The system is designed to reproduce realistic timbre, dynamics and detail, as well as a stong sense of presence in a medium sized room. The design goals focus on achieving both a sense of intimacy and scale, and it's doing a great job of supplying both.
A most noble undertaking. It sounds fascinating. A radical departure from this sort of website, but perhaps not so far in terms of the love of music and its goals. Life is indeed never boring
Well, I'm in the process of reorienting my life away from stuff and towards essence. I've been doing a lot of inner work for the last year and a half, focusing on a blend of depth psychology and Buddhist/Taoist spirituality. The next step is a trip to the Oneness University campus in Fiji with my partner so we can both be trained in a technique known as Deeksha. Some of the money from the sale of my audio gear will finance that trip.
System edited: I'm selling almost all my heavy-hitting gear to finance the next stage of my spiritual journey. The only "big" components I've kept are the speakers and the rack. The new system sounds excellent...
System edited: I just moved into a new house, and recycled some older gear into a new incarnation of the main system. The combination of the Audion tube preamp and the Operetta on the Fab 1's is lovely.
How do you like your Jaton chip amplifier. I had an Audio Analogue Primo integrated amp with the same chip and power rating. I sold it to get a tube amp, but can't get its beautiful sound out of my head. I want to go back to a chip amp. It had the best of a tube and SS amp in one package for me.
System edited: Due to a change of location from a dedicated listening room to an apartment I've switched amps to the Jaton Operetta, a cool-running gainclone with exceptional sound. The subs are gone.
System edited: Before Christmas I was finally able to try my KR20 with the Quads. It's a hybrid integrated based on the 842VHD tube, the predecessor to the Antares, designed by KR Audio just before the death of Riccardo Kron. It's an excellent match with the Quads -- more fluid, dynamic and harmonic than the Nelson Pass Aleph J, and more rounded and organic than the Tom Evans Linear A. It will be sticking around for a while.
Fascinating. Quads were the one speaker I wanted to get 25 years ago, but just couldn't find the where with all. The more things change? Glad to hear you are still enjoying the Tom Evans. I will drop you a private note in the next little bit.
Interestingly, I like my Abbys and Fi combination, but if I would go to a different speaker, it would be some ind of panel, either the classic quad or even one of the newer Magnepans. I just love the lack of boxy colorations.
System edited: Ahhhh, Quads. Why didn't I do this 20 years ago? The ESL 57's, lovingly restored to pristine perfection by Picquet, are a perfect match with the Linear A. They add another complete dimension of realism and naturalness to the sound. SWMBO, who has little time for matters audiophile, sat down last night and listened to two hours of music with her knitting just lying ignored in her lap. After the second track she turned to me with wide eyes and said, "This is REALLY good!" Yesss!
An experiment with passive bi-amping has worked out very well. I took out the speaker jumpers, and connected the Linear A to the bass/mid terminals using the Aluminata and the PX25 to the treble using TG Audio HSR cable. Each amp is driven by its own outputs from the Vibe. The results are very satisfying - better presence and dynamics with a smoother, more coherent and lifelike treble.
Economically it's a stupid thing to do, but it makes more sense than having an amp just sitting there doing nothing.
The shielded Aluminata interconnects have eliminated the persistent, annoying buzz I was getting from one channel of my TEAD Linear A, that I could only reduce previously by grounding out the neutral leg of that channel. The Linear A is now as quiet as a tomb (though much livelier). As a result of the reduction in residual background noise the images are more solid and better defined. A layer of fine grain has been removed as well, and the sound is smoother. I guess Tom Evans' warning that the amp must be used with shielded cables is worth heeding.
The Aluminata PC gives the Linear A a richer, weightier tonality, along with better musical flow. There's more juice to the sound, and the sense of leanness that put me off previously (to the extent that for a while I preferred the sound of the Audio Analogue Enigma) seems to have been banished.
The Aluminata cabling has proved itself on two amplifiers now. It has made the most difference on the Linear A. This amp is a bit of a touchy thoroughbred, and it really shines with the JPS Labs wire.
System edited: I just installed a JPS Labs Aluminata power cord on the amplifier, replacing the Elrod Statement I'd been using. two sets of Aluminata interconnects have replaced the Kimber KS-1030 I was using. I swapped back in a set of Elrod EPS-2 Sigs on the upstream components to replace the Foundation Research LC-2's. I'm very, very pleased. The Aluminata power cord is outrageously good.
hi Glide, my 5 cents worth. The LA + Vibe/Pulse does what you describe exceptionally well but for my taste i had to dial back in some soul/beauty i missed from my previous amps (incl 300Bs). I guess no amp, no matter how good does all things to all men. So it's a matter of enjoying what it does well and perhaps dialing in some of what you miss. That's my case anyhow. OR like yourself, own 3 sets of amps and enjoy them periodically! 8 ))
System edited: I've added a KR Audio KR20 to the stable of active amplifiers. It's an 842-based integrated, a precursor to the current Antares designs. It is very dynamic, while sounding less romantic than 300B or 300BXLS amps but more lush than the PX-25. It's a sort of reverse hybrid design, as it has a SS input stage and tubed output. It's a heavy piece - around 85 pounds, about 8 pounds heavier than my previous (and much missed) KR18.
I put the TEAD Linear A back in the system a couple of days ago. After listening to the Aleph J and the PX25 for an extended period I was instantly reminded of why I liked the Linear A so much: unbelievably fast, clear, dynamic, high-resolution, transparent sound. OTOH I also like the PX25 for its rich tone and gentler presentation, and the Aleph J for its unassuming clarity.
I suspect what I will do in the future is give them all rotating duty, but for at least a week at a time to let my ears readjust to each change. This is an object lesson in what a large role mental acclimatization plays in our hobby.
Thanks for the kind words, Matthew. Rest assured I'm not giving up on hi-fi, but only on writing reviews about the gear that strikes my fancy. Don't worry, the changes and return invitations will keep flowing.
You are too hard on yourself Paul. I don't know anything about Shinola myself. But I do know that you have excellent taste in equipment. You move at the speed of light, I can't keep up with what you have now, and barely remember what you had before. But everytime I have left your house, I'm already hoping for a return invite, because the music and hospitality were excellent. All the best
Zyrueda, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. I'm giving up writing reviews. I don't know sh!t from Shinola about hi-fi, my momentary enthusiasms always get the better of me, and I haven't written a single review that I still agreed with six months later. I'm really enjoying the rig as is, and the thought of doing another analytical comparison is more than faintly depressing.
Hello. Paul You really did some raves rewievs about Linear A Tom Evans amplifier. I would like to read some review now, about your changed opinion. Many people can read now your past review...
System edited: Nelson Pass' Aleph J is now holding the system together. Sitting betwen the Vibe/Pulse and the Fabs it is really beguiling. The Enigma is back doing a fine job in the living room system.
Sorry, folks, real life intervened there for a few weeks. Here's what's going on now:
Further experimentation has changed my opinions a bit, as it usually does.
The electronics now consist of the AN front end, the Vibe/Pulse and Nelson Pass' Aleph J. It all sounds lovely again.
I think now that my perceptions were coloured by the performance of the Tom Evans amplifier as it conditioned my expectations over time. I did some more equipment swapping, and decided that that amp is just too lean and hard-edged for my ears. While my jury is still out on that to some extent, I do know that the combination of the Vibe, the Aleph J and my Audio Note front end sounds significantly better to me than the Enigma.
The Enigma remains a phenomenally musical piece of gear, and especially given its price gets nothing but raves from me. Once I got the high-priced gear sorted out, however, it did put the universe back in its expected order. This goes to show once again how little it takes to unbalance a high-end system, and how sensitive our brains are to conditioning and expectation.
So the executive summary is that the Enigma is a fantastic piece of kit, but not quite as fantastic as I thought when my psychoacoustic matrix was still under the spell of some fairly "unbalanced" sound.
