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Your ideal "good enough" system

Many years ago Vuk and I attended an audio show that the local dealer sponsored, and I think we both concluded that the little Rega system was the best in that sea of audiophile exotica.

Joe
 
+1 for the all rega system mentioned several times in this post. I too, wish to get off the audio merry-go-round after realizing that I am spending way too much time worrying about equipment rather than buying more cd's and vinyl.
Currently in the process of building the all-rega setup-but instead of the Brio-r, am using a Brio3. I have a Maia3 and now just looking to get the matching Cursa3 pre. Source would be a Rega cdp(after selling my Naim player) and TT is the Planar3. Speakers will most likely be Rega RS5s. Having heard all rega setups several times, can safely say I have never been disappointed. Hopefully this system will just be a keeper and I can then concentrate on increasing my current music collection.
 
If I had to start all over again on a tight budget I would be quite happy with a CDi or basic LP12 feeding a 72/Hicap/140 into a pair of SBLs.

I had this configuration (both the CDi and an LP12) in a second system many years ago and it gave countless hours of absolute listening pleasure.

It doesn't have to cost a fortune to sound musical and engaging.
 
You see, my good enough system is the one I already have. Didn't cost thousands, the sound is easily good enough to keep me happy, and has done so for many years. So I'd buy the same again.
 
This has been a hard road. Don't skimp the amp/speakers is my best advice.

Streamer/Spotify echoes my approach, I remain in that holding pattern for almost 2 years. Why buy a DAC/NAS when the AEx DAC is so good and streaming services invest millions in failsafe storage? You only need storage for music not yet streamed, in my case I buy Warp/ECM/Tzadik to store locally.

...a word of caution. Expect dead ends based on old habitual thinking. Catastrophic loss may change you physically, mentally, psychologically; you may ping pong through trying to recover, restore, repair, replace and it might might make you very ill, (In my case endocrine failure from hypoxia, lung damage from exposure to toxins and issues/damage from acute CO inhalation resulting in loss of muscle and body mass, consequential depression, PTSD and other things I'm not ready to share. These creep up on you and take time to spot and get a diagnosis and treatment - it doesn't end after the fire.

A preamp is unnecessary when there's volume control on your tablet/phone. The moment you go analogue things rapidly get expensive and nerdy and need space. Racks of gear can be replaced by a fag packet sized streamer of any breed you like: fancy open source? roll your own raspberry pi/hifiberry/volumio, buy an airport express or Sonos or any of the myriad streamers you like the look of and be done with it, it takes a dedicated person to mess things up at this level.

The big question is: can you adapt? The world, technology (and hopefully you) have moved on. The democratisation of high end HiFi continues irrespective.
 
Another vote for the Devialet here. My 110 replaced a stack of kit and sounds fantastic. It's so simple in its set up, hardly noticeable visually and is 'tweakable' / upgradeable too. Great with Harbeth.

A set up I once had that always brings back great memories was the humble Naim Nait 1 into some Harbeth P3ESR. The DAC was a Meridian Explorer fed by a Mac Mini. This was easily a 'good enough' system with hardly any outlay, super compact and well presented.
 
This has been a hard road. Don't skimp the amp/speakers is my best advice.

Streamer/Spotify echoes my approach, I remain in that holding pattern for almost 2 years. Why buy a DAC/NAS when the AEx DAC is so good and streaming services invest millions in failsafe storage? You only need storage for music not yet streamed, in my case I buy Warp/ECM/Tzadik to store locally.

...a word of caution. Expect dead ends based on old habitual thinking. Catastrophic loss may change you physically, mentally, psychologically; you may ping pong through trying to recover, restore, repair, replace and it might might make you very ill, (In my case endocrine failure from hypoxia, lung damage from exposure to toxins and issues/damage from acute CO inhalation resulting in loss of muscle and body mass, consequential depression, PTSD and other things I'm not ready to share. These creep up on you and take time to spot and get a diagnosis and treatment - it doesn't end after the fire.

A preamp is unnecessary when there's volume control on your tablet/phone. The moment you go analogue things rapidly get expensive and nerdy and need space. Racks of gear can be replaced by a fag packet sized streamer of any breed you like: fancy open source? roll your own raspberry pi/hifiberry/volumio, buy an airport express or Sonos or any of the myriad streamers you like the look of and be done with it, it takes a dedicated person to mess things up at this level.

The big question is: can you adapt? The world, technology (and hopefully you) have moved on. The democratisation of high end HiFi continues irrespective.

Fox, that's a very insightful post from somebody who has clearly been through it. I hadn't realised you'd been at home at the time of the fire and certainly hadn't realised that you'd suffered physically. It puts things into perspective, the main thing you can hope to come away with is your's and your familie's health, the rest isn't so important.

Hope you're physically well now.
 
I could be quite happy with RP3, BrioR, Apollo R, Ela with a nice clean cartridge.

Currently listening to some Elas I picked up on eBay on a nostalgic impulse as a friend's father's LP12/Naim amplification/Ela was my intro to hifi. They are not exactly in perfect nick but may actually be my favourite speakers I've owned and I have previously spent a hell of a lot more on speakers than the £80 they cost me!
 
Currently listening to some Elas I picked up on eBay on a nostalgic impulse as a friend's father's LP12/Naim amplification/Ela was my intro to hifi. They are not exactly in perfect nick but may actually be my favourite speakers I've owned and I have previously spent a hell of a lot more on speakers than the £80 they cost me!

Lovely design and a real shame they aren't still in the Rega range in some form.
 
Currently listening to some Elas I picked up on eBay on a nostalgic impulse as a friend's father's LP12/Naim amplification/Ela was my intro to hifi. They are not exactly in perfect nick but may actually be my favourite speakers I've owned and I have previously spent a hell of a lot more on speakers than the £80 they cost me!

I brought a pair of ELAs when I was 16, I'm 30 now and still have them, superb speakers.
 
Those sloping face Ela's in rosewood or black look very cool and i can imagine sound good too with the paper cones and design of the cabinet.
 
I am really happy with them, I have been auditioning various speakers recently as none of the ones I owned when we bought this house really worked in the living room. The Linn Majik 109s had been leading the pack, but the Elas are bloody close, so much so that until I A/B them in this room I can't say they're not better! Watching The Dark Knight on BluRay last night they amazed me again (I have a projector and screen, but have so far resisted going multichannel) you might need a sub to make you feel the low bass, but the Elas do a good job of letting you hear it without sounding distorted!
 
I am really happy with them, I have been auditioning various speakers recently as none of the ones I owned when we bought this house really worked in the living room. The Linn Majik 109s had been leading the pack, but the Elas are bloody close, so much so that until I A/B them in this room I can't say they're not better! Watching The Dark Knight on BluRay last night they amazed me again (I have a projector and screen, but have so far resisted going multichannel) you might need a sub to make you feel the low bass, but the Elas do a good job of letting you hear it without sounding distorted!

ELAs won't distort easily, they can play bass heavy music to decent levels, they just don't go very deep. What bass is there is clean, tight and fast.

I upgraded from a pair of mordaunt short VS100s that some London based mail order shop had sold to me telling me that they were "just like MS10i pearls", they weren't, they were utter shite. The ELAs were a monumental upgrade and remain the biggest step up in sound I have experienced to date. I brought and sold a lot of speakers in the time I was using my ELAs. They gave way to a pair of linn keilidhs but they still did some things better than the keilidhs (until I went active).
 
That makes sense, they're rolling off before they're distorting and presumably I'm hearing the harmonics so I know the low bass is there. I think I prefer that to some of the speakers I have had which have gone lower but made a mess of it! The seller played me the Royds he was replacing the Elas with and they were bassier, but sounded far less refined to me...

Underwhelming Mordaunt Shorts must be a hifi right of passage, mine were MS 3.50s!
 
Lovely design and a real shame they aren't still in the Rega range in some form.

The design lives on in the RS7 - "quarter wave transmission, no additional crossover, flexible positioning"

Fine though the Ela is, better still were the big brother Xel's.
 
I'm currently enjoying music from vinyl, CD and streaming; it's interesting to compare the pros & cons of each source & format.

If money was tight and space limited, I'd go for mac mini, Naim DAC-V1, a serviced NAP110 or NAP140 and a pair of wall mounted PMC DB1i.

Wait a minute, this is the system that I use in the study and think it's brilliant value. Better still, the mac mini is also used as a proper home & work computer, saving the need to buy another one.

Best regards, FT
 


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