new system that I put together with much trial and error ;) My previous system was Cary 211 AE amps, Cary SLP-05 pre, Vandersteen 5A's - Bolder Cables Squeezebox etc.. I then went with Innersound Kaya's and Lamm M1.2 amps - many preamps tried too.
yes, the 210's are gone along with the BAT VK-52SE. Both very excellent sounding pieces but your right - the heat just became a problem. My audio room faces west and with all the windows it gets a little warm in there during the mid/late afternoons. The AC is outside the left window behind the speaker - although I have it blocked off with a vinyl fence to redirect the sound(works pretty good) - the added heat from the tubes makes the AC run a bit more - then it gets too cold for my wife... Another thing is tube replacement cost was pretty significant with all the tubes - especially with ARC factory tubes. I didn't like having to think about tube life etc.. In all I think I made a very good choice - I don't regret it at all. Everything that's been written about the ASR has proved true in my system and room. It runs very cool - it's DEAD quiet - I can put my ear to the tweeter with the volume up - it's like it's unplugged and the sound is just fabulous ;-)
System edited: replaced my ARC 210's and BAT VK-52SE with the ASR. Still getting used to the different sound but WOW - everything that's been written about this piece is accurate - not SS or tube sounding - just musical. Sold the RSA Jaco too since the Transporter is the only piece needing conditioning. Will be using a Kaplan conditioning cord for the MW Transporter. More latter..
System edited: new crossovers from GR Research using top quality parts. The new xover's totally transformed these speakers! No more bloated bass and phase issues. The xover's took about 7.5 hrs to install but well worth it!
Kenobi: I was using the Boston tuning blocks with tungsten ball under the BAT - I compared them with the PW4's and heard no difference so I sold the more expensive Tuning Blocks. I didn't have anything under the amps other than the Adona amp stands. The PW4's made a nice improvement in bass definition and tightness. Very noticeable. I had the Ceraballs a while back and replaced them with the Boston blocks.
Pierre, no sir I don't. I get MUCH more emotionally involved with the system I have now.
Pierre, I don't have a NAS - I just have a bunch of drives for my FLAC music. The drives are in my office which is behind the left wall. I use an ethernet cable instead of wireless. No Itunes.
System edited: changed out Speltz jumpers with JPS Superconductor 3 jumpers. Very nice improvement in bass definition - removed the bass bloat the Speltz created - very balanced bass now. I also added the Hifi Pyon Pw4 Highend Resonance control feet under the ARC amps and the BAT - again a very nice improvement with the ARC's - much better bass definition.
Elberoth2: the first thing I noticed was that the soundstage is huge with the 210's - it extends to both side walls. I rarely got that with the Lamm's - they produced a soundstage mostly between the speakers. Another thing is that the 210's imaging is farther behind the speakers - it's like a vortex that sucks me in, heheh.. The Lamm's were much more forward sounding and had less depth. The 210's seem to breath better - the music ebb's and flows as if alive ;) The 210's are so much quieter - both in mechanical hum(after I put new fans in) and noise heard from the tweeter. The Lamms always had a layer of hiss. The 210's are dead quiet hiss wise. The 210's have better bass extension - I discovered that I had to reposition the speakers about 1' more from the front wall and about 10" from the side walls - I also moved my chair closer by about 1.5'. The Lamm's did have a little better bass control but the 210's sound more natural. The 210's have better extension high and low. The power reserve of the 210's is very abundant - I never get a feeling that I'm hitting their power limit - with the 100wpc less powerful Lamm's I did. Overall the 210's sound much better in my system than the Lamm's did. I find myself drawn to listen every day - I didn't get that feeling with the Lamm's. YMMV ;)
Hi Pierre, like you mention, since I have different speakers it's hard to describe the difference between the 211's and 210's. I can say that my system has never sounded better ;)
