Your Hifi history

[cybot]

Speaking about mags my favourite was Hi Fi Answers. The musings of a certain James Michael Hughes was certainly something to look forward to :)

That was my favourite one too Dermot. JMH lost me when he had a revelationary article about the audible effects of water pipes in proximity to the listening room, or something very similiar.

Ah those were the days Johnny :)

[cybot]

I put together my first hi-fi system in or around 1974. It consisted of a Trio KD1033 turntable with supplied cartridge, a Trio amp [forget the model but it was about 30 WPC] and Phillips Motional Feedback [MFB] speakers. The speakers were S/H, compact little boxes and very efficient speakers. I was never convinced that the active electronics worked as described but they sounded nice and suited the system very well.

First upgrade was a new pair of speakers. Celestion Ditton 15s which had a passive radiator. These went deeper than the Phillips MFBs but were harder to drive.

The British Hi-Fi press were consistently praising the A&R A60 amplifier so I went to Noel Cloney to hear one. Noel was located in a basement premises in Leeson Street at the time and I brought the Trio amp to compare the two. The A60 blew the Trio out of the water. I bought it there and then. It worked very well with the Ditton 15s. Soon afterwards I upgraded the cartridge to a Shure M75ED11 and got a magnesium headshell. As per magazine advice, I removed the rubber washer between the arm and the headshell.

That system served me well until I replaced the KD1033 with a Rega 2, using the same Shure cartridge. At that time there was a Hi-Fi shop on O'Connell Street – it was beside the Savoy cinema – and from there I got a pair of Litz speaker cables. Cables were being mentioned in the Hi-Fi press around that time, the Litz pair did improve the sound of my system compared to the twin flex I had been using. From that shop I got a pair of speaker stands that I screwed to the underside of the Dittons.

I thought that was it Hi-Fi wise, at least until I could afford the Holy Grail which was a Linn/Naim Audio system. The Linn LP12 was clearly a better turntable and to ease the pain cost wise, Noel Cloney suggested using the Rega arm and the Shure cartridge. This was a serious step up in quality. Later when getting the LP12 checked and adjusted, Noel suggested I try a S/H Supex 900 with the mini step up amplifier for the A60. That combination, to my ears, was the best sound I ever got from Lps in my system before or since.

A couple of years later one channel went dead and the cartridge was the culprit. So back went the Shure which I had kept safely 'just in case'. I presume that I dumped the Supex, I did not know that it might have been possible to get it repaired.

There has been some comments made on Hi-Fi magazines. At that time there were only two sources of information on things hi-fi – the magazines or dealers. I believed what I read in the magazines, to me it seemed that the reviewers were actually trying to help us get the best sound possible from our systems. With the benefit of hindsight it is obvious that the British magazines of that time were very jingoistic – brands such as Linn, Naim Audio, Rega, Meridian etc. were stated as being the only real hi-fi kit worth having. Turntables had to be belt driven, direct drives and idler drives were absolute no nos.

Around the mid 1970s I added an Akai cassette deck [CS 702 D 11] and a Trio tuner. The tuner got little usage but the cassette deck was used extensively to compile tapes for the car player. After a few experiments I found that Maxel UD XL 11 cassette tapes worked well in the Akai deck.

I had the Nirvana upgrade fitted to the LP12. Later when the Valhalla upgrade became available I took my deck to Cloneys and Noel exchanged it for a Valhallad deck. Thinking back on it, those upgrades changed the sound of the LP12, robbing it of its magic and allure. It never occurred to me to ask Noel to remove these upgrades or even to admit that the sound had lost something in the upgrade process. The magazines raved about the upgrades and as I believed what the magazines said, I thought it must be me and not the upgrades that was the problem!

A few years later, sometime in the mid 1980s, I had enough cash to buy the 'ultimate system' of the day. An LP12/Ittok/Asak (my third LP12 as Noel took in my LP12 and sold me the one with the Ittok and Asak already fitted), NAC42, Snaps, NAP250 and Linn Saras. Cloney Audio had moved to a mews premises in Rathmines at that time. I would describe the sound of that system as 'impressive'. Easy to listen to but uninvolving. The famed PRAT quality irritated as did the lack of any real bass or stereo image. Over time I found that I was listening less and less to the system until eventually I felt that I should sell the lot as the system was no longer 'doing it' for me. A customer offered a NAC72, Hi-Cap, Meridian 200 & 263 for the LP12/Ittok/Asak plus some cash which I readily agreed to. Cds took up much less space than Lps!

Two further upgrades to that system were a S/H Meridian 566 for the 263 and a pair of Ruark Crusader 11s for the Saras, all bought from Cloney Audio who had moved again to their present location in Blackrock. I began to enjoy listening to music again especially after the 566 was in situ. I had bass and a stereo image at last. I had long since stopped buying specialist Hi-Fi magazines.

Over the years I bought the occasional magazine and noted that some were suggesting that valve amplifiers had a special magic that was absent from solid state amplifiers. It took me several years to cotton on to the fact that visits to Cloney Audio tended to end up with me parting with ever larger wads of cash for not so shiny boxes. Before that day of enlightenment came, I listened to a Cary SE valve amplifier with 300B output tubes. The sound blew me away. The bass was soft but the stereo image had depth and the midrange was almost liquid. I wanted more of the same but as I liked the Crusaders, the Cary would not drive them. Noel had a Gamma Acoustics 211 SE valve amplifier which I took home to try it in my system. It had nowhere near the power of the 250 but it sounded better in almost every quarter. So off to Cloney Audio went all my Naim Audio kit.

This was around the time I decided to convert one of our bedrooms into a dedicated music room. I had acquired a few guitars, a considerable number of Cds, music books etc. and our sitting room was beginning (!!) to look a bit closed in by technology. A small REL sub-woofer got added to the system.

One of the Hi-Fi magazines, Hi-Fi World, offered self assembly DIY valve amplifier kits and I bought one. An EL34 push pull integrated that pushed out about 30+ watts per channel. Building it was interesting and took a lot longer than the week I had thought it would take. The rush I felt when I first connected it up and heard it speak..... wow! It had more power than the 211 SE but the 211 still had the edge sound wise in almost every area.

Some years later the Hi-Fi website TNT-Audio wrote about a T Amp. This little plastic box had almost nothing going for it, no phono line input, spring clip speaker connections but it was stated to have audiophile qualities sound wise. The 211 amplifier was 'tempermental' and prone to dramatic failures [it blew the rectifiers every 50 to 100 hours thus requiring a trip to the electronics doctors] so I got a T Amp to use as a backup. Sonically the T Amp polarized listeners, some thought it brilliant and others said it was crap. I used mine with a marine grade 12 volt battery and I considered it to be very good. Not as good as the 211 amplifier, tonally it was less rich, but close enough to cause concern to amplifier builders of products priced at up to €1K. Of course its operating envelope was very small volume wise so it was not good for loud music especially through my Crusaders. The sub-woofer did not work with the T Amp, I sold it to Mick of this parish.

My system remained unchanged for a good number of years until the 200 refused to work. I could have sent it back to Meridian for a refurbishment but I was getting fed up with all the boxes on the rack. My music room was looking more like an electronics lab than somewhere to listen to music and relax. So I set out on to research a simpler system that had less boxes. At least that was my original intention.

Musical Fidelity had an all in one CD Player/Tuner/Amplifier that ticked a lot of boxes. Meridian have several active speakers that seemed to fit the bill. Another trip to Cloney Audio resulted in my present system which is: Resolution Audio Opus 21 CD Player, 2 * Classe CA M350 mono blocks & B&W 803D speakers. This has more boxes than I hoped for but as the monos sit on the floor it appears smaller than it actually is. I added a Squeezebox – the digital output goes into the digital input of the Opus 21 – to play music files, stored in FLAC, from my computer. This is controlled from my iPad. Recently the Squeezebox has been superseded by the Sonos equivalent, again controlled from my iPad. The Sonos controller app is not as slick as the Squeezebox app but it is better than satisfactory. The Squeezebox and Sonos apps allow forward and backwards movement within a piece of music, similar to a turntable, this is a very handy feature.

One additional item to record is that I had a dedicated mains supply socket installed in the music room. This has its own MCB box and is a significant upgrade over the standard 2.5 sq mm domestic wiring generally used for sockets in houses.

That is my Hi-Fi history up to date. I did not mention the equipment I tried down the years. The Krell KAV400 amplifier, the active PMC speakers, the Electrocompaniet amplifier etc. etc. etc. These were all good pieces of kit, they did not suit my system or room. I deliberately did not mention cables both mains or signal apart from my first experience with Litz speaker cables or my dedicated mains supply socket. Cables are a very divisive subject, we all have our opinions on whether they work or don't. I tried many isolation devices down through the years, the most recent are E-sorbs from Eist Audio. These unpretentious blocks have replaced Cereballs under my Opus 21 to great effect.

Fair dues to you if you have read this far. You are a mighty man! Go and get yourself a glass of whiskey - you deserve it.

Again what a journey! Fair dues to you (and others mind!) for taking the time to type all that. Surprised you didn't mention the poor old Croft! I'm nearly sure I saw one under your arm one time in Fran's abode....Series 5?

[Adrian]

Glass of whiskey... I think it will be a bottle after all that!!!!!!!!!!!! What a Tome!!!!!!! Absolutely great reading!! Delighted to hear of another B&W owner.... welcome to the club!!

[Derek]

Beautifully written piece Tom I really enjoyed rambling along your HiFi path.
A generous measure of The Balvenie 16yr old Triple Cask in a cut glass went very well with it.

[Diapason]

I really enjoyed that, Tom. Lots of kit that I lusted after (those Crusader II captivated me on one visit to Blackrock). I'd forgotten that you have CAMs now as well. I love those, absolutely cracking amps.

It's amazing how much gear we've all been through!

[DaveF]

Great writeup Tom. I had those CAM350s for a while too. An absolute beast of an amp and rare enough these days I believe.

[Rocker]

Cybot wrote "Surprised you didn't mention the poor old Croft! I'm nearly sure I saw one under your arm one time in Fran's abode....Series 5?"

Yes, I had forgotten about the Croft duo. You did see/hear the power amp part in Frans. Lovely sound but the main problem was the dual volume controls on the pre-amp. I had considered replacing one pot with a dual gang pot or a dual gang stepped attenuator. But in the end I did not do either as I was trying to reduce the number of boxes. Which would also reduce the number of cables, the rack size etc.

During one of the Gamma Acoustics 211 amplifier failure periods, I bought a S/H Musical Fidelity Elektra E100 Integrated Amplifier from Cloneys. I still have this amplifier, it is in use on my desktop computer 'system'.

It was both fun and sobering to think back on the kit that went through my hands since the 1970s. Audio memory is very unreliable but the first LP12/Rega arm/Supex remained the best sound I ever heard from a turntable until I heard Fran's DIY parallel tracker turntable and Derek's wonderful turntable.

The typing bit is easy as around 1987 I did a series of night classes on touch typing on a typewriter. At that time I figured that computers might increase in usage and as a computer keyboard was laid out similar to a typewriter, it would speed up input if I could operate it without looking at the keys.

[cybot]

Cybot wrote "Surprised you didn't mention the poor old Croft! I'm nearly sure I saw one under your arm one time in Fran's abode....Series 5?"

Yes, I had forgotten about the Croft duo. You did see/hear the power amp part in Frans. Lovely sound but the main problem was the dual volume controls on the pre-amp. I had considered replacing one pot with a dual gang pot or a dual gang stepped attenuator. But in the end I did not do either as I was trying to reduce the number of boxes. Which would also reduce the number of cables, the rack size etc.

During one of the Gamma Acoustics 211 amplifier failure periods, I bought a S/H Musical Fidelity Elektra E100 Integrated Amplifier from Cloneys. I still have this amplifier, it is in use on my desktop computer 'system'.

It was both fun and sobering to think back on the kit that went through my hands since the 1970s. Audio memory is very unreliable but the first LP12/Rega arm/Supex remained the best sound I ever heard from a turntable until I heard Fran's DIY parallel tracker turntable and Derek's wonderful turntable.

The typing bit is easy as around 1987 I did a series of night classes on touch typing on a typewriter. At that time I figured that computers might increase in usage and as a computer keyboard was laid out similar to a typewriter, it would speed up input if I could operate it without looking at the keys.

Thanks for clearing that up! Another Croft pre I once owned (Epoch) had those twin pots and just for the hell of it I replaced them with a dual gang pot. I then reversed the procedure when I sold it on :) Cruel or what? Seriously I don't have any problems with them at all but I will admit they are a quirky touch....

[patrick]

I find it very interesting to read all the different diverse ways we have developed interest in hifi.
The different phases of compulsion and need for upgrading until our resources run out or we settle with a system that fulfills most of our tastes. Having created a system that i am satisfied with and having retired resulting in a smaller hifi budget , I hope to enjoy my music collection as a music fan rather than a system critic , reviewing it each and every time I sit down to listen. My music collection is quite large with hundreds of vinyl and cds , of varying quality and condition. Like life , music listening is a compromise .
Some years ago i did a web designer , course and created a website about my interest in hifi. I have not updated it since but this has prompted me to maybe do so. Here is the link for anyone interested . http://mihifi.comule.com/index.htm .
My system has changed since this , the 803's are now 802's, my phono now is a clearaudio balanced reference , spkr cable is Nordost Valkyre and my rack was changed to accommodate Krell 250 m"s. I will try to post some photos shortly .
I am happy to see this thread has remained interesting and not become ego driven . Everyone's hifi adventures are of interest if written factually and with a little humility, remembering that others will read and want to appreciate.
Hear the music not the system .

[DaveF]

The next installment, Quad 989's. Sound great 'out of the box' on the end of the Devialet. Lots of fiddling around with positioning still but for now just letting them sit there and charge up. As fantastic as the Audioplans are, these were just too good an oportunity to turn down.