Classical Music Mayhem!!

What audio equipment do you use? What new gadgets have you got your hands on?

For me...

Hifi
Lower-end audiophile stuff but sounds very good with decent cables...
NAD 60wat Amp and NAD CD
Tannoy speakers (oversize bookshelf models) mounted on twin column stands

Personal Audio player
Samsung YH-J70 (2005 model), 20gigs. Does everything, music, movies, radio, records mp3s. Easy drag and drop system for music files. 16 hours battery. Great sound, better than IPod in my opinion. Philips in-ear headphones, these are very good with the Samsung.

Computer
Non as such for my IBM laptop, I plug in my Sennheiser in-ear headphones for listing to tracks here.

..

Don't start me on this, you will only get jealous!
Suffice to say that all is High-End, and I am still suffering the consequences of the prices I had to pay.

Come Harry I want all the details. I wont get jealous. I could buy I higher end set-up if I wanted, it's just that my Mrs can't see a 'business justification' for it!

Okay, if I have time, I will write it all down, but its such a awful long list, yikes.....

A most important factor is that you buy good cables, or as good as your budget will allow. You can spend £10,000 on a top end hi-fi set-up, but if you used £5 cables it will sound like a £5 set-up. If you have an old system, just upgrading the phono and speaker cables can make it sound like you've bought a brand new hi-fi. The improvement can sometimes be quite astonishing.

That's great. My iPod's battery has been dwindling over the years, unfortunately, I've been charging it all the time lately.

Unfortunately, my audio equipment is limited to iPod and IBM laptop, and my only headphones are these default iPod headphones, which have been sort of broken for awhile now.

I've been meaning to replace these, so on that note, has anyone used headphones they would recommend, with these characteristics?:

1) Earbud headphones, preferably with the little in-ear cushions, unlike these annoying hard Apple headphones.
2) Not something *super* expensive, but noticeably better quality than the Apple ones.
3) Also, if it was sturdy enough to not chronically twist up and choke off my air supply while listening, that would be great.

I recently got rid of a huge vinyl record collection and my record player/amplifier. But it's a goal of mine to eventually get another. A valve amplifier, a direct drive turntable, gold plated cable jacks, the whole works !! And then start the business of collecting again !!!

Never ending !!!

An old (10 years) mini-stero kit
My computer (my main listening station)

Well I've only had my Samsung since April last year, let's see what the battery life is like in a year's time. But I like the drag and drop simplicity of the Samsung. I don't use any of the search by tag features, I play the tracks in continuous strict order.

Concerning the bud earphones the budget models by Sennheiser sound good for just £9.99 here. The buds I use on my DAP are by Phillips and cost just £5 and are more than adequate ,surprisingly good infact. But you can't really go wrong with Sennheiser.

Okay let me begin with the third installation on my office at home.

Meridian 508-24 bit player. (Modified and updated from 20 bit)
Denon DVD audio player DVD 3800
Nakamichi RE-1 Amplifier.
Tannoy speakers
Nordost Red Dawn interlinks and speaker cables.

The rest will follow.

and also to include a wireless streaming internet radio player!

Bought today.

Philips Streamium Stereo set. Digital Amplifier, and Electrostatic Speakers, WC 700 Wireless Music Center.
Wifi/UPpn/Gracenote software, 40 GB harddisk, 2 way remote control.
Plays cd-r/cd-rw/WMA-mp 3 cd's compatible, plays Windows Media, and is certified Energy star.
This set sounds fantastic, as is meant for the bedroom.
The Electro Static speakers, based on the principle of Quad Electro Static speakers, sound soft in the upper range, and tight in the lower frequencies.
The Menu works well 2 way, and has a digital screen, so that you may see distanced from the set which movement is playing, and if text on the cd is provided even tracking info, plus time, time lapse, etc.
It looks very nice, I will try to find a picture of it.

Have you got this working yet Harry?

Its running smoothly Rod, and it sounds good in chambermusic, but larger Orchestral works it a bit too much for the bugger, but it was not intended for that anyway.