Dear Massimo,
I hope you are well.
My name is Boris and I’m from Moscow, Russia.
I’ve stumbled upon your website while searching for information on some Telefunken speakers (more on that later) and, before I knew it, I’ve found myself reading it non-stop for almost a week – thanks God you decided to translate it into English!
One can hardly come across such a wealth of information on such a sophisticated subject as home high fidelity audio, let alone relayed in a professional and unassuming manner.
I am of course a music lover and am particularly partial to some adventurous jazz and rock music. Having attended (and organised) many live concerts, I’ve plenty of experience enjoying live sound (both amplified and not amplified). While I’m also very fond of vintage gear, I can’t say I’ve a great deal of experience in this area. I only started with this hobby (meaning actually buying vintage gear as opposed to just reading about it) last year amidst the pandemic. Before that, for 15 years, I’ve had (and actually still have) a (then-modern) and fairly modest system comprised of floor standing AE speakers, a Marantz receiver, Onkyo player, and – one piece of vintage still – an Arktur turntable (a USSR made direct drive). I also must admit I’ve zero technical knowledge about electronics and speakers and so on.
As I’ve mentioned before, I was searching for information on Telefunken speakers (model TL800 is the one I was interested in) and this is how I’ve found your (old) page. You’ve given some good feedback on these speakers (an opinion I’ve come across before from other people as well) but what really struck me was how you described them: I mean your words about the speakers being respectful to the music, timbre of instruments etc. It is not often that one reads something like this in a speakers review… So I thought, I’d better listen to that guy. 🙂 That really was the decisive moment for me – first, I finally decided to purchase a pair of TL800; second, I wanted to read more of your wonderful website.
So on I read. I found the Grundig story section. I was a little sceptical at first: no-one on the Internet (or amongst friends) really praised Grundig much so your opinion seemed almost like a voice in the wilderness. However, I kept reading and, naturally, I wanted to try out some of the Grundig gear you praised. I went to a local web market (like Ebay) and searched for Grundig amps in the first instance.
I don’t usually want to mess around with shipping gear so I’ve limited my search to Moscow. What I found was a V7200. I was disappointed at first, because you had said it was only a partial CCI. Then, I’ve found at the newer version of your website that it was actually a full CCI and a very good amp. In one of your responses in the Letters section, you even said it was a good match for the TL800.
That was the moment for me. I’ve contacted the seller and agreed on delivery to my place. He came the next day, we checked the amp, I paid and he was gone. And, just as you had said about that monster of a power amp that is Onkyo 510, that Grundig V7200 is my biggest surprise (so far) in the world of audio.
I bought it three times cheaper than any of the other amps I own. It doesn’t look too fancy or stylish, or even vintage. Yet I think it plays better than any of my amps! (more on makes and models later.) I’ve no idea whether my V7200 is a genuine CCI, however the seller claims it’s not been tampered with.
In any case, it sounds natural, transparent, absolutely fatigue-less. Finally (!) I can listen to music late at night at low volume with a great deal more audible detail (even academic music, like I do now as I write this message to you, past midnight, listening to some Rachmaninoff), and an altogether much more engaging sound than anything I’ve experienced before….with loudness off and not wanting to turn it on!
And that’s just one component of the system that is (hopefully) CCI. For that alone I want to say an enormous thank you, Massimo, as this is a game-changer.
Now I have a question. I do want to explore more of Grundig but it looks like Grundig components and speakers are not overly popular in our local e-market and, as I’ve said before, I wouldn’t want to mess around with shipping so would rather wait when something interesting crops up locally. However, there is a pair of Aktiv Box 30 on offer, in a bundle with an MXV 100 preamp. I would like to propose to the seller to swap my Braun L810 and Kenwood KA6004 for that Grundig bundle. What do you think, is it worth it? Otherwise I intend to sell the Brauns and the Kenwood, but I thought that’d be a good swap? I did read your comment regarding the high potential that the Aktiv boxes have and that they’d really shine when LT modded. However, I’ve heard good things about them even without that mod… And I’m very curious about Grundig speakers (and of course about active speakers as such, as I’ve not had any experience with them at all) – and this seems to be the only reasonable local offer for now.
Also, I’m slightly confused regarding the appearance of this particular pair of Aktiv boxes. See link here -http://xxxxxxxxxxxxx
If you look at the pictures, the speakers don’t have the holes where you attach the grills to. Is it some kind of odd version of the speakers that has no grills? Also slightly concerning is the somewhat wrinkled surface on the right speaker to the left of the tweeter. What do you think?
There seems to be another pair available, see here – http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (But I’m not sure if that’s a credible seller.)
Here, the speakers clearly have grills and there are no wrinkles there.
Finally, is the MXV 100 a preamp worth these speakers? Is it CCI? Will I be able to use it as a normal preamp with a power amp and passive speakers also? Or should I get a more advanced Grunding preamp for the Aktiv boxes? I note the best seems to be the XV7500 but again, it’s nowhere to be seen locally (yet).
I would be grateful for your response, Massimo, and I thank you again for the amazing job you had done with that website of yours, and for giving the opportunity to explore lesser known but wonderful gear that is the V7200.
It would be great to hear back from you and I’m happy for you to publish our e-mail exchanges on your website if you feel they can be of use to others; however I would ask that you don’t publish the links to those ads that I’d shared above.Thanks again and again and again.
All my best wishes
Boris xxxxxxxx
Dear Boris,
I am glad that my site has been useful to you, generally it is useful to all those who use their ears and do not wait the “revues” opinion to determine if an object is musical or not. I believe that the exchange you mentioned may be useful for gaining experience in Grundig. A lot of information on my site is “hidden”…reachable only by links placed in the text of the various pages. It is my way of rewarding the passionate reader. As for the preamps to start with, the MXV100 is fine too but the solutions that I personally prefer can be found at this link:
https://hifiaudio.altervista.org/i-miei-preferiti/
Good listening and Best Regards
Massimo Ambrosini
I forget…..the grids are very important for the aktiv box!