Around 5 years ago my beloved integrated amp's output stage got fried due to me using a third party power cable. This cable is fat, heavy, and the female IEC didn't fit 100% in the male IEC of the amp. Result: The cable's weight and looseness made the connection turn on and off without me noticing.
Since then I've had to listen to music on my PC through my AKG 712 Pro headphones, which wasn't that bad, but still far from ideal, as I have been an avid music listener from my sweet spot for more than 40 years. (The amp was let go in silence, as the manufacturer went out of business some years ago, and the chance of getting it repaired properly was no longer viable).
Still, with a couple of thousand flac albums on my PC, I survived with little damage to my general level of satisfaction.
Then in January, speaking with my brother in law on another subject, I mentioned how much I missed listening to my stereo, and out of the blue he said: "I have a pre- and power amp collecting dust in my basement. You can have them."
My joy - and expectations - went sky high, and already the next day, I was able to set up the newly added amplifiers, and start googling the properties of these amps. My joy and thankfulness kept rising as I learned more about these amazing products, which - although being discontinued years ago - performed absolutely amazing with my Marantz CD player and Dynaudio speakers.
The amps are Parasound P/HP 850 preamp and HCA 1000 power amp, of course with original wiring and user manuals etc. (and the fingerprints of Mr. John Curl easily audible as well).
WOW! These babies were better than my previous setup :D
So, having been saved from the expense of having to purchase new amps, I decided to take things a couple of steps further. Being a retired citizen, the below mentioned additions will probably have to do for the remainder of my existance on this wonderful planet, so I went for an improvement.
First, a new dual band router
Second, a NAS server for my flac music: Synology 218+
Third, an Oppo UDP-203
Fourth, a 4K UHD smart TV (plus a handful of 4K blu ray movies for testing)
Oh, isn't life amazing? Although I fear I'll wear out my sofa in the sweet spot much sooner than expected, I am enjoying both the sound and image quality of this setup to the fullest. Not the best on the planet, but very very good.
But already after a couple of weeks, the usual symptoms of the HiFi syndrome hit me like a ton of bricks: I need new speakers!
My modified Dynaudio DM2/7 have served me well; no, extremely well to be honest. They have from day one (actually not, since it took 3-4 days to burn them in) served me with the surprisingly neutral, homogenous and honest sound, that is a hallmark of Dynaudio, even at ~500$ a set.
But no longer in the same league as the rest of my setup though. Thus, I spent some days googling and reading, googling and reading, googling and reading...
Loving the Dynaudio speaker philosophy, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I kept looking in that same direction. A few days later I sat in a nice sofa in an ugly little room, listening to Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad", Daboa's "From the Gekko", plus a homemade CD-rom with exceptionally well produced music samples, that I've collected through the years. On the stands in front of me were the most beautiful speakers ever made in the Dynaudio factory in Denmark: Contour 20. This doesn't count for much, as Dynaudio have actually produced more than one set of boring, controversially looking, and even ugly speakers during their 40 years on the market, but I find nothing wrong about their sound philosophy, which IMO is superb. But these are so beautiful!
These babies not only looked amazing, but literally played my socks off, even though they clearly weren't completely burned in.
Plasticity, crispness, perfect imaging, amazing impulse willingness and beautifully natural coloration, were the words that came to mind, which glued me to that sofa for hours. Dang! Were this really true?
Now I'm waiting for word from the dealer, about when I can have them brought home. (They are not in stock, but get manufactured when you order them). Apparently they will be shipped from the factory around March 9th, so patience, patience...
As a side note, new speaker cables had to become part of my new setup: Chord Shawline to replace my Supra Ply 3.4/S. I also purchased Chord Shawline RCA interconnects to feed the Oppo's signals to the impressive 19.000 microFarad power bank of the Parasound P/HP 850.
I am looking so much forward to listening for weeks, months even...
Life? Nah, it'll have to wait...
Around 5 years ago my beloved integrated amp's output stage got fried due to me using a third party power cable. This cable is fat, heavy, and the female IEC didn't fit 100% in the male IEC of the amp. Result: The cable's weight and looseness made the connection turn on and off without me noticing.
Since then I've had to listen to music on my PC through my AKG 712 Pro headphones, which wasn't that bad, but still far from ideal, as I have been an avid music listener from my sweet spot for more than 40 years. (The amp was let go in silence, as the manufacturer went out of business some years ago, and the chance of getting it repaired properly was no longer viable).
Still, with a couple of thousand flac albums on my PC, I survived with little damage to my general level of satisfaction.
Then in January, speaking with my brother in law on another subject, I mentioned how much I missed listening to my stereo, and out of the blue he said: "I have a pre- and power amp collecting dust in my basement. You can have them."
My joy - and expectations - went sky high, and already the next day, I was able to set up the newly added amplifiers, and start googling the properties of these amps. My joy and thankfulness kept rising as I learned more about these amazing products, which - although being discontinued years ago - performed absolutely amazing with my Marantz CD player and Dynaudio speakers.
The amps are Parasound P/HP 850 preamp and HCA 1000 power amp, of course with original wiring and user manuals etc. (and the fingerprints of Mr. John Curl easily audible as well).
WOW! These babies were better than my previous setup :D
So, having been saved from the expense of having to purchase new amps, I decided to take things a couple of steps further. Being a retired citizen, the below mentioned additions will probably have to do for the remainder of my existance on this wonderful planet, so I went for an improvement.
First, a new dual band router
Second, a NAS server for my flac music: Synology 218+
Third, an Oppo UDP-203
Fourth, a 4K UHD smart TV (plus a handful of 4K blu ray movies for testing)
Oh, isn't life amazing? Although I fear I'll wear out my sofa in the sweet spot much sooner than expected, I am enjoying both the sound and image quality of this setup to the fullest. Not the best on the planet, but very very good.
But already after a couple of weeks, the usual symptoms of the HiFi syndrome hit me like a ton of bricks: I need new speakers!
My modified Dynaudio DM2/7 have served me well; no, extremely well to be honest. They have from day one (actually not, since it took 3-4 days to burn them in) served me with the surprisingly neutral, homogenous and honest sound, that is a hallmark of Dynaudio, even at ~500$ a set.
But no longer in the same league as the rest of my setup though. Thus, I spent some days googling and reading, googling and reading, googling and reading...
Loving the Dynaudio speaker philosophy, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I kept looking in that same direction. A few days later I sat in a nice sofa in an ugly little room, listening to Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad", Daboa's "From the Gekko", plus a homemade CD-rom with exceptionally well produced music samples, that I've collected through the years. On the stands in front of me were the most beautiful speakers ever made in the Dynaudio factory in Denmark: Contour 20. This doesn't count for much, as Dynaudio have actually produced more than one set of boring, controversially looking, and even ugly speakers during their 40 years on the market, but I find nothing wrong about their sound philosophy, which IMO is superb. But these are so beautiful!
These babies not only looked amazing, but literally played my socks off, even though they clearly weren't completely burned in.
Plasticity, crispness, perfect imaging, amazing impulse willingness and beautifully natural coloration, were the words that came to mind, which glued me to that sofa for hours. Dang! Were this really true?
Now I'm waiting for word from the dealer, about when I can have them brought home. (They are not in stock, but get manufactured when you order them). Apparently they will be shipped from the factory around March 9th, so patience, patience...
As a side note, new speaker cables had to become part of my new setup: Chord Shawline to replace my Supra Ply 3.4/S. I also purchased Chord Shawline RCA interconnects to feed the Oppo's signals to the impressive 19.000 microFarad power bank of the Parasound P/HP 850.
I am looking so much forward to listening for weeks, months even...
Life? Nah, it'll have to wait...