HiFi - Integrated amplifier advice.

Has the Exposure now been run in, or is that not necessary these days?
 
woof woof said:
The Rarities one I have on LP is this one...

Rarities (Beatles compilations) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I haven't played it for years so it should be in reasonable condition. I'll power up the CD writer and copy it to CD. The highlights for me are "Across the universe" and "I'll get you."
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I like the alternative versions of 'Across the Universe' better than the 'Let It Be' album version with the tacky Phil Spector overdubs (not his worse crime, but...). I think 'Rarities' and 'Past Masters' have the 'Wildlife' version, but my favourite is the 'psychedelic' version on 'Anthology':

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTSiK8MsoUo
 
Brentor said:
Has the Exposure now been run in, or is that not necessary these days?
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It's mostly all IC's rather than diodes and transistor these days, let alone valves so I shouldn't think running in as a thing? I may be wrong... Anyone know?

Currently playing Status Quo at a reasonable volume :D
 
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got some Elton on in my office on the Yams, not usually an Elton fan but the Yams do the piano so well it actually pop out.
I think the 8 inch bass cones bring a lovely low end.
 
woof woof said:
It's mostly all IC's rather than diodes and transistor these days, let alone valves so I shouldn't think running in as a thing? I may be wrong... Anyone know?
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I'm sceptical. My guess is it's more about our ears and brains adjusting to the sound of that new bit of kit than the sound really changing.
 
Mr Bump said:
got some Elton on in my office on the Yams, not usually an Elton fan but the Yams do the piano so well it actually pop out.
I think the 8 inch bass cones bring a lovely low end.
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I think he plays Yamaha pianos himself - donated a nice one for public use at St Pancras station. Maybe the speakers like the company sound! :)
 
Retune said:
I'm sceptical. My guess is it's more about our ears and brains adjusting to the sound of that new bit of kit than the sound really changing.
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Yup.

I spent decades fixing kit and there was never any thought of any running in as you may do with a car engine. I don't know about valves.
 
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It's amazing the difference this new amp has made to my mood. Not this amp specifically... but a working one :D as I can listen to music without the frustration and faff on caused by the Arcam's iffy dials.

I had The essential Ella on while doing the washing up and cleaning the kitchen and before I knew it the album was finished as was the kitchen :D
 
woof woof said:
Yup.

I spent decades fixing kit and there was never any thought of any running in as you may do with a car engine. I don't know about valves.
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Perhaps it is another myth used by marketing depts. Another reason I am cynical about some hifi claims such as the difference between cables, mains cleaning etc.
 
Brentor said:
Perhaps it is another myth used by marketing depts. Another reason I am cynical about some hifi claims such as the difference between cables, mains cleaning etc.
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I can talk a little bit about cables and tracks on PCB's. Waaaaay back I used to fix stuff and most people would I think be shocked if they saw the effect a cable or even a track on a pcb can have on a signal as seen on a scope. If that difference can be heard by humans or not is another matter. Some well known HiFi makers make decisions that often made me wonder.... tracks near or even under high voltage components and my personal pet hate lining like type components up in rows, all the resistors etc. This may look "nice" to some but placing components anywhere else except where they should be for the circuit just seems silly to me but apparently some owners like to take the lid off and see a nice looking circuit board. Again though, can humans hear this?
 
If you are enjoying your new amp, that’s all that’s matters. I find hifi like photography in that some enthusiasts only consider getting lost in the very subjective quality of their equipment rather than enjoying the results.
 
i'm a big fan of good cables, audioquest all day for me :-)
 
Brentor said:
If you are enjoying your new amp, that’s all that’s matters. I find hifi like photography in that some enthusiasts only consider getting lost in the very subjective quality of their equipment rather than enjoying the results.
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The kit isn't exactly inconsequential as just as with photography for me it's a process and a whole experience rather than just the end result. I am enjoying what I'm hearing... Kirsty MacColl and The Jam this morning :D
 
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Of course, with a high quality HDMI connection like that, you don't want to cheap out on the speaker wire.
These 'perfect surface silver' cables are sadly discontinued, but could have been yours for $9000:

AudioQuest K2 Terminated Speaker Cable - UST 2.44 m Plugs 8' Pair (Discontinued by Manufacturer) : Electronics

Buy AudioQuest K2 Terminated Speaker Cable - UST 2.44 m Plugs 8' Pair (Discontinued by Manufacturer): Speaker Cables - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
www.amazon.com

Yours for the making - Instructables

Instructables is a community for people who like to make things. Come explore, share, and make your next project with us!
www.instructables.com www.instructables.com
I'm embarrassed to say mine are generic 2.5mm2 copper wire ('oxygen free', no less), about £1.50 a metre.
 
i'v amassed a collection of all sorts of special cables for my digital world, from high quality USB cablles for DACS to PC and also 3.5mm to3.5mm and RCA.
 
woof woof said:
It's amazing the difference this new amp has made to my mood. Not this amp specifically... but a working one :D as I can listen to music without the frustration and faff on caused by the Arcam's iffy dials.

I had The essential Ella on while doing the washing up and cleaning the kitchen and before I knew it the album was finished as was the kitchen :D
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Ive spent the day properly installing a DAC and running speaker cables to a new area for speakers. im using an old iphone to stream music via USB to the DAC and then onto the Amp, The sound is so much clearer than the 3.5mm/RCA from the Echo Dot. straight into the Amp and i will have wifi streaming. just need to change the activating name of Alexa and i can use voice activation to change tracks. Played a few 60's Albums to broaden music horizons, not sat listening just for fun for years
 
I’ve just finished renovating the end part of our house so I’ve just had a re-jig too. I’ve had a couple of head scratch moments recently with whether to get rid of the CDs we have (until I realised there were a hell of a lot of them!). I had some weird bad luck as I ordered an Ifi Zen Blue, which I couldn’t get to work at all so I sent it back. I decided to get a new Cambridge Audio CD player, which arrived and wouldn’t read discs, so that went back too. We’ve since decided to ‘banish‘ streaming from the ‘music room’ as we have it elsewhere in the house anyway and add to to vinyl and CD collection for new music. If I change my mind, I have a Chromecast and may try the Zen Blue again..... Anyway, I ordered a Marantz CD6006, which sounds superb. Today’s delivery was a new Pro-ject Debut Carbon Evo turntable which replaces a long-in-the-tooth Rega P2 and I love it. The new system isn’t exactly high end audiophile stuff but it sounds great to me!

Pro-ject Carbon Evo - I love the speed box! No more platter lifting!
Yamaha AS-501 amp (in silver, obvs), I love this amp and have had it a few years, it’s not exactly high end but it sounds great and looks cool!
Marantz CD6006... not much to say really, it’s as good as the reviews say it is I think.
Dali Zensor 3 speakers... again, I’ve had these a few years and I love them. I’d been using them on a Yamaha streaming all in one unit and have just bought a pair of Q Acoustic 3010i for that and these sound great too.

Finally able to listen to the vinyl we’ve been buying each other for the last year or so. Happy days!
 
Mr Bump said:
yes thats it the Apple one, also available on a digital USB :) at the better sample rate
the CD's will still be only at 44.1/16 bit (CD red book standard) the remastered digital rate is 44.1/24 bits and they have also done a super deluxe abbey road version at 96/24 bits see below

4 Disc Abbey Road Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition – The BEATLES
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My Beatles box set arrived today, two days early :D one thing which pleased me is that there's a "Past Master" or similarly named CD in there that has some of the "Rarities" on it, in fact all of the ones I'm bothered about :D I will get around to recording my Rarities LP onto CD at some point though.

Tomorrow morning the Beatles will be playing here! :D

Thanks again for mentioning this even if I did have to spend my money :D
 
Brentor said:
Any more feedback on the Exposure?
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Sorry, I missed this.

It's a lovely amp.

It arrived well packed (built to order and delivered by the dealer on his way home) and cosmetically and operationally perfect and it slotted in and worked just fine.

I do miss having tone and balance controls for some old crappy recordings and recently I was toying with the idea of setting up speakers in another room but the amp only has inputs for one set of speakers whereas my previous Arcam could switch between two sets. I suppose this isn't a killer omission as I could always make a little counter top box to switch pairs of speakers. On the subject of speakers my Tannoys (sorry but I don't know the model) sound very nice and one day it'll be interesting to bring my Monitor Audio R252's down from upstairs and see how they sound. The R252's are much smaller and cheaper and they definitely have a sound whilst the Tannoys are much more neutral.

It was relatively expensive and I suppose there's no real need to pay as much but I wanted a decent quality amp made in the UK and most of the industry that existed back in the 1980's or so when I was into hifi seems to have melted away and to be now just names on boxes made in China if they still exist in any form at all... Arcam, Quad and so many others...

I have no complaints about sound quality and indeed it's allowing me to hear differences in recording that were to an extent hidden by my old Arcam amp. That's not all good though as the less good recordings now irritate me a bit. Good recordings sound very nice though and since I got this amp I've used my hifi every day but one on which I had to be up and out early for a hospital appointment. I've put just about every genre through this little set up, LP's, 45's, CD's and the tuner and everything from 50's 60's and 70's hits, my newly acquired Beatles set, classic vinyl era recordings including Fleetwood Mac, The Jam, Rolling Stones, Uriah Heep and through metal, country, folk, classical and opera and well, anything and everything I have really and I can't say that any genre suffers.

I would change a couple of things... I'd provide a better quality remote control and either allow the amp to be turned on/off via the remote or remove the power button from the remote as having functions that don't work on what looks like a cheap off the shelf bog standard remote IMO detracts from the more upmarket product and I'm sure this could be done better at this sort of price. I'd also ideally like switchable MC/MM input for the phono stage (this amp only has MM although another way to do this would be with an external MC step up device) which again should maybe be standard but maybe I'm out of date as some amps don't even have a phono input these days.

On the whole I'm glad I bought it. It's reinvigorated my love for music whereas before I didn't bother as half the time the Arcam couldn't be coaxed into life. A much cheaper amp would doubtless provide just as much pleasure but I'm happy with my buy and would recommend this amp to anyone looking at something at this price point.
 
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woof woof said:
Sorry, I missed this.

It's a lovely amp.

It arrived well packed (built to order and delivered by the dealer on his way home) and cosmetically and operationally perfect and it slotted in and worked just fine.

I do miss having tone and balance controls for some old crappy recordings and recently I was toying with the idea of setting up speakers in another room but the amp only has inputs for one set of speakers whereas my previous Arcam could switch between two sets. I suppose this isn't a killer omission as I could always make a little counter top box to switch pairs of speakers. On the subject of speakers my Tannoys (sorry but I don't know the model) sound very nice and one day it'll be interesting to bring my Monitor Audio R252's down from upstairs and see how they sound. The R252's are much smaller and cheaper and they definitely have a sound whilst the Tannoys are much more neutral.

It was relatively expensive and I suppose there's no real need to pay as much but I wanted a decent quality amp made in the UK and most of the industry that existed back in the 1980's or so when I was into hifi seems to have melted away and to be now just names on boxes made in China if they still exist in any form at all... Arcam, Quad and so many others...

I have no complaints about sound quality and indeed it's allowing me to hear differences in recording that were to an extent hidden by my old Arcam amp. That's not all good though as the less good recordings now irritate me a bit. Good recordings sound very nice though and since I got this amp I've used my hifi every day but one on which I had to be up and out early for a hospital appointment. I've put just about every genre through this little set up, LP's, 45's, CD's and the tuner and everything from 50's 60's and 70's hits, my newly acquired Beatles set, classic vinyl era recordings including Fleetwood Mac, The Jam, Rolling Stones, Uriah Heep and through metal, country, folk, classical and opera and well, anything and everything I have really and I can't say that any genre suffers.

I would change a couple of things... I'd provide a better quality remote control and either allow the amp to be turned on/off via the remote or remove the power button from the remote as having functions that don't work on what looks like a cheap off the shelf bog standard remote IMO detracts from the more upmarket product and I'm sure this could be done better at this sort of price. I'd also ideally like switchable MC/MM input for the phono stage (this amp only has MM although another way to do this would be with an external MC step up device) which again should maybe be standard but maybe I'm out of date as some amps don't even have a phono input these days.

On the whole I'm glad I bought it. It's reinvigorated my love for music whereas before I didn't bother as half the time the Arcam couldn't be coaxed into life. A much cheaper amp would doubtless provide just as much pleasure but I'm happy with my buy and would recommend this amp to anyone looking at something at this price point.
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Many thanks for the detailed response. If my ageing Exposure gives up, I will be very tempted to buy another one. I really like the sound quality but have very little time for just listening to music. Perhaps if I retire shortly that may change.
 
ah, you've had yours for years. Lucky you :D I don't remember ever hearing about Exposure at the time when I was buying hifi.

I don't do a 9-5 any more but my days are quite full so much so that I wonder how I ever had time to "work." Hifi may be relatively expensive but it can I suppose be expected to last quite a few years, maybe longer than a similarly priced TV these days so I think they're worth it and I do get a lot of please from listening to music. I'm currently listening to Billy Joel.
 
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