I've gradually migrated from a vinyl based all tube system to all solid state with active speakers where streaming file based music playback forms the bulk of my listening.
1200G with Yamamoto headshell and KAB TD1000 damper trough.
VPI Industries TNT Mk-1
VPI TNT series 1 - original, heavy lead loaded acrylic platter. Has been updated with Mk-5 main bearing, 'ball' suspension, SDS, integrated motor/flywheel.
Graham Phantom arm sold and now using a Grace G1040 arm.
Grace G-1040
Bought 1982 with a Rega Planar 3. Have now sold my Graham Phantom and scaling back my vinyl, so have pulled this old arm out of storage. Couldn't find the cable, so sourced one from Y.Tome audio cables.
Cartridge setup with Tracking Wizard arc protractor with original null points for Grace tonearms.
Garrott Brothers P77
Vintage MM cartridge from the mid 80's. Original stylus unit replaced with Jico Stylus-1 SAS/B (Microridge stylus on boron cantilever).
Ortofon 2m Black - LVB 250
2M Black with LVB 250 replacement stylus installed (Ortofon option).
Upgraded sound in every respect: Soundstage depth/width, focus, clarity, fine detail/timbre - even quietness in the groove. A great cartridge - price puts it in competition with many MC cartridges but IMO fully competitive.
Denon 103R
Modded with 'Midas' body shell and retipped by SoundSmith with their Optimised Line Contact stylus. The retip gives a surprising improvement in detail refinement and clarity. Does not have the tonal accuracy, delicacy nor the authority of the Ortofon Jubilee/Cadenza Black. Perhaps favoring the individual performers rather than the overall acoustic - though the retip gives much of both. A great communicator of the music - but perhaps not best suited to classical program.
Denon 103R Midas body epoxy potted
Pair of Soundsmith retipped Denon 103R cartridges with epoxy potting (Araldite super strength)
Denon Panzerholz 103R
103R in Uwe Panzerholz wood body. Shown with Midas aluminium body 103R (stock cantilever/stylus)
Parasound Halo JC3 Jr.
A reasonably priced MM/MC phono stage designed by John Curl. Uses op-amps for the audio stages but, unlike a few other SS phono amps I've tried, it has precision, detail and control without sounding etched or lacking body and realism. A very well balanced design.
Bob's Devices CineMag 1131
Moving coil SUT with 1:20 and 1:40 ratios (26dB and 32dB respectively).
K and K Audio Premium SUT - Lundahl LL1941
Step up kit using Lundahl LL1941 transformers built into a very plain metal box. Switchable 1:16, 1:32 ratios. Sounds excellent, not an obvious step down from previously used Choir Audio/Hashimoto SUT (which I sold when I was scaling back my vinyl hardware to pursue streaming).
Apple Mac Mini
M1 Mac Mini, basic 256GB SSD/8GB RAM, headless running Roonserver, connected to 'A' side of EtherRegen network switch.
Second M1 Mac Mini running Roon GUI(control) and HQPlayer also connected to 'A' side of the EtherRegen switch.
Sonore ultraRendu endpoint connected to the 'B' side of the EtherRegen.
USB output of UltraRendu connected to Benchmark DAC3.
Sonore ultraRendu
Mini computer running the Sonore SonicOrbiter OS (based on Fedora Linux) with just an ethernet input and USB output. Can be easily switched between Roon endpoint, HQPlayer NAA, DLNA as well as other options. Used between headless Mac Mini server and DAC.
Benchmark DAC3 L
Compact DAC/Pre with design emphasis on low distortion, high SNR and neutrality/transparency to source.
Benchmark HPA4
Pre/headphone amp with innovative FPGA controlled relay switched resistor array volume control (independent stereo attenuators for preamp and headphone). Has two balanced and 2 unbalanced inputs. Ultra low distortion, ultra high SNR design.
ATC SCM-100aslt
Large 3-way active towers with 350Wrms (total) tri-amp. All drivers manufactured in-house by ATC: 25mm 'S' 'spec soft dome tweeter, 75mm 'S' spec mid dome, 314mm SL spec woofer. Neutral and revealing, essentially a tower version of the similarly equipped studio monitor (same working cabinet volume and components/amps). Great dynamic authority when required but wonderful on small scale music as well.
Townshend Audio Podium
Spring suspended speaker platform intended to isolate the speaker from the floor.
ATC SCM-19 Mk2
Low sensitivity two way monitor using ATC's 150mm Super Linear bass mid driver (9Kg optimised short-coil/long gap motor assembly) and 25mm dual suspension soft dome tweeter. Both drivers made in-house at ATC. Amazing detail, resolution and dynamics (given enough quality power) for a small stand mount.
Replaced Harbeth M30.1, a fine speaker in its own right, but I found the ATC more neutral and realistic.
Focal Utopia Headphones
Focal's flagship headphones featuring beryllium drivers with lightweight former-less voice coils and unusually long excursion. Exquisitely detailed and dynamic sounding.
Sennheiser HD-600
Former Sennheiser flagship has been in production for 20 years. Still regarded as a reference at it's price point and a great value in the current market. Makes current flagships seem overpriced given it's level of achievement.
Audience aR2p-TO
Dual outlet passive power line filter utilizing Audience Teflon capacitors. All equipment fed from these outlets via VH Audio 'Hotboxes'.
Furutech AG-12 Phono Cable
Silver plated copper RCA to RCA cable used between the Technics 1200G and Parasound JC3jr phono amp.
Silver Audio Silver Breeze
DIN to RCA dedicated phono cable. Silver conductors, WBT connectors. Used this cable for more than 10 years.
VH Audio Flavor 1, 2, 3 power cords and Hotboxes
DIY power cables using Chris VenHaus' recipes, terminated with Furutech IEC and male plugs. Power cables connected back to VH Audio hotboxes on dedicated 20amp line. I don't claim to know why, but this power setup was essential to extracting the clarity, dynamics and sound staging I've achieved with my system.
Wow. What a fantastic setup. I would buy your entire setup in a heartbeat and never need to change anything. The HPA 4 has technically the best analog volume control I know of. I would love to hear your setup!
Is there anything you would like to change or are you done for now?
Several changes to my system which follow a transition to computer based music as my primary source (streaming and local). I'm utilising a Mac mini with Uptone Audio linear PS. I doing a lot more headphone listening - especially since adding the Focal Utopia headphones almost 2yrs ago.
A turning point for me was getting the Benchmark AHB2 amp which provided less coloration and lower noise than any of the 6-7 amps I'd tried in this system prior to the latter.
I've owned a few different DACs over the past few years - including Schitt Yggdrasil and PSAudio Directstream Jnr - but ultimately wanted less of a 'fingerprint' on the music. Given my experience with the AHB2 I added the Benchmark DAC3L which I find less coloured than the above mentioned dacs.
I've now added the super low distortion Benchmark HPA4 pre/headphone amp which offers transparent sound as well convenient, finely adjustable, independent control of both my headphone and speaker setups.
Now have the JRDG Capri S2 preamp in my system - amp is the Odyssey Khartago mentioned above.
Except for a lapse in communication I almost ended up with the Parasound JC-2. The Capri S2 is a very compact preamp with a nicely made, milled from solid, case. Feature wise the JC2 and Capri are similar but the JC2 offers more inputs. I do like the volume/balance of the Capri which are adjustable in precise steps of 0.5dB. Internally the Capri follows a quite different design philosopy to the JC2. From pictures the JC2 appears beautifully built with shielded conventional linear PS and discrete components on seperate channel PCB's - fairly purist/minimalist I would have said. The Capri takes minimalism to the max. A small SMPS sits in a separate milled cavity. All signal circuitry is mounted on a single compact PCB to which inputs are directly connected. An input transformer for each channel connects inputs to the central preamp section on the PCB - which appears to use a single LM49740 quad opamp per channel mounted right next to the output connectors.
Listening to an Alison Krauss track as I type this - beautiful sounding preamp! Sounds open and transparent but also organic, refined and expressive. Who would have thought from a apparently simple opamp design guess it's all in the implementation.
Oops, I noticed the end of my last post was missing ..I cut and pasted from notepad. What I meant to say (in reference to the Cadenza Black) was: Of course it's relatively expensive (compared to the 103R) but not insanely priced.
Needfreestuff, the aR2p-TO contributed to the noise free background and provided more 'pop' and perception of spaciousness to the sound. More consistency too - as in sounding consistently good!
Due to a fault with my ARC VS-55, there have been some changes in my system over the last few months which I haven't listed yet.
On a whim I purchased a Khartago stereo amp (with most of the enhancements/parts upgrades) from Klaus at Odyssey Audio. I'm currently using the Khartago with the Grace Design M903 as a preamp. The Khartago is a very impressive amp and the sound I'm getting in combination with the Grace exceeds the ARC SP16/VS55 pairing in many ways. I did try the SP16 with the Khartago, but the high gain Khartago (compared with the VS55) meant SP16's volume control was used at the bottom of its range with very coarse steps - and frankly the 903 sounded better with the Khartago anyway.
I would have said the ARC pair were exceptionally quiet (no noise apparent) - but the Grace/Khartago combo shows them up with inky quiet backgrounds. Perhaps as a result the Grace/Khartago combo are more transparent and provide more low level detail. Better dynamics and 'startle' factor too. This alone would not be enough to edge out the ARC amps, but the Grace/Khartago also sounds pretty wonderful in the way they present acoustic instruments and voices with 'body' and how they expand into space. This is what the ARC pair were good at, but I think the Grace/Khartago does it with more transparency/realism/accuracy.
I am somewhat surprised at how good the Grace sounds because its not really a 'proper' dedicated preamp. I quite like the ergonomics of the Grace and love the fact that I can adjust volume (and balance) in steps of 0.5dB over a wide range to get exactly the volume I desire.
However, in the back of my mind I'm bothered because I keep wondering how good a dedicated preamp might sound with the Khartago. I'm looking out for possible (S/H) candidates, perhaps one of the following: Parasound JC2, Pass XP-10, Jeff Rowland Capri S2
Tobes, I noticed your enthusiasm for the Denon 103R. I have a Zu Denon 103R, that I sent to ESCCO in London for their white saphire cantilever/Paratrace stylus mod, and I reccommend it heartily.
They are very slow with their turn-around, but it's well worth the wait, especially if you have more than one of them, as you seem to.
Hi PHduncanson, sorry for the late reply haven't checked this thread for a while!
Potting the 103R produced quite a noticeable change, but initially I wasn't sure about it - because it makes the cartridge less 'lively' - and I guess this is part of the character of the cartridge. My longer term impression was that cartridge was truer to the source and more to my preference.
Having said that, I should be honest and say that my vinyl listening has been almost exclusively with the Ortofon Cadenza black for the past few months. The Black is a great cartridge and ticks all the boxes for me. Of course it's relatively
hey tobes, love the system. was wondering about your midas 103's. did you notice a significant change with the potting? and did you pot yourself or have soundsmith pot your 103's?
Nice room great gear makes for good music. You have had your turntable for a long time. Great that you made the investment in a high quality turntable from the start. Enjoyed viewing your pictures.
Tobes, yes! You hit the nail on the head with "practical". When my speakers fired down the LONG wall, the speakers and my listening chair cut off the room so much, they made a big room look small. Now, everything is more open and "liveable'. It's a win/win.
Hi Devilboy, thanks for your comments. Yes, I really liked the improvement I got with my speakers on the long wall - especially the super wide soundstage it allowed. In a room the size of mine I wouldn't want to go back to short wall placement. What was also surprising was how much more spacious (and practical) it made the room feel without both the speakers and couch pulled out into the room in the classic 'thirds' format. If their domestic situation allows, its something people can try for free if cabling etc suits.
Tobes, I went to your link and read up on your system. Very impressive and well thought out. Thank you for providing such a detailed description. I also once had my system against the short wall. I just recently moved it 90 degrees to fire DOWN the short wall. This obviously took side wall reflections out of the equation more and allowed me to spread out the speakers more resulting in a much wider soundstage. Like you said, this also allows me to hear more of the recording, deeper into it, and with more space around instruments. I basically hear more of the information more easily. I have almost 9 feet between tweeters and over 4 feet to the back wall. Side wall to the right is over 5 feet and the left opens to a dinning room.
System edited: Ortofon Cadenza Black added - beautiful cartridge. Sounds great right out of the box! Same superior tracking and composure as the Jubilee but with more life, presence and transparency. More to come after further listening.
Willfan, I found the more up-front (neutral) perspective of the es3 more open and exciting (and realistic). Sometimes the es2 could be a little laid back. I much preferred the balance of the es3, which in perspective terms is not that different to the 30.1 in my setup.
Mountainsong the C7ES3 is an outstanding speaker. I'm sure I could put it back in my system tomorrow and be perfectly happy. I wanted to explore what the 30.1's had to offer, but the C7's didn't have any real flaws. I enjoyed every minute with them. Cheers.
I own the C7es3 I am in heaven matched with the Luxman 550 AII, and PS audio Phono plus rega P5, coming from much more expensive gear i wished i hear Gene Rubin advice about harbeth earlier, i would save money and time.. enjoy your system
