System Pics 2022

The speakers are Magico Q5 - discontinued now, but still sounding wonderful. Amplification is from Constellation Audio, their Performance series: Centaur II mono blocks, Virgo III preamp and Perseus phono stage (silly names. but fits with the brand name :slight_smile: ))
The record player is the SME model 20/12 with an SME V-12 tonearm and a Koetsu Coralstone Platinum cartridge
Finally the digital transport and DAC are by Playback Designs. It’s the MPD-8 and MPT-8
Cabling: a mix of Nordost and Transparent

It sounds wonderful, but am sure not everyone’s cup of tea. It works beautifully in my room too (I have a cathedral ceiling).

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I’ve been faffing about over the past month.

My Uniti Lite and Linn 109s have been all over the place.

We were considering new cabinets, going for something truly wireless, smaller speakers.

Today, we’ve re installed most things where they were, made some changes to where somethings are routed. Added the leaves.

Sometimes it’s good to experiment but our slight dissatisfaction with what we have could have led to some bad choices and spending needlessly.

All playing nicely now.

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Very stylish room (totally the opposite of ours, which is full of books, records, stuff! All my fault.)

Love the Shell and Monkey on Horseback! Gorgeous.

What is the glass panel, um, artifact? A…fire?

Impressive!

Thank you and hi, yes the glass panel is a bio ethanol fire. The animal on the horse is a hare.

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Ah… I thought it was a monkey with a scarf billowing behind it. Then I magnified it!

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Beautiful system @Cemil- enjoy :+1:

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Hi @BrianD, I was in with Michael just a few weeks ago, such a top bloke with a great wee team there at Lyric HiFi. On one occasion Ross actually made me a replacement grommet for my Hadcock tonearm as there are no longer any spares available. Michael loves the personal touch and actually talking to people especially in this digital age we live in now, it is so refreshing. The only thing is he can spend too much time talking (he is so passionate) that it can take Karen to pull him back in line!
And yes they are still going strong and deservedly so!

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Reminds me of old haunts in Shibuya. There is/used to be a nice bar a few flights upstairs on the steep road just to the left of Tokyu Hands that had a pretty cool Vinyl collection. Happy days…

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Beautiful system. Just love the use of “probably”.

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Big question mark on that now. Shibuya has changed beyond all recognition. They’ve utterly destroyed the place and made it into a dense modern skyscraper area linked over and above ground swallowing all that were there before.

I lived just 3 stops away for nearly a decade but the last time I went there, it was unrecognisable. I got lost and went right back home. I’m a country bumpkin you see. Living for 15 years in Tokyo never really changed that.

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A nice reflection of the sunset :sunglasses:

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Martin.M, Thanks for the message. Yes, Michael is always good to work with and you never get the “hard sell”. It means that there is never any hesitation in returning to him. The other shop I visited on many occasions was Moore’s HiFi in Newtownards, although I think that Jim Moore may have retired now. Best wishes, Brian D.

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No upgrades this year although my listening habits have changed dramatically with streaming now accounting for 70%. Although it was the arrival of cd that reduced my vinyl listening to around 10% where it has stayed for over 30 years.

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Absolutely Brian, he never pushes the hard sell. He did a bit of work on my LP12 there and was apologising to me when it came to how much it all cost, I was expecting it to be nearly twice as much!!

Ahh Mr Moore, yes he is more or less retired, he pops into the shop a few days a week. His daughter Pamala runs it now but I suppose he just can’t help himself! My LP12 (serial number 19131, so @ late 70’s) came from Moore’s though I bought it second hand from the original buyer.

I reckon that I am rather lucky, I live in Newtownards and just minutes away from Moore’s Hi Fi, though they don’t do Linn any more but they are a Naim dealer. I work in Belfast where again I am only minutes away from Lyric Hi Fi. Both are within walking distance! Maybe you will make it back someday for a visit :slightly_smiling_face:

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Martin, I started with my first LP12 in the mid-seventies and I’m pretty sure that I bought it mail-order, directly from Linn! Later, I bought a replacement for it from Michael, along with the Isobariks and some Naim gear, but eventually moved to CDs and, more recently to (some) streaming. I don’t regret moving to CDs and think that some of the enthusiasm around LPs is overstated, although I do “get” the issue of the “rituals” around playing them. However, I sold about 800 LPs for far too little! If I had known then what I know now …! Brian D.

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@steviebee Welcome to the exclusive “animal blindness” club, a couple of years ago I upset @GraemeH’s dog Diesel by calling him a cat!

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A while back several posters, myself included, thought that @stuart.ashen’s profile picture of his very cute dogs was a shot of llamas.

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