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Kit that, irrationally, you’ve always just wanted…

About 30 years ago I was flat sharing with a mate who had a hifi shop and was always bringing dem kit home and one Christmas he brought a Musical Fidelity A100 home and I had it for a couple of months in my system in my bedroom with a Roksan Xerxes and small Mourdant Short bookcase speakers. Absolutely loved the sound from that amp very smooth and imaged superbly I think the class A had alot to do with it.
It got very hot and my mate was having a lot of his A1 's and A 100 ' s returned by customers with board failures due to the heat .
I got some Bryston pre @ poweramps from The Cornflake Shop in London and they were miles better.
But I still have rose-tinted thoughts about that A 100 even now.
They do come up on Ebay.I phoned Jez Arkless ex here years ago but he said if I brought one he could make it more stable with new parts etc but it would probably be about £300 on top of the 2nd hand buy .
I had just got a Rega IO for a 2nd system and that's got a nice warm sound with remote so no need.

Another piece of kit I still lust after was the Naim 101 tuner have heard it a few times about 30 years ago and like the A100 it had a lovely sweet sound and adored it's looks. I have a A@R Cambridge T21 and it's pretty up there with the 101 .
So need to scratch that itch either.
 
I have been looking at top shelf technics rack systems on eBay. I love all the switches and lights. Huge Graphic equalizers with bouncing leds. I guess I am just a child of the eighties.
 
Rug Doc said:
Tell me more!
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Well it was a number of years ago, so difficult to recall specifics. Still I recall them being quite un-hifi, in that they didn’t have that single narrow sweetspot where every instrument is isolated and thin (which I dislike) but just a full sound with real meat and likely the fullest range of any speaker I have heard. Bass was very clean. Imaging was still good but nit attention grabbing, if you get my meaning. The presentation just seemed right. A bit like our NS1000s - just full range!
 
I always really wanted a CDS & could have bought one but bottled it. Not really an option with my current setup. Just so much nice kit out there.

On opposite track there are plenty of brands which I would never touch like Musical Fidelity. I would never buy a Sugden amp or any of the class a Uber amps.
 
P270 said:
B&W Matrix 801
Rogers Studio 1
Tannoy Westminster
Oracle Delphi Turntable
Revox A77
Musical Fidelity A370 or early Krell KSA series

I have a P270 though so quite happy.
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It really takes a lot of money to better a P270 in good condition. Better keeping it IMO.
 
piccadilly said:
Thorens TD 124 (not the new one), SME M12 R Ortofon SPU
Air Force One Zero
Technics Sl 100 R with Glanz arm and Koetsu cartridge
Troughline FM Tuner

Jadis valve amp
Luxman class A amp
Naim Statement with Boulder phono stage (one Michael Fremer raved about)

Quad ESL 57 with matching subwoofers and super tweeeters
Tannoy Westminster or Ardens
Magico Speakers
Naim DBL
Spendor SP/1 or BC1
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I heard the Statement in a hi-fi show and I was very disappointed for the price they sell it.
The p bass in Money for nothing from Dire Straights didn’t have the impact and fullness it has in reality.
Speakers were 6 foot high Focal with multiple drivers.
 
nostromo said:


To me they are a glorious work of art and deeply affect me emotionally, I feel weak at the knees in there presence.....I really need to get some.
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They are a stunning aesthetic design, as was so much by Allen Boothroyd (Lecson pre/power, BBC Micro etc). The downside is they were finished in a sticky textured brown cheese meets flock-wallpaper-like substance (Nextel) so finding a mint set today is absolutely impossible. Meridian always designed beautifully and built badly IMO, e.g. the letters always fall off the 200 series as the idiots printed them on the exposed side of the clear perspex! I suspect that is the key reason they aren’t up there with the best when it comes to second hand value. No one wants tatty hi-fi!
 
An AIWA AD-6900 MkII cassette deck just looks so sexy.
Sony Elcassette EL5 or 7
Transfiguration cartridge
SME series V tonearm (gorgeous)
One of those Kiseki cartridges

Probably lots of other stuff as well I can't think of right now.
 
Those massive Kef reference speakers that look a bit Dalek-esque with the covers off, and have a large hood or hat to cover the gubbins. Makes no sense in my room. Want. :D
 
Woodface said:
I always really wanted a CDS & could have bought one but bottled it. Not really an option with my current setup. Just so much nice kit out there.
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Ooh, now you mention it, I’d love a CD-555. Fabulous player obviously, but that lid is just a thing of engineering perfection. I suspect I’d wear the mechanism out by playing with it before I’d played half a dozen CDs….
 
Two come to mind immediately.

Firstly something from from the era of console music centres...

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Then these beasties ...

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(I'd rather the bigger power amp F18/F19)

There was a matching CDP.
Musical%2BFidelity%2BFCDablog.jpg


Just love the looks, top it off with a Gyrodec.

Not forgeting the A1000...
 
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