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
rbertalotto
138 posts
 

Yup...Dump it all and go Lyngdorf TDAI-1120 and KEFD LS50 Metas...DONE!

rbertalotto
138 posts
 

I spent way too much time and money during the shutdowns having lots of fun buying and selling and researching. 

Sometimes (no just about all the time)....The fun for me is in the research....AND THEN the HUNT!......Trying to find that one piece "everyone is raving about"....Ordering it, waiting for the FedX/UPS truck sittying on the sidewalk, Unpacking, Hooking it up, hating it (can't understand what everyone was raving about), returning it......Can't tell you how many times that happened in the two Covid Years......The UPS store knows me by name!

 Last week I bought a little, four tube amplifier kit of a fellow on one of the audio classified sites for $100 (s5Electronics K-12G)...Built it in about 2 hours....Hooked it up and compared over a number of days to VTA ST120 Dynaco clone and First Watt F5v2......The amp is horrible. Buzzes like a swarm of bees and hums a tune I don't recognize(if you put your ear up to the speaker)....But it sounds FANTASTIC...You can't believe 8 watts into KEF LS50 Metas would even work, nevermind sound like it does.....Something is wrong with the whole High End HiFi picture.....

sns
3,265 posts
 

Recent "Law Of Accelerated Returns" thread presents opposite argument to this. Perhaps each of us reaches a certain peak, at this point we're either motivated or stimulated enough to seek the higher peaks or turn back since the climb already undertaken has been taxing enough.

 

Law of accelerated returns says cost/benefit ratio all in favor of benefit, law of diminishing returns say costs quite high compared to benefits, law of no returns says costs far outweigh benefits. The last being gist of this thread.

 

I've been in all three camps at various times in my audio journey. Spent most time in diminishing returns camp, well over twenty years here. Only recently have I entered accelerated returns camp, the sound quality of present setup has finally reached the peak where live non-sound reinforced music, best sound system ever heard and sound quality of my dreams live. The difference in height between that peak of diminishing returns and accelerated returns is significant.

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,841 posts
 

But it sounds FANTASTIC...You can't believe 8 watts into KEF LS50 Metas would even work, nevermind sound like it does.....Something is wrong with the whole High End HiFi picture.....

@rbertalotto 

Not really: there is a reason Nelson Pass named some of his product 'First Watt'. Most of the time that's all the power most people are using- the extra power is for peaks (most of the time). If you have a good clean first watt, you can do a lot with that, and this has fueled a great deal in high end audio!

Again- high end audio is driven by intention, not price.

(If you worked with that little amp to solve its noise problems, I suspect it could be sorted out.)

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,841 posts
 

what do you think lightning strikes cause?? 

In my world lightning strikes are different from power surges, which are caused by the power company. One way a power surge can occur is if there is an interruption of power, the magnetic field in the power transformers upstream from your house collapses. When this happens, the transformers put out a very large voltage (this is the same principle used to drive spark plugs in a car). Because of the load on the transformers the surge might only be 50-60 volts.

A lightning strike by comparison will do well over 1000 volts! So I draw the distinction in that manner.

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