HELP MY SYSTEM IS DRIVING ME NUTS

[audioaddict]

Aw ta mate im originally from london god i miss tottenham court road hifi heaven

 

[Frank Harvey]

Now it seems that when i play vinyl my speakers or listen to my tuner the speakers dont sound to bad, very nice in fact and then when i play say one of my fave cds ie queen live at wembley i cant bare the almost shrill sound though saying that some other cds sound awsome. Now is the cd amp speaker.combo that dont gel or amp cd thats not working. Now previously i have suggested going for a more mellow amp like an arcam a38 which i thought would give me a similar sound to my tuner but i got told off on here for even thinking about getting rid of my monos so now im thinking is it actually the cd player? which ever way i look at it my system does not make me happy and a part of me wants to sell.it and start again.

If your tuner and your record deck sounds fine, then your amplification is fine. If some CD's sound great, and some don't, then that's down to CD mastering, unfortunately. Leaving the speakers aside for a moment, CD technology has advanced, so it is possible that your CD player isn't going to be up with the current market leaders. But as I say, if somne CD's sound great, then the CD player itself is fine.

As I've mentioned before (and a few others), it's really the speakers that you need to look at. The RS range was on the bright side, and a little harsh to some, and while an Arcam amp will tame them somewhat, you'll lose the lively sound your current system has, as well as all that current you have on tap.

One thing I would recommend - if you can pick one up cheap enough, grab an 8000DAC to add to your CD player. One of our customers (an ex-Cov City player from a few decades ago) is still running a full 8000 system with KEF Reference 103/4's, and the system is fantastic. The DAC was more refined and beefier than the DAC in the stand alone CD player, so it 'fleshed out' the system a little. If I had an 8000 system sitting at home, I'd have tracked one down a long time ago

My last system was all technics more of there high end stuff. The pre power amp had a slight fault so the tech guy put the wind up me by sayin the pre power amp sea 2000 was lush but if it goes wrong youl never get it fixed so i stupidly sold it i wish i hadnt

The 90's weren't a good decade for Technics amplification, most of it sounding dull and smooth, with no real balls behind it. Sure, some of it was loud, but that came at a cost, and at the expense of quality too. What you're missing here is the Technic's lack of current delivery, and ability to present all the intruments in their own space within the soundstage. Inoffensive springs to mind. Many drive units were blown with Technics amplification, basically because the amp wasn't up to the job of driving anything very well. I have to admit though, the pre/powers looked cool

 

[audioaddict]

M
Yes david my sea pre power was cool going back to the advance in cd tech my system
is only three years old so how much have cd players moved on. If i remember whfi rated my cd as a very fine player and a gd four star rating. I do know my speakers are the weak link and i guess until i sort that out i wont be able to judge for myself what the rest of the system is upto. Im still thinking of going down the uniti route so i can just turn the system on and let it play without the miss match hassles

 

[plastic penguin]

M

Yes david my sea pre power was cool going back to the advance in cd tech my system

is only three years old so how much have cd players moved on. If i remember whfi rated my cd as a very fine player and a gd four star rating. I do know my speakers are the weak link and i guess until i sort that out i wont be able to judge for myself what the rest of the system is upto. Im still thinking of going down the uniti route so i can just turn the system on and let it play without the miss match hassles

If you go Uniti route, then try it with some RX1 or 2s. The best matches for Naim is PMC, Neat, Epos, Spendor. Or if you can go the floorstander route, then the MonoPulse 32S found fantastic. However, they are pretty strange looking and come in awfully bright, migraine-inducing colours. Sound-wise they are superb.

 

[moon]

Now it seems that when i play vinyl my speakers or listen to my tuner the speakers dont sound to bad, very nice in fact and then when i play say one of my fave cds ie queen live at wembley i cant bare the almost shrill sound though saying that some other cds sound awsome. Now is the cd amp speaker.combo that dont gel or amp cd thats not working. Now previously i have suggested going for a more mellow amp like an arcam a38 which i thought would give me a similar sound to my tuner but i got told off on here for even thinking about getting rid of my monos so now im thinking is it actually the cd player? which ever way i look at it my system does not make me happy and a part of me wants to sell.it and start again.

If your tuner and your record deck sounds fine, then your amplification is fine. If some CD's sound great, and some don't, then that's down to CD mastering, unfortunately. Leaving the speakers aside for a moment, CD technology has advanced, so it is possible that your CD player isn't going to be up with the current market leaders. But as I say, if somne CD's sound great, then the CD player itself is fine.

As I've mentioned before (and a few others), it's really the speakers that you need to look at. The RS range was on the bright side, and a little harsh to some, and while an Arcam amp will tame them somewhat, you'll lose the lively sound your current system has, as well as all that current you have on tap.

One thing I would recommend - if you can pick one up cheap enough, grab an 8000DAC to add to your CD player. One of our customers (an ex-Cov City player from a few decades ago) is still running a full 8000 system with KEF Reference 103/4's, and the system is fantastic. The DAC was more refined and beefier than the DAC in the stand alone CD player, so it 'fleshed out' the system a little. If I had an 8000 system sitting at home, I'd have tracked one down a long time ago

My last system was all technics more of there high end stuff. The pre power amp had a slight fault so the tech guy put the wind up me by sayin the pre power amp sea 2000 was lush but if it goes wrong youl never get it fixed so i stupidly sold it i wish i hadnt

The 90's weren't a good decade for Technics amplification, most of it sounding dull and smooth, with no real balls behind it. Sure, some of it was loud, but that came at a cost, and at the expense of quality too. What you're missing here is the Technic's lack of current delivery, and ability to present all the intruments in their own space within the soundstage. Inoffensive springs to mind. Many drive units were blown with Technics amplification, basically because the amp wasn't up to the job of driving anything very well. I have to admit though, the pre/powers looked cool

I just thought I'd mention that everything you've stated about Technics amplification is in complete contrast to Steve from Steve's HiFi who knows a lot about the Technics amps and rates them very highly. It would be interesting for you to give him a call and discuss current delivery with him! He might have a different view on your claims

 

[moon]

furthermore, there is just an outside chance that audio addicts previous system was blinding.

 

[audioaddict]

It was moon and im gutted i got rid. Now im not even sayin sonically it was the best but i was happy with it and wish id kept it but ive proved to myself modern is not always better. I had a cple of technics pre powers and personally i liked em some of them including the 900mkll got the full five stars and i think the 700mkll did also so i think some of em were well underated. Remember back in the eighties the sae pre powers were very expensive and now very sought after take a look in the vintagetechnics website theyre awsome pieces of kit

 

[audioaddict]

Just thought id add the 700 and 900 were integrateds that got good reviews and still sell well on ebay

 

[moon]

It was moon and im gutted i got rid. Now im not even sayin sonically it was the best but i was happy with it and wish id kept it but ive proved to myself modern is not always better. I had a cple of technics pre powers and personally i liked em some of them including the 900mkll got the full five stars and i think the 700mkll did also so i think some of em were well underated. Remember back in the eighties the sae pre powers were very expensive and now very sought after take a look in the vintagetechnics website theyre awsome pieces of kit

Every big company usually makes at least a couple of dogs now and then for sure but sometimes Technics don't get the correct amount of credit they deserve for making some absolutely great, bombproof, superb sound equipment.

If it makes you feel any better, I wish you had sold the Pre- power to me.

I do feel for you that you've spent on the Audiolab stuff and it's not doing it for you. Maybe some bits of advice for you , stop fretting either listen to a cra**y bush system for. a week then come back to yours for a re think, or just listen to some acoustic music for a week and relax with a beer. or whatever whilst you listen, then come back to it.

or sell everything and start again with something that you really enjoy.

 

[audioaddict]

Lol moon you wldve loved the pre power maybe i will get another one day if im lucky. And yes ur advice was spot on on all three counts it just depends which way i go. Lol hifi is supposed to be fun but i look at all those lovely silver boxes i have and i think what a waste it aint doin for me :boohoo: