Nightwisher's Systems In "Luxman's Room" And Beyond: Some New And Lots of Vintage

You've got a lot of great gear man. It makes me want to pull my finger out and start actually building one proper system rather than going out half-assed.
Well, if it makes you feel any better the actual money is in the main living room system. Everything else together cost much less than that system and virtually everything not in the main system can be sold for more than I paid for it. That fact can and does help pay for the main system.
 
Worked on refoaming speakers for a few hours this weekend. In about 3 hours my dad and I got 6 woofers reformed between the Acoustic Research AR94Rs and Cerwin-Vega D1s. Tested out the AR94Rs and they sound sweet. Initial impressions had me thinking they sound better than my Monitor 10s but I need to do an actual comparison. Need to get the socks cleaned up and maybe get some custom tops done to complete the AR94s (they look really ugly without those socks). Haven't listened to the D1s since the refoam yet (Not enough time).

I also switched amps around. My Nakamichi PA-5 doesn't make any noise at the house but lots of noise in the apartment, so I'll use that in the house as I've tried every feasible option to solve the noise issue (and I love the Toshiba I'm using). For now, the Audiosource Amp 200 is powering things at the house. It sounds very nice; not cheap or weak sounding in the slightest. And those speakers aren't easy to drive (I've seen mentions that the AR94Rs can dip as low as 2.5 ohms).

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I switched around a couple things in the main system. I felt like using my Akai CD-A7 as the CD player, so that's in and the NEC is out for now. I put my Onkyo Integra tape deck in the stand for now but it sticks out a bit too far for my liking, so I need to think about where else it could go besides being unhooked until I use it.

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Some more CD player shuffling around. I found my Akai CD-A7 was difficult to live with as it would skip on all but the most perfect discs (it would even skip on some new discs). That's unfortunate because it's the most musical of all my CD players.

I replaced it with a JVC XL-Z331 which sounds good on its own, but I'm using it as a transport to my DAC with its digital output. As with my other JVCs, it'll play even my worst discs just fine and has a great display.

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The dining room system got a big upgrade. I found a Nikko NA-2000 Integrated Amplifier to replace my Pioneer SX-303r that got sold a couple weeks ago. This thing sounds awesome! It really woke my EPIs up; so much so that I took them off the chopping block for now.

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How do those Nakamichi speakers sound?
Initial impressions are that they don't live up to their namesake. The cone tweeter had a harsh edge as they tend to, but better than others I've heard.

Tomorrow I'm going to put them on some stands and give them a fair shake, but I don't think they're going to impress me like the Paradigm Atoms did.
 
I did some comparing today.

The Nakamichi S-1s are disappointing, even setup properly. They're bright, harsh, and lacking in bass. Less and less fun the more I listened. Of course, Nakamichi isn't a speaker company so in that way this is not surprising.

The Pardigm Atoms are a class act. Smooth highs, surprisingly good bass and detailed sound.

The Cerwin-Vega D1s were also disappointing. They were bright and lacking in bass (for an 8" woofer) as well. I've heard great things about this series, so that was a shock. They look nice though.

The Polk Monitor 10Bs stayed on the A channel the whole time as a reference. Those are, of course, a class act.

The Paradigms and Monitor 10s outclass everything else (the AR94s I tested earlier got slightly outclassed by the Monitor 10s, but were still very impressive). Those 3 will stay. The Nakamichis and Cerwin-Vegas likely won't.

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Really liked my Imperial 5G's back in the day. I still have them, they're gonna get frankenspeakered.
 
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New toys

Pioneer SX-535 looks and works perfectly (besides a couple bulbs out)
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The Fisher 200, needs DeOxit and some external cleaning but works
I talked to a guy in the store when I found it who is also a collector in the area (mainly ADS/Braun stuff). So that's 2 I've met thus far and just in this week.
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And some new projects

Philips PHL 2931, surprisingly heavy and sound great. Can't find much of anything for info on these.
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Acoustic Research TSW 410, a bit rough but sound excellent as ARs do
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Some updates.

Picked up a pair of Sapphire SBS speakers and put them in the computer system. Best sounding pair of bookshelf speakers I've ever had. That tweeter is something (which is what they built the company off of). It's also blue, which is cool.

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Changed some things around in the other systems. My Luxman CD player is now in the dining room system. And my Toshiba CD changer and Onkyo Integra tape deck are now in the main system (along with some new speaker top ornaments).

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I'm proposing a new project: you really should assemble yourself an inexpensive Raspberry Pi based digital playback system. I ditched spinning shiny discs years ago and thoroughly enjoy the benefits of selecting anything from my digital library in seconds - across multiple systems and controlled by smartphone or tablet. I'm a 60 year old boomer, but get what Millennials introduced with iTunes. Albeit I go the other way in terms of resolution with ripped CDs and many higher resolution downloads. And you can also play your choice of streaming service like Spotify, Tidal, etc. I use Tidal HiFi. Mix playing tracks from the cloud and yours.

I used a Sony 300 disc changer years ago which provided some convenience, but you're still waiting for physical media to be ferried about like a 50s jukebox.
 
I'm proposing a new project: you really should assemble yourself an inexpensive Raspberry Pi based digital playback system. I ditched spinning shiny discs years ago and thoroughly enjoy the benefits of selecting anything from my digital library in seconds - across multiple systems and controlled by smartphone or tablet. I'm a 60 year old boomer, but get what Millennials introduced with iTunes. Albeit I go the other way in terms of resolution with ripped CDs and many higher resolution downloads. And you can also play your choice of streaming service like Spotify, Tidal, etc. I use Tidal HiFi. Mix playing tracks from the cloud and yours.

I used a Sony 300 disc changer years ago which provided some convenience, but you're still waiting for physical media to be ferried about like a 50s jukebox.
Already doing that with this beast that I built 3 years ago. Connected via optical to the DAC (it's just around the corner in my bedroom) :thumbsup: I virtually only listen to CDs before they're ripped, otherwise the majority of my listening comes from my PC library (which includes the CDs, downloads, and digitized records and tapes) and streaming services.

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Already doing that with this beast that I built 3 years ago. Connected via optical to the DAC (it's just around the corner in my bedroom)
Just a suggestion: use the Cray Supercomputer for music library storage, but not as player. Way too much RFI noise and Toslink inherently has very high levels of jitter. Get a compact endpoint connected via ethernet (or WiFi if necessary) to server and S/PDIF, BNC or USB to DAC for playback - isolated from the server. Rip your CD collection and retire the players.

I got tired of shuffling discs around and making CDR copies. I can access any content throughout the house via microRendu player upstairs, Raspberry Pi in garage, main server in office, HT based Oppo 103 in living room, Roku player in bedroom and with the iPeng app, anywhere with my iPhone or iPads (which also serve as remotes).
 
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Here's the RPi used in the garage-here you want a computer with a small RFI footprint (quad core ARM10) in the listening space driven by a linear power supply connected via BNC. It also employs a 600 MB buffer so that playback is essentially from memory:

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Better exists (like the uRendu in the main system), but this is a phenomenally cost effective platform!
 
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