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 :
To those still chasing the Dragon. Enjoy !
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. |
I’m running loaner KEF R3’s and they are Dull as F until I connected a pair of ICE Power 1000W@4ohm Amplifiers with a miniDSP EQ that I gently boosted the Treble from 8k on up and another gentle boost from 100Hz on down. Passband I did not touch. Sounds incredible but they are still Bookshelf Speakers. Bass response to below 40Hz and the Treble/Upper midrange isn’t killing my ears when I turn up the volume. I carefully changed the el cheapo rc4580 Op-Amps with dual OPA627’s on each channel of the Sony Universal Player UBP-X1000ES . Replaced the blue "Chicklet" Capacitors with some SoniCaps that were laying in the same bin as the OPA627’s (TI Samples that were still sealed up). The resistors were changed out from throughole 5% (assumed) resistors with .1% or less Susumu Surface Mount Resistors. $150.00 does not turn it into a $5k DAC, but it sounds a bit darker than the PS Audio DirectStream DAC Sr. when I compared the two. Of course the PSA DSSr. DAC is more "Vinyl like" and very smooth sounding but the Bass extension in my mods beat the PSA DAC. I wasn’t expecting that. The Sony’s Analog stage was very "Wimpy sounding" whether SACD/DSD or PCM was played back though it. I can build my "Forever System" around this sound. My first "Audiophile Equipment" was the Adcom GFA-345 Preamp with a GFA-545II back in 1993. I drove my friends Boston Acoustics A70’s with them for about a year with a Homebrew Sub that I copied (poorly mind you) the M & K Sub with the front facing and up firing dual Woofers. When I got the Home Theater bug. in 1999/2000/2001, I traded the Preamp/Amp for a used Adcom GFA 555II. I had a Denon AVR that I also traded for a newer one with more features. I’ve been using AVR’s as my Preamp for the last 20 years ! The 555II gain board caught fire while I was servicing it after (one channel was dead - needed recap) 18 years of trouble free service. The BAT VK50-SE Preamp stopped working after a Power Surge (the unit was turned off BTW) took it out. Once the Factory is done with it ($$$). I’m not sure if I’ll keep it or sell it. One thing is for sure, I’ve never burnt anyone on a sale and have "taken it on the chin" a few times. The Preamp fiasco was the last straw for me. All my Consumer "not Audiophile" Equipment works flawlessly. Even had another powers urge last Saturday and this time I was home.
I really appreciate the comments/sympathy. I know I’ve been a bit harsh on some of my posts and sometimes in the rebuttals. But hey, it’s all good now. And I’m still a Schill for Orchard Audio’s Ultra Amplifiers. I like their sound and Dick Olsher did too (the little BOSC/StarKrimson ones from a few years ago). But don’t worry, I’ll still be posting my crap on here form time to time. I forgot to mention that I had the PS Audio Stellar Stack (SGCD Preamp/DAC, 3x M700’s, and a S300). Great system but Leo’s Amplifiers to my ears sounded better. Daren’s a brilliant Audio Engineer as is Leo and we need these young GUys along with Sean Casey of Zu and many other younger than me Engineers to keep striving and doings things way better than their very grey haired predecessors !
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