Best 'trad' set-up you've listened to?

[w1bbles]

About 15 years ago I took some brilliant vinyl to Linn in Princes Square (Floyd and something else - Dire Straits? Good recordings...) and listened to it on their flagship system. I can't remember what it was, but obviously LP12 based. Total cost of LP12, tonearm, cartridge, amps and speakers was just north of 100k. Blew my mind. I'm still messing about with the Rega Planar 2/AT set-up I've had since 1987 but if money was no option I'd have a bonkers Linn system for those sublime evenings with great music and a dram. I've just bought a new amp and speakers but they're still very much in the budget bracket as the rest of life is too expensive.

What's the best set-up you've ever had the privilege to enjoy? Knowing PH it'll probably be in your own hi-fi room ;-)

[P700DEE]

It would be no use at all if one's home system did not rate highly
I have been lucky enough to hear lots of great systems but have yet to hear perfection.
I was lucky enough through NAG-Fi (New Ash Green Hi-fi club) to be invited to hear John Jefferies personal system (great for live music with huge speakers) Jimmy Hughes system (its his record/CD collection that shocks) and numerous systems at the Shows and Absolute Sounds (usually too loud and not quite what you want but impossible to recreate the bits you liked into your own system). I am not surprised that you liked the Linn sound, I've never been a fan but having heard the recent systems with correction at the local Hi-Fi shop I have been hugely disappointed. The all Naim system was a big let down at a demo but other club members have great systems featuring Linn LP12, Naim kit often with non Naim/Linn speakers. I would strongly advise anyone to listen to alternatives, I feel Linn in particular has not improved their systems in a way I feel is an improvement.
Historically I was most impressed with my first demo of Krells into Magnapan in the 80s, Chris Beechings system with Avantagrdes (I bought a pair) the Soundsmith cartridge/pre that entranced Paul Messenger to buy them.
Loads of choice once money becomes a minimal issue.

[legzr1]

Three stick in my mind.

Avid into Krell KRC-3 via KBL(?) s.u.t into FPB600 driving B&W 800D's. Immense.

DCS rig into FPB750 monos driving ML Sequel II 'statics. Beautiful midrange and superb with acoustic/female voice.

Last one was a Musical Fidelity E something amp and CD playing into ProAc Sig 8 - tiny little system probably cost less than the cables on the first system and what a lovely, warm sound from tiny speakers.

[Frances The Mute]

It's very tough to nail down. I've heard hundreds of systems over the years and it's all about synergy.
I've heard 6 figure systems sound 'meh' and my garage system as an example, £60 worth which boogies like you wouldn't believe. Far from incisive but very musical and enjoyable.

My main system is my most preferred for obvious reasons. It's been the result of much experimentation over the years so is suited to my needs - although I'd like to think it's very capable as a reference system for whatever you throw at it.

Sources
LP12/Cirkus/Audio Origami PU7/Ortofon MC Rohmann/Lingo 2/Linto
Naim CDX & CDPS
Akai DS4000 MKII reel to reel (out of shot)

Amp
Naim Nac 82 & Napsc
2 x Nap 135
2 x Hicap

Misc
Rega EAR headphone preamp and Beresford Caiman DAC with Gator board fitted

Speakers
Jamo Concert 8

Cables
Naim NACA4 speaker cable & Chord interconnects

Stands
Target Audio wall shelves, Partington Super Dreadnought speaker stands and generic AV stand for the rest.

Edited by Frances The Mute on Thursday 27th April 01:08

[Jaguar steve]

The first real Hi Fi I heard belonged to a housemaster at school in the 70's.

Garrard 401 with SME arm and Sure V15 into a modified Quad 33/303 driving a pair of hybrid Sony electrostatic speakers. He had a Revox 77 reel to reel and a Nagamitchi cassette deck as well as a pair of huge - it took two of us to lift them - home made valve amps built with RAF surplus components.

I've got several cassettes of schoolmates albums recorded on that system and they still sound really good.

[w1bbles]

Jaguar steve said:

home made valve amps built with RAF surplus components.

I'd love to know what they looked like!

[brianashley]

Original "Focus ONE" SME etc. Quad 57's (Full "ONE THING" restored) Micromega T-drive that worked ! Audio Note DAC one . leak stereo 20 (Tri mode)

Audionoet preamp M3 . Just worked in the room I used. nearly bought some "living voice" horns ! those things are amazing

have seen a hifi that was purchased from "Grahams " I think? belonged to a fat bd friend of Abramovich. It was about 300 thousand . and all running of a normal ring main ! he would get drunk, listen to jazz at full pelt annoying his neighbours and then beat his wife up . System sound rubbish as it was just the "most expensive bits possible" rather than a system that worked .Said more about Grahams sales attitude than anything :-)

[Jaguar steve]

w1bbles said:

Jaguar steve said:

home made valve amps built with RAF surplus components.

I'd love to know what they looked like!

Aluminum frames about the size of small suitcase each with two large brown transformers on each one roughly the size of a 12 year olds head and several various sized valves on top and lots of components underneath. Very heavy and got very hot after a couple of hours use. Mains voltage exposed connections at the back which we were simply told not to touch when they were powered up...

I don't know what the output was but they were easily capable of driving a bank of speakers in the assembly hall loud enough to rattle the windows of the library above

[heisthegaffer]

Nothing like the others detailed here but this is why we a

[w1bbles]

Frances The Mute said:

My main system is my most preferred for obvious reasons....

That looks like a lot of fun. 'Scuse my ignorance, but what's the white box?

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Looks like an Okki Nokki record cleaning machine to me.

[AC43]

Jaguar steve said:

they were easily capable of driving a bank of speakers in the assembly hall loud enough to rattle the windows of the library above

LOL. Excellent.

[heisthegaffer]

Further to my previous post which I gave up on due to tech problems, the reason we love audio is that there is a broad spectrum available to suit different budgets.

A set up that made me realise the importance of speaker placement was in Harrods which was fairly low priced Denon CD/amp separates through some JBL 60th anniversary speakers ( very funky looking) The Denon gear was about 500 quid or so and the JBLs were £2k from memory.

They had a jazz cd playing and I thought it sounded fantastic. Really good placement of the different instruments. Magic

[Frances The Mute]

w1bbles said:

That looks like a lot of fun. 'Scuse my ignorance, but what's the white box?

It is a lot of fun when I spin something for people and they sit there, agape at what is unfolding beforehand them. Never fails to make me smile.

Ginetta is correct, it's a record cleaning machine.

[NorthDave]

I dont have many details but the best for me was a pair of ATC active speakers in a demo room in Wilmslow Audio in about 1994. The quality was unreal and one day I will emulate the setup.

Best sound was via a headphone system we installed for a client though - it was like listening to familiar music for the very first time!