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Speaker Porn


Hopstretch

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After an exceptionally long week, I finally made it to my happy place.

Following years of upgrading, acquisition, learning to work with electronics, and tweaking I'm finally really happy with my rather simple vinyl setup. Aside from needing a new set of tubes, I finally have everything really dialed in.

Ortofon 2M Bronze Cart: this sucker took a hard month to break in, and I was really worried that it was defective, but it was worth it. Much better than the vintage moving coil I was running.

Harman Kardon T-60 Turntable: I found this guy for a steal at $75. It needed a lot of cleanup and tweaking. It took months to really dial in the platter, isolate the motor, and finicky antiskate, but I love this table. I hope it never dies. Known as the "poor man's Linn Sondek" this thing sounds great. My favorite feature is the auto lift that is triggered by optical sensor. It's an audiophile solution that is totally isolated from the tonearm with no gear mechanism. Why dont we have these on modern decks??!!

Pro ject Phono Box DS: a great little phono preamp with a lot of flexibility. After rolling some tubes, I settled on a vintage set of MILSPEC Raytheons.

Bob Latino ST-120 (high gain): The centerpiece of my setup. This thing is fully loaded after installing a bunch of upgrades. With the input attenuator, I can run the amp without a preamp for simplicity and pure sound. I'm running it with KT-120s and Mullard CV 4024 drivers. The drivers made a HUGE difference. If you have a setup with 12AT7 tubes, you NEED to get these. Mullard made hundreds of thousands so they are still really cheap for their performance. Buy a bunch now while you can.

Klipsch Fortes (originals): A compromise for the Forte 3s which I cant afford. I found these locally for pretty cheap. I replaced the crossovers and tweeters with Bob Crites products for a huge improvement in audio. I built my own stands to elevate them. My next project is to reveneer the oak cabinets.

Furman Elite 20PFi power conditioner: an unexpected bargain find that definitely helped clean up the sound and really drop the noise floor.

Audioquest bridge series interconnects: I have a love hate relationship with these. Mechanically, they suck. the internal connections are shoddy, but I cant find anything that I've liked better, especially between the turntable and the preamp. Anything else I've thrown in the system(that I can afford) throws a blanket over the music. For now, these are what I'm sticking with.

DIY Crutchfield speaker cables: I run my TV and vinyl setup on the same speakers (different amps) so I needed a solution that would allow me to quickly and safely switch between the two. The solution was to build a set of "bi-wire" cables where both amps are always plugged in and I can change between the two at the speakers. With some techflex, bannana plugs, lots of heat shrink, and Crutchfield, 10awg oxygen free cable, I turned out some snakes that look pretty professional and sound good enough for me.

 

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After losing a high end projector based multi channel amp and speaker home theater system in a divorce, I finally had the justification to build a worthy two channel system. This has been put together beginning in 2016.

The space is not ideal, and the gear is mostly mid-fi, but for my budget it sounds wonderous. The addition of the Rega wall mount helped with the subs.

The GIK panels made a big difference, especially the corner traos. First reflection points on the walls are basically impossible in my room, so it's a compromise. The Vito Acoustics diffusers are basically just for looks, they don't seem to do much for my ears.

PrimaLuna DiaLogue premium HP integrated tube amp

Rega RP-10 w/Aphelion MC cart

Technics SL-10 turntable w/Technics 310MC cart

Herron Audio VTPH-2A tube phono stage

Revox B77 MKII reel to reel

Nakamichi ZX-7 Cassette deck

Rotel RCD-855 CD player

Bluesound Node 2i streamer

Focal Aria 948 speakers w/Isoacoustic GIAI II footers

REL Acoustics S3/SHO Stereo pair subs

Furman M 8X2 power

Monoprice Interconnects

Monoprice 12 Ga speaker cable

GIK Acoustics Bass traps, gobos, clouds

Vito Acoustic Diffusion panels

Rega Wall Mount

 

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28 minutes ago, Craig Sawyers said:

Needs some carpets and soft furnishings. Just sayin.

Oh, that room badly needs some sort of damping, but I love that staircase, and the art.  And that console table. 

4 minutes ago, jose said:

I like that equipment, but with these speakers adding a subwoofer is stupid. The bass must be totally out of control.

Sometimes you want things to be a little out of control. :)

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