Hello all
Here's my current kit as at 12/10/05 (not showing off - this is the result of 25 years of hard labour!!) with comments, hopefully to make the list less of a bore to read! And it shows that I should get out more....
Vinyl
Turntables
Acoustic Solid Royal, three tonearm version, I spend more time keeping it polished than listening to music
Notts Analogue Mentor - still Tom Fletchers best, the iron platter is getting a bit rusty tho'
Tonearms
Mission Mechanic - I have several of this underrated piece of perfection
Gray Mechanic Special Edition - one of 3 , not gloss black - hurrah
Gray Dark Energy prototype - new mega arm from designer of MM and Zeta, weighs 20lbs, not for LP12 owners
Zeta - still lovely despite nice dust coverage on the gloss finish
Breuer Type 8 - just acquired another one - a fine piece of engineering,
Triplanar III - a right royal pain to set up right
and occasionally for a laugh a decca international unipivot - big fat floaty wibbly wobbly soundstage.
Cartridges
MM
Four Decca Super golds in rotation - always seem to have one out for repair - always worth it The greatest cartridge ever - except maybe the garrott bros decca or an Ikeda Supremo if you can afford it or get hold of one
All the deccas in are specially built pods
London reference - just running in, quite good results expected for the high cost
MC
Ikeda 9 - needs hours of painful set-up to sound fantastic - recommended if you value realism, dynamics and live 'punch' above all else
Denon DL 103 - massively good for the price I paid
Shinon Red - typical 80's MC, fair detail, a bit lifeless overall
Koetsu Red signature - waiting for re tip then back in the box for 'investment'
WIN FET-10 (broken sadly, never to be repaired -when it worked - quite stunning,)
Pre-amps
ARC SP- 8 still going strong after 20 years - never gone wrong ever
ARC SP-10 very heavily fiddled about with as it chews tubes regularly and hums a bit when people are in the room! and it's started to crackle and pop and hiss and drone
Music First passive - this may replace the ARCS....
Step - ups
Ikeda - the 9 has such a low output it might as well not exist at all
EAR MC3 - very quiet, controls the denons occasional fatness in the bass
World Audio Design - I hand built it in the shed, looks like it too
Power Amps
Mission 777 - this is a great piece of 80's tranny gear - very good for rocking out to
MF XA-200s - these are MFs best - they don't have that transistor shine that sits over the music
Audio Innovations S1000 monos completely modified to stop them exploding as they did twice before the essential mods - why they didn't sort out the problems in the first place....
Just acquired a set of EAR 509's, once I work out where to put 'em I'll plug 'em in
Shortly to start a final search to upgrade all the pre-power part of the system
Speakers
Gallo Ref 3's - at long last for me, no more upgrading speakers
Cables - yes I use them
Stands
The usual suspects and custom built big mutha for the record players
Digital
Rega Planet - the original version with the dust collecting grooved top plate - sounds flat earthy
Naim CD5i - never thought I'd use Naim gear but this is mighty fine indeed - sounds not flat earthy
Apple ipod and ipod shuffle - I actually listen to music more on these than the big gear......!
Headphones
AKG 1000s
Jecklin Floats
Old set of Stax
big bag of cotton wool and a syringe
Vinyl
3,870 at last count
CD
891 at last count
Questions
Do I actually listen to all this stuff? Yep, around 18-20 hours a week - I m a music fan for sure.....!
Do I have an understanding partner? Yep to that, she regularly goes shopping for shoes/jewellery
Analogue or Digital? you need to ask?
Home Theatre? what's that?
Favorite piece of kit? My Dynavector DV507 because it just looks so cool
Do I listen to a record all the way through? you bet!! unless I need to tweak the arm/cartridge.....
Favorite LP? too many but today's is Crosby, Stills and Nash,
First proper HIFi? Rega turntable, Rega arm, AT95e, Arcam Alpha, Arcam Deltas - I still have it all, gonna give it to my nephew when he needs to upgrade from his MP3.
DECCAMAN
Here's my current kit as at 12/10/05 (not showing off - this is the result of 25 years of hard labour!!) with comments, hopefully to make the list less of a bore to read! And it shows that I should get out more....
Vinyl
Turntables
Acoustic Solid Royal, three tonearm version, I spend more time keeping it polished than listening to music
Notts Analogue Mentor - still Tom Fletchers best, the iron platter is getting a bit rusty tho'
Tonearms
Mission Mechanic - I have several of this underrated piece of perfection
Gray Mechanic Special Edition - one of 3 , not gloss black - hurrah
Gray Dark Energy prototype - new mega arm from designer of MM and Zeta, weighs 20lbs, not for LP12 owners
Zeta - still lovely despite nice dust coverage on the gloss finish
Breuer Type 8 - just acquired another one - a fine piece of engineering,
Triplanar III - a right royal pain to set up right
and occasionally for a laugh a decca international unipivot - big fat floaty wibbly wobbly soundstage.
Cartridges
MM
Four Decca Super golds in rotation - always seem to have one out for repair - always worth it The greatest cartridge ever - except maybe the garrott bros decca or an Ikeda Supremo if you can afford it or get hold of one
All the deccas in are specially built pods
London reference - just running in, quite good results expected for the high cost
MC
Ikeda 9 - needs hours of painful set-up to sound fantastic - recommended if you value realism, dynamics and live 'punch' above all else
Denon DL 103 - massively good for the price I paid
Shinon Red - typical 80's MC, fair detail, a bit lifeless overall
Koetsu Red signature - waiting for re tip then back in the box for 'investment'
WIN FET-10 (broken sadly, never to be repaired -when it worked - quite stunning,)
Pre-amps
ARC SP- 8 still going strong after 20 years - never gone wrong ever
ARC SP-10 very heavily fiddled about with as it chews tubes regularly and hums a bit when people are in the room! and it's started to crackle and pop and hiss and drone
Music First passive - this may replace the ARCS....
Step - ups
Ikeda - the 9 has such a low output it might as well not exist at all
EAR MC3 - very quiet, controls the denons occasional fatness in the bass
World Audio Design - I hand built it in the shed, looks like it too
Power Amps
Mission 777 - this is a great piece of 80's tranny gear - very good for rocking out to
MF XA-200s - these are MFs best - they don't have that transistor shine that sits over the music
Audio Innovations S1000 monos completely modified to stop them exploding as they did twice before the essential mods - why they didn't sort out the problems in the first place....
Just acquired a set of EAR 509's, once I work out where to put 'em I'll plug 'em in
Shortly to start a final search to upgrade all the pre-power part of the system
Speakers
Gallo Ref 3's - at long last for me, no more upgrading speakers
Cables - yes I use them
Stands
The usual suspects and custom built big mutha for the record players
Digital
Rega Planet - the original version with the dust collecting grooved top plate - sounds flat earthy
Naim CD5i - never thought I'd use Naim gear but this is mighty fine indeed - sounds not flat earthy
Apple ipod and ipod shuffle - I actually listen to music more on these than the big gear......!
Headphones
AKG 1000s
Jecklin Floats
Old set of Stax
big bag of cotton wool and a syringe
Vinyl
3,870 at last count
CD
891 at last count
Questions
Do I actually listen to all this stuff? Yep, around 18-20 hours a week - I m a music fan for sure.....!
Do I have an understanding partner? Yep to that, she regularly goes shopping for shoes/jewellery
Analogue or Digital? you need to ask?
Home Theatre? what's that?
Favorite piece of kit? My Dynavector DV507 because it just looks so cool
Do I listen to a record all the way through? you bet!! unless I need to tweak the arm/cartridge.....
Favorite LP? too many but today's is Crosby, Stills and Nash,
First proper HIFi? Rega turntable, Rega arm, AT95e, Arcam Alpha, Arcam Deltas - I still have it all, gonna give it to my nephew when he needs to upgrade from his MP3.
DECCAMAN
Sugden masterclass stereo power
