Hi-Fi History

My very first bit of kit was a JVC 25" Nicam TV. Widescreen was available at the time, but hugely expensive, probably two or three times the cost of a similar size 4:3 TV. Looking back on the JVC's picture quality I would say adequate, but nothing brilliant- colours were not natural, colourful, bit blurred detail as my current TV. I also bought a Sony Playstation around the same time (1-2 months) for additional entertainment.

My first venture into "Hi-Fi" was a Aiwa ZX-1800 midi system. When I bought it, I thought this sounded fantastic. However after a year I started to realize the sound was way too boomy and harsh, plus it was gimmicky with flashing lights etc. I suppose it was good as it had fully automatic turntable, twin cassette decks with remote control, 3 CD auto-changer and radio. Claimed output was 2x100W- I noticed in the manual that this was at 10% THD (total harmonic distortion) - which is pretty bad!

After another 3 months I bought a Sony Nicam VCR on interest - with 17 free 180min tapes. I like the Sony's picture quality & reliability, remote control and flip flap which hides the tape door.

After listening & watching Terminator 2 on a stupidly expensive setup (Linn amps, Linn tri-amped speakers, Rel Studio subwoofer, projector etc) I realized that I would have to get something similar. I shopped around, listening to various amps, speaker and CD players. I wanted a amp that will be able to be used for stereo & Dolby Pro-Logic.

I bought...

• Marantz CD-63SE CD Player
• Yamaha DSP-A590 AV amp. 70W to the front three, 25 W to the rears.
• Kef Coda 9 floorstanders
• Technics BX-501 Dolby B/C/HX Pro cassette deck
• Sonic Link Pink phono lead for the CD player.
• QED Qudos speaker cable.

What can I say- when I set it up, and left running for a couple of hours to at least bed the speakers in slightly, I listened to some music. Bloomin' marvelous! The sound quality was awesome compared to the Aiwa. Bass was tight, treble was detailed and not overpowering or offensive. After a month or so after careful running, the speakers improved furthermore, bass was even tighter & punchier. I only used stereo mode as of course as I only had front speakers for now... A mate who didn't have a music system came round and the sound quality blew him away! From then he started to build his own Hi-Fi : )

The next thing to buy was centre and rear speakers. Perhaps I was sold the wrong speakers (I knew nothing about matching speakers for tonal accuracy) Anyway, I got a B&W CC6 centre speaker & B&W 601 for rear speakers, with QED Qudos I had spare for the centre, and 7M lengths for the rears Cable Talk Theatre 2. Watching Star Wars in Dolby Pro-Logic now was so much better! Speech was locked between the fronts and sounded fab, and effects to the rears increased realism.

I was using a cheap steel racking system from B&Q which performed quite well, holding everything, including TV, Hi-Fi, Playstation and some games, CD & tapes. But it was wobbly and weak, so I decided to get a proper rack, but I wanted one that could be adjusted on the shelf spacing between each other, as some bits of kit were of various heights. I plumped out for a Stands Unique Sound Tower. After putting it together my system did look better, and I did think it sounded better as well. Another year passed, I then decided to upgrade left & right channels amp for better Hi-Fi, as the Yamaha was OK, but nothing brilliant. I really didn't need to audition many amps, as I wanted poweramp in (so it could be used as a straight two channel poweramp for Pre-Outs from my Yamaha, or another processor) Dolby Digital was about a year off, but I wanted to make sure that I could upgrade easily. I bought the Audiolab 8000S which at the time was a huge amount of money to spend on a integrated amp. I disconnected the speaker cable from the Yamaha, and re-connected on the Audiolab. Then bought another pair of phonos, from Pre-Out on the Yamaha into Poweramp In on the Audiolab. I'm glad I did buy it though as the upgrade was immense. Imaging was so much better, 3D soundstaging, bass was deeper but also much faster now. The Yamaha had less to do now, as centre & rear channels fed from the same transformer.

Next thing was a subwoofer, to be used from the Low Feed from the Yamaha in Dolby Pro-Logic. One company kept springing up- Rel. It was either the Rel Q50 but this didn't have a grille cloth to cover the driver (the Q-100 was not out yet). M&K were too expensive. I saw cheap 'n' nasty subs from Wharfdale, Gale, Celestion & Yamaha but these were awful. I bought the Rel Storm. After running in for 2 days, I properly auditioned it at home. Surpassed everything else I listened to, incredibly fast bass which was 100 times better than my old Aiwa system (which constantly droned)

The following month I started to hear about Audiolab being sold off to Tag Mclaren. I was fretting that the current line-up would be totally replaced, or updated (which would look & sound different) I immediately started to look around for any new, second-hand or ex-demo Audiolab equipment, to my annoyance most were sold. I eventually saw a brand-new Audiolab 8000PX 2 channel poweramp 100W going for. I decided to buy it without even listening to it (mail order), and even though I wouldn't be using it yet because my main speakers were not bi-amp capable. I used it for a bit with the 8000S acting as a Pre-amp to test the new PX for a couple of months. I knew that eventually I would use it.

DVD was beginning to take off, by reading magazines etc I found out about the basic idea being DVD- which was to fit a full film onto a 12 cm disc, with superior sound & picture. I thought VHS was good both in picture & sound! Obviously I never saw DVD going so it never dawned on me how rubbish VHS is. My local Hi-Fi shop had a Thomson first-generation DVD player which was quite affordable at £600, compared to Laserdisc which is more expensive to buy, and dearer films. Phil (the sales guy) informed me the Thomson did not read Dual-Layer DVD's (which I knew was bad as films would change layer at some point in the film) I found out that American films were not edited like the British ones. I decided to get a Region 1 if or when it took off.

There was a store in the next county which had imported 110V Region 1 DVD players & films (UK Region 2 was not even close to a release date) A friend came with me, and he bought a Panasonic 310 DVD player. I was a bit strapped for cash so I left it for a bit. We tried it out on my system with composite video (the JVC didn't have front S-Video connections) It looked great- no picture flickering like tape. Sound was clear, and Dolby Pro-Logic sounded much clearer from DVD than it did with VHS. The picture was slightly fuzzy -due to the composite, which I knew will be removed when using S-Video. We only used it for a bit (he wanted to take it home!), so I really didn't get used to sound/picture as you do when you have it for a month or so.

About a month later I visited the store again and they had Sony players in. After auditioning it, and checking back panel for outputs etc, I bought it. It was a Sony DVP-S500D. I also bought Total Recall, Mars Attacks & The Professional at the same time. He discounted one film, and included a 110V-240V transformer.

After inviting several mates and them saying (what's that?) Then seeing their jaws drop when playing Starship Troopers in Pro-Logic with subwoofer on I knew then that my system was better than the cinema.

Widescreen prices were coming down, which was great as my JVC was too small (especially with 16:9 films) and 4:3 was annoying me. Most annoying was not enough inputs, and lack of S-Video (though it did have S-Video on the second scart, but I was using this for my VCR) I first looked at 32" (but then saw the £900-£1000 price tag and down graded to 28") Nicam TV's from Panasonic, Sony, Philips, Loewe & Grundig. Loewe's were too expensive, I wasn't bothered about the designer price tag. Grundigs were ugly. That left Sony & Panasonic. The Panasonics had 1 extra Scart, and perhaps picture was slightly better than the Sony's. The Panasonic had a JUST picture mode, which makes a 4:3 image look less squished, as I would be watching broadcasted material as well. I bought a Panasonic 28WR3.

After plugging, setting up & watching several DVD's (I left some films aside for my new TV) using a S-Video lead, 16:9 was so much better than 4:3. I could see more on the left & right, the camera didn't pan as much, and I could see several people on-screen at the same time (whereas 4:3 would chop them off) and there was no shimmering compared to composite, resolution was increased as well.

A few months later I was itching to upgrade from Pro-Logic to Dolby Digital, so I sold my Yamaha 590 to my brother as he was getting in Hi-Fi as well. The Yamaha was fine in stereo, but Pro-Logic was very noisy. I bought a temporary solution, the Yamaha DSP-E492. This had a 5.1 input, so I could use the Dolby Digital processor on the Sony (the 590 didn't have a 5.1 input) Sound quality did overall improve, hiss reduction was better although still noticeable on quite passages. I knew I had to live with it as Dolby Digital processors were very expensive. The cheapest one was the Lexicon DC-1 £3300, which was way above my budget.

My brother replaced his Yamaha 590 after a year with a Audiolab 8000S amp, after using my system for a while he decided that the Audiolabs are well worth it. After a year /half, the Yamaha hiss was irritating me (it was sending hiss to all channels- the Audiolabs were quiet so I tracked it down to the Yamaha pre-amp section, also the centre speaker was crackling slightly in Pro-Logic this was due to Yamaha's crappy processing) I removed the E492 from my system and down-graded to stereo for 6 months. Paul wanted to upgrade to Dolby Digital, so I sold the Yamaha E492-telling him that there is hiss but nothing much he could do about it, unless he wanted to spend loadsa money.

Later on I started to look around for a Dolby Digital processor so I could improve sound quality. There were two affordable new Dolby Digital processors- the Denon AVD-2000, the Harmon/Kardon ADP-303. I would have preferred getting the Denon as it had remote volume, and also processed Dolby Pro-Logic (the Harmon only decoded DD and had not remote volume) However I wanted to demo one, and no-one could get the Denon in. I luckily saw a second-hand Harmon/Kardon ADP-303, so I snapped it up. About 2 months later on, I saw another Harmon Processor. I informed paul, who bought it, so he could upgrade his built-in processor on his Pioneer (which was rubbish- you couldn't adjust level per speaker, or subwoofer output, which was extremely low) After setting it up there was no hiss at all, and centre speaker crackling vanished. Panning was miles better than the Sony, speech locked to the centre, and no bleeding to the rears.

I was then missing a rear amp, so paul let me borrow his Yamaha 590 amp to power my rears. I used the left & right channels in stereo mode (DSP off) to power the 601's. Sounded OK. I had to live without centre for a bit.

I wanted to use the more powerful amp to drive the fronts (PX), with the rears on the lower powered amp (S), but I couldn't figure out a way of doing this. A person then emailed me (thanks to Neil Van Maan) how to connect everything up so in in Dolby Digital mode the PX will drive my Coda 9's, and the S will drive the 601's, and in stereo mode the S will act as a pre-amp, and the PX to drive the fronts (rears muted) The Mode switch was now at last being used to it's full potential.

I was by then itching to improve my speakers. I liked my Kef speakers, so I looked at the reference range, but these were too expensive and at 4Ohm perhaps I needed more amp power. Paul had a pair of Q15's which had better soundstaging & midrange detail then the Coda's (taking into account Coda 9's had lower bass). I decided to get a pair of 'Q' range speakers. The Q75's were being sold off cheap, so I managed to get a pair cheap. The Q range has a more detailed sound than the Coda's, soundstaging is alot wider due to the tweeter's location in the middle of midrange. Bass was alot deeper, thanks to the radiator on the Q75's.

My B&W rears were starting to annoy me as they protruded into the room so that entering or leaving was a squeeze past the door & speaker, and the sound was too obvious- I had heard M&K Tripoles going, and you know the sound is there, but it's not obvious. I was hearing that bi-pole or di-pole were superior in Home Theatre. I looked at the two Kef rear speakers (65DS & 34DS) But was informed that the THX Kef's are too harsh, and the Kefs aren't anything brilliant. I borrowed a pair of Jamo Surround 300's, but I felt they were too weedy at only 70W. I was told that NHT make a better dipole speaker than Kef do. I managed to buy a pair of NHT HDP-2's. They are fantastic.

I was then looking for a new centre speaker to tonally match my front speakers. Brother had the Q95 speaker which I suppose is great for the price , but I felt it couldn't match the Q75's for sheer power & presence. Kef have the Model 100, but I guess is OK but possibly still not good enough. I asked my local Hi-Fi shop to keep an eye out for the Kef Reference Model 200. I was doubtful one would turn up, but luckily enough one did about 2 weeks later! Bought it there and then, and I'm glad I did. Great midrange detail, very natural sounding, more deeper bass for James Earl Jones voice types and sonically matches the Q75's, sounds good at high volumes (the other three smaller centres loose quality at louder volumes) Looks good on top of the TV as well. I borrowed pauls Audiolab 8000S to try out the centre.

I was deciding to buy a tuner, but £200+ for something I'd hardly listen to due to the rubbish they play was making me decide not to get one, still I wanted one just for the sake of it. About 2 months later I popped into Cash Converters to look what crap they have. I looked around at the music section, and spotted a 80's- style silver metal tuner Panasonic ST-2600L- for £10! I bought it. The front perspex cover was smashed, and the stereo LED indicator was missing. Simple job to replace both- least now the perspex cover was unscratched & looking brand new.

I was beginning to run into debt, but to hell with it. I used the Kef 200 for a day or so with the Yamaha 590 (paul took his Audiolab back), but it sounded awful. The Yamaha's power is 70W, but low current and decided I needed either a monobloc, or even better a two channel poweramp to bi-amp the centre. At 4 Ohm, I needed a good amp. The 60W Audiolab had no problems driving the centre, so as long as the amp is high current, low wattage won't matter. Three Arcam Alpha 8P's turned up (50W). I bought one for the centre, and Paul bought the other two. His Yamaha E492 was now boxed up and put in the loft. Eventually I'll get a more powerful Alpha 9 or 10 for the centre, then move the 8P to rears, and use the two Audiolabs for other speakers.

Whilst looking at some Hi-Fi websites, I came across someone selling a Denon AVD-2000- he also had a Denon DTS processor. The DTS processor was boxed up but sold. I was getting annoyed with most of the good older films on DVD are Pro-Logic (and I didn't have Pro-Logic) so I decided to get it. Read the Denon review on audioreview to check. Not sure if it sounds better than the Harmon- Dolby Digital is compressed audio so it's difficult to tell (not like comparing a £100 & £1000 CD player) Now at least I have volume, Pro-Logic, more inputs & 5.1 input with volume adjustment)

Just bought some concrete slabs under the sub- 600x400. Also bought a remote controlled dimmer. Comes with remote with ability to control 4 different dimmers (inside the dimmer is a 4 position switch) It does not conflict with Sony or Panasonic TV's. Find the picture elseware on my site.

I re-arranged the amps. Before the 8000S was driving the rears, the Alpha 8P bi-amped centre. Now the 8000S is for my Kef Q15 speakers in stereo (CD/Tuner), Alpha 8P for rears, Arcam 8P for centre, and the 8000PX for Q75's in Dolby Digital.

Bought a single Target shelf for the centre speaker. The centre is now slightly behind the fronts, but there is nothing I can do because upgrading to the Rega CD or similar will not be possible because the centre is normally placed ontop of the CD player.

A mate bought a Rega Planet 2000 CD player a while ago. I borrowed it for a while, and compared with my Marantz CD player. The Rega just seems to sound right, not harsh or sibilant like the Marantz. I bought one about a year later.

Recently bought a Ikea Oppli TV Bench. 44 CM per section width, 25 cm per section height. Total width 1.5 M, depth 50 CM. Height 40 CM. A good looking unit for not much money.

I placed a wanted advert on Tag's website for Audiolab 8000PX's about a month after I placed a order for the amps I needed- a Arcam Diva P85/3 channel. Within a month, someone emailed me commenting that he was selling two or possibly three Audiolab 8000PX poweramps. I promptly cancelled the Arcam poweramp, and bought the two Audiolabs. The sound is much better, plus it has lots more power than the previous amp. The guy should be selling the third PX sometime soon.

After 2 weeks the guy was selling another PX, so I bought this. It's being used to bi-amp my new music standmount speakers (Ruark Etudes in Red Cherry)- bought last month.

I noticed on Tag's site had brand new 8000SX (60W 2 channel poweramps), I bought one for myself, and brother bought one for his 8000S.

Just spotted Tag Mclaren DAC20, managed to get one at a amazing price. Slightly better sound than the Rega, plus further increase for HDCD's (I have three)

Moved the amps around- S & SX for music, three PX's for AV, one PX spare for future 7 channel.

Bought a set of Target R speaker stands for the Etudes, really heavy- 40 Kilo's EACH!