As I'm now a BOF myself I thought I'd take up Tony Haywood's suggestion and start a thread on the equipment we use for reviewing. I admit I'm a bit of an anorak when it comes to hi fi; I've spent the past 30 years dabbling in all sorts of gear, from moving coil cartridges and SME arms to a variety of speakers, CD players, cables and headphones. The goal has always been the same, to get as satisfying a system as finances would allow. It's been both frustrating and fun and I suspect the quest isn't over yet.
Now for the relevant bits - if your eyes haven't glazed over yet. My present system is made up of a Marantz 7001 SACD player, Musical Fidelity X-Can v3 headphone amp and Sennheiser HD 650 headphones. I've replaced the 'kettle grade' mains cable with a sturdier, properly earthed one from Clearer Audio plugged into a six-way mains conditioner. The player and MF amp are connected via Atlas Equator II cables.
So how does it sound? Well, I find it involving and insightful. I don't use loudspeakers as I live in a flat and would normally listen at highish levels. I feel good-quality cans give me all the important musical and ambient information I need, along with some of the things I don't (grunting conductors and noisy audiences, for instance). I also use my X-Fi PC sound card with the Sennheisers when I'm actually writing the review. It's more than adequate and allows me to stop and start easily, as well as switching between CD drives for comparative purposes.
Okay, I've shown you mine, now show me yours.
OK Dan, thanks for taking up the gauntlet first. I suppose I'm also a bit of an audio anorak, but there is a serious point behind this. I well remember as a music student our then head of Department (Arthur Jacobs, journalist for Opera Magazine and now remembered as a biographer of Arthur Sullivan) telling me he'd virtually been ordered by one of his review journals (which happened to be Hifi News and Record Review) to get better equipment. How, they said, could he possibly pass judgment on audio quality when using what they considered sub-standard gear?
ReplyDeleteWell, times maybe have changed and some very good stuff is now quite affordable, especially used or via Ebay, but what I find most interesting is the fact that these days most of us seem to listen as we type ie. at the computer. I suspect from Patrick's email that, maybe like me, his main system lags behind in regular use to his office system which, in my case, is the one I 'downgraded' from in the first place, when it was replaced with the expensive one! How ironic, and surely a sign of the fact that lots of people now listen at the computer or via websites such as Naxos Music Library. This means having to have a system plugged though the computer, something high end hifi buffs find alarming.
This, in turn, means that many excellent companies have invested in computer speakers and docks etc. all to give better quality to ipod and the like. I remember even our esteemed editor Rob Barnett saying at one of the lunches that an awful lot of his first listening to new discs was done on a pretty simple system in the office, only later to be taken into the main room to be tried on the big Quad stuff. The truth is, we adjust our ears, as in listening to the car radio, where quality is never quastioned as we know its limitations. My problem has been (like other hifi buffs) that elusive search for audio nirvana, or the dreaded 'upgrade-itis' which can afflict one and lead to empty pockets and lots of disillusionment.
That's why I asked the quastion in the first place. Dan's headphone-based gear is obviously high quality, but do any of our reviewers feel it's all foo and even a modest system is good enough - after all, it's the music that counts?
Oh, before I forget, my main reference gear is Cyrus CDX8, Cyrus 8VS amp and ProAc Response D15 floorstanders, all with Chord cables. Nightime, revert to Stax Lamda cans.
Happy listening !
Thanks, Tony, you make some very pertinent points. I suppose it's all too easy to get caught up in the technical side of things - a prime example is an SACD-focused site which seems to prize sound quality above all else. But then many people would laugh at spending/wasting money on mains conditoners and interconnects, so I don't really have a leg top stand on, do I?
ReplyDeleteAs for simple - ie basic - gear goes I have fond memories of my student system, with its old Lenco direct-drive turntable (rumble and all) and Akai amp and speakers. That was nirvana then and it gave me countless hours of pleasure. I wonder what I'd make of it now?
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