I have been slowly building this system over ten years or so. For most of that time I have been a student, now I have an infant, so budget and priorities haven't always been able to keep up with my tastes.
Pretty soon the Pack'n'Play will be going downstairs and we will get some real furniture for listening chairs.
The system has a nice sound for the price. Nothing is expensive, but it works well together.
I used to have the system oriented 90 degrees from its current position. The speakers were directed into the length of our 15ft by 35ft living/dining/kitchen. This was nice for listening while cooking and eating, but the inclusion of a comfy listening chair would break up the flow of the room (according to my wife). So, I have moved the system to play across the short dimesionn of the room in anticipation of new furniture.
The speakers are about 3.5 ft from rear wall but a little to wide for my current listening position. I wish I could move the right speaker a little further to the left permanently but the stairs make that difficult. For now, I move it over during more critical listening sessions. This also moves the rear-firing port away from the half wall by the stairs.
It is a bit of a hassle to move in and out, spikes at the bottom and top of the stand need to be considered. Also it has kept me from filling the stand with lead or sand.
Future thoughts:
Upgrade digital front end, perhaps Jolida JD-100A. Any other ideas in the sub $1K range?
I have had the Jolida amp for 6 years now, it is probably time to start considering replacement tubes (12AX7A), any suggestions?
Audio path mods to the KT-815, this tuner is a favorite for DXers. I don't need more selectivity or sensitivity, I pull in my favorite stations just fine here in the Balto/DC area. However, replacing the caps and isolating the power transformer is in order.
Perhaps a small unobtrusive sub, I don't listen to movies on this system but a little extra heft in the bass would be appreciated. The only problem is I don't have pre-amp outputs on the Jolida (is this a possible mod) and I don't want to run my speakers through a subwoofer.
Listening tastes: mainly classical and classic rock, I also listen to folk music and a good amount of early music (12th-16th century), I love female vocals on early music (Emma Kirkby, Custer Larue, etc.). And I have always been a fan of choral music (Bruckner, Racmaninoff, Rutter ...)
Stevenl, that appears to be a nicely matched system. For the money, I don't suspect anyone could do better! Relative to the tubes, if you like a pretty neutral sound with very nice detail, I believe the NOS RCA clear tops would be a good choice. They might be a bit pricey, but they are very nice. What's your budget and what kind of sound do you like?
