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Post by hamish on Apr 30, 2023 19:22:29 GMT
For the first time in a few years (quite a few years!!) I have been enjoying tinkering with my Hifi, so I thought I'd share some recent fun I've been having here. I should say, some of this might make the hifi perfectionist tweaky... but I'm enjoying myself, and I reckon that's what counts, right...? So, last time I posted, I was asking about cartridge alignment. Pete gave me some pretty easy to deal with advice to adjust from the alignment tool I had, but to be sure I bought one of these nifty tools off ebay.  Hifi Stuff by Hamish Gill, on Flickr Funnily enough, according to this tool, my previous attempt at alignment had been as spot on as I could imagine getting it. Still, at least I now have the tool for next time. Next time is also coming quite soon as after reading about a billion reviews and forum threads - and finding a VERY good deal on a BNIB one - I went for a Denon DL103r to match the Jelco. Meanwhile, things have been getting decidedly less "hifi" with this little beaut  Walkman by Hamish Gill, on Flickr Things then escalated quickly and I bought this  Hifi Stuff by Hamish Gill, on Flickr As you can see, I needed a smaller deck to fit in the little gap I had  Hifi Stuff by Hamish Gill, on Flickr So went for a field recorder. It's not perfect, but it sounds pretty good thanks it seems to the previous owner being something of a vintage hifi/tv repair guy. Of course, I only have one input on my Mytech, so for the time being, I am making use of this very un-hifi input switch.  Hifi Stuff by Hamish Gill, on Flickr Probably not ideal... but if I'm feeling picky I can easily take it out of the chain, and I might yet see if I can find some sort of more "hifi" solution. I have also reinvigorated my discogs account and started adding far too many tapes to the basket... I think I might yet put a Blaupunkt/VW Gamma tape deck back in my other money pit too...   The Golf by Hamish Gill, on Flickr |
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Post by MartinT on Apr 30, 2023 19:29:20 GMT
I bought a Marantz cassette field recorder when I was working out in Germany for a while. It formed the basis of a very nice little system with Videoton Minimax speakers. Not dissimilar to that Sony.
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Post by stellabagpuss on Apr 30, 2023 20:38:09 GMT
What a refreshing Blog Hamish...Great to see and read about the fun you're having.
Funny thing, my youngest son has been purchasing cassettes and LPs..
.Something l couldn't do,but he loves the hiss and crackle!
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Post by hamish on May 1, 2023 11:00:02 GMT
I bought a Marantz cassette field recorder when I was working out in Germany for a while. It formed the basis of a very nice little system with Videoton Minimax speakers. Not dissimilar to that Sony. I looked at a couple of the marantz ones and a Nak too. The Sony was the first I found at a sensible price that had been refurbished. |
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Post by hamish on May 1, 2023 11:02:37 GMT
What a refreshing Blog Hamish...Great to see and read about the fun you're having. Funny thing, my youngest son has been purchasing cassettes and LPs.. .Something l couldn't do,but he loves the hiss and crackle! I’ve been trying to engage my kids a bit with it too. Me and the youngest (7) have had a few educational sessions - she can now change a record. The eldest (11) has asked me to buy a someone-Martinez (I have forgotten the name 🤦♂️) album too. I’ll have them both listening to Walkmans before they know it 😂 |
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Post by stellabagpuss on May 1, 2023 11:42:06 GMT
What a refreshing Blog Hamish...Great to see and read about the fun you're having. Funny thing, my youngest son has been purchasing cassettes and LPs.. .Something l couldn't do,but he loves the hiss and crackle! I’ve been trying to engage my kids a bit with it too. Me and the youngest (7) have had a few educational sessions - she can now change a record. The eldest (11) has asked me to buy a someone-Martinez (I have forgotten the name 🤦♂️) album too. I’ll have them both listening to Walkmans before they know it 😂 That's great to read... Start them young 🤣 my kids are adults now 18 & 20 and the biggest reward,is your kids getting you into something you have missed in the past or introducing yourself to something new, or when they tell you about a great artist, and you have the back catalogue... Thats the great gift that children gift, shame you get the negatives as well...Backchat, lazy,moody, untidy and rudeness 🤣 |
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Post by MartinT on May 1, 2023 12:06:16 GMT
shame you get the negatives as well...Backchat, lazy,moody, untidy and rudeness 🤣 Been there, received that. The good news is that in their twenties they become decent human beings and start valuing your advice again. |
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Post by Slinger on May 1, 2023 12:58:28 GMT
My son is 50 this year, and I knew I was on the right track (no pun intended) when my Bad Company cassettes started disappearing, only to reappear in his bedroom. Sadly, his tastes seem to have degenerated somewhat ver the years. He's now a Michael Buble fan.
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Post by stellabagpuss on May 1, 2023 14:59:56 GMT
So Hamish, on your tape deck,you replay with Dolby on or off?
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Post by hamish on May 1, 2023 21:10:08 GMT
So Hamish, on your tape deck,you replay with Dolby on or off? The tape deck doesn’t have it as an option - I think it was a lesser model in the day. The Walkman has it though and sounds worse with it switched on, so I’ve left it off. |
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Post by MartinT on May 1, 2023 21:32:02 GMT
I didn't like Dolby B much and preferred to make recordings without it.
Dolby C was the work of the devil.
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Post by stellabagpuss on May 1, 2023 21:38:15 GMT
I was expecting that answer..
Dolby used to suck the life out with cassettes,no air or sparkle.
Takes me back to TDK SA cassettes... l used to enjoy recording a CD to cassette,then replay on cassette deck,although technically not as good as the CD, it sounded enjoyable due to tape noise, the things l did back in the day.
Dolby C ..Very rare to get a machine to sound good with it.
DBX was the rear devil.. in my opinion dull with a pumping effect
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Post by mattspl on May 1, 2023 22:08:37 GMT
Nice speakers. Are they the fully active version?
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Post by hamish on May 1, 2023 22:26:30 GMT
I was expecting that answer.. Dolby used to suck the life out with cassettes,no air or sparkle. Takes me back to TDK SA cassettes... l used to enjoy recording a CD to cassette,then replay on cassette deck,although technically not as good as the CD, it sounded enjoyable due to tape noise, the things l did back in the day. Dolby C ..Very rare to get a machine to sound good with it. DBX was the rear devil.. in my opinion dull with a pumping effect I’ve been really surprised by the sound of these tapes and tape decks. I might be riding a bit of a nostalgia train, but the sound really appeals to me. I realised today that I can plug my Momentum 4 headphones into the Walkman via a cable… it sounds incredible! Not perfect, far from it, but there’s something really appealing about it. When the novelty wears out, perhaps this will change, but I hope not! |
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Post by hamish on May 1, 2023 22:32:28 GMT
Nice speakers. Are they the fully active version? Yep, they’re the fully active version of the Adam Tensor Epsilon. They are by far and away the best HiFi decision I’ve made. I’ve had them for probably 10 years now, and the only thing I ever think about now is what happens if something fails in one of them. I’m hoping Adam still support them, but they are long since discontinued 😬 |
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Post by mattspl on May 2, 2023 10:42:39 GMT
Nice speakers. Are they the fully active version? Yep, they’re the fully active version of the Adam Tensor Epsilon. They are by far and away the best HiFi decision I’ve made. I’ve had them for probably 10 years now, and the only thing I ever think about now is what happens if something fails in one of them. I’m hoping Adam still support them, but they are long since discontinued 😬 I was looking at the Tensor Delta a couple of times. The cabinet construction is impressive. Any good Hifi repair should be able to service the amps, so hopefully they’ll last for many more years. |
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Post by hamish on May 5, 2023 18:07:05 GMT
Yep, they’re the fully active version of the Adam Tensor Epsilon. They are by far and away the best HiFi decision I’ve made. I’ve had them for probably 10 years now, and the only thing I ever think about now is what happens if something fails in one of them. I’m hoping Adam still support them, but they are long since discontinued 😬 I was looking at the Tensor Delta a couple of times. The cabinet construction is impressive. Any good Hifi repair should be able to service the amps, so hopefully they’ll last for many more years. I’d have loved the Deltas. They all have the same - what I hear as - open clean and neutral signature, but each of the bigger speakers just had a bigger and more powerful sound. The company I got them from had the Betas on demo. I’ve honestly never seen or heard speakers like them. The amount of air they moved in the too-small room was insane. It made the open door of the room move - and that’s no exaggeration. The epsilons were all I could afford, and I think the most appropriate for the sort of size of room I put them in. I used to dream of eventually using them as rear speakers in a 5.1 set up with some of the smaller floor standers as the front pair. But life definitely got in the way of that aspiration. I’ll never change them though. They honestly do everything I could ever want in as small a package as possible. As for the cabinets, they were the first speakers I’d ever heard that I didn’t feel like I was hearing the cabinet. I tried a few in the run up to buying them - and was coming from some big PMCs which were especially boxy sounding in the end to me. The issue was, as soon as I convinced myself I could hear speaker cabinets, I could hear the sound I didn’t like with all the speakers I tried or demoed. When I finally heard the Adam’s in my house, it was a revelation. I remember saying to Ian who brought them round for me to try that I couldn’t hear the box. That was when he showed my they had two outer layers of cabinet with a layer of sand between. On one hand this seemed like over engineering, on the other hand, it bloody well seemed to work! |
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Post by mattspl on May 5, 2023 19:57:58 GMT
I was looking at the Tensor Delta a couple of times. The cabinet construction is impressive. Any good Hifi repair should be able to service the amps, so hopefully they’ll last for many more years. I’d have loved the Deltas. They all have the same - what I hear as - open clean and neutral signature, but each of the bigger speakers just had a bigger and more powerful sound. The company I got them from had the Betas on demo. I’ve honestly never seen or heard speakers like them. The amount of air they moved in the too-small room was insane. It made the open door of the room move - and that’s no exaggeration. The epsilons were all I could afford, and I think the most appropriate for the sort of size of room I put them in. I used to dream of eventually using them as rear speakers in a 5.1 set up with some of the smaller floor standers as the front pair. But life definitely got in the way of that aspiration. I’ll never change them though. They honestly do everything I could ever want in as small a package as possible. As for the cabinets, they were the first speakers I’d ever heard that I didn’t feel like I was hearing the cabinet. I tried a few in the run up to buying them - and was coming from some big PMCs which were especially boxy sounding in the end to me. The issue was, as soon as I convinced myself I could hear speaker cabinets, I could hear the sound I didn’t like with all the speakers I tried or demoed. When I finally heard the Adam’s in my house, it was a revelation. I remember saying to Ian who brought them round for me to try that I couldn’t hear the box. That was when he showed my they had two outer layers of cabinet with a layer of sand between. On one hand this seemed like over engineering, on the other hand, it bloody well seemed to work! I’ve seen Betas up for sale once or twice and would love some, but I can’t accommodate floor standers or afford them these days. I currently have PMC AML1’s and they are the best PMC’s I’ve heard. When I switch back to my Digidesign RM2’s(PMC built) they sound boxy in comparison. |
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Post by hamish on May 10, 2023 19:01:24 GMT
I’d have loved the Deltas. They all have the same - what I hear as - open clean and neutral signature, but each of the bigger speakers just had a bigger and more powerful sound. The company I got them from had the Betas on demo. I’ve honestly never seen or heard speakers like them. The amount of air they moved in the too-small room was insane. It made the open door of the room move - and that’s no exaggeration. The epsilons were all I could afford, and I think the most appropriate for the sort of size of room I put them in. I used to dream of eventually using them as rear speakers in a 5.1 set up with some of the smaller floor standers as the front pair. But life definitely got in the way of that aspiration. I’ll never change them though. They honestly do everything I could ever want in as small a package as possible. As for the cabinets, they were the first speakers I’d ever heard that I didn’t feel like I was hearing the cabinet. I tried a few in the run up to buying them - and was coming from some big PMCs which were especially boxy sounding in the end to me. The issue was, as soon as I convinced myself I could hear speaker cabinets, I could hear the sound I didn’t like with all the speakers I tried or demoed. When I finally heard the Adam’s in my house, it was a revelation. I remember saying to Ian who brought them round for me to try that I couldn’t hear the box. That was when he showed my they had two outer layers of cabinet with a layer of sand between. On one hand this seemed like over engineering, on the other hand, it bloody well seemed to work! I’ve seen Betas up for sale once or twice and would love some, but I can’t accommodate floor standers or afford them these days. I currently have PMC AML1’s and they are the best PMC’s I’ve heard. When I switch back to my Digidesign RM2’s(PMC built) they sound boxy in comparison. They certainly look the business! Mine were fairly large floor standers, passive things - they were great speakers to be fair to them. But even if I didn’t have the Adam’s, I don’t think I’d go back to any sort of passive speakers now for my main system. Not to disparage the choices of others, of course, but the simple concept of a fully active speak just makes more sense to me. |
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Post by mattspl on May 10, 2023 20:17:56 GMT
I’ve seen Betas up for sale once or twice and would love some, but I can’t accommodate floor standers or afford them these days. I currently have PMC AML1’s and they are the best PMC’s I’ve heard. When I switch back to my Digidesign RM2’s(PMC built) they sound boxy in comparison. They certainly look the business! Mine were fairly large floor standers, passive things - they were great speakers to be fair to them. But even if I didn’t have the Adam’s, I don’t think I’d go back to any sort of passive speakers now for my main system. Not to disparage the choices of others, of course, but the simple concept of a fully active speak just makes more sense to me. I’m the same, I’ve had active speakers since about 2009 and found they do dynamics and leading edge speed far better than comparable priced passive systems. If I had the space and money, I’d still like a big passive system though in a different room. |
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