Other pieces of kit reviewed
My Hi-Fi Reviewed
These are the bits of kit I own...pics are closest match. Look at www.audioreview.com for owner reviews..
Kef Reference Model 2.
Recently bought these. Front pans are much smoother now (before the 200 used to stick out, even with a few dB's knocked off that channel. Smoother treble, clearer midrange. Bass is more tighter and less directional (Q75's sound a bit boomy at times) Nice finish. Well worth what I paid for them (about half price)
Design; 3 - way, 4 - driver
HF Drive Unit; 25 mm (1") ferrofluid – cooled soft dome tweeter
MF Drive Unit; 160 mm (6.5") polypropylene cone
LMF Unit(s); no
LF Unit (s); 2 x 160 mm (6. 5") pulp cone
Crossover Frequencies; 2.4 kHz, 160 Hz
Frequency Range1 ±3 dB 45 Hz-20 kHz
LF Corner -6 dB 39 Hz
Maximum Output; 113 dB
Characteristic Sensitivity Level; 90 dB
Amplifier Requirements; 50-200 W
Impedance; 4 ohms
Enclosure type; twin interport twin coupled cavity
Internal volume ;MF : 2.5 litres
L F : 40 litres
Weight; 29.6 kg (65 lbs)
Dimensions (H x W x D)-(maximum including grille and feet ) 1012 x 238 x 359 mm
Veneer Finishes ; Standard finish collection
NHT HDP-2 rears.
Dipole wall-mountable speaker. Each side houses a version of the SuperZero speaker,
while in between and firing at the wall is a 6.5" woofer, ex-demo What I like
about these speakers is the build quality (gorgeous piano black), number of
drivers (5 per speaker) and the diffused sound. If is quite difficult to guess
exactly the point of sound.- the front & rear drivers are reversed phase.
Shows how the Dipole
arrangement works
The mid drivers have a rubber surround, bass is foam. This speaker goes down to 57hz which is unusual for a rear. I wanted this as panning would sound strange if I used a pair that was basically a tweeter. Single pair of screw-down terminals. There is nothing I don't like about them.
Kef Reference Model
200 center. 200W. 4Ohm. Absolutely fantastic speaker. It has a reference
Q driver (midrange & tweeter, a larger tweeter than the Q range) And two bass
drivers to either side. Good quality metal bi-wire terminals. Great midrange,
and excellent vocals. Voices are very natural sounding. Matches TV colour &
shape. The only thing bad about this speaker is the crap grille cover- it is
not secured like the Q range speakers (plastic bit that slots into rubber grommit)
It just has top & bottom plastic grip that runs along the speaker. The edges
of the grille do not lay flat on the speaker. Pathetic. I use double-sided sticky
pads on each corner to secure the grille down.
Ruark Etudes.
In Red Cherry finish. 8Ohm, 87 dB. These sound really good, they match well
with the /Audiolab sound.- stereo system.
Rel Storm V1
subwoofer. 100W. Great subwoofer with deep & fast bass, it has a Volt driver.
It has 3 XLR inputs- low-level, high-level & low-level 500Ohm. It is made from
3CM MDF. Phase reversal switch, volume & two filter knobs. Downward facing driver
(metal protector cover) with a reflex port. 18hz-120hz. Black Grittex finish.
With scenes like Starship Troopers on DD 5.1- Whiskey Output, your chest palpitates
from the turret guns! It is quite big & heavy, though! Just make sure you don't
drop it on your foot with the spike!
Lexicon MC-1 I won't go into the customization features. A useful one if the subwoofer peak limiter. You set the Subwoofer output to say 110dB peak max, and it'll never go above that. It also has setttings per DSP, and per DD & DTS modes (ie not a general setting for everything)
Sony 810 Nicam VCR
Drop-down flap, makes it look different and hides the ugly VHS flap. Front audio
& video inputs. Reliable, has never chewed a tape up. Nice remote, controls
TV's
Rega Planet 2000.
Extruded aluminum case with a new top loading lid, new seperate power supply
for the digital section of the DAC which is a custom built 24bit sigma delta
IC40 DAC chip. There is a new Sony CD mechanism and Evox film and non-polorised
electrolytic high performance capacitors. The sound quality compared to the
Marantz is more natural, the Marantz has too pronounced treble & is too harsh.
CD's are more enjoyable to listen to with the Rega.
Panasonic ST-2600L
Tuner £10 second-hand Saw this going for a tenner, although I hardly listen
to radio I thought might as well get it! Approx 1980's tuner (I think) Analogue
twiddly tuning, backlighted display (bulb) signal strength display, FM LED -this
LED was missing when I got it- 2 minute job soldering it. Could do with a coaxial
FM connector (it has small screwdown's)
Sony 500D 110V Region
1 DVD player. The picture is great.. I like the DVD players front joypad-
useful if you cannot find the remote! Also fast at chapter skipping, and it
resumes the current place if you press standby or stop then play - good for
a break. What I like about the Sony DVD player's are the remote- they are top
notch (some glo in the dark buttons) The on-screen menus/options are simple,
fast and uncluttered compared to several other DVD players. It has a built-in
DD processor, but I don't use this anymore. The decoder has test-tone and variable
output per speaker- some DVD players don't have this feature. It has 2 S-Video's,
component, 2 composite, 2 pairs of L&R out, the 5.1, and optical & coaxial out
(using coax) 2 lasers, one for DVD, one for CD. 10 bit video DAC, 24 bit/96
Khz audio DAC. Impossible to multi-region hack.
Tag Mclaren DAC20.
Digital-to-Analogue Converter. 3 optical inputs, 2 coaxial SPDIF inputs, 1 BNC
SPDIF input, 1 XLR AES/EBU input. 2 pairs of analogue outputs. 32Khz, 44.1Khz
& 48Khz sampling compatible. HDCD decoding (PMD-100 chip) De-emphasis & clock
lock features. 24 bit 8 x oversampling digital filter. 192 x oversampling pulse
density modulated single bit DAC. Sounds slightly better than the Rega, and
when using HDCD's a further improvement. Also being used from Sony DVD, so for
2 channel music DVD's (PCM) it's going to the Tag - not the Denon, so will be
much better.
Audiolab 8000S.
60W integrated amp. Fab sound, very informative, very detailed. Excellent overall
frequency response, and great bass- fast & thumpy, not slow & woolly at all.
The major feature of the 8000S I like is the MODE switch. The S can be used
in the following configurations:-
I also like the slimness of the cases, and build quality. Gold plated metal screw-down terminals (not like Yamaha amps- proper terminals) The 8000S is now being used to drive the Q75 tweeter & midrange Q driver,
Audiolab 8000PX.
100W 2 channel poweramp. Again same excellent build quality. S/PX sound- excellent
soundstaging, bass speed and treble detail. Using three for AV (6 channels of
amplifcation), one for music speakers bass drivers.
Audiolab 8000SX.
60W 2 channel poweramp. Bought for use with the S, that allows one PX to be
used later on for 7 channel AV. A bargain for the price.
Harmon/Kardon
TC1000 universal remote. This is a great remote- PC configurable, customizable
buttons (you can re-name each button), macros, shortcuts. Number of devices
is 15. Battery life is good (4 AA's) With PC software & cable. Could do with
a bigger screen, and brighter backlit display. Flashing to the latest 1.5 firmware
is a must, as 1.0 version used to loose data all the time. Now works faultlessly.
4 channel Dimmer-
£25 A nice finishing touch to my system. I have learnt the single button on
the Harmon. A single quick press switches on/off, holding dims/brightens. The
last preset light level is kept in memory. What is lacking, and would be good
is a light sensor on the dimmer front which automatically adjusts to a set level,
and enabled/disabled from the remote.
Toshiba 42PW23P- Arrived yesterday- spent a bit converging. Looks very nice! Blue is a bit out, but you can never get blue perfect anway. Much better picture than Plasma. Very bright in the corners. A bargain for £1100. Noticed some little effects that you miss on a smaller sceen (ie, when Shrek yells at donkey, his fur ruffles)Scan-lines aren't that noticeable, and considering the size, it looks great!
USB to Toslink optical sound Box. Just recieved this. It's being used with my laptop- instead of using the lineout from the soundcard (noisy and sounds flat), using this little box that has a optical output. Currently connected to the Tag DAC and Denon Processor (2 channel music, 2 channel AV respectivly)
