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.
System edited: plinko, if you haven't done it already, you absolutely must try the A23 step-up transformer for the Denon 103. (Not the 103R.) It was made to match that cartridge to Shindo preamps, and the combination is magical. System updated - I've moved to more Shindo, and gone back to dynamic speakers. See more in the system description.
System edited: Added Shindo Super-SPU A. I'm using the Auditorium 23 step-up for SPU with it. Also added Sentec EQ10 tubed mono phono preamp, tons of selectable curves for 78s and early mono LPs.
Loving the 997 with the ILZ. Completely natural. Also, once you move to EMT carts, all these other convenience features of the tonearm kick in... you can add and remove special weights to quickly switch between regular and 78 carts, for example.
System edited: Finally got my two one-of-a-kind EMT custom cartridges (JH specials). I'm also using my restored Leak now more than the RM-10 - with its 16-ohm tap it's drives the Quads even more equably.
System edited: Just got the Music Reference RM-10, a 15 watt per channel amp voiced around the Quads and made specifically to handle their highly reactive load. This amp blow away $10K amps in this application.
System edited: System edited: changed 103R to 103. Added A23 step-up transformer. Switched out AKSA amp for Leak Stereo 20 - an amp that handles the Quad ESLs with ease.
System edited: Shindo Monbrison... 3 huge tube boxes (linestage plus 2-box phonostage) replaced by a small, green, exquisitely built preamp that just issues irrepressible music... there's no other possible description.
System edited: Just got a pair of beautifully refurbed ESL-57s, with stands, from Wayne Piquet in Orlando. I am currently alternating between them and the VMPS. Btw, the AKSA has no difficult whatsoever driving the Quads to very high, clean levels.
System edited: see comment about the Io's airborne RF problems (long thread in Analog entitled "To Aesthetix owners," with much interesting advice; Jim White from Aesthetix has also been very helpful), and the (temporary?) addition of the Silent Running Audio Duke power filter - solely for the Io Sig.
System edited: Edit: swapped out the cheap Taras for Auditorium 23 (still pretty cheap for $900/8 feet) -- marvellous cables that seem to synergize with my system perfectly... the bass is far better. Music is subjectively (and perhaps objectively) much much louder at the same volume level as before.
Definitely rebuild the 301. It blew away my Acoustic Solid, which I sold immediately. Everything from speed stability to image solidity to bass - this is just a superior turntable.
Does it work? Have you turned it on yet?
Clean the idler wheel with rubber renew, and oil the idler wheel's bearings, oil the motor, and oil the main platter bearing. The cap that hangs down to stop the turn-on pop probably needs to be replaced - I put a generic .68 uF on there.
Calibrate the speed with a strobe - make sure you have the 60 Hz brass pulley (you should since obviously your parents owned it and you're in America).
Replace the Garrard mat - the one with many ridges - it's terrible. I use a Herbie's mat (should have mentioned that in system description) which works beautifully.
Then you need to make a plinth. A skeletal one like I did, sitting on rollerblocks and then on three "feet", will work fine, or you can make a solid plinth from layered baltic birch ply or many other materials - there are many versions on the market too. But don't make just a hollow "box" or anything out of MDF - the Garrard will not respond to this.
System edited: With everything burned in, every record now sounds magnificent or at the very least musical. I'm not thinking equipment anymore. I have upgrades in-house and en route (VMPS doped megawoofers, crossover upgrade and soon the VMPS constant directivity waveguide mod) that I'm not sure I even want to install. This system used to be called "Analog Lust" and while it's still Analog, the lusting is gone - I'm just happy with it now.
System edited: Complete system overhaul, built around the Aesthetix Io Sig on one end and the VMPS 626Rs on the other. The major change was switching out huge modern string/tape drive table for a classic Garrard 301 idler drive, for which I had a carpenter build a skeletal plinth to mount on rollerblocks. Even with the skeletal plinth it blew away my old turntable, which I sold. I currently have my carpenter working on a new plinth which will also mount at least one extra arm. The other changes flowed mainly from the Garrard and reorienting my system on the long wall. It's awesome now....
Not using the Graham/Shelter or Rega/Denon at the moment, so I've taken both arm/carts and their respective step-ups off the list.
I'm switching in an Ortofon Mono CG 25 Di cart (another early classic in SPU-style C headshell), which is high-output and which I'm using straight into a Bottlehead Seduction phono stage.
Pass is in, Dynaco is out.
And of course the NOH has made an appearance... a stepping stone on the way to Aesthetix volume controls, or a permanent substitution? Not sure yet (see passive pre thread in Analog for more details).
That's interesting - I've been intrigued by the Vector. Lately I've been thinking about the Schroeder Model 1 and the Triplanar. Is there any detailed source of information on the Vector? I don't think Basis have a website.
