I have just inherited via a friend of my mom's a pair of quad esl 63s and a pair of quad 57s. Am looking forward to getting them set up.
What a pile of old hat failed technology cr@p.
Tell you what, I'll take them off your hands and not even charge for pickup - or, doing you a huge favour swap for a pair of Wharfdale Diamonds.
<wink>
Welp, picked up the stuff today and all good with a slight misunderstanding on my part. It's a pair of 63s and a single 57. The owner was into early music and had a collection of hundreds of 78s, all mono, and that's what he listened to them on!
KEF Q Series something or others - floor jobs up front and a centre/stand mount rears... the sub expired so needs replacing at some stage. Sound ace and fill the room though, and haven't really missed the sub so may just leave it.
In t'other room there is a pair of KRK Studio Monitors... may add a sub to them at some stage if my mixes need more bass response when recording starts up... but for the moment they are absolutely fantastic!
So I'm done with the Cerwins. They're great "party" speakers but they lack clarity and poise and I regret selling the Tannoy 633
Looking at KEF Q500 vs Pioneer FS SP52 or similar floorstanders. Wharfedale Diamond around the same price too.
Bought my ProAc D15's with me to Spain but I've now got a smaller listening space and there's not enough air for them perform.
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Going to audition some suitable replacements at the "local" dealer in Malaga.
Spendor or Dynavector. Looking for small ported boxes on stands...
^^^ Those are pretty!!!
So tempted with these..
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Audio Physic Tempo 25. Absolutely love 'em.
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We used to have a pair of wilmslow audio prestige speakers which were absolutely fantastic but didn't come with us through house moves. Don't listen to a whole lot of music these days, much more internet radio, and a smaller set of stand speakers is fine.
Wilmslow audio! Blast from the past, used to love pouring over their speaker kit brochures. Exploded a pair of massive ones at a party we threw.
Interesting to see Ruark getting mentions, I'm getting reacquainted with a pair of Icons I have to a pal - I designed them 🙂
Some 1960s Kolster Brandes KS651s.
They look and sound.... pleasant.
Spendor S3/5Se
to a Naim Nait 5e and Linn LP12.
Basically a Rogers Ls3/5A - tight and renders vocals better than anything other than Harberths.
not much bass but then they're in the cottage part of the house which has low ceilings and smaller rooms (I live in an old farmhouse which has a later 19th C part). So, bass is not an issue unlike the Linns they replaced - too boomy for the hobbit hole.
I got them for £300 off EBay, from Austria.
Anyhow, get a decent converter or streamer and run Qobuz 28 bit - the difference in quality is amazing.
Mission 704a run off an Arcam AVR300 in bi-amp mode and a Marantz CD52. Not subtle but it really kicks and was a cheap set up, certainly in hi-fi terms.
Speakers were new 15 years ago. CD player and amp were second hand. Under £400 all in with cables.
Other rig is Tannoy m3, Marantz 2226b, Philips CD104, Dual 505-2. Beautiful, just beautiful. I'm sure some higher end speakers would improve it though.
We Accoustics floor standers in the living room. Great sound and really effortless, but unfortunately bought just after my deaf neighbour moved out.
The kitchen tunes are served by a pair of B&W DM602s that have been demoted from living room duties upon arrival of the floorstandibg Q Accoustics.
Kitchen sound system is as far away from the party wall and my nieghbour and so often gets abused more.
Kef Reference 104/2s.
Got them free about ten years ago but they're from the late 80s. In a Rotel Pre/Power system with two power amps running in mono.
Sound great.
A few years ago I set up a couple of paires of modern speakers alongside the Kefs and I thought they sounded better, initially.
When we switched back to the Kefs there was no comparison.
My mate said " Those other speakers sound like a very good recording is being played but with the Kefs it seems like the band is actually in the room."
Bought these a few weeks ago. Lovely.
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quad esl57. utterly divine.
Soooooo
Got rid of the Cerwin e710's. Just too full on. Harsh highs and overpowering bass. Great party music speakers but not good at all for tv/movies.
So I ended up with some Wharfedale Diamond 9.5. Was looking at a new set for $700 and nearly got them, then found a local woman selling her elderly Dad's AVR and speakers. Ended up with a set of Diamond 9.5, a 10" Tannoy sub, a Jamo centre and a Yamaha RV-x620 amp for $600! All pristine condition. The Wharefedale's, not a mark on them and doubtful if any real volume has been put through them. Kevlar drivers too. Mmmm
Kept my existing amp in place, new speakers on that. New Yammy amp in the kitchen hooked up to some smaller Cerwin XLS-6 bookshelf speakers. Perfect for bit of reggae this arvo ( http://rtrfm.com.au/ on the for next hour and a half if anyone's interested).
Oh, and got given a Sony bluray player for nowt which has wifi, usb and plays SACDs too.
Basically LS/35as, but in thin wall cabinets from Stirling Broadcast, which mimic the original cabinets the prototypes versions used and are suppossed to be more of a 'lossy' cabinet.
Using external crossovers from a company called Cicable, one of the founding members being Derek Hughes who used to run Spendor and whose dad started it.
The combination of those two things makes a huge difference to that speaker with much lower THD - much more like a grade 1 broadcast speaker sans the bass.
And used in combinaton with Stirling Broadcast AB-2 bass extenders.
Driven by mono-block Quad 909s and a Tact 2.2x pre-amp, with a Music First TVC pre-amp in between just acting as a buffer, as it seems to matchthe pre and power amps together much better for some reason.
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Just put up the audio baffles and restacked/cable tidied...
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None currently (well a beat up pair of TDL RTL R40's but they don't really count as they're not hooked to anything).
I did have a pair of Rega RS5's most recently at they were brilliant.
Do all my listening on headphones at the moment and have the very lovely if excruciatingly expensive Hifiman HE1000K MK2.
Detail wise unlike anything I've ever heard...
Mr Woppit, are those specifically left and right speakers? I'd have them the other way round so the curved part of the grilles are by the walls.
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aphex_2k - Member
Mr Woppit, are those specifically left and right speakers? I'd have them the other way round so the curved part of the grilles are by the walls.
Without grilles...
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... and BTW, RichPenny, that looks pukka.
And explains your forum name. 😯
@Woppit they look right way round without grilles on. How strange.
D'you think we should have a "Hifi Porn" thread?
Dynaudio Audience 42s in cherry, with a REL Strata III sub
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Original AE109s. They replaced a pair of B&O Pentas which sounded superb but my wife hated and had begun to rot. (Speakers, not wife)
The Pentas were driven by a Beomaster BM6000 and a CDX cd player. I think it was the best sounding system I ever heard.
Currently using the AE109s with Marantz 6006, Rega P1 and Marantz CD5000 and Im delighted with it all.
The Pentas were driven by a Beomaster BM6000 and a CDX cd player. I think it was the best sounding system I ever heard.
Well, there was a bit of N**M kit in there, after all... 😉 8)
Woppit, I [i]love[/i] the stand your kit is on!
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Whole setup looks very neat, good work with the cable tidying, the rear of my setup is a total mares-nest of cables, wires and optical connectors.
Thanks.
Ah but you can't see the rear of the stack... 😳
The main thing is to have the boxes that connect with each other in that order in the stack and let the cables hang loose without getting tangled up. Do this by building it up from the bottom having decided on the order and connect the cables as you go....
Still looks a bit of a mare's on first glance, mind.
The stand is made by "Isoblue" out of a mix of wooden "legs" and veneered mdf flats.
It works well as an audio isolator and also, I like it because it looks like furniture rather than laboratory shelving.
I'd love to be able to afford the top-of-the-range NAIM shelving like RichPenny's but at £400 a shelf it's WAAAAAAY out of my budget.
I've run the speaker cables through some pipe insulation to tidy it up visually.
Also I use a Grahams "Hydra" mains supply cable that feeds four boxes into one plug outlet. Helps keep things simple.
I wonder about the damping material around the immediate sides and back of Mr Woppits setup - surely that grade of stuff is only going to be of use to catch higher frequencies and so wouldn't it be better extending it more forward from the speakers so it catches first reflections from the side walls.
I had a 3 piece sofa with the side chairs either side of the speakers and which had big cushions, and they improved the sound a lot because of those pesky first reflections.
More of a live-end dead-end approach :
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/sos-guide-control-room-design
with the most audible effect being a booming of certain bass notes.
Precisely the effect I'm trying to suppress, as it happens.
I have found over the years in many different rooms that this is the effect of un-damped room corners behind the speakers.
I'm trying out this wall panelling as an alternative to the curtain wall hangings I was using in England. It's advertised as being for removing bass-end bloom and was well user-reviewed on Amazon.
You may well be right and I may need to extend the side wall baffling.
The kit was only switched on 24 hours ago so I won't know precisely the effect until it's completely warmed up by Tuesday pm.
A couple of scatter cushions might help as well.
Only time and my ears will tell... 😉
I did a hifi a couple of times and the second time we set up someone sat in the listening position whilst a person lifted each speaker and moved around, backwards/forwards and side to side, until the listener indicated the best listening position - it was like a camera snapping into focus apparently.
Indeed. Speaker positioning is crucial.
My problem is I'm restricted by the smaller size of room to the previous facility.
I may have to downsize to "bookshelf" speakers on stands.
At the moment, I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm just about going to get away with it, despite the tiny amount of room to maneuvre that I've got.
The photos make the space look bigger than it is.
I was going to suggest moving the speakers in from the side walls and away from the rear walls but I'm guessing the sound deadening would have a similar end result? Are they rear ported?
I've got about 3-6 inches in any direction. It might make a difference.
They're ported underneath.
@Mr Whoppit
Did NIAM have an input into B&O amplifiers?
Not as far as I'm aware and I doubt it very much. Two different planets, but I'm no expert so don't take my word for it. The NAIM forums might have an answer for you.
Back in the day they used to run hand-in-hand with Linn ("We'll do the amps, Linn'l do the rest) until Julian and Ivor had a bit of a parting of the ways...
Well, there was a bit of N**M kit in there, after all...
I thought you were referring to NAIM
😉
ATC Active 20's. I love them. Had them brought up to latest spec by ATC last year and they sound great. They have been a total bargain.
Well, there was a bit of N**M kit in there, after all...
I thought you were referring to NAIM
lol...I dont know what N**M kit is!
