[Slowhand] Listening gear

[Bryan Reid]

Bill asked about what kind of gear people use for listening.

Everybody has their toys - some people have boats, others motorcycles,
yadda, yadda, yadda. Mine is music, so that's where my money goes. I am a
low-rent audiophile, meaning I love great audio equipment but don't have the
money for the really serious stuff. I'm fortunate to have a friend who does
- his main system costs more the my house. Sigh.

My main rig consists of:

Harbeth 7ES-3 loudspeakers
Cayin tube CD/SACD player
Creek Evolution integrated amplifier
Audioquest speaker cables and interconnects
Sennheiser HD-600 headphones


In my office/library I have:

Harbeth HL-P3ES-2 loudspeakers
Marantz DV 7600 CD/DVD-A player
Creek Evolution integrated amplifier
Audioquest speaker cables and interconnects


I love Harbeth speakers - they're rich and full, yet very neutral and
uncolored. I love Creek amplifiers, too. For the low-end audiophile, which I
am, Creek is probably the most bang for your buck that you can get. They're
both made in England. I wish I could afford the upper range of their
products. Harbeth makes the studio monitors for the BBC. The Cayin is the
cheapest combination tube CD/SACD I could find that gets very good ratings.
Tube players get into the 5 figures very quickly and there are several in
the 6 figures. Tube players (or amps for that matter) are a messy way to
listen to music, but the sound they produce makes it worth it to have to let
them warm up for 30-60 minutes and periodically replace tubes when they burn
out (at $50-60 and up each). The richness and depth of what they produce,
though, makes the hassle worth it to me. The Sennheiser HD-600s used to be
considered the best headphones in the world (yes, I know about the Stax) but
rank third or fourth now and are actually affordable for cheap chumps like
me. The little Harbeths I have in my office are only about a foot tall by
six inches wide, but wow do they pack a punch! The Creek amp - well, I love
Creek. The Marantz is very reasonable and great bang for the buck. My
Audioquest cables and interconnects are a little below the middle of their
range - again money but they are very noticeably better than what I had
before.

That's me. I look forward to hearing what other people use.

Bryan