Post by petea on Nov 2, 2018 16:14:01 GMT
Hi Everyone,
I was lured here by some blatant advertising on the RPF photography forum by Chris. I am a, virtually inactive, member of AoS (from which I copied much of my introduction, but then updated it - I don't half go on don't I?!). However, I will try to be more active here (once the blisters on my fingertips have gone).
First up, my main interest is in the music but, like the rest of you, I guess, I have always wanted it to sound 'right'. Over the last 40 years I have have seen remarkable few changes to my system, and most of those have been fairly recent (and are 'accreting' - Oh dear!). It all started in my teens with a Fidelity record player (saved up for and bought from Woolies! - sorry, I no longer have it!
). I added a Sony direct drive deck to that with a battery powered 'phono-stage' about 9 months later to stop my few precious albums getting trashed (I see they are back in fashion - battery phono-stages that is although maybe sightly more up-market than the one I had!). A year later saw the purchase of a JVC amplifier (can't remember the model but a friend of mine is still using it with the deck and the speakers I added later), but the plastic speakers that formed the lid of the Fidelity unit were to stay for another 2 years (it's amazing what you can get used to!). Eventually though I had enough spare cash to buy some S/H speakers from a friend - Goodman Magnums (handy as corner tables too!). At last though I got a decent job and, once the mortgage rate had dropped from about 15%, I decided it was time to change a few things.
Enter Reading Hi-Fi (then independent, now part of the Audio-T group), where I bought my first real deck, a Rega Planar 3 with RB250 / Corus Blue. I had this until about 5 years ago, but fitted with a Rega Elys; I sold it to a friend and he is still using it. A year later I went back and auditioned amplifiers and came away with an Onix OA21S and fell in love with the Rega Ela speakers (which I couldn't afford at the time). About a year later, after finding that I could no longer get the latest releases I wanted on vinyl, I was forced to purchase one of those new fangled CD player things. So, back to Reading Hi-Fi I went and, after finding that I needed to stretch my budget somewhat to achieve the sound of the Rega Planar 3, I ended up buying a Meridian 206B (and the long lusted after Rega Ela's). This with Exposure speaker leads and Audioquest interconnects served me well for the following 20 years (along with a wall mount for the deck and a self-made stand and the odd spot of Sorbothane)!
As you will have guessed, I live near Reading - well, at least half of the time. The other half, I live in Postdam, Germany and that's where the trouble started!! My system in the UK was stored away for about 6 years while the house was being 're-sculpted', shall we say. After an operation in the spring of 2000, when I was trapped in the UK, I dug the system out, set it up and started to play music on it (rather than the computer at work). Then I realised that I really needed to do something about the Sony system we had as a temporary measure in Potsdam. No problem, I thought, I'll just buy the same again second hand and then I'll have two identical systems! Well, I guess you all know how hard it is to find a secondhand Onix amp and the Meridian seemed somewhat elusive and I didn't fancy shipping Ela's. So I decided that a pair of Rega Kytes would do nicely for Potsdam (where the living room is smaller) and I could take the 206B and the OA21S over and replace these. So a 200/263 was acquired for the UK along with an Exposure XI/XII Super VIII combo (as I couldn't track down an Onix and I had good memories of the Exposure integrated amplifier form the early 90s). But then an Onix OA24/401 combo came up on eBay and I just couldn't resist (I guess I don't need to explain). And then there was a need for more cables (Siltech Stockholm for transport to DAC and New York for DAC to amp - I had a spare set of Exposure speaker cables from a house move 17 years ago) and a few mains cables (Isomain Silver from Isokinetic at that time). However, the problem with the Exposure amps compared with the Onix was that the base lacked extension on my system and it was all a bit 'transistory' for my liking and so I bought a pair of Meridian 205's to 'warm' the sound up. But then of course the OA24/401 came along and, as I'd got the 205s I thought, well, let's see. And you know, they are almost identical in sound quality to the 401, but have a bit more oomph. So the 401 acted as the power supply to the OA24 until I found SOAP PSU for it.
So now all was rosy except that I was planning to tweak the Rega Planar. However, the other guy at Audio-T in Reading said it would be a good idea to review my CD system as well as I'd be blown away by the new stuff and to have a look at Naim. So I did, but was underwhelmed. And then I came across a Lector CD player / DAC. And even worse, I borrowed one. Well I wasn't blown away (it's amazing how well the Meridian stands up against modern digital - 8 years later it still does!), but it just did more of what the Meridian / Onix combo did best. So I ended up with a Lector Digidrive and Digicode 224 (since upgrade by Lector) as a digital source and started to think about what to do with the turntable. During that process I became very interested in what Well Tempered were doing and went to audition one at Phonography as was, near Winchester (now Winchester HiFi in Winchester). To be honest it left me cold, but I was very taken by a modified Linn LP12 that belonged to Phil at Phonography and asked them to build me one the same, which they did. That started as a late 80s LP12 with a Kahn top plate and aKula sub-chassis from Tiger Paw, a Funk FX-R II tonearm and a Dynavector DV XXII Mk 2 cartridge and a Hercules PSU. It still has the aKula and Funk arm but now has the Karmen top plate from Tangerine, a Linn interconnect to a Linn Uphorik phono-stage and a Linn Radikal PSU / speed controller, the Linn solid baseplate and a Dynavector Dv DRT XV-1s cartridge (after the XXII wore out). The deck stands on a Townshend Seismic Sink Isolation platform and is linked to the pre-amplifier using Townshend DCT 300 interconnects and is supplied by Isotek Sigmas. In fact the Lector now stands on one as well and all of the cables have been changed to DCT 300 except for pre-amplifier to power amplifier which are the Townshend Fractal cables. The CD / DAC is suppled by another Sigmas and the power amplifiers by a Titan. Ah yes, the faithful Onix pre-amplifier. After all these years it has now gone into retirement having been replaced by a Townshend Allegri 2. And the mains cables have been changed to ones built by David at MCrU. The faithful old Ela speakers have been complemented by Townshend Supertweeters and stand on Townshend Podiums and, I know you'll be reluctant to believe me, sound very good still (and I have auditioned a lot of alternatives - the living room in England is challenging though).
So that is the UK system although some additions are in the pipeline...
In my studio in Germany I have the old Meridian 200 / 263 linked to an Onix OA24/801 pre/power amplifier combination feeding either a pair of Royd Apex speakers or Shahinian Arcs plus Townshend Supertweeters all on Podiums, as the mood takes (I don't need to worry too much about cables and cluttering the studio). All of the cabling is DCT 300 / Isolda and mains come through an Isotek Nova and Titan. However, there is also a Naim NDX streamer in the system fed by an Aqvox switch and cables to keep it 'isolated' from the main work network, but no plans for vinyl. The apartment is about to get a system as well, but more of that in a real post!
So that is where I am at the moment, although I quite enjoy using a streamer and Tidal to find things I like rather than buying random CDs - yes, yes, I know I don't have to buy them, but... Actually I went to talk about high resolution downloads and music servers the other week and that might be an interesting idea... Argh!
Oh well never mind, not being able to afford food for a few months wouldn't hurt the old waistline. So it seems I'm still hooked.
OK, I said it was all about the music. My tastes are pretty eclectic although I don't listen to a lot of classical, but it depends on the mood. As an example, in the intro I wrote for AoS I noted that I has a pile of CD's that had been played in the previous couple of days which included Polar Bear, Eric Clapton Unplugged, Pink Floyd Pulse, Troyka, Joni Mitchell - Don Juans Reckless Daughter, Mumford and Sons, REM Live, Elvis Costello, 10,000 Maniacs, King Creosote, Paul Simon, Yann Tiersen, Juanna Molina, Pamelia Kurstin, 17 Hippies, Anna Ternheim, Michael Nyman and Cat Stevens. Today in the studio I have been listening to the last album by Natalie Merchant, The Ash and Clay by the Milk Carton Kids and some live recordings of Thelonius Monk.
As I said in the AoS introduction I might have to dip in and out a bit, as I run a small company and often my time evaporates, and I still travel fair bit, but I will try my hardest to contribute. I'm really interested in streaming and music servers at the moment and how to get the best from that and am intrigued by the impact that things like network switches and cables have on sound quality. However, I have a general interest in most things related to HiFi and music. I am a scientist by profession and take a fairly scientific approach to making changes but use my ears to measure the effects and kind of have an idea of where I'm trying to get to. So, I'm looking forward to talking things through with you all.
I'll try to put some pictures into the system photos area in the next few days.
So, after a yet another novella-length intro, "Hi again", to all at The Audio Standard
Kind Regards,
Pete
I was lured here by some blatant advertising on the RPF photography forum by Chris. I am a, virtually inactive, member of AoS (from which I copied much of my introduction, but then updated it - I don't half go on don't I?!). However, I will try to be more active here (once the blisters on my fingertips have gone).
First up, my main interest is in the music but, like the rest of you, I guess, I have always wanted it to sound 'right'. Over the last 40 years I have have seen remarkable few changes to my system, and most of those have been fairly recent (and are 'accreting' - Oh dear!). It all started in my teens with a Fidelity record player (saved up for and bought from Woolies! - sorry, I no longer have it!
). I added a Sony direct drive deck to that with a battery powered 'phono-stage' about 9 months later to stop my few precious albums getting trashed (I see they are back in fashion - battery phono-stages that is although maybe sightly more up-market than the one I had!). A year later saw the purchase of a JVC amplifier (can't remember the model but a friend of mine is still using it with the deck and the speakers I added later), but the plastic speakers that formed the lid of the Fidelity unit were to stay for another 2 years (it's amazing what you can get used to!). Eventually though I had enough spare cash to buy some S/H speakers from a friend - Goodman Magnums (handy as corner tables too!). At last though I got a decent job and, once the mortgage rate had dropped from about 15%, I decided it was time to change a few things.Enter Reading Hi-Fi (then independent, now part of the Audio-T group), where I bought my first real deck, a Rega Planar 3 with RB250 / Corus Blue. I had this until about 5 years ago, but fitted with a Rega Elys; I sold it to a friend and he is still using it. A year later I went back and auditioned amplifiers and came away with an Onix OA21S and fell in love with the Rega Ela speakers (which I couldn't afford at the time). About a year later, after finding that I could no longer get the latest releases I wanted on vinyl, I was forced to purchase one of those new fangled CD player things. So, back to Reading Hi-Fi I went and, after finding that I needed to stretch my budget somewhat to achieve the sound of the Rega Planar 3, I ended up buying a Meridian 206B (and the long lusted after Rega Ela's). This with Exposure speaker leads and Audioquest interconnects served me well for the following 20 years (along with a wall mount for the deck and a self-made stand and the odd spot of Sorbothane)!
As you will have guessed, I live near Reading - well, at least half of the time. The other half, I live in Postdam, Germany and that's where the trouble started!! My system in the UK was stored away for about 6 years while the house was being 're-sculpted', shall we say. After an operation in the spring of 2000, when I was trapped in the UK, I dug the system out, set it up and started to play music on it (rather than the computer at work). Then I realised that I really needed to do something about the Sony system we had as a temporary measure in Potsdam. No problem, I thought, I'll just buy the same again second hand and then I'll have two identical systems! Well, I guess you all know how hard it is to find a secondhand Onix amp and the Meridian seemed somewhat elusive and I didn't fancy shipping Ela's. So I decided that a pair of Rega Kytes would do nicely for Potsdam (where the living room is smaller) and I could take the 206B and the OA21S over and replace these. So a 200/263 was acquired for the UK along with an Exposure XI/XII Super VIII combo (as I couldn't track down an Onix and I had good memories of the Exposure integrated amplifier form the early 90s). But then an Onix OA24/401 combo came up on eBay and I just couldn't resist (I guess I don't need to explain). And then there was a need for more cables (Siltech Stockholm for transport to DAC and New York for DAC to amp - I had a spare set of Exposure speaker cables from a house move 17 years ago) and a few mains cables (Isomain Silver from Isokinetic at that time). However, the problem with the Exposure amps compared with the Onix was that the base lacked extension on my system and it was all a bit 'transistory' for my liking and so I bought a pair of Meridian 205's to 'warm' the sound up. But then of course the OA24/401 came along and, as I'd got the 205s I thought, well, let's see. And you know, they are almost identical in sound quality to the 401, but have a bit more oomph. So the 401 acted as the power supply to the OA24 until I found SOAP PSU for it.
So now all was rosy except that I was planning to tweak the Rega Planar. However, the other guy at Audio-T in Reading said it would be a good idea to review my CD system as well as I'd be blown away by the new stuff and to have a look at Naim. So I did, but was underwhelmed. And then I came across a Lector CD player / DAC. And even worse, I borrowed one. Well I wasn't blown away (it's amazing how well the Meridian stands up against modern digital - 8 years later it still does!), but it just did more of what the Meridian / Onix combo did best. So I ended up with a Lector Digidrive and Digicode 224 (since upgrade by Lector) as a digital source and started to think about what to do with the turntable. During that process I became very interested in what Well Tempered were doing and went to audition one at Phonography as was, near Winchester (now Winchester HiFi in Winchester). To be honest it left me cold, but I was very taken by a modified Linn LP12 that belonged to Phil at Phonography and asked them to build me one the same, which they did. That started as a late 80s LP12 with a Kahn top plate and aKula sub-chassis from Tiger Paw, a Funk FX-R II tonearm and a Dynavector DV XXII Mk 2 cartridge and a Hercules PSU. It still has the aKula and Funk arm but now has the Karmen top plate from Tangerine, a Linn interconnect to a Linn Uphorik phono-stage and a Linn Radikal PSU / speed controller, the Linn solid baseplate and a Dynavector Dv DRT XV-1s cartridge (after the XXII wore out). The deck stands on a Townshend Seismic Sink Isolation platform and is linked to the pre-amplifier using Townshend DCT 300 interconnects and is supplied by Isotek Sigmas. In fact the Lector now stands on one as well and all of the cables have been changed to DCT 300 except for pre-amplifier to power amplifier which are the Townshend Fractal cables. The CD / DAC is suppled by another Sigmas and the power amplifiers by a Titan. Ah yes, the faithful Onix pre-amplifier. After all these years it has now gone into retirement having been replaced by a Townshend Allegri 2. And the mains cables have been changed to ones built by David at MCrU. The faithful old Ela speakers have been complemented by Townshend Supertweeters and stand on Townshend Podiums and, I know you'll be reluctant to believe me, sound very good still (and I have auditioned a lot of alternatives - the living room in England is challenging though).
So that is the UK system although some additions are in the pipeline...
In my studio in Germany I have the old Meridian 200 / 263 linked to an Onix OA24/801 pre/power amplifier combination feeding either a pair of Royd Apex speakers or Shahinian Arcs plus Townshend Supertweeters all on Podiums, as the mood takes (I don't need to worry too much about cables and cluttering the studio). All of the cabling is DCT 300 / Isolda and mains come through an Isotek Nova and Titan. However, there is also a Naim NDX streamer in the system fed by an Aqvox switch and cables to keep it 'isolated' from the main work network, but no plans for vinyl. The apartment is about to get a system as well, but more of that in a real post!
So that is where I am at the moment, although I quite enjoy using a streamer and Tidal to find things I like rather than buying random CDs - yes, yes, I know I don't have to buy them, but... Actually I went to talk about high resolution downloads and music servers the other week and that might be an interesting idea... Argh!
Oh well never mind, not being able to afford food for a few months wouldn't hurt the old waistline. So it seems I'm still hooked.
OK, I said it was all about the music. My tastes are pretty eclectic although I don't listen to a lot of classical, but it depends on the mood. As an example, in the intro I wrote for AoS I noted that I has a pile of CD's that had been played in the previous couple of days which included Polar Bear, Eric Clapton Unplugged, Pink Floyd Pulse, Troyka, Joni Mitchell - Don Juans Reckless Daughter, Mumford and Sons, REM Live, Elvis Costello, 10,000 Maniacs, King Creosote, Paul Simon, Yann Tiersen, Juanna Molina, Pamelia Kurstin, 17 Hippies, Anna Ternheim, Michael Nyman and Cat Stevens. Today in the studio I have been listening to the last album by Natalie Merchant, The Ash and Clay by the Milk Carton Kids and some live recordings of Thelonius Monk.
As I said in the AoS introduction I might have to dip in and out a bit, as I run a small company and often my time evaporates, and I still travel fair bit, but I will try my hardest to contribute. I'm really interested in streaming and music servers at the moment and how to get the best from that and am intrigued by the impact that things like network switches and cables have on sound quality. However, I have a general interest in most things related to HiFi and music. I am a scientist by profession and take a fairly scientific approach to making changes but use my ears to measure the effects and kind of have an idea of where I'm trying to get to. So, I'm looking forward to talking things through with you all.
I'll try to put some pictures into the system photos area in the next few days.
So, after a yet another novella-length intro, "Hi again", to all at The Audio Standard
Kind Regards,
Pete
