2. speakers
  3. 1270447920

I think I've made up my mind

After having auditioned the following :

1. Avantgarde Uno G2 + Audio Note SET amp/Pathos Twin Towers integrated amp
2. Magico V2 + Soulution 720 pre + 710 power amps
3. Sonus Faber Elipsa/Wilson Sasha + ARC Ref 3 + Ref 110
4. Thiel CS3.7 + Parasound JC1 pre + JC2 power amps

...and after weighing all factors like room interaction, degree of difficulty of setting-up, value for money, magazine reviews, and comments posted here and AVguide.com....

...the winner is: Thiel CS3.7 + Parasound JC1/JC2!

Now for the cables. MF and JA of Stereophile noted that the specs of Parasound show ultra-wide bandwidth and high-current capability which reminds me of Spectral amps. Therefore, would MIT Magnum MA speaker cables and interconnects be a good match? Anyone has any other suggestion? Thanks.
jtein
ack's avatar
ack
115 posts
 
Every manufacturer of electronics worth their salt should have optimally tuned their products with a single kind of cable (or a range of cables that are extremely similar to each other), and they should be able to tell you which one. I have no experience with tubes and extremely little with Transparent - I used to run a McCormack DNA-1 with some $800 Transparent speaker cable over 15 years ago, but honestly I did not like the construction inside that box (looked very sloppy). Basically, I can speak with confidence with products I have used since then.
rrog
1,958 posts
 

The people manufacturing tube amplifiers don't make a big deal out of speaker cables. They just say to choose an efficient cable and keep the runs short.

I keep thinking I want to get back into solid state, but good solid state sound is both complicated and expensive. Then there is this issue with Spectral and MIT which I am convinced is a marketing ploy. How convenient, you don't have to experiment with cables because it is already done for you. I still think Spectral did this so their customers would be locked into a sound they approve of.

It's easier to get good sound with tubes. Besides, solid state manufacturers continue to say their latest amplifier is the most tube-like product yet.
jon2020's avatar
jon2020
991 posts
 
Tvad and Madfloyd,
I used to have the ARC Ref 3 before I sold it for the dCS Puccini which doubles as a digital pre-amp. It was driving the Bryston 28B SST monoblocks and was certainly dynamic with huge dynamic contrasts. So if it sounds bland or dull, it is quite likely the impedance mismatch with your amps, as suggested by Pubul.
Post removed 
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,454 posts
 
Tvad,

The match may be within range but 30K ohm is still towards the low end of the SS amp input impedance range from what I've seen, which seems to be around 10K ohm. I've seen balanced input impedances on SS amps up to 200K ohms or so.
More to discover