What’s your Hi-Fi set up? spec and pictures please

[artdealer]

Late eighties Naim Audio olive look / Rega / Royd Audio.

Naim Audio NAC72 / NAP140 / HICAP
Rega Planar 3 / Elys
Royd Audio Eden with Naim cables
Arcam Delta CD with Black Box DAC

I originally purchased a NAIT from Rob at Chichester HiFi shown in pic but upgraded a few years ago. It's so immaculate and light use I couldn't ever sell it. The upgrade to pre/power was well worth it and the addition of the HICAP sounded even better. The system never sounded so good.

OK, no isolation anywhere and before I had it all on Sound Organisation stands, when we decorated that room and upgraded furniture I agreed to switch to something easier on the eye and TBH with tinnitus it all sounds similar anyway!

Lifelong music fan with the majority of what I've ever purchased on vinyl & CD format bar regrettable lost CDs and a vinyl culling incident in 1999.

That said, I stream Spotify Premium through this system via an iFi iDSD Nano and any Apple product handy so I can easily play the lost music now. Switching between Rega Planar 3 and Spotify is barely any difference but I still love the vinyl with occasional moments where it stands out as my favourite medium.

The mid-80's Arcam CD still sounds very detailed.

Funds dictate this is probably it for now, unless I get a windfall and upgrade the turntable to a P6 and the CD to a Naim product.

Edited by artdealer on Sunday 16th December 14:07

[Tony1963]

That’s a lovely system, Artdealer. I’m an olive Naim fan too!

[dhutch]

Mid way through a full house re-wire of our new home, but I thought I would jump in none the less!

My hifi....

In there we have a pair of Cambridge Audio amps, a quad FM3, two chromecast audios, powering a pair of B&W 603 S3's and a pair of Whalfdale diamond 9.1s.for the other room, Kef model B powered sub.

The house re-wire will include speaker level cables from a central location in the hall to each of the four main ground floor rooms (lounge, dinning, kitchen, office) and maybe also garage.

So will need a few more pairs of speakers, switch gear to select rooms, subwoofer input, and prehaps a way to feed audio back to the central base. And a lot less dust!


Daniel

[Jinx]

My amp died during a power cut last night - one of these
So my set up will be changing very soon - thought I'd replace it with a Marantz NR1509 but I can't find a DCC input

[MiloD]

legzr1 said:

Getting there, just waiting for longer umbilicals to arrive to get the PSU for the mono-blocks off the floor.
Then the search for a rack to handle the weight. Thinking of some granite slabs for now.

KWs have grabbed the 800Ds by the balls making the sub in the corner just about redundant.

Fantastic setup, I commend you for it. I’d have to centre that TV though

Edited by MiloD on Saturday 22 December 08:28

[MiloD]

legzr1 said:

Getting there, just waiting for longer umbilicals to arrive to get the PSU for the mono-blocks off the floor.
Then the search for a rack to handle the weight. Thinking of some granite slabs for now.

KWs have grabbed the 800Ds by the balls making the sub in the corner just about redundant.

Fantastic setup, I commend you for it. I’d have to centre that TV though

Edited by MiloD on Saturday 22 December 20:01

[Arnd]

Just added these to my system

Rega Planar RP10 turntable c/w Apheta 2 cartridge
Dynavector P75 mk IV phono stage
Naim Nait XS2 Amp
Naim CD5 si CD player

Existing components are Denon AVR 2313 with a suite of B & W speakers
CM5 S2’s at the front
CM1 S2 rears
CM Centre S2
ASW10CM S2 sub

The RP10 is a class act, the ceramic platter is a thing of beauty.

Have to say I’m amazed by the Dynavector. When the dealer opened it up to do the dip switches for the moving coil cartridge, there’s next to nothing inside. How it does what it does is magical.

The XS2 has a funky AVR bypass mode which enables switching between HiFi ‘fronts only’ and full 5.1 through the Denon. All without moving cables about.

Soundwise, it all comes together to give a clean, bright and punchy delivery, with exquisite detail. That’s exactly what I was looking for.

Dealer told me to leave the amp and phono on permanently, so i’ll give that a try.

[artdealer]

I knew by posting in this thread I would be led astray.

Arnd said:

Just added these to my system

Rega Planar RP10 turntable c/w Apheta 2 cartridge
Dynavector P75 mk IV phono stage
Naim Nait XS2 Amp
Naim CD5 si CD player

Existing components are Denon AVR 2313 with a suite of B & W speakers
CM5 S2’s at the front
CM1 S2 rears
CM Centre S2
ASW10CM S2 sub

The RP10 is a class act, the ceramic platter is a thing of beauty.

Have to say I’m amazed by the Dynavector. When the dealer opened it up to do the dip switches for the moving coil cartridge, there’s next to nothing inside. How it does what it does is magical.

The XS2 has a funky AVR bypass mode which enables switching between HiFi ‘fronts only’ and full 5.1 through the Denon. All without moving cables about.

Soundwise, it all comes together to give a clean, bright and punchy delivery, with exquisite detail. That’s exactly what I was looking for.

Dealer told me to leave the amp and phono on permanently, so i’ll give that a try.

[dvshannow]

artdealer said:

Late eighties Naim Audio olive look / Rega / Royd Audio.

Naim Audio NAC72 / NAP140 / HICAP
Rega Planar 3 / Elys
Royd Audio Eden with Naim cables
Arcam Delta CD with Black Box DAC

I originally purchased a NAIT from Rob at Chichester HiFi shown in pic but upgraded a few years ago. It's so immaculate and light use I couldn't ever sell it. The upgrade to pre/power was well worth it and the addition of the HICAP sounded even better. The system never sounded so good.

OK, no isolation anywhere and before I had it all on Sound Organisation stands, when we decorated that room and upgraded furniture I agreed to switch to something easier on the eye and TBH with tinnitus it all sounds similar anyway!

Lifelong music fan with the majority of what I've ever purchased on vinyl & CD format bar regrettable lost CDs and a vinyl culling incident in 1999.

That said, I stream Spotify Premium through this system via an iFi iDSD Nano and any Apple product handy so I can easily play the lost music now. Switching between Rega Planar 3 and Spotify is barely any difference but I still love the vinyl with occasional moments where it stands out as my favourite medium.

The mid-80's Arcam CD still sounds very detailed.

Funds dictate this is probably it for now, unless I get a windfall and upgrade the turntable to a P6 and the CD to a Naim product.

Edited by artdealer on Sunday 16th December 14:07

I find a massive difference between vinyl and streaming - I actually often prefer lossless streaming to vinyl as vinyl is very coloured imo but it suits certain music for example some jazz

I have a main setup too but with a nap 300 and also a db1 sub so could be that sub is exaggerating any differences in source with vinyls looted low freq reproduction

[REM2112]

The turntable is a 1986 Roksan Xerxes which I bought with my student grant (apologies younger readers). It's had a few upgrades in the last 32 years, but is going strong. Electrics all Mark Levinson, and speakers, Focal.

[chels]

TDL RTL4 speakers
Arcam delta 290 r/c amp
Arcam delta 290p power amp
Cambridge audio azur 651t tuner
Arcam alpha 7 cd
Arcam black box 50 d/a convertor

Edited by chels on Saturday 29th December 17:53

[streepips]

Budget setup for my old workshop, some new bits some old bits. So easily offended audiophiles turn away now.
Most fun is researching, reading reviews, finding mods, tips and hints. Some music from vinyl, some, probably most, will be via PC.
Anyway, what I have is:
7mtr x 5 mtr steel shed, walls lined with 50mm polystyrene skinned with 12mm ply, good clean power supply in, about 60 mtrs from nearest house (ours)
A Toshiba Aurex SR-Q660 turntable, ( owned from new), with Behringer PP400 phono-amp, leading to AV-Links 3 channel audio switch box, all RCA, all mechanical.
Other input to switch box is: ITX PC, Intel G3258 CPU, ASRock H97m-ITX-ac, 250GB Samsung 950 Pro SSD and Seagate 1TB Firecuda hybrid, 16 GB DDR4 and very high quality G-Unique power. Mostly MP3 files on the Firecuda hosted with Moode, volumio or whatever I decide then out via TOSLINK to Neoteck 192kHz Aluminum DAC and then the the 3 way switch.
Now the output from switch, this goes to an FX-Audio TUBE-01.pre-amp Buffer with original valves replaced with Matched pair GE 5654W ruggedised EF95 6AK5 pentode Valves.
This outputs to Breeze Audio Class 2.0 Stereo Digital Amplifier TPA3116 Advanced 50W + 50W, with gain mods done to lower noise floor and larger heatsink.
All interconnects made up with Neutrix Rean and Custom Lynx Tourgrade Figure 8 Audio Cable.
Speakers are old but good Kef Cresta 2, again owned by me from new....Speaker cable is /was a gift from a manufacturer in Scotland, his top range ex-demo stuff.Huge copper shotgun style cables. Also recent gift, Sony headphones..Mdr10rbt and also pair of XB950bt
Cost so far excluding the kit I already had, TT and speakers, well under a hundred quid.
All that Chinese kit gets very good reviews, not Amazon type reviews, HiFi forum reviews,and I am looking forward to putting it all together as much as listening to it!

Pics? I will have to get some together and shrink them, so be along in due course.......

[anonymous-user]

[quote=_MIKE_]Finally had the last of my BXI sound absorbtion acoustic panels arrive. Think I'm done with upgrades for a while.

Samsung HDR 4k
Cables: HDMI all premium certified monoprice/Club3D/Atevon
Interconnects:Kuyio hifi
Speaker cables: DIY 12awg soundbar cable, wirecare.com heatshrink and braiding
AC infinity T10
Apple TV 4k
Zidoo x9s
Onkyo RZ730
Furman M8-x2
Synology Nas ds918+ with 12gb ram upgrade and 24TB storage
B&W speaker stands
PS4
Logitech HD cam
5 x Monoprice Unity 2 channel amplifier bridged into mono and powering each main speaker individually
SVS ultra centre
SVS ultra bookshelf
SVS ultra surrounds
SVS PB13 ultra
SVS prime satellites

Why no Russ Andrews plugs and fuses ?

[beanoir]

I recently got my 'music room' finished and have recently made a few upgrades to my HiFi.

I've embraced digital music now and so built a music server based on Roon (using their ROCK OS) which I have to say is by far the best music interface I've used out of many. It up-samples to DSD256 also which is fantastic, provided you have enough processing power to handle it and a DAC that can resolve it natively.

Intel i7 NUC (Roon ROCK)
Audiolab MDAC+
Project Debut Carbon
Cyrus 8Qx (pre)
Cyrus Stereo 200 (power)
Spendor A4

And most importantly, my listening chair

[OldSkoolRS]

Nice room Benoir. I like the Tele and Precision Bass wall hangers too.

I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to put my set up on here, since it's not really two channel (though it does give great results from CD and other stereo sources).

I've concealed 7 speakers and 4 subwoofers (plus a visible pair of Tripole surround speakers), plus a projector in our living room.

This was part way through the build as I wanted to add plenty of sound treatment to reduce the decay. Three MK Sound MPS300 speakers, with a pair of sealed 15" subs in each end of the false wall. I put a 1x12 guitar cab there too as I have a Marshall Mini Jubilee head in one of the cupboards, shown in a photo further down.



Inside the base part before it got filled with Rockwool and a thick MDF top fitted. You can see the left hand 15" sealed sub I built (Fi Q series driver):



This is the main rack as it stands now (under the stairs, so not in the room and controlled by Harmony RF remote). Sony X800 UHD player/streamer for Netflix/Amazon, Arcam AVR390 as a processor, Arcam P7 power amp, Lumagen Radiance Pro 4K video processor, plus a pair of iNuke 6000DSP amps to power the 4 subs. All feed by a separate power circuit I had installed.



Nothing much to show in the room itself (the whole idea of the install), just a bit of wallpapering to finish on the panel above the screen:



Rear view of the room, projector (JVC X7500) is behind the 'door' in the rear pelmet. One of two MK IW28 in wall subwoofers is visible to the left of the Les Paul. They are only 2x8", but help with in fill at 60Hz due to a room null.

There are 4 x MK Sound MP150 speakers for Atmos channels hidden in the pelmet (my previous LCR speakers, plus one extra).

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Thursday 3rd January 22:52

[gizlaroc]

Nicely done lads, nice to see some nice clean set ups.

[castex]

OldSkoolRS said:

Doing it right

Looks like A/v done extremely well. Props to you, sir.

[toasty]

Beanoir, how are the Spendor A4s for you? I auditioned them recently with a Naim Atom but found them and the Monitor Audio Silver 300s very bass light. B&W 704 S2s gave some depth but a strange "bottled in" upper end.

Someone suggested that the demo may have been set up out of phase and this rings true as a subsequent demo with the much smaller KEF LS50s had much more bass.

[ben5575]

OldSkoolRS said:

Nice room Benoir. I like the Tele and Precision Bass wall hangers too.

Eames for me please, hifi a bonus

[beanoir]

toasty said:

Beanoir, how are the Spendor A4s for you? I auditioned them recently with a Naim Atom but found them and the Monitor Audio Silver 300s very bass light. B&W 704 S2s gave some depth but a strange "bottled in" upper end.

Someone suggested that the demo may have been set up out of phase and this rings true as a subsequent demo with the much smaller KEF LS50s had much more bass.

Funnily enough I demoed them first with the Naim Atom, and was left similarly uninspired. The shop suggested setting up a similar Cyrus system to mine in another room and they performed completely differently. We decided the difference was down to the Naim system being a bit underpowered compared to a pre/power combination or simply just a thinner sound.

The A4s are very mid focussed speakers and don't over exaggerate the hi and low frequencies like a lot of speakers tend to these days, that said after they'd had a good few hours listening and time to run in I find they have plenty of bottom end now and sound great but not too much (like say a pair of Monitor Audio RX8). They are a much more exciting listen than previous Spendor models which I was never a fan of.

Edited by beanoir on Friday 4th January 15:42