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Finally stepping into the hobby after 30 years of watching from the sidelines

Ok, so I hope you are all ok with a longwinded post from a first time user of the forum.  I have been obsessed with vinyl and tubes since my dad played records for me as a 5 year old.  My wife and I are finally in a place that we can take the leap into the scene.  We want to grow our system over time and may even create 2-3 systems along the way as we have a bed and breakfast where we want to make analog part of the theme. 

We have made up our mind that our first speakers will be Vandersteen 2CE sigs.  That is about as far as we have gotten.  We definitely want to power them with tubes and have very little idea of where to start.  Obviously the mainstream option would be a Mcintosh mc275 and our local HiFi salesman would LOVE to sell us a pair of those.  However, we know that there are several cheeper/better options out there and would love some input from the board.  We'd like to keep the first amp under $3,000, but we aren't locked into that.  Keep in mind that we are ok starting with a single amp and then adding a second one along the way to mono them.  Also, we would love some help with a table/arm/cartridge!  One with an integrated phono stage is fine to start with and we would again be open to upgrading and adding a stand alone phono stage later on.  

We will be doing some electrical work soon to run a 40 amp fuse to the BnBs espresso machine and would be open to setting up a dedicated line for our main system at that time so that we can have clean power.  Has any one had any experience with this?  Any ideas or recommendations that you may have would be a big help here! 

Thank you all in advance, and we are really excited to finally be part of the scene! 
128x128cottguy
cottguy's avatar
cottguy OP
56 posts
 
@inna The Harbeths were unique.  I don't know if it was their ported design, but it almost was like they were breathing bass on you.  I felt like they had a bit more range down low.  The highs were seamless thanks to the 3 way design, but to me lacked a little bit of realism.  The Soul Supremes had a much tighter bass that went lower than expected, but you can see where adding a sub would complete the presentation.  My wife and I go to see a lot of live music...blues, jazz, symphony and concerts.  To me, the Zus delivered a much more life like and live sound.  The tweeter definitely delivered a more realistic symbol strike and electric guitar sound.  

Don't get me wrong, the Harbeths were amazing, but not at 3 times the price of the Zus.  They also had more than $50,000 of gear driving them where the Soul Supremes had a $1,000 Peachtree 125(new unreleased model).  This is an apples to oranges comparison and I'm obviously injecting my opinion here.  Their rooms are about 20ft apart, so I'll try to give you a little bit better description tonight.  

If I were going to sum up each speaker with one word:
Harbeth: Soundstage
Zu: Realism 
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes
688 posts
 
That's awesome that the 200K system sounded terrible to you, that's what I've been saying for years.  I once went to a high end salon and was listening to over $100K of gear and thought for this kind of dough, it should sound so much better.  Then I went home to my modest single ended $2K system and felt it was at least 95% as good as the ultra expensive system, and I have had that experience many times.

I have never actually heard the Zu's but am not surprised.  I have never heard or read a bad thing about them.  They also have a very high impedence which makes them mate very well with low powered tube amps.

The Harberth's are British and my favorite speakers are British.  ProAc, Spendor, Rogers, Harbeth, Epos, Celestion, KEF, etc.are all British and they are all consistently excellent and disappear.  If you like the warmth of British speakers, there are many other used British speakers that might be a viable choice for you; however, they excel in the monitor sized speakers, IMO.   
inna
7,304 posts
 
The Harbeths were driven by VAC electronics. Electronics and cables contribute greatly to the soundstage presentation.
Still, I am surprised that Zu speakers with inexpensive electronics gave you a more of a  life-like sound. I wonder how they would sound with, say, VAC or Audion integrateds.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,406 posts
 
Does not surprise me at all that the newer Peachtree amps are top performers and for very reasonable cost.  


cottguy's avatar
cottguy OP
56 posts
 
Day two is in the books and it was a great day!
My wife was with me today and she had a blast.  To be honest, I purchased the baby blue set of Zu Soul Supremes from the cover of Stereophile yesterday.  I didn't want to say anything, because I had a small case of second guessing myself.  I left today feeling like I 100% made the right choice and my wife agreed.  She even said, that there wasn't anything close within $7-10k of their price. We hit every room that was in our range, all the flagship rooms, some solid state rooms, and every tube room we could find.  She also left saying that she doesn't understand why everyone doesn't run tubes...I married wisely :-)  We spent a fair amount of time in the Austin Audio room because she didn't want to leave.  They were our, "cost is no option" room of the day.  

Zu also brought a new prototype speaker to the show called the Experience.  They have been running them on the Peachtree Nova 300 both days.  Supposedly, it will be in the 30K price range and appears to feature 2 of their 10 inch drivers, their top of the line tweeter, and a massive 18 inch woofer.  There hasn't been a person in the room who wasn't blown away by the range and presence of that set up.  I can't wait to see the final product.  

Another thing I should mention, is that we were both really impressed by the fact that the Peachtree/Zu room is at least 2000 square feet.  The Soul Supremes had no problem filling the room with a significant amount of tight bass that extended lower today than I thought it did yesterday.  Again, I don't think a single person could believe that that speaker only cost $4,500 and while running on an "entry level" amp.  I really can't tell you how many people were blown away by that room. 

We couldn't make it to the Zu party last night, but we will be there tonight...tomorrow I get to bring my new speakers home :-) 
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