yes, i have no speakers

Kingstons have gone- am using old Monitor Audio R252s at the moment and why am I enjoying it more?

Ever felt that you'd spent so much on a bit of equipment, and you just KNOW that you're not putting it to it's full potential, so that you're distinctly unhappy with the end sound result.

Well, as i said, £150 15 year old speakers with paper cone , pressed steel chassis and unspiked stands are sounding just dandy on a £1500 amp .Who knows what speakers i'll have next, but after all this with £2000 and £2500 speakers respectively (ms860 and kingstons) its gonna be something much more lower budget

 

No disrespect Rory but I feel your findings just go to prove the source first theory.

Being honest, your source simply is not good enough to justify monitor speakers in the £2K region, I would be looking at boxes up to £1200 new if it were me, quite probably less.

Maybe a good route would be to invest around £1200 on a new (s/h) source, and then use what's left over for a damned fine pair of s/h speakers such as Harbeths or Spendors.

Just my tuppence worth

 

fair enough Merlin, my cdp is a piece of grade A Jap Crap but the dac is quite a little stormer mate- imo breezed a DAC20 at the bakeoff with its more impressive delivery. and forget better transports too, as a Densen B400Xs didn't better the Pioneer into the dac either, although the Densen had naturally better timing etc with its own built in dac

a long time ago i heard some JM Labs Micron Carats and was hugely impressed especially with their treble. May check out some s/h Electras soon.

 

I will chuck a spanner in the works here and suggest its simply that sometimes older stuff can be more musical, newer is so 'engineering' optimised, that the 'experience' gets overlooked..an analogy methinks....think of it as a 1960s sports car, say a jag, vs todays model....its much more advanced, but you miss the sheer driving thrill of the older model.

 

I know what you mean Data, but I used to own a apir of 352's back in the 80's and, whilst big on scale, they let very little through. The Spendor SP3a and Rogers LS7's of the day were a major step up, whilst retaining that beguiling musicality. The Spendors are still available today, hence my recommendation.

The Plinius is great, so will make good use of a quality front end. If you feel comfortable buying from the States at the moment, there are some crazy deals. How does a Wadia 850 for £1400 tax and duty paid sound Or a Sim Nova for the same money.

It sounds like Rory might be looking for some body to the sound. I would look to get it from the front end personally, then the whole set up will benfit.

 

If that was the silver one at the place I'm thinking of, you'd have to have been pretty quick to catch that one. I think it was posted up over night and went within hours - still someone got a nice bargain! :MILD:

 

That was the one Henry, but they are coming up all the time, there's a CD3 going for £1600 at the moment

 

Hey, but not "silver" ones! :MILD:

 

That's what an orbital sander, primer and spraypaint's for, Henry Available in any colour then...

 

Nice one selling those speakers Rory, glad you've shifted them. You sound like you've got a nice sounding system with your old speakers too .

As for getting a decent sound with comparatively cheap speakers on better kit, I'm not overly suprised. I mean at shows I've heard what to my ears is pretty reasonable music coming from budget speakers driven by far more pricey electronics.

As for silver HiFi, you can keep it thanks. Black for me, with perhaps some gold trim a la Densen, although silver would be better for not showing the dust I guess...