OT: Audio gear, what have you got?

[DarkStar]

Speakers: Altec A7s/604s/cheap 409s, and DIY Dynaudios
Amps: Simaudio 5080, NAD 316, Jolida 801, Rega Brio, and several others that require servicing
Analog sources: Oracle Delphi/Zeta arm/Koetsu Black Goldline, Perreaux TU-tuner, pair of TEAC R-R, Revox A-77.
Digital: Jolida CD-100, Oppo 103, Audioquest Dragonfly.
Grado sr-125e cans.
All cabling is DIY pure silver.
Simaudio, Oppo, and A7s, the big rig. NAD, Jolida CD-100, Oracle, 604s bedroom system.
Both setups are exceptionally musical and has pretty well ended GAS for me

[rnhood]

Originally Posted by RudAwkning

C.E.C. TL1 transport
Mark Levinson 36s d/a converter
Conrad Johnson Premier 14 pre-amp
Krell KBX active crossover
Conrad Johnson MF2300A amplifiers (laterally biamped)
Apogee Studio Grand loudpseakers
VPI TNT turntable
SME tonearm
Transfiguration Spirit cartridge
Benz Lukaschek PP1 phono pre-amp
Highwire, Synergistic and Van Den Hul interconnects and cables
Sound Application power line conditioner
Synergistic Audio power cords.

It's been nearly a decade and a half since I bought something new for the hifi. Right about the time I got seriously into cycling

That's a real nice set up there. While the Apogees would probably like a little more room, they are outstanding speakers. Some of the best hours listening to music was in front of Apogees, and I have listened to all the models. It's the speaker that sold me on ribbons, and it was love at first sound. You have a lot of top shelf equipment. During my hi-fi days, I had the Fidelity Research MC201 cartridge (and a 202), with the SOTA turntable, and nothing has ever sounded so liquid and seductive. I'm sure the Transfiguration sounds just as good, maybe better. I used a step up transformer for the cartridge. Does that PP1 properly load the Spirit?

[robertbb]

DAC: Emotiva XDA-2
Amp: Emotiva XPA-200
Speakers: Bowers and Wilkins CM1 series 2 (on proper B&W FS-CM stands)
Subs: Rel T-5/i (two of these, one rolling off for each channel L/R)

Absolutely love it!

[jghall]

[QUOTE=kingpin75s;2446907]Please do. Cables are a passion of mine. QUOTE]

Hey KP,
I'll refrain from getting into the whole cable debate thing. Interesting read on the cables you mention. I'll look into them further.

Since you asked, my main speaker cables are from Skogrand. At least for what I'll call my two main two systems. Then various other speaker, power, i/c's from Gregg Staley(Reality Cables), Cerious Tech, Morrow Audio, Jena Labs, Kaplan, and Triode Wires for the other stuff.

Nice system you have there. As you know, treatment is key. Guess like fit is king in the bike world. Myself I'm using Acousticemac Art. And GIK panels in other spots.

Btw, absolutely love the chandelier.

Regards,
Jeff

[IJWS]

Originally Posted by Ken Robb

So we had some texts about Vandersteen speakers and I see a pair of 2 ce listed on CL in San Diego complete with stands and original boxes which would help a lot in shipping. They look good in the pix and it looks like they are not just 2 ce but Signature models which had some further tweaks. I think $495 is a very good price. That's all I know about them.

I finally updated my location, 2.5 years later. 2CE Signatures are my white whale right now and that ad has been up for a while. If other life events were not competing, I think it would be time to go for it! Great to hear that someone else loves theirs!

[parris]

I REALLY have to try to ignore these posts! I don't "NEED" anything new, better, or different. Reading these though has me thinking and more dangerously LOOKING at gear....

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by IJWS

I finally updated my location, 2.5 years later. 2CE Signatures are my white whale right now and that ad has been up for a while. If other life events were not competing, I think it would be time to go for it! Great to hear that someone else loves theirs!

You're close enough to come down and hear mine. If you like them we can check the condition of those for sale nearby.

[William]

Cables: Paul weighs in...

https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/cables-matter/

October 30, 2018 by Paul McGowan

Oh boy. I saved this and the next Fact or Fiction for last. This is a real viper pit of a question and those loyal readers of this blog know my answer before I even write it. Of course they matter, but only if we’re a bit open to proving that to ourselves.

I suppose we’ll begin with the most reviled of them all, power cables. Tomorrow we’ll tackle signal cables.

I am told our company loses credibility amongst the professional engineering crowd whenever we suggest power cables matter to sound quality. And, here’s my answer to that. I am sorry, but that doesn’t change the facts—nor am I incentivized to soften my stance. That the idea power cables matter makes little sense to someone who believes they have the electrical world figured out is something I won’t waste anyone’s time defending. If you firmly believe this to be true—that with your wisdom and knowledge you’re convinced it cannot be true—you should skip today’s post because you’ll be simply wasting your time...

William

[kingpin75s]

[QUOTE=jghall;2447566]

Originally Posted by kingpin75s

Please do. Cables are a passion of mine. QUOTE]

Hey KP,
I'll refrain from getting into the whole cable debate thing. Interesting read on the cables you mention. I'll look into them further.

Since you asked, my main speaker cables are from Skogrand. At least for what I'll call my two main two systems. Then various other speaker, power, i/c's from Gregg Staley(Reality Cables), Cerious Tech, Morrow Audio, Jena Labs, Kaplan, and Triode Wires for the other stuff.

Nice system you have there. As you know, treatment is key. Guess like fit is king in the bike world. Myself I'm using Acousticemac Art. And GIK panels in other spots.

Btw, absolutely love the chandelier.

Regards,
Jeff

Thank you and thanks for sharing some of the brands you use. Always nice to see what others are running and look at different designs.

Yes, treatment is key. However I do benefit from having a large space and my system being on the long wall so my first reflections to solve are mostly limited to my rug space and my front wall. Side wall first reflections are too distant to be audible so I can even have a mirror there and you would not hear the difference. Once the room is a little further along with furnishings, I will bring in a buddy with an analyzer to review the room. I am already getting really flat base response without even using the EQs on the subs. I just keep them at a very low crossover of 50-55 and at a low volume setting to be integrated and effortless with the mains. I expect there will still be some spaces where I consider additional absorption (or diffusion) but I do not expect my room will need to be treated to the extent most of my friends are based on size and configuration.

I do have an extra chandelier available

[kingpin75s]

Originally Posted by William

Cables: Paul weighs in...

https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/cables-matter/

William

A few good bits there.

First is the idea that your system is not at the end of a power chain, in an AC circuit, it is the middle of that chain. I first wrapped my head around that general idea when I was running some Threshold SA/2 Pure Class-A monoblocks and wanted to understand how they effectively created an open circuit with the speakers.

Second is that power cables are the place you might as well discuss as they are not always as easy to pick out ALL the benefits whereas speaker cables and ICs are more straight forward to me. An example of this is that when I introduced good power cords to my monoblocks and LS early in my system I could tell there was more of a fullness to the sound, but I did not notice significant changes in articulation. As my system matured and I removed distortion through Sorbothane along with better speaker cables and ICs, when it came time to add upgraded power cables to my remaining pieces, including my phono stage, I was surprised that I got more of a change then expected. I could now not only hear an increase in body to the sound, but also very clear improvements in hard to hit pieces that historically have collapsed into distortion.

In short, the latest PC adds increased not only the fullness of sound, but it further eliminated distortion in some challenging segments of my electronic music that I use to test my system. The more challenging the material, the easier it is to find your flaws and hear your improvements. I do listen very often at close to live music levels.

[RudAwkning]

Originally Posted by rnhood

That's a real nice set up there. While the Apogees would probably like a little more room, they are outstanding speakers. Some of the best hours listening to music was in front of Apogees, and I have listened to all the models. It's the speaker that sold me on ribbons, and it was love at first sound. You have a lot of top shelf equipment. During my hi-fi days, I had the Fidelity Research MC201 cartridge (and a 202), with the SOTA turntable, and nothing has ever sounded so liquid and seductive. I'm sure the Transfiguration sounds just as good, maybe better. I used a step up transformer for the cartridge. Does that PP1 properly load the Spirit?

I had a pair of Mini Grands before these. But I had a crazy good opportunity to get these that, as an audiophile addict at the time, I couldn't turn down. I think I bought them on consignment with the stock DAX crossover for $5500 and also got $3000 trade in credit for the Mini Grands. The sellers claimed there was a problem with the speakers and replaced them with a pair of Dunlavy SC-Vs. I was a friend of the shop and volunteered to help move the news speakers in and take the old ones out. One of the owners kept telling us how she has perfect pitch, played in the SF Symphony, and knew there was an issue with the speakers as we were swapping them out. I was fairly certain I knew what the issue was and when I got them home I realized I was right. The drivers in the right subwoofer cabinet were out of phase (the owners had replaced them on their own and didn't wire them correctly). The voice coils were also damaged and a little "scratchy". A call to Madisound and a couple hundred bucks later and I had a pair of brand new Vifa woofers and perfectly functioning Studio Grands!

Before the Mini Grands, I had a pair of Von Schweickert VR-4 gen 1s. I've still never owned a speaker that rivaled the bass of those speakers. They were supposed to be flat to 20hz.

I think the Spirit's output is .3v? (It's the first gen one with a body similar to the Sumiko SHO cartridge and doesn't resemble the classic Transfiguration cartridge body at all). And the Lukaschek is supposed to be able to drive cartridges as low as .2v

[jmoore]

Too much stuff to list the details. So here's a pic of my uncle messing around with the system a few weeks back. It sounds really good streaming the AM sports radio coming from my phone every morning. It also opens up the sound from the ipod Nano I got at a business conference.

[Redbasso2]

Main system consists of:

Front end line inputs: VPI Aries 1 turntable, Cambridge Audio 840C CD player, Bluesound Node 2 Streamer, Magnum Dynalab 102T Tuner (get's used alot) all going into a ARC SP16 preamp, then to a pair of Quicksilver Silver 60s mono amps driving a pair of Quad 22L Speakers.

I would use the system 10 x more often if the damn tv wasn't running in the background all the time!

[Plum Hill]

Magnum Dynalab MD-208 FM receiver; Marantz SACD player and disc cd changer; Kenwood 550 turntable with Grace tonearm; Fulton Nuance speakers (from my Audio Research days) biwired with Fulton brown cable (the cable that started it all). Bryston speaker switch box; Pioneer BS-22 speakers in the basement; MD antennae in the attic.
Suits me just fine in my waning years and constant tinnitus.
Thing is on 12 - 16 hours a day.
My neighbors sometimes raise eyebrows....

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by Plum Hill

Magnum Dynalab MD-208 FM receiver; Marantz SACD player and disc cd changer; Kenwood 550 turntable with Grace tonearm; Fulton Nuance speakers (from my Audio Research days) biwired with Fulton brown cable (the cable that started it all). Bryston speaker switch box; Pioneer BS-22 speakers in the basement; MD antennae in the attic.
Suits me just fine in my waning years and constant tinnitus.
Thing is on 12 - 16 hours a day.
My neighbors sometimes raise eyebrows....

There was a Fulton Speaker demo salon near my home way back when. Their building block approach to upgrading was really clever.