In article , Andy Evans
wrote:
With the sales on, and itchy fingers near wallets, this may be a good
time to ask everyone on the ng what they think is the best seperates and
system they ever heard in their entire listening lives. You can
nominate: a) Front end b) Amplifier c) Speakers d) Entire system

Should be interesting to see the results!

IMHO It would be more interesting if you'd also included:

pre-a) Sound recordings/broadcasts which are providing the actual music.

pre-d) Room acoustics.

Since in my experience once you have decent a/b/c/d/e these have more
effect that fiddling about changing components in the system.

FWIW my personal 'best' systems are those I currently use. Otherwise I
would be using something else... :-)

So in my case:

a) Meridian 200 and 263 (or 563) / Yamaha CT7000 / Quad FM (BBCR3)
b) Armstrong 700 range with modifed Quad 34's
c) Quad ESL63s or 988s with a subwoofer.

then spend ages fiddling about with the room placements of the speakers and
the mods to the 34s, combined with spending the real money on 'pre-a' and
collecting the music you want to enjoy. :-)

The most impressive and memorable system I recall hearing in the past,
though, was one that Armstrong used in an audio show. Think it was a Revox
A77, 500 range amp, and a pair of KEF speakers. (Concerto's I think.)
This was playing a tape which included the Hollies "Long cool woman in a
black dress". Sometime around 1970, but I forget exactly when.

However that system was only heard in a demo room at an Olympia show. Doubt
I'd prefer it now. :-)

Hear all sorts of systems in audio shows and shops. Also 'borrowed' all
sorts of items

For Iain: The 500 amp had an output impedance of about 1 Ohm, and used
AL102 output transistors (germanium). Could sound remarkably good, but the
AL102's would go off like firecrackers if too much current was demanded.
Despite this some people still use these amps, and like the results they
get. Circuit design of these amps is a nightmare. Don't look at the circuit
diagrams unless you want a headache... :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html