What speakers have you got? (Part two)…

Amphion Argon 1’s.

I’ve only heard Amphions once, but they were fantastic.
I do some work for the UK distributor – I really should call in a favour 🙂

Rega RS5s run from a Naim Uniti Star – Sounds excellent

Atc is round the corner from me. My old band mate puts things together there and texts me his handiwork as a tease. Bastard

The ATC factory is a great place.

The BBC monitors used to have a notch out in the midrange, rather than being ruler flat, in order to sound more realistic. That was in the day when they actually compared the speaker to a real presenter.

>notch out of midrange…more realistic

I can imagine that would work, there’s a few ripples in my setup now and I quite like the way it accentuates certain overtones etc.

Not quite in the same range as the others but I’ve had a Tannoy 5.1 setup for a while and really like them, not much need for anything more. Had a pair of Tannoy floor standers for nearly 15 years and these save so much space and get a better sound. I don’t listen to much music anymore but for the PS4 and movies it still makes me smile randomly. (surround is so much better than stereo!)

I have a pair of Rega Kytes purchased as a stop gap from STW’s very own cynic-al

They’re still going strong 7 years later.

One small difference here in Spain from the UK that I’ve discovered, is that the Spanish don’t really do Hifi. Lots of “audio” but no UK-type quality.

Managed to track down the closest thing in this part of the world to a NAIM dealership – just one guy operating from his flat in Malaga and shipping from a warehouse. So no real demo facilities.

Also, I had to wait for ATC to deliver.

First time in my life that I bought Hifi equipment using reviews, recommendations and a listen at the dealer’s place through his underpowered one-box system whilst trying to imagine how that would translate to my own setup…

It took a deal of organisation, travel, patience, guesswork and a small leap of faith (which, as you can imagine, was a first for me) but boy am I glad it all came together in the end.

😀

and a laptop with Spotify on it. What do I win?

An ancient set of Monitor Audio 703PMC floorstanders. Currently packed pending my umpteenth house move!!

TurnerGuy – Member
The BBC monitors used to have a notch out in the midrange, rather than being ruler flat, in order to sound more realistic. That was in the day when they actually compared the speaker to a real presenter.

Many current ‘Best Buy’ speakers can’t reproduce the spoken voice or a simple piano or solo violin piece
It never seems to get mentioned in the reviews.
I really like some of the current Dali models, but put a decent FM Radio 3 signal through them and they sound awful.

A pair of these still doing great service tied up to an Arcam 8 and AV50.

Also picked up a full 5.1 set up, almost new and in perfect condition, of the AE Aegis for £200 a few years ago. Another “pick up only” bargain.

Not my pictures.

Many current ‘Best Buy’ speakers can’t reproduce the spoken voice or a simple piano or solo violin piece

Well as long as they can reproduce one bass note at an unspecified pitch loudly enough they will sell.

Piano, violin, small scale choral, all much more complicated to reproduce. There isn’t one speaker capable of handling all source material (well in my opinion).

Small comment on MrWoppit’s setup. It looks like you have the stands on spikes on tiles. My inclination would be to remove the spikes and seat the stands on blobs of bluetac. Many will disagree.

and a laptop with Spotify on it. What do I win?

I have one of those, so nothing as I know what it sounds like…

Decent, but not hifi

Small comment on MrWoppit’s setup. It looks like you have the stands on spikes on tiles. My inclination would be to remove the spikes and seat the stands on blobs of bluetac.

I hear what you’re saying. I don’t think the blue tack would survive – the ATC’s weigh 17.8k each. Might see if I can source maybe some rubber grommets and give it a listen…

I nearly bought some shabby SCM 50As with a view to bringing them up to latest spec. Still sticking with the Kef 104/2s I’ve had for 20 years despite a number of CD and amp changes – Naim CDX/XPS/82/250.

I do think the price you can get these speakers for now makes them a bargain – if in good order.

Edit.

@mudshark, you’ve brought back memories of my old 104s-I bought some secondhand about 25 years ago. Still going strong in the hands of my brother. Great speakers!!

I have one Peavey TKO 115.
It has one fifteen inch cone and my funk will make you shit your pants.
What do I win?

andylaightscat – Member
not really plyphon, over the years I’ve done double blind tests with various friends and with some cables there is a difference whether it’s +ve or -ve depended on the person listening.

Sorry – it’s absolute tosh. From none other than Ethan Winer:

Speaking of myths, the common advice to always keep audio and AC power wires separate is also oversold. My test results aren’t worth a separate web page, but if you’re on Facebook you can see my report and audio example HERE.

http://ethanwiner.com/articles.html

After seeing a post in Lynn Fuston’s Facebook group about keeping XLR wires away from AC power wires, I figured this is worth testing. And no surprise, it turns out to be a myth. At least for balanced wiring. I bundled a 25-foot microphone wire with an AC power cord, and wrapped them together in a circle (like a transformer) to maximize any potential transfer of AC hum into the microphone cable. Then I connected my Audio-Technica AT4033 microphone to my Mackie 1202 mixer and set the preamp gain to maximum (48 dB).

You can view the raw data on his Facebook post. If you’d like to argue with Ethan Winer, go ahead 😉

I don’t want to argue with anyone just want to listen to music
Anyway I don’t use balanced interconnects and I said I’d tested mains with speaker cables so if you want an argument at least try to address the facts 🙂

You also said:

there is a difference whether it’s +ve or -ve depended on the person listening.

Which to mean says there was no conclusive results from your own tests – how can the result be both positive and negative depending on who’s listening? Surely what you’re trying to prove is that there is a negative result.

That’s the very definition of inconclusive.

slowoldman – Member

Small comment on MrWoppit’s setup. It looks like you have the stands on spikes on tiles. My inclination would be to remove the spikes and seat the stands on blobs of bluetac. Many will disagree.

I love playing about with this.

All totally subjective, on sprung wooden floors and the only tools I have for measuring floor and cab vibration are my hands, but…
Spikes seem to transfer the most energy to the floor.

BluTac, or even better, Sorbothane seems to transfer much less.
You can feel the difference by hand.

A granite board under the speaker makes a huge difference too.

Have ended up with Sorbothane pads between the speaker and the granite board, which sit on soft felt pads for ease of positioning.

Whatever you prefer will be a compromise between cab and floor vibration.

On an acoustically inert floor, spiking direct would seem to be the logical solution to reducing cab vibration, the floor being taken out of the equation.

What do you reckon?

Fat man valve amp with Acoustic Energy AE109’s do I win the scum bag system set up prize?

Might see if I can source maybe some rubber grommets and give it a listen…

Squash balls cut in half are the de riguer solution, aren’t they?

@mudshark, you’ve brought back memories of my old 104s-I bought some secondhand about 25 years ago. Still going strong in the hands of my brother. Great speakers!!

Were these the 104/2 speakers? I recently asked on Pink Fish Media what sort of price range I’d need to look at to get an improvement and was told I’d need to spend £4k so am sticking with what I have. I feel some decent Kudos speakers would appeal but think I’ll wait until mine need refurbishing which I probably won’t want to bother with.

I hope you’re using directional Blu-Tac, you monsters.

Anyway, speakers.

(not my photo)

Monster Cable.

Can we add that to the swear filter 😉

What do you reckon?

Well I reckon it makes no difference on my setup.
Carpet on concrete slab floor. You would think spikes are the way to go but my speakers are so heavy just sitting the baseplate directly on the carpet makes no difference. No spikes means no messing about leveling the damned things either.

When money was easy and I didn’t have 3 kids and a mortgage I gave a certain Mr Richard Dunn a lot of my folding stuff and by return he gave me a pre amp, two mono block amps plus two and a pair of these bad boys complete with a pair of stands that wouldn’t look out of place in a Sheffield forge. Paired with an LP12, a Pink Triangle power supply and a pair of Audio Technica electrostatic headphones I managed to escape the stress of life on a regular basis.

And yes they are as ugly as you know what – not recommended for domestic bliss or style gurus but they are good and similar in design philosophy as the Linn Isobariks

I remember talking to Richard in the late 90s, you could buy the amps in kit form to save money and they’d also let you trade amps in for full money (IIRC).

Anyone heard any of the Naim Ovators? A couple on Ebay at the moment.

@mudshark

I think they were the /2 model. big passive bass drivers and some adjustable widget on the front??

Edit: Looking online they were the original 104s.

Tannoy eyris2 with cyrus2/psx and a linn karik CD. Sounds damn lovely

In an effort to spruce up my listening room I went to take total control over the conservatory.

Set it up properly afyer digging out my old Atacama SE64 stands

Bit more tidying and I’m there.

What an improvement.

Nice.

did you start a new thread rather than continue the old one to get extra attention?

Interesting forum name.

Over-compensation, is it?