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Audiophile question, What do you listen to your music on?

175K views 698 replies 170 participants last post by  Bkeske 
#1 ·
At the moment im trying to decide which seperate system to get so that i can fully enjoy my classical CD collection, but i wondered what system do you currently use to listen to your music collection.

Has anyone got a NAD C545BEE cd player coupled with a NAD C326BEE Amp?

Or what couplings do you use?

Im a complete newbie to seperates so i think it may take me ahwile to decide which ones to get, alhtough ive read its best to have a CD player and amp from the same company.

Will be interesting to hear peoples fave systems.
 
#142 · (Edited)
Two systems nowadays. The main one has evolved slowly over 30+ years. Nothing fancy but solid and reliable.

Family living room

Venerable Linn LP12 / LV. X / Ortofon 520 cartridge
Ditto Meridian 506 CD player
Cambridge Audio Azur 640T DAB Tuner
little used Denon cassette deck (yes, really)
HP laptop > FLAC files streamed over home network> Arcam rPAC DAC
into
Cyrus Pre Xvs pre-amplifier
Arcam Delta 290P power amplifier
into
Rega Ela II floorstanders
Sennheiser HD 518 headphones
and in another room Rogers LS 2a2 'bookshelf' speakers
Decent but not expensive cables and interconnects (QED, Chord and the like)

Study

Desktop PC with a large hard drive where most of the FLAC files are
Boehringer external USB sound card
previously dead, now rebuilt and refurbished Arcam Delta 290 integrated amp (former working partner of 290P above)
Dali Zensor I 'bookshelf' speakers; not, of course, on bookshelves, but on stands
 
#146 ·
Two systems nowadays. The main one has evolved slowly over 30+ years. Nothing fancy but solid and reliable.

Family living room

Venerable Linn LP12 / LV. X / Ortofon 520 cartridge
Ditto Meridian 506 CD player
Cambridge Audio Azur 640T DAB Tuner
little used Denon cassette deck (yes, really)
HP laptop > FLAC files streamed over home network> Arcam rPAC DAC
into
Cyrus Pre Xvs pre-amplifier
Arcam Delta 290P power amplifier
into
Rega Ela II floorstanders
Sennheiser HD 518 headphones
and in another room Rogers LS 2a2 'bookshelf' speakers
Decent but not expensive cables and interconnects (QED, Chord and the like)

Study

Desktop PC with a large hard drive where most of the FLAC files are
Boehringer external USB sound card
previously dead, now rebuilt and refurbished Arcam Delta 290 integrated amp (former working partner of 290P above)
Dali Zensor I 'bookshelf' speakers; not, of course, on bookshelves, but on stands
I love Linn, Meridian and Cyrus/Mission and have used all 3 over the years though use an STD/SME/Ortofon 'Linn beater combo' (Cunard exhibition decades ago) and a Technics/SME/Ortofon turntable in my music room currently (but have other turntables under the stairs) plus ARCAM FMJ CD along with Cyrus and PXS supported amplification with various speakers (ancient SL600 for chamber music and Mission plus Monitor Audio swapping around for all else) and decent but not expensive cabling (mainly QED and Van Den Hul). JVC and Yamaha tape decks and a decades old Hitachi tuner complete the picture along with with a Pioneer 509 CD-writer which ousted a much loved Revox B-77.

I have a PC hooked to a Cyrus amp in my study but also an AR EB101 turntable albeit tough it is a far poorer listening environment than my music room, our living room (Arcam CD72T, NAD amp and B&W stand-mounted bookshelves) and or even our dining room (Technics CD, Roksan amp, Hitachi Tuner, B&W speakers) which are better supported listening wise.
 
#144 ·
I made some changes to my system a week ago. It now consists of:

VPI Classic 1 turntable with VPI JMW Memorial 10.5 tonearm, Soundsmyth Zephyr cartridge and Cardas Clear interconnect cable
Apple Mac Mini (for iTunes in ALAC format) with Cardas USB cable to the receiver's DAC
Marantz SA 8260 SACD player (for the remaining DSD-formatted SACD's that can't be ripped to iTunes)
McIntosh MAC6700 receiver
Magnepan 1.6QR speakers
Transparent Speaker cables and interconnects on all other items
VPI 16.5 record washer

 
G
#147 ·
Looking at some of the no doubt exotic hi-fi equipment that some members have, it occurs to me that several brand names may not be known outside individual countries, especially for loudspeakers where there are hundreds of small manufacturers and whose products don't always get beyond national boundaries. And yet some people appear to think that because they've spent a fortune on their hi-fi others will recognise all the brand names contained in their set-up. I take some interest in trying keep broadly up to date with the hi-fi scene but I've not heard of a lot of the equipment mentioned in some posts.
 
G
#152 ·
I don't accept that any cheap amplifier will necessarily sound as good as the best on offer at a much higher budget level merely because the technical specs are the same or very similar. I'm talking about the usual published statistics regarding things like current output, damping factor, gain, harmonic distortion, SNR. There are all sorts of subtle aspects of sound quality that these measurements don't capture. I don't care about the so-called blind tests you refer to, as I suspect they are either mischievous, phoney or not carried out properly using properly matched systems (e.g. using cheap loudspeakers).

I don't doubt that there may be some cheap amplifiers that sound as good, or nearly as good, as some more expensive models, or possibly even better in some cases, but as a rule if the comparison is between cheap and the best amps on offer at a higher budget there would likely be a noticeable quality difference.

That's been my experience various amplifiers that I have listened to. The best of the two I have currently is a Roksan Caspian M2 integrated amplifier. I use it my living room set-up. It knocks spots off a NAD, with broadly similar specs, that I bought a few years to link up with my PC. The NAD's perfectly fine for listening to music through the cheap loudspeakers I have in place there, and the Roksan doesn't sound any better. But swap them round in my living room set-up and the sound quality difference is obvious in favour of the Roksan, mainly because my loudspeaker set up in the living room is a lot better. You probably won't have heard of the brand of loudspeakers I have (Spendor SP1/2 - price nearly £3000 when I bought them) because they are by a small UK firm but they are very good, of traditional design and well regarded.
 
G
#151 ·
After I got my Marantz 8801 back from the repair shop, I hooked up my Sony 5400 SACD player to it, and I now prefer it to the Oppo's analog connection. While the Oppo sounds a bit warmer and more upfront, it also loses a lot of depth. Maybe there was more wrong than I initially thought with the Marantz, as the Sony via HDMI is quite a bit more detailed sounding than the analog Oppo. I also prefer the Sony to the Oppo via HDMI, again, it's more detailed and a bit more spacious. Maybe the Oppo tries to do too much?
 
G
#161 ·
Or maybe it's a matter of not reading the owner's manual word for word! When using the analog outputs, Oppo recommends using the main RT/LT outputs for the front channels rather than the dedicated multi-channel outputs! (One is supposed to use the dedicated Center, Rear, and Subwoofer outs for the other channels). Anyway, this made a world of difference, and it sounds superior to the HDMI to my ears. I do lose the room correction, but since it down-samples everything to 48kz, it's actually a win-win for me!
 
#160 · (Edited)
Speakers: Sonus Faber Concertino; the old ones, bi-wired.
AMP: PrimaLuna Prologue two. With those KT88 powerhouses.
Turntable: modified Lenco
Digital: iPod, 4th generation
View attachment 30978 . View attachment 30979
Sorry for the lousy pictures, bad light, iPad camera, lack of talent.....

Then there is a second system which is (almost) completely DIY.
Think Fleawatt set-amplifier, full-rangers in closed cabinets and open baffle, tweaked out turntable. Pictures of that some other time.
Not really into improving, changing and upgrading. It distracts way too much from listening to music.
Build a system that you like (or two), leave it alone and enjoy the music!!

Cheers,
Jos

@vaneyes: I don't leave the amp switched on. I'd rather burn out those tubes listening to music. Do allow for a bit of warming up though, say 10 minutes or so. Especially at louder volumes you notice if a tubeamp is nicely "on stream". Kt88 generate a lot of heat!!
 
#162 ·
My listening equipment :

Speakers : B&W 803s :kiss:
Amp : Yamaha a-s700
CD : Yamaha cd-s700
Transport : Logitech Touch
NAS : Synology 213+ (all CD's ripped to flac)
Headphones : AKG 701 & Sennheiser RS180
 
#662 ·
My listening equipment :

Speakers : B&W 803s 💋
Amp : Yamaha a-s700
CD : Yamaha cd-s700
Transport : Logitech Touch
NAS : Synology 213+ (all CD's ripped to flac)
Headphones : AKG 701 & Sennheiser RS180
Replaced the Logitech Touch with a Cambridge CXN.
Additional headphones Focal Clear with Marantz HD-DAC1 HP amplifier.
 
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#171 ·
I did buy some Tannoy Mercury V4 speakers....to go with my....

Sony Taf530 ES amp
Rega Planar 3 Turntable
Hitachi FT-5500 MK2 Tuner
Bog standard Sony CD players (CDP XE270-CDP XE530)
Sony Mini Disc Player JE480
Supra Speaker Cable
Ruby connects.

System The Mission 702e Speakers failed physically.The glued in fronts detatched and I couldnt repair them 100%
I am using them in my music room as they are ok at lower volumes. and switch to some Mordaunt Short 902's occasionally.

All thats changed otherwise is Im using Goldring 2100 stylus on the Rega although I have a few other Carts I use. Ortofon 520 mk 2 a Rega bias and some old Carts some Ive had since the 70's Shure N75 EJ and M95 ED. I use these mostly on my old Pioneer PL 115d Turntable in the music room with various old HI Fi seperates, or for some old Mono LP's from the 50's
I am looking to replace the amp eventually. Ive started a savings tin! It will take a while but so will finding a modern mid range/budget amp with a decent Phone amp! the ARCAM FMJ A19 looks pretty cool!
 
#173 · (Edited)
Unfortunately, it doesn't improve Neil Young's vocals at all. But it might be fun in the future to own the audio equivalent of the Edsel. Have you seen what it looks like?! Oh my. I wouldn't be seen dead with that thing! I think if you set it on top of your used razor blades they never go dull.

Rectangle Font Advertising Brand Fashion accessory
 
#177 ·
I listen to my shebang off a custom built PC desktop using a Corsair Vengeance C70 case and Gigabyte motherboard for on-board sound with cheap-o speakers I hope to upgrade to B and W desktop speakers.

For portable listening, I use my iPhone 6 or Android phone or iPod classic and Sennheiser HD 497 or hopefully some audiophile earbuds. I really wish that I could find a good pair of earphones for my classical listening.
 
#179 ·
Also add in a brown Zune 1st generation player which I use to play my iTunes lossy files. I use the iPod classic to play my Apple Lossless rips from CD's. I would get them from HD Tracks but I think that those would not playback on the iPod.
 
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