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The most musical system you ever build?

May be there are similar posts before, but could we do it for new comers.

Not the best hi-fi you ever build!
"Musical" means the enjoyment of music for you or your family.
I like jazz/classical vocal, so I list my favorite one for that set up:

SONY XA7ES + P1/P3A DAC
ARC LS-15 + ARC VT-1000-II
Celestion SL600 + REL Strat-III
TMC interconnects + AudioQuest speaker cables
DIY speaker stand + DIY room treatment
Oracle Delphi-II + FR arm + blue point special + ARC PH3SE

Some of them are very old, most used.
But they are very "musical" to me in the things I spin on them.

Try: Ella Fitzerald, Carerras, Jennifer Warnes....
cello is very good also.

LS-15's cap upgrade open up the mid and almost any other brand of tubes improves in the bass area.
Room treatment is very crucial in my small room.
Speaker is tuff to drive, and LS-15's gain is only barely enough for a pretty powerful VT-100.
Will use ProAC 3.8 for chamber music and up, musical too.
Actually, ProAC is easier to drive than the little SL600.
Hear more transpant sound in hi-fi stores, but seldom more musical than this one, IMHO.

Please share your tricks or memory for something you can't forget.
Or something you wish to go back, leaving your state-of-art equipment.
bluefin
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
I didn't build it but I realy heard:

Nottinham Analogue Spacedeck/arm/VanDenHul Black Beauty,
Manley Stingray phono preamp
SENNHEIZER ORPHEUS ear-speaker system.

Not only my ears but my stomach also was hungry to listen to this setup more and more. You do not even feel that you're wearing headphones and the soundstage seems to be not next to your ears as it usually happens with the headphones but arround you on the most pleasant distance. No need to look for a sweet spot and you do not feel that the music is coming from two channels it's simply EVERYWHERE!!!

All it takes is to spend arround 12k for Orpheus and you will have the sound that no 100K speaker/100k amp combo can reproduce.

After listening to this setup I have no desire to look for any speakers at any price. Forgive me for being selfish to like individual listening rather than with some friends but do you critically listen with your friends or your guests? All I now think about is to leave my amp/speakers with no upgrades for guests/friends/2ch Video and add-on ORPHEUS for real critical listening.
mdomnick
332 posts
 
Sonic Frontiers Line 1
Anthem Amp 2 (Telefunken Tubes)
Cinepro Power Pro 20
TransParent Power Cords
TransParent ML+ ICs
Monarchy DIP
Cal Audio Gamma DAC
Marantz transport
Paradigm Studio 100s
Analysis+ Oval 9 speaker wire

Needs a better DAC/Cd player and am struggling to pay off Tyler Acoustic 7U speakers; then I'll be done!!!!....yeah right, how many times have you said that??
brianmgrarcom
1,317 posts
 
It's an interesting question, when I was young into this hobby I had a little Denon integrated amp that I replaced with a Heath amp and pre that I got a great deal on as a friend had company ties. The Heath setup clearly was cleaner than the Denon, but I enjoyed the Denon much more, musically.

I am enjoying my current system a lot! Ironically it is based on an integrated amp again.

Levinson 383
Meridian 508.24
Yamaha T2 (tuner)
B&W N803's
Cardas Golden Reference and Microtwin IC's
LAT SS-1000 D Bi-wire
wenterprisesnw
66 posts
 
Sony CDP-XA7ES (compact disc player)
Conrad-Johnson PV10 (tube preamp)
Clayton Audio S40 (class A stereo 45 wpc power amplifier)
Kimber 8AG (bi-wired speaker cables)
Stealth PGS (gold interconnects w/Neutrik Pro-Fi RCAs)
Chang Lightspeed CLS 3200 MkII (A/C line conditioner)
Audience powerChord (x 3)
Merlin TSM-SE (minimonitors in Ruby Heart paint finish)

This system wasn't the deepest in the bass (but very good though!), nor was it the loudest playing system (though good enough for a 13x10 room), but it surrounded me with so much clarity, tonal balance, and utter 3-dimensional sound that if I turned out the lights, it was so real that it was like the performers were right there playing for me.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Brian..."Cleaner" does not mean more musical. Many times it is worse (sterile).
I have copies of interviews with the guys at Conrad Johnson and Blue Circle. In both cases they were asked why this or that component does not lab test with noise and/or distortion as low as many other designs. In both cases, the answer was that they could have very easily reduced the distortion, but at the cost of reducing the musicality as well.

Many audiophiles are looking for something other than "accurate" reproduction. Have you ever been to a live concert that you could describe as being "transparent" or with a dead quiet background? It was probably still a lot more musical than recorded music.

There was a good post a while back where someone asked...."Do you listen to sound or music?"

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