Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Technology

Dream HiFi setup: NAD and Dynaudio

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When I was studying in France from 1993 to 1998, I discovered high-end stereo HiFi components for listening to music, with esoteric brands such as McIntosh, B&W and Linn. With our limited budget, Christina and I couldn’t buy our dream setup at that time: a NAD 310 stereo amplifier, a Philips CD 721 CD player and a pair of Mission 731 Pro speakers. This is something that I still regret. We should have taken the plunge then and get those three components. But we didn’t.

That’s fine I guess because, after twenty years, I have a new dream stereo setup. It starts with the NAD C 338 which is an amplifier with a Chromecast built-in (as well as Bluetooth which I don’t like using):

The C 338 is a hell of an improvement over the 310 of twenty years ago: the sound quality is top-notch, can handle speakers of any impedance and, most importantly in 2017, is fully compatible with digital sources by having a Chromecast built-in. This means, for example, that it’s easy to listen to music (using Plex, Google Play Music, Subsonic, Spotify (which is not available in Mauritius unfortunately), etc.) and also radio, podcasts and audiobooks. One only needs an Android or iOS device and the relevant apps installed. As all our music resides in a Plex Media Server, the C 338 would be awesome for us.

No other audio source is needed. No CD player, no radio tuner, nothing. Only the C 338 and its built-in Chromecast.

An amplifier is useless without a pair of good speakers and I have settled on the Dynaudio Emit M10, which has been obtaining rave reviews online:

The Emit M10, while being small, has an excellent frequency response of 50Hz to 23kHz (± 3 dB). It is a two-way speaker with a 2.8cm soft dome tweeter and a 14cm woofer and the sound quality is top-notch.

The price for the setup on 4 May 2017 is:

  • NAD C 338 amplifier = £599.00 on Amazon.co.uk.
  • A pair of Dynaudio Emit M10 = £499.00 on Amazon.co.uk.

I have chosen Amazon.co.uk because (1) NAD is English and Dynaudio Danish and (2) for making sure voltages / plugs would be fine for Mauritius. The total price becomes £1,098.00 (which, as far as I know, include British VAT, etc.) which is Rs 49,000.

Is it expensive?

You bet. But a dream setup does not come cheaply.

High-End Hi-Fi Audio Companies

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I have always been an audio and music buff and, over the years, I have managed to acquire a very good HiFi system, mainly built using Yamaha components. There are two reasons why I chose Yamaha. First, Mauritius being Mauritius, Yamaha is one of the few brands which can be bought in the island. In particular, it is practically impossible to find high-end components and brands in Mauritius. The second reason is, of course, that Yahama components are of high quality and offer excellent value for money.

Here are some of the high-end audio companies in the world:

How many do you personally know?

My quest for High Fidelity sound

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I have always loved music and I have composed three albums up to now.

When I listen to music, I like using high-fidelity (HiFi) equipment in order to experience it fully. It all started around 1987 when my parents bought a Tatung AFR-4080S radio tuner / cassette player / amplifier with its set of two speakers. I remember that the Tatung was flimsy and did not sound very nice. The speakers, in particular, were mediocre. But my brother and I spent hours and hours listening to Depeche Mode (and other synthpop artists) on the Tatung and we loved it.

(I don’t have any photo of the Tatung, so I spent days looking for one online with no success only to finally find one video of it on YouTube from which I constructed the above composite image from four different video frames. It is better than nothing.)

A few years later, in 1993, I left Mauritius for Réunion Island for my university studies and my first purchase at the Mauritius Duty Free Store was a Sony Discman, most probably a D-141 or a D-145, (which a very mean and, maybe, racist French customs officer made me pay a lot of VAT when I arrived in Réunion Island):

I used the Discman to listen to the two CDs I had (+ a few I borrowed from some friends) but I was dissatisfied as I couldn’t share my love for music with others. So, a few weeks later, I collected all my money and bought my first Sony FH-B500 Mini HiFi System:

This was a milestone for me. I had my first HiFi system and the sound quality was an order of magnitude better than the Tatung. When Christina and I got back to Mauritius in 1998, we brought back the Sony which worked for some years until the CD player and the amplifier died. Given that the two speakers were proper two-way bass-reflex designs with enclosures made of real wood, I still use them, 24 years later, in my kitchen with a cheap amplifier.

Around 2001, just before Anya’s birth, we finally invested in our first HiFi set of components, a Kenwood KRF-7030D home-cinema receiver / amplifier:

+ a set of Pioneer speakers (which did not sound too great but which I got very cheaply). The speakers were severely limited and I had to resort to all kinds of EQing to make the sound good:

+ a Philips DVD-727K CD / DVD player:

After a few years the Kenwood amplifier died and stayed dead for five years until I finally managed to repair it. Today, I am still using it in my bedroom with an excellent pair of Yamaha NS-7390 speakers and a Chromecast Audio and the combination rocks.

Anyway, when the Kenwood died around 2006-2007, we went to vacation in Thailand and Malaysia where we bought a Pioneer VSX-516 home-cinema receiver / amplifier. The idea was to match the amplifier with the existing set of Pioneer speakers:

And the result was still crap. The speakers were not very good and we took the plunge and replaced them with excellent NS-50F Yamaha speakers:

with a Yamaha YST-SW015 subwoofer:

and the result was awesome. The sound quality was amazing and Christina and I spent hours and hours rediscovering our CD collection.

In 2013, the digital revolution happened in our living room and we needed an amplifier with HDMI connections (which the Pioneer did not have). As all our speakers were Yamaha (which is one of the few brands which can be bought in Mauritius), we decided to get a matching Yamaha amplifier and we settled on the RX-V475:

To summarise, this is our current setup in our living room: a Yamaha RX-V475 amplifier, a pair of NS-50F Yamaha speakers as well as a Yamaha YST-SW015 subwoofer (+ Yamaha central and surround speakers). Add to this a 1st generation Chromecast connected to the amplifier through HDMI:

and the formidable Plex Media Server and Android application and we are good to go:

Phew. It has been a long journey. But very rewarding and interesting.