System edited: I went through several downsizing pricewise selling Sunfire SRP and exchanged for vintage Classe30 preamp in order to go fully balanced. I'm on the way to change to Wyred4sound amplification but still 'attached' to my Sunfire SRA.

marakanetz August 12, 2009 14:10

Might consider calling Panamax direct, they have excellent deals for customers/users of their products. I upgraded to their Panamax 5500 A/C generator for half price savings, and have been smiling ever since.

chevyman November 02, 2004 07:09

System edited: I've had this system for about a couple of months realizing how more natural my speakers started to perform. The presence of sound is heard in any kind of music weather it's a large orchestra or vocal. I've promissed not to upgrade further but my wife strongly suggested me buying SS amp for the summer. I realized that I can't go with big class A ones such as Plinius Pass or Monarchy... Moreover I didn't have a budget to get any one of these and there I've opted for Sunfire Symphonic Reference which is a budget solution instead of Sunfire 300. It has unbeliavably strong and controlled bass along with natural lower-mids. Upper end is bright, but acceptable. During off-summer days I can eliminate this glitch with my old VTLs that sustained a great maintainance when I replaced all small electrolytic caps, mounted ceramic tube sockets, military grade resistors and elimination of a coupling capacitors in the signal path(replaced with shunting diodes).

marakanetz August 24, 2004 19:50

Many things have changed since I posted this system.
--Panamax saved my components from direct lightening attack so it deserve its place for now dunno 'bout some high-priced PCs but the one I have doesn't deserve tobe "laid-off".
--I noticed that I never introduced Audio Research PH3 that was already present in my system. It was modified for the larger gain that gave me a possibility to sell my step-up transformer never mentioned in the system list.
--The rig is now standing aside from speakers almost in the corner that is certainly less vulnerable to someone's running.
--Implemented a differential J-Fet input buffer for DIY preamp that made it quiet but with less gain(didn't need too much anywhay). tube stage is switchable mainly to boost-up phono level otherwise use completely passive or J-Fet buffered configuration. Schematics were taken from Russian vintage radio magazines.
--Tonearm was Incognito-Modified with Clearaudio heavy counterweight.
--Modified PS and Bias-supply on VTLs with zenner- voltage regulators making it self-biasing but with no limitation to the manual bias adjustement.

Ongoing projects:

--Implementing tru-balanced circuit mods on nearly all of my components.

Aiiming to:

--Outboard PS(one for both monos) from VTLs to make it huge and beefy with large number of fast caps sort-of an idea like in Jadis monos 4-chassis design I'll have than 3-chassis.

--Eliminate VDH Mainstream powercords to industrial-grade wired ones and sell it on ebay or so. It started to oxide when I opened it up to check. Realy, I was pisssssed when I found that out. No cable company will I ever trust as result.

marakanetz May 16, 2003 17:05

Nice TT setup. I bet it sounds great! Have tried TWL's mod? I put it on my RB 900 and was shocked by the improvement.
Did you get the TT shelf issue resolved?

nrchy May 16, 2003 15:10

i've realized that i can live without panamax which is you'right complete b.s.. and someday when i have the time(no bucks right now as i stated financial diet) i will construct som project designing the power filter basing on the hospital equipment.
it actually does nearly nothing and i only thank to luke manley that did a tremendows job protecting vtl circuit from getting affected from surges. so far only fuses and a couple bias-resistors from the fried tubes i have replaced and nothing realy serious was happening to the other more vast components.
now i'm upgrading my amps for 220V since i have a dedicated circuit to run from.
there were some tweaking upgrades that took place arround my analogue setup such as heavily loaded stand with the lead shots and plexi-pannel that stays on vibrapods where turntable is located.
i also "downgraded" the JPS speaker cable to use two separate pairs of home designed cables a solid-core 14AWG for the bass and stranded(VanDenHul) silver-plated OFC-copper for the highs.
i'm also tired of someone walking by while the TT playing and needle become to jump. on that behalf i have to brew some TT wall shelf.
i also replaced the stock powercord with VanDenHul mainstream hybrid that i threaded to the switch since i didn't have detachable power-cord amp versions. to let you know i actually bought lots of bulk mainstream power cable and terminated it myself for nearly every component.

marakanetz August 16, 2002 16:28

Panamax looks like a weak link. I'd go Tice, and go all the way to the Powerblock 3C - it's a complete redesign over the previous (and still killer) Powerblock 3's. It'll add some serious clean oxygen to your system. Has to be one of the best PCs ever.

As a cheaper alternative, Tice's Elite 3 and Elite 4 are very decent PCs for the price ($400-$700). And you could even afford some champagne afterwards... which leads me to my next point:

Good luck on the house!

mwilson August 15, 2002 21:20