I've done a few upgrades recently. I added an SRA Platform under the preamp and turntable and the improvement made me go out and upgrade my preamp. I replaced the Jeff Rowland with a Soultion 725. The improvement is beyond description. I ordered a Virginia Class SRA base for the Soultion. I also ordered a custom turn table stand from the incredible people at Timbernation and should have in the coming weeks.
This system, to me, has reached the level I had dreamed of. A beautiful 3-D soundstage, deep, transparent, detailed, dynamic and textured.
Sanders Sound Systems Magtechs and 10E Speakers with DBX Crossover on Timbernation Rack
Utter bliss.
Esoteric K03
Incredible player & DAC!
Sanders Sound Magtech Amps
All I can say is Wow! Plugged directly into wall, Each amp rests on three Finite Element CeraPucs. Pluged into Shunyata Hydra via Shunyata Anaconda PC. Balanced Tara Labs The One IC into preamp
Soultion 725
I NEVER thought I would replace my Jeff Rowland Criterion. The Soultion Preamp is absolutely insane. Transparency, resolution, detail, you name it.
Sanders Sound Systems 10D
Brand new with his new aluminum drivers. Just awesome!
Tara Labs The One
Speaker Wire and Interconnects - Balanced and single ended, as well as digital for the upsampler to K03.
Allnic Audio H-3000
Tube phone stage - upgraded from the Rhea. This tubed phono stage is dead quiet. Absolutely no tube rush. Incredible soundstage depth. The slam is insane.
Shunyata Python Anaconda and Alpha Helix
Shunyata Power Cables throughout
McIntosh MR-78
With the Modaferri mod. Great tuner but depends on what stations are doing what programming. Living here (Long Island NY) 10 years, I am currently enjoying FM very much with a local station recently going to classic rock, make that, incredibly, non-repetitive classic rock with minimal commercials. Shhh.... I know this is a programming error but until they figure it out, I am listining to some really great stuff.
Shunyata Hydra 8
Used for preamp, tuner and digital front ends.
Alesis Masterlink
CD Burner used for compilations. Nordost Silver shadow digital into G25U and into DAC. Hard drive sounds supersweet and blows away any puter audio I have ever heard, but just 40Gig HD.
Transrotor Rodino
Magnetic drive turntable. It has taken me to that vinyl level I have dreamt about.
SME 5012 - Made specifically by SME for Transrotor
12 inch arm. Wow!
SOTA Power Supply ordered at an HiFi show directly from Igor Ultimate Power Conditioner
Used for ESL Panels and digital crossover
Degritter Degritter
Ultrasonic Record Cleaning Machine - I do believe its the best available right now. Incredible upgrade
Air Tight PC-1 Supreme
All I can say is wow.
Shakti Holographs
Widened and deepened sound stage
Finite Elements Cera Pucs
Under CD Player and Amps
Timber Nation stands
Rack for amps and crossover between speakers
Shakti Stones
On amps and Hydra
Symposium Svelt Plus
Improvement over the svelt shelf is staggering
Billy Bags Pro shelf
Double wide for front end and preamps
Magnun Dynalab Signal Sleuth
used with outdoor FM antenna to get NYC stations (I live on Long Island)
Entreq Silver Minimus
Grounding box and silver ground wire for K03. Puts the player on steroids.
DBX Digital Crossover DriveRack
Man oh man.
Silent Running Audio Ohio Class
Custom made for Esoteric K-03. AWESOME upgrade.
Akai GX-625
1/4 inch 4 track stereo dec. 7 1/2
Vicoustic Super Bass Extreme Bass Traps
Three on each side with stands and supports. Incredible addition to the room.
Studer-Revox B-77 Modded by Arian Jansen - 15ips
Tape Project is INSANE
Maple Shade 4 inch board
Under the dbx digital crossover
Aurender N-10
Replaced the PC based system which was just a PITA. The Aurender is incredible.
Soulution 725 Preamp
Transparent. Just incredible. The centerpiece of the system.
Added two Vicoustic Super Bass Traps in each corner behind the speakers and RPG Diffusers on the wall between the speakers. I was not prepared for the improvement. Startling.
A little update - the Magtech amps and Esoteric K03 are fully broken in and the overall improvement these components brought to my system has been nothing short of mind boggling The K03 is direct into the amps via a digital crossover. Th amps are very dynamic and incredibly resolving with a presence and bass slam that needs to be felt. The Esoteric digs deep into the digital pits, retrieving the most beautiful digital I have heard yet in my listening room. Detail doesn't quite describe it.
Thanks, Tboooe. I do have Shatki Hollograms behind the speakers as well as Echo Busters in the corners (with pillows behind them) but the stats are very directional so I don't have those dreaded first reflections.
K03 approaching 225 hours and much better an experience breaking this in than the prior X03, which was brutal. The K03 has been sounding sweet throughout.
System edited: I have completed some upgrades. Upgraded the Innersound ESL Panels to Roger Sanders new ones (amazing~absolutely none of the ESL limitatons and ALL of the splendor), as well as added a digital crossover and just put 120 hours on a new pair of MagTech Amps (OMG!). Also added a Teac Reel To Reel, replaced the Innersound Phono Stage for a tubed Rhea. On the digital side, we added an Esoteric G25U Upsampler & clock as well as a PC based music server with an ESI Juli@ soundcard into he G25U and then Berkeley, directly into the MagTechs. PC runnung JRiver/JPlay and sounds pretty good.
Excellent system Cerrot I actually went to Conifer,Co last year and spent some time will Roger. Those speakers are awesome and what a deal.Well I didnt have 13 Gs laying around so last august I found a 12 year old pair of soundlab m1s. I love the sound but if I could I'd get that used set sanders model 10s.
I have. I am running a shunyata power cord, a Python. I also have the PC on bright star footers.
The SB has digital out into clock/upsampler into dac; there isn't any double upsampling. The berkeley does not upsample. I use the JRiver player in native mode so no softwear upsampling (I have been running an ESI Juli@ soundcard with 30 feet of spdif into the esoteric clock/upsampler. blows away the squeezebox).
System edited: I added the Berkley Audio Alpha Dac a few months ago to go with the squeezebox, It did blow away the benchmark but I do give the benchmark credit for being as good as it was. It has absolutely no business sounding so good at it's price. The real fun came when I added my old Monarchy DIP upsampler from my PC system between the dac and the SB. WOW! That was a revelation. I just upgraded to the new Monarchy Combo and it is even more resolving than it was with the old DIP. I also just added an iPad with the iPeng app and have access to all my CD's on an incredible touch interface. It's been real tough throwing a record lately.
System edited: Made a few changes, the most dramatic being bypassing the preamp and hooking up the Esoteric direct to amps. Major, major upgrade in sound. I also got rid of the Brightstarr Isolation that the TT was sitting on. It was filled with 100lbs of sand and I believe it was causing leveling problems (change in humidity or temperature may have effected the sand???). The sound opened up very nicely when I put the TT directly on my Billy Bags Pro Rack and bypassed the Brightstarr.
Thank you, Rich. I appreciate the time you have taken.
I am very happy with the sound. Very detailed and resolving and I shake my head many times when I hear something I haven't heard before. I can only dream of the next step.
Nice system--as a stat lover myself --I am sure they sound wonderful--also have an xo3se and agree with your post--just a great cd player --made even better by pwr cords and ic--congrats on a great system --rich