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I have a rather expensive hobby that is HIFI. I at the moment as I am still a student I still have a rather basic system. I have made my own speaker stands and FFRC speaker cable which has saved me a lot of money and has a dramatic effect on the sound of my system. I also have a cheap Gale sub woofer which is not used or shown on the picture. As you may be able see on the picture my HIFI is wired up using high quality interconnects a nd speaker cable which is Bi - Wired. The shelf is not perfect but it will do until I'm rich enough to buy a proper support.
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Marantz PM6010OSE Intergrated Amplifier |
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This is my first none budget amp. It has 50WPC and a dual mono no frills design.
Marantz OSE models only have the most basic facilities you need for a product
to function. The idea behind this is extra facilities which are in the signal
path such as tone controls and effect the sound quality. Also by saving some
money by not including these items Marantz has been able to use components not
normally found in amps this price.
It might seem odd then that Marantz have decided to use a normal frame transformer rather than a more desired torodial one. However the transfromer found in this amp is still a very high quality one and is probably better than some of the cheaper torodial ones found in budget kit from Cambridge Audio and Ariston. Input selection is done by a high quality switch rather than the usual Marantz method of using relays. This means that it will offer less signal loss but the input selection cannot be controlled by the amps remote control. This amp uses Elna capacitors which I am told are good quality and again usually found on more expensive amps. Perhaps the best thing about this amp in terms of audiophile design is the use of the dual mono design. This effectivly means that they are two seperate identical circuits for each channel. This minimises the effect of cross talk.
So what does this amp sound like? Well it sounds like an audiophile commercial amp. By this I mean it offers a good balance between detail and smoothness. The great thing about this amp is that it can cope with all kinds of music well. Classical music has attomosphere and space around the instruments while dance music such as M Peoples "Movin On Up" is delivered with fast and thumping bass lines. The treble is good as well although it can get harsh with rough recordings. Sibiliances are very noticable on early Simon and Garfunkel and Bee Gees stuff. However a lot of more exepensive amps suffer from this problem even more. Musicaly the amp seems to stay in control no matter how loud it goes, the bass guitar on Cold Plays "Yellow" sounds real and has good weight to it. Vocals are always very open and lifelike making this amp a musical star for the price.
Verdict - You can now buy this amp for £150 (RRP £230) which
makes it a very good amp. It first appeared on the market in 1999 and was considered
amongst the best for £230 but the game has moved on a bit since then.
For £150 though nothing can touch this amp its in a league of its own.
It has 50WPC, a very good phonto stage and a remote control making this fine
value on paper. Add the excellent sound quality and you have yourself a very
good bargain. I would say this amp sounds like a typical £200 amp. Its
certainly much better than the Marantz PM4200 and even the NAD 320. However
newer amps from NAD and Rotel sound better but you will have to pay £200+
for them. Overall this is your first upgrade amp for my first amp money. Its
the bargain of the moment.
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Marantz PM4000 Intergrated Amplifier |
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The PM4000 bought to replace my Ariston AX910 amp. I replaced it becuase it developed a fualt which cuased the headphone to cut out when the volume was set about 9'clock. This amp is fully feature with a phono amp, full remote control, 30WPC, tone control, tone bi-pass, and a seperate record selector. The design is very japaneese even though Marantz was owned by Philips when it was designed. This amp seems to rely on good tuning rather than the use of expensive components becuase it sounds much better than its spec would suggest.
Compared with similar amps at the price such as those from Denon, the Marantz has a smoother and more system freindly delivery. Vocals sound warm and natural while the bass is tight for the price. Although this amp only has 30WPC is never strains and lets the music flow freely which is unusual at the price. This amp has won many awards in the past and its not hard to see why. It doesn't sound as good the 6010OSE but it will sound good with poorer quality sources where as the 6010 will sound a tad bright with them. The best thing about this amp though is the price. Its RRP was £150, but the PM4200 has replaced it which means you can buy the PM4000 for £100 if you look hard enough. £100 puts this amp in the same league as the Cambridge Audio A1, and some basic Sony offerings. It makes older recordings open up with good detail and strong vocals. It also sounds very good with dance music playing on my turntable with very fast bass. Having said that though, the Denon 255UK is availible for similar money and offers an even more open and exciting delivery. Tonally its a cross between a typical Denon and a Technics amp. I never found it too smooth on my Sony CDP XE530 but if you have a budget Technics CD player then you will probably find this amp a bit too well behaved.
Verdict - This Marantz will beat any of competition for sound per sound
and it has also has more features. The only downside is that you can have the
6010OSE for only £50 more and if you have that extra £50 then go
for the 6010 is it has the same balance as the PM4000 but sounds richer and
offers more slam.
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Ariston AX910 |
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This was my first HIFI amplifier and I bought it for £60 brand new back in 1999. This amp is very well built with a front metal facia and good quality plastics. Opening the lid reveals somthing very strange, a torodial transformer. I suspect that it would be a cheap one as a decent toridial transformer costs at least £20 at thats trade prices! The amp offers 30WPC which should be enough in a small room, however it could get strained at times driving my JPW 310is. There is no phono stage but richer sounds can fit an excellent cambridge audio one for £20 including parts and labour.
The sound was open, offering good detail and a little bit of space around the instruments. It sounds like a real HIFI amp and can certainly most mini systems built in amps. If you can buy a second hand one for around £30 then you cannot go wrong with this amp. Its well built and the sound will sound better than a lot of the old big name amps found from the 70's which can sell for this money. It looks a bit 80's with a grey/black look but its more modern than a 1978 Pioneer amp. The amp shares a lot in common with the Cambridge Audio amp, the only difference I can see is the transistors, all main PCB layout and specification seems to be the same. I just wish this amp was still being made as for £60 it really was a real bargain. The only fualt I noticed with the sound quality after I got my PM4000 was that the instruments appeared to lack seperation and stereo imaging wasn't that good. You can build a system around this amp for around £120 all in and that will beat any of the sub £300 mini systems. Don't pay £60 for it though unless you can buy it new becuase you can buy the Cambridge Audio A1 for same money brand new which is a very similar design.
Verdict - This amp sounds much better than you would expect for the
money and can be bought for beer money. Its a real budget star, its not audiophile
quality but its good HIFI. It can struggle when pushed so its better used in
smaller rooms with lower sensitivity speakers.
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Sony CDP XE530 CD Player |
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Although I still have this CDP, which I've had for nearly 3 years I intend to replace it in a few months time. Only a few years ago there were loads of sub £200 CD players to choose from. Now becuase of the DVD boom there is not as much choice. The 530 is very well featured for the price with CD text and a remote control. The RRP was £140, but many dealers such as Richer Sounds sold for just £100 and now becuase it has been replaced it sometimes pops up for £80. This CD player has a very smooth but lively delivery which offers fast bass, refined treble and decent vocals. However compared to more expensive CD players such as the Marantz CD6000OSE the bass depth is not great and the vocals can sound a little thin. Having said that, this CD player sounds much better than any personal CD player or an older budget design. The transport is very high quality and I think it is the DAC which is the weakest link here. But thats not the point, the point is here we have a proper good HIFI CD player which works extremely well with the Marantz PM4000/4200 and with good speakers you can have an audiohpile system for as little as £350. Its only when you upgrade your amp to say a 6010OSE that this CD players sonic problems come to like. If you have a budget amp such as PM4000 then this CDP is all you need. The NAD 520 can also be bought for £120 now, although I have never heared it, it should sound a bit better than this CDP and that is also worth a listen.
This review may sound a little negative so far, which is wrong becuase this CD player sounds better than some £150 cd players currently on the market and makes even more exepensive DVD players sound awful on CD replay. Even with more expensive amplifiers this CD player still sounds exciting and never bright which is an excellent quality for a CD player. The Sony 570 can now be bought for £100 so I would recommend that as its supposed to solve some of the minor problems with the 570.
Verdict - This CD player is not perfect but for the money nothing else touches is it. Its a great compromise between the ultra cheap CD players and the more expensive models. It sounds better than the rivals from Technics, and probably even Marantz.
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TNT Audio CAT5 FFRC Speaker Cable £3/m |
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This is a review of the FFRC speaker cable, if you do not know what this is click here. The cable took about 5-6 hours to makle so its quite a time consuming process, however I am not going to go into construction details here. The cable design uses CAT5 network cable but it does make good speaker cable. I have read that some cable which costs £20 per metre uses the same design as this one does and it only costs around £3 per metre to make. I terminated my cables with banana plugs.
The sound of the FFRC cable sound rather bright at first but I am told this soon goes when the cable burns in. I uses the have Gale XL315 2 speaker cable which sells for £3.99 per metre. After swapping that for my FFRC I noticed a major increase in detail levels. Sound staging had improved by about 10-20% and the treble was sweeter. The bass was tighter but not as deep so if you're system lacks bass then these cables may not be for you, however if you are currently suffereing from bass boom then these cables will be perfect. These cables don't work well on bright electronics either as they can be very revealing.
Despite a couple of short comings, the cable has made a huge improvement on my system and becuase the cable is so cheap to make I would recomend that you give it a try.
Happy bargain hunting!
More reviews coming soon!
