What Hi Fi ?

Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Hi :)

I am in the process of replacing some of my old Hi Fi separates. I will be keeping my NAD 3020i amp & my Revolver turntable, but I would like to replace my speakers & CD , but TBH I'm a bit out of touch with the newer gear so I was wondering if we have any Hi Fi fans who could offer advice or recommendations ?
I am looking at spending around £250 on a CD & around £200 on speakers, I have looked online & for speakers Mission MX1's seem to highly thought of ? & for a CD I was thinking of a NAD c15 BEE ? .............any thoughts or alternatives ?

Cheers Phill :thumbs:
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Phill,

I think I'm equally out of touch but the Revolver turntable and NAD 3020i amp were extraordinary products for their time. I think you may have set yourself a bit of a challenge to find something that will sound good and match well. Why not stick with stuff of a similar 'vintage'?

Arcam Alpha One and Royd Minstrel for example.

Save yourself some cash and have some FUN!!!

Steph
 
TheSnapper

TheSnapper

Western Thunderer
Hi Phill

I'll second Steph's recommendation of Royd speakers, if you can still get 'em. A friend has Minstrels and they always sound good! I have bookshelf-size Sorcerers, which I recommend highly. They were £600 a pair when new, sound great in any location, but may be difficult to find....

Cheers

Tim
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Yeah, there's some fantastic stuff to be had secondhand just at the moment - it's bit of a buyer's market. I think it's very likely you'd get a set of Minstrels under £200 - I'm old enough to remember that they were around the £250 when they first came out...!

In fact most of the 80s/90s British speakers are good; KEF Coda series, B&W CDM series plus of course those by Castle, Ruark and Spendor.

I could see this becoming an addition to the eBay thread though...!

In terms of CD players there are some lovely ones secondhand; I've got a Micromega Stage 5 here, sat in it's box, which I guess would go for around £250 these days, and that's an amazing player for that sort of money. It was a bit of a bargain at the £900 it cost me new, seriously trouncing much more expensive players. But, we need to recognise that this is one area that the technology has really moved on, so it's always going to be worth having an audition with Marantz' and Arcam's latest budget babies, for example.

Pugs' comment on Cambridge Audio is timely too - although I understand their stuff is seriously variable. I haven't heard anything of theirs since they did the CD4 and DacMagic; both of which were classic designs (Pink Triangle or somesuch, I seem to remember) and sounded fab. But I'm also aware they went to 'badge engineering' of mass market players at one, particularly low, point.

I suppose I should have asked what CD player and speakers you're using now Phill? And why do you want to replace them?

Steph
 
westernfan

westernfan

Western Thunderer
Hi Phill , snap i also have a see revolver turntable fitted with the linn basik l v v arm and running an a and r p 77 cartridge its a fairly good deck but i wished i hadnt parted with my rega planner 3 . check out the stuff on the bay i recently got a Denon drm 33 hx three head tape deck for under £20 , it cost over £300 back in the 80s

re speakers if you see an old pair of mission 737 id go for them they are rated at 125 watts max and have a nice bright sound and would be a nice match for your amp . re new mission speakers i dont think they are as good as they used to be .
 
Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Thanks for the replies guys :), I hadn't even considered the S/H market, but having had a look on ebay I think that S/H is definitely the way to go for speakers :thumbs:

SWMBO has in her wisdom decided we need shelf speakers, which is unfortunate as there are couple of pairs of very tasty Royd floor speakers on Ebay at the moment :headbang:, but failing that I will get some good S/H shelf speakers, but get some proper stands (which will probably end up costing more for less sound quality)........... I will see if I can persuade her ;)

My original set up had a NAD CD player, I can't remember the model, but it was about £300 in the early 1990's, this unfortunately expired a few years ago, so I replaced it with a S/H Philips CD recorder which I picked up for a tenner. The Phillips was always intended as a stop gap though (all we could afford at the time)

My speakers were Wharfdale Diamond IV 's , but when the kids were young they used to stick their fingers in the cones.......so that killed them off (the speakers not the kids :)) ), so these were replaced by the in laws old Wharfedale 507.2's which are cr@p !

Westernfan my mate had some Mission 737's at the same time as I had the Diamonds & very nice they were too :cool:

Cheers Phill ;)
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Phill,

It's worth talking nicely about the Royd Minstrel floorstanders as they're actally pretty small and will even work well against a wall if needs be. They're also a hell of a lot more neutral/musical than Mission speakers (of any variety), but at least you can't shatter teeth or strip wallpaper with the sound of modern CD players, so you might be okay with Mission. The current crop of NAD machines seem to be the choice of the moment from the few enquiries I've made today.

There were some very good small speakers, the Rega Kyte and Acoustic Energy AE1 come to mind. The problem is that they need an awful lot of very clean power to sound of their best and they're actually starting to climb in value. The KEF Coda series, B&W and Mordaunt Short speakers might be more in keeping with the rather fab NAD amp you've got.

Wharfedale haven't produced a decent speaker for years, which is a real shame. And even Richard Allen (sp?) seem to have disappeared into obscurity.

Mind you, I guess I should come clean at this point about a proclivity for relatively high-power valve amps and Spendor speakers :cool:, just so you know where I'm coming from...:D

Steph
 
Pugsley

Pugsley

Western Thunderer
Steph Dale said:
Pugs' comment on Cambridge Audio is timely too - although I understand their stuff is seriously variable. I haven't heard anything of theirs since they did the CD4 and DacMagic; both of which were classic designs (Pink Triangle or somesuch, I seem to remember) and sounded fab. But I'm also aware they went to 'badge engineering' of mass market players at one, particularly low, point.
Click to expand...
I didn't realise they'd gone into badge engineering at one point. It's a D300SE that I've got, it's old now (I've had mine 8 or 9 years now) but I'm still very happy with it. They can be picked up for around £50 on ebay now (I think mine cost around the £150 mark new).
 
Steve Cook

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Hi Phill

I run a pair of the Kef Q5's and a Q9c centre speaker which I think are the previous models to those you have posted. Personally, I like them - as much for their aesthetics as their sound quality (rounded cabinets). I chose them for mainly home cinema rather than music, and as such I think they lack a little in the way of 'tight punch', but then a semi-detached house isn't the best for exploiting that anyway :D I suspect Q55's will be an improvement.

The B&W 603's are cracking speakers by all accounts. I've not been able to do a direct comparison, but those that I've listened to have been excellent. Not sure you could go wrong with either choice. Worth a trawl through some of the home cinema forums to read some recommendations (with the probable caveat that 10 people will have 10 different opinions :rolleyes: )

Steve
 
Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Thanks Steve, I too live in a semi-detached, so kick ass bass is something I won't get a chance to exploit it either :(, I will be using them mainly for music, but they will be rigged up to the TV for home cinema too ..............one thing I am wondering is whether the larger floor standers need to be driven at pretty high volumes to get the best out of them ?...............these Kef's look rather tasty IMO Steve :cool:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180748045723?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
 
Steve Cook

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Phill Dyson said:
Thanks Steve, I too live in a semi-detached, so kick ass bass is something I won't get a chance to exploit it either :(
Click to expand...
Sucks doesn't it :( Still, I get on well with my neighbour (and he works late shifts) so my system gets the occasional spanking of an evening :D
I will be using them mainly for music, but they will be rigged up to the TV for home cinema too ..............one thing I am wondering is whether the larger floor standers need to be driven at pretty high volumes to get the best out of them ?...............these Kef's look rather tasty IMO Steve :cool:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180748045723?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
Click to expand...

Nice speakers :thumbs: Same cabinet shape as mine, just the shelf speaker style and with a metallic cone rather than just black. I think bigger speakers respond well to a good amp, but its not necessary to drive them at high volumes. No doubt they sound good when you do, but its not a necessity IMO. I found the curved cabinets made it easier to get girlfried approval at the time - there was an anti floorstander vibe going on but the curves won her over.

[bloke speak]I'd rather floor standers than shelf speakers on a stand - they take up exactly the same amount of room so get the better performer - coz biggest is best :)) [/bloke speak]
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
I guess I have the advantage of living in a flat: concrete floor and dividng walls tend not to transmit much noise. It still gets operated responsibly though (always off or down by about 10:30 in the evening).

I think the B&W 603s are the pick of what you're listed. A mate has a pair that started out on the end of a very modest amp (Creek 4040) so I know they drive well with low power amps. Like the NAD 3020i the Creek will push out around 30-35w on a good day. He's now got my old Cyrus 3 and PSX/R and they really move with that extra power...

I must admit I wasn't really taken with the Kef Q series. I suspect they've got a crossover point in the middle of the 'presence' band (roughly 500Hz-2kHz) which is cost engineered; they can get it right in their better speakers. Part of the problem I suspect was the split crossover and the fact that the only time I've ever heard them was bi-wired. I've never been a fan of bi-wiring either! IMHO most Kef speakers work best with simple but good cabling and with a little bit of (solid-state) power behind them.

Hence I'm using Spendor S6e speakers. Arguably the high point in their previous range as they are even through the mid-range and very fast when they need to be, but with many of the advantages that come with the bigger cabinet.

And of course system matching can make all that I've said above either absolutely true or the biggest load of cobblers you've ever heard. You've set yourself a bit of a challenge by trying to buy what's arguably the most subjective piece of hi-fi with only other people's experiences to go by! And of course, your room; layout, furnishings, building materials, pictures, windows, etc. all make the major difference to the system's performance...

Enjoy it though. I used to really love stomping around the hi-fi dealerships, reading the mags and chatting with people when the upgrade bug bit.

Steph
 
Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Cheers guys, unfortunately the Kef 603's went for £270 & don't want to go above my maximum £200 budget .........oh well, I'll keep looking :)
 
Simon Varnam

Simon Varnam

Active Member
Not posted for a while so hi everyone
I've got all Cyrus seperates and the CD player which was bought early in the collection is a DAD3Q(Q=upgraded DAC). A much later purchase and new when I purchased it was a DVD8 with upgraded twin 24bit mono DACs.

The DVD8 is very good on CDs that have been recorded 24bit but can make some sound pretty awful. I still prefer the DAD3Q which is older technology but gives a richer sound with most CDs. There are bargins to be had out there on some of the not current Cyrus stuff. Both are connected to the pre amp digitally
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Phil,

Just a quick thought on cables - this is the recommended way to connect single-wire cables to bi-wire speaker terminals. Apologies for the lousy picture, you cannot imagine the position I found myself in to take the photo...!

Steph

IMG_8278.jpg
 
Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Thanks Steph :)

I have enclosed a pic of mine, which I believe the Kef's are already wired like yours ?..............

XL806400-1.JPG

BTW, here is a pic of one of the speakers so you can see what they are like ;)..........

XL806403.JPG

All the best

Phill :thumbs:
 
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