Always improving, testing, comparing, its a process and its been great fun for 25 years!!! This current system is the best I've ever had. Listening to music late into the night 3-4 nights a week. The Node130 and Tidal are responsible for a huge increase in listening. Just going down musical rabbit holes and discovering so many incredible recordings.
7/12/2025: In search of a wider and deeper soundstage I bought longer speaker cables and moved my speakers from a 1/2 room longwall set up to a full room short wall set up but with my speakers basically at the 2/3 point. What a huge improvement!! Went from a sound "picture" on my wall in front of me to having 3D images of musicians in the room behind my speakers. Also using extreme toe-in so 3 people get a solid soundstage with center imaging.
Wow. IsoAcoustic Gaia III footers under my speakers stands. At first I thought they made my system sound lean, a little cold. But the more I listen the more I realize its just a tightening of everything. Images are better defined. Bass is leaner but that equals less bloated and punchier. I have 60 days to decide on whether to keep them (amazing Crutchfield return policy) so we'll see. Right now I'm leaning towards keeping.
Ok the Bluejeans Belden 5T00UP is quite good but after a few days I could hear just that slightest loss of detail and body in my reference tracks. As a result I tracked down a 15' pair of Cardas Quadlink 5C. Which is what I was using (2.5m pair) before making my big change. Whew! All the subtle details, warmth and body is back. The Belden is quite good but once you get used to 100% (subjectively) its hard to settle for 80%.
My music room is connected to my dining room but i have always treated them as two rooms. I had my system and speakers set up on the long wall of the music room. Trying to deepen my soundstage I tried front wall treatments and lowering my racks and equipment. That helped a little but my soundstsge still felt about 4 feet deep. Speakers were 46" out into the room. Had an epiphany and eliminated the racks and equipment between my speakers and basically eliminated my front wall by rotating my speakers 90⁰ from the long wall of one room to the middle of what is now sonically one long room. Had to buy 20 foot cables so took a chance on BlueJeans. I'm really happy I did. They sound almost as good as my Cardas Quadlink 5C cables and I've only had them hooked up and playing music for 3 hours. Looking forward to their full burned in potential. Listened to a bunch of reference recordings and they sound completely different. Mind blowingly different. My soundstage is now 15 feet deep. It's crazy.
System edited: After discovering SET with a Decware integrated (6 watts/side) I then switched to an ARC CA-50 for more dynamics. This was very unsatisfying to my ears so then I found the Almarro A318B. This amp is everything I've ever dreamed of. SET magic but as dynamic and fast as anything I've yet owned... Very happy right now!!!!!
Maprik,don`t underestimate your Almarro, with the proper speaker you should be able to play all genres at a high level of sound quality. My amp is an 8 watt 300b SET (very beefy power supply I`ll admit) and plays everything. It`s not the 'ultimate' amp for large scale classical but it manages it very well, same with rock. It depends on what speaker you`re driving.
Missed the SET magic so I sold the CA-50 and bought an Almarro A318B integrated. Back in audio heaven again. So it doesn't do huge complex symphonies or hard rock...I never listen to that. I listen to mostly acoustic instruments, simple singer songwriters, intimate emotional music. And for that the Almarro is simply incredible....
Just upgraded to the Audio Research CA-50 integrated. Wow!!! This beast handles the Forte IIs incredibly well. Replaced the Decware so I could get a little more boogie factor and rock. I wasn't expecting additional layers of detail and even more accuracy!!! Incredible bargain on the used market compared to other integrateds under $2000. Killer.
System edited: I just changed integrateds from the YBA integre DT to the Decware SE34i.2+. At 6 watts per channel it didn't have the strength to drive the Silverline SR-15s so I found a pair of Klispch Forte IIs (local sale) and WOW!!!!!! What a combination! I never knew that the Klipsch speakers (especially so large) coould just disappear like a monitor! And the Decware has more than enough juice to play ANY genre of music. Simply amazing.
System edited: Haven't changed a thing since July and strangely, have absolutley no desire to change a thing...Now I'm just worrying about the longevity of my Music Maker!
The subplatter was made by a friend of mine who is also a master machinist and turntable designer/builder. His name is Colby Lamb. I'm sure he would make one for you if you contacted him. Contact me for his e-mail address.
I'm very intrigued by your custom subplatter you mention. I really like the idea of the VTAF for my Rega but I knew the platter would have to be raised to accomodate it. Did your custom subplatter account for this? Where did you get it?
Thanks. Yes, I forgot to mention the Target wall shelf for the TT. This was a must because my arm would jump anytime anyone walked through the room. This became a problem when my 5 year old daughter started dancing in the room! Also, I hated tiptoeing around. And if simple footfalls were causing the arm to jump then you can imagine what the floor vibrations were doing to the sound in general. Now that the TT is up on the wall shelf I can jump as hard as I can on the floor and there is absolutely no effect. I couldn't A/B before and after but there's no doubt that the wall shelf is contributing to the improved sound quality.
Congratulations Maprik on doing everything right in wall-mounting your Rega. If everyone did this, there would be virtually no Structure-Bourne feedback for anyone to complain of?
Well, I am a tweaker and as you can see I have tweaked my P25 quite a bit. I've tried various counterweights on the arm: the michell technoweight I like the most because I can so easily adjust the VTF by 1 hundredth of a gram. I changed the subplatter to a custom made aluminum subplatter with a "perfect" radius, silicon nitride bearing. The Pete Riggle VTAF has been a great tweak. No downside at all disconnecting the arm from the table. Why you would want it to be tightly rooted to the plinth I don't know. Yes, Roy Gandy's plinth is great at letting go of vibrations but why let them go into a tightly fixed arm at all? Being able to adjust VTA on the fly is fantastic. The replacement of the rubber feet with Mapleshade heavyfeet screwed right into the pinth was a HUGE upgrade. It adds mass to tighten up the bass and eliminate subtle smearing without changing the properties of the plinth. All of my tweaks do nothing to dampen the plinth. The heavyfeet are an excellent upgrade. So far the sound is still fast, rhythmic, fabulous PRAT, crystal clear but with weight and drive!!!
Final tweak. Add the Achromat platter to the glass platter. I tried acrylic. The Iron Audio Acrylic platter was a big dissapointment. I thought the quality was shoddy. The edge was uneven, you could see it as it turned that it was not perfectly circular. Also, the sound was just softened. The edge of notes was blurred and the soundstage collapsed. The acrylic made everything 2-D. The glass and achromat combo is deep, detailed, and with an open, wide, and deep soundstage. Maybe the acrylic platter is great if you haven't done any other tweaks but with the tweaks I have made it was HORRIBLE. Just awful.
The sound I am now getting from vinyl just blows away any mega-buck digital set-ups I have heard...
You're right. Imagine how sterile the system would look without the green bamboo behind? And I have small 10 watt halogen lamps behind the plants for a nice cool ambient lighting for late night listening sessions.
And Glenfihi, thanks for the feedback. You are right - it's all about synergy. Just prior to getting this system "dialed-in" I went through a VAC vintage pre-amp, a PS-Audio PCA-2, a pair of Quicksilver Silver 90 Monoblocks, and for speakers a pair of Audio Physic Virgo IIs and Magnepan 1.6Qrs! All in the past year!!!!
Great sounds with style. Great choices in gear. Always love to see systems with various brands of gear. It takes more time to arrive with the right mix perhaps, but a mixture of gear like a rainbow is a beautifull thing.
