This rig is the cumulation of building my system for over thirty-five years. The Threshold SA-1 monoblocks are true classics and still sound great powering the bass panels of the MG-20s!I love this system's combination of details,natural timbres,and soundstage. I sit about 14 feet off of the MG-20s so I get a great blossoming of the soundstage in a very real and natural way.I named the system "The sound of Jazz" because I'm a serious jazz buff who listens to swing,be-bop,hard-bop and soul-organ styles about 99.99% of the time! Most of my collection was recorded in analog so it has that organic/musical sonic sense to it which sounds great when played on this system. It's a wonderful treat on a daily basis tohear the great players in the history of Jazz play in my house.Nothing is like live music but this system gives a great illusion of the real thing.I can honestly say that my goal was to enjoy the beauty of music I love and this system allows me to do that, without feeling that I'm missing out on some important aspect of the experience of sound that we humans call music.
Silver and crome reference piece. Weighs over 80 pounds.
Concert Fidelity DAC-040
Non up or over sampling DAC that uses NOS DAC chips and NOS tubes.
Concert Fidelity CF-080
Hand built linestage built on the philosophy of having the shortest signal path possible.
Pass Labs XA-60.5 monoblocks
The latest generation of the XA series amps.
Lawrence Audio Cello
The Cello is a floorstanding five driver 3.5 design using Air Motion Transformer and ribbon drivers with Carbon fiber cones.
Martin Logan Depth I
The Martin Logan Subs are designed to be able to intregate with panel speakers. The Depth uses three 8" drivers and goes down to 20HZ, but is fast and quick enought to blend with the MG-20's. I'm using two of them in my system
Stealth Cables Varidig Sextet Digital reference
Designed to be a mate with the Indra reference. BNC to BNC connections.
Stealth Cables Indra
The cable with the "infamous" amorphous conductor.
Stealth Cables Metacarbon
A carbon with metal flakes cable that is Stealth's answer to the sonics of it's much more expensive Indra cable. Three pairs.
Stealth Cables Dream Petite & Ultimate Ribbon
The Dream Petite is one step down from the reference Dream and the Ultimate Ribbon is used for the bass panel.
Running Springs Audio Dmitri
This companies new reference AC power conditioner, along with their new HZ power cord.
TJ, I have two more questions regarding the AA Tube DAC: do you use rubber rings or Herbie tube dampers for the two 2AX7's inside the D/A converter? What kind of component base do you have under the AA Tube DAC? Thank you.
Hi TJ, I think the Accustic Arts Tube DAC is a wonderful sounding DAC. Have you heard the Lavry Gold DA-2002? This should also be a great DAC. I replaced my Gruensch power amplifier with JMF Audio monoblock amplifiers (from France). These are the best amplifiers I have heard so far in my system. No tube amp can match them.
Teajay, congratulations with the MBL transport. I also own one and I think it is even better than the CEC TL-0 Mk II, which I had once. I haven't heard the CEC TL-0X so I can't comment about it. I'm also in the process of purchasing an AA Tube DAC at this moment. Do you have a smooth and silky treble with the Pass/Maggie combination? Sometimes I'm thinking of replacing my solid state power amplifier with a VTL (or other tube amplifier).
Tj, according to experts a digital S/PDIF cable should have 75 Ohms characteristic impedance. If a cable has these characteristics, it should sound very good regardless of price. But in practice the bunch 75 Ohms cables (from RadioShack to Purist Audio) sound not very alike and some are better than others. So this 75 Ohms thing will not guarantee that the cable is fine sounding, do you agree with this? Do you know the Silver Stream digital interconnect from Silver Audio? And what do you think of the Wireworld Gold Starlight?
TJ, the Accuphase combo is from 1992. According to you the Accuphase gear you once owned sounded warm/musical. I would describe the sound of my digital gear as neutral and detailed but a bit lean throughout the midrange, not the typical Accuphase house sound I guess. I also own an Accuphase A-50V class A power amp, which does sound warm and full. Maybe it's because I'm using isolation transformers with the transport and DAC. Those trannies clean up the sound from noise and RFI, but could also alter the tonal balance towards the lean, like ferrite beads can do if used abundantly.
Hi TJ, I'm an audiophile from The Netherlands. After 12 years listening to CD's only, I've bought a turntable! The analog set up is chosen carefully and sounds pretty good. In comparison with analog my digital rig sounds a lean in the midrange and laid back. It has also less PRaT than analog. I know that analog and red book CD are not comparable to each other, but I think there is way too much difference in tonal balance between my digital and analog set up. At my friend's home there is less difference in tonal balance between his analog and digital gear. The gear he owns sounds good but are not high end btw. I wonder if there is some technical problem in the digital chain, for example impedance mismatch. Do you have suggestions regarding this problem? Do you have experience with using an output coupling transformer between the DAC and preamp?
