# The most pleasant audio system you can remember, ever ?

#### Externet

Joined Nov 29, 2005
1,706
Hi.
Asking for opinions, experiences, on which where the stereo equipment components that impressed you the most with vivid, pleasant, fidel sound reproduction of your entire life.
You can add details of source media, composition, ambient where heard, loudness at which enjoyed, artist, did that experience influence to obtain your current system ?

Just that old image added for no reason...

#### eetech00

Joined Jun 8, 2013
2,644
Back in the day I used to have a JVC CD4 discrete 4channel 800W sound system. Doobie Brothers sounded awesome! I still have a few CD4 albums. Loved that system!

#### Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
17,245

#### DNA Robotics

Joined Jun 13, 2014
614
I had a 1965 Pontiac Bonneville that came with an aftermarket reverb. When I had music playing and hit a hard bump, it went Boioioing. I don’t know why, but it made me happy.

#### KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
2,034
The most pleasant audio memory I can think of is when I built by first stereo amplifier in the early 60s. It was an "ultralinear" tube amplifier built from a circuit from an old "Wireless World" magazine. The speakers were just some fairly decent 8" ones that I had built into infinite baffle cabinets with ceramic tweeters connected directly in parallel with the speakers.
To try the system out, I connected it to my autochange record player and put on an LP of the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. It was the first time I had ever heard music played in stereo. It blew me away! To me it was just like being in front of the live orchestra. I couldn't get over fact that I could close my eyes and tell where each of the instruments was being played.
That doesn't help you very much with recommendations of audio components, but to me, it is the most vivid audio memory I possess.
Regards,
Keith

#### sparky 1

Joined Nov 3, 2018
608
A live concert most pleasant
wave of green wave of blue

#### crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
28,170
I now have a pair of Hsu HB-1 MK2 speakers, along with a run-of-the-mill 10" sub next to my desktop computer, which have the best sound of any speakers I've had.
Of course part of that is, they have a horn tweeter, which I think helps my old ears hear more of the highs.

But to get good sound you need a good amplifier to power them, not some $50 units from Ebay or Amazon. #### Tonyr1084 Joined Sep 24, 2015 6,452 GOSH! Mine was an old Magnavox. Had two HUGE transformers and lots of vacuum tubes. That thing had sound cleaner than pure water. Wouldn't mind going back in time to collect some of those old amps. Some of the crispest cleanest sound I've ever listened to. Couple them with today's speakers and I think you'd have a system that would bring tears to your eyes ever time you listen to "Lucky Man" (ELP) or "Let It Rain". (Clapton) #### Audioguru again Joined Oct 21, 2019 3,833 In 1965 (55 years ago!) I liked the sound from Acoustic Research AR3A speakers but they were too expensive for me. I noticed that their AR4X speakers sounded similar but were smaller and much less expensive so I bought them along with my first solid state receiver by H H Scott. Then I sold my home-made Jensen speakers, Heathkit tubes amplifier and Eico kit tubes FM tuner with MPX adapter to an old geezer who liked old junk. About 30 years ago I went to an audio equipment show and they were playing excellent sounds from some Bose huge speakers. Then two pretty young ladies took off the fake huge covers on much smaller real speakers. I got goose bumps on me and my eyes watered because I could not see a sub-woofer anywhere so these little speakers were doing it. Later it was said that they hid sub-woofers there. #### peterdeco Joined Oct 8, 2019 413 In the 80's I had a Fosgate 100W RMS in my car with Jensen coaxial 6x9's. Home I had Van Alstein 500W RMS amp, Cerwin Vega speakers. Then I spent at least 3 days a week at the shooting range without hearing protection. I now have tinnitus in both ears. Any connection? Last edited: #### Audioguru again Joined Oct 21, 2019 3,833 Guns, loud music and old age destroy hearing. I noticed that my hearing was missing high frequencies when I was about 65 years old which is normal according to this graph of hearing loss vs age: #### Attachments • 92.8 KB Views: 12 #### schmitt trigger Joined Jul 12, 2010 473 The best sounding system was when I built a bi-amped speaker, utilizing some amplifier modules from the British company ILP. I heard mostly rock music, but some was very melodical. I also vouch for Tony's suggestion about Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Lucky Man." #### peterdeco Joined Oct 8, 2019 413 Well, that's not fair. Why do men lose hearing more than women? #### KeithWalker Joined Jul 10, 2017 2,034 Well, that's not fair. Why do men lose hearing more than women? BECAUSE WOMEN TALK MORE THAN MEN? #### peterdeco Joined Oct 8, 2019 413 Gotta take the wife to the shooting range. #### SamR Joined Mar 19, 2019 3,607 I spent most of my Saturdays hunting doves in the fall and ducks during the winter for many years. Cases and cases of 12Ga shell without any hearing protection. That and a few very painfully loud concerts. And my hearing has paid the price. I couldn't tell good audio from bad. I hear nothing above 10kHz at best. #### Audioguru again Joined Oct 21, 2019 3,833 Guys shoot more than gals. Guys work at noisy jobs more than gals. #### Deleted member 115935 Joined Dec 31, 1969 0 best sound system is a live performance. Best electronic one ? Well for wow factor, the Pink Floyd concerts of the 80's. For sonic beauty, Quad ELS63s, powered off Quad 303s in a BBC sound studio, direct feed off a crossed pair in the royal albert hall. You could place the orchestra across the complete sound stage, #### Berzerker Joined Jul 29, 2018 621 Bought an pioneer 500 watt from a friend at work for$250 in the early 90's. It came with 5 speakers and felt like it was moving the house when cranked up. Still own it.
Ahhhh! the good old days. When a watt was a watt.
Brzrkr

#### KeepItSimpleStupid

Joined Mar 4, 2014
5,090
My amp. A version of the leach Amp. A low TIM amp. Search for the Leach AMP. Unrolled off the frequency response id 0 to 0.8 MHz. Very nice. Slew rate > 100 V/us. 100 W/ch.

99% metal film resistors. Ground plane construction. Will survive switchig the NPN and PNP output transistors. Laoarithmic ramping of volume, slow-start, fast turn-off.

Wrong sized power supplies (my doing), but with 40,000 uF of capacitance total and a 120 VAC regulator. +-50V DC rails at 3A each with a custom toroidal xformer, 70V CT x 2. Amp had more bass when I used an 18A constant voltage Transformer.

I fixed amplifiers and heard at least one amp choke on my system when the 4bx did it's derivative thing,

With a bunch of rack mounted stuff from Technics Professional. The FM tuner goes out to 18 kHz and I have two signal processors. The dbx 4bx a dynamic range expander with impact restoration and Carver's TX1-11 Asymetric Charged-Coupled Decoder for FM. The tuner of the series is ST-9030. Hiss goes completely away.

I have the parametric EQ and the pre-amp of the series too. freq response from 0 to 100 kHz, MM and MC phono inputs. Like the MC sound.

Pink Floyd and Hammer Dulcimer.

Compared against a Macintosh tube amp with Voice of the Theater Speakers with horns. Pretty favorable bass was better on the Leach. The horns sounded better with the tube amp.

Best sounding headphones were Stax Earspeakers. Never owed a pair, but would like to. I have run of the milll 100W 10" woofers and 30W dome tweeters. I've heard Magneplaner electrostic speakers. They were awesome.

I have a direct drive Technics RS-B100 cassette deck that can be nuts with dbx noise reduction.

Semi-automatic direct drive turntable Technics SL-1700 with a MC cartridge.