Who has the best hi-fi set up on Pistonheads????
Discussion
Beard point to point pure silver wired valve monoblocks.
Very heavily modified Audionote Pre Amp with external power supply and valve warmers.
Modified tri-planar arm with military carbon arm, oil damper and corrected weights.
Orfoton MC-5 cartridge.
Michell Orb turntable on a granite base.
Sonus Faber Electra speakers with poured concrete stands.
Nakamichi Dragon which is urgently in need of servicing.
Audionote DAC 1.1 kit which has been fitted with Blackgates and silver transformers.
Powerbook G4.
Barco 808 Projector.
Yes I'm sad.
Very heavily modified Audionote Pre Amp with external power supply and valve warmers.
Modified tri-planar arm with military carbon arm, oil damper and corrected weights.
Orfoton MC-5 cartridge.
Michell Orb turntable on a granite base.
Sonus Faber Electra speakers with poured concrete stands.
Nakamichi Dragon which is urgently in need of servicing.
Audionote DAC 1.1 kit which has been fitted with Blackgates and silver transformers.
Powerbook G4.
Barco 808 Projector.
Yes I'm sad.
I've got a 42 inch Pioneer Plasma and a yamaha home cinema system.
Its great. Mrs TS apparently uses it all the time when I am working...
I have come to realise that the most important and vital piece of Hi-Fi, the one thing that I simply cannot do without, is ...
MY IPOD !
Shows the balance in my life these days !
Its great. Mrs TS apparently uses it all the time when I am working...
I have come to realise that the most important and vital piece of Hi-Fi, the one thing that I simply cannot do without, is ...
MY IPOD !
Shows the balance in my life these days !
vixpy1 said:
Barco 808 Projector.
Hubba Hubba Dribble!
You should have a look at them. I bought mine a couple of months ago second hand for a knock down price. The only problem is that it's a bit of a bastard to keep in tune, but that's to be expected considering the rest of the set up and probably something that you have to content with aswell
The ipod is the greatest piece of audiophile equipment ever made. It may sound bad but it lets you listen to music where you want which is what it is all about.
vixpy1 said:
Oh, We are listing are we:
Ok ..
8ft owl screen (its electric you know)0
Seleco 400 plus Projector
Harman Kodan DVD player
Denon AVC10SE AMP
Rotel Power amp (for the Main speakers)
MK Sub
KEF THX fronts and Centre backs
Monitor Audio Centre speaker
B&W's rear.
Yes a CRT man! That sorts the men from the boys
Vidikron Vision One with Mike Parker Mods - 9" CRT, ceiling mounted. Low hours. Was previously owned by none other than Robbie Williams
Owl 8" 4:3
Owl 10" 16:9 both electric
Sony DVP S7700 DVD
Yamaha DSP AX1
Bose Lifestyle 15
DVDO Scaler Line multiplier
REL Strata 5 Subwoofers x2 (left and right channel)
Yamaha YST-SW1500 Subwoofer x1 (neighbours love me) as a balance sub to compliment the Bose.
All in a 14" square room
edited for new projector since thread started last year
>> Edited by ultimasimon on Sunday 22 January 23:29
A bit of tangent, but have just purchased a Grado RA1 headphone amp to go with my Sennheiser HD650 cans. The source is currently my old Musical Fidelity E624 CD player. I could probably do with upgrading the CD player to something a bit more suitable (and likely expensive) and the Grado does look like it was knocked up in a shed somewhere, but it sounds wonderful 
Steve.
Steve.
Mr E said:
And just to upset the audiophiles...
Now playing, Lamb - "Gorecki"
Fabulous track.
Am I playing it downstairs on the Nakamichi?
Nope. Playing via Winamp @ 192K VBR through a soundblaster live....
Sorry.....
That'll only piss off a valve warming, silver cabled w*nker. . . . oh bugger
Enjoy the music no matter what it is played on, that is what it is about.
I've seen too many "perfect" systems which the owner enjoys little pleasure in listening to music on to criticize what people listen to music on. Starting up the Beards takes at-least 3 hours which is why I enjoy my laptop, headphones and a Bang and Olufsen in the sitting room and only fire them up occasionally." A great system means nothing without great music and great music is everything without a good system." That was said by a guy who sells stereos which would give most of us a heart attack looking at the price ( for the infirm : at-least half a million) and who listens to an ipod for most of the day.
>> Edited by thebluemonkey on Sunday 13th February 01:06
thebluemonkey said:
thebluemonkey said:
Barco 808 Projector.
Hubba Hubba Dribble!
You should have a look at them. I bought mine a couple of months ago second hand for a knock down price. The only problem is that it's a bit of a bastard to keep in tune, but that's to be expected considering the rest of the set up and probably something that you have to content with aswell
The ipod is the greatest piece of audiophile equipment ever made. It may sound bad but it lets you listen to music where you want which is what it is all about.
Quite fancy a Cine 7 next but i have neglected my cars recently and so this year's finances are dedicated to that.
next year perhaps....
vixpy1 said:
Quite fancy a Cine 7 next but i have neglected my cars recently and so this year's finances are dedicated to that.
next year perhaps....
Personally I think that would be the wrong direction. You could get a reconditioned Cine 9 or 808 for not a huge amount more and it really is a huge upgrade. Of course if your projector goes high enough a really good HTPC is the perfect step up, that combined with a good stereo system would improve your system no end. People tend to forget the sound in a system and over price the projector and forget about what makes a film truly memorable, the dialog.
neil.b said:
What I can't understand, and can't seem to get through to people is, generally, they're wasting their money on all this really high end audio equipment.
Room construction, geometry and equimpent placement have a million times more effect on the end result in a domestic situation than deciding whether to go for the platinum or gold plated plugs or whatever is the current trend...
There are people I work with who spent so much money they probably have better equipment than what the recordings were made on in the first place.
Can you tell them? Can you balls....
(well expecting to get fire-bombed here but that's life....the truth is hard)
>> Edited by neil.b on Friday 11th February 15:50
... not forgetting air temperature and humidity, what the mains supply is doing, which way the grain runs in the speaker cables and most of all... the mood of the listener. I've heard budget systems sound great and expensive ones that make the same music crap.
wedg1e said:
Do you lot have bling-bling lists of audio equipment next to your front doors, like those wad sankers in CorSaxPunezas?
Hardly any point in listing mine, since you won't have heard of Armstrong, Quad, Bowers & Wilkins and Funcke...?
Well,not unless you're as old as I am...
Of course, I have the decals for each component on the brass plate beneath my name.
Used to have an old Quad system which sounded fantastic. Bowers and Wilkins still produce some exceptional speakers, little too BBC for me but still very good. As I said above it really doesn't matter what you are listening to, what matters is the enjoyment. Only a real t
t would seriously criticize a set up which the owner enjoys. wedg1e said:
I've heard budget systems sound great and expensive ones that make the same music crap.
This happens a lot unfortunately. A lot of high-end audio gear is a rip-off. Manufacturers have cottoned on to the fact that a lot of punters simply don't have a clue what good sound should be all about, so they build very fancy-looking boxes, put cheap sh1te electronics inside, then slap on a huge mark-up. This is why, wherever possible, I build my own stuff from kits. Keeps the cost down, I control the build quality and I can see exactly what goes into it.
What a lot of folks fail to grasp is that a system that plays music should have an addictive quality to it that makes you play LP's or CD's into the early hours. The problem is that each person hears differently and getting that elusive 'x-factor' can be difficult.
In addition, 'upgrade-itus' can actually screw-up said x-factor - you assume that the new component will be better, on paper it is, but you find you don't listen to music as much! This has happened to me quite recently. I'm seriously considering 'backing out' my previous cartridge upgrade because the sound just isn't doing it for me, and I can't put my finger on why. Made me realise how good my previous cartridge was.
Cost is not a reliable indicator of how good something will sound. I have a multi-K analogue rig, never really bothered with digital as all the CD players I had sounded edgy and un-musical to my ears. This was until a few months ago, the grapevine reported the wonderful abilities of a £130 Pioneer multi-format player (DVD, SACD, DVD-Audio CD) - the DV575. Took a punt on it and have to say it sounds utterly fabulous, it's now my digital front-end and probably will be for some time. I have no problem with partnering it alongside fairly exotic stuff - it does a good job. End of story.
I'm anti status symbols anyway, and see no point in spending a fortune on hi-fi when our front room is just a normal front room, not a shrine to audio perfection.
All my stuff was bought after reading the relevant mags and getting a system from Richer Sounds that suited my budget. Strangely I've met a guy who has the exact same set up - we both bought our systems over the same period nearly 15 years ago, both read the same reviews and made the same decisions.
Marantz PM-32 Amp,
Marantz CD-63 CD player
Aiwa AD-F500 tape deck
Denon TU-260L II Radio
JPW Speakers
That said, we're moving to a new house soon, and the hi-fi will be designed to fit it. But then we're designing the house too.
All my stuff was bought after reading the relevant mags and getting a system from Richer Sounds that suited my budget. Strangely I've met a guy who has the exact same set up - we both bought our systems over the same period nearly 15 years ago, both read the same reviews and made the same decisions.
Marantz PM-32 Amp,
Marantz CD-63 CD player
Aiwa AD-F500 tape deck
Denon TU-260L II Radio
JPW Speakers
That said, we're moving to a new house soon, and the hi-fi will be designed to fit it. But then we're designing the house too.
I have a Bang & Olufsen set up consisting of a Beosound 9000 (6 CD), linked to a Beovision Avant TV, 4 x Beolab 6000 speakers and a Beolab 2 Sub woofer. Its also linked to the kitchen via a Beolab 2000 and the Dining room with a Beolab 3500 for when we have a party.
The sound and style of it always gets comments when people see it for the first time..!
Mike
PS I think the Jupiter Juke box above is also pretty cool.
The sound and style of it always gets comments when people see it for the first time..!
Mike
PS I think the Jupiter Juke box above is also pretty cool.
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