Nice to meet all of you. I'm audiogon member msw26, a 43-year-old, single guy with no children living "uptown" in NYC with over 1600 CDs. I work in the computer field for a brokerage firm on the weekends and am pursuing an M.A. in statistical sociology at one of the local colleges during the week. I recently replaced my old Yamaha reciever (given to my cousin, an over-educated, under-employed academic, and her partner) with an amplifier, pre-amplifier and tuner.
The old system had two pairs of bookshelf speakers (Infinity and Paradigm, also with cousin). I wasn't attempting to emulate "surround sound." It was modeled more on the old Bose "direct reflecting" idea that non-destructive signals from several directions would sound superior over a larger listening space than a more "focused" sound originating from only two speakers. I first noticed this benefit when an old college roommate (another amateur audio enthusiast who continues to build his own speakers) and I combined our separate stereos in a small college apartment. Unfortunately, I still live in a small (Manhattan) apartment and really don't have the space to arrange all my possessions around a designated "listening" area with only two speakers. At any rate, the old system (now with the cousin) sounded better when arranged with the "diffused" approach than with the "focused" approach, so I tried to replicate this design using better equipment. This may or may not have been a mistake. I'm still playing with it.
Largely on the audiogon website, I've purchased mostly used equipment and begun to assemble my first real "hi-fi" system (or at least, something approaching it) at a significant discount: a Krell KAV-500 amplifier, (I know it's intended for home theater, but the ancient wiring in my pre-war apartment building really can't support the four monoblocks I'd prefer) a Pass Labs X-0 preamplifier, (2 sets of balanced outputs. When I leave NYC, hopefully I'll own a house where I can have the four monoblocks and long XLR interconnections) and again, two pairs of bookshelf loudspeakers: (1) Sonus Faber Extremas (2) Dynaudio Confidence 3. (I know many audiophiles will think these are a little light on the lower end, but this actually allows me to play music louder in my apartment building without bothering my neighbors!) DH Labs Q-10 speaker cables (internally bi-wired for the Sonus Fabers) and Air Matrix interconnects thoughout.
Currently, I'm looking to replace the ancient CD Onkyo player (circa 1987) with an HBB 850 Plus CD recorder. My tentative upgrade path is to eventually add AES/EBU connections to both an MSB Platinum DAC and a Perpetual Technologies P-1A, the latter for its upsampling and jitter reduction capabilities. After that, perhaps a PS Audio P300 to regulate the power for the pre-amp, CDR, P-1A and DAC. Eventually, I'll add another CD transport so I can actually copy an out-of-print CD or two!
While the 100 watt-per-channel Krell KAV-500 doesn't struggle to drive these two demanding pairs of speakers, it doesn't exactly overpower them, either. Purchased used, the amplifier did not come with all the documentation, although one line of text in one document suggested that if I remove one channel, the power distributed to the remaining four channels will increase. Krell has not been overly responsive to this owner of a piece of used equipment that don't even make any longer, (I think) and I'm loath to damage the thing while trying to "improve" the system, but I toy with the idea. If anyone has any idea, about this or anything else, please feel free to contact me directly: msw26@columbia.edu
Take care,
Mike Watkins
