The Entry Level 2021, A New Set Up

The Entry Level Set Up

It's been a while since my last article, but it doesn't mean I have not been busy. If you've been following my restoration of a pair of  Acoustic Research M6 Holographic Tower Speakers, link here if you wanna read: http://hifi-unlimited.blogspot.com/2020/09/another-classic-restoration-acoustic.html

A buddy of mine have been rather keen to take it up for use as a simple system to relax in his bed room. However, he is an everyday guy with up to date everyday needs, meaning he wants to wireless stream music & remote control the system from his smart phone, plays MP3 music files on a USB stick and the occasional CD, if he is in the mood for sound decent sound quality. His needs are more of a practicality & connectivity, with absolute sound quality being less of a priority. i.e, he is not strictly dyed in the wool audiophile, but rather someone who wants decent sound quality, but with connectivity of a modern lifestyle system. And yes, he has provided a budget for me to work on too!

I set about studying the features he needs and the available components that will meet his requirements. but yet still providing high enough quality sound, while meeting his budgetary concerns.

Teac PD 650-B CD Player With USB Input

After going through the products that meet the budget, and lifestyle vs sound requirements, I have decided to start the set up with a CD player c/w front panel USB input for MP3 convenience, which lead me to the Teac PD 650-B model with see here. Retailing at just MYR 1380/unit, it's quite possibly the cheapest CD player with USB input and hifi brand credibility. After all, Teac used to make many good studio grade components. 

The plastic finished front panel still looks & feels solidly built, despite it's humble price tag. The satin black finished unit still looks & feels very decent to touch. The weight is not too heavy of course, but enough not to make it feel cheap. The central CD drawer design ejects in & out smoothly and all front panel buttons work with an reassuring "click".  The unit comes with a basic plastic remote for convenience too.

  

Yamaha R-N602 Receiver

The next star in this system line up is the amplifier, the heart of any self respecting hifi system, or in this case rather, a receiver, which in these days seems to be making a comeback of sorts. This Yamaha R-N602 is handsome, with pseudo classic looks that is functional and well built at one go. The Yamaha comes with all the modern feature that any audiophile or otherwise could want in a receiver. It has built in wifi, which could be wireless or wired, USB input for smart phone connection or just for playing MP3 music files, and it even connects to your smart phone via Bluetooth. Last but not least, once wifi is set up & connected, one can down load Yamaha's Musicast  app to your smart phone to access the Yamaha receiver wireless. Musicast app can be used as a remote control function or, play music flies stored on your smart phone. As a bonus, the receiver also come with FM/AM tuner.

The Yamaha receiver is rated at 80W RMS power output and the internal bits, such as beefy EI transformer for power supply, and over size heatsinks tells me the hardware is serious stuff! There are multiple RCA inputs at the back and the amp section can drive 2 pairs of speaker at once if required. 

Acoustic Research M6 Holographic Tower Speakers

The speaker in this system is my recently restored Acoustic Research M6 Holographic Tower Speakers. These are considered pinnacle of 90's speaker design and frankly, it still sounds pretty darn good today. Tonal balance is on the rich side of things, and the speaker is capable of projecting a big open sound space that is very transparent, yet managing to sound musical. With a built in sub woofer at the bottom cabinet, a nice weighty, low bass is there to anchor the music. This is an efficient speaker design and the Yamaha's 80W RMS feels comfortable pushing this speaker to it's fullest potential.

Ancillary items used in setting up this system includes a pair of Cardas Hexlink 5C RCA cable, a pair of Belden speaker cables, and a Weiduka AC2.2 power bar for power conditioning. Setting up the simple 3 component system was easy as A,B,C!

  

Once hooked up, the overall sound of this system was high musical of the foot tapping kind. I played The Best Of Yazoo CD from the Teac CD player and I was dancing to the music. Yazoo's blend of punk pop fusion music is synthesizer heavy and can sound distractingly jaunty and tiring in the wrong system, but here it actually sounded very nice. The near neutral tone with just a tinge of warmness from the Yamaha saved the day. Now, how did I tell who was doing what sound wise?

You see, both the Yamaha & the Teac allows USB input, and that is where the similarity and sound differentiation can be easily identified. When playing some of my old Canto pop music on MP3 via the USB stick, I first plugged in to the Teac CD player and then do the same via the USB input of the Yamaha  receiver. From the Teac, the sound was as per described earlier as playing CD, only less details and resolution, and maybe just a tad higher noise floor(white hash basically). However the same USB stick played via Yamaha, the sound turned even more musical, more danceable, and those MP3 files gained an analog like texture which to my ears are more sympathetic to the low res files. I also managed to stream music to the Yamaha from my smart phone and got very good results as well, with no signal drop of or anything as such.

I find it highly satisfying being able to enjoy music from an entry level system, costing even less than most of those high end cables that audiophiles prized. With the latest crop of budget hifi products on offer as represented here, I see a glimmer of hope for an industry coping with changes of modern life style. Lovely indeed! And lastly, after setting up this system in my buddies house, he sent me a thank you note, saying he was very satisfied with the sound of the system and will be so until he hit the jackpot, then he will consider an upgrade! 

For this project, I did all my shopping at Style Laser in Kuala Lumpur, a cash & carry outlet.