Tell us about your stereo!

[Hepcat]

Mr. Shadow:

Very cool system! Kenwood amp, Technics speakers with 15" woofers, I love the look, sound and feel of eighties equipment.

The only piece I'd suggest upgrading is the Pioneer turntable. You might want to look at a belt drive with suspended sub-chassis model such as one of these Pro-Ject Debut IIIs I've pictured below. These can be found fitted with an Ortofon cartridge for less than $380 at your friendly neighbourhood stereo shop where the service should also include balancing/aligning the tonearm and cartrudge to exact specifications.

Buying a better turntable and cartridge is well worth the expense. You get far more greater improvement in sound quality upgrading a turntable than buying a more expensive amplifier or CD player.

 

[Hepcat]

I've got a Denon that's been collecting dust for probably close to 10 or 12 years now. I can't bring myself to get rid of it for some reason, though. It's kind of funny because I was a huge one for making mix tapes. I did it all the time and they were all I ever listened to in the car. But the advent of CD burning computers and disappearing car cassette players kind of push the kibosh on that whole process. And the really funny part of it all is that I've never put the time or effort into making mix CDs as I did tapes. The process isn't as much fun...not nearly the sense of ritual - setting levels and cueing the turntable and all. Kinda sad, actually.

I've had the same experience with my cassette deck. I bought an early seventies vintage Phillips deck in 1974 and had great fun recording my LPs on cassette for the deck in my 1973 Dodge Charger. I initially had a cassette deck from Mad Man Muntz but by 1977 I'd replaced it (after it was stolen) with a Craig Powerplay. I had been using a pair of Pioneer 6 X 9 speakers right from the start and the cassettes in my Charger sounded very nice indeed.

Since my Phillips cassette deck gave up the ghost some five years ago, I've done not one bit of recording/transposing onto CD.

:

 

[Hepcat]

The Paradigm Studio 100 speakers are very well reviewed, have great specs and deliver incredible punch:

I was looking at a pair of these for $2700 a year ago but when I auditioned a pair of the Monitor Audio RS8's at the very same stereo shop I found I wasn't convinced that the Paradigm Studio 100s were noticeably better. Since I had the opportunity to buy a pair of the Monitor Audios at less than half the price, I went with the Monitor Audios.



I find though that I don't like the present rounded back look of the Paradigm Studio line. I suspect that this is but a nod to the style that's currently in favour with the home theatre crowd and that performance considerations probably took a back seat when it came to the design decision.

 

[Craig in Indy]

If I'm not mistaken, Paradigm is one of that group of Canadian speaker manufacturers that all share in the work that's taken place at the national acoustics research lab. They've all turned out some very good speakers, and they're usually good bargains to boot. Some of the others are Axiom, PSB and Energy. That's off the top of my head. There may be others I'm forgetting at the moment.

 

[Mr. Shadow]

Do you find you still use your cassette deck, Mr. Shadow?

Yes. I have lots of cassettes and the used record stores have them priced around $3 apiece. Flea markets can yield a bag full at 50 cents each. I only paid $25 for that dual Sony deck in the same pawn shop I bought the speakers ($30 each) from. I checked it over really well... the heads were immaculate. The dynamic range is great. The speakers are really tight and are very effecient at 92dB. I have a belt drive USB turntable, but it doesn't like my system at all. I had planned on digitizing some of the cassettes through it's port but propably won't now.

 

[taha]

Well, I can't pass this thread.

Classe Amp

Linn Pre amp

Hales Rev 3 speaks

Nac. CD and Cass

and a Project TT

 

[Hepcat]

Which Pro-Ject turntable?

 

[taha]

the black one above ( in flat )

 

[Oblivion]

I'm a student and thus don't have the money for nice turntables and such...

This is my solution:



12Hz-22kHz sony earbuds. Connected to a Zen microphoto by Creative:

I don't listen to music alot at home and if I do i use my MP3 player often..; but my PC has these:

Overall not the quality I'd like, not at all. But in the end I prefer a beer with some friends over über-quality music for now.

 

[0000]

I just found my dads old speakers from a stereo he had, I couldn't tell you what kind it was or anything haha, so much heavier than modern speakers, I was up in my attic looking for his old cb radio, which I didn't find =/