The sound of jazz

by teajay on Opinions Please

Description

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.
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Components Toggle details

    • MBL mbl 1621
    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.
    • Harmonix Studio Masters
    A total of seven Studio Masters power the system.

Comments 104

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Wow, killer system.

Come on TJ, thirty five years and no turntable? As a serious jazz lover, what did you do with all of that great vinyl I know that you once owned? If it's in storage somewhere, cut me deal and sell it to me.

Do you use an attenuator to adjust the gain for the tops and bottoms of the two differnt amps in your bi-amp setup?

What are your room dimensions including ceiling height?

mitch4t

TJ, excellent system. I've heard how good the Ensemble combo can sound, but not with Maggies. (And what, you don't need no stinking fusion? LOL) I'm sure you're really enjoying your stolen moments with a lot of my favorite musicians - but wait, I can hear Jimmy noodling on his keyboard downstairs in my room...gotta go. Enjoy!

islandear

Owner
Scar972, to answer your question, yes, the other inputs effect the highend with their limited bandwith. Your RCA clear tops are a vast improvement over the stock crappy tubes, but when you can, obtain either NOS Amperex 12AU7 long plate G-getters or NOS Mullard 12AU7's long plate

teajay

Owner
Scar972, yes you can hear the top end extension being rolled off in the secondary inputs. The RCA clear tops are much better then the stock crappy tubes, but if you want to the Eklipse "sing" try to obtain either NOS Amperex long plate G-getters 12AU7's or NOS Mullard long plate

teajay

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