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Post by John on Jun 14, 2014 14:22:30 GMT
I been into music since my mid-teens at the time it was mostly heavy metal with some classical music.
I used to go lots of concerts about 3 a week and buy lots of records. All my friends were like me but I be the one they relied on for the latest import. As for HIFI I could not see the point I used to think why are you spending so much music on a system?
Music was like a drug and one I could not get enough off.
When my component system finally broke I bought my first proper HIFI system. It sounded awful and I spent a lot of money trying to fix the issues.
A Brief Highlight tour of my HIFI journey
My First system
Jamo Concert 8
Pioneer CD player Legato drive
Myriad amp and power amp
Issues lac of scale bass and fatiguing
A few years down the road
Silverline SR17
Musical Fidelity Nu Vista
Gyro mod to Orbe
Gamut d200 with Music first pre
PS Audio P500 regenerator
A lot more musical but still missing a bottom octave
Latter on the road
Wharfedale Opus 3
Nu vista now heavily mod
VPI HW19 mk 4 with HD platter
Balanced power mains 3kva
A bit lacking in treble and the scale I now get
Now
Hawthorne Duets with PSI driver but radian tweeter
A cheap Sony Blue Ray player playing files
Bantam Gold modified so has 5 inputs and a slagle pre run by battery and Inuke Berhinger for dsp bass
Beresford Caiman Mk2 battery powered
Salvation TT Lots of scale and resolution
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Post by MartinT on Jun 14, 2014 21:36:09 GMT
How are you finding the Caiman Mk.II, John? I have one on its way from Stan and he warned me to be prepared!
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Post by John on Jun 15, 2014 7:10:48 GMT
Its a lot better than the Bushmaster more mature has a lot more depth It has a very different presentation than Bushmaster, sold my Bushmaster now
Was at Vic and we reckon it is probably better than the Octavia as when Clive tried out the Octavia using the same transport I am using against the Cunas the Cunas was better we could not separate them.
If it has one fault is that Stan has put a average USB chip and its performance is pretty poor compared with the Cunas via USB. I not said anything on AOS about it as I like Stan but really think he missed the boat here Vic not keeping the Caiman due to its USB issues I only use USB to watch films so not serious listening. If I thought their was a difference between using Windows with MQn and the Sony using files I do the same |
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Post by John on Jun 15, 2014 9:53:33 GMT
I been chatting with Vic
What we both think is at some point MQn will take another leap making USB the way too go. Vic just got the latest MQn and reckons it now better than the transport I was using and the Caiman
The Caiman a great DAC no comparison between the Bushmaster..... but when I can afford I can see me getting another dac that does it all
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Post by MartinT on Jun 15, 2014 10:14:22 GMT
Ah, the difference is that I have no need for USB input. I use 2 x co-ax and an optical on the BM2.
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Post by John on Jun 15, 2014 12:03:02 GMT
Then a no brainer fabulous that way
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2014 20:53:23 GMT
John I found a cheap £70 Bluray by Panasonic of which there is two types one without audio and the other with that proved to be very good value, and simple construction. On removing the SMPSU and fitting a good linear design the sound quality was astounding, and it has a built in USB reader which runs a 500GB HDD with of the media formats even FLAC include in the software.
I will dig out the number on Monday.
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Post by MartinT on Jun 15, 2014 21:17:26 GMT
Oh that interests me too, Colin. I'm a little tired of the lip-sync problem I get with my (expensive) Pioneer BD player, not being able to adjust it in the firmware. It's because they don't seem to give a damn about someone watching video via HDMI but pulling the audio via digital co-ax.
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Post by ChrisB on Jun 15, 2014 21:25:34 GMT
Yes, I'd like to have a play with a thin like that too!
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Post by John on Jun 16, 2014 4:19:56 GMT
Its amazing what you get from usb based blue ray players always thought that playing with the power supply might improve SQ further
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 14:20:25 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Jun 16, 2014 14:47:29 GMT
That looks interesting, Colin, except that it doesn't have co-ax or optical digital audio output?
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Post by John on Jun 16, 2014 18:54:51 GMT
My journey to Open Baffles
For years I used standard speakers a mixture of floorstanders and box speakers. I initially came across open baffles from a friend they sounded interesting but lacked good bass clarity so I started to research and listened to a few designs. I wanted something I could afford and that could rock. The only speakers that fitted that at the time were the Hawthorne Duets.
I initially built a ply design it was basic I liked what they did in the mid.
Playing around with baffle design and DSP allowed me to get the bass I wanted, then the only issue I felt they lacked was a bit of treble refinement and detail, so I changed the tweeters and added a resistor to help match the difference in efficiency At some point I might consider the AMT drivers or go totally active It would then be a very OTT system. Right now I feel I got the balance right towards sound
The great thing about open baffles is that you can alter them quite easily and this can effect the sound
I have chosen a really fast attack that is probably at it best with complex progressive metal and world fusion. I guess for me their a lot of energy in upper mid bass, this is something a lot of systems do not really capture and what my system excels in. It will do vocal music really well but as I said it excels in capturing the energy of the event I guess this is influenced by how many gigs I used to go too.
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Post by John on Jun 18, 2014 18:35:58 GMT
I firmly believe we end up with systems based on our own musical preferences, what we listen for and how long our search has been on the road to audio Nirvana in some ways its a never ending journey, with many unexpected detours and a few dead ends thrown in for good measure. Like speakers I have gone through lots of different approaches from classic 70s Sansui Trio and Pioneer gear to modern solid state and valve amps Right now I moved to class D i love the speed they offer and find the Bantam gold  (modified pre and battery driven) to be a good match with my speakers. It has 5 inputs and a output to an separate power amp for the bass speakers which is active and using DSP to control the bass. This gives me a lot of control over my bass which now has become forceful and authoritative. It allows the Bantam to concentrate what it is good at which is speed and insight. |
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Post by John on Jun 20, 2014 19:32:12 GMT
It always surprises sometimes the difference small changes make I been using the Belkin pure rca from my mod Bantam pre out to my DSP amp for bass for over a year and never considered changing it I just put some spare cables to see if their was any differences and bam more slam. You have to remember my system does pretty well on slam already so this was a shock. Nice to still get surprises  |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 20, 2014 19:44:03 GMT
Your system slams like a cricket bat to the head!!
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Post by John on Jun 21, 2014 12:18:05 GMT
Now slams like a chain ball to the head But will now do subtle at lower volume levels |
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Post by John on Jun 22, 2014 8:07:46 GMT
Whilst I accept the difference cables make I tend to be a bit weary of cable threads. In my case this is due to having a fairly poor balanced systrm when I first got into HIFI. At the time I was thinking how can this system be more tiring than my previous lo-fi system it has a lot better equipment so it must be that the cables are not good enough. For me the issue is when you have a system that quite open it shows flaws I use to see cables as a means to addressing these flaws and ended up spending far to much money without addressing the following issues in my set up.
System Matching In the past I had Jamo Concert's 8 that need a good valve amp to help them perform at their best The amp I was using with them was not a good match.
Room acoustics Your room and speakers have a lot of interaction and can cause peaks in the frequency range
Clean power I live near a industrial estate I have used regenerators, balanced power and now battery power as a means to deal with these issues
Good isolation, transformers seem to susceptible to this
All of these require a bit of time and patience to sort out
For me cables are kind of the final bit of the jigsaw but of course its just imho
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Post by MikeMusic on Jun 22, 2014 14:36:57 GMT
I started with mains as my system sound dire. A bank of unswitched sockets replacing 2 x 4 way adaptors mad a huge difference, as did my sparky finding our earth was waving around and not at all seated. There was a *nutcase I assumed was wrong about mains cables so being inquisitive I tried one cheap as I could from Ebay. This on LP12, Naim 32.5, Hicap, 135s and Isos. To my amazement it worked - and off I went upgrading. With the latest discoveries on vibration I wonder if you might have a measure of success going for more isolation being so close to the industrial estate. I'd put mains cables at the front. Perhaps earth checked first, regenerator and maybe supports before *we know the nutcase very well BTW |
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Post by MartinT on Jun 22, 2014 15:13:58 GMT
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