I wrote yesterday that the combination of the ONKYO A-1VL and the Creek EVO-CD wasn’t sounding particularly good, and not wanting to leave it at that, I tried swapping power cables and various other things — but faced with such a fundamental incompatibility, these felt like half-measures and I eventually gave up. (Note added later: this was resolved through burn-in of the EVO-CD and a change of power distribution box.)
The Arcam DiVA CD72T pairs better with the A-1VL, but at the time I had the Arcam connected with the Creek’s stock power cable — a thin one that doesn’t seem to do it many favours. When I tried connecting the thick stock cable that came with the C.E.C TL51Z to the Arcam instead, the centre of gravity dropped and the sound gained body and smoothness, and I found myself letting out an involuntary “oh!” CD72T looks like it could be quite fun to play with when it comes to power cables.
Let me take a quick stock of the Hi-Fi systems currently in the house.
…As usual, there are far too many models I haven’t written individual articles about……
Hmm… laying it all out like this, you can see just how heavily biased toward players the author is. Of all the Hi-Fi components I’ve bought, sold, and swapped out over the years, CD players account for by far the greatest turnover. Conventional wisdom says that among Hi-Fi components, the digital player is the least important, and that your budget should go to speakers and amplifier — but speaking purely for myself, I have this sense that the musical soul and character of a system resides not in the amplifier or speakers but in the CD player at the source, that the spirituality and fine detail of musical expression are most sensitively affected there… or so I’ve come to feel from experience. I’m aware this is likely to be treated as heresy, so it’s not something I’d recommend to anyone else…
Looking at this, it’s also pretty clear that I don’t lean towards high-end. There are problems that could, in truth, be solved easily enough by simply buying something expensive. SACD players being a case in point. But deliberately collecting budget gear and coaxing a good sound out of it through careful matching is more interesting to me — that’s what Hi-Fi means to me, a kind of deliberately contrary hobby. Rather than plonking down a pair of £500 speakers, isn’t it more enjoyable to buy, say, ten pairs at £50 each and savour each one’s character, hearing the same recording from all sorts of different angles? That very personal inclination is why, for me, small is beautiful. You could call it speaker loli — loli audio, if you will. I mean, in terms of a miniature-garden aesthetic, small and expensive is perfectly fine too, but there aren’t many products like that, so it naturally ends up looking like this.
Amplifiers take time to get the best out of, so I tend to hold onto them for quite a while… Even so, three in active use does feel rather few. And having only one European-made unit among them is deeply regrettable. Not that I’m exactly calling for the Creek 4240 and the Musical Fidelity A1 Junior I parted with to come back, but I would like one or two more slim, compact integrated amplifiers… The thing is, the price bracket for integrated amplifiers of decent quality does seem noticeably higher than for CD players or speakers — around £200 or so at street prices, I’d say. Fifteen to twenty years ago, during the first slim European amplifier boom, there were plenty to choose from across various brands at around £100…
And what I’d like to strengthen in the near future is probably the small speaker department. The DENON SC-M53 — just over £10 a pair, and apparently designed by the British firm MISSION… (so the rumour goes). I was reeled in by that online reputation and bought a pair, but it was perhaps a stretch. The sound is fair enough for entry-level, but comparing them with the speakers featured on the right side of this site is, frankly, asking rather a lot — I don’t think they can aspire to be a giant-killer in the way that the audiopro Image11 manages to be…
I’d like a higher-grade foreign-made compact speaker to take over that role, and in that case the B&W CM1 is almost certainly my personal best choice — only it’s a touch too large to sit on top of a chest of drawers. Which leaves the QUAD L-ite, I suppose…
I’m also thinking about the BOSE M2 Micro Music Monitor as an ultra-compact speaker for the PC. My monitor setup is a multi-display arrangement with high-end domestic IPS panels, but my PC audio is, frankly, at a level I’m far too embarrassed to reveal publicly here. For PC use you need a quality USB DAC, and if you’re going with passive speakers, a low-powered integrated amplifier as well — so I find myself glancing back and forth at the amplifiers lined up in my own blog’s sidebar, mulling it all over at a leisurely pace.
All of this is, of course, separates talk — I do understand that an all-in-one system tends to give better sound with less risk of getting things wrong. Personally, the Aura NOTE, which can handle pretty much anything you throw at it, or the audiopro STEREOONE, which simply delights with its musicality, would be my recommendations — things I want so desperately I could practically roll around on the floor — but the trouble is, if I don’t buy things as separates wherever possible, I have nothing to write about on the blog. Such is the author’s dilemma.
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List of comments （5）
＞近い将来強化したいのは小型スピーカーかしら
私も、スピーカーだけは自作していますけど、デスクトップHiFiとか言っても、それに相応しい市販品のスピーカーが全く思いつきませんね＾＾；
タイムドメインもそれなりに使えそうな機種になると、アンプ＋ペアで63,000円ほどになりますし、BOSEのＭ３は実際に試聴しましたがかなり良い感じでしたけど、アンプ内蔵ですし、、、。
小型アンプはいくつか候補が上がるのに、スピーカーでこれなら、、、、と言う物が見つけられないですね、、、、。
小型スピーカーといってもその多くは高さ20～30cmはありますから、モニタの両側に置くには少し大きすぎますよね。高さ10cm位が良いのですが、PC用品ののスピーカーで高音質と呼べる物は数少ないですし。TD307PAも良いですが、
http://ichinose.tblog.jp/?day=20070207
コレ見たらもう買う気が失せました…。
事情を良く知らないのですが半額…。
今何故か定価販売に近いですし。。。
そんな感じで候補として考えているのはELACのCINEMA2SATだったりします。
http://joshinweb.jp/av/2638/4939325055920.html?LVC=100&LVT=1&PGN=0
問題はコレとDACと合計でPCに投資するには結構な価格ですよね。更に5万切る価格で納得できる音がする超小型アンプとなると。。。現行の安いデジアンについては今は未だトランジスタアンプや真空管アンプの方が私にはずっと潤いがあって好ましく聞こえます。(低価格で実現可能なハイファイ性となるとデジタルアンプですが、ここで云う好ましいの定義は、ピュアオーディオ的な意味で心地よく聴かせる音作りを指します。)予算があるなら絶対コレ↓。中国ダッサン(DUSSUN)社製ですが、Mark Levinson by Red Rose Musicが、自社ブランド用に手掛けた製品みたいです。
http://joshinweb.jp/av/6292/2097142940705.html
あとはCayin(カイン)のHA-1A。DUSSUNのT2より僅かに大きく、真空管でプリアンプ/プリメイン/ヘッドフォンと他用途に使えます。イロモノ系な私にはこっちの方が似合ってそう。
http://shopping.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=HA-1A&cspid=2075402513&ei=UTF-8&view=grid&cid=2504
どうもです^^？
今回のぱすてるさんの記事、「プレーヤー偏重」に私もアグリーです。結局、入り口（ＬＰ，ＣＤ）がしっかりしていないと、アンプとスピーカーだけではどうしようもならない気もするのです^^？昔の話ですが、ＬＰプレーヤーとアンプ、スピーカー、結局なんだったんだろう、道すがりの中古レコード店の音質におよんでいないのも、まあ事実だったりして。
でも、それがオーディオの面白さかもしれませんね^^？
http://arukunakama.cocolog-nifty.com/life_i_love_you/2008/02/post_3b0c.html
まあ、うちの場合はスピーカーは自作で行くつもりですけど、
http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/bsn-shop/bsam1101.html
http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/bsn-shop/bsam1103.html
次ぎに試してみたいと狙っているのが↑この二つですかね？
実際に入手して、聴き比べて、良くなかったら、良くない方をヤフオクへ！
って感じで＾＾；
グレードアップして行く感じでしょうかね？
＞しばやんさん
LPの方がぶっちゃけ聴感上高音質ですねぇ。デジタルオーディオとは実体感が違う。これはSACDでも解決しない謎です。ビートルズなんかLPで聴いてしまうともう戻れない世界に。。。だからピュアで長年やっている人はLPしか聴かなかったり。CDで云うところの高音質とLPのそれとは目指しているところが違うと考えて割り切ってます。
＞でくのさん
狙い所が私と一緒…。アンプもサイズが良さそうですよねぇ。
Firestoneの音質が不明ですので、両方一緒に買うのはハイリスクですよねー。DACはUSBタイプと比べてどうなんでしょう？
http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/bsn-shop/bsam1102.html
私は上記との値段の差が気になってしまうのと、PCオーディオで普通にTOSリンクする方法がワカリマセン…。←Let’s noteもHPタワーも光デジタル出力が無い。
あと、デジタルケーブルで音が違う件ですが、PCとの接続でしたら、ノイズを遮断する意味で安物同軸ケーブルよりは、良さそうなTOSリンクケーブルを使った方が良いかも？ USB接続は同軸と同じで送り元の電位とか余計な各種ノイズも絡んじゃうのかしらん？(転送方式とか知らないので推測です)