my cables are around 1.5% of the new value of my system
Last edited by Trout; 12 March 2010 at 09:24 PM.
#79
Scooby Regular
Digital cables don't make a difference. There either is a signal, or there isn't. The actual signal of eight ones and zeros cannot be influenced by cable resistance, microphany, or any of the other factors which used to be an issue. Only run-length resulting in signal break-down is an issue here. But with RF signals, the cables can and do make an enormous difference. Any analogue signal transfer needs to be protected by the best cables you can afford which meet your sonic preferences. Speaker cabling in particular, even in an all digital set-up, are the only remaining rf (analogue) part and MUST be treated with respect.
However, there is still a lot of snake-oil, smoke and mirrors. I have auditioned cables from free up to £1k, and the law of diminishing returns removes the more esoteric stuff from consideration. I once judged some £6 Tandy cables as better than £80 Audioquest's, and thus used them satisfactorily in my system for my tuner and tape deck connections. The Audioquest Quartz Hyperlitz 3 (£120) however blew me away and that was used for my CD player.
I even spent a few days messing with non-branded stuff to see if I were being foolish spending large sums, and tried my speaker runs with everything from bell-wire, mains cable (multi and solid core) up to some really thick industrial three-phase stuff I blagged from w*rk. None of them held a light to my Cyrus solid core (12/m bi-wired).
However, there is still a lot of snake-oil, smoke and mirrors. I have auditioned cables from free up to £1k, and the law of diminishing returns removes the more esoteric stuff from consideration. I once judged some £6 Tandy cables as better than £80 Audioquest's, and thus used them satisfactorily in my system for my tuner and tape deck connections. The Audioquest Quartz Hyperlitz 3 (£120) however blew me away and that was used for my CD player.
I even spent a few days messing with non-branded stuff to see if I were being foolish spending large sums, and tried my speaker runs with everything from bell-wire, mains cable (multi and solid core) up to some really thick industrial three-phase stuff I blagged from w*rk. None of them held a light to my Cyrus solid core (12/m bi-wired).
#81
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does it have a mic socket?? slammin
#84
cheers, ive always liked PMC( ive owned 2 pairs of db1's, two pairs of fb1's and a pair of ob1's prior to my current ones..), they seem to make just the type of sound i like. and theyre a cracking company to deal with!
cables, opening a huge can of worms there.. being active monitors, I have no need for speaker cables, and the interconnects i use are the ones the manufacturer of my speaks and pre amp use, Van Damme grand total of about £100 for all the leads and connections. if its good enough for Abbey road, Metropolis studios and to wire the eurofighter, its good enough to connect up my system!
another cracking and sensibly priced cable is MOGAMI® - Professional Audio Cables
cables, opening a huge can of worms there.. being active monitors, I have no need for speaker cables, and the interconnects i use are the ones the manufacturer of my speaks and pre amp use, Van Damme grand total of about £100 for all the leads and connections. if its good enough for Abbey road, Metropolis studios and to wire the eurofighter, its good enough to connect up my system!
another cracking and sensibly priced cable is MOGAMI® - Professional Audio Cables
#85
Scooby Regular
It was kind of a rhetorical question and I find your answer even more intriguing.
You selected your product based on audition and yet you are critical of others who may audition cables and select based on their choice!
The implication of your statement is that cables don't make a difference - so wouldn't that be true all the way up the chain to electrical components too? So why pay more?
As for your system architecture I find that even more intriguing - you spent hours auditioning and spent a LOT of money - and yet your system goes against the grain of just about every high end architecture. It is also a system architecture that is likely to be less revealing of changes in interconnects, IMHO of course!
Without a great source the best speakers in the world will still sound pretty ropey. Garbage in, garbage out and all that.
But, and it is a big but. The best value system that anyone has is the one they are prepared to spend their money on because it sounds best to them (and surely that also applies to cables should one wish to pursue that path!).
BTW my cables are around 1.5% of the new value of my system
You selected your product based on audition and yet you are critical of others who may audition cables and select based on their choice!
The implication of your statement is that cables don't make a difference - so wouldn't that be true all the way up the chain to electrical components too? So why pay more?
As for your system architecture I find that even more intriguing - you spent hours auditioning and spent a LOT of money - and yet your system goes against the grain of just about every high end architecture. It is also a system architecture that is likely to be less revealing of changes in interconnects, IMHO of course!
Without a great source the best speakers in the world will still sound pretty ropey. Garbage in, garbage out and all that.
But, and it is a big but. The best value system that anyone has is the one they are prepared to spend their money on because it sounds best to them (and surely that also applies to cables should one wish to pursue that path!).
BTW my cables are around 1.5% of the new value of my system
Trout, you are talking gibberish mate
1) I bought the bits of kit I have after weeks of auditioning in my own home. Everything else kept constant. Even then its fraught with problems as auditory memory has been shown to be very very short and the placebo effect is huge.
How many people have done that with their expensive cables.
2) What high end system architecture are you talkng about? The one thats told to you by the guy in the HiFi shop or What HiFi mag??? If you go by those ridiculous 30% + 10% for cables formulae then you really are way off mate. Life is not that simple.
As for rubbish in rubbish out, I'm not sure my source components would be described as rubbish. The Quad CDP2 costs £1k and is known and accepted to punch way above its weight. My preamp is a £3.5k multi award winning Audio Research LS17. Its bigger brother the Ref3 has often been described as one of the best preamps in the world.
Power is supplied by 2 x Quad 909 poweramps (each rrp £1k), again an amp with a fantastic reputation, and I'm using two!
So thats £7k worth of well thought out kit in front of the speakers, I'm not sure it fair to describe it as rubbish.
#86
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Cables make a difference, end of. But before paying out £1000's on a stereo it's well worth a quick hearing test to ensure you're able to pick up all the various frequencies.... as if you've a problem in the old ear canal spunking a few grand on a high end system's not the best way to go.....
#87
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I shall post my setup, though it's not as glamourous as some of the setups mentioned here, but I'm happy with it.
Denon AVR-1804 AV Receiver
4 x Bowers & Wilkins DM601 S3 speakers (Black Ash finish)
1 x Bowers & Wilkins LCR60 S3 (Black Ash finish)
1 x Bowers & Wilkins ASW 300 (Black Ash finish)
1 x Denon 910 DVD Player
TV is some 28" Toshiba thing, I know, a bit of a letdown
Denon AVR-1804 AV Receiver
4 x Bowers & Wilkins DM601 S3 speakers (Black Ash finish)
1 x Bowers & Wilkins LCR60 S3 (Black Ash finish)
1 x Bowers & Wilkins ASW 300 (Black Ash finish)
1 x Denon 910 DVD Player
TV is some 28" Toshiba thing, I know, a bit of a letdown
#88
Scooby Regular
Cables make a difference, end of. But before paying out £1000's on a stereo it's well worth a quick hearing test to ensure you're able to pick up all the various frequencies.... as if you've a problem in the old ear canal spunking a few grand on a high end system's not the best way to go.....
Your other statement is pure nonsense as well. Most people above the age of 30 will have some degree of hearing loss, that does NOT mean they will not be able to tell the difference between a £300 system and a £3000 system.
I think you better with comedy posts mate
#89
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No point making statements like 'cables make a difference, end of' ', it means nothing. Back it up with something, what kit do you have and what back to back testing did you do with which cables?
Your other statement is pure nonsense as well. Most people above the age of 30 will have some degree of hearing loss, that does NOT mean they will not be able to tell the difference between a £300 system and a £3000 system.
I think you better with comedy posts mate
Your other statement is pure nonsense as well. Most people above the age of 30 will have some degree of hearing loss, that does NOT mean they will not be able to tell the difference between a £300 system and a £3000 system.
I think you better with comedy posts mate
So to conclude; spend £3000 to get the benefit of something a 18 year old can get from £300..... christ on a bike
End of. Again.
#90
Scooby Regular
Thanks, but you're the one that's making hilarious statements that cables make no difference to the quality of the sound. My second point is equally valid, the fact you've acknowledged it and at the same time dismissed it is also mildly entertaining - so you're saying that they'll be able to tell the difference - whereas they won't have full appreciation of the potential - i.e. with their known hearing deficiency (all 30+ year olds).
So to conclude; spend £3000 to get the benefit of something a 18 year old can get from £300..... christ on a bike
End of. Again.
So to conclude; spend £3000 to get the benefit of something a 18 year old can get from £300..... christ on a bike
End of. Again.
In the same way then, you are saying its no point anybody over the age of 30 buying decent AV kit because they can't hear the difference! Only 18 year olds can appreciate high quality kit! Nice one
You also still haven't backed up your first arguement. What comparisons have you done with what kit and cables that leads you to say cables make a difference, end of? I would assume the reason you haven't bothered to answer that is because you haven't?
I get the feeling you know very little about AV and even less about the physiology of human hearing. Please think and question your own experience and knowledge before posting silly statements.
Whats really hilarious though is your idea ()that everbody should have a hearing test before they buy any AV kit. Maybe go into the HiFi shop with a print out of the hearing test and then choose items accordingly??
Last edited by Dingdongler; 13 March 2010 at 03:35 PM.