Why did you purchase the equipment you have and what do you like most about it?
I’m just interested on how and why you purchased your gear. Did you hear it first? Did you research it endlessly? Did your dealer recommend it. What do you like most about it. Full disclosure. I’m with Infigo Audio. I just wonder how did most of us end up with our kits!
Gifts and Inheritances have been the major factor in my equipment journey and gift of 50 water damaged LPs gave me a free way to learn about Jazz. married age 19 in 1967 while in college, bought 1st system with wedding gift money: AR-2ax speakers, Fisher 200T Transistor Receiver, BSR TT (no memory of what cartridge). Inheritance at age 25 of my Uncle Johnny’s all tube console was an aural revelation https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11420
New Rosewood Enclosures contain Electro-Voice crossover (tar filled cans)15" woofer, level controls for the tweet horn and 2 way mid horn from that console. (re-coned the woofers a few times over the years) (have spare crossover and set of drivers) (Electro-Voice engineers, still in NYC in those days, helped me design the new enclosures I had made, they have rear ports that are stuffed in this location).
That 15W Woofer, monster magnet weighs 37 lbs by itself CD Era Only speakers I ever heard and wanted at all the audio shows and NYC stores Played for years with a gift set of SS McIntosh mc2250 stereo amp and C28 SS Preamp. Sold them when I went back to my very efficient horn speakers which allowed me to go back to lower power tubes. The Cayin Tube Amp shown above had to have remote volume and sound as good as the original Fisher 80az mono tube amps, happily it does. My choices were limited by the need for 16 ohm taps for my speakers. chose McIntosh mx110z Tube Tuner Preamp based on: McIntosh mx110z review by positive feedback Along the way: Restored a gift set of Thorens TD-124 TT and SME 3009 II, (Shure V15VxMR and AT440ml cartridges). Wow (except my springy wood floors and Thorens bearing did not mix). Used starter TT QLDD AT120 for a few years while mostly buying/playing CDs. Wanted a long tonearm, to finally try MC Cartridge, asked here, also learned here about advantage of a true Mono Cartridge, ended up with my 3 Arm TT SACD: asked/learned here about Sony xa5400es Content: while working for others, hardly any disposable income, until I Quit Smoking, spent former tobacco money on music content (was $700/yr, now over $4,500/yr) added up to quite a lot over 25 years Reel to Reel Tape: The Fisher console had a Viking 75 (telex) 2 Track Tape Deck and some classical tapes. I added Teac X2000R 4 Track Stereo Deck and bought over 500 pre-recorded tapes (with my tobacco money) when shipping might cost more than the tape. Started my own business 1997, finally had disposable income, prefer used, vintage combined with my mr. fixit skills. mostly retired since 2010, beginning 2019, joined audiogon and completely overhauled 3 mostly vintage systems and inherited 4,000 lps in 2021.
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@ricred1 exactly. We all have different variables. Equipment, listening environments and combinations etc. I agree 100%. Your system is unique to you. |
First, I don't buy anything that looks wrong to me. Yes, looks. Then, if I can't audition it, and usually I can't, I listen to other people, especially some on Audiogon. Pro reviews are without exception all BS, you never know what they really hear and think. I always buy used by mail and don't communicate with any dealer. |
From the 80’s and two decades ahead have been through a more traditional range of speaker brands (i.e.: lower efficiency, direct radiating) like JMLab, Snell, Spendor, JBL, Amphion, Peak Consult, Raidho and S.P. Technology before verging into the moderate to high efficiency segment of speakers from the polish hORNS, the UK-based Simon Mears Audio and now Electro-Voice/JBL/B&C. I’ve used Class D amp variants, Class A and A/B dittos (mostly SS amps, and a few tube-based), preamps from the likes of Electrocompaniet, Cary, Classé and Belles (Power Modules), and went digital source exclusively over 30 years ago. Nothing wrong with an analogue source, on the contrary, but I prioritize differently - i.e.: digital exclusively. As a fairly young lad I favored speakers like the JBL 250Ti’s for their room filling, fairly live and dynamic sound, and later craved the larger and more expensive siblings - the 4430/4435, Everest DD55000 and particularly K2 S9500’s. Before it came to any investments however JBL "changed gear," went to other dealer hands here in Denmark, and while I liked the later K2 S9800(SE’s) they were out of my budget range. JBL’s horn-based product range these last two decades has come to divert a bit from my taste (I do like the actively configured M2’s and current Everest’s), and I actually find a range of their older models more interesting sonically. The real change for me came with the "discovery" of a pro sound dealer who himself, more privately, is a true audio nerd and collector that merges the pro segment of speakers (older JBL and Electro-Voice cinema line, Vitavox, Altec and ATC) with high-end digital and analogue sources from Weiss, Bricasti, Mark Levinson (transport), Project (transport, RS2 T) and SME turntables (model 30, of which he has several). Not least he’s running all his setups in his large house/home firm fully actively configured through MC² Audio amps (and previously Crown Studio Ref. 1’s and McIntosh MC-2300’s) and ATC SCA2 preamps. And so this is where I am now - in the merger of a domestic line high-end D/A-converter with studio amps and actively configured pro cinema speakers + horn-based subs. What I like about this approach is its dynamically uninhibited, effortless, very highly resolved, transparent, tonally fairly accurate and coherent, full-range presentation. On a side note, if not an appendix: the recently added JBL Alnico tweeters are some ~50 years old, and yet they’re more resolved, smooth, effortless and dynamic than any dome tweeter I’ve heard, sitting up there with modern ribbon and AMT variants. Again: they’re pro segment and half a century old, and yet.. How’s that for the claimed progression of modern drivers? |
