Amplifier Experts?

[911MRP]

The amp my Dad built for me age 18 was based on a Lindsey Hood design and he built a pair of LS3a design as a nice set up when moving away as a freshman student. Unfortunately was stolen in a break-in. Didn't care about other stolen stuff All rest nsured but sadly he was too unwell to build a replacement. Maybe not the last word but nice for a teen so to me irreplacible

Maybe time to dig out the old Radford stuff -- since reading the Keith's post have looked into it and surprised at the vintage following /price for the brand. Suppose it is like classic cars just not followed it.

Regarding vinyl. For decades I was allowed on pain of death to use my dad's expensive turntable and arm -- never damaged it on decades even starting as a young teen. My mum gave deck to my teen son an in less than a day he bust it !!!

[neilbardsley]

One limiting factor is power. I'm a bit scared of mains power and all that transformer stuff. Relying on power brick technology isn't all that good (ok though). Maybe one day.

Stupid question but my amp is American (I bought when I lived in the US). It has a 240v to 110v converter infront of it. Will that have any impact?

[911MRP]

Not sure about that but I'd certainly check for tons of bondo in the the sheet metal case cover if it is vantage American amp

[Ashley James]

Aether Radford’s valve amplifiers and preamplifiers of the day were excellent as were his distortion analysers. Sadly they never sold well at the time except to Reditune who supplied ghastly music and audio systems to Supermarkets.

For some years his old company’s chief engineer’s company made my old company’s products. He also designed and built stuff for Woodside that some of you might have heard of.

[Ashley James]

One limiting factor is power. I'm a bit scared of mains power and all that transformer stuff. Relying on power brick technology isn't all that good (ok though). Maybe one day.

Stupid question but my amp is American (I bought when I lived in the US). It has a 240v to 110v converter infront of it. Will that have any impact?

It’ll work fine if the transformer might be a little noisier cos one of us is 50 cycles and the other 60.

[mycar]

I'm a bit of a hifi hobbyist, although I don't know much!

I've got loads of kit in my house. I've got a bit of a full-on setup in the AV room with Naim amps and B&W floor standers. It's got a Linn LP-12 record player and I had a CD-12 CD player, then that went for a Linn Klimax DS.
I've got a lesser Linn DS and B&W setup in the dining room.

I've got an early set of MP3 streamers from Slim Devices (I even met Sean Adams the founder in their warehouse unit in Mountain View) in the early 2000s. There is a variety of amps and speakers including a pair of O level woodwork speakers in the garage. The SLIMP3s are slowly dying over time. I wish I knew enough about electronics to fix them!

And I just love it all. Could I blind-test work out what was what and tell the difference? Dunno. Certainly the B&W 802s will be distinguishable from the Anthony Gallo satellite speakers in the kitchen.

Then I started my DIY projects trying stuff for fun. I wanted to get digital audio out of a Raspberry pi one Christmas. So bought some stuff from HK to do an I2S DAC job. Was interesting, but good. Then I got a Class D amp kit which cost about £8 from China. It's known as the Chinese Takeaway amp as it's housed in a plastic takeaway box. I've moved on to the Hifiberry DACs now with the pi as they work really well. So MP3s through a pi+Dac with the £8 amp to some old Technics cheap speakers in my study raises the hairs on my arms it sounds so good!

I also moved the super expensive Linn DS on from my AV room system and use a pi with hifiberry DAC playing lossless files. Sounds brilliant too.

The pic above is a class A amp (the "Amp Camp Amp"), another xmas project. Not finished yet, so no idea how that'll sound.

I've got the hardware kit (drive units, crossover components etc) for some speakers - Jeff Bagby's Continuum design, being an homage to the Rogers BBC Monitors. They are next.

I've got all the hardware for a "boombox mini". One day I'll build a valve amp too.

It's all a bit hit and miss and fun. I don't know enough to design anything, but I'm enjoying other people's designs. One limiting factor is power. I'm a bit scared of mains power and all that transformer stuff. Relying on power brick technology isn't all that good (ok though). Maybe one day.

Sorry for the ramble. And the great thing is I love the music as well as the technology.

Graham
And no they haven't got zips, what kind of person do you take me for!

I remember you enjoy the hi-fi tinkering Graham... as well as sporting some serious kit. Do you have any memorable moments with music delivery ? Any particular setup that blew you away ?

[911MRP]

Yes think my old dad probably had Woodside on speed dial. For while I lived in Bristol which pleased him enormously seem to remember Radford were there and even had a place near where I lived so he could get bits to tinker with in pre internet days

Also used to get stuff from a place in Cheshire to upgrade and tweak internals think it was named after one of the footballer wive towns but don't recall.

Edit Winslow Audio iirc ...remember having to pick something's up from there .

[gridgway]

Interesting...
https://www.radfordrevival.co.uk/sta-re ... ies-5-sta/

[gridgway]

I remember you enjoy the hi-fi tinkering Graham... as well as sporting some serious kit. Do you have any memorable moments with music delivery ? Any particular setup that blew you away ?

That's really hard to say as I seem to enjoy loads of niches! I get a big kick out of 70s/80s reggae on vinyl, like Aswad Live and Direct or Handsworth Revolution from Steel Pulse. There's no rhyme or reason really! Just sounds great on my 'big' system. Then it all sounds great, so no discernment really. New World Symphony in lossless from the Pi on the big system works. "So" from Peter Gabriel on the kitchen SLIMP3 (ripped from an autographed CD I'll have you know). So nothing to really with what sounds better than what!

So, here's one...back in the day before I could really afford hifi (in the early 90s), I listened to an A class amp in London somewhere, the Musical Fidelity A1. It just blew me away. No idea of the rest of the setup. Couldn't afford it though. So I've just been looking and even though they made around 100,000 units they are quite hard to find for sale today.
Graham

[neilbardsley]

Well I decided to open the box and found 20 years of dust. Henry and a brush helped me clean it. Now both channels are working on the pure feed but not the adjustment. Might have another go next week. Could be the switches.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

[Ashley James]

It’s absolutely astonishing what you get for the money. This thing has everything for £229 including speakers. Yamaha are one of the worlds largest Manufacturers of very large integrated circuits.

Yamaha MusicCast CRXN470D Compact Audio System with Built in Wifi, Airplay & Bluetooth -... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01K7KQX0I/ ... tai_94bvCb...

I do think it’s wiser to buy new than resurrect something way past it’s sell by date. Ten years is a very good life for electronics and after that most become increasingly unreliable. You may be lucky, but...

[richkaz]

Anyone bought expensive HiFi cables recently ?

MONSTER CABLE V A COAT HANGER

https://gizmodo.com/audiophile-deathmat ... ger-363154

[mycar]

I remember you enjoy the hi-fi tinkering Graham... as well as sporting some serious kit. Do you have any memorable moments with music delivery ? Any particular setup that blew you away ?

That's really hard to say as I seem to enjoy loads of niches! I get a big kick out of 70s/80s reggae on vinyl, like Aswad Live and Direct or Handsworth Revolution from Steel Pulse. There's no rhyme or reason really! Just sounds great on my 'big' system. Then it all sounds great, so no discernment really. New World Symphony in lossless from the Pi on the big system works. "So" from Peter Gabriel on the kitchen SLIMP3 (ripped from an autographed CD I'll have you know). So nothing to really with what sounds better than what!

So, here's one...back in the day before I could really afford hifi (in the early 90s), I listened to an A class amp in London somewhere, the Musical Fidelity A1. It just blew me away. No idea of the rest of the setup. Couldn't afford it though. So I've just been looking and even though they made around 100,000 units they are quite hard to find for sale today.
Graham

Maybe everyone who's ever spent a load of dough on hi-fi has had that moment... the Cor Blimey moment when you cannot believe how good music can sound. I remember it well, Solid Air through a Radford valve amp and home made transmission line speakers made of clay by a potter friend of mine !! Totally incredible and life changing.

You then spend the next 30/40 years (and many pounds) trying to get back to that fleeting moment of unsurpassed joy.

And never quite making it.

[911MRP]

Agree.

From comments it probably apparent my old dad was into sound quality.

A neighbour of his who retired spent a fortune buying latest expensive best buy equipment came to listen. Was disappointed in his recent purchases by comparison. Threw more money at it still same result. Sometimes things from a certain era are just right and hard to better in the way it just works well. Modern while undeniably progress not always giving a certain satisfaction.

For example Radford amp and his transmission line speakers stand up well. Maybe not to eyes but to ears.

Rather like our classic old Porsche there are newer, faster more reliable things since but I wouldn't trade my model 73 911 for any of them frankly.

Watches of certain vintages vintages are like that too.

[gridgway]

For me, I can safely dodge the audiophile-can-you-tell-the-difference debate as pretty much every setup I have does the trick for me. Mind you I wouldn't have got the big setup if I'd not been in the trade for a period!
Graham