It all started with a pair of $300 Sony headphones. Now I'm up to my neck in audio and have dropped several G's. The sound is very musical and natural - great for chamber music and female vocals. The VPI Scout was purchased in March 2003 and it has really opened my eyes to vinyl - vinyl definitely sounds awesome. The main drawback with my system is the small room that prevents spacing out the speakers more. Right now the Response 2's are approximately 4.5 feet apart. Later aquisitions may include either a REL Strata III sub or a Proac ER One sub.
Great imaging and musicality. No desire for SACD again.
Sonic Frontiers Line 3
Retubed with 6 pairs of JAN Philips.
Manley Retro SE/PP 300B Tube Monoblocks
18 watts SET/36 watts PP, retubed with a quad of Sophia 300B Meshplates + a pair of 1950's Mullard ECC35 Black Plates (Gold Grade: Pearl Cryo-Vac) + a pair of Tung Sol 6SN7s
Coincident Super Eclipse II
Super Eclipse II with Scanspeak Revelator tweeter. Final voicing of speakers was done with Manley Retro 300B amps.
Acoustic Zen Silver Reference 1.0m RCAs
SCD-777ES --> SF Line 1
Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference 2.0m RCAs
Matrix Ref. 2m (Sonic Frontiers Line 3 -->Manley Retro 300B)
Acoustic Zen Hologram 4ft -spades
Manley Retro 300B --[greaterthansign] Coincident Super Eclipse II
(2) Acoustic Zen Tsunami Plus Powercords
1) Tsunami Plus 6ft (P1000 --> Manley Retro 300B) 3) Tsunami Plus 6ft (P1000 --> Manley Retro 300B)
(2) Virtual Dynamics Nite I Powercord
Cryoed w/ Speed of Light Tech P1000 --> Audiomeca Mephisto II.X P1000 --> SF Line 3
PS Audio P1000 Powerplant
Running entire system including monoblocks, subs, and front-end off of it. Alternate between TubeWave and Sine 60Hz. Really does a spectacular job in improving the imaging.
PS Audio xStream Statement Powercord
2.0m long. Wall --[greaterthansign] P1000
Argent Room Lens
Increase imaging depth.
Salamander Synergy Twin 20 (Cherry)
Not as good as Standesign Penta rack, but I need to integrate 2-channel + HT.
Cardas RCA & XLR caps
placed on inputs of SF Line 1
Mapleshade Cones
Ultimate Triple Points under CDP and Pre. Heavy Foots under monoblocks.
Sony KD-34XBR960
34in. Widescreen HDTV
Momitsu V-880
A couple taps on the remote = region free. Using DVI-D out to the TV.
System edited: Replaced Proac Response 2' and ACI Force subwoofers with a pair of Coincident Super Eclipse II's. The Manley Retro 300Bs and the Coincident SE seem to be a match made in heaven (final voicing of the Coincident SE's were done with the Manley Retro 300Bs). I wish that my room was bigger - system still sounds very good. I need to get a turntable again, but that will have to wait for now.
System edited: Sold the vinyl rig since I won't have time to clean LPs/cartridge. Picked up a SCD-1 which sounds fantastic for digital. Analog still sounds the best though.
System edited: Changed speaker cables to 4 ft. AZ Satori shotgun biwire from AQ Dragons. Have some nice AZ synergy going. Also added a pair of ACI Force subwoofers. I need a bigger room.
Thanks for the responses. I would like to upgrade powercords, but the 555ES doesn't have an IEC and the powercords on the two monoblocks are also fixed. The only powercords that I can upgrade is the one on the Line 1 and the Ultimate Outlet. Do you guys think the Absolute Powercords are any good at $50 each?
