08-Sep-2014, 22:15
I bought my first hifi 43 years ago this month as my single affordable purchase when I was about to start university. Just a turntable, amplifier and speakers for about £70.
So I thought it would now be revealing to try to remember all the wise and all the many more not so wise purchases over that period. I was surprised to see that I had purchased 165 items - which is pretty crazy - over that time, though 39 of them are in the “bits” category (signal and mains cables and equipment and loudspeaker stands). Even now, when I think I have gone minimalist, I find I have 53 items including 23 “bits”. And so much for minimalism when I find that 16 of the 53 are “alternatives” (other loudspeakers, cables and stands).
The main source is a MacBook Pro (512GB SSD 2011 model) which should, once all ripped, accommodate my 600 or so CDs plus a few purchases from iTunes and HD Tracks. I use iTunes as my data carrier plus the recent addition of Qobuz.
This communicates through an Apple Airport Time Capsule, now in its 5th generation, which replaced one of the previous generation and provides an improved wifi signal probably as a result of the different aerial array. This is pretty important in what remains, in my opinion, the weakest area of the Devialet offering.
Mobile control is through an iPad or an iPad mini (or a iPhone just for the app), with all this mounted close to the listening position using Luminati acrylic wall supports, which also house Oppo PM-1 planar magnetic headphones and Stax SR009 electrostatic headphones, an Oppo HA-1 headphone amplifier (for the PM-1) and an Astell & Kern AK240 music player. The AK240 and PM-1 are generally for mobile use.
The MacBook Pro connects to my Devialet 800 using wifi and Meicord Opal ethernet. Wifi is fine at 16bit/44.1kHz but occasionally not 100% faultless at 24bit/96kHz even though there in line of sight four metre transmission path.
The kit at the speaker wall end comprises the Devialet 800 on their wall mounts driving Magico Q1s and a Wilson Benesch Torus “infrasonic generator”. This sits centrally on a low Futureglass plinth, primarily because the Torus weight means it is impossible to site it exactly where you want it on a spiked wooden floor but easier to accomplish on a thick glass plinth. Below the plinth is a Cyrus CD xt Signature transport, sourced just in case the entire computer source goes pear shaped. This can be swapped with a Quad 99FM tuner - now my only Quad gear, things having been exclusively Quad for about 20 years - fed from a Ron Smith Galaxie 17 element aerial and a Yaesu G-450C rotator.
Other kit is concealed behind the speaker wall, namely two PS Audio Power Plant Premiers, the Wilson Benesch Torus amplifier and the Cavalli Liquid Lightning headphone amplifier (for the SR009). These latter two are operable through the Devialet remote and configuration cards.
I describe myself as a gullible cable sceptic, so I buy stuff from no-nonsense engineers (good) but then buy more alternatives (bad). Signal cabling is either Missing Link Cryo Reference or Soundstring Generation ll; and power cable is a mixture of Missing Link Opus and Soundstring Generation ll. I also made a “placebo”(!) purchase of two Entreq Minimus/Silver Eartha units. I did feel they made a difference on audition, but i have not subsequently rechecked in case I get the wrong answer.
Having gone minimalist, or so I thought, I then succumbed to buy or keep a few playthings:
speakers: CML Etude; Rogers LS3/5a; KEF LS50; Boenicke W5; supertweeters: Murata ES105;
more loudspeaker cables: Solid Core Audio; DNM Resolution;
loudspeaker stands: Track Audio Precision; Boenicke; Custom Speaker Stands.
With Devialet now doing SAM options for the Q1 and the LS50, all this gives me 272 combinations to try which, as they say locally, makes me “daft as a brush”.
Other big boys toys are a Squeezebox Touch, bought as a “vintage” piece before they stopped production, and a DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core “loudspeaker optimisation system”.
To finish the room I’m in the middle of applying Advanced Acoustics foam tiles on the walls to the rear and sides of the loudspeakers concealed behind heavy curtaining. Whilst the room is dedicated for listening it is quite small at 10ft wide and 17.1/2ft long - so, much as I like Quad electrostatics, it proved been a bridge too far, sonically and visually.
Musical tastes on CD are split 2/3rds:1/3rd - with the former favouring Yes, the Beatles, Dire Straits, Clapton, Pink Floyd and Queen; and the latter favouring Rachmaninov, Kings College Choir, Lang Lang, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart. Nothing too adventurous.
Soon I will post pictures - once I get the acoustic stuff finished. Which means just before Christmas. Possibly!
So I thought it would now be revealing to try to remember all the wise and all the many more not so wise purchases over that period. I was surprised to see that I had purchased 165 items - which is pretty crazy - over that time, though 39 of them are in the “bits” category (signal and mains cables and equipment and loudspeaker stands). Even now, when I think I have gone minimalist, I find I have 53 items including 23 “bits”. And so much for minimalism when I find that 16 of the 53 are “alternatives” (other loudspeakers, cables and stands).
The main source is a MacBook Pro (512GB SSD 2011 model) which should, once all ripped, accommodate my 600 or so CDs plus a few purchases from iTunes and HD Tracks. I use iTunes as my data carrier plus the recent addition of Qobuz.
This communicates through an Apple Airport Time Capsule, now in its 5th generation, which replaced one of the previous generation and provides an improved wifi signal probably as a result of the different aerial array. This is pretty important in what remains, in my opinion, the weakest area of the Devialet offering.
Mobile control is through an iPad or an iPad mini (or a iPhone just for the app), with all this mounted close to the listening position using Luminati acrylic wall supports, which also house Oppo PM-1 planar magnetic headphones and Stax SR009 electrostatic headphones, an Oppo HA-1 headphone amplifier (for the PM-1) and an Astell & Kern AK240 music player. The AK240 and PM-1 are generally for mobile use.
The MacBook Pro connects to my Devialet 800 using wifi and Meicord Opal ethernet. Wifi is fine at 16bit/44.1kHz but occasionally not 100% faultless at 24bit/96kHz even though there in line of sight four metre transmission path.
The kit at the speaker wall end comprises the Devialet 800 on their wall mounts driving Magico Q1s and a Wilson Benesch Torus “infrasonic generator”. This sits centrally on a low Futureglass plinth, primarily because the Torus weight means it is impossible to site it exactly where you want it on a spiked wooden floor but easier to accomplish on a thick glass plinth. Below the plinth is a Cyrus CD xt Signature transport, sourced just in case the entire computer source goes pear shaped. This can be swapped with a Quad 99FM tuner - now my only Quad gear, things having been exclusively Quad for about 20 years - fed from a Ron Smith Galaxie 17 element aerial and a Yaesu G-450C rotator.
Other kit is concealed behind the speaker wall, namely two PS Audio Power Plant Premiers, the Wilson Benesch Torus amplifier and the Cavalli Liquid Lightning headphone amplifier (for the SR009). These latter two are operable through the Devialet remote and configuration cards.
I describe myself as a gullible cable sceptic, so I buy stuff from no-nonsense engineers (good) but then buy more alternatives (bad). Signal cabling is either Missing Link Cryo Reference or Soundstring Generation ll; and power cable is a mixture of Missing Link Opus and Soundstring Generation ll. I also made a “placebo”(!) purchase of two Entreq Minimus/Silver Eartha units. I did feel they made a difference on audition, but i have not subsequently rechecked in case I get the wrong answer.
Having gone minimalist, or so I thought, I then succumbed to buy or keep a few playthings:
speakers: CML Etude; Rogers LS3/5a; KEF LS50; Boenicke W5; supertweeters: Murata ES105;
more loudspeaker cables: Solid Core Audio; DNM Resolution;
loudspeaker stands: Track Audio Precision; Boenicke; Custom Speaker Stands.
With Devialet now doing SAM options for the Q1 and the LS50, all this gives me 272 combinations to try which, as they say locally, makes me “daft as a brush”.
Other big boys toys are a Squeezebox Touch, bought as a “vintage” piece before they stopped production, and a DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core “loudspeaker optimisation system”.
To finish the room I’m in the middle of applying Advanced Acoustics foam tiles on the walls to the rear and sides of the loudspeakers concealed behind heavy curtaining. Whilst the room is dedicated for listening it is quite small at 10ft wide and 17.1/2ft long - so, much as I like Quad electrostatics, it proved been a bridge too far, sonically and visually.
Musical tastes on CD are split 2/3rds:1/3rd - with the former favouring Yes, the Beatles, Dire Straits, Clapton, Pink Floyd and Queen; and the latter favouring Rachmaninov, Kings College Choir, Lang Lang, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart. Nothing too adventurous.
Soon I will post pictures - once I get the acoustic stuff finished. Which means just before Christmas. Possibly!
Innuos Statement 2TB SSD with Next-Gen PSU (with Roon lifetime)
MacBook Pro (with Air)
Draytek Vigor 2860v-Plus/Devialet Original d'Atelier CI Nos. 54A&B/Magico M3 pair
Shunyata cables (digital/interconnect/loudspeaker/power)/Shunyata power units (Triton/Typhon)
Dialog/Phantom Gold/Tree pair
Missing Link cables (power)
England
