ON TEST/SYSTEM

Low finance high fidelity . is usually pretty grim but David Prakel found this £280 SansuijShure/NAD/ Celef system to be an exception. Turning in the kind of performance promised but not achieved by most

mid-price systems, it has to be judged by the highest standards. One often asked question is 'How much can I

spend on a hi-fi?' (How long is a piece of string?1 A lot of folk, when buying hi -fi , to my knowledge at

least , take a look at their bank balance to assess

their liquidity and say ' I have £450 to spend on a

hi-fi ' - trouble is they will spend £450 no more, no

less, often against all advice as they haven't asked

a more fundamental question 'Just how much do I'

need to spend to enjoy music reproduced from

records ?', Adopting a finger in the air attitude we

assembled a system around units which were

gathering reputations ' for offering outstanding

value for money. But would the individual' items

marry up to make our fanciful £280 well spent? I'd

spoil the secret if I said it exceeded all my

expectations, wouldn 't I?

Turntables are the big problem. Around the

£60 mark the Trio KDl 033 has had few rivals until

the advent of the re-thought Sansui SR222 Mkll.

Which I am told can be bought for as little as

£57 .50 f rom some discounters. Rumour had it

that this unpre tentious black and chrome darling

was capable of comparison with decks over £1 00,

and that's the kind of ru mour t hat appeals, so it

had to be reviewed in H FA. Amplifier similarly came with a string of

testimonials, unusually from both sides of the

reviewing camp. One side remarking on its clean

sound and others on how this little amp would

keep on delivering power whatever the load, even

down to 2 ohms, without clipping. Mouth

watering stuff at £79 (sometimes discou ntedl.

There are only a handful of ve ry cheap speakers that have adequate performance and, while we

could have inc l uded Wharfedale Sheltons, Mini ­

max II's and the like , it was felt that buyers often

spend just a litile bit more on speakers than they

originally intended as these are the only items

demonstrated in a half sensible way in many

shops. We presumed a budget of around £90 that

had been upped by a convincing demo to the £120

mark - and chose the' Celef Domestic 11 Supers

which came out of a recent group test in What Hi­

Fi? with flying colours . Would the extra £30 be

justified in our system though ?

Revised Again it would have been easy to opt for the

regular budget cartridges - the Ortofon FF15EII .

Grado FCE+ 1 etc Well , our mylhlcal purchaser

reads his adverts and has been attracted by the

claims for the Shure M95HE With new stylus

profile - that was picked up at £22 discount .

Styling of the Sansui SR222 has been revised

HI-FI ANSWERS JULY 1979

for the Mkll version and has a deep black gloss

finish with a very appealing clear acrylic cover.

M echanical changes have been incorporated and

a sensible new turntable mat. The 222 has more

than styling similarities to the Rega Planar decks,

with the open cradle S shaped arm, and a

bearing firmly attached to the plinth which is

isolated from the environment by four sprung, soft

rubber feet.

Platter is a very lightweight aluminium casting

with a large inner rim diameter which carries the

flat rubber belt The motor IS a four pole

synchronous running at a fairly high speed.

Turntable speed change is effected by a slide

switch which also powers the turntable; on my

sample, speed change was a nOISY, squealing

affair. The arm appears to have received a good

proportion of the production cost and IS made with

some quite substantial castings for a fitted arm of

this cost. Geometry was good, though my

calculation for overhang disagreed With Sansul 's

17 5mm by over 0 5mm at 1 B 1 mm . The fitted

headshell was not particularly flimsy but would

flex across the diagonals, and more Importantly,

did not offer a flat surface to mate the cartridge

body to Arm friction was commendably low and

as the mass of the arm was medium to low I was

able to try a few of the cartridge eXQtlca With

surprisingly good results

Bearing assembly for the platter is pre­

assembled and greased, the purchaser only has to

locate the platter casting over a tapered shaft .

Lubrication of the motor shaft is recommended

every 200 hours or three months and an ampule of

oil IS supplied .

The only grouses I can come up with after

living with the 222, apart from the noisy speed

change , wh ich I never use anyway, were the need

for firm mounting to avoid feedback and the height

of the arm lift , which could have been adjusted

had I the right size of hex key .

Straight The NAD 3030 amplifier is a straight forward

design but sporting power meters and good hook­

up facilities for two pairs of speakers and two tape

decks additional to a cassette machine Surprts ·

Ingly the 3030 has the facility for driVing both

main and remote speakers, which Isquite unusual

for a budget amplifier None of th e cost IS wasted

on needless controls and th ose that are fitt ed are

useful With good characteristics. The front panel

IS neatly diVided into the pre and power amp

functions by a grooved line Above thiS Ime IS

Simply the power meters, which are distractingly

bright when the amp IS below eye level. and the continued over

97

ON TEST/SYSTEM continued from page 97

click Indent volume control , which has a good

' feel ' giVing accurate setting of listening levels at all volumes

Ba ss and treble controls have good cha ra cter ­

IstiCS with cen tre clicks. An ' Infrasonic' sWitch

operates a high pass filter which remove s warp,

rumble and other very low frequency signals that

drain amplifier power and can cause intermod

distortions. The hi-filter has a severe response

and acts low down; in fact , full treble roll -off gives

much the same effect and I preferred to use the

treble contro l for f iltering . I found a notch and a

half reduction on the treble quite satisfactory for

reducing record surface noise without taking too

much programme along with it.

The loudness control , to my hearing , was too

fierce in the bass, (again approximating to the

maximum response of the bass tone contrail with

anything but the quietest setting of the volume

control. I would tend to ag ree with th e NAD

manual on the point that this control is for music

at very low levels.

One control which is getting harder to find on

recent equipment is th e mono switch , which is an

essential for replaying of elect ronically repro ­

cessed stereo horrors. The 3030 sports a

mono button as well as a -20dB mute. The balance

control was a little fast acting and has a centre

click .

Rear panel is marvellously well appointed for a

piece of budget equipment with Tape 2 double up

for DIN and phono as well as connections (phono)

for a second tape deck, the usual phono inputs, .a

substantial grounding post and two sets of heavy

duty bare wire terminals which do allow the use of

heavy gauge wires . Speaker fuses are fitted which

may cause some sonic degredat ion but are the

best protection in view of the power amplifier

design .

Both black and silver finishes are available on

NAD equipment and the standard of f inish and

engineering quality are high .

Design Many 'bookshelf speakers, be they budget or

more expensive designs. contain th e regulat ion

SonAudax tweeter and bextrene bass unit and it is

encouraging to see that Celef have obviously

looked at the drive' units available and chosen

those to suit their design best. The Domestic 11

Super is Celel's smallest model and uses a SEAS

soft plastics dome tweeter and a front mounted

150mm SEAS pulp coned mid/ bass driver . Not a

company to stick drive units' into a box, Celef have

taken great care to control the tweeter 's response

around 10k where they noted irregularities and

have also doped the mid bass driver to smooth the

bass response and to adjust sensi t ivity . The bass

driver is reflex -loaded with a rigid plastics pipe

parted to the bottom right of the cabinets .

Cabinets are 12mm high density chipboard,

measuring 41 0 x 250 x 2 1 Om m, and are filled with

an inch lining of an echoic grade foam , The

crossover board is cleverly wrapped In a roll of

wadding and placed in the cabine t which should

prevent all rattles. Th e only adverse comments I

have on the const ruction IS that the twee ter IS held

98

Above: Neat styling and good engineering combined with excellent power delivery make the NAD 3030 great value for £79.

Right: Quality is continued round the back.

down with larger screws than the mid / bass unit ,

though the latter does appear well clamped into

the front baffle ; and one of the tweeters had

suffered from the fleeting visit of a soldering iron

which had increased the mass of the tweeter

dome and damaged it to boot with hot solder . A

very rare occurrance no doubt but one that should have been spotted .

The Domestic 11 Supers will create very high

pressure levels for a box of this size and are

resonably eff ic ient with a power handling quoted

for 15 to 60 watt amps. Stand mounting is best for

a clean bass quality.

The Sansui turntable had the misfortune of

being delivered to me the same week that I sorted

out my new Syrinx/ Linn Asak . Vying for my

interest in the first week against this reference the

Sansui managed to turn in a staggeringly good

performance for a turntable under £60. Feedback

problems were removed by standing the turntable

on a blackboard cabinet weighed down by 300 or

so records . Aga inst a reference like the Linn the

only comments on most turntable 's some

performance turn out negative . SlIght blurring of

image and transients, warmer midband and a

fullness in the bass were apparent but the

transmitted Information was high and I have

rarely heard thiS quality of performance under

£100.

High-purity I thought it would be informative to try a few

modifications to th is turntabl e to see If any

Improvements were to be gained In the con text of

thiS system . FIr st attempt was the repla cemen t of

the Sansui headshell with one of the new Lewln

Marketing models (with rubber grommet re ­

moved) which shou ld se ll at around £4 .50

Improvement In Image stability and focus were

forth coming .

A second version of this shell is available with high -purity 27 strand silver cable and one

headshell and cartridge was used changing

cables and recording the results for replay from

the tape socket of the NAD 3030 on a high speed

Revox B77 . Remember I was not looking for

absolute judgements on these products but their

relevance in this system . On blind listening tests,

silver and plain wires were consisten ly distin ­

guished and the plain wires preferred for balance.

My own feelings were that while the silver wires

had the edge i n HF detail , more of it but less conspicuous, they lost out by thickening the lower

mid/ upper bass region . In this system you would

have just saved £3 .50.

Mat swapping seemed remarkably ineffective

and providing the record label was tapped into the

centre recesses on the Sansui mat it did its job

"lIell. More money saved.

Last test at this end of the system was a four ­

way, blind trial extravaganza , again creating a

tape on the Revox of the four conditions; four

pieces of music were auditioned using the Shure

95HE stylus , the 95ED stylus, the parabolic EEl

stylus for the M95 and an A DC QLM36/ 111. Tape was used to allow channel imbalance, high or low

outputs, bias differences to be taken into

conSideration . Th e M95HE was consistently

picked o ut as the preferred sound with the ADC

runn ing a close second; which In this system

could save users up to'[ 11 on a replacement StylUS for the 95ED or help them choose the HE stylus

right off

The NAD 3030 was put through ItS paces f i rst

With a master tape recorded to extreme levels on a

B77 and played back on another. I chose to use the

Lentek Monttors for playback to give the 3030 a

grilling . HaVing clipped a 28 watt per channel

receiver (With a subjective performance I think a

good deal of) I dldn ' t expect much more than a few

Ht · Ft A SWEAS JULY 1979

Familiar body shape of the Shure M95 - this one carries the new hypere/liptical stylus.

Below: Plain and silver wired LAM heBdshel/s,

both tried in the Ssnsui SR222

dBs more undistorted headroom from the 3030.

W rong again . The NAD just kept on driving cleanly

and loudly until I gave up when it was delivering

about 40 watts programme. An astonishing

performance for a [79 amp.

In AB against the Nytech the only consistently

remarked upon difference at reasonable listening

levels were a slight lightness in the extreme bass,

veiling of midband imagery and a dulling of HF

transients on the NAD. In compa rison w i th other

budget amps the 3030 is clean and clear with

better than average top end and good stable

imagery.

Aud it ion ing the Celef Domestic 11 Supers on

the receiving end of my Linn/ Syr inxl Asakl

Nytech combination just emphasises the void

between £120 and [300 when buying speakers.

Their performance is in a class way above their

price tag but I would point out that good speakers

don 't make a silk purse out of a sow 's ear of a

system. M ost impressive is the size and body of

the sound these small boxes can reproduce and

though , to my ears, the midband is a little back in

the balance there is plenty of detail in this most

important area .

Image Imagery w as always very stable and precise, tonal and spatial separation being of a high order.

Transient detail was excellent bar in the extreme

bass which was a little wallowy with my system

but this effect was not noticed in th e con text of the

system under review, I presume due to band

limiting. These speakers sounded excellent w ith

the Shure M95HE but with other reputable

cartridge designs (in the Sansui) like the ADC

GLM36 and Ortofon VMS20EII their upper bass

was too full for my liking . That's no criticism of the

speaker only a comment on system compatibility,

and h igh compliance cartridges

HI-FI ANSW ER S JULY 1979

Thei r big image, extended bass from a small

box and the ability to reproduce detail cleanly will

no doubt please a lot of orchestral 'front -row'

music lovers and rock afficianados who are also

flat dwellers (with soundproofing).

Though the Shure M95HE is a good sonic

performer in the Sansui turntable offering a well

integrated sound w ith excellent deta il that is not

conspicuous but merely natural , it is a pity to have

to point out that mechanically the match is not as

good with a principle resonance around 6Hz in

both planes, which is a bit low to avoid every

problem w i th warped records. The ADC GLM36

offered no better mechanical match with severe

resonances at 7Hz.

Lower compliance cartridges would be more

obviously suited but it is a pity to have to give up

the sound of the M95HE. The Grado range is

probably one answer but I doubt trackability would

be as high as the Shure wh ich cleared every test

record including the BO micrometre cut in the

Ortofon Direct Cut.

I did try the effect of equalisers into the NAD

knowing the loading requirements of Shure

cartridges but the design of the preamp makes it

almost impossible to tell what is being done and I

for one preferred the 'straight' condition .

System So w ith the question of a particularly suitable

cartridge unresolved (on pure mechanical match ­

ing I came up with : ADC VLM/ III , AKG P6E, Grado

F3+ / F1+ and Plckering XV15 / 625E) 1 would give

the turntable and arm a strong sonic recommend ­

ation and point out again that the unit must be

used away from speakers and on a solid support . If

Sansui can keep the price right they are onto a big

w inner with the SR222Mkll.

So too NAD with the 3030 but its success IS

overshadowed by the recent introduction of the

ON TEST/SYSTEM

SEAS drivers in the Celef Domestic /I Supers.

[693020 wh ich promises to be even better value

for money. If you need the extra facilities and

headroom offered by the 3030 I need say no more

than you aren 't going to find this quality at this

price elsewhere. Preamp design seems remark­

ably uncritical of cartridge matching and has a

w ide headroom ; power delivery is clean,

The Celefs add a touch of class to this system

and can be recommended with equipment of a

higher order of performance . Aga in for an

absolute budget choice with a system like this the

In 8070 would be one of the best ways to spend

[90 on speakers.

The Shure M95HE is a significant step forward

for Shure and has fine sound but, like the Celefs,

would probably be more at home in a more

expensive system . I can heartily recommend the

HE stylus replacement to 95ED owners who may

be looking around for a new cartridge . At a

discounted [22 the 95HE cartridge promises a

neut ra l sound, no lack of depth information, clear

detail which fits in naturally w ith the body of

sound without declaring itself from the roof tops,

and , most of all , reduced record wear and

excellent trackability . In the system under test

here the profile 95HE had a lot to offer despite the

compliance mismatch and the slightly dry bass.

As a way of spending money this system even

with the luxury of the Celefs and Shure must be

considered outstanding value and I have heard too

many systems costing [800 and more that are

fundamentally no better and often worse than the

Sansui / NAD/ Celefs. Th is system would very

easily put a stop to upgrading mania as the owner

could feel pretty damn sure he would have to triple

hiS outlay and buy w isely to beat it . The potential

to put together a system around the SansUl w ith

the NAD 3020 , In 8070s and cartridge under £15

all for [235 leaves me th inking that m ld -f l is fa st

becoming redundant

99