Description

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Room Details

Dimensions: 18’ × 12’  Medium
Ceiling: 8’


Components Toggle details

    • Linn LP12 Turntable
    A legendary turntable worthy of its acclaim, and which has been in my system since 1998- 25 years!  Though may not be the very best by current standards, yet still provides incredible heights of musical satisfaction. In many ways my most satisfying source component. This is a final purchase! Outfitted with an Ekos 2 arm, Kandid cartridge, Karousel bearing, Keel subchassis, Trampoline 2 base and Lingo 4 power supply, in a fluted walnut plinth.
    • McIntosh MR 78 FM Tuner
    Legendary tuner that lives up to the hype and made better with Richard Modaferri's current updates. Very sensitive, but not just for DX'ers. Very musical and quiet when fed a good signal. Very flexible to boot but sensitive to RF interference (nearby LED lights caused problems which was solved by a ferrite core on the antenna input). Hard not to be thoroughly satisfied with this classic vintage tuner.
    • Marantz 20 Tuner
    Yet another vintage tuner, this old school, made in New York Marantz tuner sounds excellent, if a touch rolled in the high end. The oscilloscope is an excellent tuning aid. More modern tuners owe much to the groundwork done by Marantz and McIntosh.
    • Auralic Aries G1 Streaming Transport
    This very engaging streamer, connected to my DAC using a Curious Cable USB cable produces a vivid, bold, nuanced and alive sound that has a stable soundstage that is wide, tall, and as deep, all as the recording permits. A massively impressive ability to be detailed and yet without any hint of being harsh or grating. The user interface, using Lightning DS is fine, but not the ultimate in flexibility.  This streamer and any streamer is the golden ticket the discovery of new music. I still love my LPs and the sound of vinyl, but I would not begrudge anyone who decides a streaming platform  with a good streamer DAC combination is the way to go.
    • Sim Neo 260D CD Player
    Nicely made CD player/transport which I use solely as a transport. The internal dac is also quite capable, producing both detail and warmth without being bright or harsh. Offers a lot of versatility.
    • Bricasti M1 DAC
    An astonishing DAC, updated with Bricasti's MDX board and latest firmware. While I am not going to say it  sounds "analog" I will say it just sounds like music with no need to add a qualifier such as "it sounds good for digital"- it sounds great- period! This DAC never disappoints and since its introduction many DACs have come along, but for someone looking for a great DAC that does complete justice to the music, this is a final destination. Bricasti offers excellent customer support to boot.
    • Pass Labs XP15 Phono Preamp
    Quiet, flexible and dynamic. Does the job very well, and surpasses my prior phono preamp, a Pass Aleph Ono. Cartridge load and gain settings on the back are inconvenient but in all fairness, it is a "set it once and forget it" thing.
    • Pass Labs XP20 Preamplifier
    Simply the best preamp I've ever owned- I like this preamp better than a Conrad Johnson Premier 17LS2 I owned in the past, and that was a great preamp. Very flexible, quiet, dynamic, and has enough inputs for a typical stereo setup. It really is true- a great preamp can make or break a system. and as terrific as this preamp is it is made better by the addition of a Tubulus Argentus DB-25 umbilical cord between the gain stage and power supply.  What that did was to literally detach the soundstage free of any discernible connection to speakers for well recorded music and further flesh out the mids. Yet another final purchase.
    • Pass Labs X250.8 Power amplifier
    Power and subtlety- says it all. I ran tubes for many years (Conrad Johnson and Rogue)- with the Pass gear I don't miss the tubes. On a side note- this amp has the best binding posts I've ever seen. Solid connection, impossible to over tighten. Only one caveat- won't readily accept spades over 14mm wide. Best get someone else to help you move this amp around as it's heavy.
    • Revel Studio 2 Speakers
    Beautiful full range speakers. Solid, delicate, full range and great imaging. Really does not need a subwoofer, but a friend gave me a subwoofer (McIntosh PS112), so of course I'm running a subwoofer. Never tried bi-wiring the speakers. I know some people knock Revel speakers at not having much 'character'. Good! I prefer a speaker that speaks the truth and does not editorialize and these speakers do not suffer from any dynamic compression at any realistic listening levels.
    • McIntosh PS-112 Subwoofer
    New to me courtesy of a friend who moved on to another subwoofer. Old school sub lacking any auto setup features; new high performance subs are better, but this does the trick for me, and the price was right. Dialed in just right, this gives my Studio 2's the illusion of an even firmer grip on the bass. I don't think my Revel Studio 2's need a sub, but adding this sub has made a very good speaker system that much better. Plus it's fun.
    • Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) Copper cables Interconnects and speaker cables
    OCC cables are to my ear the most natural sounding cable material available. If your system is very resolving, it's worth it. My interconnects between sources and preamp and speaker cables are  almost exclusively OCC, from Audience and Acoustic Zen. Only non-OCC cables I am running are Blue Jeans interconnects to my headphone amp and to my subwoofer. I seldom listen to headphones, and I am not convinced OCC cabling to my subwoofer would make a difference as I've never noticed the performance advantages of OCC interconnects are at the lower frequencies.
    • Bottlehead Single Ended Experimenters headphone Amplifier 2.1
    Built this up from the kit- not my first Bottlehead build, and none of my Bottlehhead builds are quite stock. This is quite a good headphone amp, and easily capable of sweetly driving a pair of power hungry Hifiman HE560 planar headphones. Can also be used with no modification as an integrated amp for very high efficiency speakers. A satisfying build and terrific sound. Not used much as predominantly, I don't listen through headphones.
    • Solid Steel, Sound Organisation & VTI Equipment Racks
    I have two 1990's vintage Solid Steel racks and one 1990's Sound Organisation rack. What these racks have in common is that they are one piece all welded structures. They have served me well for decades and come from an era predating 4 and 5 figure racks. My amp sits on a nice VTI amp stand which was reasonably priced and is perfect for what I needed.

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What a nice system!

ejr1953