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

That's awesome @pesky_wabbit ! Enjoy my friend. Tubes ain't for Boobs. I had my fun with them (Jolida 3502p with KT150's). A friend lent me a pair of McIntosh MC30's for a little while. Very nice Amplifiers but for what they are going for now. Not worth it for me. I wish I had my MC50's to compare them too (In repair at the moment).

Rajugsw,

Good luck with that!

40+ years on the audiophile train and I jumped off one year ago and haven't looked back! Downsized, sold off a lot of speakers and components after settling on a low-end audiophile system that I truly enjoy. I'm just crossing my fingers that the bug doesn't suddenly return.

There's nothing wrong with contentment. It leaves more time & $ for listening more and discovering more good music. 

I guess I have been very lucky. I've been quietly combing through this forum for the last few years and it's really helped me at purchase time. I committed to listening before I bought my biggest purchases and it's made a big difference. 

Biggest learnings were understanding the room acoustics and component matching.

Yep, with you. I’ve climbed the ladder as far as I can within any real reason. System is no slouch, but the peak has been reached!