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If you had to get rid of it all, except 6 pieces of gear- what would they be?

restorer-john

restorer-john

Addicted Member
Firstly, why 6 you may ask? Well, I want you to have at least three sources, a pre/power and a pair of speakers. You can play with the mix any way you want- but don't cheat.

A speaker pair counts as 1
Monoblock amp pairs count as 1
An integrated counts as 1
A pre/power counts as 2
A CD player counts as 1
A transport/D/A Converter counts as 2

You get the picture...

Everything else you own right now, is taken away, FOREVER. You take your curated 6 pieces and NEVER get another piece of HiFi again.
This is it.
End game.
Desert Island stuff.
Assume you can have as much media in whatever form you want (CD/Vinyl/Tape/NAS server/PC etc)

Gear selected from what you already own- no wish list stuff ok? WAF is not a consideration so they can be ugly, non-matching or scratched up- who cares!
 
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speakers, preamp, power amp, headphones and DAC from signature plus laptop (bye-bye sub and headphone amp)


hope the desert island has corners

Really should have a tuner, though. Hurricane warnings and such. Might swap my Sony XDR-F1HD for - no, it's small, I'll simply smuggle it in, too. Need at least two sources for a bit of backup. I'll swear it's just a clock.

If the laptop doesn't count, then I'll bring the sub, too. (Still smuggle in the, uh, clock, though.)
 
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A simple enough exercise for a country pig, because aside from an extra turntable or two this is all the audio I own.

JBL 4365 speakers
Musical Fidelity Nu Vista M3 integrated amp
Liberty B2B-1 phono stage
Audio Magic Kukama DAC
Mac Mini with Pure Music playback software
Galibier Audio Serac/Riggle String Theory arm/ZYX 4D cartridge

Now that is the six audio components. The one last piece that is not included in the list is the PS Audio P10 AC Regenerator. Provides quality AC to the system, and is a fairly significant investment for a poor pig.

I have two other turntables here, a Marc Morin AR XA, and a Technics SP 10 MK II in a base (no permanent arm picked out). And that is all the hi fi I own of any consequence.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
I'd swap some things around, but I'd keep:

Technics SL-23 with an AT12Sa
Panasonic DMP-BD87 (that also plays FLAC files)
Kenwood KR-V990D Receiver
Crown X1000 Power Amp
DIY Eton 8.1 Speakers
NHT 2.5i Sprakers for exciting stuff

Of course, if I were actually on the way to that desert island, I'd replace the Kenwood with some sort of DAV/Pre.
 
restorer-john said:
Firstly, why 6 you may ask? Well, I want you to have at least three sources, a pre/power and a pair of speakers. You can play with the mix any way you want- but don't cheat.

A speaker pair counts as 1
Monoblock amp pairs count as 1
An integrated counts as 1
A pre/power counts as 2
A CD player counts as 1
A transport/D/A Converter counts as 2

You get the picture...

Everything else you own right now, is taken away, FOREVER. You take your curated 6 pieces and NEVER get another piece of HiFi again.
This is it.
End game.
Desert Island stuff.
Assume you can have as much media in whatever form you want (CD/Vinyl/Tape/NAS server/PC etc)

Gear selected from what you already own- no wish list stuff ok? WAF is not a consideration so they can be ugly, non-matching or scratched up- who cares!
Click to expand...
Sansui 8080
Technics SL-D2
Cerwin Vega MX400 (2) MX250 (2)
Teac 3440A
 
JBL 250 Ti
SOTA Star Sapphire, SME Series V Arm, Sumiko Blackbird
McIntosh C100 Preamp
McIntosh C501 Mono Blocks
McIntosh D100 Digital Preamp, for it's DAC
27" iMac
 
restorer-john said:
You take your curated 6 pieces and NEVER get another piece of HiFi again.
This is it.
End game.
Desert Island stuff.
Click to expand...

Not worth the bother. I don't have even one extra stylus on hand, and even if I could fit a couple into the 6-piece limit, it would just be a tease. Once the stylus is worn out, the rest of the system is worthless, so I might as well get used to doing without music now.
 
Why the bias against separates?

If an integrated amp counts as one, so should a pre/power combo. But monoblocks skate? Double standard. I'm calling for an AK investigation into this alleged discrimination.

Does a receiver count as one, also? I'll buy a MAC6700 for my island, but it's a hefty price for such an arbitrary rule.

Fight the Power!!!
 
restorer-john said:
Firstly, why 6 you may ask? Well, I want you to have at least three sources, a pre/power and a pair of speakers. You can play with the mix any way you want- but don't cheat.

A speaker pair counts as 1
Monoblock amp pairs count as 1
An integrated counts as 1
A pre/power counts as 2
A CD player counts as 1
A transport/D/A Converter counts as 2
Click to expand...

This seems a bit convoluted, with seemingly arbitrary distinctions between different gear and what counts as what. A CD player with a built-in DAC would only count as 1, but a CD player using an external DAC would count as 3? Why does a preamp and power-amp combo count as more than an integrated when they perform the same function? I use my PC for 99.9% of my music listening, and really don't need any other source. Not sure what my PC would count as.

I'd go with:
Creative X-Fi Titanium HD Soundcard (Computer; Main source)
Yamaha C-80 Preamp
2x Yamaha P2200/P2201 amps, Bridged.
JBL L150 Speakers
 
Epicure M1 Amplifier
Carver C-1 Preamp
Dual 1009 TT
Dual 606 TT
Bowers and Wilkins DM6 Speakers
FiiO K1 Dac for steaming Spotify
 
This is an interesting exercise for me. It turns out I'd keep the little office system instead of the daily driver living room system, except I'd swap turntables. This has also prompted me to realize that I don't have much of a wish list anymore, and I wouldn't regret the loss of it at all. It was a little bit of agony deciding between a tape deck or the extra pair of speakers, but I realized I rarely play the tapes anymore anyway. Hmm... it may be time for a purge. This may have been just the catalyst I needed.

Pioneer SX-3500 receiver
Pioneer SG-300 equalizer
Sony CDP-291 cd player
Kenwood KD-2070 turntable
Realistic Nova 10 (two pair)
 
I would limit myself to six as long as I was not alone on this deserted island and would have four or five other folks with me there with their six... Also what good is any of this on a deserted island unless you also have a solar power unit strong enough to run any of it?

My contribution to the group on the island would be:
CJ PV1
MC2205
Vandersteen 3A
AR (I would have to pick one) TT - running a MM, most likely my Shure V15 III w/upgraded stylus, since I can't afford to add the SUT
Sennheiser 598 (to not disturb the natives)
Tascam 900MK II CDP

I would choose other stuff but I limited it to what I actually own

Of course this leaves me no radio at all so maybe swap out the MC2205 - CJ PV 1 combo for my MAC1900?
 
Speakers - Yamaha NS-2000 w/SPS-2000 stands
Amplifier - Yamaha MX-10000
Preamp - Horn Shoppe The Truth
CDP - Yamaha CDX-10000
Turntable - Yamaha GT-2000 / YA-39 tonearm / Accuphase AC-6 cartridge
Phono Stage - Krell KPE Reference (blhagstrom)
 
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Pretty easy for me as spending over 20yrs in the Army has taught me to pack light, so I have minimal pieces of equipment at a time anyway.

Amp-Onkyo TX-nr1000
Transport-Oppo udp 203 (all in one transport)
Turntable -Ariston rd 40
Phono stage -Graham slee Acession
Speakers -Vandersteen 2ce signature's
Streaming -Chromecast for Tidal off the udp 203

Audiofreak71
 
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