<+ emd AUDIO +>

My interest in hifi dates back to the late 70's. My best mate at School, Stephen owned a really cool pair of American Jensen dual cone full range speakers. These things had real bass and worked well with "NEW WAVE". I was bitten by the bug soon after and I have never recovered. It is a brilliant hobby with so many avenues to follow. Initially I was just listening, then reading/buying, then designing and building your own equipment (highly recommend if you have appropriate skills), system matching, tuning the room, the history, retro gear, buying, selling. When you read these pages you may learn a little of my passion.

My first system featured a BSR BDS95 turntable with ADC VLM, a ROTEL RA214 amp and a pair of Wharfedale Denton XP2s. Black vinyl was my only source for a very long time (1978-1988)

This was followed by a huge range of gear. The best of the early items included the Rotel RA1000, A+R A60 amp, Mordaunt Short Festivals, Mission 763, Croft Super Micro, EPOS ES14 and the Quad FM4

MY LONGEST STANDING PIECE OF EQUIPMENT??

I USED A AR LEGEND DAILY between OCTOBER 1983 and June 2005 (22 years of faithful service)

I first heard CD running on Hitachi's first CD player. The HA-1000 (not sure about the designation) It was extremely impressive back in 1982. The Bose 901s generating a gale of very clear sounds.

I was completely shocked when I heard the first Marantz CD player (top loader CD63) playing through some Quad ELS 63s. At the time I couldn't believe it could possibly get any better.

My first CD player was a third generation Yamaha CDX-810 HiBit (18bit with 8 times over sampling)

My current systems are a strange mix of old and new but all three work very well indeed and all have different strengths and weaknesses. From June 2005 I have decided to move to all digital source components. I honestly believe that a turntable is the best sonic solution. However, they just require too much work and getting good quality music out of other sources has become relatively easy.

Fidelio (Backloaded twin horn)

Twin Earle Weston 300B mono amps, sit on top of my trusty old Sony TA 4650 V-FET integrated

CD system 1.......driven by 300B SET

CD Player Onkyo R1 (dual single bit)

Weston Acoustics Magnetic passive controller

Amplification is provided by twin 12W Weston Acoustics Single Ended 300B valve power amps.Mono version of "time machines"

JJ Tesla GZ34, New Tungsol 6SN7 GTB, Electro Harmonix 300B

loudspeakers FIDELIO twin horn/ alternating Lowther PM7c (silver) or Fostex Fe206E

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR HIGHER RES IMAGE 0.5Mb

My unique 300B here sporting the superb 6188 twin triode.

CLICK ON PICTURE FOR BIGGER VERSION 400kb

the picture above is high resolution

CD system 2..........driven by VFET (solid state triode)

LUXMAN D105u valve hybrid CD player (multibit) or Pioneet PD 71 ELITE

Luminous Audio Axiom (Craddock) passive preamp

Sony TA-N7 VFET power amp 1978

TA-N7

Fantastic (HOME MADE) Bete Noire (version2) massively heavy 2 way featuring 10mm thick acrylic baffle ribbon tweeter and 1974 Kef B110

The foam square is required for fine tuning the top end

CD System 3 ........driven by Hitachi MOSFET or TA-4650

Yamaha HDD recorder

Tom Hemsley stepped attenuator (fixed 47K impedance) switching pairs of Holco/Roderstein resistors

Built in 13 dB mute acting as low level range

1973 Living Audio 5in FR alnico driver

A simply stunning small speaker

PICTURES TO FOLLOW SHORTLY

Wonderful TA-N7 gleaming inside and out!

CD players and passives all in Com Rack two

My CD + PASSIVE COLLECTION. The TA4650 VFET and SYREN CLASS A (motorola) are on their holidays

The ONKYO R1 is most affeted by the flash

The Luxman D105u sits below

The CD player valves are on. Notice the metal grid behind. I hadnt really noticed this before. This is a very nice sounding CD player and seen quite often on eBay

Magnetic + Dale/Vishay passives below

This small speaker produces excellent bass

The brilliant Coral 4a-70 5in driver weighs over 1kg! Massive alnico magnet.

Verdik Quality Ten 1959

CHOC BOX (NEW) JULY 2006

MY BEST SMALL SPEAKER SO FAR

This speaker started out life as a Sanyo SX 50 a nice 2 way system built in NZ. Jane picked up the boxes at a local OP SHOP for $2. I had them in pieces in about 5 mins. The original bass drivers were good but both tweeters had blown. The boxes were in a fairly tatty condition and had been water damaged. A light grey plastic veneer was showing some lift.

The boxes were just about to be dropped in the bin when I realized that the veneer could be peeled off quite easily. The MDF underneath was actually not bad so I decided to sand them back

The space once occupied by the cone tweeter now houses a 70mm plastic port. The box has been painted with grey primer and two coats of CHOC. The box is upside down. Internally they have been lined with Yamaha felt and wool. I have kept this away from the back of the port. A gasket was placed around the larger bass hole and I have fitted a Coral 4A-70 driver.

I have used very ordinary internal cable because I find that the thin stuff solders properly. (much more satisfactory than some thick OFC which brings no benefit in such a short run)

These are really wonderful small speakers. They fit my metal stands perfectly and the drivers are at ear height when I am sitting and listening

The 4A-70 produce wonderful tight bass in this size enclosure . The mid treble and imaging arte absolutely spot on

I use them with my Sony VFET and a Passion Passive

Audio Visual System 3

ACER LCD SCREEN

Toshiba multi zone multi format DVD etc etc player

Pioneer HD recorder? DVD player

Sony Cinema standard VCR

Yamaha DSP E-492 Pro logic processor (running MS CS3 and MS T1000 centre)

JBL TLX16 3 way C Fibre drivers with Ti tweeters

OR Mordaunt Short Festival S2

JBL TLX 16

Velodyne VA 10/8!! modified 810 sub (50W class AB)

Dave Goodmans MOSFET (60W) centre amp

Dave Goodmans MOSFET (200W) main speakers

Mordaunt Short fibrecrete T1000 ICT centre speaker

Mordaunt Short CS3 ICT rear effects

HOME MADE AMPS

I have built a number of solid state amplifiers, including 2 MOSFETS types (high power) and an excellent 2 box class A 15W per channel

I have recently built an excellent mid sized infinite baffle speaker using the classic 200mm Mordaunt Short DSB 208 driver. I also own some stunning Yamaha NS 1000M studio monitors.

my guidelines

1. Use good quality interconnects and speaker cable. At least O.F.C. or better. Clean all plugs and sockets with contact cleaner. If you have time try to buy lengths of silver wire (say 0.5mm) from the people who supply the jewellers and make your own.

2. I often use passive preamps simply because they add nothing to the sound. In my experience the best passive controllers are built by Audio Synthesis in the UK. Rothwell electronics also make a similar device. You could also consider building one. A cheap blue 50K ohm ALPS pot in a box will give good results

There are some great new designs around. Check out MF audio based in the UK. Their passive uses transformers with multiple taps

In my view the ideal system, is still based upon

a turntable, moving coil cartridge, passive pre/solid state power amp (class A) , or a neutral solid state preamp and Valve power amp

( I prefer the Mullard 5-10 variants EL84)A high efficiency single full range drive unit. or hybrid electrostatic (FR electrostatics have to be large)

Experiment with old Alnico drive units. These may look uncool and lack fancy heavy magnets and heavy lifeless cones. But they sound much much better. The Alnico magnets are far far superior. I have just built a tiny 9L ported enclosure which house two 70's alnico SEAS drivers. It is so good its hard to describe. It has great pace, bass tempo and rhythm. IE MUSIC. Most speakers I hear miss the target

3.Amplifiers. Use a valve power amp or a class A solid state.. Buy or build in the biggest power supply you can. Buy or build an amplifier which has the minimum of discrete components. With each component come an extra character and yet another solder joint. Bad news for the audio signal!!!!!

4. I have been listening to speakers for a long time. If you have a big unconditionally stable amplifier and lots of money it really is difficult to beat electrostatic loudspeakers. Quad, Vass audio etc. If you have to use a normal dynamic loudspeaker, find one with a single, well made, full range drive unit. ,Kef UniQ, Bandor, Crysler or if you get lucky a Coral beta 8 or 10.

The reason being they are usually easy to drive and they will give you an image. Also look out for 50, 60s drivers featuring Alnico drivers

OTHER POINTS

Use a simple vocal recording to check for the centre image. You will easily spot phase problems with speakers.

Tweeters should be at ear height in your seated position.

Lift speakers off the floor and keep them away from room corners if possible. (both help tune the bass)

Coral beta Ten in BL-25D horn