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

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.)

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.

@rajugsw The exit from my roller coaster ride aligned with the decline of my quality of my hearing.  I became a much more tolerant of imperfection when I couldn't hear the difference anymore.  Now I have 8 cars, and less audio equiopment.  

Your posted resonated with me on many levels.

First, I wrote a long and passionate post about a week ago in defense of Bose 901s and Bose 901 owners.  I hope you had a chance to read it.  I also wrote a similar post recently in support of McIntosh.  I'm a bit of a speaker geek and received a patent for the Open Line Source speaker back in 1990.  I/we are currently involved in performance mods and had suprisingly good results with a pair of 901 S1s.  In addition to some serious "tweaks" the speakers, we also applied some "high end thinking" to the crossover.  If you'd like to compare notes at some point, I'll be happy to share our approach and results.

Cornwalls:  I have a strong emotional attachment to these speakers.  I become a Klipsch dealer in 1982. When unloading our first shipment off the truck, I was in the process of taking a Cornwall from the truck to the ground by myself when I felt a severe pain in my back.  My immediate impulse was to just let go and let them hit the asphalt.  Then, I remembered how much money I had in the speaker and gingerly took them safely to the ground.  In the coming days, I was in agony.  At the age of 31, it was my first realization of my mortality.  I had an injury that wasn't going heal on its own.  I have the Cornwalls to "thank" for this life lesson.  We continue to do Klipsch performance mods.  We know "stuff" about Klipsch speakers to make them sound better.  I know there are popular kits out there that do a good job.  But, I like the draw the analogy of spending $4k for a turbo upgrade on your car and driving around with the parking brake on.  We start by making sure the parking brake is disengaged.  If you want to compare notes on Klipsch performance, we can compared notes on this as well.

A few years ago, I removed my (really good sounding) modified "industrial look" separates and replaced them with amp/preamp brand that I had aspired to own to my entire life -- McIntosh.  I'm sure your M50s are a great choice to drive the Cornwalls.

I haven't messed with H-frame subs.  Sounds interesting.

Thanks for the post.  Got my wheels turning.

@rajugsw The exit from my roller coaster ride aligned with the decline of my quality of my hearing.  I became a much more tolerant of imperfection when I couldn't hear the difference anymore.  Now I have 8 cars, and less audio equiopment.  

Your posted resonated with me on many levels.

First, I wrote a long and passionate post about a week ago in defense of Bose 901s and Bose 901 owners.  I hope you had a chance to read it.  I also wrote a similar post recently in support of McIntosh.  I'm a bit of a speaker geek and received a patent for the Open Line Source speaker back in 1990.  I/we are currently involved in performance mods and had suprisingly good results with a pair of 901 S1s.  In addition to some serious "tweaks" the speakers, we also applied some "high end thinking" to the crossover.  If you'd like to compare notes at some point, I'll be happy to share our approach and results.

Cornwalls:  I have a strong emotional attachment to these speakers.  I become a Klipsch dealer in 1982. When unloading our first shipment off the truck, I was in the process of taking a Cornwall from the truck to the ground by myself when I felt a severe pain in my back.  My immediate impulse was to just let go and let them hit the asphalt.  Then, I remembered how much money I had in the speaker and gingerly took them safely to the ground.  In the coming days, I was in agony.  At the age of 31, it was my first realization of my mortality.  I had an injury that wasn't going heal on its own.  I have the Cornwalls to "thank" for this life lesson.  We continue to do Klipsch performance mods.  We know "stuff" about Klipsch speakers to make them sound better.  I know there are popular kits out there that do a good job.  But, I like the draw the analogy of spending $4k for a turbo upgrade on your car and driving around with the parking brake on.  We start by making sure the parking brake is disengaged.  If you want to compare notes on Klipsch performance, we can compared notes on this as well.

A few years ago, I removed my (really good sounding) modified "industrial look" separates and replaced them with amp/preamp brand that I had aspired to own to my entire life -- McIntosh.  I'm sure your M50s are a great choice to drive the Cornwalls.

I haven't messed with H-frame subs.  Sounds interesting.

Thanks for the post.  Got my wheels turning.