OK so let's start by saying that prior to my knowledge of Hi-Fi, and like everyone else who was in either middle school or high school around the early 90's, I only had a very basic all in one Aiwa system, the NSX-999. We all had to start somewhere right?
I was in high school and at the time this little midi system was considered big fish between me and my friends. I knew no different and loved it, all the flashy colours and the lit up graphic equalizers in the display, lovely stuff. I loved watching the bass cones flex in and out as I would crank up the sound. I would come home from school every night and one of the first things I would do is listen to CD's on it for hours, this would go on until I started my first job.
Then my work life started.....
I was walking home from work one day and popped into Richer sounds in 1997. This was my first ever step in a hi-fi shop. There was a strong smell of coffee as soon as I stepped in the building, I had no idea what I was doing, all i knew was I liked the look of the separates they had on offer and I had an urge to spend my wages. A richer sounds salesman then asked me if I was OK and whether I wanted any help, I explained I've popped in purely out of curiosity but could I listen to an amplifier and CD player. He was happy to take the amp and CD player into the demo room and it was all linked up to their speakers they had already set up.
The Amp and CD player I demo'ed was the Arcam Alpha 7 integrated amplifier and the Marantz CD63 Special Edition CD player. This was linked up to their Tannoy 638 floor standing speakers, these were well out of my price bracket at the time but looked and sounded fantastic. I tested it out with my Prodigy Poison CD single and Needless to say I was in love with the system compared to my Aiwa. As you probably guessed I walked out with The Arcam and Marantz, they also threw in a free yellow coloured Cambridge Audio Pacific RCA lead, result!
The following week I decided it was time to buy some speakers. I loved the Tannoy's I had heard previously but they were over double what I could afford. When you are young envy is a horrible thing! however I decided to splash the cash on some TDL RTL3 Special Editions. These were my first ever floor-standers and I could not wait to show them off to my mates. It was safe to say I was very happy with this set up for a good few years.
Lets go forward a bit, to around 2006, the system was doing OK, however one day my first ever issue happened. I managed to burn out the treble in one speaker, noooo!! was it because of volume reasons? I had no idea, but I got them repaired regardless. About 6 months later, I did the exact same thing again, but to the other speaker instead this time, Nightmare! Obviously now concerned I decided OK maybe it's time to purchase a new set of speakers.
This time a friend told me about a store called Sevenoaks Sound & Vision. I went in and all of a sudden I was instantly attracted to these yellow coned (at the top) speakers. I had not listened to them, all I knew was I wanted them. The store man let me have a little listen and straight away it was easy to tell these were much better than my TDL's, so I walked out with brand new speakers, these were the B&W 604 S3's. At the time I knew little about amplifier power requirements and speaker sensitivity, so as you can guess the system was extremely boomy because I believe the Arcam was only 40w per channel and it struggled to power these speakers efficiently. Anyone who knows about those 604 S3's will know they need a lot of power to sing. Even so, I still loved using them as I knew the potential of these speakers.
In 2011 however under powering these speakers eventually ruined them, I also learned a valuable lesson. It is better to have an amplifier that has more power than you could need than having an amplifier that under powers them. I paid attention.
I was now stuck with no speakers and frantically thinking what do I do, Do I get them repaired? do I get a new pair? then my mind went into nostalgia mode, I remembered those Tannoys 638's, the things I craved badly for back in 1997. 14 years after first listening to them I decided I would buy a second hand pair. I had to travel about 150 miles to pick them up via an eBay purchase, but I didn't care. 'Please sound how I remember them' that's all I kept thinking to myself on the journey there and back. When I got to the guys house they looked a little worn cabinet wise but the actual speaker cones were mint. I paid the guy £300 and lugged the speakers in the back of my car. Once home I plugged them in, read the manual and instant relief, It confirmed these were a lot easier to power. Anything from 10 watts, hurrah!
I sat down, played my first CD on these speakers and all of a sudden I lost my breath. Wow, I had not heard this kind of clarity before, why was that? was it because the TDL's were not good enough, and the B&W speakers were under powered? probably. I later found out this sound I was experiencing was much better sound stage and holographic 3D imaging. They sounded much better than anything bought before it.
in late 2013 both my amplifier and CD player packed up within a month of each other. I didn't want to get them fixed however. I'd had them both a very long time and decided I would get something new and shiny, so I sold them for parts on e-bay and used the money towards upgrading. That upgrade would come by popping into richer sounds again. They were great with me on my hifi journey so i wanted to use them again but it seemed a little different in there this time, less hi-fi stock than I remembered before, more TV's and sound bars and less separates? slightly disappointing. However the store guy then got my attention and asked if I needed help. Feeling like a newbie still to the hi-fi world I explained what had happened so he took me into the demo room where they had all the separates and speakers, phew!
They got me listening to some up-to date Arcam's, some middle of the range Cambridge Audio's and also Cambridge Audio's flagship model. The flagship model sounded head and shoulders better than my previous set up, it was a huge difference in quality. I asked the price of this system to which I got quoted £2,400. I gulped and double checked that figure with him. £2,400! That's much more than I had ever spent on any Hi-Fi. I was in two minds, what do I do, it sounded fantastic but I didn't realise it was this costly. In the end, the devil won, and I got out the credit card and the rest was history as they say.
I was half happy and half anxious at the same time driving home. I had never put this amount on my credit card before. What I had just bought was the Cambridge Audio Azur 851A/851C Amplifier & CD player combination. I plugged it all in, put on a CD and heard music like I had never heard before. Controlled bass, everything in the sound came through. All of a sudden I was less angry with myself for the credit card purchase.
So we go forward to summer 2014. Given the Amp and CD player was still quite new, I took it upon myself to do some upgrades. Firstly starting with the interconnects. Bare in mind I was using the same leads I got given in 1997 which quite frankly really needed changing, I decided to sell them on eBay and again use the money towards something new. In the end I went with the QED reference Audio 1 RCA's, these were bought on eBay and when I got them through and linked it all up they brought a sonic improvement, It was good controlled bass, but more of it, as well as an extra sparkle to the sound, more mid/treble. it took a week or so to get used to it as it changed the EQ on the sound.
The next thing I decided to upgrade the same summer was the speaker leads, the ones I had in the system were rubbish and I could not even tell you the brand, but because I had just bought some QED interconnects I thought I would use the same brand with speaker leads. In the end I went a little crazy and decided I would go for the QED Genesis silver spiral bi-wires. These were not cheap whatsoever, but I blind bought them anyhow, stupid yes? luckily for me they were far superior than the rubbish I was using previously, but again it took on it's own sound characteristic that seemed to change the EQ of my hi-fi. More bass, and yet more treble again. They sounded quite bright but after a few weeks or so I got used to them and thought I would be contempt for the next 10 plus years. As you can tell, that never happened.....
In late 2015 I was reading all the reviews for the best products in the past 12 months, one brand that stood out as winning awards in every magazine was Roksan. I had never heard of them before, but they were getting awards left right and center. I then went and did something stupid to which I still regret. I sold my Azur 851A and 851C even though I thought it sounded very good to my ears. I managed to nearly get back what I paid for these two items and out of that money I bought the Roksan Caspian M2 integrated amplifier and CD player. It cost me £3800 but when you take away the money I made from the previous kit and others things I had also sold, the actual cost on my card was closer to £1800, just slightly less than I had paid on the card for the previous system. Oddly, I didn't feel as bad about spending that amount of cash this time round.
I now have an award winning system, yes! I am happy. It will outshine my previous kit and as I plugging it in I felt like a teenager all over again. I sat down, played a CD and all of a sudden, I went from feeling like a kid to feeling like an idiot. What was this over powering bass all about, urgh... Way way way to much. I was not happy, something wasn't right. Maybe I plugged in the leads out of phase, what with all my enthusiasm to listen to it. Unfortunately that was not the case, and I could not understand how this combo had won so many awards and got so many accolades, what was the matter with my kit? was it faulty? I tried to live with the sound but it got to much for me in the end. I thought I would give it one more solution before selling, so I did a mini upgrade. I picked up some granite plinths which the speakers which were on spikes were now sitting directly on the plinths. This would help control that vile over-powering bass I'm getting.
Nope, still hated the sound. Damnit! I regretted purchasing it and just wanted to get rid so I decided to sell it on ebay. Another valuable lesson has now been learned.. I am never again blind buying audio equipment, or going off reviews either. From now on only my ears will have the final say on what I like and dislike. I felt so stupid.
Roll on 2016, the Amp and CD player was now sold. Thank god for that.. My torture with that system was over. I'm sure it has it's fans but I really hated the Roksan Caspian M2 Amp/CD combo, it really is for bass heads, and if you turn it up the bass over powers everything else in the sound and the amp struggles to play it all. I managed to get back a fair amount of what i had paid however, so not all was lost.
I looked through a few shops online and decided to plan my next adventure. To my amazement interest free credit was every where with 'pay4later' schemes. Interest free credit had me perked up, no more sticking it on a credit card and paying extra overall. It will cost what it says it costs. It opened up my world to audio equipment I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.
In the end I decided to go to a shop called Nintronics, it was a good drive away but they were recommended to me by a colleague. I turned up and they welcomed me into their demo room, sat me down and made me a coffee. We had a little chat about my requirements in terms of the sound signature I was after, once the formalities were over Naim equipment was set up along with speakers by the name of Focal. They were like 9k speakers, wow.. expensive! definitely not affording those, but I listened anyway. For some reason I really did not like the sound of them? all heavy mid range, yet they cost 9k? surely my ears are playing tricks, they should sound amazing. I told the guys no sorry this sound really is not for me, to which they were in agreement that everyone tastes are different and obviously the sound signature from focal isn't for me.
Then all of a sudden they realised they had confused me with another guy that was coming down. He also had Roksan kit previously and hated it, I'm assuming this guy had already upgraded his amp/CD player since it was him that wanted to listen to these 9k Focal's. We laughed at it all and I saw the funny side, easy mistake to make considering we both hated the Roksans, and we were both down on the exact same day.
They then set up the Naim Supernait 2 and linked it up to some B&W 804 D3's. All of a sudden my musical world felt complete, to me this set up sounded amazing. I had not heard anything as good as this before, not by a long stretch! The CD player being used was the Naim CD5 XS and it was all plugged in via 5 pin DIN, not a type of connection I was familiar with.
I knew this amplfier/CD combo was for me, the sound was so powerful, but powerful in an emotional way, i had not felt this involved with music before. Something about it, I cannot put it in words? It's a experience.
The guys at Nintronics were absolutely fantastic as I was there for 3 hours making sure this was what I wanted, and they didn't want me to leave unless I was 100% happy. Not once did I feel rushed. This really helped with my purchase as I got to listen to it all properly, a whole CD near enough with that set up. I'd not had customer service like this before.
I was now the proud owner of a Naim Supernait 2, and Naim CD5 XS. When I got it all home I knew it was not going to sound as good as what i had heard in their demo room because lets be frank, my Tannoy's in their prime were worth about £900? and those speakers I heard were about £6,500. That's a substantial difference both in cost and quality. However it still sounded better than anything I had ever played in my living room. The only gripe I had was the treble. It felt very 'brittle' for want of a better word. Something wasn't quite right with that treble.
I read through the manual and it advised using Naim NAC A5 speaker cables. Hmmm, OK but those cables are cheaper than what I paid for my QED's, they aren't going to sound as good surely? Anyway I popped to a local shop that had them in stock and they let me listen to them, I was surprised as they sounded very good actually, but they were cheaper? how strange. Anyway as you can guess I bought a set, took them home and disconnected the QED's and plugged in the Naim speaker leads.
All of a sudden, it just sounded fantastic. That 'brittle' treble was now gone, everything just sounded so much better. I loved the sonic performance and everything just sounds great to my ears, it has strong bass but nothing overpowering, and nothing takes president, I can hear all the music at all volumes and I find I am losing myself in the music. Sunday I must of had music on for a good 4+ hours. It's easily the most enjoyable system I have ever had at home and I'm now listening to music again as much as I did as a kid.
I also now understand this talk of foot tapping and Amps being 'fast' etc. Previously I put it down to stupid comments as I know CD players will play it at the same speed, so I thought other people were just talking rubbish. I now realise because the music is played so accurately, the bass moves from one note to the other with no 'boom' in between, it's instant, precise, the most precise tight bass I have ever heard, just perfect, and the same with drums, this is why it seems faster, there is no overhang or smear in the sound so gives the illusion that the track feels faster between the bass and drum notes, it also makes it much more enjoyable listening experience. I was literally wow'd the Sunday just gone by my 4+ hours worth of listening.
My music tastes have changed since that kid that walked into richer sounds in 1997 with his Prodigy CD. Electronic music doesn't appeal anymore. Indie/Rock/Accoustic is where my heart is set emotionally. I still love the prodigy though
So to get to the end of my journey, and if you aren't asleep already from reading this, the Hi-fi I now have is as follows
Naim Supernait 2 - This is a truely fantastic amplifier
Naim CD5 XS - I saw no need for the more expensive Naim CD player.
Tannoy 638's floor standing loudspeakers
A pair of loaned Chord Shawline 5 Din to 5 Din - lovely sound.
Naim NAC A5 Speaker cables
I cannot stress how important it is to do a lengthy demo when it comes to Hi-Fi. Forget the cost, you have to listen to this system daily so make sure it is right for what you want and don't make the same mistakes i have along my journey, and it has been a very long one at that, but it's one I'm looking forward to completing by winter 2016 if not early 2017 when I buy the B&W 804 D3's. By that point my set up will be worth about 12k. Had you told me I'd have something like that 5 or 6 years ago I would of laughed and said no way man, no way.
I will also be testing out the Naim Hi-Line interconnect in a few days time, and looking into a dedicated Hi-Fi rack/unit. I will come back on my findings of the interconnect on this thread once the Hi-line lead has been tested thoroughly.
I know there will be people with 'better' systems than myself, 'better' being totally subjective of course. We all have a unique sound we crave for with audio. I had to learn this the hard way to finally get what I was after. When I've tailor my income and expenditure into these purchases, I think I've hit the limit at what I could ever afford, and I'm very very happy with the sound!
My only regret now is not taking photos stage by stage of my Hi-Fi evolution.
Once the speakers are purchased it will have taken me approximately 20 years to build this amazing set up and I am happy to have shared it with you guys.
Apologies if this bored anyone, If there are any questions please ask!
Now tell me your Hi-Fi story...........
