REM's Tube Lover's System

by rem1954 on Opinions Please
Media Room

Description

Welcome to my little piece of heaven that affords me great pleasure. The sound is ethereal with a natural, warm, sweet, listenable quality that makes listening to strings, vocals, etc. a joy. Fast and solid bass, not muddied. Soundstage is unbelievable with an almost in your living room quality. On acoustic guitar it is as if they are "there." The essence of round sound.
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Components Toggle details

    • VTL TL-2.5
    VTL TL 2.5 Preamp without phono stage. Mullard 12AU7 & 12AT7 tubes with Herbie's Tube Dampers. Nice Preamp with pure sound but the folks at VTL are really worthless when it comes to after sales service
    • VTL MB-250
    A dedicated Triode Tube amplifier. Powered by eight Svetlana 6550 tubes, NOS Sylvania 6350 & AT7 Black Gate tubes. All with Herbie's Ultra Sonic Tube Dampers. Totally rebuilt (but for original power transformers) by Vacuum Tube Valley, all wire wound resistors replaced and all capacitors replaced, electrolytics replaced with Black Gate Caps, plastic tube sockets replaced with ceramic/gold sockets, new trimpots. Very natural sound with good sound staging, very extended in the highs, pure magic in the midrange, and warm but fast and responsive bass. Too bad VTL is so non responsive in their customer service.
    • VPI Industries Aries
    VPI Aires I - state-of-the-art performance at a real-world price. It has a a vanishingly low noise floor with no obvious colorations delivering an almost ghostly background silence.
    • VPI Industries JMW
    JMW 10 - Nothing overly special but nice. Wide and deep soundstage with air and separation between the instruments.
    • Dynavector Karat 17D3
    Neutral, fast, focused and detailed, with great extension at both ends. Fabulous tight bass.
    • Walker Audio Precision Motor Controller
    Great Controller! Set the speed and it stays at selected speed forever. Transients are improved, better clarity and amazingly better blackness.
    • Walker Audio Valid Points
    Valid Points Resonance Control System to go with Walker Precision Motor Controller
    • Jolida JD9A with Underwood Level 3 Mods
    Very nice phono stage competing with more expensive units. The unt has a very liquid midrange and more neutral presentation across the sound spectrum. Blacks are black and the equipment gets out of the way and lets the music shine.
    • VPI 16.5
    Vinyl record cleaning machine
    • MSB Technology PAD-1
    just purchased so no comment as of yet
    • Sony CDP CX455
    Multistorage CD changer. What can I say, I am lazy. When I really want to liten to the music, I go to the analog components.
    • Benchmark Media Systems DAC1
    Nice DAC
    • Klipsch Klipschorn
    You either love them or hate them. I love them. Anyone who believes these speakers sound "flat, dull or tinny" have never heard them appropriately staged and matched with a tube amp. Properly staged and matched, the K-Horns deliver impressive soundstage depth and imaging with dynamic reality and emotionally involving sound.
    • Audio Metallurgy GA-2
    varying lengths for all components
    • Synergistic Research Resolution Reference 6'-x2 series
    Wonderful Power cords - Used on preamp and monoblocks
    • Black Mountain Peak (Silver)
    Used for Turntable, Phono stage, DAC, ADC, and CD Player
    • Herbie's Audio Lab Ultra Sonic Tube Dampers
    Tube Dampers - they really work

Comments 7

Showing all comments by glenfihi.

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The mighty, mighty K-Horns...Wow. To this day I still count them as one of the best speakers ever. Tubes and K-Horns a match made in heaven.
Very telling about your experience with VTL after sale service. Hope yours is the rare case as VTL is a brand I would love try. Happy listening. Glen

glenfihi

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