Your first hi-fi 'knockout' moment?

It,s amazing how this kit gets pidgeon holed .
Chris , you seem quite shocked that Bub would think that your arcam with a trichord and air plat is smooth and sleepy and then you suggest that you,d have MF or NAD .
I noticed the other day WM suggest an Mf dac for someone who wanted a smooth sound .

I use an MF a3.24 in my set up and I,m sorry smooth and sleepy it ain,t .I seem to recall when WM and Henry T heard my system they both said it was one of the fastest and most dynamic that they had heard which if you cosider the level of my gear ain,t bad going .

 

Ah, well, I'm only going by personal experience here. I haven't heard your system. Nor have I heard every bit of kit that MF or NAD produce. However, what I have heard failed to inspire me. The NAD C370 sounded like it was 6 feet under compared to an Arcam Alpha 8R. The NAD was really dull and boring. It just didn't pull me into the music. I've heard a few NAD CD players over the years and although I can't remember the model numbers, they were all smooth and inoffensive to the point of only being any use for Music For Pleasure. No life at all. This was all budget stuff of course. I haven't heard the Silver Series. I would expect them to be better. As for MF, I did once hear some good sounds from an X-DAC, but the A308 that I tried before settling on the ATC was sleep inducing. It totally failed to excite the ATC SCM12s. Sorry

 

I can vouch for the S500 being quite nice

 

Ditto S300.

 

Its a bit like saying that a Bentley is not a proper sports car or too slow because you prefer a Porsche. Yet, this Bentley could be a new continental, so in fact, even though it is comfort orientated to a degree, its still every inch a sports car, and its certainly VERY quick. Yet you will never convince that Porsche owner that the Bentley may be in fact, far better than what they have.

Same with hifi kit really. It seems to be a generally accepted fact on this forum that MF gear is sleepy. The only MF kit I've heard are the X-Cans but they werent exactly sleepy - very bright and strident in fact. Not really heard much else by them. Given how most people who buy them are probably delighted with them, it just goes to show how much snobbery and bullshit gets projected on forums like these.

I can understand a bit of banter on forums like these, but it seems like some people really believe the crap they talk

 

Yeah , me for one .

Chris ,
It is amazing how it goes .
I,m under the same impression that Arcam is polite and maybe a bit soggy , and I,ve never even heard an Arcam .
The power of the internet (and magazines)


ps ,
At least your talking from experience

 

The 8R amp was a little soft in the bass and didn't go as deep as the NAD C370 but what it did do was reproduce the music in a musical lively fashion where the NAD just sounded dull. The Arcam had better detail, better transparency and a better soundstage.

The 9 CD player is a different kettle of fish. It is not like the cheaper players in the Alpha series. It makes them and most of the competition sound rough. And yet you couldn't describe it as polite, particularly when it was blasting out 'Meltdown' by 'Orbital' yesterday morning It's full of life and sparkle but without the ear removing brightness and digitalitis that seems to afflict much of the competition. It isn't soggy either. It can kick like a mule. It has what Tony likes to call thwack :lol:

 

Yes the internet is full of bullox all right
The m/f dac at richards, the sound was dynamic and fairly up front without question, now I also posted it was the only place its been like that too (that I've heard, I also owned one) if you remeber.
Richard systems, had dedicated spurs and power condioners and filters for each piece of equipment, also the JM labs were, about 3 feet away in the A/Physics configuration, now forgive me here, but ever heard the story of heads in bass bins at a motor head concert?, the closer you get to a speaker the more dynamic it gets I believe same sort of effect, and throughout the session it gave a unhindered and non hard presentation, especially when a certain digital lead was used.
So again power here played a part in no small terms along with speaker set up
Not all m/f stuff is dire, and if you also remeber I do give the 3.24 the thumbs up also the pre24 if you don't use the transort section.
the 308 stuff is well............
And I aint heard an undynamic headphone set up yet, valves seem to be the best in this area as well.
So if you quantify the situation things may be a little different

 

I suppose the electrics might have something to do with it

I can see where your coming from , but as I,ve said before I went back to the more normal practice of having the speakers near the back wall with no loss in dynamics .


all the best
richard

 

Back on topic ,
My first knockout hifi (if it can be called hifi)was listening to my brothers new aiwa seperates with aiwa speakers about 20 years ago .
It was a revelation .
My brother actually still had the system up until a year or so ago .
He gave it to his father in law where it is still doing sterling work .
I did have a listen to the aiwa speakers a while back with the brothers new set up and they were awful .
But it could be just down to their age .
I,ll always remember it as a really nice set up .

 

AIWA gear always did have a certain niceness about it. Always pleasant to listen to. We (that is Mum and Dad) had an Aiwa Music Centre (AF3080 I think) that always made an agreeable sound. I had an AIWA ghettoblaster that also sounded better than most. Later I had a mini digital tuner (R50 ?) that sounded good too. And as for their cassette decks - couldn't fault them for the money.

Whatever happened to AIWA

 

Never had one. Conclusive proof of sustained deafness over the 30-odd (very) years I've been listening to hi-fi, I guess. Still, wouldn't go back to the Sansui AU 101, mind you.

 

Come on tones, what about Titian's gear? And you haven't visited me yet!

[winky-smilie]

 

Can you remind me the name of the laddie with "Winkie" as a surname?

 

My first and only knockout moment was when I heard the loudspeakers 'System 16' of Nestorovic for the first time. Without that moment I don't think I would have now a Hi-End system. Silly but so it was.

 

Absolutely superb, James, as I'm sure yours is. But I came to Titian's having heard good (if not great) hi-fi, so it really wasn't an epiphany, as if I'd only heard a tranny before. But then I have no manas whatsoever, and neither has Titian.

 

I remember mine very clearly,was the last year at school,in fact last few weeks,1985 I think was roughly the year,couldn't wait to get out of school after spending years of watching teachers being continually on strike.

It was a sunny afternoon,my mate from Birmingham,we was in Essex,asked if I wanted to bunk off and go round his house and listen to some reggae music,and his brand new CD player,so off we went,there was nothing off importance that afternoon so we decided to thumb a lift,it was over 10 miles to his place,luckily some flash git was testing out his new Sierra Cosworth,and stopped to give us a lift.woah!!did we get home quick,as the guy was showing us what this new Cossie could do,nice.

Anyway, first I was keen to hear this new medium of this small silver disk , he put on Michael Jackson" BAD "and it certainly was,shrill, bright and pierceing,I was so shocked at how bad it sounded,so he suggested to play some vinyl on his parents rig,I was using some Technics set up,and set eyes on his parents kit,er yuk I thought how ugly,had no idea what TT it was,but it was black,big and ugly,speed change was manual,and took about 3 mins to build up speed,have no idea what the speakers,amp was,just it look tatty and rough.


On to the TT went some Aswad,I stood there waiting,it coughed splutterd,then boom it hit me!! wow what a awesome sound,my eyes shot almost out of thier sockets,and a big grin appeared on my face,I looked at my mate,he could see what i was thinking,so we just started dancing around to the power, scale,and sheer awesomeness of the sound,It was a moment ,a sound that frooze in my mind that will never leave me,a sound I've never heard again or that left me so speechless,of how something so old and ugly could sound so good that you just danced as if you was at a reggae concert,ahhh what a memory that was.