leroydiamond

Their first album is a cracker. Their best by some distance IMO

In my world the PMT comment would get a laugh all day long. I could never take offence. Probably because I am a stinky poo bass player

I was laughing as soon as I saw the letters  PMT 

Better off without fedex IME. incompetent thieves.

The type of accident occured to drummer I was gigging with some years ago. As I urgently went about the place looking for a stand in, he insisted on continuing to perform, despite having the use of only one arm,

I was somewhat sceptical to say the least, but he was sensational. Rock solid, plenty of groove but no fancy fills.

I have one and it is the best cab I have ever used and by some distance. Have used it in anger and it works flawlessly. Really compact size and light weight. Terrific

Bargain!

These custom shop classics tend to be under the radar, but in the flesh they are superb. This one looks particularly pretty. Very nice

1 hour ago, Matt P said:

 

I believe that all of the various cd-63 versions all used the same laser unit, the original Philips one is not available any more but there is a good alternative, there is a guide to swapping it here. 

 

https://www.hifigear.co.uk/blog/marantz-cd63se-laser-transport-mechanism-replacement/

 

Matt 

Brilliant!. Ye gotta love Basschat

12 minutes ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

It was only about a 20ft round trip. The remote still worked through the glass if the doors were shut. 

Hats off to you.

10 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

When my previous house was extended,  I had the original patio doors left in between the old and new sections of the house.

I figured that having the sources and amps in a different room would be a good way to reduce any kind of acoustic feedback. I was right. 

All I needed to do was drill a hole in the frame of the said patio doors. I chose to do so in the bottom corner beneath the fixed pane.

The doors were good but fairly old. Shouldn't be too hard,  being box section aluminum  right?

Wrong.Virtually solid. Solid Steel. I used six drill bits doing it. At least it worked. 

Now that is dedication!. Guess that means you having to  go to another room every time you change a CD etc?

11 hours ago, EMG456 said:

Now that's dedication!

A quick and easy step to decouple the rack from the suspended floor. Also a necessary one, as when I moved in to this house 20 years ago, I had a Linn Sondek turntable which is spring suspended and walking across the floor was impossible, without the stylus hopping across the record. Took 15 minutes to remedy the situation. Just had to drill 3 circle holes in the floor, that were a tad bigger than the circumference of the legs of the rack..

10 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

Interesting dampening system you have under your deck

It is an unnamed perspex  turntable support with a slab of granite on top. My floor is of the suspended timber variety, but I have bored holes in the floor, so that the legs of the rack are resting on the concrete underneath the floor to help with isolation. I use Auralex sub dudes under each speaker.

I just added an Innuos Zen to my rack (situated on the bottom shelf). It is a wonderful piece of kit. It is a streamer and has a hard drive built in, with a CD loading slot at front. Not being the best with tech, this unit makes archiving CD's child's play.

The rest of my gear is a Primare CD32 player, Primare Pre60 preamp and A60 power, Primare NP5 streamer, Clearaudio concept turntable with Dynavector 10x5 cart and P75 phono pre. My speakers are System Audio Pandion 30's

I use a Power Inspired AG 1500 Power regenerator  to give me a steady 230v supply

It is likely that I will be moving on my Primare CD32 and NP5 streamer, as the Innuos Zen covers both applications.

Fair play to you. It is a labour of love to take that on, not to mention patience. Not for me though. Time and patience are in short supply in my world. Moreover if I were to start, I would obsess with the task, looking into declicking etc. Life is just too short.

15 hours ago, BlueMoon said:

I used to follow the latest hifi developments when magazines were the way to drool and to then drop a load of cash on something that was out of date almost immediately.

I broke the cycle when I paired a Quad set up with a pair of  Kef 104 ab's I already had. I've gone digital to some degree having now converted vinyl and CD's  and use a Bluesound Node 2. 

Nice set up. How did you go about digitising your Vinyl. I have about 300 LP's but the thought of digitising them fills me with dread.

39 minutes ago, L-mac said:

Great thread. Thank OP!

A few years back, a timely and unexpected bonus arrived from work at the time of my 50th. Decided to treat myself to new hifi kit. Had a lot of fun listening to all sorts of different kit (interspersed with a fair amount of quantum physics b******s from salesmen!😂). Ended up with - 

naim super uniti steamer / amp

naim unitiserve server

rega RP3 turntable 

Cambridge CD transport

PMC GB1+ speakers

i think I’ve got my forever system (at least until the next big technology change) and it’s kept me sane during lockdown. 
My North Star when choosing the kit was something a Linn product engineer said to me back in Glasgow many many years ago “when you stop hearing a difference, stop spending money”.  Very useful when comparing £100 quid speaker cable to £1000 quid speaker cable! I’ve got the £100 type - probably cos I’ve got £100 hearing!
 

question for you folks. When you are buying new music what media do you go with. I tend to listen first via stream (Tidal) and then buy vinyl or CD depending on when the recording was made. So anything 80’s or earlier I typically will buy vinyl. Post 80’s - CD. How do you choose?
 

A very nice system you have

Tidal is a game changer for me. For instance the other evening I listened to 6 albums without leaving my chair. I have recently taken delivery of a Innuos Zen server with 1 TB on hard drive. I will rip my CD collection on to it, together with whatever I borrow from family and friends. I will be able to stream same from the comfort of my own chair. Just started with the Zen in the last couple of days. I am a bit slow with tech, but so far the Zen is proving to be a very impressive piece of kit.

I have little interest in buying music anymore. The above arrangement will be more than sufficient to satisfy my needs. That is other than my vinyl. I Have pretty much all the vinyl I will ever need. Being a big fan of 70's classic and prog rock, I, like you find vinyl to be the preferable medium. For me these albums recorded entirely in the analogue domain, never transfer onto the digital domain all that well, even when remastered.

1 hour ago, EMG456 said:

Ah Leak 2020's!

I had a pair of 2030's which were great but the tweeters went at some point and the wifeley one wanted them replaced with something smaller. Still have the Rotel amp which powered them though - currently running the wee monitors in my recording setup!

The smaller setup agreed with my wife was an early Bose Lifestyle system with two small direct/ reflect speakers and one big sub. I won't get into whether Bose qualifies as HiFi or not here - suffice to say that after more than 20 years it is still providing sterling service.

Bose comes in for a bad wrap by some, yet the first time I heard those 2 little cubes and sub, I was blown away. For one thing their foot print was tiny in comparison with anything else on the market at the time, so ideal for the small flat/ bedsit that I and many of my peers called home. Within such an environment there was nothing to touch them for decent sound. 

3 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I'm currently using my studio set up more to make my own music, but I do have a hifi - here with the Leema Xavier speakers - also have some Ditton 66 series 2. Kit is Clearaudio Revolution/SME3009/AudioNote cart into EAR 834Pdeluxe phono, plus Advantage CD player, Denon dvd all into Bow Warlock Pre-amp and Bryston 14bsst power amp. Sounds alright!

Sweet system and bet it sounds terrific

7 hours ago, JottoSW1 said:

Made in Japan - the way the Bass (Glen Hughes ??) comes over on that album !! Time to dig out my vinyl - haven't played it in ages.

Roger Glover is the bass player on 'Made in Japan'. He was later replaced by Hughes (as was Ian Gillan by David Coverdale). 

5 hours ago, bassace said:

I bought a Quad amp in 1971 and still have it. I also had a pair of Tannoy Chatsworths at the same time but sold them ten years ago for £1k, replacing them with a smaller, but not quite as good, pair of Tannoys. I originally had a good collection of vinyl kept in mint condition but unwisely threw them all out when we moved two houses ago. The CD player came along a bit later. So the amp has been with me for nearly fifty years and is still going strong.

The thing is, if your quad ever gives trouble, it is very serviceable. That has been an incredibly reliable piece of kit.

28 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Oh man, this is going to be a good thread

I have an old tube hifi amp that makes the kind of music I like sound like it's being played in the room (I've always believed that music recorded through tubes sounds best played through tubes, Nina Simone, Mile Davis and Motown all sound amazing, Chilis and Mumfords not so much). I'm a massive nerd, I love music for the production values as much as for the tunes and performances, so will happily listen to music on the hifi that I'd never listen to in the car, for example Dark Side of the Moon.

My kids are now old enough to not put their fingers through cones so might even dig out my old floor standers to replace the bookshelves currently in use. That'll please Mrs Beedster no end

Like what you say about music being recorded with tubes, sounding best when being played back with tube amplification and totally agree with you regarding the production value. If something is badly produced, I have little interest in listening to it, regardless of the musicianship or song writing etc. My system is very revealing, so if something is recorded badly, it sounds bad. 

3 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

I've listened to tons of stuff over the last six months, but to be honest it's more about delivery as opposed to things hi-fi.  The only thing that disappoints me is that I haven't used the time to discover new music, but I have so much to listen to that I do enjoy already, I generally feel a little let down when I hear a lot of what constitutes hot new things.

I used to have so much kit, all gone in favour of stereo pairs of Sonos Ones dotted around the house; I just create playlists in the Spotify PC app or stream FLAC content off a NAS into the Sonos.  Two boxes of vinyl up in the loft, about 2,000 CDs in boxes barely two metres from where I am now. 

I agree about feeling let down with the latest and greatest. However steaming from Tidal, Spotify etc allows for endless searching to find new music that tastes pretty close to my cup of tea. 

29 minutes ago, itu said:

My friend has fixed few HMV 78 rpm players and plays the records in a local bar. The sound is fab, and I like many of the recordings of the time: singers are very good and the level of the bands is pretty high. No overdubs, just studiolive. Wonderful stuff.

Most of my equipment is from 80's and 90's except the CD and the speakers. Many people here love names: Nakamichi 582Z, Technics SL-1210MK2, Panasonic SV-3700, Kenwood KT-6040, Pioneer A-656 & DT-570, Sony SCD-XB770, and Gradient 1.5.

Another, smaller set is in the garage, but there I have only Stax headphones and some valve stuff to drive them.

Don't hear much about 78's anymore and despite their age, can still sound fab. Brilliant.

48 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

Personally I have always liked LP records. I never really connected with CD in the same way and I find CD was only ever really good for the car. Vinyl has of course become fashionable now but I'm just old! I have about 800 of my LPs in the living room and love my Hi-Fi set up which is a Richer Sounds purchase from around 12 years ago. I'd always planned to upgrade but the stuff I have is so much better than any other system I have owned it doesn't seem worth doing.

That is a lovely unit for storing your LP's. Great to be happy and content with your system