Best systems you've heard
Discussion
I'm torn on this one, as the two that stick out for sheer excellence are diametrically opposed. My father is really into his hi-fi and this has rubbed off to a certain extent. He has previously constructed and sold hand-made ultra high end interconnect and speaker cables out of fairly exotic materials, and has an ear for the finer details in audio reproduction, whereas I have always argued about the quality of the music necessarily being more important than its reproduction. That was until I heard system one, at a friend of my father's, who has deep pockets. It consisted of a SME model 30 turntable (with obligatory 5 arm - cannot remember the cartridge but I imagine it would have been expensive), Audio Note Ongaku valve amps and Martin Logan electrostatics (with ESL63s as a reference). I don't remember any other details apart from when playing some Berlioz at what might be termed an "unfriendly" volume.... Truly wondrous sound. I'm not sure how accurate but that aside, absolutely mindblowing.
The second system was at the Heathrow Hi Fi show, in the Krell room and was everything the previous one wasn't. Everything digital and monumentally overpowered. 650W Monoblocks through Wilson Watts at comedy levels. Staggering. The level of precision was startling and one of the few times I have heard drums (When The Levee Breaks) at very nearly accurate volume levels. The soundtrack to Alien 3 was introduced to me that day and has remained a favourite ever since. I am not sure the single ended vinyl system could have even got close, but equally I'm not convinced that Karen Carpenter's voice would have been quite as lush through America's finest.
That hi-fi show was also the first time I set eyes and ears upon a £10,000 pair of headphones - Sennheiser Orpheus.
Apologies for the ramble!
The second system was at the Heathrow Hi Fi show, in the Krell room and was everything the previous one wasn't. Everything digital and monumentally overpowered. 650W Monoblocks through Wilson Watts at comedy levels. Staggering. The level of precision was startling and one of the few times I have heard drums (When The Levee Breaks) at very nearly accurate volume levels. The soundtrack to Alien 3 was introduced to me that day and has remained a favourite ever since. I am not sure the single ended vinyl system could have even got close, but equally I'm not convinced that Karen Carpenter's voice would have been quite as lush through America's finest.
That hi-fi show was also the first time I set eyes and ears upon a £10,000 pair of headphones - Sennheiser Orpheus.
Apologies for the ramble!
I had a dabble with ML electrostatics some years ago - yet to hear anything that matches the mid and top end, instant response and life-like performance from female voices and guitar.
Truly gorgeous.
But....what a nightmare to position in the room - they needed to be so far into the room (because of their trick of throwing as much sound backwards as forwards causing reflections) they were almost impossible to live with.
And that's without mentioning bass integration - mine had 12" passive bass drivers built in and no matter what I tried I couldn't get away from them sounding like excellent 2-way standmounts with poor, cheap subwoofers.
Kef reference 4s almost matched the mids and highs, were far easier to live with and had correct bass so the MLs weren't missed too much.
The Kefs didn't drop to less than 2 Ohms either so didn't need an arc welder to drive them correctly.
Must be almost 20 years ago now but I stepped into a dealers (picking up a CD - this is when my local dealer sold a select few albums!) and heard a noise from the demo room.
The same Krell monos as mentioned above - 650Ms driving the new B&W 800 Nautilus.
Wow, just WOW!
Impact, bass and dynamics that scared together with subtle touches and very polite when needed, all in the same track.
I was hooked. And so began my journey. Been through a few Krell amps and CD players since with big floorstanders but never matched (if memory serves) what I heard that day.
But....I'm getting close - sourced a KRC-3 preamp a while ago and picked up a pair of 800Ds recently all driven with a huge EAD American bruiser of an amp. Think I'm 95% there now and I'm happy but I just know what will happen if a pair of 650Ms become available at 'reasonable' money. Almost jumped at a 400CX last year but it sold before I got a chance to do man-maths
Having said all that I know there is no need to spend thousands to get great sound - around the time I heard the Krell/800N set-up I went with a mate who was buying a used MF Typhoon pre-power amp. The seller had it set up with an early Pink Triangle TT, MF amps above and tiny little Proac tablets sitting either side of a fire place - what a lovely, lovely sound - just 'right'.
Truly gorgeous.
But....what a nightmare to position in the room - they needed to be so far into the room (because of their trick of throwing as much sound backwards as forwards causing reflections) they were almost impossible to live with.
And that's without mentioning bass integration - mine had 12" passive bass drivers built in and no matter what I tried I couldn't get away from them sounding like excellent 2-way standmounts with poor, cheap subwoofers.
Kef reference 4s almost matched the mids and highs, were far easier to live with and had correct bass so the MLs weren't missed too much.
The Kefs didn't drop to less than 2 Ohms either so didn't need an arc welder to drive them correctly.
Must be almost 20 years ago now but I stepped into a dealers (picking up a CD - this is when my local dealer sold a select few albums!) and heard a noise from the demo room.
The same Krell monos as mentioned above - 650Ms driving the new B&W 800 Nautilus.
Wow, just WOW!
Impact, bass and dynamics that scared together with subtle touches and very polite when needed, all in the same track.
I was hooked. And so began my journey. Been through a few Krell amps and CD players since with big floorstanders but never matched (if memory serves) what I heard that day.
But....I'm getting close - sourced a KRC-3 preamp a while ago and picked up a pair of 800Ds recently all driven with a huge EAD American bruiser of an amp. Think I'm 95% there now and I'm happy but I just know what will happen if a pair of 650Ms become available at 'reasonable' money. Almost jumped at a 400CX last year but it sold before I got a chance to do man-maths
Having said all that I know there is no need to spend thousands to get great sound - around the time I heard the Krell/800N set-up I went with a mate who was buying a used MF Typhoon pre-power amp. The seller had it set up with an early Pink Triangle TT, MF amps above and tiny little Proac tablets sitting either side of a fire place - what a lovely, lovely sound - just 'right'.
Full B&W 800 series system in their mini cinema demo room at the factory in Worthing. This was before they started distributing Classe amps. The amps were Krells and the processor was a lexicon iirc. Sounded superb playing the Eagles' Hotel California.
Meridian's cinema demo using 7000 series fronts and 5000 series rears at their factory in Huntingdon. Very immersive with great effects steering playing the waterfall chase sequence from Apocalypto.
Variable output from a Wadia 301 CD to feed a pair of Rotel RB-981 monoblocs driving a pair of Impulse H2 speakers. Had a real sense that performers were there in the room on a good recording. Amazing sense of air, room ambience & instrument harmonics. Incredibly realistic dynamics when the music called for it.
Meridian's cinema demo using 7000 series fronts and 5000 series rears at their factory in Huntingdon. Very immersive with great effects steering playing the waterfall chase sequence from Apocalypto.
Variable output from a Wadia 301 CD to feed a pair of Rotel RB-981 monoblocs driving a pair of Impulse H2 speakers. Had a real sense that performers were there in the room on a good recording. Amazing sense of air, room ambience & instrument harmonics. Incredibly realistic dynamics when the music called for it.
Edited by Crackie on Sunday 14th January 11:53
I started a similar thread a few years ago https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I'd long been convinced that the best sounding hi-fi systems used speakers without conventional enclosures and was interested to see if other PHers favourites would back that up. As Legzr1 mentioned, open back speakers can be very difficult to set up ( or need some treatment of the back wall to deal with reflections ) but get it right and they quickly show up the flaws inherent with even the very best 'conventional' speakers.
IMHO, the reason B&W 800 series name comes up so often when talking about best sound is that B&W's Steyning engineering team have been at the leading edge working on solutions to limit the effects of output from the rear of the speaker's drivers. Nautilus was the flagship but the 800 series mid and HF transmission lines are important factors too.
https://www.vividaudio.com/
I'd long been convinced that the best sounding hi-fi systems used speakers without conventional enclosures and was interested to see if other PHers favourites would back that up. As Legzr1 mentioned, open back speakers can be very difficult to set up ( or need some treatment of the back wall to deal with reflections ) but get it right and they quickly show up the flaws inherent with even the very best 'conventional' speakers.
IMHO, the reason B&W 800 series name comes up so often when talking about best sound is that B&W's Steyning engineering team have been at the leading edge working on solutions to limit the effects of output from the rear of the speaker's drivers. Nautilus was the flagship but the 800 series mid and HF transmission lines are important factors too.
https://www.vividaudio.com/
Edited by Crackie on Saturday 13th January 14:26
Steinway Lyingdorf systems are stunning. But it is has a lot to do with the room / eq processing.
The JBL Professional, Atmos Cinema Room inbuilt for a client with 3x £10k fronts and 4x 18” subs was rated by the pro audio calibrator we used as reference level / preview screening room quality.
I have also had the pleasure of listening to the top range Naim CD kit, the only CD player I have heard to properly replicate the equivalent tracks in vinyl.
V.
The JBL Professional, Atmos Cinema Room inbuilt for a client with 3x £10k fronts and 4x 18” subs was rated by the pro audio calibrator we used as reference level / preview screening room quality.
I have also had the pleasure of listening to the top range Naim CD kit, the only CD player I have heard to properly replicate the equivalent tracks in vinyl.
V.
The first proper system I heard gave me the hifi bug. I must have been about 16 and heard the Apogee Studio Grands with Krell CD/amps at the Epcot Center in Florida. I still remember the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
Since then, I've heard a few memorable ones:
The original B&W THX home cinema system on the end of a Lexicon processor and bridged NAD 208THX amps, playing The Abyss on laserdisc.
Cyrus Discmaster/Discmaster with Meridian 200 series monoblocks driving Kef Reference 105/3s, sounded lovely.
Early 2000's Naim top end cd system with Martin Logan Ascent electrostatics, playing opera which reduced a singer friend of mine to tears.
The most recent system to blow my socks off probably made the biggest impression. Kronos vinyl front end, Naim Statement and Wilson Alexas at a London dealer. They played a direct to vinyl recording of Eva Cassidy singing Fields of Gold which was just stunning. Then again the system cost more than my house so it damn well should sound good!
My current system cost less than 1 % of the one above, but I can dream...
Chris.
Since then, I've heard a few memorable ones:
The original B&W THX home cinema system on the end of a Lexicon processor and bridged NAD 208THX amps, playing The Abyss on laserdisc.
Cyrus Discmaster/Discmaster with Meridian 200 series monoblocks driving Kef Reference 105/3s, sounded lovely.
Early 2000's Naim top end cd system with Martin Logan Ascent electrostatics, playing opera which reduced a singer friend of mine to tears.
The most recent system to blow my socks off probably made the biggest impression. Kronos vinyl front end, Naim Statement and Wilson Alexas at a London dealer. They played a direct to vinyl recording of Eva Cassidy singing Fields of Gold which was just stunning. Then again the system cost more than my house so it damn well should sound good!
My current system cost less than 1 % of the one above, but I can dream...
Chris.
My answer is a bit leftfield and not technical hi fi at all, but it did sound good!
I was doing the lighting at a moderate sized outdoor concert and the sound company had recently taken delivery of a lots of d&b kit (d&b make some of the best PA).
The sound guys set it all up and tuned it then we listened to this PA like a hi fi for a few songs at a sensible listening volume and it was excellent. There was enough kit to fill LWB Transit and its worth tens of thousands of pounds but my word it sounded good. So much clarity and "air" around the different instruments.
I was doing the lighting at a moderate sized outdoor concert and the sound company had recently taken delivery of a lots of d&b kit (d&b make some of the best PA).
The sound guys set it all up and tuned it then we listened to this PA like a hi fi for a few songs at a sensible listening volume and it was excellent. There was enough kit to fill LWB Transit and its worth tens of thousands of pounds but my word it sounded good. So much clarity and "air" around the different instruments.
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