As a spin-off from the threads ‘What’s your oldest piece of audio kit still in regular use?’ AND ‘20 Year old DAC and Todays DAC’s’, does this have a roon community resonance?
From over some years I’ll Kick-off with:
• Primare I32 Amp
• EPOS ES 22 Speakers
• Meridien 506 CD Player
• Tag McLaren DVD32r (as a CD Transport)
• NAD M51 DAC
• NAD M50 Streamer, CD player ripper (ah!… yes/no/yes/no)
• ProAc 2.5 Response Speakers (then bought back)
Than NAD combo was such a match.
With that said where, when, how often would you use all that regretted stuff, anyway?
Had auditioned it against other highly regarded - and way more powerful on paper - amps of those days on my, then, Magneplanar Tympani 4A, which was a spectacular combo!
Which brings me to another sorely missed piece of kit, the Tympani 4A!
My first proper Hifi setup that I bought all myself and not inherited. Loved this system has many fantastic memories and most of the time it was in my bedroom, wasted I suppose. Stone Roses - I am the Resurrection has never sounded better than it did on this pairing to me.
Well, it was the ultimate for me at the time. I didn’t replace it with another analogue player. I’d crossed over into the digital world by then; no more tapes or vinyl for me.
Somewhat ironic, considering what has been posted so far:
I sold a pair of Pass Aleph 2’s (they are monoblocks) and Acoustic Energy AE2 Signatures. The AE2’s were superb, and I had sent them back to have the matching drivers replaced. These speakers were individually numbered on a metal plate.
The system would literally send puffs of air out the ports at full throttle.
No regrets though, sold them to a local friend/musician. I have full visitation rights.
I had to downsize just after I got married for the first time.
Marantz PM6000KISIG
Marantz CD6000KISIG
KEF Concerto Two
Project Debut Turntable.
KEF Coda center
KEF Q15 rears
Yamaha Dolby Amp for center and rear channels. Cannot remember the model number.
Had the best of both worlds, the Marantz handled the mains and the Yamaha the rest when I wanted home cinema.
Still miss those KEF’s, didn’t need a sub, even with movies.
I bought another one in the end but it’s got one of the catches broken on the perspex lid.
Mind you it is in the cabinet not hooked up.
I might hook it up for my Birthday
So go to the DIY site and build and build a Pass amp from scratch. I built a Korg preamp and an F5 power amp. The combination is spectacular for the price of the kit parts and some manual labor to assemble and bias it. Pass DIY
Yeah, know that site, great resource.
Love to drool about some of the builds one can see there!
Actually found genuine schematics of the specific Aleph 0’s revision, that I’d owned.
Even would be able to build one by job background, but that class A amp is so awfully energy inefficient, that I’d feel guilty using it these days.
One tends to glorify fond memories anyways.
Better keep it that way, move on and have a look at digital amplification, once my 30 year old Onkyo M5550 class AB amp finally dies and can’t be repaired.
