Hifi plans for 2021?

[Diapason]

With one year ending and another lockdown looming, does anyone have any upgrade plans for the next 12 months? I wouldn't have guessed that 2020 would see me adding a vinyl front end, but here we are. Next year I can feel an amp upgrade coming on, I'm convinced I'm not getting the best out of my speakers. A new phono stage might also have to feature.

Anyone else got any plans?

[Georgi]

I'm thinking or looking I should say, for a Pass Labs power amp, something in the likes of XA25 or XA 30.5 or a similar performer.

[tony]

You can count me out of this thread Simon. I ran it by Anne and unfairly in my view I was told to come back and talk about it in 2025 or preferably not at all unless it is about downsizing.

[Ivor]

I think I'm happy with my system now at the end of the year.... but I've thought that before .
In 2nid 020 I bought a superb cartridge and just a few weeks a pre amp.
I hope to sit back and enjoy my muslc collection

[Diapason]

What's the pre, Ivor? Did I miss that?

Tony, you've already didn't next year's budget, I've no sympathy for you!

Georgi, that is some quality amplification. I'd love to hear that.

I've already fallen foul of Covid restrictions as a stylus I ordered from Thakker just before Christmas has been sent back to them. They refunded without me even requesting so I'll try again in Jan.

[Ivor]

What's the pre, Ivor? Did I miss that?

Forgive any typos etc... a rushed reply...


Shortly after I put my existing pre amp up for sale (really looking for expressions of interest) Cloney suddenly had a few new things in their demo/preowned section. Most of it of no real interest to me but a Wyred For Sound STP-SE Pre-Amp was there in the middle of the other shiny boxes. Designed by a guy in the US with a singular uncompromising vision these just don't come up often new or second hand. I picked it up in early December (made the wife's pressie shopping very easy - or that's how I pitched it anyway!)

Out of the box it was very dynamic and detailed - not what I expect from a pre - but it's advised 100 hours burn it and then another 100 hours to really deliver.
For just over two weeks I've been listening and enjoying this wee beast a lot but knew it wasn't absolutely "right" - I assumed burn in was needed it would eventually settle down and just enjoyed the dynamics, details and remote control! Two days ago I copped that the stereo separation wasn't right. That niggled. I compared vinyl recordings to CD and both to PC. Largely ok but not "right". Now I mentioned earlier this guy has a singular vision and while that usually/often delivers quality it can also throw expectations out the window... The line/RCA inputs (#3 to 5) are not conventionally side by side... the are set out as 3 4 55 4 3. Odd but once noted its fine. It has two RCA outputs also. In the haste to get off my creaking knees, aching back and general imbalance I automatically connected the power amp to the side by side RCA connections. This meant that all 3 inputs - DAC, CD and Phono were fine but the signal going to the power amp was actually two right channels. The power amp, having had a sheltered life, unquestioningly deliver left and right to the speakers. And why not?

An image of the rear of the year will be added soon for the hard of reading.
So everything I heard was as I say, detailed, dynamic, revealing and muddy. Something wasn't right but I had assumed it was the very early stages of "burn in" and didn't get too worked up about it. But... When you put in a disc that you KNOW has a clear left channel signal and hear nothing you know the problem is in the connections. I was pretty sure the inputs were ok as I'd given them some thought (no feckin' choice!) but did I rush the output?
I shimmied the amp out of the shelf and checked inputs... looked fine. The outputs? Maybe they followed the same shape if not normal logic. I took one of the plugs from the socket and, with shaky knees and a sideways amp I hurriedly plugged it into the output a few inches away. I waddled over to the hot seat and sat back. On the remote selected the CD input and pressed "play". There it was. Guitar. I imagine there are some more small tweaks to be done but for two days I've been playing all those test LPs, and CDs that were muddy. No longer were there any veil over the sound... I'm hearing what I wanted to hear. With incredible stereo separation! Happy days... music is very VERY engaging again.

STP-SE-rear.jpg (47.9 KiB) Viewed 564 times

This is of course the short version of the story....

[Adrian]

2021 Upgrade plans... nothing planned at the moment... but 2020 did have a bit of a journey.....with a rather interesting discovery too.

I've been moving up, down & sideways over the last few years. But in 2020 I tried a Audiolab 8000 pre amp (with class A gain stage) partnered with a Primary A30.2 power amp.

Firstly the build quality of both components was exceptional, very well put together. The sound... well it was rather strange... first impressions were good but different... took a while to figure out what was happening. Basically the power amp was giving a rather different flavour (Swedish?) to the music. It was there.. but you knew it was different. But as I played more music through the combination, it really grew on me. The more music you played through it, the more impressive it became. The A30.2 is a very compact size, but quite heavy. Dual Mono design, ability to dig very deep but had an uncanny ability to flavour the music in an intriguing way. The combo was very good at getting into the nitty gritty. On more than a few occasions it lifted my eyebow's in admiration.

Despite it being such a good combo... I did not end up keeping it... the reason.... they got traded in for a pair of 805D3 bookshelf speakers.

The 805D3... what can I say....where do I start? It is simply astounding how much sound can come from a speaker so small. Those stand mounts would rip the face off the majority of floor standers. Capable of astonishing detail and power and still hold their composure with out breaking a sweat. Simply staggering.

I just don't know how some manufacturers do it... but there are a number of them out there who make a bookshelf speaker sound so good... and the B&W805 is one of them.

Powering the 805's was a 24W Sugden A21 Signature..yep sounds good... until another lady came along in the form of a Accuphase E 206. It was a long time on the Cloney webpage... and after giving it a demo in Blackrock for a hour I was invited to take it home and see would it fit in. It got connected up to the 805's... and for a vintage amp ( recently fully serviced by Accuphase Germany) it quite simply ripped my clothes off.

I just don't understand why it did not get snapped up sooner in Cloney's and I just fail to understand why we don't see more of Accuphase on the forum. Absolutely incredible amplifier. Ivan mentioned that we might be seeing more of Accuphase in 2021.... and if so I would strongly advise everybody & anybody if they can to get to hear it.

So how would I describe the Accuphase? TBH, I've had a number of amps in the last 25 years.. Sony, Denon PMA 350SE, Jadis pre / power, Acoustic Masterpiece AM 201, Leben CS600, Trio, Marantz PM 17 MkII, Denon PMA 2500, Sugden A21 se, Rotel but the Accuphase was a revelation for me.

It's a AB amp, but very close to Class A sound, but just a touch less buttery than Class A. Throw in the ability to get into very fine detail, dig very deep with great authority and not be sharp, shrill or bright on the ears. To my palette ( note I stress to my ears) the Accuphase is the amplifier on at the end of the 25 year journey. If I had to settle on one amplifier for the rest of my life......... it would be Accuphase. No, the E 206 does not have a remote control or DAC. Talk about having it where it counts!

I am a bit of bargain basement type of guy.... trying out good quality gear but trying to stay in the second hand arena. I have put more money into music & speakers than amplifiers & sources. There is just some cracking quality gear around at times and because forum members / clients of Cloney's tend to be very conscientious owners of their hi fi gear you can rest assured that you are not going to get burnt or if a issue does crop up it will be handled professionally. Full credit to all you guys!

[Fran]

I have plans for a 12" tonearm from a talented machinist in Malaysia of all places..... and I'm looking forward to tidying up my phonostage builds so that they are presentable. The general idea is to have 2 tonearms mounted running through separate phonostages with different flavours to both. I also intend improving the power supply for the turntable, I have all the bits safely in the stash to do this, so I hope to get started on that in January.

Experiments also continue on the digital front - hopefully I can bring these up to a high level.

In 2020 I have had a few covid projects. There was a fair deal of experimenting with phonostages - I now have 2 new ones of these that are both sounding pretty good and I'm happy with them other than the fact that they are sitting on a board on a stool! But probably the best achievement was the set of speakers I made, these have settled down very nicely and I'm really happy with them.

I hope 2021 sees us all staying safe and away from the dreaded disease, that we crawl our way out of the crap we are all dealing with. I also hope we don't lose the good things that have come of this time - I personally have learned a lot of lessons from working from home and intend keeping them into the future.

and roll on Munich in September!!

Fran

[DaveF]

No hifi plans for 2021 myself. 2020 saw a complete overhaul of my system, everything was changed- new Stax headphones, new amp, new phonostage, new TT, arm and cartridge, new CDP and a new hifi rack. The only slight regret is the CDP. Nothing wrong with it, it sounds fine but I just dont listen to CD's as much as I thought I would. I only used it for about 2 months before the vinyl end of things got upgraded and that took over completely.
However as much as I have enjoyed the above, the most enjoyable part was joining the Vintage Vinyl group on FB. Plenty of banter and music recommendations there. The only addition to my system in 2021 will be some more records.

[hudo]

Think I will stick with Pass XA30.5 and Primaluna preamp (waiting for EVO 400 to replace Prologue Premium), but my big and not-sure-how-smart plan is to sell Focal 1028be, and just try a few different, somewhat cheaper (easier and quicker to buy/sell) speakers, in order to gain experience about how different brands sounds, and maybe find something that will be better matched for my room/system, or maybe just go back to Focals eventually, which I really like so far.

Just before NY I was able to score second-hand headphone preamp - Burson Soloist, which works awesome with my Audeze LCD2f. Since my headphone setup is not near stereo setup, i need to find a better DAC than my current AQ Dragonfly RED, thinking about Soekris or Schiit Modi Multibit (my main DAC is Schiti Yggi, and I like Multibit/R2R sound, but can't use it for headphones)