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!

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

On 26 Dec 2004 12:17:54 GMT, Andy Evans
wrote:
c) Speakers

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?se...&output=gplain

--
Anthony Edwards

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

I heard two interesting sources at the same Hi-Fi fair - one of the
last held here in Harrogate.

The first was Peter Walker demonstrating his (then) brand new ESL63's.
The source was an LP, the amp I know not but presumably either the
33/303 or a 405, and all in a very large room before a medium
audience. It was just so realistic!

The other was held in the ballroom of the Old Swan Hotel (remember
Agatha Christie?) The demo was by Philips using the biggest of their
then range of three motional feedback units. Again I don't know what
the recorded sources were, but it was of one of the famous Yorkshire
Brass bands - Black Dyke I think - and it was an A-B test with the
band live. Now THAT was something!


--
Woody

harrogate2 at ntlworld dot com

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:24:07 GMT, "harrogate2"
wrote:

The first was Peter Walker demonstrating his (then) brand new ESL63's.
The source was an LP, the amp I know not but presumably either the
33/303 or a 405, and all in a very large room before a medium
audience. It was just so realistic!

I remember hearing the then new ESL63s with a recording of the
Winchester Cathedral choir in a music shop in Winchester. The
recording was made on a reel-to-reel tape deck (a Revox if I remember
correctly) at 15ips. For its day, it was amazing.


--
Chris Isbell
Southampton, UK

In article , Chris Isbell
writes
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 10:24:07 GMT, "harrogate2"
wrote:

The first was Peter Walker demonstrating his (then) brand new ESL63's.
The source was an LP, the amp I know not but presumably either the
33/303 or a 405, and all in a very large room before a medium
audience. It was just so realistic!

I remember hearing the then new ESL63s with a recording of the
Winchester Cathedral choir in a music shop in Winchester. The
recording was made on a reel-to-reel tape deck (a Revox if I remember
correctly) at 15ips. For its day, it was amazing.



I've still got some old tapes like this. Warts and all recordings, but
they do sound absolutely lifelike

Over ESL63's of course)
--
Tony Sayer

In article , harrogate2
wrote:
I heard two interesting sources at the same Hi-Fi fair - one of the last
held here in Harrogate.

The first was Peter Walker demonstrating his (then) brand new ESL63's.
The source was an LP, the amp I know not but presumably either the
33/303 or a 405, and all in a very large room before a medium audience.
It was just so realistic!

My first hearing of the 63's was in a hifi shop in North London. I was
there with a few other people trying out an amp I'd brought to the shop.

The people in the shop initially insisted in using Linn Isobark's. These
sounded poor, and after I kept pointing out something was wrong they
finally investigated and discovered a popped tweeter.[1] After more
complaints from myself that I wanted to try other speakers they finally
dragged in a pair of 63's. They did this with an air of great reluctance
and made it plain that they did not like them.

Only took about 30 seconds of listening to the 63's for me to decide they
were the best speakers I'd ever heard.

Later on I bought a pair of 63's and used them as my main speakers for
about 20 years. Only recently switched to using 988's and have added a sub
to help move the air at LF.

PJW, thank you, once again. :-)

If anyone in the hi fi biz has done more to help people enjoy music than
any another, I'd vote for it being PJW.

Slainte,

Jim

[1] May tell you something about the golden-eared salespeople in the shop
that they had not noticed this until I insisted they investigate. They'd
been using the speakers for many weeks as demo speakers...

--
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

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 16:47:40 +0000 (GMT), Jim Lesurf
wrote:

In article , harrogate2
wrote:
I heard two interesting sources at the same Hi-Fi fair - one of the last
held here in Harrogate.

The first was Peter Walker demonstrating his (then) brand new ESL63's.
The source was an LP, the amp I know not but presumably either the
33/303 or a 405, and all in a very large room before a medium audience.
It was just so realistic!

My first hearing of the 63's was in a hifi shop in North London. I was
there with a few other people trying out an amp I'd brought to the shop.

The people in the shop initially insisted in using Linn Isobark's. These
sounded poor, and after I kept pointing out something was wrong they
finally investigated and discovered a popped tweeter.[1] After more
complaints from myself that I wanted to try other speakers they finally
dragged in a pair of 63's. They did this with an air of great reluctance
and made it plain that they did not like them.

Only took about 30 seconds of listening to the 63's for me to decide they
were the best speakers I'd ever heard.

Later on I bought a pair of 63's and used them as my main speakers for
about 20 years. Only recently switched to using 988's and have added a sub
to help move the air at LF.

PJW, thank you, once again. :-)

If anyone in the hi fi biz has done more to help people enjoy music than
any another, I'd vote for it being PJW.

Seconded, although IMHO Bob Stuart has to be running him close, for
the 'digital' generation. And Raymond Cooke and John Bowers probably
brought better good hi-fi to more people.

[1] May tell you something about the golden-eared salespeople in the shop
that they had not noticed this until I insisted they investigate. They'd
been using the speakers for many weeks as demo speakers...

Aren't Linnies fun? :-)

Talk about all sizzle and no steak!
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

Jim Lesurf wrote:


Later on I bought a pair of 63's and used them as my main speakers for
about 20 years. Only recently switched to using 988's and have added a sub
to help move the air at LF.


Jim, what sub are you using with your 988s? I was informed that it is
hard to find a matching sub for ESLs due to the nature of ESLs (dipoles?
planars?)

Tat Chan wrote:

Jim, what sub are you using with your 988s? I was informed that it is
hard to find a matching sub for ESLs due to the nature of ESLs
(dipoles? planars?)

I reckon a servodrive contrabass would be a good match...


--
Teal'c: "Dr Jackson's preliminary electroencephalogram proved anomalous"
O'Neill: "I dare you to say that again"