Upgrade thoughts......

Hi James

Now that is true.

Have a good holiday!

 

caught you James you were not going to post on the internet when you were on holiday.

I was enjoying other partds of the Kate Bush cd and wasn't really listening to her voice.

Still as james said we are looking for different things, and his system is pretty darn good i was just nitpicking.

Enjoy your hols mate.

 

Bub,

Yes, its true that sibilance is often on the recording. However some systems seem to enhance it so that it becomes rather obvious and tiring.

BTW, You'd really like Merlins D100s. They are superb, with a neutral monitor like balance. Very impressive, if not ideal in his room. The treble was fantastic and the twin ATC mids per side produced a superb midrange. Almost as good as my 1SCs

If I had unlimited space and funds, they'd deffo be on my shortlist.

 

Paul (OP not AK),

Nice to see another Edinburger on the forums! Some day we shall have to gather together all of our kind doon the pub and compare hifi stories.

As for your upgrade plans... I would be tempted to follow the advice of a few members already and get yourself some quality stands for your speakers. It makes a rather shocking amount of difference.

The next thing I would do if I had a wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket would be to have a listen to all the speakers in my price range that I like the look of (and that might work well with my amp and room). As I don't have much experience of valve amps, I couldn't really recommend anything useful (my usual recommendation is something from the ATC stable - the SCM-12s at £999 are fabulous - but 12-watts of valve amplification may not really be the best match for them... that said, I've heard a pair of 12s driven by a medium-wattage valve amp and as long as you didn't crank it to crazy levels it sounded rather wonderful.)

As for where to go in Edinburgh, you really need to go see Graeme at Retro Reproductions down on Leith Walk (28A Haddington Place). He's a one-man hifi dealer specialising in used hifi, though he does do a few brands new (including ATC). He's also a bit of a vinyl/valve aficionado and I'm sure can offer you advice on your predicament. He also has lots of cool hifi bits and bobs lining the walls of his shop so it's always interesting to pop in just to see what he's got his hands on at any given moment. Furthermore, by virtue of his almost exclusive dealings in secondhand kit, he's always happy to give you a home dem.

Other than Retro, your best bet is probably Loud & Clear. The rest of the hifi shops (Hifi Corner, Sevenoaks, James-Morrow) are alright, but pretty mainstream and it can be hard finding someone who knows what they're talking about.

Another idea would be to try Glasgow. There's a wide variety of hifi shops in Weegieland and you should be able to find someone who can help you out. Let me know if you need any recommendations. (Oh, and there's always AnalogueKid and The Devil if you need Glasgow guidance. )

Dunc

 

For valves one place is Audio Salon in Park Circus, they have one of these it just might better waht you have,


Just for the record those big valves are bigger than a sixty what light bulb, in fact nearly the same size as apint glass! and the volume knobs are nearly the size of coke cans, this is one big mother needs two amp stands,

originally cost £22.5k 4 years old and new valves £7995, bargain.

Oh It's a Unison Research Absolute 845 40w/ch SE needs about 4 Kw to run (that may be a slight exageration)

 

Paul,

Are you related to Jack at A/Salon by any chance ? he had more plugs than B & Q's plumbing dept.

 

LOL.

It also seems that that Dunkyboy is on a retainer for ATC. If you read his posts, to the uninitiated it would appear that there is only one company that makes loudspeakers!

 

WADIA master? is this not a veiled plug, oh and you also get tubes and spanners in B&Q plumbing.

Dunc with ATC, Bub with ****, SAAB with Sugden, the list goes on.

TBH it's a bit like Issac and JJ just trying to help my local dealer, nothing more sinister than that, and he does have some not bad deals

 

Hi Guys!

I seem to have created a monster thread Haven't really been online for the last day or two (my new set of valves just got to the 'nicely burned in' stage )

AK - I *want* that Unison Research amp - badly Looks like something out of a 1960s Sci-Fi set ! Unfortunately I'd need to sell the car to buy it

Hi Dunc! (Incidentally your second name isn't Robertson is it?). Thanks for the tip re Retro Reproductions - I had no idea we had such a dealer locally..... Definitely worth a visit, thanks. Definitely a Hi-Fi stories pub night sounds like a good idea!

I think I've decided to go for some new speaker stands first, then get the amp serviced. I got a quote from Nick at the Emporium - £100 for 'normal' components or £150 if I go for some 'fancy' caps.... ('oscons , paper in oils, and maybe black gates' - anyone any thoughts on this?)

Someone has also given me a passive pre-amp they had lying around (A Moth passive line stage) - been auditioning it and its made the sound quite a bit clearer, although it might have lost a wee bit of weight in the bass.....

Anyway - time to go to work now......

Cheers

Paul

 

Paul

Good public transport in Ed what do you need a car for, go on sell it.

saying that car prolly costs less to run than that beast.

PS wasn't really giving AS a plug here, just thought, Paul might like to dream, and the dealer is fairly local for him.

 

Paul
RE paper in oil caps, i think they are a matter of taste. I tried some in a valve phono amp. I found them a bit on the slow side with wooly bass. I prefer a good PP type, more deffinition. All IMO of course and YMMV

 

paul,

To use a passive pre with your valve amp you need to get the input impedance changed to 150k -200k and the bass weight will return.

Alan

 

I've been hoping ATC will notice and start sending me cheques but no joy so far.

As for my surname, it's Armstrong, not Robertson - sorry to disappoint.

Dunc

 

I think my wife (who is very understanding generally on the Hi-Fi and other electronic gadgets front) might just object if I announced I was selling the BMW in order to buy an amp

Thanks for the info on oil caps penance.

Alan - that's a very high impedance, isn't it? Dunno what the Moth pot is, but I do know that my DIY job uses 47k pots. Probably an interesting experiment to get hold of some 200k pots and see what happens I suspect......

That's OK Dunc Just I used to know someone in Edinburgh who was also into HI-Fi who used Dunc or Dunx as a short hand for his name....... (My No2 Son is also called Duncan but he tends to be referred to as Dunky)

 

Paul, You need a 10K pot with the input impedance at the amp input around 150K-200K don't try and use a 200K pot.

 

Any system which does that isn't hi-fi. I would have hoped that most zerogainers had progressed beyond that.

Anyway, K and I are having a wonderful time here in the Fens. We pushed the boat out and a little bit of behind-the-scenes string-pulling has secured us a "superior" grade 'Van with some lovely Fenland views.

 

Hi Paul,

that's a good move with the stands - you'll get biggest improvement for the smallest outlay there. The MA452's are good speakers - as you say they are very warm, even a little soft sounding but they are a very easy listen and they present the music in a believable enough way.

Let us know how you get on.

Best,

Matthew

 

"Paul, You need a 10K pot with the input impedance at the amp input around 150K-200K don't try and use a 200K pot."

Alan - not quite with you there then..... 'fraid my electronics knowledge is limited to a few very basic bits of theory and how to use a soldering iron (though I can usually follow a circuit diagram.....)

 

Paul,

I don't plug Sugden,I just remind people that the A21 is the best amp in the world ever,in the known universe,since the dawn of time,in the £1049.99 price bracket,thats not plugging its stating fact-every other amp is shit,in fact the only thing i offer this bbs is to remind everyone of this undisputable fact.Please don't tell me thats a plug.

also,plugs are merchandised in the electrical dept,unless you meant sink plugs,these are dual merchandised in Showrooms and Plumbing

ps I am a General Mgr of a B&Q Warehouse,so please don't question me on this,I am an expert,trust me