Hi-Fi

Hi-Fi Introduction

Over the last year or so, relaxing in the evening and listening to Hi-Fi music has become my favourite passtime at the end of the day. I have always loved music, but after a decade of only listening to music occasionally on headphones due to a young family, I am now delighted to have invested in a good quality system and set aside a special area to dedicated to listening. Hi-Fi specialist brands has now also become a real interest as i built my current system upgrading from 10 year old NAD separates (which remain my highest recommendation at the budget end of the market). My new system is classed as mid range and has been put together as follows :-

CD Player

Previous - NAD C 320 (£120) / Arcam CD 73 (£350)  New -  Arcam FMJ CD36 (£1400 - bought for £700) 

The source CD is for me an important items in any system, as an amplifier and speakers can only really work with the detail they are given. So selection here is a key starting point. I listened to a few budget end products up to £650 from Marantz, Cambridge Audio, Roksan Kandy and Arcam before originally settling on the Arcam CD73. This is a beautifully made player and it sounded a much higher quality than all the other makes i tried. It looks superb with a neat green matrix display and with a slightly warmer and more natural sound than all the others. I kept this for a few months but then a bargain offer of the Arcam’s flagship FMJ range came up called the FMJ CD36 player. Previously retailing at £1400, the anticipation of the new CD37 stripped 50% of the price for a very short time which i had to snap up (to my wife’s dismay). It is a truly outstanding player, and its performance has more body and detail than anything else I have ever tried. It was simply a matter of the perfect time to buy. Apart from sounding smooth and full bodied, it looks great and also has a CD text option too. Its 2008 replacement is the CD37 which has won Hi-Choice CD player of the year gold award and also has SACD specific playback. I am delighted with this brand and the quality of its build.

Arcam FMJ CD36

Amplifier

Previous - NAD C302 (£120) / Arcam A70 (£300) New -  Arcam FMJ A32 (£1200 - bought for £700)

The amplifier is the broadcaster or the presenter of the music, able to add warmth or brightness and pronounce its mark on certain musical aspects such as midrange, treble or bass. Again I tried a number of brands such as Cambridge Audio, NAD and Marantz and for a while used a lovely NAD C320 which whilst at the budget end of the market is a great amplifier. However new affection for an Arcam CD73 player led me to the A70 Amplifier as i do like things to match well both in terms of specification but visually too. The upgrade was good becoming more detailed, warm and the timing and soundstage was great, although a tad bass light. However, once i upgraded the CD player i soon took another of Arcam’s FMJ model, the FMJ A32 amplifier new again marked down for a short time. This is a much more powerful amplifier at 105W per channel and is nothing short of excellent in sound presentation and detail and is packed with all the features you could need including a good headphone socket and even has digital tone controls if you want them. The sound improvement at this level of cost is quite significant with added bass, punch and detail. Matched up with the CD36 it is an amazingly good Hi-Fi, and was generally well regarded by the magazine reviewers. Again its 2008 replacement the FMJ A38 won the best amplifier gold award from Hi-Fi Choice and is well worth trying out.

Arcam FMJ A32

Speakers

Previous - Cambridge Audio S30 (£120) / Epos M5 (£350)  New -  Neat Motive 3 (£700)

I have upgraded my speakers in stages too as my system upgraded, but also as a result of moving to a dedicated listening area which enabled me to use proper Soundstyle Z2 speaker stands, which are a vast improvement over shelves. My original budget Cambridge Audio S30’s were ok but a little muddy to listen to and the move to some Epos M5’s for £250 were in fact even better than I expected with a more open sound stage and beautiful vocals and mid-range presentation. This was probably my first introduction to a really decent speaker. I went through a number of demo’s including Proac, PMC and Spendor to find a perfect speaker match for the Arcam FMJ and finally settled on some Neat Motive 3 speakers which has the smoothest of vocals i could find at this price point. The presentation of the overall soundstage was one of the best, and the bass is superb being both punchy and clear and real depth for such a small speaker. The cabinet came in natural oak which pleased my wife. This was a star performer, recommended highly my What Hi-Fi and it finally rounded off and completed my search for the right system. The other speaker make that really impressed me was the PMC DB1i and i would have no hesitation in recommending either model.

Neat Motive 3

Once these 3 key separates are in place you would think that the searching and improvement is over, but this is far from the truth as cables, interconnects and stands can all add or sometimes hinder the overall experience.

Cables

Previous - Chord Epic Super Twin Bi-wire cable (£300) & Van Den Hul ‘D-102 III’ interconnect (£50) New - Kimber 4TC cable with jumper leads (£300) & Kimber Silver Streak interconnect (£185)

I have recently gained great success in switching my cables from Chord Epic Twin bi-wire cable to Kimber 4TC single cables with jumper cables between the binding posts. Well not only is this more open and vibrant but if you want to hear what your mid range system is capable of then this speaker cable is certainly worth an upgrade. It is incredable what the combination of extra quality cable can do, and the system really started to sing and show its ability.

In comparative terms, the interconnect upgrade seemed to be a less dramatic change but i now realise the Van Den Hul had a dampening effect on the treble and the Silver Streak is much more open and sparkles more. Worthwhile but not as good a change as the speaker cable.

I have also started to follow the Russ Andrews upgrade path and replaced my mains cables to their powerkord range which are quite remarkable taking away much of the distortion from my city mains supply and letting my sytem breathe. Overall this has given me a dramatic improvement such that any thoughts of replacing the hardward CD and Amplifier have now long faded away.

Headphones

I still like to listen on headphones from time to time and have had my Sennheiser HD595 phones for a number of years now. A dedicated headphone amplifier is always recommended so i upgraded after some research to one 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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