When a friend of mine was in a hi-fi shop in Vancouver, B.C. buying a belt for his Rega, he poked his head into a room to see what all the commotion was about. There was a brand new Mark Levinson setup cranking out the latest MIDI recorded new age cd. The salesman looked over at my friend and said, "Bet you'll never be able to afford this system!". My friend said, "Yeah, it almost makes it sound like music!".

I've been slowly building up my system over the last 6 or 7 years by picking used pieces as I come across them. The only new equipment I bought were a pair of floorstanding speakers that a local company painstakingly builds, and sound quite good if setup properly. Lately I've been really drawn to the DIY side of building up a system. I braided a set of speaker cables from $15 of teflon cat5 cable. They beat my audioquest cables that I probably paid at least 5 times the money for. Now I'm in the process of building a new phono stage. The great part about it is, you can start out with the kit and stock parts for very little money, then easily upgrade the quality of parts down the road. Sure, some $4000 amps are probably worth their price, but I'm young and won't be able to afford that for a long time, I'm sure. In the meantime, I can learn a thing or two about electronics, patience, and the rewards of building something you'll enjoy everyday, yourself.

Food for thought, I suppose.

Hey brew,

I've been thinking about getting the cambridge m80s. Have you heard those? What ones are you using?


b.

how do you go about picking an apporpriate power amp for speakers (say some B&Ws to be used for monitoring)? any specific suggestions on models or manufacturers? also, how many watts would you look for? isnt the general rule the more power the better - but also you want a clean, simple design internally? but obvioulsy you don't want to get a peavey 1000 watt PA power amp...

does it matter that a home stereo type of amp is expecting to see a -10 signal and you're sending it a +4? would a regular NAD power amp be fine for powering monitors in the studio?

I'm a huge fan of Bryston amps for home or studio use. A Bryston 3B or 4B are both well suited to a pair of bookshelf speakers or nearfield monitors.

They're on ebay all the time and carry an amazing transferable 20 year warrantee.

4B has more power than 3B. I've found them both to work fine for the small speakers. I love my 3B with my B&W 805s.

Bob

If you are on a budget, like me, I recommend those 70's Pioneer receivers. The ones with the big aluminum knobs and wood panel sides. I've got a SX-750 and am very happy. You can probably find one at a pawnshop/yardsale for under $100. If you're lucky you'll find a SX-1980. For the money, you can't do better in my opinion. This stuff will sound better than a new $500 amplifier from Circuit City or Cambridge Audio.

Buy a Pioneer or Mitsubishi DVD player for CDs.

For a turntable, I've got a Technics SL110A that I found super cheap. The older Technics direct drive turntables without the speed change controls are a great find. Neither DJs nor audiophiles seek them out so prices are affordable. If you find a used Rega Planar 3 and can afford it, you won't regret it. Get your turntable set up properly by someone who know what they are doing! This is important. Buy a Grado Black or Ortophon cartridge in the $40-$100 range and you will have a great setup.

I would spend the most money on speakers. This is the tricky-voodoo part. Everyone will tell you to use your ears and this is good advice. I bought mine (Morel Bookshelf Speakers) from an audiophile who had too many speakers and his wife was making him sell some off. Audiophiles hate money and usually can't get rid of it fast enough. They are always upgrading and searching for the Holy Grail so you may be able to get their hand-me-downs for a pittance. If you buy used make sure you check the surrounds around the woofers. If it is foam and starting to disintegrate even slightly you're in trouble.

Now try and stop thinking about gear and listen to some music!

J. Deff

hey

>>how do you go about picking an apporpriate power amp for speakers (say some B&Ws to be used for monitoring)? any specific suggestions on models or manufacturers? also, how many watts would you look for? isnt the general rule the more power the better - but also you want a clean, simple design internally? but obvioulsy you don't want to get a peavey 1000 watt PA power amp...

you're right that 'more is better' is not really true after a point

i blew three sets of tweeters in my tannoys with a hafler p500, just b/c i could

now i have an old mcintosh 2100 that does the job just fine

sounds good, dependable, not very expensive, and less likely to toast anything

>>does it matter that a home stereo type of amp is expecting to see a -10 signal and you're sending it a +4?

not really for a power amp--connectors are the only issue, as most consumer amps don't have balanced inputs. this is not such a big deal if your power amp is close to your console or if hum etc. is otherwise not an issue.

>>would a regular NAD power amp be fine for powering monitors in the studio?

probably

the good thing about pro gear is that it isn't made to be impressive sounding--it's made to be reliable and technically precise

there are a lot of nominally 'nice'-sounding hifi amps that color the sound quite a bit

for example, i mentioned i like arcam stuff pretty well, but i would avoid using it in a studio

I've discovered that a lot of the music that I listen to actually becomes unpleasant when heard through through a good system. People's voices sound obviously boosted, compressed and chorus-addled. It's great for "analyzing" music. But sometimes I just want to listen to the music as it was intended to be heard, rather than listening to all of the flaws in the mix.

For a truly painful experience, listen to "The Everlasting Gaze" by the Smashing Pumpkins while wearing a pair of decent headphones. I'm convinced that Corgan mixed that song in a laboratory that was filled with physically restrained baboons, adjusting the mix according to the levels of their wailing and cries of anguish.

Mister_Tog wrote:I've discovered that a lot of the music that I listen to actually becomes unpleasant when heard through through a good system. People's voices sound obviously boosted, compressed and chorus-addled. It's great for "analyzing" music. But sometimes I just want to listen to the music as it was intended to be heard, rather than listening to all of the flaws in the mix.

That’s one way of looking at it, and seems to be a view maintained by many music executives, who insist on hiring “radio friendly” mix engineers. These people have a knack for making music sound good when it’s playing at the Piggly Wiggly (is that how music was “intended” to be heard?), but essentially their job is to limit and commercialize art, as the “flaws” of their work are revealed on any decent playback system. I prefer to think that a record engineered to sound good on an accurate system will translate well to any other system, no matter how cheap. Maybe a lot of the music you’re listening to actually is unpleasant.

For a truly painful experience, listen to "The Everlasting Gaze" by the Smashing Pumpkins while wearing a pair of decent headphones.

I don’t know if I’ve ever heard this song or not, but again, I’d probably characterize just about everything else I know from this band as “painful.”

-greasygoose