A few months ago, I was able to move my 2-channel system to a room in the basement that measures 12' wide, 15' long, and 7' high. Now in the main living room upstairs, I do not particularly care if either of my boys knock over or damage the equipment as it is much less expensive.
It is a great relief off of my shoulders.
My goals for this system? Just to be able to relax for ~45 minutes every night and enjoy the music. Sorry, I am not much on flowery descriptions.
System edited: Sold my VPI HRX turntable and Dynavector XX2 MKII cart for a simple Technics 'table and Ortofon cart. Overall, very happy with the switch.
You know, I'm a real fence sitter with respect to cabling. Recently, I borrowed a pair of Cardas GR biwire speaker cable for several days from a fantastic audio store. I can't say that I heard a difference between the single run of Monster speaker wire that I have now (8) and the Cardas. If there was a difference, it did not justify the price. If I have to shell out something in the order of thousands of dollars, I equate that to how many Fantasy 45 records can I get. The records (or CDs) win out every time I think about getting Cardas GR interconnects/speaker wire.
I'm really sorry, but I am so new to vinyl that I don't have anything to compare it to. My thought process was that VPI really recommends them (Dynavector) and it costs about 3x less than the XV1S!
System edited: Big changes over the last 6 months. I decided to buy a turntable (VPI Scout with a Dynavector 20-XL) and loved the sound so much that I moved up the ladder. Analog is fantastic! My SACD player is getting a little dusty.
About 20 years ago, I remember lusting after one of those RX-202 Nak tape decks. Well, I saw one come up for sale on Canuck Audio Mart about 1 year ago for $120 Cdn. I jumped on it as I still had all of my old tapes. The neat thing about this as the source is that any pretense of "critical listening" gets thrown out the window, especially with 15-20 year old tapes! I have yet to finish the Jon Risch DIY absorption panels in the rear by putting the same bulap that is on the ones at the sidewall first reflection points.
Got the VZN-100 in musicwood (piano black to match the VSM-MX) from Jud at Joule Electra about 2 months ago. Just as everyone says - GREAT match! I've got to update my pictures.
System edited: Forgot to mention that I am also awaiting a pair of VZN-100 OTL monoblock amplifiers in musicwood from Jud at Joule Electra. Hopefully they will be in my system in November.
System edited: I recently removed a partial wall in my dedicated basement music room to make it about 45 square feet bigger. Re-arranged system to acheive better sound.