My older brother left home, taking his stereo system with him. (He was a guitarist in a semi-pro band and the "stereo" consisted of his Marshall 100 watt stack on one side and an old WEM practice amp on the other - if he had a gig the stereo only had one channel that night. It sounded great to me back then, despite the fact you couldn't turn the Marshall up above "1" before the turntable engaged in howl-round feedback. But it was loud, which was all a 14 year old playing his Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath records cared about).
A replacement was required, and my first system was a Philips stereo cassette recorder (model number N2400, I think) and pair of home made Wharfdale Linton replicas. Over time I went through the usual hotch-potch of bits and pieces. For a number of years I followed the Linn/Naim cul-de-sac. The further you go down that path, the more expensive it is to back out. I got as far as LP12/Lingo/Ittok/Karma, NAC42.5/HICAP/135s, and DMS Isobariks before I bit the bullet and cried "enough is enough".
Micro Seiki CD-M100 CD player. Now about 12 years old, it is a heavily modified Marantz CD-94, and represents Micro-Seiki's "statement" about what could be done with CD replay at the time. To draw an analogy, it is to the CD-94 what the Porsche 959 was to the 911. Stills sounds absolutely fabulous. Two years ago I borrowed a Lucid DA2496 24bit/96kHz DAC (entry level pro gear) and in a level-matched blind test against the antique 16x4 DAC chips in the Micro scored precisely 50%. In other words, the two sources were indistinguishable. So much for progress in digital technology over the last decade.
Nakamichi CA7 preamp. Also about 12 years old. This was top of the Nakamichi range when they still made high end gear. Very transparent, but perhaps a little bass-shy.
ATC SCM100A active speakers. Now about 10 years old. I visited the ATC factory in Stroud to choose the cabinets, and it was a toss-up between rosewood and an exquisite one-off pair in very pale European cherry. ATC advised me that lighter coloured cabinets would make the speakers look bigger and dominate the room, so I opted for the rosewood. The dealer I bought them through has suggested on a couple of occasions that I should upgrade the drive units to the latest SL spec, but they sound so good I never saw the point.
Interconnects and mains cables are the ones supplied with the equipment, although I have inserted 12dB pads into the cables feeding the ATCs, which now makes it possible to use more than 20% of the preamp's volume control travel without blowing out the windows.
Here's a picture of the basic setup:
The dragons on top of the speakers are custom made resonance killers, like Shun-Mook disks,
only much more effective.
At least, that's what my wife told me when she asked for permission
to put them there.
The TV between the speakers is a 9 year old B&O ME6000, which I am told is based around a Philips chassis. It can be played through the main system, but we rarely bother. The two VCRs are low-end Nicam models (a Panasonic and a Hitachi). I have an old Panasonic F1-B SVHS VCR as well, but it's been through two new sets of heads and a power supply. Then the power supply blew up again a few months ago. Despite being something of a classic in its time, I couldn't justify having it fixed yet again. The DVD player is a cheapo Tesco special (Dansai something or other). It doesn't look too bad, but the minute you touch any of the controls it feels horrid. But it plays the kids' Disney and Harry Potter DVDs, which is all that really matters.
Here is the rack of bits and pieces in the main system:
From the top:
My wife & I have about 1000 CDs between us. They are stored in a rack I built from light oak real veneer Contiboard (which unfortunately now seems to be unavailable):
I've not done anything to the system in the last decade (other than dispose of a NAD tuner at a car boot sale). It continues to sound marvellous, and I have no urge to change anything. This is in stark contrast to the constant upgrading I indulged in during the preceding 15 years. It's my belief that with the arrival of the ATCs, I finally had a system which played music instead of sound, and there has been no need to fiddle any further. (We'll put my brief experiment with the Lucid DAC down to idle curiosity).
Pornography alert.... here's a full-frontal nude:
And here is a picture of the family member with by far the best hearing:
She is listening to a rousing performance of "We are siamese if you please" (the Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin version, of course).
My setup for LP transfer is now as follows.
Moth Record Cleaning Machine. The most important component in any LP transfer setup:
(A Keith Monks would be better, but they cost an arm and a leg).
Linn Sondek LP12 with Lingo power supply, Ittok arm and Karma cartridge. I keep thinking that the Karma must be due for a rebuild, but it continues to sound fine and the stylus looks in great shape. The Linn was bought in 1979, and originally sported a Hadcock arm and Ultima (Dynavector) 10X catridge. Then came a Grace 707 with Supex 901, and finally the Ittok (first with an Asak, then the Karma).
The LP12 itself has had many upgrades: Nirvana, Valhalla, subchassis, plinth, all sorts of springs and grommets, and finally the Lingo. As far as I can figure, the only original parts left are the top plate, main bearing, motor, and lid (which is still the old smoked one). The LP12 is often criticised for its rather overblown and wobbly bass. The Lingo definitely helps greatly in this respect, making the bass much "drier". But even more than that, I've found that recording from it without any monitoring results in much clearer sound, with well defined bass. I reckon that (despite Linn's claims about the effectiveness of the suspended subchassis) it must be susceptible to airborne vibrations.
Naim NAC42.5 preamp, left over from when I ran the Linn/Naim system. This is used just as a phono preamp. I sold the HICAP many years ago, so not wishing to line Naim's pockets any more for a ludicrously overpriced power supply, built my own (the "CatFlap").
Midiman Audiophile 2496 soundcard. Amazingly for a card that sits entirely inside the PC, with all that RFI flying around, it has a noise floor down around -90dB: more than adequate to record any domestic analogue source.
Restoration work is monitored via an old Nytech receiver and Sennheiser HD-something-or-other headphones (a budget model, but I know them well and they are more than capable of showing up glitches that need to be fixed):
The PC itself is a 1.2Ghz Athlon with 256MB RAM and a 30GB hard disk, running Win98SE. Win2k (which I use at work) seems rather more stable, but I have an old A3 scanner (used for LP covers) for which no Win2k driver is available.
CDs are burned on a Ricoh MP6200S. This is a 2x burner, bought soon after the model first came out. It cost over £500 at the time (and blanks were about £5 a pop). It's rather galling to see 24x and faster burners at about £50 or so. In the meantime, the Ricoh just keeps on, never missing a beat. In all the time I've had it, it's only ever produced one coaster (and that was my own fault for trying to copy a data disc on-the-fly, forgetting to switch off the spin-down on the source CDROM drive).