HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

I thought it might be interesting to read what gear we have all owned over the years.

I started with a crappy Panasonic all in one midi system. It did have a turntable on top.

My first serious foray into hifi was when I was about 16 years of age. It consisted of various bargains from Richer Sounds in Leeds. That culminated in Marantz cdp and amp and a pair of Wharfedale Delta 30. Kept that lot quite a while.

When I got some money behind me I went to Image Audio (name says it all ) and auditioned a few different combo's. Ending up walking out with a Naim Nait 3, Naim CD3.5 and a pair of B&W P4 speakers. This was 1997.

In 2000 a friend wanted rid of his Linn LP12 and Lingo which had been sat in his cupboard for a decade since he got into DJ decks. I paid £150 for them having never heard them. I had no records at this point and hadn't had a turntable in 15 years.

CD3.5 and B&W speakers stayed for 20 years and I still have them although the cdp is modified extensively. Amps got changed and hicaps were added. Naim Aro bought and I went through various dynavector cartridges before getting a Lyra Argo.

Discovered the joys of diy in about 2007 and my Naim stuff got bodged to hell and back. Various Avondale products were the final things I bought before I read about this awful viper's pit called Hifi Subjectivist where a certain Richard Dunnput the world to rights and upset people. Having enjoyed RD's rants on pfm back in the day years previously I thought I'd yive this place a look.

That was six years ago and I'm still here. Bought quite a few things off Richard. BMU, AP20, Phono1, six nva amp boards, several doc mod drivers, TIS, LS6. The rest is history.

That's it I'm affraid. A very limited exposure to different gear. What I have now is the most rewarding out of everything I have owned and I think I have finally found what I was looking for after all these years of throwing money away.

My first setup was a Leak Stereo 20 that I’d had rebuilt, and a single channel passivenpre amp, and a budget CD Player.

Sounded absolutely magic. Gone full circle, got another rebuilt Leak Stereo 20 earlier in the year.

Quite a bit over the years - I had been making a list just to remind myself - so thanks for asking. ( Would have been rich if it wernt for this hobby )

Garrard sp25 mkii - Shure cartridge
Amstrad amp ( Had natty eq controls ! )
Solavox speakers (From comet methinks )
Philips CD player (cant remember model wasnt 101 - anyway it was lifeless )

Sansui Amp A40 ( love those VU meters )
Aiwa tape deck ( Digital bar VU metres )

Panasonic Record Deck ( dont know model)
Traded in for Sansui SR 222 mk2 with a Grado cartridge ( First deck I loved - trounced Linn Axis in a demo )

AR18s speakers
Ariston RD 80 SL Helios arm with AR p77 - later swapped to Alphason H100 arm

Creek CAS 4040 ( first UK amp )

Speakers Spendor preludes

TT - Townsend rock
With Mission 774 arm
Then RB300
Audio technica ATF 5 ( Sweet )

Audio Inovations A300 ( unlistenable )
Pioneer A400
NVA P60 A40 ( stayed with me for years - was amazing with Rock TT and Dean Alto Pro speakers (Importantly LS1 speaker cable) )

Talk Audio Hurricane Tornado etc (Dreadful never musical )

Roksan Caspian CD player ( awful )
Beard P50 power amp
Naim CD 3.5 (OK ish )

Hafler DM 101 / Haflet power cant remember power amp ref

Linn Ikemi CD player
Sony PlayStation SCHP1001 ( A bit bright but with Hafler tone controls smashed all other CD players I had)

Musical Fidelity Nuvistor CD player

Goodmans maxim 2

Meadowlark Kestrels

Rogers valve power amp - something ..... junior (early version with mullards EC 84 (?) .... blackburn tubes NOS

Little bit DAC
Panasonic DVD player

Royd A7

Dean Alto Pro (still going strong at a mates )

Quad 12L

And probably things I forgot.......

My 16th birthday present from my parents was a Pioneer system of PL514X turntable, SA-506 amp and a pair of 2-way speakers, soon replaced by large floor-standing KEF's.

As soon as I started earning my own wages came a Michell Focus One TT, a Nytech CA252 amp with Arcam One speakers (still in daily use). A mid-range Nakamichi cassette deck was also added.

1985 brought NVA amps and the Logic DM101 / Syrinx LE1 combo, this purchased at Huddersfield Hifi who were responsible for turning me into a total audio freak.

First CD player in 1986, Trio/Kenwood DP-1100 MK2 followed by a Cambridge CD2. Things stagnated after that due to moves, emigration, divorce, starting over again, etc etc..

Early 2000's had me investigating computer and file-based audio. Headphones and in-ears came and went. The MF XCanV3 arrived.

The Logic TT stopped working and was consigned to the attic, a Pro-Ject 1.2 replaced it and an Arcam CD62T arrived.

Discovered the outboard DAC with an MF V-DAC. Quickly upgraded to an MF M1DAC. Then models from Hegel, Cambridge and a succession of NOS-based units from the far East.

2014: I discovered that NVA were running again and I got in touch with RD and started on the slippery slope of stepped attenuators and monoblocks.

The rest of my journey has been extensively catalogued on (and caused by) this forum. And has me now with 9 (count 'em) operational audio installations in house, mostly based on a selection of network streamers and vintage gear from thrift shops.

May the sound be with you.

Mr Mucical. Having never heard of your Meadowlark speakers I googled them and had a peak. They certainly look nice with that slanted front baffle. Apparently the baffle is decoupled from the rest of the cabinet . Interesting.

I started with a system bought for me by my dad.
Technics slps50 inherited when he changed his cd player, nad 3020i and jpw minimonitors.

Had that from being about 13 until i was 17. Changed the speakers for some diy transmission lines my dad had built.

They got broken by my cousin who was only really young and poked the cones in.

Changed for an inherited pair of linn index 2 on kustone stands

They were then changed for a pair of kef q15s that i bought myself.

Then changed for a pair of inherited kef q55s.

I then bought myself a nad c340 amp. That did some discos with the q55s and a flowery imac at the school my dad was working at. The old itunes visualiser on the very first version of osx was sent onto the wall in the school hall via the school projector!. Around this time the lp12 was inherited, after i dug it out from under the bed where it had lain in shame for years. (Valhalla, akito, k18)

The c340 was changed for a musical fidelity a3 with phono stage and the cd player was changed for a musical fidelity xray, the q55s stayed. The nasty akito k18 was binned and a project arm was prised from henley designs, and an ortofon 540 was fitted. Much much better. This would have been around 01-02 ish

Next the kefs were changed for quad 11l's.

I moved out and the quad, mf, linn system stayed for a while.

It was sold when we were shit bust skint after i was made redundant for the first time, apart from the linn which was taken to bits and built into my own half arsed abomination of a turntable which sounded surprisingly nice.

There then followed about a million turntables because they fascinate me, i built dozens of valve amps, and a couple of built pairs of speakers.

In there were also a rotel ra211 which i loved, sweetest tranny amp i ever had, a creek cas4040 which i hated, a&r cambridge a60 which was perhaps the most boring amp i have ever heard, a massive 70s sony reciever which i loved, and a trio ka something amp that was a real smoothie.
There was also an inca design katana cd player which was lovely, another thing i wish i didnt get rid of. Bought it with my redindancy money after the second redundancy, sold it after the third time. Bastards.

I faffed with cd players, mostly old philips players with early cdm transports and tda1541 dacs, they are a lot of fun to bugger about with. Had a meridian mcd which was a lovely thing, and a philips cd303, both the tda1540 chip

Then i got the nelson pass f5 and it clicked into place. A b1 buffer completed the set and i have not changed the amplification since.

The valve amps all got dismantled and i gave up on that part of diy completely. Although i do have a breadboard sv811-3 amp with an aikido front end that needs putting in a box that sounds very very good indeed. I will get it done eventually.

So as it stands, the system has remained fairly static for a number of years.

At the moment it is the pass f5 and b1 amplification, cyrus cd7 because my arcam transport gave up the ghost, cole lcr phono stage and a benedict audio hothead phono stage
And a rotating cast of turntables. I have enough for one every day of the week so why not, i can connect 5 at a time........
Speakers are the great big 15" fane aperiodic washing machines.

The vast majority of music played is via lps, the jvc automatic is the most used one because the missus uses it and generally gets in there first when it comes to listening.
Just this morning i have had to change the cart on it again because she wears out stylii through use. Need a new cart for it again really, its got richards empire 1000gt on it now which i bought from nadia when i sorted out his analogue stuff for her.

He would probably be telling me that its 'too fackin hifi' (thats what he said about it after a couple of days using it) and to get a 103 or m3d or something on it.

Well i like it you cudmergeonly old bugger!

Can't remember everything covering so many years so this is the highlights. It all started in 79 when I bought my first system from a discount warehouse affiliated to Comet: Pioneer PL514 TT, Ortofon cartridge, Armstrong tuner amp and Celestion Ditton speakers. A Sansui cassette deck followed. A year later the TT was upgraded to a Dual. In 83 I could afford a LP12. The audition was a king with no clothes on moment and I ended up with a Rega Planar 3. Heybrook HB1 speakers followed later in the year and in 84 the NAD 3020. This system provided me with a lot of musical enjoyment for decades. I had completely lost interest in hifi in the realisation that the magazines were under the spell of the Glasgow mafia and Salisbury stooges. Nevertheless I adopted CD in 86, my first player being a Yamaha.

My interest in hifi resurfaced around eight years ago thanks to the Internet. I discovered streaming and there is a recent thread on this "My streaming journey" so I will only refer to the analogue side. Before I discovered NVA I had upgraded to an Arcam amp and Dynaudio speakers, more expensive and better sounding than the budget kit I had before.

I discovered NVA in 2016 after stumbling on the HFS forum. It started with the BMU and took off from there. LS6 followed later upgraded to what is LS7. With NVA cable in place the A80s and P50 SA (upgraded to P90SA) followed. They have been upgraded to the latest specs. I was sceptical about Cubes, but on hearing them I was hooked, 3s being upgraded to 1s. Although I was not playing much vinyl I could not resist a returned Phono 1 at a low price. The now vintage Rega had never sounded so good. I also picked up the second system at low cost. A20/P20/LS 3 with interconnectors which were previously on the main system after upgrading to TIS.

Well that is it including a period of nearly thirty years with little activity. Since discovering NVA, streaming and upscaling I have never enjoyed music so much and it has coincided with my retirement, over five years now, giving me plenty of time to enjoy it.

Re Meadowlark kestrel speakers

Hey Mr Stu
Yes the man who developed the Kestrel brand - Pat McGinty - had good respect in the community. I have had these for - must be twenty years now. I didnt know anything about them when bought - they just sounded good - still do.