Your hi-fi (or not!) history...from the beginning

[GeezerButler]

So I found some of my previous kit in the loft recently and I was thinking back on the kit I had back in the day...so I started with this:

Fidelity portable record player - 33,45 and 78rpm! Built in mono speaker!

Plus this (for taping Top of the Pops off the radio - in mono ):

Couln't find my exact one - mine was branded Ultra!

Then this:

Fidelity Music Centre - was awesome at the time...separate speakers!

Then separates

Garrard turntable

Leak amp (complete with crackly volume control)

Radio Shack speakers

Then digital and another upgrade...this was awesome:

Revolver turntable

Marantz Amp

Toshiba XRJ-9 CD player (top loading!)

Mission 761 speakers

Amp upgrade & cassette desk:

Mission Cyrus One

Yamaha KX580

New speakers / Turntable / CD:

Gale floor standers

Project 0.5

Marantz CD63

Today - I have no space for a proper system so it's just my PC / Asus Xonar / Sennheiser HD595s. One day I'll get another system...one day

So cast your mind back...what did you start with and where did you end up?

 

[NirK]

First system : Sony Integrated midi system - Big bass, loud, poor everything else lol.

Second system : Cambridge Audio Azur 640c CD player / amplifier combo with mordaunt short speakers and REL quake subwoofer - This was my first seperates and a bit of a dissapointment really, obviously a big jump in sound quality from the midi system but overall it was a bit analytical and boring.

Third system : NAD 3020 + PSB speakers - After selling my old setup and technically downgrading to this system I actually liked this system a lot more than the previous one, much more musical and fun to listen to.

Fourth system : The NAD 3020 broke so I got a NAD 315bee and then later upgraded the soundcard to a Xonar and got an external cambridge audio DAC.

Current system : Got a new NAD 326Bee amplifier and a pair of B&W 602s3 speakers and connected this to my Cambridge audio DAC. Overall pretty happy with this system, definately the best I have owned so far and I think I will have to spend a considerable amount more to get a proper upgrade in sound quality.

I had some Dynaudio DM2/7 speakers for a while but I sent them back as I didn't think they were worth the £500 they cost. I also have a headphone setup and use this for most music listening now because it is just better and I can listen as loud as I want without annoying the neighbours.

 

[arad85]

I've spent far too much on hi-fi over the years.

I started (after having an all-in-one Bush music centre) in the early 80's.

Technics linear tracking turntable, Technics amp, Technics cassette deck, Technics tuner and some (I think) Technics speakers (it was the 80's ).

I added a very expensive (~£400) Technics CD player in late 1985/early 86 and then changed the speakers to Musical Fidelity MC2s (awful).

A spate of spending including upgrading the tape deck to another (but 3 head) Technics, upgrading the CD player to an Arcam Alpha 5 and the speakers to Mission 753s together with a move to Naim 92 pre-amp and Naim 180 power amps (via a couple of home built power amps - supposedly Naim 135 copies, but they didn't sound like them - they were very easily beaten by the 180) saw me fairly stable to around 1997 when I was left some money.

Big splash at a hi-fi dealers (the guy was shaking when we closed the deal) to upgrade to a complete Naim setup - CDS/52/SuperCap/250/SBL. I even built an extension to put them in!

All was well when I came into some more money in 1999/2000 when the SBLs were swapped for DBLs - easily the biggest single upgrade I've ever made in hi-fi. 18 months later and countless times of shutting down the 250 by playing too loud (did I mention I had a dedicated room ) the 250 was replaced by 2 x Naim 135s.

A divorce later, and I still had everything intact (apart from the room) until in 2010 I started experimenting with computer audio. I built a HTPC and bought a Cambridge Audio DAC to go with it. It was as good as the CDS I had been clinging onto for years. About a week later, I was the proud owner of a Naim DAC (powered by the old CDPS power supply) which very easily beat the CDS. The 13 year old head unit was sold to a guy in Korea for £400 (!).

And that's where I am today. The TV has no speakers and everything goes through the pre/powers to the DBLs. This is it today (with a Pioneer LX508 between them). I don't envisage changing anything unless we win the lottery

 

[gitbags]

First proper stereo consisted of a cambridge a1 mkii amp and a pair of wharfdale diamond 9.1's. The source was a yamada dvd player.

When I had some money spare the a1 amp was replaced with a nad c320bee and the dvd player swapped with a nad c521bee cd player.

5 years later the diamond 9.1's where swapped out for some wharfdale evo2 bookshelfs (can't remember the exact model).

A year after that the whole system was replaced with my current setup.
Naim nac122x/nap150x pre and power, rega apollo cd player, rega planar 3 tt and a pair of proac responce d15's. Can't see me replacing anything else until something breaks or I go bankrupt

 

[Kei]

First system
A bush minisystem (mainly due to my destructive tendencies as a kid) Upgraded the speakers to some fujitsu indianas.

Second system
Marantz SR4200
Marantz CD-56
PC + Soundblaster Live! Gold with daughter board
Goodmans Minister speakers
Custom made subwoofer
Mitsubishi 24" CRT
Ceiling speakers for surround
Fujitsu indianas for centre

Third system - Split into stereo and A/V
Luxman L-220 - heavily modified by me
Philips CD930 - lightly modified by me
Marantz CD-56 - lightly modified by me
Kef Chorale speakers - home made by me
Thorens TD160B with SME 3009 Series 2 improved tonearm

Marantz SR4200
Cambridge Audio DVD57
PC + Xonar Essence ST Deluxe
Mitsubishi 24" CRT
Ceiling speakers for surround
Fujitsu indianas for centre

Plans are to replace the ancient CRT with a 32" LED display. (which is nearly as old as i am and still working fine) Hoping to replace the rear speakers with some home made LS3/5a and the centre speaker with something akin to a soundbar. (like the Wharfedale Achromatic WA-C4) Might custom make something if i can be bothered. All custom made BNC coax interconnects and speaker cables with 4mm bananas too. (fed up with plenty of excess cables and the faff of removing screw down speaker wiring) Also making up a TNT audio fleXy rack to house it all.

 

[StonedPenguin]

Only 2 setups so far, First 1 was older than me Recently been replaced by the latter

Marantz something or another

Wharfedale e30

---

Yam A-S500

Mission MX3

 

[NirK]

That NAIM setup with those big speakers is sexy I want it lol.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Started with a Walker CJ58 turntable, mission arm, Ortofon MC10 cartridge, Quantam IA100 amp, Tannoy Mercury speakers added a Yam tape deck. Stands were home made welded rolled steel tubing which were mass loaded with sand and weighed around 20kg each.

The second stage was to add a Cyrus 2 with PSX, VERY well reviewed at the time, but interesting was stuffed in a later dem that I did against a cheaper Nait. Added an LP12 with basik arm and K9 cartridge, now that was good. Final part was a pair of Musical Fidelity MC4s. Pig ugly, but I really liked them.
CD finally arrived with initially a Philips 373 to which was eventually added a Musical Fidelity digilog DAC.

Took a rather large break from buying kit as I then went to Uni (mature student) and was skint. That included ditching the LP12, not the worlds best decision.
On finally getting back into things fiddled with some AV kit (Mordant short decoder, Kef speakers etc), didn’t really do much for me and ended up ditching AV for a while, despite ending up with a Marantz processor, REL sub etc.

On the stereo front, the source was changed to include a Marantz CD52se2 (nothing like as good as people claimed), before being replaced with a Teac VRDS7 (which really was good, but suffered from transport failure), then onto a Naim CD5i. Amp went to a Nait 5, then upto a NAC82, hicap, Nap 200. Speakers were a pair of Linn Kabers, which were updated with newer tweeters. Sounded great for a while, till I started getting the opportunity to hear other peoples kit, at which point the pros and cons of Naim kit really came to light. It’s brilliant at some things, far less good at others.

So, it was time for a major set of changes in style of presentation. The amp was the easiest part, with the ditching of the Naim gear for a Bel Canto Evo2i tripath amp. The only thing I’ve heard that genuinely bettered it was some VERY expensive 300b valve amps (way out of my price range). More recently the integrated Evo was virtually swapped for a power amp only version. The power amp version doesn’t have the pre-amp section and has a MUCH beefier power transformer and sounds even better.
Speakers took some investigation, but eventually plumped down the horn loaded route. Like any other design, they’re a compromise, but in this case, a very nice one. Many horns suffer from a lack of low bass, or massive cabinet colouration. Ended up with a pair of Impulse Ta’us 3 way horn loaded. 94db/w efficiency linked to a design that will go down to 26hz (-3db), and suffers from little cabinet colouration. The closest I’ve come to them (whilst bettering them) are the JBL9800 speakers, which retail at a cool £20k. Lets just say that my Ta’us were NOTHING like that much.
The source has seen the biggest set of changes. After the CD5i, tried a variety of DACs including a couple of NOS DACs, Meridian 203, and ended up with a modded Meridian 500 transport driving a NOS DAC. That lasted until the SB+ (SB3 on steroids) which arrived around 6 years ago and was a brilliant single box streamer that stood up with against kit including the Linn DS Majik. That was finally supplanted by a combination of SB Touch, linked to a Meridian 568.2mm acting as DAC.

Along the way, I’ve heard a LOT of systems, in dealers, shows and peoples homes who I’ve sold or bought kit from. Been an interesting journey, but am pretty happy now. It’s pretty rare I hear anything now that really takes my breath away when compared.

 

[Martynt74]

Think mine goes (ignoring any general all in one bush stereos and the very old Akai one I had when I was 7)

AMP - NAD C350
CD Player - Cambridge Audio 540 Azur
Speakers - TDL Nucleus 2

Then I changed the speakers for a pair of B&W 602’s S2’s

Then I added a Rotel 1070 power amp to see what it was like.

Then I moved into my first flat and got rid of both amps and got a Primare I21 integrated amp and upgraded the cd player to an Arcam CD73.

I moved out of that flat and into a shared house with some mates and decided to buy a pair of Canton Vento 820’s whilst there I fell in love with a Densen B410 cd player which they had for sale ex demo. I also bought (for some reason) a new Rotel 1552 power amp online without hearing it/needing it. Foolishly this was about 2 weeks before I moved into a new house. The speakers really didn’t work in my new room and I lost a small fortune after six months. Sold them and bought a pair of Waterfall Victoria Evos about 2 years ago around the same time as buying an Avondale S100 power amp. Then about 3 months later I sold the Primare and bought my first Pre Amp in the Densen DM20 which is probably the best purchase I’ve ever made.

About a month ago the Avondale power amp had a little blip killing one of the Waterfall speakers. In the meantime I bought a Rotel 930X integrated amp and pair of Kef Concerto speakers for tide me over. The avondale is about to go off for repairs in the next few days but I don’t think I’ll bother repairing the speakers as it would cost more than I paid for them so am currently on the look out for something new.

EDIT- Forgot that I also bought a Rega Planar 2 turntable at some point but sold it after not really using it

 

[NirK]

Sounded great for a while, till I started getting the opportunity to hear other peoples kit, at which point the pros and cons of Naim kit really came to light. It’s brilliant at some things, far less good at others.

What would you say are the good and bad points of the NAIM gear?

 

[Jonesiani]

I built my first hifi earlier this year after trying out many combinations within my budget.

I ended up with....

Marantz CD6094
Marantz PM6004
Monitor Audio BX5 speakers
Rega RP1 turntable.

This had the sound that just 'did it' for me

 

[Nick1881]

Well I had only ever had PC speakers, the best being the AE AEGO M's.

Then I stole my Dads old hifi, Technics amp and Polk Audio monitor speakers. I changed speakers to Monitor Audio BR, then B&W 601.

I soon changed the amp to an old Sony AV amp, then I when through various AV amps till I got to my current Pioneer. Then I changed my speakers to Monitor Audio RX6, then I added an Arcam Alpha 8R.

Then last week I changed amp and speakers. I'm now running

Arcam FMJ A28 and KEF R300 speakers. (My old amp and speakers are in the MM)

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

What would you say are the good and bad points of the NAIM gear?

Just my opinion, but:
Pros: boppy and a lot of fun to listen to. Works particularly well with vinyl
Cons: IMO tends to accentuate certain frequencies, so it isn't as accurate as some and can result in poorly produced material sounding lousy, particularly so the heavily compressed digital music. Works less well with digital.

For example recently bought a stand from a chap running a mid spec Lp12 into a 252/250/supercap combo. Sounded awesome, unfortunately he then put on his Naim streamer, truly awful.

 

[NirK]

From listening in the shop to Naim gear this was what I thought as well....

Very good sounding overall and exciting and punchy to listen too but they did seem a bit bright and harsh with lower quality sources.

I think that the Naim gear is a bit(!) overpriced as well. Definately wouldn't mind owning some though.

 

[arad85]

I'd tend to agree with Mr Sukebe. You need to go quite high in the Naim lineup to tame all of that - although I've not really listened to the newer stuff. I do know speaker choice is critical - I heard a 555/552/500 through some £4k B&Ws which was horrific to listen to.

Good digital is great through my Naim setup though - particularly the DBLs as they just "do" bass right IMHO. I don't think I could live with another speaker (except probably some ATCs).

 

[NirK]

I listened to a 60k setup with Linn record deck, and Naim pre/power amps with power supplies etc. and the top of the range Naim ovator speakers and this sounded amazing. However £60,000 is an absurd amount of money for a hifi.

 

[Ste]

I started in about 2000 and have always used my PC as a source

Source:

1. Onboard sound (yuck!)
2. M-Audio 2496 soundcard
3. Optical out -> CA DACmagic mk3
4. Musical Fidelity V-Link (USB) -> CA DACmagic mk3
5. Musiical Fidelity V-link (USB) -> Audiolab M-Dac

Amp / Speakers:

1. Sony TA-FE570 and Mission 771e speakers
2. Audiolab 8000A and Mission 771e speakers
3. Audiolab 8000A and Mission 753 freedom speakers
4. Audiolab 8000A + P / 753f
5. Audiolab 8000Q + P / 753f
6. Audiolab 8000Q + P + P / 753f
7. Audiolab 8000Q + P + P and Mission 754 freedom 5 speakers

(spot the trend!)

So my current setup is J-River audio player, Kernel Streaming into the V-link via USB and then into an Audiolab M-Dac via optical. Then the 8000Q feeds 2x 8000Ps and the 754fs.

Apart from the source gear the amps and speakers are all 2nd hand from eBay, I reckon I could sell all of it back and probably only lose 10-15%, so it's decent hi-fi for a decent price. Next step is probably to get a couple of 8000M monoblocks and eventually I want to move away from Audiolab, but that's going to be difficult to do without spending serious money and auditioning kit etc.

Pros: Neutral, detailed, easy to listen to. Sounds superb on most well recorded stuff. Impressive PRaT for a PC source
Cons: Borders on 'sterile', can sound flat on boring stuff and really, really doesn't sound too hot with the latest 'brick wall' mastered pop stuff. But then what does!

 

[arad85]

Cons: Borders on 'sterile', can sound flat on boring stuff....

Yes. That's why I don't own any Audiolab equipment...

@NirK: yup... I'm probably not far off a third of that over the years, probably more

You only live once though....

 

[Ste]

The MDac is an exception to that though - really livened things up

 

[red eye]

My dad found this during a garage clear out

Technics x33

I got this from a second-hand shop after some **** robbed my aiwa midi from my flat been using that for 5 years.