Meeting a High Priest of the world of hi-fi BS.
- Thread starter Globalti
- Start date
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- Location
- the post-brexit wasteland
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Big day for me yesterday - took delivery of some new upgrades to my system which was:
Arcam rPlay streamer > Sugden Masteclass amp' > Dynaudio Audience 52 standmount speakers.
And is now:
Arcam rPlay streamer > Cyrus One amplifier > Dali Oberon 5 floorstanding speakers.
The streamer is a couple of years old and is a brilliant piece of kit and we use it principally to play via Spotify and some radio via the inbuilt DTS Playfi software.
As our musical tastes have changed and now range from what we would call classy pop to house/Ibiza/trance etc we have wanted a lot more bass (well controlled but lots of) to a far more open sound with very precise placement of voice and instruments.
I think we've achieved it with the new set-up.
The amplifier is a thoroughly modern piece of kit - and as we have the Arcam streamer we didn't have to resort to a one box streamer/amplification solution. And it is pretty powerful with 100W per channel into 6 ohms which is the new speakers resistance. A nice simple piece of classy British engineering.
The short list was Cyrus One / Quad Vena II / Rega Brio / Audiolab 6000A - the Cyrus and Rega came out on top and where v.close to my ears and the Cyrus shaded it with a bit more heft overall and a slightly fuller bass sound.
The Oberon 5's are astonishing; especially for a not overly expensive speaker at £699. The brief was as above but the speakers had to be compact - we have a largish lounge of around 60 sq.m although the speakers live in a fairly congested part of the lounge where we spend a lot of time ie in front of the open fire. So they couldn't be too large - this ruled out eg Q Acoustics 3050i's which are too chunky to fulfill the brief.
The overall sound is mesmerising at low and moderate volumes - we are not running the system at party level at the moment as the speakers need around 100 hours run-in time before they can be cranked up. Nonetheless we had the (solid) interior walls vibrating last night! Brilliantly open and pinpoint placement of singers/instruments.
I guess the moot point of the post is that notionally the new equipment is a step down from the old equipment in terms of price level but... what a difference 18 years of audio development have made.
The new set-up simply blows the old away; much to my surprise.
Not that the old gear is a slouch in any way - they are quality items and produce a quality sound it's simply that time has moved on.
I guess I have been hanging on to my old gear for too long and haven't moved with the times - a feature of my life overall methinks!
Arcam rPlay streamer > Sugden Masteclass amp' > Dynaudio Audience 52 standmount speakers.
And is now:
Arcam rPlay streamer > Cyrus One amplifier > Dali Oberon 5 floorstanding speakers.
The streamer is a couple of years old and is a brilliant piece of kit and we use it principally to play via Spotify and some radio via the inbuilt DTS Playfi software.
As our musical tastes have changed and now range from what we would call classy pop to house/Ibiza/trance etc we have wanted a lot more bass (well controlled but lots of) to a far more open sound with very precise placement of voice and instruments.
I think we've achieved it with the new set-up.
The amplifier is a thoroughly modern piece of kit - and as we have the Arcam streamer we didn't have to resort to a one box streamer/amplification solution. And it is pretty powerful with 100W per channel into 6 ohms which is the new speakers resistance. A nice simple piece of classy British engineering.
The short list was Cyrus One / Quad Vena II / Rega Brio / Audiolab 6000A - the Cyrus and Rega came out on top and where v.close to my ears and the Cyrus shaded it with a bit more heft overall and a slightly fuller bass sound.
The Oberon 5's are astonishing; especially for a not overly expensive speaker at £699. The brief was as above but the speakers had to be compact - we have a largish lounge of around 60 sq.m although the speakers live in a fairly congested part of the lounge where we spend a lot of time ie in front of the open fire. So they couldn't be too large - this ruled out eg Q Acoustics 3050i's which are too chunky to fulfill the brief.
The overall sound is mesmerising at low and moderate volumes - we are not running the system at party level at the moment as the speakers need around 100 hours run-in time before they can be cranked up. Nonetheless we had the (solid) interior walls vibrating last night! Brilliantly open and pinpoint placement of singers/instruments.
I guess the moot point of the post is that notionally the new equipment is a step down from the old equipment in terms of price level but... what a difference 18 years of audio development have made.
The new set-up simply blows the old away; much to my surprise.
Not that the old gear is a slouch in any way - they are quality items and produce a quality sound it's simply that time has moved on.
I guess I have been hanging on to my old gear for too long and haven't moved with the times - a feature of my life overall methinks!
mistyoptic
Vintage
- Location
- A parallel reality
I hope you’re detached 😉
Grant Fondo
Guru
- Location
- Cheshire
Glad you like the upgrades and really like the speakersBig day for me yesterday - took delivery of some new upgrades to my system which was:
Arcam rPlay streamer > Sugden Masteclass amp' > Dynaudio Audience 52 standmount speakers.
And is now:
Arcam rPlay streamer > Cyrus One amplifier > Dali Oberon 5 floorstanding speakers.
The streamer is a couple of years old and is a brilliant piece of kit and we use it principally to play via Spotify and some radio via the inbuilt DTS Playfi software.
As our musical tastes have changed and now range from what we would call classy pop to house/Ibiza/trance etc we have wanted a lot more bass (well controlled but lots of) to a far more open sound with very precise placement of voice and instruments.
I think we've achieved it with the new set-up.
The amplifier is a thoroughly modern piece of kit - and as we have the Arcam streamer we didn't have to resort to a one box streamer/amplification solution. And it is pretty powerful with 100W per channel into 6 ohms which is the new speakers resistance. A nice simple piece of classy British engineering.
The short list was Cyrus One / Quad Vena II / Rega Brio / Audiolab 6000A - the Cyrus and Rega came out on top and where v.close to my ears and the Cyrus shaded it with a bit more heft overall and a slightly fuller bass sound.
The Oberon 5's are astonishing; especially for a not overly expensive speaker at £699. The brief was as above but the speakers had to be compact - we have a largish lounge of around 60 sq.m although the speakers live in a fairly congested part of the lounge where we spend a lot of time ie in front of the open fire. So they couldn't be too large - this ruled out eg Q Acoustics 3050i's which are too chunky to fulfill the brief.
The overall sound is mesmerising at low and moderate volumes - we are not running the system at party level at the moment as the speakers need around 100 hours run-in time before they can be cranked up. Nonetheless we had the (solid) interior walls vibrating last night! Brilliantly open and pinpoint placement of singers/instruments.
I guess the moot point of the post is that notionally the new equipment is a step down from the old equipment in terms of price level but... what a difference 18 years of audio development have made.
The new set-up simply blows the old away; much to my surprise.
Not that the old gear is a slouch in any way - they are quality items and produce a quality sound it's simply that time has moved on.
I guess I have been hanging on to my old gear for too long and haven't moved with the times - a feature of my life overall methinks!
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Grant Fondo
Guru
- Location
- Cheshire
Talking of which.... i got bitten by the upgrade bug earlier this year. A Naim power amp secondhand.
Its been a real treat since lockdown, hooked up to record deck too, even 'Rio' by Duran Duran got a play
Grant Fondo
Guru
- Location
- Cheshire
It does! And it goes proper loud as well. Really got me back into music after selling first Naim system 15 years ago and regretted it. This one is staying.
Joey Shabadoo
My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
We had a Naim amp for the Front of House music at Dundee Rep in the 90s, linked to a Denon cd player IIRC. Pretty good quality.
I can't seem to get a decent system for my telly though. Started with a wee Panasonic soundbar which got replaced with a Sonos Beam linked to two Sonos Ones which got replaced with a Canton DM76. The Panasonic was too wimpy, the Sonos kept disconnecting from the WiFi and the Canton was a bit two dimensional. But now I fancy experiencing Dolby Atmos so I've got a big LG soundbar coming tomorrow. I wonder what I'll find to dislike about that?
I can't seem to get a decent system for my telly though. Started with a wee Panasonic soundbar which got replaced with a Sonos Beam linked to two Sonos Ones which got replaced with a Canton DM76. The Panasonic was too wimpy, the Sonos kept disconnecting from the WiFi and the Canton was a bit two dimensional. But now I fancy experiencing Dolby Atmos so I've got a big LG soundbar coming tomorrow. I wonder what I'll find to dislike about that?
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
I'm not a Naim fan, but then I like the tone controls and adjustable/defeatable filters on my QUAD pre/power set up although I did 'upgrade' my 33 pre (1967 design) to a 44 a few years back.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
You think hifi nuts are loons, ranging from snobs through to complete wackos, then you should meet a few bassists...
- Location
- London
Seem to remember that ben goldacre in his bad science book debunked premium priced moisturising cream. Maybe you could get the mrs a copy for her birthday. With a pot of something from lidl.
(Or if feeling nervous lidl cream decanted into something)
- Location
- London
Even the supposedly holy (at least in its early days) Body Shop could be like this. I used to work with a woman who worked for Body Shop who said that at least two of the gloops differentially priced were effectively the same stuff.
