Made the switch to all tube gear around November 2009. Never going back to solid state! This system can get very loud, even with "only" 8wpc from the Coincident Frankenstein monoblocks. Nice match with the Zu Essence speakers. Subwoofer adds a lot in a large listening space. Any changes you would recommend?
Combo tube preamp/CD player. Computer audio ready via USB port.
Clearaudio Champion Limited SE
Only 1000 made; clear acrylic plinth, separate outboard motor, Unify 9" carbon fiber tonearm, Talismann MC cartridge.
Zu Audio Essence
Full range driver augmented with ribbon tweeter, 97 db/watt/m efficiency, custom jet black gloss finish.
Aliante Pininfarina One
Accurate and detailed Italian made monitor.
Aliante Pininfarina Vela
Custom made for the Pininfarina One.
Moon M-1 Monitors
Upgraded LSA-1 monitors, Auri caps, Cardas posts, new crossover. Back up rig right now. With optional stands ($500 extra)
JL Fathom F-112
12 inch driver with three inch travel, self-contained 1500 wpc Class D amplifier
Clearaudio Smart Matrix
Automatic record cleaner. 25 year and older vinyl needs all the help it can get. Works very well.
Adcom GTP-400
Older solid state unit. Emergency backup rig in case the house is destroyed.
Jeff Rowland Model 102
100 wpc Class D amp. Largely relegated to backup duty now. But as it gets dog hot in the summer, may find more usage. Not a huge step down from the MastersounD at all.
LG Electronics LE5400
55" LED-LCD HDTV wall mounted. No surround system; use as two channel video set up.
LG Electronics BD590
Blu-Ray DVD player with wireless connectivity
Zu Audio Libtec
10 foot pair for the Essence
Zu Audio Mission LS cables
10 foot pair, 5/16" spades
Nordost Blue Heaven
Bi-wired 3m pair
Signal Cable Ultra
9 ft bi-wired pair
Zu Audio Mission IC
15 foot XLR pair for the subwoofer.
Zu Audio Mission XLR
5 foot IC
Coincident Speaker Tech Extreme IC's
2 meter RCA pair specifically for the Frankensteins.
Audio Metallurgy GA-0 Interconnect
1.25 meter pair, terminated with NextGen Signature RCA plugs
Audio Metallurgy GA-2 interconnect
1.5m XLR pair
Discovery Plus 4
3 meter XLR pair
Signal Cable Analog Two
Custom made 6'/10' splitter IC to run both the MastersounD and JL Fathom off the Ayon CD5 preamp.
Black Mountain Cable Pinnacle Gold Interconnect
2m RCA pair
Coincident Speaker Tech CST PC Power Cords
6' pair for the Frankensteins.
Balanced Power Technologies BP-1 Ultra
Power conditioner with three high quality power cables, upgraded 15 amp wall outlets. Thanks to my Audio Guy for setting me up.
Steve Blinn Designs Three shelf extra wide rack
Black anodized aluminum frame, walnut stained shelves. Superb isolation. No feedback at all from TT.
Steve Blinn Designs Amp stands
Custom sized for the Frankenstein monoblocks, black anodized aluminum finish and walnut stained maple platforms to match main rack
Hey, Charles. Nope, the Triton is still up with my friend. Should get it back this spring. The Franks sound great. Just got the MastersounD back, it's fun jumping back and forth. Choose what you want- detail or plain old grunt.
LOL. You and the TV, Vernneal....it's the only place in the house I can watch something other than Oprah or Judge Judy. So it has to stay....
Added an Ayon Triton recently. Letting a friend break it in for a couple months before it takes its' place on the rack. Couldn't pass up a nice deal. Should really rock with the Zu speakers.
The Matrix is a nice addition. Easy to set up and use, and it does a great job cleaning and reconditioning old vinyl. My records are all 25-35 years old, and some were beaten up pretty good, so there was a lot of hissing and popping. With the Matrix, a good deal of that was eliminated. Can't get rid of all of it, but it got rid of most of it.
The Blinn rack is a great iso rack. Was worried that I'd still get feedback through the TT with the huge bass the JL can pump out, but it's dead quiet at any volume. Credit to the isolation qualities of the rack, as well as the solid build of the Clearaudio TT. Fat, heavy plinth, with three large stainless steel isolation feet....thing weighs over 40 pounds. Record cleaner arriving soon. 25+ year old vinyl that hasn't been cleaned in that long needs a little help. Hope the Clearaudio Matrix provides that assistance.
Yes, it does help. The input impedance on the Frankensteins is listed on Coincident's site as "100kohm". Can that be right? Maybe...the MastersounD is listed as 50 k Ohms. Coincident's linestage preamp has an output impedance of 500 ohms, so that fits. My EAR is 600 ohms, and the CD5 is 300 ohms on output impedance, so it's all good.
Yeah, I do. Not well, but I try. You must have seen the snare in one of the pictures....I collect snares. That one is a Limited Edition Johnny Craviotto snare. One of the few Lake Superior Sapphires. Solid shell made from 700 year old maple salvaged from a Lake Superior shipwreck. The wood is partially petrified, giving it a bluish (sapphire) hue. I believe Johnny had very few of the Sapphire shells ever made. This shell was one of the last seven he had. They're all gone now. Had it finished with gold flanges and gold lugs. Sounds awesome. Right now, I'm using one of Craviotto's Mahogany snares in my kit. He makes killer drums. I also have one of his limited edition Black Cherry snares, a Tama walnut snare,a Tama Starclassic snare, a Brady Jarrah stave snare and a Noble & Cooley solid shell snare. Fitted the Lake Superior with a 30 strand snappy...sounds killer. Overall, the solid shells wipe the floor with standard multi-ply constructed snares. My main kit is a Tama Starclassic seven piece birch set, with Zildjian and Paiste cymbals.
You're right, it does help with adjusting the sound of the system. You know exactly what those drums, especially the snares, should sound like.
LOL, Jay. Too late. Too much invested to go back now. Besides, I really enjoy the tube sound and messing with them, rolling and stuff. Would like to roll some 300B's, but they're expensive.
Stupid question- what do you mean by matching impedance? I know this is something I should have thought of before, but I don't have much of an idea as to what components you're talking about. Everything has impedance- cables, sources, speakers....can you give me some pointers?
Rack just arrived; new 55" flat screen LED-LCD HDTV gets wall mounted next week. Vernneal will be pleased to see the old relic TV gone. Room rearranged, sub moved to a corner position, lot of junk gone now. Pics coming soon when everything set up properly. Analog rig coming soon. Going with a VPI Aries 3 with the JMW 10.5i tonearm. Need a cartridge....any suggestions?
After some lengthy listening sessions, I actually prefer the 868 to the CD5 as a one box solution. More dynamic, better bass, just sounds fuller. It's nice that the CD5 has allowed me to get into computer audio. I have a ton of music stored on my hard drive that I don't have on CD or vinyl (not that the vinyl matters- yet), and it's great to be able to listen to that stuff other than in my car. Just a simple USB cable hook up to the CD5, and off you go. Sound quality of the downloaded mp3 files isn't as good as CD, but I expected that.
The CD5 as a one box unit, to my ears, is not substantially different from the EAR 868. Good or bad? On one hand, maybe it should have blown the EAR away. On the other hand, I'm sitting on a 6900 dollar preamp that's now going to be used only as a phono stage when the analog rig arrives.
No problem, Z. How did the cable elevators improve your sound? Were they worth it? As you can see from my set up pics, I've got curled up cables running all over the place. And no rack- if vibration is a true problem, then I've got a real big one. Those old wood tables ain't making it.
Zephyr, the Zu's add a whole new dimension. Very different from the monitors, which is not surprising. The Moons and Aliantes are fairly similar, with the latter geared more for voice and mids, while the Moons are a bit more bass heavy. The Essence, though...wow. Superb detail. I can hear nuances on the recordings that I can't hear with either monitor. Not just bass stuff, either. Much more detailed and delicate in the treble. They can sound a bit "messy" for lack of a better term, in the midrange than either monitor, but that's more than made up for with the details, imaging and soundstaging the Essence provides. Didn't know how I'd like these, but after a cursory session sampling about 90 minutes worth of music at low/moderate volume, the Essence trumps both monitors easily. Will probably have some time to really turn them loose this weekend. But yes, with the combination of equipment, I can really tailor things to what I'm listening to. Each speaker and amp have their strong points. The NEW preamp isn't as versatile. The DC surge it produces precludes me from using it with the Rowland amp- a lesson I learned quite painfully. With the Signal Cable IC's arriving today, I now get a chance to use the CD5 as a "one box" piece. The preamp section is supposed to be excellent.
System edited: System Edit: The Zu Audio Essence arrived today. Great looking and sounding speakers. High WAF. Excellent detail, soundstage and imaging. Definitely a keeper piece.
Thanks. Don't know what I'm going to do with the Aliantes. Depends upon how I like the Essence. I've been waiting 10 weeks for them now- still haven't shipped. The Zu gear is kinda strange- people either seem to love it or just hate it. Very little middle ground. Zu, though, is quite proactive in their marketing strategy. Don't like them? Return for a full refund within 60 days. That's a can't miss deal in my mind. I like the Aliantes, but they just don't have the grunt I want sometimes. I'm hoping the Zu provides that. The Moon M-1 monitors I use as backup are actually quite good- they're highly modded LSA-1 monitors. They are a bit darker than the Aliantes, which I like, but at some midrange frequencies, I get an annoying rattle from one of them. I've replaced the woofer twice, with no success in getting rid of the rattle. They're a good enough monitor that I'd take them over the Aliante without the rattle. Funny you mention racks. I was just looking for one last night. Thing is, a really good one will suck up some of the funds I have penciled in for an analog setup. But I think they have to go hand in hand. Without some better isolation, I'm going to have serious feedback issues with a TT up there.
Started planning for an analog rig addition recently. Have too much good old vinyl to ignore any longer. Wonder how they'll sound after being in storage for over 20 years? Will likely go with VPI and a Dynavector MC cartridge.
Thanks! The Rowland I have is one of his Class D amps. Not the quality of his monos, but....it pales compared to the MastersounD. The room is a disaster. I remeasured- it's 15x19, but it has built in bookcases at the far end, each flanking a window that's recessed about three feet. The door is also recessed about three feet. The walls otherwise are all sheet rock, except for the double wood doors to the closet. The ceiling is 10 feet at the apex, but the walls go up vertically six feet, and then angle to the ceiling at 45 degrees to the apex height. Then, there's the seven piece drumkit in the corner....just a disaster of a space. I used the Cardas "Golden Room" equation to set up the speakers, and it helps greatly with imaging, but results in even more wasted space. Pics are difficult because I don't have a wide angle camera, so you have to put it up piecimeal, if you know what I mean. I will put up pics of the Zu's when they arrive- they just finished the painting, and they're on final assembly now. The CD-5 arrived Thursday- it is an amazing piece of equipment. Even my wife- yes, my wife- now thinks that it's a "waste" to have the rig upstairs instead of our living room. Who'd a thunk that?
