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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
kleech
130 posts
 
Around 15 years ago I put together a system culled from
leftovers from other systems. Not terribly accurate or
extended at either frequency extreme but musical in the way
that would have you tapping your toes in the room next door.

Quad II amps and original preamp
Linn LP12, RB300 arm and some kinda Denon cartridge
Harbeth HL Mk3 Monitors
nrchy's avatar
nrchy
2,124 posts
 
Yesterday I was doing some work around the house so I put a simply vinyl Elvis album on my TT. The listening room is in the basement and I was upstairs. It sounded like Elvis was trapped in my basement. It was kinda eerie having a dead person down there.
The system made the music come alive. I'm using a Sota Star Sapphire with a Rega RB 900 arm and a Benz Glider cartridge. This is run through a Krell KRC 2 and an Aragon 8008st amp. The speakers are Sony SS M7es. I'm using Purist and Cardas interconnect, Monster M2.4 speaker cable and homemade powercords.
None of this is ulimately special but it let Elvis out of the grooves and into the room
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
My Linn Aktiv system is by far the most musical system I have ever had. Especially so when I consider the enjoyment when listening to lesser recordings. Let's face it, stellar recordings play back well on all systems.

The Down From The Mountain tour landed in my home town (Nampa, Idaho) last week. For those not in the know about this tour it is all the folks from the music side of the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou". Before and after this event I listened to the soundtrack on cd. The concert was like listening in my music room.
rbirke
144 posts
 
When I was 14, I had a Sansui 5000A receiver, a Dual turntable with a Shure cartridge, a pair of Sansui speakers with wood and cloth grills, all strung together with zip cord. I listened to it for years on end and was in hog heaven.

Now I have Bryston 7B-ST's, a Rogue 99, Revel F50's, Meridian 508-24, and very pricey wires. I had a Well-Tempered table and Goldring cartridge but sold it and am now shopping for a new vinyl rig. Oh yeah, and a power pillow and aftermarket power cords. And I's still chasing the ghost of my teenage rig in terms of sheer pleasure. Of course, back then I had no job, no wife and kids, and I was liking the wacky tabacky too.

Musicality is, like so many things, all wrapped up in context.

An unexamined life may not be worth living, but an examined one is not all it's cracked up to be, either.
frogman
7,455 posts
 
We are really talking about a kind of "loss of innocence" on a level that really has very little to do with the music; but more with personal development and growth(?), and the ensueing need for bigger and better gratification, better toys.

There is no question that the pursuit of the best sound in the home can be be a distraction from the enjoyment of music with respect for it's innocence. Like all art there has to be an element of abandon and openmindedness to fully appreciate an artist's statement. The instant that we, consciously or not, start to think: "a little glary", "lumpy bass", "right channel not loud enough", we lose a little bit of that innocence in listening.

Our big music toys are a pretty cool thing, and they sure as hell can be a lot of fun in their own right, but in a way we should be trying to simplify, not overcomplicate the process of listening to music.

Happy listening.
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