Recent content by nopiano

I arrived about 10:45 yesterday to miss the rush, so you should do similar. Yes, it’s looking fine today though you may catch a shower!

Yes, it looks like a quick headlines only report, but some good stuff included. At sensible prices the new Dali models looked gear and the Sonik 7 playing were very enjoyable. Slightly disconcerting that all the tweeters are at different heights between models, but they claim wide dispersion...

As usual, there are generous show offers in Bristol this weekend. The headline is 15% off almost everything over £100 offered at the show. In the smaller print is that some brands are offering 20%, such as Acoustic Energy off all speakers in their range. That’s very generous in my book! In...

They look way more impressive than in the pictures, don’t they Matthew? And, yes, fabulous sound too.

Well the i85 was being demonstrated in the Leema room at the Bristol Show and it sounded jolly good. Nice finish too. The transformer, the power amp board, and the solid aluminium control knobs were displayed too as separate items, to show the engineering. Very impressive I must say. I wasn’t...

Had a great time at the show today, Friday. Caught up with some ‘old friends’ and met some interesting folks during lunch too. Amazed that there are still newcomers, including two new British speaker brands. Didn’t actually miss that IAG - Wharfedale, Leak, Mission, Luxman, Quad etc weren’t...

I’ve a hunch your ProAc ribbons are a bit sweeter than the Focals, but I wouldn’t necessarily attribute that intrinsically to metal tweeters per se. They all vary ime! My first metal tweeters were in Celestion SL600, which I won, and they were as smooth as silk. Unfortunately they were burgled...

I never used to think about this. When I was a lad, the ‘monitors’ were BBC influenced, and that either meant Spendor BC1 or Rogers LS3/5a. With LPs and typical amps they seemed pretty lifeless and boring, and the Spendor boomed while the little Rogers bottomed out on warps! Far better were...

This is a handy guide. https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/hi-fi/best-budget-turntables But it helps to know the answers already requested above. No point in buying a built in phono stage if your Yamaha amp is already equipped with phono input, for example.

It’s definitely got the output, but not the monitor loop I think. Anyway, I bagged an old Arcam preamp which is providing a solution!

Are you thinking of the full sized Cyrus 80? This looks similar but the dimensions weren’t stated.

In my ongoing hunt for a traditional tape monitor loop, for connecting my 3-head Nakamichi, I came upon this used Arcam FMJ C31 preamp after returning the faulty Roksan amp. I connected the Arcam the other night and it’s been faultless so far. Must be getting on for twenty years old, but...

I guess it may be in a sub menu. The two controls may be simply volume and input selection, but quite often there are further settings. We’ll have to wait for a review I guess! Or I can ask them at the Bristol show assuming I go…

Good to see some home-built amps joining the rarefied ranks of Exposure, ATC, Fell, Audio Note, Sugden etc. Leema had definitely gone off my radar for a while, so I hope these are good...

Well, after forty years I guess the yoke may have failed. Probably best to assume that for the sake of domestic harmony! 🤣😇 BTW there are some folks who have a fix for the antiskate on the Acos arm. I found this last night, for example. https://bte-designs.weebly.com/rega-r200-rebuild.html