System edited: I have added two more Virtual Dynamic David interconnects, I purchased two XLR IC's to run between the CDP and preamp, and the preamp and amp; the only cables left that are not VD David are two Audience powerChords's on the amp and preamp.

After breaking in the interconnects I never went back and tried the Audience Au24's for a compare. Fresh out of the box the David's sounded great and if they have changed (after 200 hours) I don't know where. There was no WOW difference when I inserted the Davids, but I prefered the Davids, even brand new, as I sensed a little better PRat and my system also seemed to present the music a little more forward than with the Au24's.

As usual with VD cables, they are very stiff, the total opposite of the Audience cables, and this is the only bummer with them. I really dislike the stiffness. Quality is top notch as usual.

I never have followed up on my thoughts of the Classe gear after breaking in. There was quite a change in the sonics after what seemed like a month, the most notable was the bottom end filled in with much more weight, authority and tautness, something I really like. It was after this that I was thoroughly enjoying my system, more than ever, no matter what source I was using, CDP, tuner or Sirius (DishNetwork).

I ended up having an issue with my preamp, and long story short, Classe swapped it out for a new one. Right out of the box the new one seemed to pick right up where the other left off, but that was short lived and I found I wasn't enjoying my system nearly as much as I was; I had run it 24 hours a day for a week. After about a week it came to me that I should try running the preamp 24 hours a day for another week; this resolved the issue and I am very pleased once again.

brianmgrarcom January 24, 2005 14:26

You "won" the race hands down, "this year"! Maybe another go?

I was using the tuner a lot and couldn't believe I didn't get one years before, but since DishNetwork added Sirius satellite radio, I spend a lot of time listening to that.

Sound quality can depend, if you have a station that plays uncompressed you will be quite surprised, otherwise you will enjoy the tuner differently than your CDP, and that is simply using your system when you normally wouldn't.

brianmgrarcom December 22, 2004 02:11

Hey Brian, the Luxman looks more in place then the kenwood, but still not as swank as the classe gear! I am thinking of getting a tuner, do you find you use it a lot? I have about 2500cds so I have a good sized collection and am not sure I would use it that much- how is the sound quality?

In other news I may have won the "race" this year, it was completely by accident- honest! Happy Holidays :o)

tireguy December 22, 2004 01:02

System edited: A few little changes. A Luxman T-117 replaced the Kenwood KT-917 tuner and I sold an Audience Au24 interconnect (RCA) and purchased a Virtual Dynamics David IC, this will be used on the tuner. I found out something interesting in my system today, the Classe gear has wonderful LCD touch screens with a lot of great information; I haven't went through every screen within the menus and today I found that selecting the Status menu option gives some interesting info, including the current temporature of the unit and the voltage, you can watch the voltage fluctuate, not that it does very much. Much more info too, like the serial number, the version of the software, build date and more. Anyway, I thought it was neat to see.

brianmgrarcom December 21, 2004 20:06

Hi John,

Thanks for the tip. What I want to do is try some Virtual Dynamic David cables and have an all David wired system.

I cannot argue that my system has gone through a lot of iterations the last years or so, this last one not really planned.

The all Classe gear with the B&W's is a nice pairing, as one may expect being they are one parent company.

brianmgrarcom October 18, 2004 18:13

Brian, your number of system releases (now at 5.0) seems to be approaching that of Microsoft Windows and some of the other major software vendor's products.

My recommendation is to do what these software vendors now do. Designate 2 maintenance releases and one major release every year. This will help you to keep your sanity. And ours. :)

The Classe stuff looks good. How do they sound? I'm a very big fan of Audience cables and have recently switched over to bi-wiring for even greater benefits.

However, I would recommend at least one pair of new or used Jena Labs Valkyre or better XLR ics. I think the Au24 ics are a very good cable. But the Valkyres (which are much more expensive) may just take your sonics into a league of it's own. And this was just with one pair of the Valkyres between my source and pre.

-IMO

stehno October 18, 2004 17:00

Seriously speaking Brian, your system is my dream system. Man does it look great! Congratulations on your accomplishment. I'm sure it sounds better than it looks.

ryder October 17, 2004 10:35

Hey Tim, I was 'afraid' you'd see my changes. For challenging that I wouldn't be changing anything much this year, the mis-matched tuner is one of the only few remaining items! Thanks for bringing the tuner to my attention, I had finally convinced myself it looks good with the rest!

brianmgrarcom September 16, 2004 20:48

Hey Brian, Well your winning(?) the race this year :) I have a few subtle changes happening in a few weeks, however I made it MOST of the way through the year.

I have never seen the classe gear you have in real life, the pictures look great and I suspect they don't do the gear justice! Funny I am considering an Omega series amp if I end up keeping my speakers next year- glad to see/hear your enjoying classe.

One more thing, I am not sure any one had told you this, but that tuner doesn't really match your new components to well :^)

Enjoy the music.

tireguy September 15, 2004 00:10

Thanks Gunbei. I did get to do some comparisons to my old gear, though not as indepth as I may of liked. Let me note that this gear was essentially new, and although I ran it non stop for days to break in, I am sure things settle in even more as time passes; not to mention it wasn't just one piece going through break in but three plus speaker wire.

The EMC-1UP was more open but the Classe imaged better and seemed to have a better focus on things. I compared these the least amount of time and admit it would of been interesting to have spent more time.

The Synergy IIi had some better resolution but the Classe had better PRaT, to me, and it always had me having fun with the music.

The amps were so close that I have nothing to say. If I spent more time with them after things settle in it might of given me more to say.

As a whole I really enjoy listening to the Classe gear, being under the B&W umbrella doesn't hurt. I also like having a fully matched system, it looks nice; using this gear is also a treat, well thought out IMO, except the volume via the remote, way to slow! Adding input selection buttons for the preamp on the CDP remote would be nice too as it already has volume.

I don't have much to say about the speaker cables, they ironically showed up the same exact day. I did use the Audio Tekne wire the first 24 hours, the system was ok, break in did improve things nicely; anyway, after 24 hours we inserted the Virtual Dynamic wire and the system went from ok to sounding great and the VD wire was straight out of the box.
A week or so later I did insert the Audio Tekne wire back in when I hooked up the Pass for a compare and immediatlety it wasn't getting it done, 3 songs later the VD went back in.
I will post back if I get it all wired with VD David.

brianmgrarcom September 14, 2004 18:58

Wow, Brian! Mass changes is right. Looks great! How long have you had the all Classé set up? Have you had the time to make some good comparisons to your former system?

I'll also be interested to hear your comments on going to a uniform wire configuration. I've played with that aspect in my own wiring scheme.

Have fun and keep the updates coming! Beautiful!

gunbei September 14, 2004 18:09

System edited: Mass changes to my system, most actually unplanned. Anyway, I replaced: Pass X150.5 with Classe CA-2200 Jeff Rowland Synergy IIi with Classe CP-500 Electrocompaniet EMC-1UP with Classe CDP-100 Audio Tekne speaker wire with Virtual Dynamics David All the Classe Audio gear is from the new Delta Series. I am really enjoying this setup a lot and as one would expect, it all works very well together. As for looks, I have gotten more comments about this gear than anything I've owned, all positive. The touch screens are great to use and very well designed, they give a lot of information at a glance and have imbedded menus that are so simple to use. The VD David cables came the same day as all the other gear, so I didn't get much of a compare, but the little I did it took only seconds to prefer the VD, even right out of the box. My goal will be to replace all my cables with VD David. I have no complaints with the Audience cables, in fact I still highly recommend them, but I want uniform wire throughout my system.

brianmgrarcom September 14, 2004 14:21

Hi Glai,

Believe it or not, being that I have been busy with other things, I can't remember what all I prefered about the Sysnergy IIi over the X2.5. There was no doubt that I prefered the JR but the two were not miles apart. If I try and recall, it seems the JR has better definition, opens things up more and smoother. Sorry I can't be exact.

brianmgrarcom July 27, 2004 22:08

Hello Brian, I have a sys similar to yours. (X150.5 & S805s). How does the Synergy compare to the pass preamp?

glai July 26, 2004 23:40

Brian,
You can get rid of an interconnect and the preamp. The concerto is supposed to use a preamp section that is very similiar to the synergy. Well, maybe if you bought used it would prolly be even money, but simplified. I like to keep it simple...

streetdaddy June 10, 2004 16:53

Streetdaddy, the Concerto preamp or integrated? The integrated isn't available yet. Besides, how will this save me a lot of money?

brianmgrarcom June 10, 2004 11:34

Brian,
Why don't you save yourself a lot of $$$ and get a new concerto? You would prolly save some $$$. Just a thought...

streetdaddy June 10, 2004 01:54

System edited: Changed to a Jeff Rowland Synergy IIi preamp.

brianmgrarcom June 09, 2004 13:12

Hi Jorge,

Sorry for the delayed response, I was on vacation. I need to say right up front that the system that I am using with the S805's isn't the same as when I was using the N803's. With that said, some of the qualities I believe the S805's posses over the N803's is their transparency, they are very detailed and very true to source--they will lay things bare and be revealing. No surprise, but the N803's go lower.

brianmgrarcom June 02, 2004 13:44

Brian, congratulations for your new purchase. What can you say about the differences between the N803s you had before and your new S805s? Thanks for the input.

jorge_err May 28, 2004 16:27

System edited: I sold the JMR Concordes and replaced them with B&W Signature 805's and Sound Anchor stands.

brianmgrarcom May 05, 2004 20:14

I can't keep anything from you Tim!!! :)

brianmgrarcom April 05, 2004 13:45

I know a secret :^)

Looks like you can't leave well enough alone- or so I am told. Its damn near the 4th month(as in the end of the first quarter) of the year and you have all of these changes- tisk tisk :o)

Though I must admit I am getting itchy to pull the trigger and get a set of Soundlabs!

tireguy March 31, 2004 01:16

System edited: I just added some power cords to my system, very nice.

I purchased a Virtual Dynamics David for my CD player; I then purchased two Audience powerChords and I did a direct compare of a Audience and VD on my CD player, the VD was easily the better of the two, better in every way.

I placed the two Audience PC's on the amp and preamp and this was a nice addition as well.

The addition of aftermarket PC's has been a great blessing to my listening enjoyment, and an eye opener.

brianmgrarcom March 15, 2004 15:26

Hi John, it's still here! Sorry I didn't get back. I am pleased with the Pass gear. The Pass gear is a far better match for the Reynauds than the Rowland was.

The X2.5, like other Pass gear, is a bit industrial looking but I like the look of it and the quality of materials, fit and finish, etc. is equivalent with the best of them, as you'd expect. I didn't like the four button menu driven setup at first, but once you use it a couple days you get the hang of it and it is no big deal.

brianmgrarcom March 05, 2004 14:00