Garrard 401 in custom plinth made by Bob Thompson (here in Portland, Oregon). His business goes by the name of "Bobland". I went for a gorgeous veneer of unknown origin (perhaps Sapelle?).
- SME 3012 tonearm assembled from SME spare parts
12 inch tonearm
Wow. Just got this to replace the Shelter. I really liked the Shelter 901 but I happened to switch back to my Dynavector 17D3 for a while and it sounded great.
I've always been curious about the SPU cartridges. I *really* like this cartridge. This is the best cartridge I've ever owned. Amazing slam, detail, tonality and timbre.
- Naim Audio CD 3.5 cd player with Teddy Pardo Supercap
Nice cd player. It's back in the system because of its ability to read a home-brew cd compilation from my brother that the Cambridge CXC couldn't read.
The Teddy Pardo Supercap has had a huge impact on the sound of CDs. It's a big change. Tone colors are richer, more beautiful. Musical lines are more meaningful, detailed, nuanced and "performance transparent". Music makes more sense.
- Supratek Audio Cortese with LCR phono stage
All tube, point-to-point hard-wired, tube-rectified, tube-regulated preamp. Currently running one Tungsol round plate & one other vintage 6SN7. Often have been running CBS 5692 (right? memory hazy this morning) mil-spec red-base 6SN7s.
Fully serviced by Ken McCollum, owner of Electrostatic Solutions. Most recent service was on-site here in my listening room. My advice, even with the original Quad shipping boxes don't trust your Quads to UPS or FedEx. They don't treat them the way you want.
- Alan Eaton 45 SET monoblocks
I compared these 1.5 watt amplifiers to my much-loved AES SE-1 300B stereo amp. The Alan Eatons had better bass (at the listening volume/level that I listen at) and were generally just a more wonderful experience, all the way around.
I've always been a little bit puzzled by those who are hard-core fanatics of these extremely low-powered vintage triodes. Now I understand why people rave about these tubes and amps. The journey generally goes something like 300B ->2A3 -> 45... Of course, YMMV
Wonderful solid state power amp. Perfect match to the Quad 2805 speakers because it's designed to work properly with the 2805s "crowbar" protection circuit.
Good sounding unit. Serviced. Reliable.
Nice unit but it appears to me that Sony compromised when they decided where to locate the tonearm pillar because I'm not able to obtain a proper Baerwald or Lofgren alignment.
Vintage studio monitors. 93dB efficient. Very nice speakers. Cabinets show some wear and tear.
- Vinyl records Vinyl records
Approximately 4,500 phono albums.
Lead acid battery generator. Reduces the noise floor to nothing by generating a perfect 60Hz sine wave.
- Quickmill Lucca M-58 Espresso machine
Required equipment
Nice little compact streamer that allows me to control Qobuz via my cell phone, iPad, laptop, etc. If Qobuz had a feature like Spotify connect I'd probably use that. I have a hard drive attached for downloaded files from Bandcamp and I *hate* the way that Qobuz interfaces with those files. It is not convenient.
I love this thing. For one thing, the dispay is excellent. And the sound is very acceptable too, though I think it sounds better when run through the MHDT Orchid, even though they basically have the same DAC chip
Having a cartridge specifically set up for 78s sounds a lot better than playing them with a standard phono cartridge.
- Ortofon SPU Classic GM-E mkII
Wonderful addition to my vinyl sources. Great as a very capable daily driver. Allows me to keep the hours down on my Royal G Mk II.
- Altec Lansing A7 Magnificent speakers
These are the A7 VOTT manufactured for domestic use. I don't know who could have originally fitted them into a domestic environment, because they are absolutely HUGE. The are gorgeous to look at and sound wonderful. I doubt that they will displace my JBLs or my Quads. But they're fun to have.
- Topping E70V - "Velvet" DAC
The Topping E70 Velvet replaced my stock MHDT Labs Orchid. The Topping uses a top-of-the-line Asahi KASEI Microdevices (AKM) 4499 chip. It can process high resolution digital files. I compared the E70V to an MHDT Labs Orchid that was modified by Grannyring - in fact, it was his personal unit. The E70V was more transparent and resolving than the Orchid. The Orchid is a lovely sounding DAC - I like to compare DACs with the Philips TD1541A chip to Ortofon SPU cartridges. They have an intrinsically "right" sound, but can suffer in comparison to more highly resolving technologies. Note: I also had auditioned the Soekris 1541 DAC in my system but did not care for it. I found it fatiguing. I was originally planning to replace my Orchid with the MHDT Pagoda. Now that I have the E70V I no longer consider that a priority.
- JENA Labs Symphony interconnect, Valkyrie SPDIF cable
The JENA Labs cables are now my preferred reference. The Valkyrie SPDIF replaced a lovely sounding Cardas Clear SPDIF cable. The Valkyrie is, IMHO, a better sounding, more highly resolving cable.
Wonderful cartridge. I have it installed on the "big Sony" 2251. It feeds a Plinius Jarrah phono stage.
MM/MC phono stage. Lovely unit with the early, hand-fitted Jarrah wood enclosure.
- Art Audio Diavolo 300B SET stereo amplifier
This is an early Diavolo, which means it is designed to put more juice across the plate. It was originally designed for 300B variants like the KR300B XLS and the VV52 (IIRC). Mine is set up with Emission Lab 300B XLS, which sound superb. I used to have an Art Electronic Supply (AES) 300B, which was a budget oriented kit/simple build from the 1990s. It sounded good and turned me on to the beauty of SETs. I replaced that amp with the Alan Eaton 45s, which are superb 1.5 watt monoblocks. They work great with my Altec A7s. The Art Audio Diavolo takes all the good things of the 300B tube and incorporates it into a well-conceived circuit with very very high quality transformers, rectifiers and driver tubes.
