Jump to content

Recommended Posts

OK, there have been big changes here. A year or so ago my system looked like this:

10123118575_a76ffe7a8b_z.jpg
There are photos of this system's evolution here and my old system in a shed in Melbourne here. Anyway, we moved house before the UK "summer" and I fancied a change/couldn't be bothered packing up all that gubbins so I decided to sell up and have a complete change of direction. All that is left is a stack of Fraim and the LP12 rig. The Fraim will be sold soon pray.gif.

The current state of play looks like this:
15036728908_8690bb93b7_b.jpg

The wallpaper and carpet came with the house. It is a bit of a killer, but I've gotten used to it and am leaving it well alone. The mana is a relic of my misspent youth and was intended to be temporary, but I really quite like it now. The LP12 is definitely more at home on the mana rather than the fraim. Footfall is a thing of the past unless I engage in some of my lumbering elephantine dancing. The Gato amp is a huge surprise. It is 250W into8 ohms and class D to boot, but musically is absolutely superb. I intended to move to a Devaliet, but am happy enough for now.f_doh.gif

15222939472_2c6c4fbaff_b.jpg

An added bonus is that the Gato does not buzz and hum. Some of the Naim boxes were quite noisy to say the least. This LP matches the wallpaper quite well:
14354099720_8ec76826a1_b.jpg

The Aro is the only remaining bit of Naim kit I own. It has been a huge shift.

Streaming is currently provided by a Simple Audio Roomplayer which is under the Radikal. I am waiting for an Auralic Aries to show up. I am told it will be here during the week42.gifwhich will be good as the Simple Audio is not in the league of my old NDS.

So I have gone from a multi-box active system to a passive rig with 3 boxes and a record deck. Do I miss the old rig? Yes, but not much really. Did I have lots of money left over? Not really due to reinvestment 71_71.gif, largely because of these chaps:

15036525319_2d5e903af5_b.jpg

Another view:
15036626570_9a3029ee16_b.jpg
And one more for luck:
15222937542_481f1880c2_b.jpg
Art Alnico 8s in walnut. Absolutely the best speakers I have ever owned, by a country mile.

As the new place is bigger this is a dedicated listening room. So there is plenty of space for the vinyl to come out of hiding:
15200293886_217e06b4a4_b.jpg
My CDs are ripped to a Vortexbox and are in storage in various parts of the house. All I need at the moment is some more furniture as it is a bit of a fortress of solitude at the moment, with a single very comfy armchair only. I haven't been able to find a sofa to suit me yet.

Edited by htm_1968
  • Like 11
Link to comment
Share on other sites



That is a radical revamp. The speakers look shmik and it's good to see all that vinyl out and about. How do you keep them so nicely vertical, mine always slip about. Looks like a nice evolving system

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is a radical revamp. The speakers look shmik and it's good to see all that vinyl out and about. How do you keep them so nicely vertical, mine always slip about. Looks like a nice evolving system

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Cheers for the nice comments. The LPs are stored on Ikea Kallax frames. They stay vertical as there are just enough LPs in each cube to fill the cube snugly. There are 13 cubes full of 12" records, 1 of 10" and 2 of 7" singles. None of my classical, jazz or miscellaneous records (soundtracks etc) have been shelved. I suspect there are another 8-10 cubes worth. I need another 2 4x4 Kallax units :rolleyes: .

Link to comment
Share on other sites





Speakers look beautiful. And the vinyl well.....

Congrats on the changes.

Cheers

Steve

:thumb:  Thanks. Realisation that I prefer vinyl over digital whether CD or streaming pushed me to shift the NDS etc. LP is the only way to go for me. Digital is a distant second.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing. I love the look of the system. 

No problem. It is much easier to deal with than the naim setup. I certainly don't miss the mass of interconnect, burndy cables, and power cables behind the naim rig. Eventually, I guess I'll move the mana on, but I'm very pleased for now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites



Simple is often a good thing....

 

Your speakers certainly have my attention...bet they sound de-lic-ious

 

Simple in this case is truely excellent. I spent yesterday digging through some LPs that I hadn't played in years mainly electronic material Leftism by Leftfield (inspired by the Album Club on Hi Fi Wigwam, UFOrb by The Orb and 100th Window by Massive Attack. End result:  :D  :D  :D . I finished with two of my all time favourite LPs, namely Laser Guided Melodies and Pure Phase by Spiritualized with stunning results. The speakers are be-yond de-lic-ious

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My dream system is an LP12 with a Devialet 200.

Less boxes means more time for music. 

 

Looks like a lovely new system, more about the music :)

 

The original plan was to go dual mono with a pair of Devialet 200s. The Gato is doing a sufficiently fine job that, despite being really impressed by the pizza-boxes in demo, I'm in no hurry to shell out £10K + my Gato. I'm balanced from the Urika into the Gato, which is significantly better that connecting via phonos (both balanced and phono leads are Linn silvers - nice but not over the top), If I didn't have the Urika, I might have been more inclined to move to the Devialets. The DAC in the Gato is pretty decent too, so streaming is a nice alternative.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking Great--and I bet sounding oh so musical -- I got the sense the one thing the system you've assembled has --is Synergy Kudos as it's a tricky correlation to achieve -

 

--also good to see the LP12 on the venerable Manas-- Bikies Ruuuuuuullll!--well they did-ha :P

 

I never went for the Naim FraIm with the Linn frankly--recall your thread on this a year or two back?-- I made a comment re this

 

Enjoy and Good Listening

 

Willco

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites



Looking Great--and I bet sounding oh so musical -- I got the sense the one thing the system you've assembled has --is Synergy Kudos as it's a tricky correlation to achieve -

 

--also good to see the LP12 on the venerable Manas-- Bikies Ruuuuuuullll!--well they did-ha :P

 

I never went for the Naim FraIm with the Linn frankly--recall your thread on this a year or two back?-- I made a comment re this

 

Enjoy and Good Listening

 

Willco

The Fraim weighs a lot, and so is no good with a suspended wooden floor as it simply amplifies the footfall effect. On a slab floor the Fraim is superb.  The Mana, being relatively light, seems to address this problem with footfall, albeit at the cost of having a bunch of angle iron in the listening room. Lets face it, the Mana is butt ugly :wacko: . I also have a Mana wall shelf and another sound top but couldn't bring myself to use it. Partly, it is to preserve my magnificent wallpaper for posterity :lol: , but mainly it is because just don't like the look of the thing. I know looks shouldn't matter, but I need to draw the line somewhere :sorry: .

 

Anyway, the last of the Fraim is up for sale pray.gif, following which I'll have a bespoke stand made using the proceeds of the sale. Then the mana can go.

 

Nearly there... :rolleyes:

 

In late breaking news my Auralic Aries has been delayed (yet again).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Still no sign of the Auralic. I am using a Moon MiND 180 renderer in place of the Simple Audio Room Player. Everything looks the same, save for the fact that my Auralic Aries is 3 months overdue :angry: . Cancellation of order beckons! :( 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you are happy with what you have then no need to change eh? 

Exactly, but the ability to stream spotify, qobuz etc that is built in to the Auralic makes it quite a useful product for relatively little outlay once the Moon is traded in. In fact, there is almost zero extra after the hefty deposit I paid in July for August delivery. First world problems eh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...
To Top