I switched from the musical fidelity a3cr preamp to the sonic frontiers line 1, i now understand what a true soundstage is, but I miss one really important thing, the midrange palapability of the a3cr, in comparison the Line 1. anyone have any suggestions, cables? tubes? also, whould i see an advantage in gonig from rca to balanced between my cdp and preamp? thanks, vinay
Hi! I love the Linn / Thiel combination - I've had it since '88. I first had the Linn LK80 amp / LK1 pre-amp which was fine, then got the LK140 amp / Kolecktor pre-amp which really brought the Thiels alive with the added power.
I also have a LK 85 amp / LK1 pre-amp in the office with get this - a pair of Sony book shelf speakers ($49.00 / pair new from Best Buy on $60 stands and it sounds great). Great electronics will make cheap speakers sound good. Some of my audiophile friends get depressed after hearing this secondary system :-)
I've loyally owned Linn gear since the early 80's. Nonetheless, you have a nice system as well. I'd say keep your components, save your money for a rainy day and simply get some new music to enjoy.
However, if you must, there is usually a myriad of pre-enjoyed Linn equipment on the 'Gon.
Linnie I would love to hide all those cables, i have a 3 foot rack and 6 foot cables so there is a bunch of excess, I guess its time to get a little creative...
How do you like the linn/thiel combination, I have been seeing some nice linn gear in the used market that has been tempting me.
System edited: I modded the preamp with a new volume control chip(Brown Burr PGA2311) add some Herbies dampers to the tubes. The speakers are new from the gon. I plan on getting some more power to driver the speakers, Im looking at Mccormack, Oddessy or Pass, still considering.
Hey its been a while, here is an update. I got bored of the Sonus Fabers for a couple of years after upgrading my studio system. I have some Dynaudio bm5a active studio monitors, they sound much more accurate and less boxy/hollow than the concertinos they lack the big soundstage the concertines give, so the 2-channel rig when to sleep and the REL moved to the studio where is works really well.
Recently, I got the bug for floorstanders, after auditioning the thiels on a whim, they were the ones. Anyway a few weeks later and the cs 1.6 are really awesome, they have a very mild high-end versus the forward sound of the sonus I find them more listenable and there is none of the boxy sound i got from the sonus speakers, now I think the a3cr might not be up to the task because the bass could be stronger, maybe i could mod it... any suggestions?
Added an REL Storm III last week, it has been mostly broken in by now. Really makes music more tactile, you can feel instruments being played. This is a great sub, but it sets off all the room nodes in my small-a** room, my next upgrade in a big new room. Does anyone have prefered DAC reccomendations, I have been looking at tube output dacs to mellow out the sound a little.... Thanks
I just added marble tile to the tops of my components, this lowered the noise floor considerably. I also added DH Sound cones and slabs, another good upgrade.
Halifax. In a nut shell the all three cables do an incredible job . The strength of the three-King Cobra v2-details, forward soundstage. Whale has-smooth highs & mids,neutral vocals, dynamic and tight bass. Fatman gold has-bass with extension& smooth highs. I currently have 3-Whales, and a Fatman Gold. I use to have the King Cobra v2 but sold it. The King Cobra v2 is a bit too forward sound for my taste. The Whale is very neutral, detailed and has great tight bass. The Fatman Gold has more bass but exteneded in the mids and bottom end.After doing a lot of configuring and trial periods with the cables I ended up with the Whales on my pair of amps, preamp . The Fatman gold is on my line conditioner. I recently bought the Marantz Sa-1 cd/sacd player and sold my Wadia two piece setup. The Marantz only uses a two conductor power cable. BMI had made a modified version of the eel for the Marantz.
Thanks for the comments! Vader the REL Storm III is on my short list, I have already auditioned it and everything sounds hollow now that its gone ;( . After a lot of setup, the Storm III dissappeared in my room, the only time it was not obvious that the additional bass was actually coming from the sub is on songs with very deep bass lines(Bjork, Homogenic, Track 1 - Hunter), the amount of clean musical bass that eminated from the Storm is something the Thiels could never touch. And to think they make MUCH bigger subs!!! Topkat, which power chords from Whale do you like? Have you auditioned them against any powersnakes, Im getting a new Sidewinder Gold to audition ssometime soon.
Mit , ESP, SR are bright cables- work OK with tube gear. Cardas Golden cables are very colored and toooooo rolled off in the mids-work ok on electrostats. The best power cables that are neutral the Fatman, Whale and King Cobra.
Have you ever heard your Thiels through MIT cables? Also check out the cardas power cords, I listened to many power cords, some very expensive, including ESP, MIT, synergistic research master coupler and many others, yes NBS as well. thanks for your feedback about the sub, are you familiar with the REL storm III?
