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Flat earth systems that really worked well

Not sure about that! My one abiding memory of a flat earth system was my ears bleeding from ES14s with LP12/Naim gear with a spotty youth furiously banging his leg up and down as he shouted at me to feel the rhythm! I (and my mate with me, who was looking to buy some new speakers) made a sharp exit. Cannot remember the dealer - somewhere in Moseley, Birmingham in the late 1980s.
 
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The NAD has ...
Split pre/power, (preamp having its own winding in the transformer so it stays clean regardless of what the power stage is doing), NORMal/LABoratory inputs to the power stage (Norm having sub/ultrasonic filtering, Lab being straight in clean), output protection, the tape input is a monitor switch (allowing comparison of source with off-tape if you have a three-head machine), a low-level switch (20dB attenuator in front of the volume control) so you can twist your knob up past 10'o'clock, and a headphone socket.

(Ed: also switchable soft-clipping for parties.)
 
Not sure about that! My one abiding memory of a flat earth system was my ears bleeding from ES14s with LP12/Naim gear with a spotty youth furiously banging his leg up and down as he shouted at me to feel the rhythm! I (and my mate with me, who was looking to buy some new speakers) made a sharp exit. Cannot remember the dealer - somewhere in Moseley, Birmingham in the late 1980s.

We've all been there. Most of us have moved on. ;)
 
I don't hold with this idea of feeding LP12 / Ekos / Akiva into a NAD 3020 and Mission 700s. An Ekos or an Ittok produce too much bass, it sounds awful and flabby as the cones try to reproduce what they weren't designed for and the amp hasn't got enough grunt to rein things in.

Unfortunately once you introduce a component from a higher tier into a lower tier system you start getting problems that will persist until you climb all the way onto the next tier.
I've had a similar experience or two, although it has worked out fine several times as well.
 
The NAD has about three times the power of a NAIT, tone controls to tame bass from the source and shrillness of the speakers, will not fall apart if presented with a 2 ohm load (stuff two sets of cables into its outputs and run doubled 700s), its LED peak meter will tell you how much power you are using, all for well under £100 in 1978, and you could sell it today for silly money. :)
The Nad 3020 pre amp section was much touted.
I tried the pre amp for an experiment.
Very poor compared to my NAC 42 of the time.
 
On the old Linn forum, I recall a Linn employee stating that the Majik 109 speaker was signed off with a Majik 6100 amp in aktiv configuration. This suggests the 109s was voiced for Majik amps and perhaps more so in active mode.

The Rega One system was easily one of the most enjoyable systems for me at Bristol Show early this year. Their new amp was obviously voiced for the P1 and Kyte speakers and they did a great job.

I'm increasingly keen on systems from a single point in time comprising products that were developed and voiced for one another.

What flat earth systems have folks heard over the decades that worked really well as a whole?

I like the thought of buying hi fi kit from the same stable, as it were. My first experience was a modest B&O system in the mid 60's I think, bought mainly because of the looks and cost, also matching Danish furniture we still have. At the time we thought it sounded great considering its size. A retirement project in 97 led to the building of 'very nearly' ATC 100's (at the tme ATC sold the drive units and crossovers via Wilmslow Audio), a pair of active amps ...pre owned...were added a year later, a great match and still going well. Not something to replicate, but the concept of finding a company whose engineering roots are strong and started off in the pro studio world makes sense to me, however like many, new ATC is out of my league, they do sound glorious though, and the parameters of the amplifiers match those of the speakers in a way unlikey to be achieved by separate design and manufacture.
Like Arkless, the idea of voicing amplifiers seems a step too far, too subtle for me, but my hearing has never been that good!
PS not sure what a flat earth system is :rolleyes:
 
I like that a lot of people are talking about a flat earth system when they don't know what one is!
 
There's still beeing people thinking the earth is flat.

In the old days they dared not to go out at nights, afraid of reaching the edge border and falling..
 
Flat Earth:

https://boneshifi.blogspot.com/2009/07/flat-earth-ideology.html
http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/the-new-flat-earth/

Really it was the era when Linn and Naim dominated the magazines (and the journalists!) and every other type or flavour of hifi was deprecated - especially 'pipes and slippers' Quad, KEF and so on. Rhythm was the only thing that mattered!

I personally also associate it with the whole 'the turntable is the only thing that matters, everything else less so, 'cos garbage in' and all that' movement. So magazines told us that only the LP12 was good enough for your hifi and if that cost too much, that was OK, cos you could spend less on rubbish amps and speakers and it would still sound good.
 
And it's still just as relevant today, though many now seem side tracked and believe everything sounds the same, ie digital source etc.. and speaker being most important. Well I guess if you stop listening to the "tune" or the actual music you will think that.
 
LP12/Ittok/P77 -> Magnum IA125 (Wonfor) -> Arcam Ones. Replaced the amp & speakers the next year with 42/110 -> Kans, and while great fun, bit of a sidestep and a nod to the prevailing winds.
 
LP12/Ittok/P77 -> Magnum IA125 (Wonfor) -> Arcam Ones. Replaced the amp & speakers the next year with 42/110 -> Kans, and while great fun, bit of a sidestep and a nod to the prevailing winds.
RD 80SL/LVX/K9 >> Magnum IA125 >> HB2 - still got the Magnum and keep perusing eBay listings for the RD80 and HB2s - resisted the urge so far
 


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