Description

I'm a serious musician and audio has been important to me since the 1960s. This system is my third major upgrade in the last 40 years.

You can see that it's important for me to integrate my system into our apartment living space, that I share with my wife of 39-years. It was important for the speakers to be physically attractive as furniture and, most importantly, be very musical.

The analog front end is incredibly revealing. When I'm seriously listening I pull the speakers out to the positions that you see, which was determined using Sumiko's Master Set technolog. Rod Thomson of Soundings set mine for me. Believe it or not, that table to the left is no problem for either imaging or frequency response. The narrow set is defined by that short wall and the opening into the hall and foyer. The image goes out past the speakers and centered vocalists are about 3/4 the way up the armoire in the center and depth goes back to the back wall. You'd be amazed at the bass from this system, particularly given the wonderfully open and textured midrange.

At other times the AKG headphones and incredible Woo Audio amplifier provide a great alternative for listening without moving the furniture around.

The Korg MR1000 is used for live recording and archiving vinyl using 1-bit DSD at 5.6 mHz.
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Components Toggle details

    • Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Baby Grand
    3-way, full range, floor standing speakers.
    • Jeff Rowland Continuum 500
    1,000 watts into 4 ohms, stereo, integrated amplifier, with phono stage
    • Playback Designs MPS-5
    CD/SACD player that upconverts redbook CDs to DSD. Claims no jitter.
    • Project RM10
    Hi mass, belt drive turntable with 10" carbon fiber arm.
    • Soundsmith The Voice Ebony
    .6 mV moving iron cartridge, with ruby cantilever and medium compliance tracking at 1.4g
    • Pioneer DV-58AV
    Univeral CD/DVD/SACD/mp3/etc. player, modded by Ric Schultz. Used as a DVD-A transport with digital into the MPS-5's DAC.
    • Korg MR1000
    1-bit DSD recorder with sampling rate up to 5.6 mHz with 40GB of onboard data storage.
    • Woo Audio WA6
    Single-ended, class A, tube headphone amplifier
    • AKG K-701
    Headphones with incredible midrange. Modified with 12', dual entry Cardas cable by Soloz Audio.
    • Sumiko Speaker set
    Perhaps the most important component, properly setting the speakers by a master technician using Sumiko's Master Set methodology.
    • Analasis Plus Solo Crystal Oval 8
    Great. See full review here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1200714157&openmine&zzDcstep&4&5#Dcstep
    • HRS M3 Isolation Bases
    17"X19" isolation bases under RM10 and MPS-5
    • Furman Elite-15PFi Power Conditioner
    This 13-plug added to the solidity of the bass and overall performance. This is a great value.

Comments 136

Showing all comments by perrew.

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200+ pounds sounds like it should do the trick.

You make a very good point about cost of LPs compared to digital media. My LP collection is nonexistent. Also I think the convenience factor of a server based solution speaks for a digital source. Although money can be an issue, for me its a lot about aesthetics. I think a very clean purist system comprised of very few components. e.g. CD+Integrated(or CDwithPre+Amp)+Speakers is very apealing in terms of looks,space and noise/disturbance factors. You only need one IC, two PCs and SCs as well.
Turntables look good though and the Raven is very tempting.
During the last months I have sold of all my gear except my Wilson WP7(these are going soon as well) and a Reciever, so I have a perfect opportunity at the moment to
pick a nice route in terms of gear. How do you find the Vienna Beethovens, are you planning on upgrading these soon, I got an offer to buy a pair of Mahlers?

I read a lot about audiofederation endorsing HRS and all the other gear there carrying seems to be top notch, so Itll be very interesting to hear your thoughts.

perrew

Dave,

I tried both balanced and unbalanced with the VTL/Spectron setup, the difference was minor. I believe the tubes were just to noisy from bad AC or something.

Im a bit astound that the RM10 which is 1/5 the price of the MPS-5 can be so close in performance, do you think the RM10 is that good? A guy I know says that his RM10 was hugely improved from putting it on a wall hung shelf. Im trying to decide wether to go all out digital with top CD/SACD/DAC and computer or go for a really nice TT

Any particular reason youre going for the HRS, Ive been reading up on platforms and the ones Ive found really interesting are the Critical Mass Grand Master, the SRA Ohio XL+ and then theres the Halcyonic (quite a bit more though).

perrew

DCstep, very nice system. I especially like the Continuum and the MPS-5. I used to own a Spectron M3SE and drive it with a VTL TL7.5, great sound but to noisy in my environment.I stopped using the VTL and ran a Logitech Transporter direct to the Spectron. Have you experienced any noise with the Rowland. Also how do you think the MPS-5 compares with the RM10. Do you use the Rowland phono?

perrew