This project started off as a religous experience hearing the IRS Beta's in the early '90's - the project has since transformed into a quest for the best of the best (IMHO) of gear from the same era as the Betas.
Upon hearing the Betas, knew at that point to get a good job to afford them. So off to Optical Sciences for 6 yrs - after all, the physics of light is similar to sound, just faster with different materials.
So, found a great set of Beta's in March of 2001. Put 'em in a closet thinking someday I can afford some gear to drive them. Yeah right. Bought a Citation 7.0 & 7.1 after a week. Put everything in the garage and music like I remembered was recreated. BTW, the 7.1 is a GREAT affordable amp for bi-amp requirements - a bit harsh on the highs with planars hovever.
Enter the Carver Silver Sevens in August 2001. Found them trolling audiogon on a late night. Too good of a price to pass up. So I then had the black beauties driving the planars with all 38 tubes and an electric bill to prove it. The Citation 7.1 was kept on for bass duties.
The Citation 7.0 pre-amp physically matches the 7.0 well and does a fine job at 2 channel stereo applications (although it's prime function is for home theatre in a pre-Dolby Digital world). The volume control is a push button thing - not a big knob which makes the interface of quiet to LOUD visceral. Enter the Adcom GFP 565 - great solid performer - with a knob.
While the Citation gear served me well, the big Silver 7's invoked an affinity for monoblocks. Since the Beta's like lots of power and I like loud music, juicy amps are required. Since the Adcom pre-amp works so well, the matching GFA-565 amps must make it better! And true, they did add a huge reserve that the 7.1 didn't quite have when the petal is to the metal. Gobs of clean power - they are a great find, especially considering their price.
After chatting with several high-end audio chums, a suggestion that the source (i.e. CD) may be the limiting factor with a high resolution system. Sold. Now just had to find a product. Big money can be spent in this arena with debatable results. Being educated in linear systems, Fourier transforms, and the like, give me lots of bits and over-sampling to increase resolution and reduce aliasing. No theory here, but the PT folks do a great job based on sound physics. Besides, interpolation between samples is required to take advantage of all those extra bits - a fact that is frequently forgotten. Bottom line, it is a non-trivial improvement you can hear.
Now the Adcom pre-amp only served a short duty since the very unfortunate addiction of high-end audio kicked into epedemic proportions. And so the the Audio Research SP-15 was found using audiogon's friendly pages yet again in June 2002. The 2 stage gain for volume control greatly reduces the noise floor - surprising how effective it is. The system at idle is nearly imperceptible - Wow.
Always had a dream of the big blue needles of a Mcintosh. Lusting for MC-1000 monoblocks has been around almost as long as the dream for the Beta's. Apparently everyone elso wants them since they are exceedingly rare on the used market. A thousand curses for not acting immediately (if not sooner) on the single ebay listing in years! Oh well.
A good friend and great structural analyst got married and had to give up his high-end audio habit for the sake of the marriage - she must be a keeper. A decent Sony turntable now rides next to the ARC SP-15 at the top of the pile. Picked up some very nice vinyl at the local goodwill store. At $1/record, I have no guilt shopping for resources intended for financially disadvantaged persons. Upon reflection, I AM financially disadvantaged (now I'm feeling good about myself...). Still need to get a needle and cartridge however. Really want to find out what all that analog vs. digital purist discussions are about.... Thanks again Mike.
Time to satisify the endless hunger of audiophifdom elseways since it has been over half a year from my last fix. The spirit of the radio still lingers in a world of digital audio. A tremendous number of songs of jazz and classical (with very few commericials) awaits the listener over the friendly airwaves. And what better way to bring them in than with a Mcintosh MR-78?
Curses! The same week financial resources were tapped for a tuner, the beloved big Mac's became available. Since all I can do is think about big blue meters with silky sounds dancing in my head, I know need to get them so that my employer doesn't notice my lack of productivity. Time to visit the bank again and push my home purchase on the beach out another decade.
That brings us up to date on my plunge into the deep end. Hope to write again when my next audio acquisition is a big house specifically designed for acoustic neutrality. With a view of the ocean. And a place to put the wine.
