Hi-Fi brands for Hip Hop listening?

[Yeezus]

Hi, I have been looking at upgrading my old Hifi, with some less old used gear:

Source: Marantz CD-41

Amp: Denon PMA355UK

Speakers: Mordaunt-Short MS25i

Due to the age of some of the items within my budget, I am really relying on reviews, but the reviews appear to be mostly tailored towards people with a somewhat different music taste to mine (Hip Hop). I was wondering which brands typically have a sound signiture to suit this kind of music taste.

These are two tracks on either side of the spectrum of music i regularly listen to:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i1Pnv_FM9I

although I will listen to music from any genre depending on my mood so versatility is fairly important. Thanks for your help.

 

[Tel]

Due to the age of some of the items within my budget, I am really relying on reviews, but the reviews appear to be mostly tailored towards people with a somewhat different music taste to mine (Hip Hop). I was wondering which brands typically have a sound signiture to suit this kind of music taste.

although I will listen to music from any genre depending on my mood so versatility is fairly important. Thanks for your help.

So what do you want?

What is your budget?

What have you heard that you like?

Go to a few bake offs, take your music and listen to lots of different kit.

 

[jon]

How much space do you have for speakers, and what's the budget? I used to have some celestion ditton 44s which were great for that type of thing. Or if space is short have you thought about a sub?

 

[Yeezus]

So what do you want?What is your budget?

What have you heard that you like?

Go to a few bake offs, take your music and listen to lots of different kit.

Oh, sorry i forgot to put that in. My current setup cost me under £120 in total, and being a student money is fairly tight. I have about £150 I want to spend but can stretch to £200 at the moment, I was wondering what my next move would be and which brands have a sound signature to suit my music taste. I heard some fairly old Rega speakers in my local hifi store that were on sale for £150, but they were very small floorstanders and they sounded too small to me.

 

[Yeezus]

- - - Updated - - -

How much space do you have for speakers, and what's the budget? I used to have some celestion ditton 44s which were great for that type of thing. Or if space is short have you thought about a sub?

The speakers don't have to be too small, preferably 25cm wide or less and not too deep. My budget is upto a max of £200. I have a 5.1 setup in the same room with a sub with a jamo speaker package, which is perfect for me for movies, but when using large speakers as fronts the Yamaha RX-V567 receiver seems to hold them back, and it notices that the sub is in a corner of the room when listening to music. I would preferably avoid a sub for my stereo set up. Thanks.

 

[Jezzer]

Back in the mid 90's when I was a student I had a system which comprised of:

Harman Kardon HD7450 CD player

Harman Kardon HK 6500 amp

JBL LX60 speakers

At that time I listened to a fair bit of dance and electronic music - including break-beat type stuff (and some hip-hop such as Dr Dre, Wu Tang Clan, 2Pac). The aforementioned system never let me down. It had decent resolution, pace and volume. I saw a pair of LX60's on eBay go for about £70 about a year ago - they had an RRP of £500 in the 90's...

 

[budgetblown]

Stick with the amp and CD player, keep an eye out for beefier floorstanders. Just my two pennorth. The leg 104/2s I sold a while back for 200 would have done the trick nicely.

 

[MrSammy]

Alas your budget is currently limited but you must at some point in your life listen to panel speakers playing hip-hop. I've played it through Quad ESLs and now my Magnepans and it works so well as a lot of hip-hop is about the clarity of listening to a usually male voice, often speaking fairly quickly and in vernacular. Good hi-fi really resolves this. Try listening to Eric B and Rakim through a decent hi-fi and you'll get the idea.

When I had first built my WAD Valve power amp I played the first Naughty by Nature album through them just to see how that would sound and not expecting much. It sounded absolutely incredible and that was through AE1 speakers which are not exactly valve friendly. If you are listening via CD then you'll need a reasonable player to get over the digital harshness. Early hip-hop on Vinyl sounds very different to the CD masters and Vinyl was the original intended medium. More modern stuff tends to be pretty badly recorded although the underground West Coast stuff can be very well done.

 

[Cable Monkey]

Get a sub, keep the rest.

Or

Tannoy Chesters fixed to heavy stands.

 

[scruffybitch]

who cares when you listen to sh1te like that.

get your ears syringed !

I suggest a low powered amp with very small speakers so your neighbours wont try to kill you

 

[meninblack]

LOL, the sound quality of the first one was utterly dismal, and the second one has been removed from YouTube. Sony Walkman and some really crap headphones?

 

[meninblack]

Some Hip-Hop is excellent. Listen to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill if you doubt it.

 

[meninblack]

Oh well. I guess music peaked for you with Hitler playing the bagpipes ...

 

[meninblack]

I'm just amazed you managed to listen to a whole album and form a considered judgement on it between 8.35 and 8.39 :shock:

 

[tommy1]

Some Hip-Hop is excellent. Listen to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill if you doubt it.

Got that last week. It sounds flipping awesome on my system. Exactly as you say, clear concise vocal, easy to follow.

 

[MrSammy]

Try some Jurrassic 5 if you are looking for hip-hop with male harmonies. To some extent it depends if you like soul and funk which are largely sampled in Hip-Hop although MC Kool Keith under his Dr Octogon pseudonym sampled classical and pr0n films... Ice-T often sampled Led Zep which probably explains the Body Count phase when he basically invented Nu-Metal as well as originally creating what is now called Gangasta rap. NWA were much later and only their second album was any good. I love the fact that Ice Cube sampled "Express yourself" as it was his uncle's group that recorded the original.

As Stetsasonic once put it, "Rap brings back old R and B, and if we had not people would have forgot". I enjoy searching for where samples come from. 11 minutes into Isaac Hayes HyperbolicSyllabicSeisqidailymystic ( I probably misspelt that ) there is an excellent piano refrain that turns up in Public Enemy's second album.

 

[Yeezus]

Thanks for your help guys, I understand that my music taste is not a widely appreciated one, I do listen to music from a huge range of artists, (Dido, Radiohead, Portishead, Fall Out Boy, Black Shelton, Meek Mill, Nina Simone, Otis Reading, Norah Jones etc...)

 

[flapland]

Thanks for your help guys, I understand that my music taste is not a widely appreciated one, I do listen to music from a huge range of artists, (Dido, Radiohead, Portishead, Fall Out Boy, Black Shelton, Meek Mill, Nina Simone, Otis Reading, Norah Jones etc...)

Some good choices in their. Suggest you also give Gil Scott Heron a try if you haven't already, also Lou Bond is an amazing although only released one album. I agree with the suggestion of a good pair of used tower speakers.

 

[NAM]

There are some simple and inexpensive modifications that can be made to any system to improve it's suitability for hip hop. First off, take a stanley knife and carefully and cleanly (!) cut through the positive speaker wire for each channel. This dramatically improvez the bass response. Next, take the knife and cut a 2cm squared cube out of the woofer cone (anywhere on the cone) on each speaker. This improves the transient response which is critical to the reproduction of such dynamic music. Just the cost of the stanley knife (if you dont already own one!!) and you're away!! Job done!