Most significant 2 channel hi-fi products.

[Beobloke]

Ok, following on from Tons of Fun's significant AV products thread, i thought i'd start one up for 2 channel equipment, although some have already been mentioned in the other thread!

My votes -

NAD 3020 - The first budget amp that didn't sound like it!
Celestion SL6 - Personally don't like them, but they led the change from big, power-hungry, multi-drive unit 70's speakers ( :smashin: !!) to the small, simple 80's types ( :thumbsdow !!).
Wharfedale Diamonds - did for small, budget speakers what the NAD 3020 did for budget amps.
Quad ESL - for obvious reasons!
Bang & Olufsen Beolab 5 - 2500W active speaker with acoustic lens technology for superb HF dispersion and built-in automatic active room correction - which works!
Pioneer PL-12D - the first cheap and good quality turntable to come from the Japanese that beat the brits at their own game. It also helped Garrard's downfall, which is why i hate it on principle, if not on performance! :grin:
Linn Sondek LP12 - whether you think it's over-rated or not, it made people think about system heirarchy and the importance of a good source.
Technics SL1200/1210 - the DJ standard and the biggest selling turntable EVER.
Bang & Olufsen Beocord 9000 - the first commercially available cassette deck with Dolby HX Pro, which really did help recording quality.

Over to you lot................ ;)

[Ed Selley]

Hmm- I'd say;

Marantz CD-7 Probably the best old school CD player ever- even if you don't neccessarily like the way it sounds.
Pro-ject Debut Obviously- we know that vinyl never died- it just went quiet for a bit. The Pro-ject certainly helped it come back though.
Mission 700 Picked up the baton whilst the Wharfedale Diamond was having a low patch to be the seminal student bookshelf.
Cambridge DAB300 Obviously it is a dissapointment what has happened to DAB. Back when it was a great white hope, the DAB 300 wasn't just a bit cheaper, it was half as expensive as the next unit- we sold thousands of them.
My 2p.

[eviljohn2]

The NAD 3020s that I've heard are now very old indeed and still sound excellent. :)

[common]

Denon TU260L tuner

Marantz CD63 CD Player

QED Silver speaker cable

Rega Planner 3

Mission 753's mmm all those drivers

[Mr Cat]

rel subs...they were originally for music, weren't they..?

[Ed Selley]

rel subs...they were originally for music, weren't they..?

*Sits back and waits for Beobloke to erupt*

[Garrett]

AR Cambridge A60 Amp a absolute clasck amp I bought one years ago and still use it to power my front computer speakers.Mission 763,

Also Audiolab 8000 amp for years and years was the winner in its category of best amp. It still may well have been there today if Tag had not taken them over.

Pioneer upside down CD platters play CD on a turntable rather than spinning them in the air.

Sonab speakers devised to get rid of the sweet spot you get but front firing speakers, Castle speakers use a similar idea with there top of the rage speakers and have one top firing speaker. Although not giving as much pinpint accuracy does give a greater depth of field.

[deanym]

Mission Cyrus 2 amplifier.

[Mr Cat]

*Sits back and waits for Beobloke to erupt*

yeah, I know technically it would make it 2.1 as opposed to stereo...but they certainly did enhance that enjoyment...

to quote their website -

"In the beginning...

In the early 1990’s Richard Lord began experimenting with bass.
He wanted perfect bass in his room, but couldn’t get it from the best conventional loudspeakers. They left him wanting more.
The best big speakers sounded boomy, the best small ones could not reproduce the bass he knew existed.
His hunch was that a dedicated bass loudspeaker would do the trick. But not any bass loudspeaker.


...Innvovation

At the time, “subwoofers” were used extensively in PA rigs and some studios of course, but consumer versions were universally derided by the Hi Fi cognoscenti. As an audiophile, Richard Lord recognised the need for a new breed of sub-bass system, conceived, designed and built to audiophile standards, which would blend neutrally with any system, in any room, and reproduce the clean low frequencies vital to the faithful reproduction of music. To do this properly, he needed to match the bass driver with a dedicated, built-in amplifier, optimised to deliver maximum performance. Shortly afterwards, the first REL sub-bass system was launched to critical acclaim

“REL’s products have had “supercar” status in the subwoofer market pretty much from day one.” Kulwinder Singh Rai T3 Magazine


"

[Ed Selley]

Oh it won't be the 2.1 bit :laugh:..................

[Beobloke]

*takes very deep breath................................aaaaaaaaaaan d relax*

[Mr Cat]

sorry...you've lost me.....

[common]

Atacama SE24 stands

[Ed Selley]

sorry...you've lost me.....

Let us leave it at the fact that he gets a little riled over a certain Welsh bass radiator company.

[Steve.EX]

ESL63's

[Steve.EX]

Rogers LSa3 somethings

[Steve.EX]

Nakamichi Dragon (there was another Nakamichi 300...???? that many prefered)

[Beobloke]

Nakamichi Dragon (there was another Nakamichi 300...???? that many prefered)

The CR7E was supposed to be the best sounding, but surely the RX202/505's have to be the funkiest for their "tape flipping" auto reverse! :smashin:

[vizslaraner]

QED Silver speaker cable.Personally, I would plump for the original 79 strand.


Audiolab 8000 amp for years and years was the winner in its category of best amp. It still may well have been there today if Tag had not taken them over.Prior to forming Audiolab, Derek Scotland and Phil Swift were involved in the design of the Lentek integrated. It was supposed to be the vanguard of a range of electronics, but the TEK group went bust (I think) and Audiolab was formed. I’ve always had the feeling rightly or wrongly, that the 8000 was little more than a pared down Lentek.

To my mind, with its custom cast powder coated heatsinks and flush mounted pushbuttons, it still looks the part. It was also possible, via links and switches on the back, to split the pre and power sections and match cartridges more accurately. However, contrary to some eBay ads I've seen (the odd one still appears now and then), it wasn't too tolerant of low impedance loads; at 60W per channel it was underpowered (some went the extreme of buying 3; bridge 2 for the power with the third acting as the pre); in my experience, it was unreliable - mine having to be returned on several occasions.



Nakamichi Dragon (there was another Nakamichi 300...???? that many prefered)
The CR7E was supposed to be the best sounding, but surely the RX202/505's have to be the funkiest for their "tape flipping" auto reverse! :smashin:Here I would actually plump for the 1000 ZXL, mainly because both the Dragon and CR7E are it's descendants. It sported an amazing array of innovations for the time including; auto set up (bias etc); tape type memory; RAMM (Random Access Music Memory). It blisteringly quick at winding and rewinding tapes, but stand back when pressing the eject button; there was no damping on the mechanism so it tended to act a bit like a toaster.




And to add to the above;

Firstly, Koetsu. The birth of the super moving coil cartridge.

Secondly, Nelson Pass with his Threshold amplifiers. The birth of the super amplifier; well for us over on this side of the pond anyway.

Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference Turntable. A true work of art (eat your heart out Linn).

SME Tonearms. Ditto; though I must confess to never actually ever having owned one.

The Zerostat antistatic gun.

[gario]

The NAD 3020s that I've heard are now very old indeed and still sound excellent. :)

Yes I have one of these NAD 3020s the early model.
I remember a few years ago a workmate was doing a major upgrade to his Hi Fi setup, I have always remembered a comment he made to me when I asked him " how are you getting on with your new amp/cd player"?? His answer to me was, yea, ok,
but if I was you I would stick with your NAD 3020.

So I have, and I will continue to do so.
Fantastic amp. :thumbsup:

[overkill]

AR EB101. Brought good quality suspended sub turntables into the 'affordable' arena.
Cambridge CD2. Stans babies fell to pieces at the slightest cough, but my God they were good for the time. The 2' along with the CD94 showed what CD could be capable of at last.
Roksan Xerxes. Broke Linns stranglehold in era when it was proving disastrous (CD's breakthrough).
Kef 104/2. Still incredible 17 years on...........
Audio technica ATF5. The budget MC that showed you didn't have to mortgage the house to get clear, refined, vinyl replay.
Rega RB300. THE budget superarm. 20 years on, stil going strong.
NAD 3020. One word - awesome. :grin:
Yamaha KX-200. We sold these along with the KX-500 by the lorryload. Great decks, dirt cheap. Along with the budget Aiwas brought to an end the age of 'cotton wool' tape decks for the masses. ;)

[la gran siete]

Gyrodec / Rega RB 300 /Shure VM x MR awesome combination.

Any Glen Croft valve product Vitale Vita Epoch Dakshini. Croft series v

Croft modified Leak stereo 20

There is only one thing to say the man is a genius

Snell type k ideal for low powered valve amps
Lowther horn loaded speakers
Loth x Polaris horn loaded speakers

[Jules]

Pioneer A400.
It was the first Japanese amplifier to have all the bells and whistles chopped off in favour of pure sound quality.

Nothing touched it at 2 or even 3 times the price.
Why did they stop making it? Everything since has been a backward step.

[Garrett]

Pioneer A400.
It was the first Japanese amplifier to have all the bells and whistles chopped off in favour of pure sound quality.

Nothing touched it at 2 or even 3 times the price.
Why did they stop making it? Everything since has been a backward step.May be in the Japanese market but as I remember ite was over £200 and the Audiolab 8000 was £400, also Arcam hed some good stuff out as well.

[overkill]

Nothing touched it at 2 or even 3 times the price. Never rated it. It was hyped to death. We did blind listening tests on several customers to see if it was as good as the reviewers made out, and only one out of 20 chose it over the other test amps. Included amongst which were two cheaper amps........... never mind 2 or 3 times the price. ;)

The original reviews which sparked the whole thing off were also revealed to have been done under dubious circumstances.

You're right garrett, we sold it at £240. The MF B1 wiped the floor with it at that price.

[GaryB]

Naim NAP250 - Still superb 20 years on.
Quad 33/303 - Great Pre/Power combination from the 70s.
Linn Isobarik - Love 'em or hate 'em. They certainly left an impression.
Yamaha NS1000 - The first (and some would say the last) great Japanese speakers.
Spendor BC1 - Wonderfully rich, though arguably not accurate sound.
Rega Planar 2 - Little brother of the Planar 3. Bought quality LP playback to many who couldn't afford more expensive kit.
Shure M75ED - The standard companion to the Pioneer PL-12D for many years.

[Steve.EX]

Quad 303's - great when they worked!

[la gran siete]

Rogers LSa3 somethings

Ls35a?

[la gran siete]

Magnaplaner electrostatics

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Linn LK1: First micro processor controlled preamp, memory pre-sets IR controlled, balanced outputs..... No degradeable volume pots here.......now such technology is common as muck....wasn't in 86 (I think that's when it came out...could have been 87)

Gordon

[roversd1]

Top loading Marantz CD63 / Phillips CD 100

Linn LP12 (for the most over hyped product!)

8000A (again...)

Meridian 207 transport/ pre-amp

Quad II's (most over hyped valve...)

Yamaha NS1000

more later...

[Beobloke]

SME Tonearms. Ditto; though I must confess to never actually ever having owned one.


Absolutely - the old 3009 series, whilst no longer the last word sonically, is an absolute masterpiece of engineering and a joy to use. I still wish i hadn't sold mine............. :(

Cambridge CD2. Stans babies fell to pieces at the slightest cough, but my God they were good for the time. The 2' along with the CD94 showed what CD could be capable of at last.


I purchased a CD2 off Ebay a few weeks ago for Cambridge Audio's slowly growing "classic Cambridge" collection. £68 and, not only does it work, it sounds superb! :smashin: (mind you, the display switches randomly between track/index and time which is quite entertaining!)
As for the CD94, i have one and the only time I'll part with it is when it has to be prised out of my cold, dead hands! :eek:

[overkill]

Beobloke, I still have my CD2! Of all the CD players I've had it's the hardest one to part with. Hence it's waiting patiently in a box (it's not alone, I have a few other bits of kit lurking under the stairs awaiting repairs/service!) until I can get around to affording a full service. Then it will become the basis of a new 2nd system! :grin:

Yamaha NS1000's! I'd forgotten them. Thought they were a bit overpriced for a large, and a bit shrill, Japanese box...... Nice stereo image though!

[vizslaraner]

Another tonearm worthy of a mention is the Technics EPA-500. No detachable headshell here; the whole arm tube was. It was also supplied, by the way, with the now much sought after Technics stylus balance.

[la gran siete]

Liked the famous alphason arm HR 100s togethr with the Sonata

[roversd1]

TAG McLaren DVD32R, nothing will ever come to pass in that quality or style again.

[morksbeanbag]

anyone said garrard 301 or 401?

as for the NAD 3020 i'm almost finished doing a full upgrade to one i found, i've done a full replacement of capacitors using nichicon 'fine gold' caps, the inner chassis has been cleaned, primed and sprayed blue(looks great). The same was done to the transformer, i've had the transistors and heatsink out, all cleaned up and a fresh layer of thermal paste put in, i've fitted an iec mains socket for use with decent kettle leads and my favourite bit was that i've taken off those evil springclips and fitted some binding posts that can be used with banana plugs. Oh and i've added some meaty feet to it instead of those little rubber ones that had perished, oh yeah i've also taken out the old red LED's and fitted some nice new blue ones. It now looks and sounds brilliant. :thumbsup: A few more tweaks and it'll be going up on ebay, hope someone will appreciate the time i've spent working on it :god:

[Londondecca]

Decca cartridges (including the Garrot Bros version)
Quad ELS
Townsend (Cranfield) Rock
Linn/Naim partnership - for creating designer brands and boutique dealers
Pink Triangle
Cliff Stone speakers stands
SL6000 - designer cabinets
LFD - from Prof M (fuzzy distortions) Hawksford: low priced but great sounding range
...and maybe the Sonic T-amp
Dolby sound reduction

[squarewave]

Lentek

[la gran siete]

Leak stereo 20
Rogers LS35a
Gyrodec

[Crisp_Rapper]

Bang & Olufsen Beolab 5 - 2500W active speaker with acoustic lens technology for superb HF dispersion and built-in automatic active room correction - which works!

oh yes... utterly amazing speakers, almost good enough to make me sell the car/house to acquire a set :smashin:

[CENSORED]

Pioneer upside down CD platters play CD on a turntable rather than spinning them in the air.

Still got my PD-8700 and it still works. Superbly.

[dts_boy]

laserdisc players! not quite hifi i grant you but i had many people say to me "thats a funny looking vinyl collection":)

[Knyght_byte]

Aiwa XA-003 stereo integrated amp

cheap as chips, £120, still havnt heard and amp under £200 that can touch its neutrality and power......drives most speakers quite happily. Usual cheap amp options of bass and treble control, tone defeat and a low listening boost mode for all freqs......tape monitor button, switchable A/B speaker out puts...
clean and uncluttered fascia, fairly heavy........over 10 years on and still works like a dream downstairs in the living room hooked up to a 14 year old Philips CD player that still sounds as good as anything under £200 today with a pair of 8 year old Wharfedale Diamond 7.3's.....ever so slightly boxy sound compared to my Silver S6 MA's, but compared to other floorstanders in their price range (£200) available today they still hold their own quite well....

however i did want more so i gave that lot to mum and went up a few price bands..lol

other item of note, Jamo D265 stereo speakers, stupidly big bassy sound with real whack in the chest factor for not much money (i think they were around £250 but pretended to be knocked down from £500 most shops reckoned..lol).....quality wasnt all that, but you couldnt beat them at the time for a pair of party speakers on the cheap....heh

[Mardler]

LENTEK STEREO INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

Bought in preference to QUAD (44/404) and NAIM (32/150) on audition in 1981, ours served us well with very heavy useage until a year ago when the mono/stereo switch went u/s and affected all aspects of the sound.

It was taken to well respected designer Ben Duncan who enthused over circuit topology and build quality: "Way ahead of its time." A serious service/upgrade was undertaken leaving on/off and balance controls bypassed, new volume pot, a few circuit mods (power regulation) plus a multitude of components replaced with modern high grade equivalents (including main reservoir caps) and general cleaning/repair.

It was always an amp that drew you into the music without emphasising any particular element (but having good bass, mid, top, with exceptional clarity, stage depth/height and "foot tap-ability"). Prior to the service/mods it could still blow away amps in the £1,500 bracket (much to the BADA shop staff's amazement). Now, this beast - rechristened The LenTank by BD - is easily comparable with any amp up to £4 or £5k.

Unfortunately, our CD63KI also just gave up the ghost, so an SA15 replaced it. The combination is simply stunning. The huge stage depth/height of the Lentek compensates for the player's slightly forward balance. We have been able to compare recent live band performances with the hi-fi version and the system is extraordinarily close to the real thing, not a bit under powered.

So, there is one BIG downside: the resulting listening sessions, frequently ending in the small hours because we can't tear ourselves away, are taking their toll!

[Digger]

Pioneer A-400, as has been mentioned...one of a kind...wished I had never sold mine...:mad:

Marantz CD63...fantastic cd spinner with a great headphone output too...:thumbsup:...wished I had never sold mine...:mad:

Mission 751...stunning sound...wished I had never sold mine...:mad:

[Dom996]

OK:

Rega Planar TTs

NAD 3020

Naim NAP 250

Epos ES14 and ES11

Linn Isobarik

Linn LP12

Arcam Alpha and Delta series

and anything that I have ever owned....:grin:

[Stormuk]

Tannoy Monitor Gold Speakers.
Quad 33 Pre with 405 power
Nakamichi Dragon Cassette Deck
Thorens TD125 Turntable with Shure M44E cartridge

This was my fathers system and got me into the money pit of Hi Fi .
Sadly he sold it when my parents split up.:eek:

[SeanT]

I have a Marantz CD-52 MK II and a Teac BX-500 in the spare room that sound excellent still.
I second the Quad 303 (as you can see from my siggy) and the 405 but never much rated the preamps as they are just too picky about what and how they are fed.
Arcam Delta series - owned a couple of bits of this and it was pretty legendary (especially as I sold it for more than I bought it for!!)
Oh, and AV wise, the Pioneer DV-717 - a battletank of a DVD player that introduced some things that we now take for granted to a decent price point!

[alexs2]

As well as so many of the above mentioned items(LP12,Quad ESL etc etc)...

Again not because they represent the best now,but because they started something when they were introduced...

Krell KSA50....the first proper Class A amp that would drive anything,and a groundbreaking product for the time.
The Levinson ML2 could run it a close second.

Audionote Ongaku....not only for it's amazing price even then,but the quality of it's sound,and the beginnings of the SET market for HiFi.

Triamped active Linn Isobarik/Naim system....one of the first systems that made me just want to sit and listen.

Pioneer PL12D...in a time when the LP12 was the high-end king,this was the TT that everyone who didnt have the money owned.

Nakamichi TT700...the Dragon was the pinnacle of cassette technology,but this was the first time anyone had produced a 3-head cassette deck with that sort of performance.

Sequerra FM1....still one of the best tuners ever made.

Anyway...enough!

[shahedz]

as mentioned already the Pioneer A400 amp, still amazed by this amp to this day

[Garrett]

Pioneer upside down CD platters play CD on a turntable rather than spinning them in the air.

Still got my PD-8700 and it still works. Superbly.
I take it that was taken from my post!



Pioneer upside down CD platters play CD on a turntable rather than spinning them in the air.
I have the 9700 and got it for £300 and the retail price was £400 its a lovely player think it must be over 10years old now.:smashin:

[Nic Rhodes]

Roger LS3/5A
Spendor BC1
Quad ELS
Lowther horns
Acoustic Energy AE1s
Tannoy Dual concentric
Posselt Albattross ('cos no one knows it)
Klipschorn
KEF 104AB and a few following products
Wharfdale Diamonds
KEF UniQ speakers

Nakamichi Dragon
Sony Walkman pro (still after a good quality one)

Dual 505
Nottingham Analogue spacedeck and Mentors
Linn LP12
Garrard 301 / 401
Townsend Rock
Rega Planar 3
AR turntable (101?)
Pioneer PL12D
Sansui RD? 222

Decca cartidges

Rega RB300
SME Series V and 3009
Mission 774

Decca SXLs
EMI ASDs
Mercury Living Presence

NAD 3020A
Croft Leak Stereo 20
Richard Allan A21 (now called Sudgen A21 ;))
Croft micro
Pioneer A400
Audio Note Ongaku
Makintosh
Border Patrol 300c SE amp
Tekni Fi Zikra 600se ('cos no one knows it!!)
Audio Synthesis passions
A & R A60
Krell KSA50

Leak Troughline
Tag T32R DAB
Denon 260
Creek T40

Marantz CD94
Arcam Black Box
Marantz CD63s
Canbridge Audio DAC magic
Audio Synthesis DACs

Arcam NICAM receiver

WAD 5881 amps

All Stax headphones
Senheisser HD 580 Jubilee / 600 650

[SeanT]

Dual 505


My dad gave the damn thing away!!!! - Grrrr - could have punched him - I still have the matching amp, tuner and cassette deck somewhere though.


A & R A60


I had a strange preamp version of this, was pretty cool iirc.

[Digger]

Have to add the original Proac Tablettes...the most amazing, liquid, and detailed treble that I have ever listened to, just needed a tad more lower end to be perfect...

[Nic Rhodes]

also Add Arcam Alpha, that was another product that really tried and suceeded doing something different. Should probably add Musical Fidelity A1 and X10D as well then.

[marcm09@hotmail]

just finished doing up and recapping a mission cyrus 2 , i'm very impressed, its still stunning sounding, Better than my new Nadt573 home theater amp, was I compared it to ! (was close by for a quick comparision to the cyrus so easy to plug and unplug each component.

The cyrus has more rythm and sparkle especially when recapped with fancy caps (not that the old ones were bad thay were all 105c ones, but I like the panasonic FC's, also they are of course new and not 18 years old.)

The cyrus 2 would have to be noted as a classic amp, quite keen to compare it to the naim 2 which I understand to be simular, but prob a little more fussy with speaker cable and speaker choice !

[paulr]

Pioneer A400.
It was the first Japanese amplifier to have all the bells and whistles chopped off in favour of pure sound quality.

Nothing touched it at 2 or even 3 times the price.
Why did they stop making it? Everything since has been a backward step.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul123/paul123/a400.jpg

I still use it today. Its in my spare room with my pc coupled up to another old favourite, my Pioneer 717. Whenever i get new stuff i always do a comparison and both still compare well today. The 717 still offers a good quality picture and is acceptable as a cd player. I liked the A400 because i used to have big speakers in a small room and it was never too heavy on bass. Its also a great design. The 717 i just love the "solidity" of the loading tray,its like you are loading the start up disc to a nucleur missile or something. There's so much purpose to it.
I have them both connected to some cheap Mordaunt Short 302's which dont do it justice,but they are small and its only the spare room.

[RandomHajile]

sony cdp-557esd

affordable (just) high end

[SeanT]

Wow, this is an old post - still got the 303s though!