Description

3/12/06: Updated for 2006 - I'm in a new dedicated room. the room measures 15' X 20'6" with 7'10" ceilings. I've got 2 built in bookshelves in the rear of the room, one on the left & one on the right. The floors are hardwood with a throw rug on the floors. For football fans, my theme is the Pittsburgh Steelers. I've got 14 framed prints in the room. For sound treatment, I've got 15 Real Traps on the walls & ceilings; 4 mondo, 4 mini, 7 micro. In addtion, I have a 60amp sub-panel with a dedicated ground & my HT in this room.

7/03/04: I m back to the basics – vinyl. This is my two channel system & I’m done for now. The room is 13 X 16.5 X 8 ceilings with a 10X10 office open and adjacent to the listening area. The room is treated with echo busters and double busters. I’ve treated all my PC’s, interconnects, etc. with Caig Pro Gold –& it works great. I think it added to the spacing of instruments within the soundstage.
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Components Toggle details

    • Teres Model 160
    battery powered
    • Ayre Cx-7e
    Evolution model using a pair of Ridge Street Poiema! with RCA's to the Cortese
    • Origin Live Silver
    Mk I version - with TWL mod
    • Denon DL 103r
    103r - MC Cartridge
    Output voltage: 0.25mV
    Frequency response: 20Hz - 45kHz
    Output impedance: 14 ohms
    Needle: 16.5 micron round pin
    Tracking force: 2.5 ? 0.2g
    • Supratek Cortese
    Sitting on Sistrum Platforms

    Line Stage Tube Compliment:
    Sylvania 12b4a
    Tungsol 6sn7's
    Phono Stage:
    Tele CCa's
    Phillips e180f

    Power Supply
    Mullard 5ar4 rectifier
    Tunsol 5881 power
    • PS Audio PS Audio Classic 250
    Two Channel Solid State 250W X 2 in Bi-Amp mode for two channel
    • PS Audio PS Audio Classic 250
    Two channel 250 X 2 used in Bi-Amp mode for two channel.
    • Tyler Acoustics Woodmere
    Ribbon Mahogany, with cardas binding post & cardas wire - sitting on Audiopoints
    • PS Audio P1000
    One P1000 per power amp, overkill - probably but I like to have my amps on separate dedicated lines. I can really crank the volume with two P1000's!
    • PS Audio PS Audio - P500
    PS Audio - P500 which powers my Supratek
    • PS Audio UO
    UO - 15 amp HC before P500 for additional filtering before the pre-amp, CD
    • BMC Pinnacle Silver
    4.5 meter pair from Supratek to amps
    • Verastarr Silver Reference
    for all components, HC or Reference series. 99.99 silver over 99.999 copper terminated with Furutech FI-20's
    • Ridge Street Poiema !!
    Two either foot pairs, one pair for the mids & one pair for the woofers of the Woodmere's.
    • Ridge Street Poiema! RCA's
    using between Ayre Cx7e & Cortese
    • Adona Double wide rack
    for source equipment
    • PS Audio PowerPort
    Audio grade outlets for wall outlets
    • Dedicated 60 amp sub panel
    nine dedicated lines with a dedicated ground rod - 4 20-amp with 10 guage wire, 5 15-amp with 12 quage wire
    • Cable Elevators for speaker cables
    Elevators for speaker cables to the Woodmere's
    • VPI Industries HW-16.5 - cleaning machine
    cleaning machine, I use Audio Intelligent fluids & Last Brushes, new record sleeves with great success. This solution is so good, it makes make record cleaning fun again!

Comments 12

Ahhh, I want some tylers.

b_limo

Very nice system. So how do you like your Classic 250s by now. PS Audio is supposed come out with a new amp based on this technology. Of course they rave over it. Have you ever compared your amp to some of the other amps like Krell, Levinson, Gryphon, etc.
Again it looks like you've done everything right in your system and room.
Steve

sgr

Owner
System edited: Added any Ayre Cx-7e CD Player to the mix.

dsiggia

Owner
System edited: Updated for 2006 - I'm in a new dedicated room. the room measures 15' X 20'6" with 7'10" ceilings. I've got 2 built in bookshelves in the rear of the room, one on the left & one on the right. The floors are hardwood with a throw rug on the floors. For football fans, my theme is the Pittsburgh Steelers. I've got 14 framed prints in the room. For sound treatment, I've got 15 Real Traps on the walls & ceilings; 4 mondo, 4 mini, 7 micro. I also have my HT in this room.

dsiggia

Very nice system! I´m also interested in the Cortese probably the Grange. Have you ever compared the Cortese to Hovland HP-100; Ayre K-1Xe; CAT SL-1 Ultimate or Aesthetix Janus?

frankpiet

Owner
System edited: It's been awhile since I've been on this thread, sorry for the lack of response. Slipknot1 & Timrhu thanks for the kind words. Timrhu, when I read your response I laughed to myself because I had already gone through several system changes at the time of your response, but didn't have them posted to the thread. Did you know I wasn't "done for now?" I've gone through a couple significant upgrades in the past few months. First, I've upgraded my speakers within the Tyler line to the Woodmere's. These are truly wonderful speakers. Soundstage is incredible, accuracy, neutrality, deep, etc. Second, I canned the Jolida CD player. I didn't use it enough to really see keeping it around. I use my Sony 9000es when I don't spin records; it works fine for some background tunes. Third, I got rid of the Sonic Frontiers Line 3SE & the Tom Evans Microgroove and replaced both pieces with a Supratek Cortese. The Supratek is simply musical. The line stage is unbelievable; it made my 9000es easy to listen to, which isn't a simple task. My phono stage in the Supratek is Mick's latest design as of Sept 04. I haven't had much to compare the phono stage against with my Denon 103r. The Tom Evans was a good performer at its price; the Supratek is several steps above the Tom Evans. As far as the Supratek goes, I've had some time to do some tube rolling. The tubes Mick supplies are mostly current production tubes, which sound decent, but can't compare to NOS tubes. I added a pair of Tele CCa's in the phono stage & kept the Phillips E180f's in. The changes were noticeable, but not nearly as significant as the Line stage 6sn7's I played around with. I tried a few different pairs of NOS tubes in the line stage. First was RCA. These tubes were extremely transparent, very detailed, nice spacing between the instruments which made a more defined soundstage, but after about 300 hours of listening I felt the bas was too thin for me to be extremely happy with the tubes. Next, I tried a pair of Sylvania 6sn7's and these had most of the characteristics of the RCA's, bass slam was better detailed, but the music felt too forward in it's presentation. The next pair I tried was Tungsol's 6sn7's & bingo! The Tungsol's added the same characteristics as the RCA's, but the bass was strong, punchy, and tight. With regards to the Cortese power supply, I added a Mullard 5ar4 rectifier tube & Tungsol 5881's. I haven't done any additional rolling with the power supply tubes. I'm really happy all my NOS tubes & should be set for a while.

dsiggia

Absolutely gorgeous setup. Done for now though? I'm wondering how long "now" is. Best of luck.

timrhu

Nicely done! I saw in another post that you were awaitng a Cortese. I'll be interested in hearing your impressions on the phono stage with the Denon 103. I 'm still waiting on my Supratek as well. Been waiting almost 8 months now. Mick said about 1 month ago that he felt bad about the long wait and was going to put the Sauvignon line stage into a Chenin phono pre to make up for it, so, I guess my unit will be a hybrid...

The Supratek should mate really well with the line-up of first rate playback gear you already have. Well done!!

slipknot1

Owner
I have favorable impressions of Verastarr cables. The PC's let my components breathe life into the music. The Silver Ref IC's are natural, detailed, open, and smooth from top to bottom. The Silver Ref speaker cables unlock the detail, depth, and add air between the instruments and they're smooth on the top and provide an accurate slam on the bottom. I also use the Silver Ref jumpers between the Tyler monitors and bass modules. The improvement to the detail, depth, and air between the intruments was not minor.

As far as cables, I've tried quite a few combinations in my system. The different metals I've used were all Silver, all Copper, Gold plated silver, copper, & gold alloy, and settled on Verastarr silver plated copper. Verastarr builds a good cable. I used Cardas Golden Ref speaker cables - not a very detailed cable, and too warm in my system. The Verastarr retained most of the warmth, added detail, but was smooth and extended from top to bottom. The bass is tight and accurate with the Verastarr cables.

dsiggia

Nice system, the Verastarr? overall impressions please and what did you use prior to these? I have Cardas gldn refs, but not quite overwhelmed with them. Thanks, Craig

mang53

Owner
Thanks for the kind words, certainly a big thank you goes out to all the Agon consultants that have helped along the way. I edited the descriptions a bit so hopefully everything is clear now, the cartridge is a Denon 103r. The Linbrooks have handled everything I've thrown at them with accuracy, rhythm, delicacy, and speed. They are a very neutral speaker. Bass is deep & tight while highs are airy & delicate, & the midrange is very realistic. The parts & drivers are all world class. I feel the Tylers are giant killers.

dsiggia

This looks to be a very well thought out system. I had trouble dtermining the cartridge though (is it the denon). Don't have any familiarity with the tylers other than seeing them on audiogon. How do they sound? Enjoy

gajgmusic

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