Dusting off the old hifi... wheres the problem?

[rhk]

Have had the same hifi for close to 20 years. Arcam Alpha6 CD, Naim Nait 3, Rega ELA speakers. Didnt get much use in the last few years because a) The cats munched through my £200 Chord interconnects. Twice. b) the drawer loading mechanism on the CD player died twice. The first time I was given a replacement part by Arcam (great customer service - free of charge on a 10+ year old player, and they even posted overseas!). By the time it went a second time, and without an interconnect I never got around to fixing it.<p>After a recent house move I dusted it off, plugged it into my Apogee Duet headphone out and tried playing some FLAC encoded audio through it. Sound isn't great though, and not much better than the built-in soundcard of my HTPC. So I'm trying to figure out what is the first thing to sort out: 1. Speakers? At 20 years old, is it time to replace them? The main drivers both have small tears in the rubber, but otherwise look ok. 2. Cheap interconnect cable. Is this likely to be the main issue? 3. Would I get much better sound from the line jack outputs from the Duet rather than the headphone out? 4. Or am I expecting too much from the Duet (given that it's primarily a recording device)? How much would I need to spend on a standalone DAC to get an improvement? And is there any point at looking at streamers if I already have a (albeit cheap and nasty) PC in the rack? On a separate note, would I be doing something bad by shoving a couple of these jack->phono adapters into the balanced line outs on the Duet, and then hooking up a regular phono cable? vs. getting a dedicated cable like this one? (Btw, apologies for the formatting - doesnt seem like any way to get this post to format correctly..)

 

[rhk]

The links for my last question got stripped from the previous post, and apparently I cant edit my own posts either. Here is the mono jack->phono adapter. And here is the dedicated balanced TRS -> DIN cable I was talking about in the last sentence.

 

[Al ears]

Not too sure if you are looking for a purely headphone based system or a stereo one. I'd get rid of those speakers if they are as bad as you describe. Surprised your not getting good sound with the Apogee, time to change your headphones??

Perhaps the best thing might be to look at the Schiit Audio range and make up a DAC / headphone amp system using their components to suit exactly what you are trying to do.

 

[rhk]

I'm looking for a stereo one (not headphones, as what I have is good enough for that).

Looks like replacing the speakers is going to cost £700 or more, so at this point I'll start with revising the interconnects and see how far I get. Also means I can do an A/B/C test between the CD player, Duet and soundcard. Hopefully will indicate for sure if the problem is the speakers or not.

 

[Thompsonuxb]

I'd suggest sorting the speakers out would be your priority.

You can use cheap/freebie interconnects has a point of reference - improve whan your budget allows if desired.

Imo audition speakers from £100 (end of line kit could be your best bet for snagging a bargain) speaker Tec has moved on, plus there is always the 2nd hand market.

Once you have a base system and that reference point you can join in with all the shenanigans on here ref how to improve your systems performance .... ;-)