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Room:
15' by 15' by 9' (LxWxH), carpeted and fully furnished living room.
HOME THEATRE SYSTEM (doubles as 2nd audio system)
Viewed from my listening
position, in the centre of the room, is a window immediately in front of
me which is behind and between the main stereo speakers.
To my right is a chimney breast and further back are
the CD racks and a waist-high cabinet. Behind me is a leather
chesterfield settee, above that is a loose-hanging 7' by 3' tapestry
which in theory will alleviate the worst effects of any rear
reflections.
To my
left is a bare wood-panelled wall, the door to the kitchen and further
back is the PC. The chair I use for listening is a leather recliner
which gets dragged to the left as the settee takes it's place to
facilitate my cuddling up to the girlfriend.
Source: Denon DVD-A1XV (AKA 5910).
After deciding it just
wasn’t practical to incorporate home theatre into an audio system
without the compromises being too great, I was able to replace the
Primare P30 processor/preamp, E.A.R. valve monoblocs amps and Yamaha
DSP-E800 processor (used as amplification for rear channels) with a
compact all in one…
Amplification:
Denon AVR-3806 receiver.
This now makes for a very
compact, two-box all-Denon system which fits in the Panasonic PX60 42”
plasmas integrated stand.
The sound is very punchy
and dynamic without being too coarse, which, for movies is perfect, and
music is good enough for general listening, but of course nowhere near
as involving as a dedicated system.
Speakers: Revel F30s - a poor man's Studio/Salon, or in my case, I
loved the Revel Gems when I heard them some years ago but simply
couldn't afford them.
Rear speakers are an
elderly pair of Mission 761 pros.
MAIN AUDIO
SYSTEM
Source:
Marantz CD7 – heavily modified by Graham Fowler of Trichord Research (Trichord
IVb clock; Never Connected power supply unit; high performance 5v
regulator boards; fast recovery diodes; Oscon caps; Bybee filters; ERS
EMF screening; SST contact enhancer, etc).
Pre amp: Audio Note M3 with the new upgraded power supply; I wrote a review which
can be read at the Audio Asylum.
Power
amps: E.A.R. 509s. These are 100 watt-per-channel valved monoblocks,
which are the finest all-round amps I've heard to date. Very, very
'musical', dynamic, with fluid midrange and wonderful bass.
Speakers:
Audio Note AN/E-Spe HEs. Couldn’t bear to send these back after the
review so had to divert some money set aside for the loft conversion to
keep them.
Interconnects: Kimber Select KS-1030 throughout. Magical all-silver
cables that I wouldn't dream of replacing.
Speaker cable: Kimber Select KS-3035.
Mains
cables: All-kimber cabled from components to a separate MCB, direct
from the electricity meter, apart from the power amps which have JPS 'Kaptovator'
cables picked up cheap on Ebay because they had the Neutrik connectors
which were perfect for the....
Mains
treatment: PS Audio P600 mains regenerator.
Tweaks: Nothing serious, just oak-cones under the
equipment and the glass shelves replaced with wooden chopping boards
which fit quite nicely.
At present I’m carrying out
extensive work in the house before putting it on the market, so the main
system is packed away in boxes.
When the HT/2nd
system just won’t do, I tend to relax with a pair of Stax Lambda
Signature headphones connected to the Marantz CD7 via the SRM-TIS valve
headphone amp/energiser.
Great headphone system it
may be, but it can’t match the main system and I really am chomping at
the bit now to get it set up again. I’m also looking forward to being
able to write more reviews, of course, as my portfolio is Spartan to put
it mildly, although next year should see a change of house and a
dedicated listening room, so manufacturers of quality equipment be
warned – I’ve got some serious catching up to do.
Reviewer: Chris Redmond; the only part of the
system that doesn't perform consistently well yet can't be upgraded to
Mk2 spec.
Tree
surgeon by trade, which, of course, makes me qualified to audition audio
equipment (?), at least insofar as I have no links with the audio
industry whatsoever and can therefore evaluate components from a
layman's perspective, in layman's language.
I've had
over twenty years of listening to music 'seriously', have a sister who's
a professional singer, and in fact my claim to fame is that I kissed Mel
'B' on national TV after my sister won over £100,000 in a talent
competition; the fact Mel 'B' later had a lesbian relationship did
diminish my street-cred, however.
For what
it's worth, I'm a member of British MENSA, am a regular gym-goer and
dabble in boxing and Shotokan Karate, which equips me for browsing the
UK Hi-Fi/Home entertainment Shows.
Although
I have no technical expertise, I do know one end of a soldering iron
from another and am handy when it comes to DIY, having once designed and
built new cabinets/crossovers for a pair of Tannoy 15" monitor gold
dual-concentric drivers.
My
musical tastes are far-ranging, and a quick look at the little pile of
CDs getting most air-time this week reveals the likes of Jackson Browne,
Pink Floyd, Eva Cassidy, Robert Cray, Joni Mitchell, Jeff Buckley, Tim
Buckley, Dixie Chicks, Miles Davies, Bebo Norman, Stevie Winwood, Steely
Dan, Valentina Lisitsa and Rachmaninoff.
When not
listening to music, boxing or hanging out in the gym, I watch a fair bit
of TV, DVDs and frequent the 'Audio Asylum', which is a mine of
information for both the 'newbie' and for those more experienced in the
many pitfalls of system building.
For me,
audio component reviews have always been a very valuable source of
information, despite the obvious caveat that the performance of
components is system dependent and all reviewers are biased towards a
certain sound - i.e., they're never objective. But if used to simply
compile a short-list of components to audition, then reviews can at
least save some leg work; once a reviewer's tastes become apparent, it
is then possible to determine whether they match your own and some
degree of confidence in that reviewer's opinion can be reached.
Alternatively, it can also be the case that if a certain reviewer
dismisses a component out of hand, you know it's probably worth checking
out. :0)
One
final note. When beginning life as a reviewer, you are asked to compile
a list of which brands you would like to review. On many audio forums,
it is the norm for magazines and reviewers to be criticized for the lack
of overtly negative reviews and this isn't an unreasonable criticism
when many magazines rely on advertising revenue from the manufacturers
of components they have to review.
What I
would say is that there are very few components around nowadays which
are 'poor', although there are those which appear to be so far ahead of
the game that their contemporaries suffer by comparison. Therefore
instead of getting 'positive' or 'negative' reviews, we tend to get
'lukewarm' reviews which are interpreted as being negative (damned with
faint praise), and reviews where the author appears to be having an
orgasm of adjectives and analogies 'which is interpreted as being
'positive'.
Add this
to the aforementioned fact that the reviewer is reviewing equipment from
manufacturers he has already expressed a preference for, and the
shortage of damning reviews becomes understandable in my humble opinion,
but then personally I'd much rather expose an out and out bargain piece
of over-performing gear to other music lovers than an over-priced puppy.
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