A slight cheat here. Two pieces but bought at the same time and by hearing them with the Kan’s and the Basik.
These are the Arcam Alpha 8 amp and CD player. The CD player is now broken (17 years later) but the amp is still good.
That brings me right up to date….but another series will look at mobile music (cassette decks to portable hi fi to walkman to ipod).
Before that I intend to get into PDA’s I have owned over the years…
In 1997 these Linn Kan speakers replaced my beloved Bose 301 Mk1’s which had served me well for 20 years at that point.
The Kan’s have now been in service for 17 years. These two, Bose and Linn are the only model of speakers I have ever owned.
Only one more step in the history of my hifi then we are up to date.
Finally it was time to replace a 17 year old Sony Direct Drive turntable that was beginning to groan and also make rubbing sounds from the platter on the little playback head that regulated the speed… and replace it with a Linn Basik – belt drive little sister to the classic Linn Sondek (at about a fifth of the price of the Sondek).
Nearly there… only new speakers, amp and cd player to go and we will have finished this series…standby!
So then the JVC Cassette deck went terribly wrong and was replaced by a Yamaha K320 one.
So by now (late 80’s) my Marantz receiver had not only lost the tuner section, but the amp was beginning to fail… time for a new amp to go with my Bose 301’s , Sony record deck, JVC Cassette deck, Yamaha CD and tuner. In the UK NAD was a popular budget make but a little known secret was the Proton brand which was the NAD3020 design in a tougher case and arguably better power supply. So I got that and retired the Marantz.
Here is the Proton….
and here is another
and this is the back of the proton 520
So finally I succumbed to the lure of a CD player….and bought a Yamaha to go with my tuner. To start with I only had three CD’s – Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms, Roxy Music – Avalon and Steely Dan – Aja….not a bad start.
A Sony quartz locked, direct drive turntable which I fitted with a Grado F3E cartridge
At some point the tuner part of the Marantz receiver went a bit funny and I got this tuner from Yamaha…which looked silly on top of the Marantz.
I am trying to find a photo of my record deck at the time but without luck at the moment.
My first source for my hifi setup when i was 15 was the tuner in my marantz receiver, but then i got a JVC cassette deck…soon to follow was a record deck but I will leave that for another day. … Continue reading
My really great Sony headphones…
ideasandmethods 