New (hi-fi) toy just arrived :-)

[Fab Foodie]

I might well get my Nakamishi tape deck out of the loft seeing all this classic hi fi posted up! Still miss my Naim kit I flogged 10 yrs ago

I still have one in the loft too....

 

[Grant Fondo]

I still have one in the loft too....

I remember it sounded great with BASF metal tapes that I used to record on from a Hitachi tuner....

 

[Fab Foodie]

View attachment 464769
I remember it sounded great with BASF metal tapes that I used to record on from a Hitachi tuner....

They were great machines. Mine wasn’t a Dragon though. :-(

 

[Fnaar]

Does it go up to 11?

 

[Fab Foodie]

Does it go up to 11?

Not arf!

 

[bruce1530]

Just waiting for someone to mention their pure crystalline directional quantum interconnects

 

[raleighnut]

Does it go up to 11?

The QUAD goes up to 22,

 

[Fab Foodie]

Just waiting for someone to mention their pure crystalline directional quantum interconnects

Steady....

 

[PapaZita]

View attachment 464769
I remember it sounded great with BASF metal tapes that I used to record on from a Hitachi tuner....

That’s not a tape recorder. This is a tape recorder.



It’s a Ferrograph Studio 8, retrofitted with Dolby SR.

For amplifiers, I’m very fond of my Hypex class D. You can’t beat a nice mix of retro and modern.

 

[slowmotion]

Transistors....?
Integrated circuits...??

 

[Fab Foodie]

Transistors....?
Integrated circuits...??

View attachment 464771

Do you want Woofers and Tweeters with that, Grandad?

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

And why not?
It’s replacing my venerable 30 year old 8000a which was getting graunchy on one channel (not switches). I toyed with having it refurbished, but then thought I’ll try something modern!

View attachment 464713

The old girl has done well! But it’s part of an overall upgrade strategy. Currently the rest is this (residing in my small office):

View attachment 464714

And a pair if Audio Q 8020i bookshelves.

The Rogers Studio1a’s having died a long while ago....

Next stop is building a pair of these:

https://iplacoustics.co.uk/S2tlm Ribbon.htm

In the meantime there is the Thorens TD 160 SME 3009 combo to refurb and move it into @Hill Wimp lounge ;-)

Then CD player upgrade...

Nice choice the Rega. I guess if you have the money and the Audiolab has issues it's a good move. From my experience I'm not convinced that new gear sounds a lot better than the old stuff, if the old gear is decent and working correctly. I recently upgraded my speakers and found my 20 year old Arcam Alpha 9 amp didn't have enough grunt to play them at really loud levels, being 70 watt RMS @ 8 ohms. It kept cutting out. I demo'd a couple of newer more powerful amps (Yamaha A-S801 and a used Roksan Kandy K2), these did not sound as good as the Alpha 9, so I never bothered.

In the end I bought an Arcam FMJ A39 blind, as I like the Arcam sound. This amp is 120 watts RMS @ 8 ohms, it goes really loud and never misses a beat, it sounds fantastic, the clarity and power is superb. However at lower levels it is pretty hard to distinguish it from the Alpha 9. So with lesser speakers in an attached house, I have a feeling it could be a waste of money. The input selector switch was starting to play up on the Alpha 9, despite being replaced once, the part is now obsolete.

But as you say if the Audiolab has issues, I'm just not sure that some newer gear is better at the same spec, a different manufacturer will have a different sound though. I just bought into this What Hi-Fi nonsense and that technology has improved, when usually it is extra features with some amps, like built in DAC's, bluetooth etc, all of which can be added with other devices.

Nice Arcam Alpha CD player by the way. I would personally buy a DAC than replace that. I bought a used Arcam IRDAC and it's superb, can also take a USB input from my PC where all my CD's are stored in FLAC format. The IRDAC 2 also has a pretty good headphone amp feature too, which is useful. As long as the transport is working fine in the Alpha, but again newer players offer extra features, along with a better DAC. I find it hard to notice large differences in CD players I've heard. I've never heard anything over £500 though. Speakers made the biggest difference to my system.

Nice gear though, enjoy the Brio

 

[Fab Foodie]

Nice choice the Rega. I guess if you have the money and the Audiolab has issues it's a good move. From my experience I'm not convinced that new gear sounds a lot better than the old stuff, if the old gear is decent and working correctly. I recently upgraded my speakers and found my 20 year old Arcam Alpha 9 amp didn't have enough grunt to play them at really loud levels, being 70 watt RMS @ 8 ohms. It kept cutting out. I demo'd a couple of newer more powerful amps (Yamaha A-S801 and a used Roksan Kandy K2), these did not sound as good as the Alpha 9, so I never bothered.

In the end I bought an Arcam FMJ A39 blind, as I like the Arcam sound. This amp is 120 watts RMS @ 8 ohms, it goes really loud and never misses a beat, it sounds fantastic, the clarity and power is superb. However at lower levels it is pretty hard to distinguish it from the Alpha 9. So with lesser speakers in an attached house, I have a feeling it could be a waste of money. The input selector switch was starting to play up on the Alpha 9, despite being replaced once, the part is now obsolete.

But as you say if the Audiolab has issues, I'm just not sure that some newer gear is better at the same spec, a different manufacturer will have a different sound though. I just bought into this What Hi-Fi nonsense and that technology has improved, when usually it is extra features with some amps, like built in DAC's, bluetooth etc, all of which can be added with other devices.

Nice Arcam Alpha CD player by the way. I would personally buy a DAC than replace that. I bought a used Arcam IRDAC and it's superb, can also take a USB input from my PC where all my CD's are stored in FLAC format. The IRDAC 2 also has a pretty good headphone amp feature too, which is useful. As long as the transport is working fine in the Alpha, but again newer players offer extra features, along with a better DAC. I find it hard to notice large differences in CD players I've heard. I've never heard anything over £500 though. Speakers made the biggest difference to my system.

Nice gear though, enjoy the Brio

And I think you are right!!!
I toyed with getting the Audiolab refurbed, but it's the best part of 30 years old.
The Brio got rave reviews and is supposed to be a good match for the new speakers. However a quick listen yesterday (it needs to run-in) says it's fun and frivolous, but really lacks the richness and authority of the Audiolab. It's fast and clear as a bell however. Time will tell.
I'll keep the Audiolab with a view to getting it refurbed if the Rega doesn't work-out long term.
Having heard a few top-rated modern systems, the old sound works for me, especially at lower volumes.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

I'd give it time, you might grow to really like the sound of it. The other two I tried were harsh and thin sounding, not my thing. The Audiolab is a really good amp though...

 

[raleighnut]

And I think you are right!!!
I toyed with getting the Audiolab refurbed, but it's the best part of 30 years old.
The Brio got rave reviews and is supposed to be a good match for the new speakers. However a quick listen yesterday (it needs to run-in) says it's fun and frivolous, but really lacks the richness and authority of the Audiolab. It's fast and clear as a bell however. Time will tell.
I'll keep the Audiolab with a view to getting it refurbed if the Rega doesn't work-out long term.
Having heard a few top-rated modern systems, the old sound works for me, especially at lower volumes.

Yeah the 'modern' sound isn't my cup of tea either and not that keen on Amplifiers without some tone controls.

A lot of the advice these days is run a Sub-Woofer to add bass but for me that defeats the object of a stereo, so some say run 2 Subs.