Hi-Fi

Hi-Fi Separates

Hi-Fi music separates have become a new interest and hobby of mine over the last few months. My 8 year old and lower budget NAD system had served me well but it was time to treat myself to a proper upgrade. In general, separate hi-fi systems by specialist brands are so much better than the all in one box you find on the high street, even at the budget end such as Cambridge Audio, Marantz and NAD. There are one or two exceptions though worth a mention, the Onkyo CS 515 was 2007 product of the year in What Hi-Fi and at £220 (without speakers) is a superb bargain with a really sweet sound and with pretty much all the features you would need including DAB radio. I have one of these as my second system in the bedroom, and its only real weakness is the headphone output which has a fairly narrow soundstage compared to a separate amplifier. The other newcomer to the market is an Arcam Solo Mini which is an excellent top quality brand and has used a lot of electronics from its higher range CD and amplifier separates, and it is beautifully made. At £650 it is a great small combined box for CD/DAB radio and amplifier and the hi-fi magazines are raving about it.

My old system retailed for an equivalent £600 all in and comprising (with retail values shown):-

CD - NAD C320 (£150), Amplifier - NAD C302 (£120), Speakers - Cambridge Audio S30 (£120), Headphones - Sennheiser HD595 (£150), Cables - Gale X315 Speaker cable (£2pm) & Cambridge Arctic Interconnect (£20)

My new upgraded system is now a long way up the Hi-Fi quality chain (and further than I anticipated when I started) with an original retail value of around £3,150, although in reality due to some huge price cuts and bargaining I obtained them all boxed new for £1,850. It is a massive light and day difference to my old system, but I have some major bargains in there as outlined later.

CD – Arcam FMJ CD36 (£1400), Amplifier – Arcam FMJ A32 (£1200), Speakers – Epos M5 (£350), Headphones - Sennheiser HD595 (£150), Cables – Chord Silverscreen cable (£6pm) & Van Den Hul ‘Name’ Interconnect (£40)

CD Player

Old - NAD C 320 (£120) New -  Arcam FMJ CD36 (£1400 - bought for £700)

Also Auditioned – Marantz CD6002 (£270), NAD C542 (£350), Arcam CD73 (£450), Roksan Kandy III (£650)

Given the source CD is one of the most important items in a system (an amplifier and speakers can only really work with the detail they are given from the CD), this was an important starting point. I do really like NAD products and the C542 is an excellent player and certainly one of the better budget end players around, and one I would certainly recommend. The magazines love the Marantz, and for its price it is a great player, but to my mind a little sharp on the ear and not really as good as any others I also tried out, and I prefer NAD at that price point. Arcam was a new company to me as were Roksan Kandy, and both present excellent players. In comparing the two I did overall prefer the Arcam CD73, as it sounded a higher quality and at a better price. It looked superb with a neat green matrix display and with a slightly warmer and more natural sound than all the others. The natural upgrade to the Arcam CD73 is the CD192, however I managed to pick up Arcam’s top FMJ CD36 player at £700 which is less than the CD192 price, and its performance is outstanding with more body and detail than all the others I tried. It was simply a matter of the perfect time to buy, as Arcam are just about to bring out a new FMJ player. However, I would have been more than happy enough with the £450 CD73 if that price had been my top end budget, it is a really great sounding CD player with CD text option too.

Amplifier

Old - NAD C302 (£120)  New -  Arcam FMJ A32 (£1200 - bought for £700)

Also Auditioned – Cambridge Audio 540A (£250), NAD C352 (£350), Arcam A70 (£530), Roksan Kandy III (£650)

My initial home trial for a new amplifier was with a Cambridge Audio 540A, a £250 amplifier which comes highly recommended in the magazines. Although nicely detailed when directly compared to even my old NAD 302 it was definitely lean sounding and lacking any real bass line punch. Sadly on headphones the difference was even worse and the music had little drive and ambition. I would definitely avoid budget Cambridge Audio amplifiers. Moving to safer ground and looking up my more trusted NAD brand, starting with a £350 C352 which is a more powerful amplifier than my existing one at 80W (my old NAD 302 was only 25W), and it sounded much more like the tone and delivery I was used to, and was a highly likeable product and one I would recommend. However given my new affection for the Arcam CD I also auditioned an Arcam A70. I have to say that the combination of Arcam CD73 and A70 Amplifier was nothing short of outstanding, it is detailed, warm, the timing and soundstage is great and it simply enjoys playing the music. However, once again Arcam were changing their top FMJ model so I picked up the older FMJ A32 for £700 marked down from £1200, and I feel I have a bargain item at this comparable price. For those interested the Arcam A70 is a lovely amplifier with many features and a great sounding headphone output too. Many also say this is better than the A90 which is higher priced, but if you can push the boat out then the FMJ A32 is excellent sound with all the features you need and a 100W output.

Speakers

Old - Cambridge Audio S30 (£120) New -  Epos M5 (£350 - bought for £250)

Also Auditioned – Mission M32i (£150), Monitor Audio Silver RS1 (£375)

This remains my biggest headache as I am limited both to bookshelf speakers and a cabinet depth of 28cm, and ones that can be placed close to a wall. This is the price to pay for having a young family. My budget Cambridge Audio S30’s just didn’t match the standard I wanted now, but at the price (£120) maybe I asked too much from them. I felt the system could produce much more body and tonal quality, but after stretching for the top end Arcam FMJ items my budget was pretty tight. I turned to some Epos M5’s which were very highly rated £350 bookshelf speakers which I managed to pick up for £250 (Epos have upgraded to the M5i and retailed them at £425 now). They were in fact even better than I expected and I was totally blown away by their real wood build a more open sound stage they provided, with firm and detailed bass, beautiful vocals and controlled treble. The great news is that these welcome being close to a wall and so meet my room requirements perfectly. That said, they are not the easiest to drive and with the Arcam A70 the bass is nicely controlled but wont necessarily be enough for everyone. However, adding in the more powerful FHM A32 completely changed this, bringing the bass much more into a solid definition, so the extra power was really noticeable here. The Monitor Audio RS1 were similar to the Epos but i found Epos to have more clarity and a faster pace to them and so were preferred, although i would recommend either with the FMJ amplifier, but maybe the RS1 with the A70 amplfier. Following my upgrade to the Arcam FMJ amplifier, I still remain attracted to looking for an even higher grade speaker, and to my wife’s dismay this will remain my ongoing project. The Spendor SA1 (£1,100) and Tannoy Signature DC6 (£800) are new releases that have both caught my eye, although the price is over my budget at the moment, so sadly will have to wait.

Cables

Old - Gale X315 Speaker cable (£2pm) & Cambridge Arctic Interconnect (£20)  New - Chord Silverscreen cable (£6pm) & Van Den Hul ‘Name’ Interconnect (£40)

Also Auditioned – QED Silver Anniversary XT (£5 per metre)

This is a disputed area as to whether cables actually can make any real difference at all. Well I can easily confirm that the speaker cables at least certainly do. My original cables were Gale X315 copper at around £2 per metre. Everyone seemed to recommended QED Silver Anniversary XT cables which were a 2007 product of the year and are a mix of silver and copper combined. The extra clarity and detail they brought to my system was surprising. However on extended listening the combination of Epos speakers and the cable just seemed to overdo the sharpness of the treble at times and under perform on the bass. Chord have now produced a new copper based cable called Silverscreen. I bought some to try and it never went back, this cable is outstanding and it drew everything together to produce a better overall sonic tone and quality. It worked perfectly with Arcam and is generally warm and smooth in style and at £6 a metre I would say is simply superb value. In comparative terms, the interconnect upgrade seemed to change much less, I topped off the connections with a new and decent interconnect called Van Den Hul ‘The Name’, but my highest recommendation on cabling has to be to get the right speaker cable, it can really make or break the sound of a system.

Summary

Hi-fi as a hobby is great fun, but can also be extremely dangerous for your wallet. If you are not careful you will embed a new product only to be immediately tempted into something new on the market, or maybe the next level up on the brand product chain you already have. I have found that your old gear often has a decent market value on the likes of ebay so the upgrade cost is often much more affordable than it first seems. All my old item sold well.

Looking back on the last few months, you should definitely plan your purchasing route, audition products if you can and narrow your search before you seriously consider buying. If you find a brand you like then this is a great starting point. Personally I do like to match the CD and amplifier to ensure both sonic and visual compatibility, but this isn’t essential, but you will need to match carefully and this information is not always readily available. There are real bargains out there, second hand higher quality items may well be a better bet than a new lower budget item, but there is of course a risk here on the item condition. My own chosen route was to buy products that were just about to be replaced by a new improved version. I can live without the newest upgrade but I still bought new boxed items just at a much lower price than it was few weeks ago. It works for me but you have to be very lucky on the timing and availability and strike at the right moment. My personal favourite separates at the budget end (£100-£400 per item) are still NAD with Marantz a good alternative. In the mid range bracket (£400 to £750 per item) Arcam or Roksan Kandy. The higher bracket (£750+) is very competitive with many I haven’t even tried but Naim, Primare and Cyrus would spring to mind as magazine recommendations and worth trying out alongside my own Arcam choice. For those on a tighter budget reasons the Arcam Diva series CD73 and A70 is really great value at the moment and you can pick them up for around £350 each now which is close to budget NAD’s and Cambridge Audio, which is an amazing bargain. The FMJ range though is much better and should be too for the price, but it is really well worth the extra money if you want an outstanding hi-fi sound.

Second System

CD / Amplifier / DAB Radio - Onkyo CS 515 (£220), Speakers - Tangent Evo (£80), Headphone Amlifier - Little Dot Mk III (£100), Cables - Cambridge Arctic Interconnect (£20)

My second system is an all in one box system called Onkyo CS 515, which was 2007 product of the year in What Hi-Fi and has a superb mellow tone and sound which is perfect for a large bedroom. It is neat and compact so doesnt take up much space on the bedside stand. The Tangent speakers are excellent for the cost with a gloss style covering which comes in a number of neat colours. I have the white ones but the red one look excellent too. The overall sound is very sweet, perfect to chill out to, but given the speaker size you cant expect it to be over bassy. However, it did need a better headphone socket so an upgrade through a dedicated small amplifier was required and after some research I settled on one called ‘Little Dot Mk III’. I really doubt anyone much will have heard of this as it is not a big brand name, but it is a tube based amplifier which has a great internet following. It has a warm and smooth valve based amplifier sound but most importantly the soundstage is amazingly large and really lifts the ability of the Sennheiser headphones. Interestingly the valves are changeable, known as tube rolling and this can be really fun as a hobby for tweaking the best sound. I just like the whole idea, and given the cost of the Little Dot is way less than half that a big Uk based brand name I was delighted to find out about it.

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