Should I upgrade?
 

"Ovenpaa" wrote in message
. ..
I posted a couple of days ago re M3 problems, and can now see a resolution
once I have tracked down some Audax tweeters, however lurking here for a
few days was a mistake because it has set me wondering should I upgrade?

I run a real mismatch in that my system ranges from nearly 25 years old to
5 years, and comprises:

Meridian M3 speakers
Archaic meridian 101B pre-amp
Meridian 506 CD transport
Linn LP12 with Ittok arm, Valhala and Stilton cartridge

We live in a tiny cottage, and listen to a wide range of music on vinyl
and CD ranging from Roy Harper through Lisa Ekdahl to Tricky with some
strange bits thrown in for good measure.

So my question is should I consider upgrading (maybe starting again from
scratch is a better way of putting it) and what does the group feel is
a good replacement or should I even consider an upgrade, and more to the
point what will it cost?

I used some M3 speakers for quite a while and was very impressed with the
clarity, especially the mid-range and the highs were excellent. I sold them
on ebay for well over £300 :-)

I now use Meridian D600 digital active speakers (second-hand @ around £600)
they are floorstanding and give a much fuller sound, if your listening room
is small, I would stick with what you have and change the preamp.

You can try http://www.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/ for replacement tweeters for
the M3's
The Meridian active speakers are very clear - you would have to spend many
thousands to replace them with new equivalents!

I would also ditch the Linn and get a good (fully automatic) linear tracking
turntable (technics or revox)- the Linn will fetch good money on ebay, the
101 preamp should reach £30 - £40

Hope this helps

O

Should I upgrade?
 

"Oddjob" wrote in message
...
"Ovenpaa" wrote in message
. ..
I posted a couple of days ago re M3 problems, and can now see a resolution
once I have tracked down some Audax tweeters, however lurking here for a
few days was a mistake because it has set me wondering should I upgrade?

I run a real mismatch in that my system ranges from nearly 25 years old
to
5 years, and comprises:

Meridian M3 speakers
Archaic meridian 101B pre-amp
Meridian 506 CD transport
Linn LP12 with Ittok arm, Valhala and Stilton cartridge

We live in a tiny cottage, and listen to a wide range of music on vinyl
and CD ranging from Roy Harper through Lisa Ekdahl to Tricky with some
strange bits thrown in for good measure.

So my question is should I consider upgrading (maybe starting again from
scratch is a better way of putting it) and what does the group feel is
a good replacement or should I even consider an upgrade, and more to the
point what will it cost?

I used some M3 speakers for quite a while and was very impressed with the
clarity, especially the mid-range and the highs were excellent. I sold
them
on ebay for well over £300 :-)

I now use Meridian D600 digital active speakers (second-hand @ around
£600)
they are floorstanding and give a much fuller sound, if your listening
room
is small, I would stick with what you have and change the preamp.

You can try http://www.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/ for replacement tweeters for
the M3's
The Meridian active speakers are very clear - you would have to spend many
thousands to replace them with new equivalents!

I would also ditch the Linn and get a good (fully automatic) linear
tracking
turntable (technics or revox)- the Linn will fetch good money on ebay, the
101 preamp should reach £30 - £40

I forgot about the 101 having switched mains outlet for the speakers - I
would just keep everything. happy listening :-))

Should I upgrade?
 

Why on earth would you consider replacing the Linn with a Revox or Technics
? My memories of those were that they sounded dreadful in spite of the
supposed benefits of Linear tracking. The only benefit might be that the
Linn would fetch more on ebay than you would have to pay for another
turntable. A SL-7 sold on e-bay for just £89. I would much rather have a
Project or a Rega. In it's day I much preferred the Dual CS505 to the SL-7.

For reference the M3 Speakers sold for £206
Not much considering this is amps and speakers.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sPageName=WDVW
Regards
Richard
"Oddjob" wrote in message
...
"Ovenpaa" wrote in message
. ..
I posted a couple of days ago re M3 problems, and can now see a resolution
once I have tracked down some Audax tweeters, however lurking here for a
few days was a mistake because it has set me wondering should I upgrade?

I run a real mismatch in that my system ranges from nearly 25 years old
to
5 years, and comprises:

Meridian M3 speakers
Archaic meridian 101B pre-amp
Meridian 506 CD transport
Linn LP12 with Ittok arm, Valhala and Stilton cartridge

We live in a tiny cottage, and listen to a wide range of music on vinyl
and CD ranging from Roy Harper through Lisa Ekdahl to Tricky with some
strange bits thrown in for good measure.

So my question is should I consider upgrading (maybe starting again from
scratch is a better way of putting it) and what does the group feel is
a good replacement or should I even consider an upgrade, and more to the
point what will it cost?

I used some M3 speakers for quite a while and was very impressed with the
clarity, especially the mid-range and the highs were excellent. I sold
them
on ebay for well over £300 :-)

I now use Meridian D600 digital active speakers (second-hand @ around
£600)
they are floorstanding and give a much fuller sound, if your listening
room
is small, I would stick with what you have and change the preamp.

You can try http://www.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/ for replacement tweeters for
the M3's
The Meridian active speakers are very clear - you would have to spend many
thousands to replace them with new equivalents!

I would also ditch the Linn and get a good (fully automatic) linear
tracking
turntable (technics or revox)- the Linn will fetch good money on ebay, the
101 preamp should reach £30 - £40

Hope this helps

O

Should I upgrade?
 

"Oddjob" schreef in bericht
...
I would also ditch the Linn and get a good (fully automatic) linear
tracking
turntable (technics or revox)- the Linn will fetch good money on ebay, the
101 preamp should reach £30 - £40

What's wrong with the Linn?

gr, hwh

Should I upgrade?
 

David Holgate wrote:


Assuming that you are happy with your power amp, I would suggest
upgrading your preamp to a valve based one.


You mean downgrade the preamp to a valve based one.

I thought someone would say that.

And *your* advice on the original question is...?

Fix the active speakers, add a subwoofer and an active crossover
to fill in the missing two octaves, compare the CD player with a new one
to see if it needs upgrading (it won't).
Rewire the preamp to get rid of any tone controls and other crap
in the signal path and possibly add a new phono preamp
(I don't know how the old Meridian 101B sounds.)

Will that do?

Should I upgrade?
 

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:26:42 +0100, "hwh"
wrote:


"Oddjob" schreef in bericht
...
I would also ditch the Linn and get a good (fully automatic) linear
tracking
turntable (technics or revox)- the Linn will fetch good money on ebay, the
101 preamp should reach £30 - £40

What's wrong with the Linn?

How long have you got?...................... :-)
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

Should I upgrade?
 

"Richard Wall" wrote in message
...
Why on earth would you consider replacing the Linn with a Revox or
Technics ? My memories of those were that they sounded dreadful in spite
of the supposed benefits of Linear tracking. The only benefit might be
that the Linn would fetch more on ebay than you would have to pay for
another turntable. A SL-7 sold on e-bay for just £89. I would much
rather have a Project or a Rega. In it's day I much preferred the Dual
CS505 to the SL-7.

For reference the M3 Speakers sold for £206
Not much considering this is amps and speakers.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sPageName=WDVW

Richard, I'm a big fan of linear tracking turntables - they did represent
the pinnacle of turntable development in the mid 80's. From my own
calculations I can say that there is around 8 times less LTE compared to a
pivoting arm. This is nearly an order of magnitude (not to be sneered at)
The Linn is an old design that lives off it's extensive marketing
campaigns......

There was an article in hifi news about LT tt's - the conclusion was audible
difference cf pivoting arms.

I'm no expert with my own laboratory for measuring these parameters but I do
like the sound of my Revox and I like it all the way through side 1 and side
2 :-)
When you add in fully automatic operation you have a real winner :-)

It's just too expensive for makers to develop these LT today - there are
much higher profits in expensive belt driven platters with other makers
tonearms bolted on.

You should try bottom posting your replies to Usenet, it makes much easier
reading ;-)

Happy Christmas

O

Should I upgrade?
 

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:31:25 +0000, Eiron babbled on about:

And *your* advice on the original question is...?

Fix the active speakers, add a subwoofer and an active crossover
to fill in the missing two octaves, compare the CD player with a new one
to see if it needs upgrading (it won't).
Rewire the preamp to get rid of any tone controls and other crap
in the signal path and possibly add a new phono preamp
(I don't know how the old Meridian 101B sounds.)

Now this sounds like a plan, the CD transport should be good, the pre-amp
has no controls on it apart from Volume and balence.

By active crossover do you mean an amplified crossover, the subwoofer
would need amplification or I would need an active subwoofer, and
how/where do you connect the subwoofer, it (I am guessing) needs a stereo
feed or is this the active part?

Yes,I am a technophobe and know nothing about hi-fi, I swapped the system
for a spare motorbike some 15 years ago and only added the CD to be able
to play these new fangled CD thingies, so some pointers would be handy
here.

--
/d

Should I upgrade?
 

"Stewart Pinkerton" schreef in bericht
...
What's wrong with the Linn?

How long have you got?...................... :-)

Long enough! I own one.

gr, hwh

Should I upgrade?
 

Ovenpaa wrote:
On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:31:25 +0000, Eiron babbled on about:


And *your* advice on the original question is...?

Fix the active speakers, add a subwoofer and an active crossover
to fill in the missing two octaves, compare the CD player with a new one
to see if it needs upgrading (it won't).
Rewire the preamp to get rid of any tone controls and other crap
in the signal path and possibly add a new phono preamp
(I don't know how the old Meridian 101B sounds.)


Now this sounds like a plan, the CD transport should be good, the pre-amp
has no controls on it apart from Volume and balence.

By active crossover do you mean an amplified crossover, the subwoofer
would need amplification or I would need an active subwoofer, and
how/where do you connect the subwoofer, it (I am guessing) needs a stereo
feed or is this the active part?

A few parts from a convenient mail-order suplier:
http://www.bmm-electronics.com/Produ...roduct_ID=2300
between preamp and active speakers, with a crossover at 100Hz,
then combine the low-pass outputs into a big mono amp such as:
http://www.bmm-electronics.com/Produ...roduct_ID=2275
driving something like this:
http://www.bmm-electronics.com/Produ...roduct_ID=3340
should do the trick.

--
Eiron.