A very good system

This week I have been mostly listening to a very good system comprising Marantz CD63, Pioneer A400, and Wharfedale Diamonds in a fairly small-ish Victorian living-room. The system is very well set-up on rigid, level stands. The amp is on the floor.

I won't describe the sound, but it's a lot better than it deserves to be, and could embarrass many 'top of the range' systems which I have heard.

No Mana neither, hmmm, fancy.

 

Is this a prelude to anything James

 

You may have a point there, my system beats the pants of a lot of more expensive badly setup systems I have heared.

 

Setup helps of course but the point is that the difference between budget systems and top of the range ones is not actually as great as many people might imagine.

Michael.

 

Exactly that is why I just am staggered that people will pay £8000 per metre for speaker cable from Russ Andrews.

For me half the fun of HIFI is trying to get great sounds with a strict budget, if I had £100k spare in my bank to spend on HIFI it would be no fun and probably would sound no better than a £10k system.

Personaly I would like £3000 system all in but anything above this is probably going over the top, I would rather spend all the money on clubbing or music.

 

Agreed - I own a £200 CD player and I'd struggle to hear any major improvements in sound, which may not even to my taste, without dropping major amounts of cash down - something that I'd rather spend on beer/more music.

 

My Marantz CD6000 OSE LE is a big improvement over my Sony CDP but then the inertnals of the Marantz are quite a lot better and its still at budget level. However I only paid £150 for my Marantz, the retail price of the OSE LE was £300 when new, if the Marantz is worth another £200 more or not is a completly different question.

 

I really liked my CD6000OSE and found that even a £1000 cdp like the TEAC I have now is only slightly better. Infact the Marantz was better than the Kandy to my ears. The TEAC was a bargain (£600) and is superbly built with a slightly morfe refined sound but is it 5x better.....difficult to say - I don't think I would have spent £1K on it - it does suit the rest of my kit and my listening style. I agree with the £3000 idea and as such I've got to where I want to be. I think it's all down to personal taste and system synergy thou.....
Donut

 

to be honest i've come to think that once you get over about 1000ukp for a component you are then paying for better build quality, aesthetics and the 'badge'. sound can have subtle differences but no jaw dropping improvements. the only exception here *MAY* be speakers however i've not done much fixed system speaker swapping so don't really have an opinion.
certainly if i buy a new (to me) cd player i'm not expecting massive changes in presentation from my existing one (maybe a bit more clarity and slam) aesthetics and build are going to be my main concern as it will (hopefully) be my final cd player.
cheers


julian

 

A lot of systems sound better on the floor than on Mana.

Andrew

 

A word of warning

Chaps

The Pioneer A400 is a cracking little amp, in fact I ran one myself for a few years but they have a nasty habit of blowing speaker cones. I cannot recall the technical reason why this is so, but evidently it is a common phenonomen.

Regards

Mick

 

I'll keep my 'big' system. And let it crush Wharfdale Diamonds back into the Jiffy bags they shipped in....

Of course I also can offer a straight swap of Linn Kans for big black and ugly ATC100s.... Offers to etc. etc.

Paul

 

its all about system synergy....

 

...and diminishing returns.

That said, since I got the CD5/Flatcap, I've realised just how much more subtle and musical this player is over the old Rega Planet. I'm not going to be upgrading the CDP again now - it's "good enough".

You can lose your way with hifi; getting "back to basics" or using the KISS approach tend to reap huge rewards.

I'm broadly with Julian on the £1k thing - but it doesn't apply to turntables. A Michell Orbe is far superior to a Michell Gyro for example.

 

Ive got a little pair of the Royd Sintra 2 speakers in my system this weekend.

I am bloody staggered and they are certainly not coming out any time soon.

 

Agreed there's a bit of a watershed around the £1k mark, but I then found another one at about th £3k mark. Unfortunately I needed that 2nd one to be satisfied with the sounds being made. :cry:

 

What/where/whose is this new miracle system?

BTW, I think I've finally gotten my Active 20s positioned right, so you're welcome to come round for a listen next time you're in the neighbourhood (that goes for everyone else too FWIW).

Dunc

 

Dunc

will it be ok today?

 

Thats been my experience too.

My Nottingham Analogue Mentor was a significant upgrade on a Gyrodek, My Border Patrol a significant upgrade on the 1k valve amps Ive tried... they both retailed around 3k-4k aswell.

Wish I could afford 3k-4k components for every component!

 

Uhh, sure if you're in Edinburgh you're welcome to pop 'round.

Dunc