Deja Vu all over again!

by jond on Ever EvolvingAudio NoteDeja Vu AudioAuralicAuditorium 23Jorma Design
Side view new rug.
View from listening seat
Audio Note Dac-3 Signature Front
AN DAC-3 Sig Rear View
AN DAC-3 Interior
AN DAC-3 Interior
Upgraded AN Copper Foil Caps
Mullard CV2492's in my AN-Dac3 Sig sound sublime.
Deja Vu Audio Custom Preamp
Preamp interior.
Preamp interior tubes.
Preamp interior power supply.
A Little Tube Glow
A peek under the hood at my recapped amp.
Power solutions.
Auralic Aries Mini and Sbooster Power Supply
Exact Power Interior shot
Kondo KSL-Vc
Tubes!
High Fidelity MC-0.5
The brandy shelf, Armagnac, Cognac and a few others.
A view in silvertone
My Deja Vu 2a3 amp on its now Butcher Block Audio stand
Loaner 2a3 amp
New power distributor
Peek under the hood of my 2a3 amp
Left side closeup
Right side closeup
Yamamoto Dac back home.
Synthesis Encore Tube Glow
Aries G1 stacked on my Yammie Dac for now at least
Wright Sound WPA 3.5 SET Mono amps
RCA tube caddy
Inside the already full tube caddy
AN Dac-3 Signature Back with new power transformer!

Description

This system is great for my 800 sq foot apartment, If you've never heard Deja Vu equipment and you're ever in the DC area their store in Vienna VA is amazing, a haven for tubes and analog. I ended up with my amp after years of taking broken gear to Vu's to be fixed and having him loan me gear that sounded so much better. Finally I made a trade and ended up with my current amp and the best and probably last amp I will ever own. Especially since the NOS Aerovox cap upgrade Vu recommended a huge upgrade in every way.. My preamp I picked up on Agon, a cool early Deja Vu prototype full function with an active tubed crossover. Both amp and preamp were built by Pavel their former designer and the synergy makes both greater than the sum of their parts.

Later additions are my Audionote  Dac-3 Signature and Auralic Aries Mini and I'm now addicted to streaming. Audio Note Lexus speaker cables, Furutech power cables, a Jorma Design digital cable,  and my analog interconnects are Kondo and Auditorium 23.

Got  some new footers Gregitek Aries Graf, Combak Ebony Pucks, plus added a Synergistic Black Quantum fuse to my preamp.  Improvements all around the system keeps sounding better and better!

Just got my new Audio Note AN/Jlx's and the system is truly singing!
Read more...

Components Toggle details

    • Auralic Aries Mini with Sbooster Power Supply
    A great sounding little streamer and love the Lightning DS app!
    • Audio Note UK DAC-3 Signature
    Audio Note Dac-3 Signature built in1995! I recently had the coupling caps upgraded to AN copper caps. Output tubes are a pair of Mullard CV2492 and the Dac sounds really sweet, transparent, natural, with great tone.
    • Deja Vu Audio Full-Function Tubed Stereo Preamp
    Tubed preamp from Deja Vu Audio in Vienna VA. This is an older prototype with a built-in tubed crossover and phonostage, but I run it just as a linestage. A mix of vintage and current parts, including XLO internal wire and an ALPs volume pot from 1977 that was chosen for it's superior sound quality. Amazing warm, organic, lifelike sound, very synergistic with my amp both designed and built by Deja Vu's former designer whiz Pavel.
    • Deja Vu Audio Custom EL-34 Stereo Amplifier
    A stereo pushpull amp with a pair of EL34's per channel, three 6SN7's up front and a 5U4G rectifier. Triode wired running in Class A putting out 17 warm sweet powerful watts per channel. Vintage Acrosound transformer from the 60's. With Gold Lion KT-77's and a recapping last year with NOS Aerovox Caps from the 1960s. A 60's era  RCA rectifier and Sylvania 6SN7's complete the package.
    • Audio Note AN/Jlx in Olive Wood Finish on Sound Anchors
    I finally pulled the trigger on new speakers after 10 years with my previous JMlabs Micros. Vu at Deja Vu Audio really pointed me in the right direction with the AN/J's they arrived yesterday and look and already sound great. They are the Lexus copper wired version which Vu recommended for it's warmth compared to the silver wired versions.  He also recommended the original paper woofer over the newer blue hemp cones, finding the hemp drivers to be a bit dry sounding. These sound great already and should really start to sing around the 100 hour mark!
    • Cerious Technologies Nano Signature Power Cable
    I have this powering my power conditioner, great budget PC!
    • Furutech FP-S032N With F1-11 Gold Connectors
    I have two of these excellent  12awg  power cords feeding my DAC and preamp, custom made for me by Chris Venhaus at VH Audio.
    • ExactPower 2000 AC Power Conditoner
    Balanced voltage device and line conditioner.
    • Variac 2000VA
    For my power amp, ramps up voltage gradually to a steady 120V.
    • Jorma Design Digital Cable
    The best digital cable I've heard in my system bar none.  Beautiful organic vivid sound with real musical flow. Connecting the Aries Mini to my AN Dac.
    • Kondo AudioNote Japan KSL-Vc
    Kondo's copper interconnect running from my DAC to preamp. I thought it would be perfect to add AN Japan to AN UK and I was right. This cable sounds fantastic an improvement in tonality, timbre, tonal color, and detail. Music flows better and sounds more real.
    • Auditorium 23 Interconnect
    This gave me that final ahhh moment when i connected it between my amp and preamp. Just a gorgeous sounding cable that makes music sound more real and natural.
    • Audio Note Lexus Copper Speaker Cables
    Hooked up my new AN/Jlx's with the same copper wire they are internally wired with, nice to get away from garden hose sized cables to something more human sized.
    • Gregitek Aries Graf Footers
    Carbon fiber and aluminum under my Aries Mini and my amp.
    • Combak Corp Brass and Ebony Footers
    Under my preamp.
    • Synergistic Research Black Quantom Fuse
    Installed in my preamp.
    • Synology DC 214 Play
    NAS server feeding my Aries Mini two 4 TB hard drives in a hybrid RAID configuration.
    • High Fidelity Cables MC-0.5
    I was loaned one of these from my friend Jim @lowrider57, and liked the more relaxed feeling it gave to the music. When High Fidelity was closing them out half price recently I picked one up, it's been in the system for a month now. Nice tweak and I am not much of a tweaker!
    • Blue Jeans Cable Bonded Pair Cat-6a ethernet cable
    From modem/router to my Aries and from my NAS to my router.
    • Deja Vu Audio Custom Pushpull 2a3 amp
    I was loaned this amp by Deja Vu when my own amp went in the shop, it's still there, and instantly fell in love with it. It's pushpull as the title says with dual power trasformers and vintage Eico output transformers. I am officially adding it to my system as I made the decision to keep it, as I suspected would happen all along. It sounds fantastic I love the sound of the 2a3 tube and pushing 15wpc it's a perfect match to my AN-J's.
    • Arcam FMJ-P35 Stereo Amp
    I acquired this little 100 watt Brit amp locally to use as an emergency backup locally for a very good price. I ran it in the system for a day to test it out and it sounds surprisingly good for a modest priced SS amp.
    • Wisdom Cable Technology Power Stage ES-10
    I've been looking for a new power distributor and this unit fit the bill nicely well constructed and sounds good too.
    • Yamamoto Soundcraft YDA-1 Dac
    My old friend is back bought back from the person I sold it too and happy to have my beloved Yamamoto returned to me.
    • Auralic ARIES G1
    I've finally upgraded my streamer my beloved Aries Mini served me faithfully for 6 years but I couldn't pass up the demo deal i got on this G1. Same great Auralic sound just a bit more of it. ;)
    • Wright Sound WPA-3.5 2a3 SET Monoblocks
    Found a great deal on these George Wright 2a3 monoblocks and they sound fantastic. Outfitted with NOS GE/Raytheon 2a3s, and some 60s RCA 6SN7's and RCA 5Y3 rectifiers. Sweet and transparent and dead quiet!
    • RCA Tube caddy
    Picked up this 60s era tube caddy and finally have my tubes sort of organized at least not all over the place!

Comments 209

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Hi Jond, I've been considering (my first) monitors for a system situated in a relatively small room with a number of hard surfaces for quite some time. With the Diabolo hitting the scene, now may be the time to look for used Micro Utopias, unfortunately used mostly means limited auditioning opportunities.
I've heard people criticize the Utopia series (too much "in your face", finicky on positioning, blahblah), so that scared me off until now, but one will find detractors of every product, so I'd rather ask the expertise of someone who's been living happily with them.
The system "emerging" in my head could be Ancient Audio Lektor V cdp (sporting one 6H30) fed directly into Kharma Matrix MP-150 mono's (some people think the most "tubey" of switching amps), so there would be a "slight shade of tubes".
In your opinion, could the Micro Utopias be a good match? Also, did you find them particularly difficult with regard to positioning in your room?

Thanks for your thoughts.
(I just love the pic of Tigger and Trixie, they seem very relaxed, so that's a very good sign)
Karel

karelfd

Jond how's the system sounding?

Any changes coming in the next few months?

lapierre

Well...I just admired the Vu amps never listening to them but always comparing tube amps.

Have you consider the mono blocks? That would really make the Focals sing.

What is your next upgarde in the future?

Pierre

lapierre

Owner
Thank you Pierre. I love my little Micro's and they fill the space perfectly. I love my Deja Vu amp as well, it's wonderfully rich and organic sounding. The three tubes up from are all three 6sn7's. Do you have any experience with Vu's amps? I would put them up against anything out there. Cheers!

jond

Great setup Jon. Nice to see more two-way monitor audophiles.

Love the Deja Vu amp with it's tubes. What are the three tubes in the front?

5751 tpyes or 7868,7591 types

Pierre

lapierre

Jon, very nice sysem! I'll bet those JM Labs sound sweet with those tubes!

pops

Owner
System edited: I just added a Richard Gray 400S power conditioner as a little tax refund gift to myself. A very nice and affordable addition!

jond

Owner
Sdatch,
Thanks very much! In fact my previous speakers when we first moved in were a pair of Alon Lotus' and they were freaking enormous in that space! It wasn't working and the boss said that they were dominating her living room so out they went. I think I got really lucky with these monitors, they give me just enough bass to keep me happy. Plus they sound great!
Cheers,
JD

jond

It looks like you've optimized your speaker choice for the listening environment pretty well. I always cringe when seeing huge monolithic speakers crammed into small spaces. Well done!

sdatch

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