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 - you've obviously put a lot of thinking and consideration into your current system which on paper looks amazing. What, if anything, have you done about room acoustics so that your system can sound its best?
Also, have you listened to and compared the Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC to your AA DAC?
System edited: I'm kinda astounded at the amount of improvement these monoblocks are over the XA-100's in my system. Nelson Pass is genius! I'll be posting a review with all the details.
System edited: Just added the Running Springs Audio Dmitri to my system and for right now all I want to say is WOW!. I'll be righting a review here on the GON when I collect my thoughts.
System edited: I just added a pair of Martin-Logan Depth I subwoofers to my system with beautiful results. I'm amazed not what they did for the very bottom end, but what they did to the soundstage depth and width, the air between players, more of a 3-D quality to the individual players, and finally the whole system has more liquidity and an easyness to its overall sound. As far as I can tell so far I'm not aware of any down side at all!
I'm matching the Eklipse with Audio Valve Challenger so I have a good feeling it's gonna work out. I do have a pair of RCA clear top that I can try with it to see how it sounds over the stock tubes (which I don't know what it will be since I'm buying used). Can you hear the roll off in the highs with different inputs?
Hi Scar972, thanks for the compliment regarding my system. I had at one time audtioned a Joule Electra and found it was not my cup of sonic tea, at least in my system.
Your correct regarding the different inputs, no worries, just experiment and see which sounds the best. So far this the best preamp, with the right tubes, that I have ever had in my system. So, congrats on your Eklipse, let me know how you like in your system.
Nice system! I'm in the process of buying an Audio Valve Eklipse pre to match with AV Challenger amps, the Eklipse is replacing Joule Electra LA100mkIII which is a fine musical pre itself. I've read with the Eklipse the inputs have different gain and high frequency roll off. Can you hear the roll off in the highs with different inputs? I'm not sure I'm excited that AV did this.
Thanks for the invitation to come over, but sadly I stay on the other side of the world in Singapore, otherwise I would be glad to bring my AA Ref Drive2 over. Actually I should be the one grateful as it was your enthusiastic reviews of Accustic Art equipment over the years that introduced me to this German brand and after using it, I can agree with everything you wrote about it. Now that you have this new fired enthusiasm for another German brand, Audio Valve, it looks like it may be time for me to check it out too, as a replacement for my current Nuforce P9 preamp. Both yours and Mike's reviews have convinced me that this may be what I am looking for ;-)
Hi Hotbird, you always share new and informative information. Thanks.
If Audio Valve's reference Conductor preamp takes the performance level of the Eklipse to another level, all I can say is that would be a beautiful sounding piece of stereo gear. Besides, I just got the Eklipse and am totally enthralled with its performance, also the Conductor is a totally balanced design. I cannot use XLR cables coming out of the preamp in my system because I go into a single ended Bryston crossover before the two sets of monoblocks into the MG-20's. So, the benefits of the fully symmetrical design might be negated in my system. But, I'm sure the Conductor would still be fun to hear in my system.
Congratulations on your new transport! From the pictures it sure looks like "eye candy" and I bet it sounds wonderful with your Ref tube DAC. Hotbird, I would love to audition and compare the MBL to the AA, however it will be very difficult for me to set this up. The new importer is a hell of a nice guy, but I don't think he's going to ship me one without purchasing it for auditiong reasons. Nobody I know in the Chicagoland area that I live in has either the AA Tube DAC or the new reference transport. If you want to come over with your new toy, your more then welcome!
Looks like you are enjoying your new pre-amp greatly. I noticed that AudioValve has a much bigger brethen, called the Conductor that is fully symmetrically balanced, having both balanced inputs and outputs. This should suit the balanced outputs of the AA Tube Ref DAC2 perfectly, so would you be trying that out in the future? ;-) You can read more about the Conductor in this HK thread. AudioValve : Conductor preamp finally arrived!! Fyi, I already bought the AA Ref Drive2 to match the AA Ref Tube DAC2. The Ref Drive2 performance is way ahead of the Drive1 Mk2, so if you get the chance, do try it against your MBL 1521 transport, as it would be enlightening how it fares.
System edited: Just replaced my Antique Sound Lab Flora EX DT preamp with the Audio Valve Eklipse linestage. I wrote a review on the Eklipse here on the GON with all the details on this great piece.
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.
Chris, I have not heard the Lavry piece, if you have or will please share how this DAC sounds compared to the AA Tube Hybrid DAC. Congrats, on your new monoblock amps! I have listened to a few different DACS and still am very content with the AA DAC and my new MBL transport.
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.
Chris, thanks for the congrats regarding the transport. Please let me know what you think of the AA Tube hybrid reference DAC, I found it to be one of the most musical of all the digital front ends I have ever heard and with the MBL transport just a pleasure to listen to.
To answer your question regarding a silky/smooth treble with my Pass Labs XA-100's and MG-20's, YES with very natural timbres/resolution/speed. I have tried tube amps, including, VTL's, in the past and still like the XA-100's better.
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).
System edited: I have replaced the Accustic Arts MKII transport with the MBL 1521a because it's sonic performance was on a much higher level and brought the sound of my total system another step towards the illusion of real music. I will not write a formal review of the 1521a because a terrific one was already written by Marshall Nack for Postive Feedback Online, Issue 33, which I total agree with regarding his experience with this wonderful transport. Some of the highlights that Mr. Nack describes are such things as,"huge amount of muscical detail without losing the integrity of a single line... textured controlled bass... frequency response is a model of linearity... tonal platette is warm and rich". I would add an expanded soundstage with more space and 3D around each player and a liquidity/easyness without a loss of punch and dynamics. The bottom end is a real killer with this transport regarding extension, pitch, and speed.
Hi Sherod, I'm quite pleased with what the Dream Petite wires are giving me in my system. I was and still am a great fan of Acoustic Zen wires, however compared to the AZ Absolute the Dream Petite offers a much higher level of:
1) Transparency/clarity which equates alot more microdetails.
2) The AZ speaker wires are great at throwing a large open soundstage, the Dream Petite does not out do it in the size of the soundstage, but in more precise layering and air around individual players.
3)The Stealth wires are much "faster" in my system, so my overall PRAT has picked up. I call this the jump factor that gets you into the music more easly.
4) The bottom end is not deeper, but has more natural timbres to compared to the AZ.
So, I'm very happy camper, just remember it took a cable that is almost three times more expensive then the AZ wires to get to a higher level of performance, so that's a compliment to the ratio of cost/performance in AZ cables.
System edited: Just replaced my Acoustic Zen Absolute and Satori with Stealth Dream Petite and Ultimate Ribbon. When the new speaker cables are fully burnt in and I have collected my thoughts regarding their sonics I will post a review. However, right out of the box and 12 hours later the Dream Petite is offering a terrific sonic performance already in my system.
Puerto, I do not have MYE stands on my MG-20's. I have them on Goldmund cones and find these do a very good job of tightning the bass and offering more transparency then without them.
