Post your Hi-Fi Setups and/or Turntables!

[Dr_Faustus]

This thread is for posting your audio setups and/or turntables!

Here is my current setup

-Carver TFM-35 Power Amplifier (Rated at 250W Per Channel!)
-Kenwood KC-993 Stereo Control Pre-Amplifier
-MCS VTR Component TV + Wave Form Display
-KEF Q150 Speakers
-Optical to Analog converter for TV audio output
-Technics SL-Q3 Turntable (Not shown, in process of restoration)

Future plans
-SACD/CD Hi-Fi Player (Already have some options but have not jumped on anything yet)

 

[ciaomao]

ok, iam the 2nd.

Speakers: T+A Criterion TCD 310S
DAC: TEAC 501
Turntable: Thorens 320 / ELAC D796 H30
AMP: Accuphase e-405
Headphones: Audezee LCD-2 & Beyerdynamic dt1990pro
Player: RPi3 with max2play

 

[ciaomao]

Here is my current setup

-Carver TFM-35 Power Amplifier (Rated at 250W Per Channel!)
-Kenwood KC-993 Stereo Control Pre-Amplifier
-MCS VTR Component TV + Wave Form Display
-KEF Q150 Speakers
-Optical to Analog converter for TV audio output
-Technics SL-Q3 Turntable (Not shown, in process of restoration)

Future plans
-SACD/CD Hi-Fi Player (Already have some options but have not jumped on anything yet)

very cool! good quality from the past. you know what you have. a still functioning MCS is certainly a rarity.

 

[Hanafuda]

If I play music over loudspeakers I just get told to turn it down, so I went "portable" ... NW-WM1A Walkman and MDR-Z1R headphones. Most of my stuff is Hi-Res FLAC, some DSD and etc.

 

[ciaomao]

If I play music over loudspeakers I just get told to turn it down, so I went "portable" ... NW-WM1A Walkman and MDR-Z1R headphones. Most of my stuff is Hi-Res FLAC, some DSD and etc.

View attachment 318184

this is definitely a serious approach!

 

[DS1]

Not an audiophile, strictly turntablism. 2 MK-IIs, cheapo Numark Mixer, Numark CC1 catridges on both, China preamp and M50x phones. Speakers are KEF Reference 101s (the only thing as old as the turntables!).

Please excuse the records all over, I was cleaning and had to get the random piles off the floor lol.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

ok, iam the 2nd.

Speakers: T+A Criterion TCD 310S
DAC: TEAC 501
Turntable: Thorens 320 / ELAC D796 H30
AMP: Accuphase e-405
Headphones: Audezee LCD-2 & Beyerdynamic dt1990pro
Player: RPi3 with max2play

Impressive setup! Also I love your Accuphase!

I should have also thrown in my headphones in the mix but since I do not do much walking around anymore with them they don't get much love these days. I have a pair of V-Moda M-100's which I typically used with my Zune back in my younger days. Now said player is basically connected to my setup in case I want to play anything I have on there, however the Zune does not have a lot of audio format options the best I can get out of most of my digital playback is mp3-320kbps unfortunately lol.

very cool! good quality from the past. you know what you have. a still functioning MCS is certainly a rarity.

Funny enough the MCS and the Carver came from the same trading post! They have an insane amount of vintage Hi-Fi stuff in there, perhaps I will post the pictures I have from there in the group soon. Its overwhelming what they had lol.

Funny thing about both items is that the MCS my wife pointed out as it was on the top shelf and I simply did not recognize it until I got back home, flipped through my pictures and realized what it was. I went back the following weekend and snapped it right up! As for the Carver, I noticed it there for awhile but I had my eyes set on a Yamaha MX-600 which they had there but it was a repair that a previous customer who bought it blew out a channel and was given another unit in exchange while they see if this unit could be repairable or if it was not worth the cost. I was offering them a price as-is but they wanted to wait for their tech to take a look at it before anything else, which they said would take weeks/months given the backlog they had which was unfortunate. I eventually decided to jump on the Carver since I did hear great things about it and if I wanted to add more speakers to the setup in the future I can just get a splitter if needed (in an apartment right now so my space is limited to bookshelf speakers at the moment!).

I am very happy with the Carver, and I am already eyeing on modding out the lamps for LED's since they will burn out eventually. I am just trying to determine what would be the best colour for them.

If I play music over loudspeakers I just get told to turn it down, so I went "portable" ... NW-WM1A Walkman and MDR-Z1R headphones. Most of my stuff is Hi-Res FLAC, some DSD and etc.

Nice! Does the player power those headphones well? I know sometimes higher end headphones need more power to get the best experience out of them and PMP's can be hit or miss in this area.

Not an audiophile, strictly turntablism. 2 MK-IIs, cheapo Numark Mixer, Numark CC1 catridges on both, China preamp and M50x phones. Speakers are KEF Reference 101s (the only thing as old as the turntables!).

Please excuse the records all over, I was cleaning and had to get the random piles off the floor lol.

SL-1200's are always lovely. It's amazing that despite how popular/abundant they are over the years they still maintain a high value to this day! That said they still make them too so you really can't reinvent the wheel here in terms of how well its regarded.

 

[subcon959]

Here's my setup (it's no longer dual arm as I sold the Roksan Nima)..

Michell Gyro SE turntable

SME IV tonearm

Ortofon Jubilee MC cartridge

Graham Slee Era Gold V / Elevator EXP phono stage pre-amp

Eastern Electric MiniMax valve amp

Speakers (not shown) are KEF 103/4.

I also have the obligatory Linn Sondek LP12 as a backup turntable, and a Systemdek IIX 900 as a backup-backup turntable.

 

[Hanafuda]

Nice! Does the player power those headphones well? I know sometimes higher end headphones need more power to get the best experience out of them and PMP's can be hit or miss in this area.

It does. The NW-WM1A Walkman model (and the even ritzier WM1Z) has a balanced output (4.4 jack) that cranks out some serious juice. About 5-6 times more than a conventional single-ended 3.5mm portable output. I wouldn't try to run 300ohm impedance Beyerdynamics with this Walkman, but it can power most fullsize cans. The hassle is the 4.4mm jack termination for the balanced amp, which means you have to acquire a custom cable for anything else but the Z1R headphones, which comes with 2 cables (traditional 1/4" fullsize headphone plug, and the 4.4mm balanced plug). The Walkman also has a conventional 3.5mm jack, which I use with my IEMs when out of the house.

Photo showing the 2 jacks (scrounged from internet). The chassis is one piece of solid milled billet aluminum. (The WM1Z's is gold-plated copper.) Both of these players are now discontinued for a replacement model that is not so extreme in specs and runs on Android.

 

[ciaomao]

mp3-320kbps

mp3/320 is already excellent. i once had the fun of comparing 320 and high res in detail via audacity. just open the same track and compare the waveform with a very high zoom level. you'll see that the differences are extremely small. i'd almost say...negligible.

I also have the obligatory Linn Sondek LP12 as a backup

as a backup?? ah ok sure. wait! AS A BACKUP!?!!!

 

[subcon959]

as a backup?? ah ok sure. wait! AS A BACKUP!?!!!

Lol, yeah it's not one of those crazy expensive modern ones. It's a pre-Cirkus that I bought used fairly cheaply and modded with a Hercules power supply so I could play 45s (silly pretentious Linn only supported 33 rpm out of the box).

Even though it has a lovely musical sound, I eventually felt the need for something a little more neutral so upgraded to the Gyro. I do miss it though, so if I ever need to downsize I'll probably have it as my only player. Also, who doesn't love that fluted afromosia plinth.

 

[ciaomao]

Lol, yeah it's not one of those crazy expensive modern ones. It's a pre-Cirkus that I bought used fairly cheaply and modded with a Hercules power supply so I could play 45s (silly pretentious Linn only supported 33 rpm out of the box).

Even though it has a lovely musical sound, I eventually felt the need for something a little more neutral so upgraded to the Gyro. I do miss it though, so if I ever need to downsize I'll probably have it as my only player. Also, who doesn't love that fluted afromosia plinth.

What a beauty! My Amp fell in love instantly. I would love to compare the sound.

 

[Dr_Faustus]

It does. The NW-WM1A Walkman model (and the even ritzier WM1Z) has a balanced output (4.4 jack) that cranks out some serious juice. About 5-6 times more than a conventional single-ended 3.5mm portable output. I wouldn't try to run 300ohm impedance Beyerdynamics with this Walkman, but it can power most fullsize cans. The hassle is the 4.4mm jack termination for the balanced amp, which means you have to acquire a custom cable for anything else but the Z1R headphones, which comes with 2 cables (traditional 1/4" fullsize headphone plug, and the 4.4mm balanced plug). The Walkman also has a conventional 3.5mm jack, which I use with my IEMs when out of the house.

Photo showing the 2 jacks (scrounged from internet). The chassis is one piece of solid milled billet aluminum. (The WM1Z's is gold-plated copper.) Both of these players are now discontinued for a replacement model that is not so extreme in specs and runs on Android.

View attachment 318628

That is definitely something I will have to keep an eye on once my Zune has to be retired for good. 10+ years on a player with battery and HDD is only going to be a matter of time before that stops working. After all I just refuse to use my phone for this kind of thing. PMP's all the way!

 

[Hanafuda]

That is definitely something I will have to keep an eye on once my Zune has to be retired for good. 10+ years on a player with battery and HDD is only going to be a matter of time before that stops working. After all I just refuse to use my phone for this kind of thing. PMP's all the way!

I also used an OG Zune 30 for many years. The brown one. I retired it when I got the WM1A Walkman, in 2018. The WM1A is not only extremely more capable (lossless, hi-res, high power output from the balanced amp) ... it's also much much more satisfying to use. Touch screen, effective but minimalist OS, and it's 100% drag and drop. No more special client software required, synching to a library on a pc, or any of that shit. And on standard CD-quality FLAC (16/44), it's good for almost 30 hours of playback. Hi-res and especially DSD clips that back a little though.

 

[lwiz]

For the most part mid-fi, I guess, but here goes



My old cart which I exchanged to another - no exchangeable needle, so refurb trade is the only way to go ,new cartridge arriving late this week I hope. And I'm tbh pretty much "source first" guy thus the "pricier" needle and cart in one package solution. Mayware Formula V, an extremely low mass arm and thus able to keep Grado funniness - dancing and whatnot - in check. Self plinthed Lenco idler wheel in the role of prima ballerina in my music listening.



Full bodyshot of the Lenco. total mass despite the slimness about 15 kilograms.


My full setup atm. Creek phono preamp hidden somewhere behind the rack and the restored B&W Nautilus 803's pretty prominent. NAD integrated, Pioneer radio & cd, Marantz deck, BT receiver (good enough for it's role), Pro-Ject DA box for telly and the passed through HDMI audio and some assorted gaming rigs As my main music listening source is vinyl, the rest of system has some "red-headed stepchild" syndrome

Later this year as the money permits full rewire of the tonearm and a new DIN-cable for it (self made, of course). Oh, and I have full Nelson Pass Pearl/Ono setup made and just waiting for time to do the final assembly and getting the chassises (chassii?) as I kinda want to later on to go into low-output territory of MI/MC carts.