Welcome! I have been around the forum for some years, but since I have constantly changed equipment, I havent felt that it was a good time to post pictures... However, I have greatly enjoyed the virtual systems of fellow audiophiles for inspiration, but also for getting a view of different pieces of equipment in a home setting. Since I'm now done (for the time being :)) I post my gear for others to enjoy! Hope you like it.
Current setup: Von Schweikert db99 SE driven by Octave V70 tubeamp with Audioaero capitole SE as main source and michell gyro SE´as sidekick vinyl spinner.
Sound is powerful, dynamic, detailed, lush and rich on the warm side of neutral. For the first time since I got into this hobby some six years ago I feel like keeping the system just as it is. Sweet!
The main drawback is the room with oh to many hard surfaces... although it has been tamed somewhat with drapes and a big carpet.
The main source. Sweet and detailed tube-cd. A keeper. (Photo by Calle_jr)
Octave V70
Tube Amp equipped with four KT-88. Delivers 70W and can be coupled with the octave "blackbox" for difficult loads (2ohms)
Michell Engineering Gyro SE
Vinyl spinner with rega-250 arm and lyra Argo 'i' pickup. Great Value vinylplayer, although it needs to be carefully setup to sound its best. (Photo by Calle_jr)
Von Schweikert Audio db99 SE
Easy to drive (sensitivity 99db) but powerful fullrange (21Hz-25kHz) speaker with solid state integrated amp for its 10" element.
Acoustic Zen Matrix II
In my opionion fairly "lush" sounding coppercable. Tamed the highs in the system without compromising air and detail.
Lyra Argo 'i'
Mounted on the player when i bought it. It is supposed to be a really goodMC-pickup, but i dont have the experience to tell whether its good value.
Jenspatrick, beautiful room, love your LP front end and your Von's must sound glorious. Every room has it's challenges with setup, part of the fun with this hobby. I would rather start with a live room than a dead one. Window coverings and carpeting go a long way to improving overall acoustics. Thanks for posting, Enjoy.
Glenhifi and Taramuh, thanks for your kind repsonses! Im two years later still hanging on to exactly the same gear, which (looking at my track record) is kind of amazing ;). Oh, I did change speaker cables, now using Ridge street audio alethias. It would be fun to test some of the upper class octave power amps connected directly to the audioaero ref, but I really cant motivate the expense...
Comaris, well at least I think so. I dont know if they made any internal upgrades, but to my knowledge it is still in production.
Happy camper in the aquarium, La source is out of reach for me, and I dont have many SACD lying around, but im really looking forward to reading reviews anyhow as they start to appear. Enjoy your listening folk!
Btw JP, if you are looking for clearer voices or better imaging, I noticed that my super tweeter helped in my system. You may want to audition one in your place. :-)
I´ll look into room treatments, perhaps after summer. I have a nasty bump in bass frequency that would be nice to tame, often it doesnt show, but on some recordings the room vibrates slightly when to "wrong" tone is hit. Also I think that voices could come across even clearer, more upfront i the soundfield. Ill post some pics just for fun of the rest of the room if I find them on my harddisk...
The ASC carries some really nice looking stuff. Thanks for the tip.
Are we ever truly rid of the "itch" :) ? I think what is most immediate right now is a change of the tone-arm cable (stock rega rb250) to something better, perhaps van del hul with proper RCA-connections. This is just a slight adjustments so I still feel the system is posted under the right section, right :)
Very nice set-up!!! I love the decor, neat, clean and well thought of. As to your room being the weak link, that is a possibilty but I can't tell because I can't see the whole room. But as I mentioned to you before, the DB-99s are a joy to use due to its "tweakability." I myself have limitations due to the room. Unfortunately to keep the waf factor, I am restricted in doing too many things.
If you are willing to tweak the room, I suggest some ASC room treatments. If you get in touch with them, you can send them an autocad of your room and they will recommend where to place the treatments. I think they have some new products that even look like pictures/paintings.
Regardless, I'm sure your system already sounds awesome. Could it be you're itching and just looking for an excuse to buy something? ;-) :lol:
Maxen65: found some comparison from what seems to be an experienced listener between the db99 and vr4sr. It does seem like he preferred the db99 with some margin to the vs4sr,
"In my opinion, the DB99s are *definitely* in a bigger (and better) league than the VR4SRs (I would say there is no competition at all between the two)...
...I can't really say the two sounded very much alike either. Soundstage, imaging, bass extension, midrange purity, sensitivity -- all were heavily in favor of the DB99s. The DB99s pulled me into the music, and just let me enjoy the performance, while the SRs just left me cold... I would describe them as lifeless." *
* cut from http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1125358077&openfrom&1&4#1
the comparison can be found in the middle of the thread approx, and has some other comments as well...
I guess they are both great speakers, and perhaps with different gear things would change.
Thanks for the tip devilboy. Sweet pics taken with obvious skill in a nice room.
About being rational I know what you mean. Its so darn hard. I have told myself that several times, and it always ends up... well.... expensive :) rather than rational.
One more thing Jenspatrik. If you really want to see some nice photos, search "Marten Design Miles III". I'm selling my friends Miles IIIs for him. I't the one that says "beautiful photos". I took pictures of them at his house two days ago. The whole room is gergeous. Chow, Luka
Yes Jenspatrik, the 890 can be bridged and I did so. My friend has one and I brought it over his house. I didn't think it was going to make a huge improvement, but it did. I also "don't feel like going there". I'm trying to be rational for the first time in my audiophile life.
Devilboy: Thanks for your kind words. Yes, there is no strain even at unhealthy high volume levels, so I think power is adequate. No need to upgrade for that reason, but I understand there is other tube-amps out there that might sound even nicer with the db99s. For the moment I dont feel like going there (have to accommodate the expenses of the speaker for one :))
The Ear 890 amp in your sys (BTW, nice review in stereophile) can - to my understanding - be bridged which is nice. All that tube-power will last you many speaker upgrades i you ever feel the urge to push your system even further, but I figure the Martens are pretty much maxed out in a normal living room.
Maxen65, thanks! Concerning your question on the db99 vs the vs4JR: Let me first state that I havent had the pleasure to audition the VR4SR, only its smaller sibling, the vr4jr, which I have heard many times with different gear, and let me tell you, the JR is a G.R.E.A.T. speaker at its price-point, excellent slam, bass and musicality, although significantly less detailed than the db99. But great fun and really relaxed with all kinds of music... and they are a chip from the same rock as the db99se, great wide stage with lots of dynamics and and easy sound, not to bright and "hifi" if you know what I mean....
As compared to the db99 SE, the VR4SR is quite a different design although they are similarly priced. I do think they aim at different customer groups, where the db99 is for the dedicated tubegeek :). Furthermore, most of the drivers differ, save (i think) the midrange driver. The Vr4SR is equipped with double 8" woofers and also goes deeper. However, the most immediate difference is the sensitivity. The db99 SE can be adequately driven by a 7W amp which leaves the choice of amplifier open. The VR4SR is rated at 92db but from what I heard they love power to get a good grip on their lower end (the VR4SR has a greater frequency range 18hz-40kHz wheras the db99 can "only" play 20Hz-25kHz, or 20Hz-100kHz with the supertweeter add-on :).
I would not dare to guess which is the better speaker, but if you do a search here on audiogon, some people have actually compared them. At the time of purchase the VR4SR was not an viable option for me as I am dearly fond of my Octave amp, which I knew was a great match with the db99SE, But as I said before, I really liked the vr4jr and I imagine the SR can only be more of that vs-love....
I would love to compare these two in real life though. If you ever do, please keep me posted ;)
Wonderful system!! Gorgeous pictures by the way. It seems as though your system as synergy. We have (somewhat) similar tubes and I bet your amp sounds effortless with your Von Schweikerts. Thanks for the comments on my sytem. Yours is just as nice; very clean.
So the latest addition is the db99s and I now feel that the system is balanced and has the precisely the soundstage and tune I have been looking for. I guess I could be a happy camper, although part of this (crazy?) hobby is testing out new gear.... one newer knows, right?
Apart from some NAd-electronics in the late 90s, I started out with a copland tube-amp (CT501) but it did not have anywhere near the power resources needed to drive my speakers (i had Nautilus 805 back then) properly. The result was sloppy bass and lack of dynamics, although the sonic signature of the copland amp was otherwise very nice. Especially female voices came across lovely. With the right speakers i suspect copland tubes can truly shine.
Although it didnt work out with my N805s, the copland left me with an apatite for the tunefulness and sweetness often associated with tube gear.
I soon moved on to a vincent sv-231 SS amp (a guy traded it for my copland amp) as it was powerful and good value. The soundstage tightened up considerably, but I ultimately couldnt live with the very forward soundstage and slight coldness it provided. The boost in dynamics and bass response was great though.I soon sold it to a friend as it was a much better match with his dynaudio contours 1.3.
The next amp was a small, lovely danish hand-built design, namely Holfi 2.5.1. which to this day has one of the nicest solid state sounds I have had the pleasure to hear. Warm and sweet, although not the utlimate provider of air and details. It also lacked some power and dynamics i longed for since the vincent amp. As I quickly grew fond of the "holfi sound" I traded it for its bigger sibling, the separates holfi NB2 power and pre combo. The sound of those babies were simply wonderful with my B&Ws.
After some years with the holfis I accidentally tripped on a good gryphon deal, and found myself almost breaking my back trying to pull a oversized woodencrate with "black, danish gold" in the trunk of my car. The Gryphon Callisto 2200 is truly a piece of solid state art. It provided all the things I loved with the holfi combo (e.g. musicality) plus dynamics x 2, myriads of details, wonderful depth and a pitch black background... wow.
When a friend (actually two) of mine raved about their Octaves and what a lovely match they thought they would be with my speakers (I owned the JMR Offrande back then), I wasnt really listening, as i thought I was pretty much set. However, one weekend I got to borrow the Octave, (he even brought it over) and I just coudnt return it... The (tube) circle was finally closing and after a six years audiophile journey in Solid state land, I finally found myself right at home again. The holographic presentation, the musicality and air was undeniably wonderful, and it had more than enough slam to play my old rock-records adeptly.
I bet the VS99s sound great. You mentioned that you've gone through your fair share of equipment and given the VS' high sensitivity along the woofers having their own SS amp, have you tried or thought of looking at 2A3, 45, EL84, etc. tubed amps? I should think that, given the calibre of your other equipment, you'd really be able to have a lot of fun with amp rolling :)).
Yes, I´m very happy with the whole setup right now. The octave V70 might not be up to par with the cd and speakers pricewise, but I nevertheless feel that its is more than adequate driving the db-99. I also like that it is rather neutral, powerful and open sounded, and not traditionally "tubey" if such a sound exists (e.g. warm with soft low end :)). Although I plan to experiment with different brands of tubes further down the road, to explore whether I can improve the soundstage further.
