I've returned to dynamic speakers! Via another vintage British manufacturer of course... Tannoy. 10" Monitor Reds sitting in their original (unnamed) enclosures) and now driven by a Shindo Montille. While I miss the beauty and magical sheen of the Quads, I find myself being more drawn into the music now. They call this pace, articulation and dynamics among other things... I call it rediscovering my record collection. SUPER awesome.
LignoLab / A23 plinth with the EMT 997 banana tonearm takes the system to a new level... EMT custom stereo and mono carts now in system as well.
Shindon Monbrison replaces my linestage and phonostage, and I'm not looking back. More than anything else this single component transformer my entire system.
Now in the LignoLab / Auditorium 23 plinth, with the solid copper pivoted armboard.
EMT 997
The legendary banana arm, now being manufactured again by the original engineer with the original jig. Easily replaced a classic 9
Shindo Super SPU-A
I have now attained cartridge perfection.
Auditorium 23 step-up transformer for SPU
Perfectly matched for SPU cartridges
EMT OFD25i
Another "JH special", this one mono. Fat, honest, in your face mono sound. Fantastic on Blue Notes. Again massive and needs a massive arm to control it. 5g tracking force!
Sentec EQ10 mono phono preamp
Tubed mono phono preamp with dozens of selectable curves for 78s and early mono pre-RIAA records
Shindo Monbrison
Forget about it - this small box of vintage parts exquisitely tuned by hand replaced 3 huge hulking pieces of tube equipment and sounds more musical to boot!
Shindo Montille
Perfect little 15 watt EL-84 push-pull amp.
Shindo silver interconnects
Shindo's own silver interconnects with low-mass connectors.
Auditorium 23 speaker cable
I think this is only the cable they make... hand-assembled, thin conductors, cotton insulation with a homely look... but the sound is far from homely... these things just let the music FLOW through... 8 feet
Noblesse Guizu SRW-3A component rack
Fantastic 3-shelf rack from China made of solid walnut and built to resonate at 3 Hz. Still not well known in the US and only spottily imported - you can see pictures of their other stuff at guizu.com.cn.
Hi Patrick, I just love your system and hope to be there one day. I currently have the Aurieges/Monbrison combo and eventually will move to a SPU on my front end. But in the meantime, the 103 will be a more affordable intermediate step. I notice you used to have the 103R (which is on its own is regarded to be superior to the 103), my question is - does the A23 SUT bring the 103 up to a level that exceeds the 103R? I know the 103 and A23 were made for each other, but wondering if the A23 can enable the humble 103 to punch above its weight?
