Vinyl/Turntable Enthusiasts

Acrobat

Acrobat

Player Valuation: £10m
Hi All, anyone?

I couldn't find an open thread to post in, so started a new one (mods feel free to close or merge??)

Yesterday I purchased a Rega Planar 3 RS turntable with the NEO PSU Mk 2 external speed control unit, and a Sumiko Songbird high output MC cartridge (to replace the stock one), and a Rogue Audio Sphinx V3 Magnum integrated amp.

Firstly, did I chose well? Secondly, what would be some good options for speakers to go with my system? Any ideas?

Thanks!
 

Acrobat said:
Hi All, anyone?

I couldn't find an open thread to post in, so started a new one (mods feel free to close or merge??)

Yesterday I purchased a Rega Planar 3 RS turntable with the NEO PSU Mk 2 external speed control unit, and a Sumiko Songbird high output MC cartridge (to replace the stock one), and a Rogue Audio Sphinx V3 Magnum integrated amp.

Firstly, did I chose well? Secondly, what would be some good options for speakers to go with my system? Any ideas?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
How big is the listening room ?, where will the speakers go - free space or near walls ? Your best bet is to find a local dealer or go back to where you bought it and ask to listen to some speakers and take the amp with you if they don’t stock it. Once you’ve got a shortlist ask if you can borrow them for a home demo.
 
bigjonny said:
How big is the listening room ?, where will the speakers go - free space or near walls ? Your best bet is to find a local dealer or go back to where you bought it and ask to listen to some speakers and take the amp with you if they don’t stock it. Once you’ve got a shortlist ask if you can borrow them for a home demo.
Click to expand...
This is the way.
 

Acrobat said:
Hi All, anyone?

I couldn't find an open thread to post in, so started a new one (mods feel free to close or merge??)

Yesterday I purchased a Rega Planar 3 RS turntable with the NEO PSU Mk 2 external speed control unit, and a Sumiko Songbird high output MC cartridge (to replace the stock one), and a Rogue Audio Sphinx V3 Magnum integrated amp.

Firstly, did I chose well? Secondly, what would be some good options for speakers to go with my system? Any ideas?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Yes you chose well.

I started with a P3 and upgraded to a P6 and now have a P8 with Aphetta MC cartridge and the same Neo PSU that you have.

It is very good quality deck and a rival for most LP12s until you go overboard on the upgrades.

Are you using a phono amp or does your integrated amp ( which unfortunately I've never heard of ) have a phono stage within?

By way of comparison I have a Naim 282 pre amp , a Naim 250Dr power amp and a Naim Hicap Dr PSU.

My phono stage is a modest Trichord Dino but it does a great job until I swop it for a decent Rega phono stage.

My speakers are ancient, Wilson Benesch Arc but these stand mounters with down ward firing ports still.sound wonderful to me

And that's the thing about speakers it's what sounds good to your ears not what anybody else thinks.

So you need to find what is a natural match with your amp and then home demo speakers until you get the right sound for you.

Good luck.
 
bigjonny said:
How big is the listening room ?, where will the speakers go - free space or near walls ? Your best bet is to find a local dealer or go back to where you bought it and ask to listen to some speakers and take the amp with you if they don’t stock it. Once you’ve got a shortlist ask if you can borrow them for a home demo.
Click to expand...
Correctomundo
 
Acrobat said:
Guess I should have mentioned, I unfortunately live in the USA.
Click to expand...
Oh dear. I believe that Hifi dealers have a very different attitude to home demos ( based entirely on what I read on Hifi forums ) in the states to here.

Anyway be reassured that you have an excellent entry level turntable
 
First things first. https://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/vinyl.119062/

Secondly but just as important, @chrismpw

Thirdly, it'd be a mighty big help to let on what you are planning to do, pipe and slippers, chesterfield leather button back chair, chuck some Doris Day on and hark back to happier times? Or are you planning on punishing the neighbours with some Scandinavian death sludge hard metal?
30ca83290a52e11c80d033c1b8b36f91.gif


Or might you be planning on unleashing your inner Sasha and Digweed and getting into the mix? BBC Essential world tour stuff?
 

You have a good technical setup now ypu csn tune into a sound you like and the type of music you like, by listening to as many different speakers that you can.

I bought my last set in the 1980s when I bumped into a designer (at IAS) who inspired me to build my own. From what I learned over the 40 yeaez since these are my rules:

1. Never get bass ported speakers ... these are tuned honk out a single or narrow range of bass notes at high volume in a shop, to attract people. It works, I'd say 90% of bass soeakers are ported for thus reason, but they lack depth and precision and they mask bass detail in my experience. It's a way of getting cheap nasty drivers to sound good.

My first 2 designs were all infinite baffe. People would think they were bass light ... until a bass instrument played, then they realised their own speakers were making up bass that was never intended.

2. The fewer drivers, the better imaging you will get. Don't be impressed with multiple driver speakers - that's just a designer trying to impress on the shelf, snd not choosing the drivers properly, in my view.


3. If you're after bass heavy music - look for transmission line designs. These were the next 2 speakers I made ... lovely cobtrolled rich bass, more than infinite baffle could ever produce.

4. As soon as you can, buy an active crossover and second power amp and go active.... the single bet think I ever did to my transmission lines. More detail and control over the driver without a nasty cheap passive crossover in the way.

5. My most recent dalliance has been with open baffle speakers .... oh my God! Holographic imaging and incredible detail, plus negligible room artifacts - but they need careful balancing and are too complex to get right by mass market manufacturers who don't want to spend money on the necessary consumer education. They are very bass light though (so won't sell off the shelf) and really need a subwoofer to cover below 100Hz. I recently sold a pair valued independently at worth £10k to a good mate who thought he waa robbing me at £2k (basically the build cost) and offered me £500 more than I'd asked!

6. My latest design is a single driver, broad range open baffle ... outstanding imageary and detail - no unnecessary crossovers needed ... simpler set up ... but much harder to tune-out unwanted responses ... sometimes it "shouts" ... still in development .

On a whim last year I bought a pair of Quad ESL-63 electrostatics - just because they were legendary. Cost around £2k when released in the early 80s and long regarded as the best speakers ever made. My own speakers win out in sone ways, the quads in others ... never heard a piano or drum so convincingly reproduced ... the transients are incredible. Fir classical /vocal/folk/jazz I think theyre possibly unbeatable. For rock music, they're simply very, very good. The Electrostatic are very fragile though so be very careful if you head down that route.
 
@Acrobat that's why chris got tagged in, besides a few typo's that took a third go, I was able to read that post in full. And you'll never guess what, I'm even more bewildered than when I started! But I did enjoy the ride. He's not even done silver solder yet.
If you have a few pals with different set ups and can get a handle on sounds they swear by from their set ups then that'd be a start, or you could start cheap cheap, with really basic second hand market speakers and then begin a journey of progressively swapping and upgrading.
A small note of caution, try and keep it fun, chasing the impossible perfection of sound is a very expensive pursuit that can and has cost people hundreds of thousands if not more. If you are Dr Dre and you've a studio in your home you can have what you want because record companies have deep pockets, and this leads into caution part ii, there's a lot of snobbery and self proclaimed expertise and elitism in the music community, the forums attached to the magazines can be a bit difficult to settle into.
 
Rita_Poon said:
@Acrobat that's why chris got tagged in, besides a few typo's that took a third go, I was able to read that post in full. And you'll never guess what, I'm even more bewildered than when I started! But I did enjoy the ride. He's not even done silver solder yet.
If you have a few pals with different set ups and can get a handle on sounds they swear by from their set ups then that'd be a start, or you could start cheap cheap, with really basic second hand market speakers and then begin a journey of progressively swapping and upgrading.
A small note of caution, try and keep it fun, chasing the impossible perfection of sound is a very expensive pursuit that can and has cost people hundreds of thousands if not more. If you are Dr Dre and you've a studio in your home you can have what you want because record companies have deep pockets, and this leads into caution part ii, there's a lot of snobbery and self proclaimed expertise and elitism in the music community, the forums attached to the magazines can be a bit difficult to settle into.
Click to expand...
I will add that there is no such thing as a perfect speaker ... they are all compromises and its a matter of finding one that suits your taste, first and foremost.

Silver solder? Of course ... if you use solid silver wire inside your soeakers you HAVE to use silver solder otherwise the joint becomes embrittled. 😊

Typos? Surely nit!
 
chrismpw said:
You have a good technical setup now ypu csn tune into a sound you like and the type of music you like, by listening to as many different speakers that you can.

I bought my last set in the 1980s when I bumped into a designer (at IAS) who inspired me to build my own. From what I learned over the 40 yeaez since these are my rules:

1. Never get bass ported speakers ... these are tuned honk out a single or narrow range of bass notes at high volume in a shop, to attract people. It works, I'd say 90% of bass soeakers are ported for thus reason, but they lack depth and precision and they mask bass detail in my experience. It's a way of getting cheap nasty drivers to sound good.

My first 2 designs were all infinite baffe. People would think they were bass light ... until a bass instrument played, then they realised their own speakers were making up bass that was never intended.

2. The fewer drivers, the better imaging you will get. Don't be impressed with multiple driver speakers - that's just a designer trying to impress on the shelf, snd not choosing the drivers properly, in my view.


3. If you're after bass heavy music - look for transmission line designs. These were the next 2 speakers I made ... lovely cobtrolled rich bass, more than infinite baffle could ever produce.

4. As soon as you can, buy an active crossover and second power amp and go active.... the single bet think I ever did to my transmission lines. More detail and control over the driver without a nasty cheap passive crossover in the way.

5. My most recent dalliance has been with open baffle speakers .... oh my God! Holographic imaging and incredible detail, plus negligible room artifacts - but they need careful balancing and are too complex to get right by mass market manufacturers who don't want to spend money on the necessary consumer education. They are very bass light though (so won't sell off the shelf) and really need a subwoofer to cover below 100Hz. I recently sold a pair valued independently at worth £10k to a good mate who thought he waa robbing me at £2k (basically the build cost) and offered me £500 more than I'd asked!

6. My latest design is a single driver, broad range open baffle ... outstanding imageary and detail - no unnecessary crossovers needed ... simpler set up ... but much harder to tune-out unwanted responses ... sometimes it "shouts" ... still in development .

On a whim last year I bought a pair of Quad ESL-63 electrostatics - just because they were legendary. Cost around £2k when released in the early 80s and long regarded as the best speakers ever made. My own speakers win out in sone ways, the quads in others ... never heard a piano or drum so convincingly reproduced ... the transients are incredible. Fir classical /vocal/folk/jazz I think theyre possibly unbeatable. For rock music, they're simply very, very good. The Electrostatic are very fragile though so be very careful if you head down that route.
Click to expand...
chrismpw said:
You have a good technical setup now ypu csn tune into a sound you like and the type of music you like, by listening to as many different speakers that you can.

I bought my last set in the 1980s when I bumped into a designer (at IAS) who inspired me to build my own. From what I learned over the 40 yeaez since these are my rules:

1. Never get bass ported speakers ... these are tuned honk out a single or narrow range of bass notes at high volume in a shop, to attract people. It works, I'd say 90% of bass soeakers are ported for thus reason, but they lack depth and precision and they mask bass detail in my experience. It's a way of getting cheap nasty drivers to sound good.

My first 2 designs were all infinite baffe. People would think they were bass light ... until a bass instrument played, then they realised their own speakers were making up bass that was never intended.

2. The fewer drivers, the better imaging you will get. Don't be impressed with multiple driver speakers - that's just a designer trying to impress on the shelf, snd not choosing the drivers properly, in my view.


3. If you're after bass heavy music - look for transmission line designs. These were the next 2 speakers I made ... lovely cobtrolled rich bass, more than infinite baffle could ever produce.

4. As soon as you can, buy an active crossover and second power amp and go active.... the single bet think I ever did to my transmission lines. More detail and control over the driver without a nasty cheap passive crossover in the way.

5. My most recent dalliance has been with open baffle speakers .... oh my God! Holographic imaging and incredible detail, plus negligible room artifacts - but they need careful balancing and are too complex to get right by mass market manufacturers who don't want to spend money on the necessary consumer education. They are very bass light though (so won't sell off the shelf) and really need a subwoofer to cover below 100Hz. I recently sold a pair valued independently at worth £10k to a good mate who thought he waa robbing me at £2k (basically the build cost) and offered me £500 more than I'd asked!

6. My latest design is a single driver, broad range open baffle ... outstanding imageary and detail - no unnecessary crossovers needed ... simpler set up ... but much harder to tune-out unwanted responses ... sometimes it "shouts" ... still in development .

On a whim last year I bought a pair of Quad ESL-63 electrostatics - just because they were legendary. Cost around £2k when released in the early 80s and long regarded as the best speakers ever made. My own speakers win out in sone ways, the quads in others ... never heard a piano or drum so convincingly reproduced ... the transients are incredible. Fir classical /vocal/folk/jazz I think theyre possibly unbeatable. For rock music, they're simply very, very good. The Electrostatic are very fragile though so be very careful if you head down that route.
Click to expand...
Excellent post. I've heard very very expensive B&W , Focal.and Kef Blades in a Naim Statement system and none of them sounded as good as Quad ESLs.

I also loved Linn Isobarics but they have a very different sound signature.

Kudos on building your own speakers.
 

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