Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Admin on 02 August 2007, 19:58:07
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Hmmm. I have been looking to get some "proper" (well to most aside of Mark/Max) audio components for use in the home.
I have been scouring around ebay looking at what is on offer. I missed out on a couple I should have gone for but work got busy and I forgot to bid which meant I missed out on a damn nice set of Yamaha natural sound compnents with some tasty mission speakers. >:(
Now, most sensible people would get the seperates, then look at speakers....
Not me, I was browsing today and came across a pair of Paradigm Monitor 9 speakers... oooh (even with my limited knowledge I know these are damn good, and very natural speakers)!
Right, so now I am the proud, but a little dumb, owner of a fabulous pair of speakers... but have nothing to drive them!!
If anyone has some nice components they are prepared to let go for a decent price, let me know. :)
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Why be sensible ?
Be sensible with the seperates..They look good speakers just read up on them :y ..
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Well from what I gather they are excellent, they certainly look cool! ;)
I will, doubtless, get comments off Mark at some point. I say this as Mark has a very impressive sounding set up at home and his knowledge of such things is probably only bettered by MaxV6. (actually I am a little nervous of exactly what he will say... ::))
Now the fun will start, getting the right components. The most important being a decent amp...
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No doubt Mark will have some input on these speakers nut as you say very knowledgable in all subjects, should end up a good system.. :y
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Good speakers, cant fault them.
You need a reasonable amp to drive them well, nothing to powerful but something with plenty of control to keep the sound tight......
Budget - SONY TA-FB940R - Cracking low end amp, true discrete Mosfet design, plenty of power and well screwed together. A very difficult unit to beat at the price.
Mid range - Maybe a Denon PMA1500AE
Above this can get silly........
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Good speakers, cant fault them.
You need a reasonable amp to drive them well, nothing to powerful but something with plenty of control to keep the sound tight......
Budget - SONY TA-FB940R - Cracking low end amp, true discrete Mosfet design, plenty of power and well screwed together. A very difficult unit to beat at the price.
Mid range - Maybe a Denon PMA1500AE
Above this can get silly........
No no no no no no no no no no no no no.
No.
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Good speakers, cant fault them.
You need a reasonable amp to drive them well, nothing to powerful but something with plenty of control to keep the sound tight......
Budget - SONY TA-FB940R - Cracking low end amp, true discrete Mosfet design, plenty of power and well screwed together. A very difficult unit to beat at the price.
Mid range - Maybe a Denon PMA1500AE
Above this can get silly........
No no no no no no no no no no no no no.
No.
Mark, I think was saved from a major post deduction only by the fact he is... well Mark, for that post! ;D ;D
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Good speakers, cant fault them.
Wow... high praise indeed! :o
Right. Below are a few ideas. Any thoughts on my suggestions appreciated.
Amp.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Yamaha-AX-392-Natural-Sound-Stereo-Integrated-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ250147731959QQihZ015QQcategoryZ3280QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Always liked the sound these produce.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ARCAM-ALPHA-8-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ190136373501QQihZ009QQcategoryZ3280QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Nice, very very nice....and will probably be too damn expensive!
CD Player.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ARCAM-ALPHA-7-CD-PLAYER_W0QQitemZ190136375268QQihZ009QQcategoryZ3272QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Well it is Arcam... so will be excellent.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/marantz-cd-63-mkII-KI-SIGNATURE_W0QQitemZ120146658635QQihZ002QQcategoryZ3272QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Ah heck, I want one of these! Never heard a bad word said about them!
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Forget Yamaha, the sound is to 'buggered' with (they call it natural sound, I call it dont decide my tone settings for me...)
The Arcam amp is a nice unit.....
Cd players are an interesting one......again, a Sony CDPXB9XX fixed pickup range is VERY good for a budget buy. Marantz is reasonable but, the Arcam I always found lacked range.
And I dont care what The Boy says about the above......they are fine pieces of kit and Sony seperates realy do hold there own at the bottom/mid end of the market.
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Forget Yamaha, the sound is to 'buggered' with (they call it natural sound, I call it dont decide my tone settings for me...)
Nice!
Now, maybe this suggestion will be too budget for you, but for a CD player, what about a cambridge audio azur 640c version 2. I have one of these, it has dual DACS and sounds excellent. I could not believe how much detail and sound staging was missing from my previous player.
Here is a link:
http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summary.php?PID=99&Title=Azur+640C+%28Version+2%29
Hope this may help in some way.
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Forget Yamaha, the sound is to 'buggered' with (they call it natural sound, I call it dont decide my tone settings for me...)
The Arcam amp is a nice unit.....
Cd players are an interesting one......again, a Sony CDPXB9XX fixed pickup range is VERY good for a budget buy. Marantz is reasonable but, the Arcam I always found lacked range.
And I dont care what The Boy says about the above......they are fine pieces of kit and Sony seperates realy do hold there own at the bottom/mid end of the market.
I actually own a Sony amp, and use it ::)
Its not a proper amp, its there old surround amp (htc430?), with built in radio tuner. Idea being that under my tv, I just have MCE and amp/tuner, no other a/v stuff. The amp is actually OK (though the video switching is svideo, but I obviously do not pump video through it), though the supplied speakers are woeful. I'm guessing the amp, when they marketed the bundle, was 'old school' sony, and the speakers where the 'new' (aka crap) Sony.
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Sony speakers have always been a bit 'budget'....there true discrete amps are still pretty dam good.
I used to work with one of the founders of Audio Analogue, he designed thier CD player and worked on the original Puccini amp......these sold for mega bucks with sub 100 quid of bits in them! I ahev all the schematics
The key thing about hifi is that everybodies taste is different and so thre never is a true 'best' product although there is some poor stuff.....
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The key thing about hifi is that everybodies taste is different and so thre never is a true 'best' product although there is some poor stuff.....
Agreed :y
Though generally, as you get older, esp if you listened to too much live music too loud when younger, the quality can be lower without noticing the difference ::)
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When I took my 12 year old Philips TV to be repaired (turned out battery had died), the chap said - thank goodness its not a Sony - full of dry joints..
As an aside - tried finding a tv repair shop these days? Next to impossible.
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Laidback, dont leave those speakers too long without using them or the motion will stiffen-up and the sound will go off. If you like I can keep them exercised on my KT88 valve system and also run-in any new speaker leads for you.
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If you like I can keep them exercised on my KT88 valve system
I was thinking they might be a little too much of a handful for my homebrew valve amp. :(
also run-in any new speaker leads for you
Oh, dear. Make sure you've got the little arrows pointing in the right direction. Copper makes a very good diode after all :y
I've heard that using them to jump start an Omega ru(i)ns them in quicker than listening to music too! ;D
As an aside - tried finding a tv repair shop these days? Next to impossible.
Shop in my village has just packed up, although the guy still repairs stuff from home, I think. I guess rising labour prices and falling costs of new goods is to blame. That and the fact that everyone has to have the latest gadgets so most TVs probably get upgraded before they break.
Well it is Arcam... so will be excellent.
I wouldn't be quite so sure. I've got an Alpha 1. I know it's a budget player and the 7 is likely much better, but the construction of the thing is really nasty. It's got the most ghastly CD transport I've ever seen outside a Matsui midi system (the transport is made by Sony. Sorry, TB). It struggles to play anything other than a bog standard <74 minute CD, despite numerous attempts to tweak it.
It'll be the first thing to go if I ever get serious about hi-fi again. (I'm still getting grief about veneering the very attractive MDF speakers I built 8 years ago) ;D
Kevin
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also run-in any new speaker leads for you
Oh, dear. Make sure you've got the little arrows pointing in the right direction. Copper makes a very good diode after all :y
I've heard that using them to jump start an Omega ru(i)ns them in quicker than listening to music too! ;D
Ah yes, the great interconnect / cable debate. Directional cables sound 50 times better you know! ::)
As an aside - tried finding a tv repair shop these days? Next to impossible.
Agreed - sadly.
Shop in my village has just packed up, although the guy still repairs stuff from home, I think. I guess rising labour prices and falling costs of new goods is to blame. That and the fact that everyone has to have the latest gadgets so most TVs probably get upgraded before they break.
Exactly. It is all part of this throw away society that we live in. I still have two Ferguson TX tv sets at home - still in working order too! The lack of a scart is the only thing that prevents them being in regular use.
Well it is Arcam... so will be excellent.
I wouldn't be quite so sure. I've got an Alpha 1. I know it's a budget player and the 7 is likely much better, but the construction of the thing is really nasty. It's got the most ghastly CD transport I've ever seen outside a Matsui midi system (the transport is made by Sony. Sorry, TB). It struggles to play anything other than a bog standard <74 minute CD, despite numerous attempts to tweak it.
I always thought (via What Hi-Fi magazine) that Arcam were good / the best you could buy. Like the reference to the Matsui midi system!! :)
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I always thought (via What Hi-Fi magazine) that Arcam were good / the best you could buy. Like the reference to the Matsui midi system!!
Me too. However, they built that name peddling (truly good) £1k+ separates and then decided to use it to sell a £200 CD player for £300 IMHO. The point I was trying to make is that it doesn't necessarily mean all their products are fantastic.
I'm not a subscriber to the directional speaker cable theory. I guess if I'd spent my youth honing my ears and studying the arts instead of trying to destroy them and studying engineering maybe I might have arrived at a different perspective ;D
Kevin
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As I said, I dont rate the Arcam Cd players.....the amps are pretty good.
The Arcam Cd player uses the same CD transport as the 50 quid budget Sony units......
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I don't trust What Hi Fi at all. I think their ratings are influenced by factors other than the product's performance. Case in point being Misson speakers, which always get highly rated, but I have always found disappointing.
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Some very interesting points put forward here, and I am going to leave the Arcam cd players alone.
As an aisde I have been offered a Pioner reference series amp by one of the guys from work for next to no money, so I will have that in the interim (or at least when I get in the office next Friday...)
On the cd player front, I have been reading VERY good things about the Cambridge Azur 640C. I will seriously look into this as everyone seems to rave on about it!
Matchless, many thanks for the kind offer to look after the speakers, but considering their size, I am not sure your wife would be quite so understanding and i would never want to be the cause of marital disharmony. ;)
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Some very interesting points put forward here, and I am going to leave the Arcam cd players alone.
As an aisde I have been offered a Pioner reference series amp by one of the guys from work for next to no money, so I will have that in the interim (or at least when I get in the office next Friday...)
On the cd player front, I have been reading VERY good things about the Cambridge Azur 640C. I will seriously look into this as everyone seems to rave on about it!
Matchless, many thanks for the kind offer to look after the speakers, but considering their size, I am not sure your wife would be quite so understanding and i would never want to be the cause of marital disharmony. ;)
There you go brand new here.
http://www.richersounds.co.uk/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=CAMB-640C-V2-BLK
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Thanks.... alas I then listened to Marks.... 8-)
I have now decided to wait until he is out one day and then go round and swipe his kit! ;D
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So Dave - how is the new HiFi going?
Have you thought about trying a modified DVD player as a CD player.
There is a long thread on a US bulletin board about modifying a Pioneer DV575 and the end result sounding like a £500 CD player