The HiFi chat, build and modification thread!

[velofrog]

Re:

the PD95 has had an eventful life it seems!
should have taken a proper "before" shot, but you can just make out in the first pic that the bottom plate is all marked and scratched, what you can't see is that at some point the feet were glued on, and not very well!
i felt the player deserved a little tlc, so set to work.....
removed the feet, no mean feat as it was some form of epoxy resin, stripped and cleaned them, and paint-stripped the base plate. as the the theme throughout the 95 is copper, i thought that might be nice colour for the repaint! duly painted, then lacquered, the feet were repainted and then re-attached with screws this time!
am pleased with the result, and my OCD is satisfied!

 

[clockworkgazz]

Re:

Top work looks brill mind and tell us what it sounds like when you get all your ducks in a row.

 

[velofrog]

Re:

the ducks are now in a row!!
the wee Albarry PP1 amp arrived, lid off, quick check over, and then polished the red perspex (as you do! )
whacked it in the rack and fired it up, outside for a half hour in the man-shed til it all warmed up, then back in for a wee listen......
absolutely gob-smacked!! :shock:
it's been a while in the world of hifi dabbling that i've had a smile this big!
the detail is amazing, the separation is superb, note decay, timing, it's all there, and then some!
i've been digging out disc after disc, trying tracks in know really well, and it's like the first time, for every track!
a happy accident...?! well i guess so, the PD95 has a good reputation, and a good friend of mine owns one, so i had a good idea what to expect, but the wee Albarry is a class act, and, a really pretty little thing too!
happy days!!

a few pics to follow, the amp looks nice on the inside too!

 

[elPedro666]

Given that so many things in life are over-hyped, over-rated and downright disappointing - I really enjoyed reading that!!!

 

[legrandefromage]

You do know that its the source material and not the amplifier that sounds good dont you? Any reasonably designed amp will only sound as good as the input.

Then theres the speakers... Questionable CD recordings... etc etc etc blah blah blah...

You get what I mean. I like that Pioneer a lot but the amplifier...

 

[velofrog]

You do know that its the source material and not the amplifier that sounds good dont you? Any reasonably designed amp will only sound as good as the input.

Then theres the speakers... Questionable CD recordings... etc etc etc blah blah blah...

You get what I mean. I like that Pioneer a lot but the amplifier...

yes LGF, i do indeed know the "garbage in, garbage out" scenario!
along with room size, furnishings etc., and indeed level of hearing as we all inevitably get older....
and most know a good sound, or more importantly, a sounds that works for them when they hear it!
i like that Pioneer a lot but the amplifier.... i also like a lot!
the combination of cd player and amp through the electrostatics works for me, and that's what matters!
it has been a very positive upgrade in sound, so much so even the trouble and strife can hear a difference! :shock:
like i said.... happy days!

 

[apache]

There are those out there (some well respected designers) who reckon that all competently designed amplifiers which meet certain technical specifications sound pretty much the same. I must admit I don't have both feet in that camp as there are so many amps out there which are lauded by the British HiFi press (who in general don't know their arse from their elbow) which are patently not competently designed - and sadly, a lot of them are British, though increasingly they are American and Far Eastern.

I have opened a fair few respected Brit amps to be horrified by the '2nd year City and Guilds' style work inside (to be fair I've opened a few crackers also) but I don't believe I've opened up a post 1970-ish - pre- 1990-ish Jap amp and been less than impressed by the build quality and clever engineering.

The Albarry you kindly pictured looks to contain some nice engineering, superficially very simple (low power?) but sensible and solid in the main. Decent switchgear etc. Those uninsulated bolted together cables near the PSU caps would worry me though! Still, the blue flash through red perspex will be pretty

 

[velofrog]

Re:

the blue flash through red perspex would be pretty...



fantastic imagery there apache, and a well made point!
i shall do something about it, i did notice it when i had the lid off, time for some soldering and heat shrink perhaps?!

if I'm still enamoured in a couple of weeks, it might get some nice binding posts and some decent rca's too!

It looks very similar under the bonnet to an old Incatech power amp I had many moons ago, which is one of only a very few amps i would have again!

I guess my little MF Digilog DAC is now redundant courtesy of the Pioneer.... anybody want to buy a DAC?!

 

[legrandefromage]

Thats why big old Japanese amps, once so sneered at, are now quite expensive.

It was quite hard letting go of some of the big Technics and others that have come through. I still have a Pioneer A-676 'Reference' series integrated along with a a later PD-802 cd to try out.

I also have a Mission DAD7000 to try against the later midi sized DAD5 (but not the matching DAC) but main listening has been stolen by a last of the tip finds Yamaha MCX-1000. Its as good at playback as anything I've had from Meridian, on a par with some of the late 80's CD monsters such as the Technics SL-Z1000 or Marantz CD-95.

So, my 'stereo' is an odd mish-mash all built in Huntingdon - Quad 606 power, Quad 44 pre reduced to being a simple phono stage for a prototype TAG McLaren AV32R pre. Speakers are my battered Mission 753.

The jury is still out on this combo but I dont get to 'listen' much these days.

 

[velofrog]

Re:

i don't get to listen much these days either,
but now when i do i'm totally at a loss as to what sounds best!! :roll:
the PD95 sounds lovely through the wee Albarry amp,
but as a matter of interest, i plugged the Technics 1300 and the MF Digilog DAC (with the classic TDA 1541A chip) into the amp, and that sounds really good too!! what have i done, i should have left it alone!! :facepalm:
the thing is, back in the day, when i used to drool my way page by page through the latest Technics catalogue, i can remember wondereing what it would be like to own and listen to an SL-P1300 cd player, and now, decades later, i have one.
the Pioneer PD95, although a supreme piece of engineering and a technical tour-de-force never pressed any of my buttons, i never hankered after one they way i did the Technics.....
the 1300 belonged to a good friend of mine, i bought it from him many years ago. the PD95 i just picked up is also from him, and the plan was i was going to trade back the 1300 for the 95, thing is..... i don't know if i can!!
he has graciously given me time to listen and make my mind up what stays and what goes....