What's the best hifi you've ever heard

[Friesiansam]

My partner would prefer to listen to a phone in the bathroom.
It shouldn't as we all enjoy music in our own way but watching her listen people such as Sam Smith via a phone loudspeaker annoys me, especially when there's a plethora of not just classical music but all kinds of other genres through a decent system which is only a flick of a switch away.

My wife insists that my Focals and Pathos amp, won't sound any better than her Sony WH-1000XM3s, on Bluetooth...

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

There's some obvious profanity creeping in here guys - just changing some of the letters to ** doesn't hide what you are using - so it's against the rules. Apologies.

 

[daveh75]

Same. But since I don't personally know anyone else who gives a **** about listening to decent music on a decent audio system it's not surprising.

That's no bad thing given many audiophiles/HiFi enthusiasts (call 'em what you will) give anti-vaxers, climate change deniers and religionists etc a run for their money on spreading deluded, crackpot beliefs.

I'd argue someone who can, and is happy to listen to music on anything probably gets more enjoyment from it, than any snobby, neurotic, audiophile who's twatting about with cables and other pointless 'upgrades' whilst looking down their nose at them...

 

[JDL]

There's some obvious profanity creeping in here guys - just changing some of the letters to ** doesn't hide what you are using - so it's against the rules. Apologies.

No need for apologies. In future I'll not use such crude implications. There's certainly no intentions on my part to break the rules of the forum.

 

[Stuart83]

Not many people I know is so enthused about hi-fi. I have heard a few at a dealers over the decades, a number have been impressive but way out of my price bracket.

Probably the best system I heard, years ago, again, way out of my league, was my ex-manager's system. He invited me around his house and he had a Luxman amp powering a pair of Wilson Benesch standmounts. Wow!

Since posting this question I've seen many replies that interest me by a few chaps some who've helped me through suggestions complete a new set up in the bedroom.
It gives me more freedom with the volume as I don't want to annoy my neighbour.
I like to see others speak with interest in all things hifi as like some on here I'm not the only one thats are either alone in their passion for both music and it's delivery or only personally know one other.
It's nice to be among people with a shared passion.
There's even a chap that's put me in touch with someone to help source a replacement driver for a pair of speakers with sentimental value.
I'm not one for social media in most of its different guises ie Facebook etc but do find myself frequenting this forum sometimes just to try what other people are listening to.

I did initially think the forum would be full of people with 15,000 £ hifis and locked off to the normal guy with financial p?ssing contest's of the many but have found that the existence of omni hifi I was introduced to at an early age still exists.
I'm still trying to get an interest to take root with my partner.
She did come to richer sounds with me but decided to talk about washing machines initially 😂 but did admit she was very impressed with the roskan k3 as was I, though the Dali speakers I didn't like.
Since then despite still using a smartphone loudspeaker to listen to music does now potter into the room when I have classical music playing or the lumineers, she's also buying the odd cd 😄.
She admittedly never heard a decent hifi before thus commented on the vast improvement in enjoyment it brings to the music.
To me a decent budget and/or mid range hifi is as important if not more important than a TV and a big part of my life.
As a kid it was a huge part of my hobby time going from amp to amp via my dad's repairing of kit in his loft to different speakers even wharfdale Linton's he built from a kit ended up in my tiny bedroom at one point.
I went on to DJ for yrs just to be around music whilst earning a few quid.
The hifi I had as a kid was probably worth 200 £ at the time right when people were buying up Aiwa all in one systems for nearly 3× that and sounded dreadful in comparison and all because I listened to people like the ones that comment on this forum.
I pay a little more now but still have a nice little budget system that sounds great that I cobbled together with what I've learned.
Im really enjoying hearing about what people like and own themselves with all other things hifi.
🤝🤝

 

[plastic penguin]

Since posting this question I've seen many replies that interest me by a few chaps some who've helped me through suggestions complete a new set up in the bedroom.
It gives me more freedom with the volume as I don't want to annoy my neighbour.
I like to see others speak with interest in all things hifi as like some on here I'm not the only one thats are either alone in their passion for both music and it's delivery or only personally know one other.
It's nice to be among people with a shared passion.
There's even a chap that's put me in touch with someone to help source a replacement driver for a pair of speakers with sentimental value.
I'm not one for social media in most of its different guises ie Facebook etc but do find myself frequenting this forum sometimes just to try what other people are listening to.

I did initially think the forum would be full of people with 15,000 £ hifis and locked off to the normal guy with financial p?ssing contest's of the many but have found that the existence of omni hifi I was introduced to at an early age still exists.
I'm still trying to get an interest to take root with my partner.
She did come to richer sounds with me but decided to talk about washing machines initially 😂 but did admit she was very impressed with the roskan k3 as was I, though the Dali speakers I didn't like.
Since then despite still using a smartphone loudspeaker to listen to music does now potter into the room when I have classical music playing or the lumineers, she's also buying the odd cd 😄.
She admittedly never heard a decent hifi before thus commented on the vast improvement in enjoyment it brings to the music.
To me a decent budget and/or mid range hifi is as important if not more important than a TV and a big part of my life.
As a kid it was a huge part of my hobby time going from amp to amp via my dad's repairing of kit in his loft to different speakers even wharfdale Linton's he built from a kit ended up in my tiny bedroom at one point.
I went on to DJ for yrs just to be around music whilst earning a few quid.
The hifi I had as a kid was probably worth 200 £ at the time right when people were buying up Aiwa all in one systems for nearly 3× that and sounded dreadful in comparison and all because I listened to people like the ones that comment on this forum.
I pay a little more now but still have a nice little budget system that sounds great that I cobbled together with what I've learned.
Im really enjoying hearing about what people like and own themselves with all other things hifi.
🤝🤝

Well my system is fairly modest and it's taken me years to build up to this. The amp was purchased as a clearance stock item back in 2010 at a heavily reduced price and I'm still not convinced a replacement of 50% more than its retail cost would be a big enough upgrade. That's not because it's the greatest amp of all time but more a case of getting the synergy right.

The only way you'll know is by demoing various combos, sooner or later you'll hit your 'eureka' moment and once you do that's the time to dip into the hi-fi budget.

 

[aversaurus]

In my current system I have a nu vista cd player and a musical fidelity kw 500 amplifier and there amazing I've never heard a cd player as good

 

[nads]

my own, not interested in hearing better. Interested in listening to music.

 

[Stuart83]

That's no bad thing given many audiophiles/HiFi enthusiasts (call 'em what you will) give anti-vaxers, climate change deniers and religionists etc a run for their money on spreading deluded, crackpot beliefs.

I'd argue someone who can, and is happy to listen to music on anything probably gets more enjoyment from it, than any snobby, neurotic, audiophile who's twatting about with cables and other pointless 'upgrades' whilst looking down their nose at them...

Oh I agree to a point but do find the obvious.
If your a music lover a good hifi amplifies the enjoyment.
Just like cars if the love is there more enjoyment is to be had driving a better one, forgive the analogy.
A good budget system can open up doors to music that wasn't appreciated before, I can't get much pleasure from classical for instance through a phone loudspeaker but love the stuff through both a budget set up and mid range hifi.
Even if that's unobtainable there's always a decent pair of headphones ie the Austrian audio hi mx15 at 70 £ as most phones have a good sound chip in especially what people unknowingly carry today.
I absolutely agree with the silliness of snobs and their 1000 £ a ft speaker cables and cable risers etc (gear it cable is just as good)
A comment made on here put me off once, a guy rated his hifi better than what other forum users have just because of cost.
Anyway I finally tried the acram sa30 without the Dirac mode and liked it very much.
Plenty of power as it's must for me and my listening habits and a nice warm sound, having problems with the electric ment it was sat In a box for weeks.
I haven't tried the direc mode yet as it needs setting up and seems gimicky to me, I'm more old school and prefer a straight up sound rather than messing with it but I will try it as people say it's worth the effort.
I got a bargain with the amp from hifi sound in Stockton a nice no nonsense family bricks and mortar shop in perfect condition.
It was my original choice but I couldn't source one and ended up with a new version roskan k3 which some of you know and had 2 go bad.
I'm now on replacing the eject wheel a common fault on the Marantz cd52 mk2 my favourite over the years and I will be using the system daily, I must admit I've had a few problems building the thing but hearing Vivaldi this morning makes it worth it.
I've decided to hook it up to the TV via the hdmi arc but only because the functionality is there.
I personally don't like over loud movies and effects but can see the allure for music videos etc off YouTube etc.
I'm also going to try the wharfdale SW 150 woofer as the acram has a dedicated woofer connection rather than speaker level line I had to use with the roskan but must admit when I had it rigged up before I found myself switching it off preferring the q acoustic 3050i's alone.
I'm hoping this hifi brings me the yrs if enjoyment it's predecessor still does in another room.

 

[AJM1981]

The hi-fi market has a lot of air between what sound something produces and how people perceive a product as “better”. A thing to notice is that the best loudspeaker is a balanced one that articulates well. And in what region of frequencies it kind of holds back or articulates most defines our personal taste.

Basically a monitor of any variation of choice is fine in that context. And those can be found in variety of size under a 1000 euros.

Anything up there is just extra cabinet volume and / or (hand- or machine crafted) design elements with silver or golden elements. Going from general design to furniture making. I have seen passionate audio lovers / salespeople (I really believe they feel this is true to themselves) almost treating loudspeakers like they are the arc of the covenant.

“Look how beautifully handcrafted this is,feel how heavy this block is, inside they use thick cables instead of thinner ones found in others and it needed 3 days to ‘break back in’, suddenly we thought ‘wow’”

I don’t believe the slightest bit in breaking-in time and I know it really doesn’t matter about anything mentioned above in making a difference. That a cheap speaker can even beat the highest priced one. But what I believe is that people are willing to pay for something that fits their believe.

They pay for a golden name tag, they pay for the sight of a handfinished cabinet. They pay for craftsmanship / art, not for the “musicality” (but they will say they do). A beautiful object adds to the unconscious or even conscious experience. If you leave away the audio, the people who like hifi could still sit there for 15 minutes admiring design, something “audio-professionals” would not really do. This way, a loudspeaker sounds already subjectively better to then without having heard any tone.

If you take Tannoy, they sell their beautiful monitors with the same audio principles for a reasonable price of a few hundreds of euros. But if you want something for in home that looks great, you pay far over a 1000.

In other words pricey “Hi-fi” “high end” or whatever is a hot term, is not that much about audio. And if I would live in a mansion that needs something complementary to the interior I would probably also join that bandwagon.

To summarise: hi-fi is furniture and priced according to how much legend of backstory is put in. Most monitors are no nonsense plain audio.

 

[Stuart83]

The hi-fi market has a lot of air between what sound something produces and how people perceive a product as “better”. A thing to notice is that the best loudspeaker is a balanced one that articulates well. And in what region of frequencies it kind of holds back or articulates most defines our personal taste.

Basically a monitor of any variation of choice is fine in that context. And those can be found in variety of size under a 1000 euros.

Anything up there is just extra cabinet volume and / or (hand- or machine crafted) design elements with silver or golden elements. Going from general design to furniture making. I have seen passionate audio lovers / salespeople (I really believe they feel this is true to themselves) almost treating loudspeakers like they are the arc of the covenant.

“Look how beautifully handcrafted this is,feel how heavy this block is, inside they use thick cables instead of thinner ones found in others and it needed 3 days to ‘break back in’, suddenly we thought ‘wow’”

I don’t believe the slightest bit in breaking-in time and I know it really doesn’t matter about anything mentioned above in making a difference. That a cheap speaker can even beat the highest priced one. But what I believe is that people are willing to pay for something that fits their believe.

They pay for a golden name tag, they pay for the sight of a handfinished cabinet. They pay for craftsmanship / art, not for the “musicality” (but they will say they do). A beautiful object adds to the unconscious or even conscious experience. If you leave away the audio, the people who like hifi could still sit there for 15 minutes admiring design, something “audio-professionals” would not really do. This way, a loudspeaker sounds already subjectively better to then without having heard any tone.

If you take Tannoy, they sell their beautiful monitors with the same audio principles for a reasonable price of a few hundreds of euros. But if you want something for in home that looks great, you pay far over a 1000.

In other words pricey “Hi-fi” “high end” or whatever is a hot term, is not that much about audio. And if I would live in a mansion that needs something complementary to the interior I would probably also join that bandwagon.

To summarise: hi-fi is furniture and priced according to how much legend of backstory is put in. Most monitors are no nonsense plain audio.

I've always shared that belief.
After a certain price point the materials used dictate the price point especially with exotic materials.

 

[Shalmaneser]

I’m not sure it counts as hifi, but listening to stems of Lord of the Rings at Abbey Road studio 1 control room was breathtaking on levels I can’t describe. You could hear the bows being touched on the stringed instruments at the start of the take, the level of detail moved me. Oh, and hearing the John Lennon Imagine 5.1 mix in the studio 3 control room, where it was mixed, that was pretty damn special too.

I dunno... If we can't hear the picking of noses, what good is it?

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Rotel RCD965BX

Rotel and their distributor in the UK Gamepath back then launched the RCD 965 BX at the 1991 Heathrow Show using some very tasty Jeff Rowland amplification and Infinity loudspeakers. Even now over the thirty years on the RCD 965 BX can still show some modern players a thing or two.

 

[Deleted member 201267]

In my current system I have a nu vista cd player and a musical fidelity kw 500 amplifier and there amazing I've never heard a cd player as good

There is a new NU-VISTA CD player due in 2024...

 

[aversaurus]

Will probably cost the earth mine makes cds sound so good so much detail and depth but if you don't like valves it's not for you.i have had a lot of dac,s wouldn't dream of using one with it

 

[Deleted member 201267]

Will probably cost the earth mine makes cds sound so good so much detail and depth but if you don't like valves it's not for you.i have had a lot of dac,s wouldn't dream of using one with it

Probably £10k to match the new pre-amp, power amps etc.

 

[Dom]

I'm not interested in valves because they add distortion.

 

[aversaurus]

Yes they do add distortion I'm not a fan but my ears are

 

[AJM1981]

Yes they do add distortion I'm not a fan but my ears are

And something not to confuse is that harmonic distortion has no relationship to damage distortion.

One will say.. “yes but it is still distortion (still thinking about damage distortion to make a point)”

It is a type of distortion that for some improved the sense of realism.

 

[JDL]

I'd really like to hear some other systems besides my own.
I'm lucky in that the living room where my system's set up is acoustically very good.
My system represents £3000 -£5000. Integrated Amplifier, CD player and speakers with fairly good cabling.
When I went to collect my B&W 802 Matrix S2 speakers, David the seller had the speakers set up in a large room with suspended wood plank floor, no soft furnishings at all.
His amplifier was a very nice Musical Fidelity KW500 Dual Mono, pre power combination. He said the CD player wasn't very good, I don't know what it was.
Notwithstanding the fact that his amplifier and the speakers are very good, I think, the sound was very harsh and unforgiving in that room.
With the speakers back home and set up with my Marantz Model 30, and much better CD player but not in my living room, at this point , the speakers sounded much nicer even though my kitchen, which is where I initially heard the speakers once home is not acoustically very good. Too many hard surfaces and too small a room.
I got my rebuilt crossovers back from Wilmslow Audio about 4 days ago, the same day my fully rebuilt and serviced CD player arrived back.
I've refitted the crossovers, assembled the restored (by me) speakers and await setting them up with new copper speaker wire to replace the QED Silver Anniversary which I've read several times can sound 'bright'.
I'm very much looking forward to hearing the speakers in the acoustically better room with the new crossovers. I'm hoping the Mundorf and Jantzen capacitors and other components which have replaced the original apparently not very good quality, and dated October 18th 1989 original B&W components will have improved the sound from these lovely (in my opinion) speakers.
Sorry for such a long post but I'd love to hear some other people's systems. Living out in West Wales and having no friends out here that are into Hi-Fi, there's little chance of that happening.

 

[JDL]

To my mind if you need to buy an amp that needs software to work on your own head be it.... But I am an old timer.

AI....I don't think I remember seeing anywhere on here what system you have. What's your preferred source.
I have a feeling you like vinyl, is that right? Anyway without meaning to butt in on anyone's post what is your system, if you're happy to tell.
If not, no worries but I was wondering.

 

[Al ears]

AI....I don't think I remember seeing anywhere on here what system you have. What's your preferred source.
I have a feeling you like vinyl, is that right? Anyway without meaning to butt in on anyone's post what is your system, if you're happy to tell.
If not, no worries but I was wondering.

Try looking at my signature, it's what I currently own...it's clearly there for all to see.

 

[JDL]

Try looking at my signature, it's what I currently own...it's clearly there for all to see.

Ok will do.🤓

Try looking at my signature, it's what I currently own...it's clearly there for all to see.

 

[Stuart83]

wondering what you make of the SA30? Seems an appealing spec but some concerns over software apparently.

It's a lovely bit of kit.
I got mine after the software bugs were dealt with as I hung back until satisfied.
The software is seemless but I still hung back on commenting untill I'd owned it a while.
Hifi sounds were that confident when I brought it up in the demo room they offered to take it back if any problems where to arise with the new version.
I demoed a few amps first at hifi sounds to update from my pioneer a400 and roskan.
It's a warm powerful amp very melodic with a lovely ESS Sabre ESS9038 32-bit high-end DAC and both a decent MM an MC phono stage.
The sub woofer input is handy.
The quality in build despite a comment on here is spot on being an all metal construction on the heavy side and a nice informative display.
The remote not that it matters to most is an excellent full learning control that replaces all the others into one with a backlight for those dark nights listening to classical as I do.
The Dirac mode is there for the fans but I like going into analogue mode for vinyl and CDs only using the direc for streaming.
Sound wise I've owned a few different amps over the yrs and it's one of the best.
Im not one to buy into reviews much nor pick up a biast through ownership but I find what hifis review to be on the level with what I find everytime I power it on.

As for software updates it's like anything else including the phone in your pocket it's just a programmable firmware that once a particular version you approve of is found its permanent until you decide it not to be.
I found the new version faultless therefore won't be changing it as I'm more interested in the sound it produces but fully understand why in a world of ever changing music streams and formats etc etc acram and a few others now think updatable software is a good idea to avoid becoming obsolete.
It's an online streaming amp foremost but at its heart is also a great integrated amp too.
Just like a pc it needs to be able to change with the trends.
Acram moved away from the sa30 but thankfully Dirac hasn't nor have the rumours ran true of future updates being ditched.

After two new roskan k3 amps I had went bad which I mentioned in further detail at the time on another thread causing a lot of headaches I can only say that the acram sa30 has been faultless and is a pleasure to listen to.

 

[Dom]

Nick Warren - Live from LAS PALAPAS

View: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pYA5m779WYc&si=WL35klM4F9LEWbbI