Very nice. Loewe seems to be back in business making TV sets again, though I’m not sure if they are selling in the UK yet. We have 3 Loewe TV sets, an Art 40, Xelos A26 LCD and another smaller one. The Art is a lovely item and very solid/heavy and has great sound. The Xelos A26 is well over 15 years old and is still going strong - it gets a lot of use in the children’s playroom.
Yes advances in technology make any TV obsolete quite quickly, but the things that Loewe excel at - design, build and sound quality, give them long term appeal.
Yes, I agree with you. Unfortunately the inputs on the back center of the 52 don’t work well with the Fraim’s center rear post. Large ICs cannot successfully slide by the rear post even when it’s turned 90 degrees.
The right stack from top is 52, SC, 250. If the SC and 250 were swapped the Burndy and SNAIC would rest on the ground. With the extra gap provided by the empty medium shelf I think it works well as can be.
Of course if i got a 552 the whole problem would go away, but that’ll have to wait for another bull market.
The speakers are indeed raised, by 10 cm. But It sounds much much better with that stands and Finite elemente cerabases. The floor is very problematic.
MTM D’appolito designs do tend to have (i believe) a more narrow vertical dispersion window but if it sounds good then i suppose this indicates you are still within that window in your listening spot. A positive effect of narrower vertical dispersion is minimised floor and ceiling reflections. Also this design, having double the average midrange cone surface area, gives the effect of a much larger speaker. I am sure they sound nice!
No Ikea. These cheap folding stands where recommended by Shahinian themselves for use with their Super Elf speakers (see below) and I myself found them to work very well with some Guru QM10 speakers I used to own.
I moved from a black hifi tripod to a Fraim in the living room, and it was considered an improvement by both me and my wife. Admittedly, this is in part because the early (not so red) Cherry wood looks really nice.
Ignoring any sonic benefits, aesthetics are very much a personal choice.
Mark, here are the google translate specs of my Apertura Altra:
SPECIFICATIONS
• 2-way system. Crossover frequency: 2.5 kHz minimum intermodulation type.
• Rigorously optimized acoustic phasing.
• Bass - Medium 17 cm developed on Apertura specifications. Polymethyl-pentene cone.
• Sorted ribbon tweeter. Neodymium Iron Boron magnets on magnetic circuit without any leakage. Mass of the ribbon, therefore of the moving equipment: 0.011 gr.
• Filter carried out in wrapping mode: this is by far the most expensive solution, but undoubtedly the most neutral. The components are of very high quality and are subject to specific treatments. Reinforcement type decoupling.
• Anti-stationary modes treatment.
• Rigorously paired speakers.
• Resonator tuning: 35 Hz.
• Sensitivity: 92 dB.
• Impedance: 8 ohms.
• Width = 200 mm. Depth = 325 mm. Height = 1235 mm.
N.B .: The enclosure rests on a single cone centered on the axis of the center of gravity. The four additional metal parts are there only to ensure the stability of the whole.
What year would you say, Richard? About 1985? There were quite a few versions of the 11 if I recall, including the X and XE. I never owned one of those S2 SMEs but they have always looked great. My first LP12 in 1979 had the bendy Rega, which I think was really an Acos.
I’d look at moving that mains distribution strip away from the back of the 102 if you can, or even better look at something like a Grahams hydra for the Hi-Fi and get rid of the strip.
Hard to say without looking at the bearing and sub-platter (mdf on the earliest IIXs, IIRC). I’ve had a load of them through my hands over the years, but they never seem to hang around long as there always seems to be someone who’s looking for a nice deck to get into vinyl on a limited budget. They work nicely with either the Linn LV-V, LV-X or Basik Plus, as well as with the Regas (R200, RB250, RB300), which is great, armboards are cheap and easy to make yourself too. It’s such a lovely sounding deck for so little money and a great way to get into serious vinyl replay. Only problem is, if you want something comprehensively better then you really need to spend a LOT more money…
p.s. Just checked and for once I don’t have a Systemdek IIX here anywhere. Only Systemdek here is a Systemdek III, which was the flagship (developed version of the original) and rather different. Very much a Sondek competitor. Main annoyance was the awful nextel finish used. Oh, and the slightly dished platter (also used by the IIS) which means you have to use it with the Systemdek clamp, which, though probably the nicest of its kind, is still a clamp…
