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Modular HiFi?

T

tom

pfm Member
I was tinkering with my PC yesterday and it got me wondering if smaller hifi manufacturers are missing a trick..

If you are familiar with custom building a PC you will know its basically a Lego set with some cables. By that I mean everything has a set place and all mountings are pre drilled to the industry standards.

Now imaging if the same thing existed for DIY HiFi. You choose the case you want, then fit your PSU from Company A to the designated mountings, do the same with your amplifier board from Company B, pre amp section from company C, then simply snap on the cables to connect it all up.

This would mean anyone could simply and quickly construct their own amplifier from various different manufacturers components with minimal tools or electrical know how. Imagine being able to turn your class AB solid state integrated amp into a valve pre/class D hybrid in 10 minutes by simply swapping some modules out. Or adding a headphone module or a USB input etc etc

obviously this is a pipe dream but if it did happen I really feel it would get a lot of people buying components rather than off the shelf complete products. It would be way more fun and flexible too:)

Anyway just a random thought from someone who loves the idea of making my own hifi but is too thick :)
 
PHISON make modular kit, mola-mola too, but it is their modules you have to connect, dac, phono preamp etc, it isn’t a new idea Meridian introduced their modular range thirty odd years ago.
Keith
 
I understand similar products exist, but as you have mentioned they are in their own ecosystems.
 
Yes if you are building a Naim system...think of companies such as Hypex, Avondale, Ryan sound labs, Teddy Pardo etc.
 
Meridian made an amplifier that was entirely modular, where each part plugged in to the next.

However, older (olive and chrome bumper) Naim gear is extremely modular. Pre-amps like the Nac72 are 100% modular internally. At least three manufacturers make alternative internal circuit boards and one can even mix and match. Again, a number of people make alternative power supplies and/or mods to Naim’s own power supplies. And then you can choose to use pretty much any power amp.

————
The Meridian:

Meridian%20amp%20and%20pre%20amp%20(640x403).jpg
 
I have a 72 with Nj boards and power amps with Avondale boards.

The Avondale amplifier boards are designed to drop right into a Naim 250 I believe. You can swap them out very easily because they are designed to fit there. You couldn't however easily drop them into a quad amp, that would involve soldering, drilling and all sorts.

All I was envisioning was a chassis that is standardised to allow you to chuck in standardised modules from whoever wishes to make them as easily as it is to drop in a new card into your NAC72. Just like when you switch from an Nvidia graphics card to an AMD Graphics card in a PC case. All the mountings are there and the motherboard slot will accept either because it is standardised.

Now I understand these are two totally different industries, as I said, pipe dream.
 
Hmm nice idea but even computing is only plug and play for a relatively short time until new connectors (bigger cases, more cooling etc.) are required. I remember us receiving a new graphics card and finding the mother boards we were using didn’t accept the new connector style.
 
YNWOAN said:
Hmm nice idea but even computing is only plug and play for a relatively short time until new connectors (bigger cases, more cooling etc.) are required. I remember us receiving a new graphics card and finding the mother boards we were using didn’t accept the new connector style.
Click to expand...
Very true but HiFi moves much slower than computing :)
 
Its true there isn't a standardised chassis, but to a reasonable extent the industry is standardised, after all you can connect different makes of record deck, cd player, streamer, dac, pre amp, amplifier, speakers etc pretty much mix and match into a single system.
 
Sales volumes are too small to justify interchangeability between makes.

In addition to the examples above the Quad 33 has a 'proper' mother and daughter board connectivity like a PC and Clive Sinclair had a go even before the Spectrum!

Jim
 
I think there has existed a modular system, just a little larger than what has already been described. The 19-inch rack!

In the '90s (and before and after I guess...) it seems like gear wasn't taken seriously unless it weighed more than 20kg per component and had rack mount ears and handles. And if you tried to rack mount this gear most racks would buckle. And it would put marks on your 2cm thick brushed solid aluminum faceplate, so you wouldn't dare do it.

But there were brands like Sansui, NAD, and others that offered optional bolt on rack handles, and these could be thought of as a (very large) modular system. My university had a big rack of NAD Monitor Series gear in the computer animation lab in the late 90s.

e930392506500e1bcf5f15ca1e5d6c71.jpg

1022895-sansui-gx-5-ii-rare-rack-mounting-stereo-stand-for-sansui-components-good-shape.jpg
 
YNWOAN said:
Meridian made an amplifier that was entirely modular, where each part plugged in to the next.

However, older (olive and chrome bumper) Naim gear is extremely modular. Pre-amps like the Nac72 are 100% modular internally. At least three manufacturers make alternative internal circuit boards and one can even mix and match. Again, a number of people make alternative power supplies and/or mods to Naim’s own power supplies. And then you can choose to use pretty much any power amp.

————
The Meridian:

Meridian%20amp%20and%20pre%20amp%20(640x403).jpg
Click to expand...

Interesting idea though rather poorly implemented. The build quality was just horrible being the cheapest plastic imaginable with a nextel finish, a friend tried the preamp and it wouldn’t even sit flat on the shelf! As was so often the case with Meridian at the time the text lettering rubbed off easily too.

A far better example IMO is the Quad 44 preamp which could be configured with whatever input layout was required via an almost computer-style plug-in cards.
 
I owned the Meridian modular preamp, the cases were some form of plastic/abs but hardwearing, the ends of the cases hinged downwards to expose the switchgear.
I have found all of the early B/S designs innovative from Lecson onwards, I still have the 101B -pre here somewhere.
Keith
 
Tony L said:
Interesting idea though rather poorly implemented. The build quality was just horrible being the cheapest plastic imaginable with a nextel finish, a friend tried the preamp and it wouldn’t even sit flat on the shelf! As was so often the case with Meridian at the time the text lettering rubbed off easily too.

A far better example IMO is the Quad 44 preamp which could be configured with whatever input layout was required via an almost computer-style plug-in cards.
Click to expand...

Yep it was truly dire! I fixed a few in the early noughties but wouldn't touch them again... pretty much fell apart if you looked at them too long and had afterthought parts and boards held in with silicone sealant... the early (for hi fi anyway) SMPS was the worst of all...
 
tom said:
I was tinkering with my PC yesterday and it got me wondering if smaller hifi manufacturers are missing a trick..

If you are familiar with custom building a PC you will know its basically a Lego set with some cables. By that I mean everything has a set place and all mountings are pre drilled to the industry standards.

Now imaging if the same thing existed for DIY HiFi. You choose the case you want, then fit your PSU from Company A to the designated mountings, do the same with your amplifier board from Company B, pre amp section from company C, then simply snap on the cables to connect it all up.

This would mean anyone could simply and quickly construct their own amplifier from various different manufacturers components with minimal tools or electrical know how. Imagine being able to turn your class AB solid state integrated amp into a valve pre/class D hybrid in 10 minutes by simply swapping some modules out. Or adding a headphone module or a USB input etc etc

obviously this is a pipe dream but if it did happen I really feel it would get a lot of people buying components rather than off the shelf complete products. It would be way more fun and flexible too:)

Anyway just a random thought from someone who loves the idea of making my own hifi but is too thick :)
Click to expand...

Impractical. Has the power supply and heatsinking to be able to cope with anything from 10WPC class D to 50WPC class A? You could fit maybe 50 of the former inside one of the latter!
Valves to be compatible? So you need 200V to 500V power supply as well as low voltage supply for SS...and plenty of height, space and cooling air.
Digital? Is there to be digital buses and high current 5V and 3.3V supplies built in as well then?

It would end up a very expensive and large horse built by committee...a camel!
 
I think that we as hifi people should be very grateful to the inventor of the RCA connector and then be amazed that the connector became the de-facto connector for all manufacturers so as AndrewM said we can use one turntable with another manufacturers amp, CD player, cassette what ever. It’s pretty much a miracle that it happened this way!! Look back in time and there were manufacturers using their own connectors to connect things up so you were tied to their products alone, why they would want you to be able to mix in an amp from another make is beyond me.... it might have sounded ‘better’ and killed the sales of their own amps stone dead!!

So we should be very grateful for the RCA and the fact that manufacturers loosened up a bit..! Amazes me tbh.
 
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