Just bought my new gear!

[bretty]

Just spent the last two hours at the local second-hand hi-fi dealership, auditioning various cd/amp combo's. I had gone down there with mind pretty much made up that i was going to love the Kenwood dp7090, so i would just need to pick an amp. I tried it, hated it. Next, i tried the Orelle CD100E. It was better, smoother, but lacking something. It sounded a little compressed. Then I tried the Rotel RCD991, hooked up to an Audiolab 8000A. Amazing. To be honest, I was a little dubious about how much difference a cdp could make. It made a world of difference. There was so much more precision to the sound, with no coarseness. Then I asked to have the Rotel hooked up to the Cyrus2 with psx. I've got to admit that, from cold, i didn't like it. Although vocals were great, piano sounded raspy. However, after 30 minutes everything changed, becoming spacious, well timed and full of punch. Not at all lean, like i've heard a lot of people say of Cyrus.

 So, in the end, I bought:

1. Rotel RCD991

2. Cyrus2/PSX

3. Rogers Studio 1 standmount speakers.

 I'm chuffed. 

 

[Anonymous]

Good. One happy customer. How much did you spend by the way (if you don't mind).

Also, remember warming up gear does take time - I ususally try and leave it on if I can.......

 

[bretty]

I paid £670.

 

[Anonymous]

good for you bretty.

thats a good deal for the kit you have and you are another example of why it is crucial to listen before buying.

pleased for you mate.

 

[the record spot]

Nice selection, though the Kenwood's not a smooth listen as you found!

 

[bigblue235]

Good choices, nice prices

I especially like the CD player. I have a Rotel 951 gathering dust aat the mo, but it served me well. I was always tempted to go for the 971 or 991, but never got round to it.

You'll need to get yourself some SACD's now

Yet another hi-fi fad of dubious benefits, but I really liked the ones I bought.

 

[bretty]

Thanks for your comments, fellas. I'm over the moon, because the equipment that i've bought blows away the new roksan combo that I auditioned and cost me about nine hundred quid less.

ÿI've never heard any SACD. Are they impressive?

By the way, has anybody heard of the speakers I bought? Aparently, they were BBC studio monitors. They are big and nothing to look at, at all, but the sound that comes out of them is astounding.ÿ

 

[matthewpiano]

Really nice to see someone doing something a bit different to the usual collection of award winners. Sounds like money well spent to me. Enjoy listening!

 

[bigblue235]

Oh, forgive my typo, I meant HDCD!

I have a few that sound pretty impressive, Spirit by Jewel in particular. It was my demo disc of choice when I had the Rotel. I went on to buy most of her albums, and although the music wasn't always my cup of tea, the quality was usually very good. There were a few other HDCD discs that were fantastic quality too, and the little HDCD light on the front of the player coming on always filled me with geeky joy

Then Microsoft bought out Pacific Microsonics, and HDCD went down the tubes...

 

[Anonymous]

Can I look forward to seeing pics in the "my system" section??

 

[bretty]

There's a 'my system' section? I hadn't seen that. Cool. Yes, I'll put some photos up by next weekend.

 

[the record spot]

bretty:
I've never heard any SACD. Are they impressive?

I'd say yes; I bought my Samsung DVD player with the prospect of the the first Genesis boxset a couple of years ago. The DVD-950H was a good player for the money, universal (no HDCD though)and it's now the standard DVD player in the house. SACD duties are now undertaken by the excellent Marantz SA7001-KI Signature, which does it justice.

HOWEVER - (yes, sorry!) - there's a bit of a caveat to that; not all sound great. I've been somewhat underwhelmed by some SACD releases and think it's as much about the mastering as anything else.

There is great potential for the format - a nice example recently was the BIS label's releases of the entire Mendelssohn String Concertos on one disc at four hours long. All on one stereo SACD disc. It's SACD only, so they've kicked out the multichannel and standard CD layers and hence you get everything on one disc. A great idea. Good recording too and the best bit is I picked it up for a tenner.

Some of the best recordings I've heard are the Genesis discs (these polarise opinion however), the Elton SACDs, Mark Knopfler's Shangri-La and Billy Joel's "The Stranger" (not the deluxe reissue however, which is standard CD - the SACD is single disc and usually on import, so buy on Ebay). Early McEvoy's "Early Hours" is another to get. Great recording - "You'll Hear Better Songs Than This" and "Memphis Tennessee" are worth the price alone.

I still think of it as a viable format but well recorded and mastered standard discs can be as good in many ways (Joni Mitchell's "Night Ride Home" a prime example amongst many). I see the Rotel is HDCD - did I misread earlier when someone mentioned it had SACD circuitry? It'll be money wasted buying an SACD as you'll only get the standard CD layer on playback. HDCD and SACD are not the same thing - for info.

 

[bigblue235]

the record spot:did I misread earlier when someone mentioned it had SACD circuitry?

Nope, but you maybe missed my second post explaining my gaffe