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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
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes
688 posts
 
One last thought, aesthetics plays an important role in our audio systems and I agree nothing looks better than the glowing tubes.  A real conversation starter.  Likewise, the Cain & Cain tall single driver speakers are pretty cool looking too.  Forget the model #, but they definitely are conversation pieces.  

I just read under the Misc category, that sometimes the RMAF might not be the best place to do serious listening because of everyone talking, hope that's not the case when you go there.....
cottguy's avatar
cottguy OP
56 posts
 
I’m just going to throw a potentially stupid room treatment idea out there to combat our extremely large listening area and see what you guys thing...
What if I were to install a heavy floor to ceiling track and curtain that could cut the room down to one third of the size for serious listening sessions?
I mean more of a nice heavy/backed velvet curtain, not a cheep accordion style room divider by the way.

gdnrbob
4,457 posts
 
For the cost of the fabric and hardware, I would use it to upgrade the system. 
I haven't been following the thread, but you mentioned the Vandy 2's originally. Why not get a pair of Quatto's used and go for Solid state amplification?
Sorry if I am missing later developments...
facten
2,882 posts
 
gdnrbob

Be good to browse through the thread so you can understand better what cottguy is trying to accomplish and why solid state isn't an option , as well as, his last question regarding room treatment
inna
7,296 posts
 
I would think that room tuning could wait until all the equipment is in place and every piece is fully burnt-in, including of course the speakers. Speakers can take hundreds of hours to reach top performance, cartridge 100/120 hours, cables 200/300 hours, tube amp - I don't know, probably a few hundred hours too. When it's done and the permanent speakers position is determined, then you can experiment with the room.
I am not sure about putting heavy curtain and creating kind of wall. It would definitely absorb a lot, whether it would be good bad or both is another question. The most important thing about listening room is that it must be alive not a closed-in dead space. Room and speakers work together, that's why I called it tuning not treatment. Sometimes moving one big chair a few feet makes a major difference. It may take some time to find the best arrangements or you might accidentally hit it right away.
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