2. amps-preamps
  3. 175396-143318

No more "High End" for me...Back to Reality Audio

After a 3 year roller coaster ride with so called "Audiophile High End" Tube Amps,/Tube Preamps, multi thousand dollar DAC's, Speakers of all shapes and sizes, and several DIY mods. I've settled on what will be my "forever system" and stop chasing a Dragon that I'll never catch. There's more important things in life to worry about. Plus HIgh End crap can be very fickle at times. It has taught me though what sounds good and how to get there and of course how much it will cost new or slightly used.

For the first time, I'm building a system around the Speakers. I'm an electronics Geek so that has ALWAYS come first. I've always done DIY Speakers as well form High School to College to married life (my Wife puts up with A LOT).

My Bose 901 "passion" will be with me forever. I will defend those Sealed Box odd shaped boxes till I do. Any old Geezer will be told off wherever they knock that Brand down. I did it last last week.

Anyways, the list :

  • Klipsch Cornwall IV's driven by a pair of resto modded McIntosh MC50's
  • Sony UBP-X1000ES (gotta get some more before they and the 1100ES become as rare as the overpriced Oppo crap) with my mods to the Analog Output boards
  • Orchard Audio Ultra Amplifers x6 (I'm getting near the end of hand buiding/soldering the 6 pcb's)
  • Stax SRM-007tA with Koss 95/X Electrostatics
  • Surround Speakers will be 4x Series I/II Speakers with two on Tulip Stands and two more hung from the ceiling (what the Wife can see sitting down but can hear is always a good thing)
  • Center Channel with be two Heresy's resting horizontally angled up towards the screen slightly
  • two double stacked 12" H-Frame Subwoofers on the back wall 
  • All the Electronics will be mounted in the wall giving lots of space for the Cornwall to do their "thang"

To those still chasing the Dragon. Enjoy !

 

 

rajugsw
drbond
423 posts
 

Here's an anecdote:  

My mom has had the Bose speaker system for years.  I purchased and set up a low-end hifi audiophile system ($3,000) for her at her home, and she is amazed.  She loves it and is listening to music and enjoying it like never before.  She is hearing things in the recordings that she never heard before.  

It's a rather simple system:  20 year old $1,000 bookshelf speakers (Revel Performa M20), a 10-15 year old $1,000 solid state Musical Fidelity integrated amplifier, and a 15-20 year old $1,000 Musical Fidelity CD/DAC.  I connected everything using basic 14G OFC cables.  

If you had trouble getting great sound out of your system, it was probably due to mis-matching of components.  There's a world of wisdom in these forums that can help you build a great system!

russ69's avatar
russ69
3,523 posts
 

After a 3 year roller coaster ride...

Try 50 years....

phantom_av's avatar
phantom_av
326 posts
 

 Its more about the experience, but this audiophile market pricing is going crazy now have to agree on this. Its putting allot of people off. some people are giving up and sticking to intergrated lower end systems.

jim5559
604 posts
 

it's the dollar $ folks ,

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,943 posts
 

Over forty years here.....getting close to getting off the Rollercoaster soon.   I agree, if I didn't revamp my system over the past year I don't think I could have afforded to in the near future.   Bought a pair of Forte IV which I love , that set off a chain of events resulting in pretty much complete upgrade except for tuner and disc player.

Waiting on one piece,  a Toolshed Amps 300b and I should be done for a long time.

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