SET bliss/Jazz Haven (In my home).

by charles1dad on Done For Now
Music Retreat.
All heart and soul, beautiful!
Jazz trumpeter Dwight Adams mastering his horn.
The late and great Roy Hargrove
Coincident Frankenstein 300b SET mono block.
SET realism
Amplifier flavors.
Pro-Ject RS2T
Abbas 3.2SE DAC Interior.
Abbas 3.2SE DAC.
Excellent audio signal chain
Frankenstein
Abbas3.2SE DAC
Live jazz in a friend’s living room.

Description

My objective is to duplicate the sound of a good jazz venue as best I can. I'll never match it but getting close is fine. I've had various audio components through the years and tubes particularly DHT tubes/ASSET have gotten me the closest.  So this is where I will settle down and appreciate.
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Components Toggle details

    • BPT Signature 3.5 plus
    Balanced AC power is fantastic !! 1800va balanced isolation transformer/conditioner.  All aspects of music reproduction are improved for every single component.
    • Tripoint Tripoint Troy.
    A wonderful grounding box component. When added to my system it increased the sense of natural sound quality and emotional engagement. The Troy has a humanistic and “soulful “ quality to it.
    • Coincident Speaker Tech Total eclipse 2
    This wonderful speaker is transparent,open and involving. It`s large yet completely disappears as the source of sound within the room. Very easy to drive,94db and 14 0hm impedance (Minimum 10 ohm). I replaced the stock Solens capacitor with the Duelund CAST in the crossover.
    • Coincident Statement linestage
    Superb performance. In my opinion , a masterpiece by Israel Blume. As would be expected, a wonderful match with its sibling the Frankenstein MK II.
    • Coincident Speaker Tech Frankenstein mark 2
    A terrific 300b SET amplifier that is the foundation of my system. The EML XLS 300b tubes are a superb match with this amplifier.  

    Acquiring these 300b SET mono blocks changed the course of my music listening experience. They elevated the emotional engagement, tactility and “breath of life “ realism.
    • Yamamoto YDA-01
    Wonderful music lover's DAC that has a very natural/organic sound quality. Duelund CAST addition(output coupling capacitors) makes it sound even better. It has a very minimalist circuit/design that was implemented well.
    • Ocellia Silver Reference IC
    Very natural and pure sounding with excellent tone and timbre preservation.
    • Ocellia Silver Reference Speaker Cable
    Same qualities/ comments as the IC.
    • Star Sound Technologies Sistrum Apprentice component platforms..
    These Star Sound platforms are mandatory in my system. Effectively managing resonance and vibration leads to a very noticeable sound improvement with every component and especially the speakers. Excellent product.
    • High Fidelity CT1 Ultimate Digital cable
    A highly impressive digital cable that mates beautifully into my system. Contributes to the natural sound presentation.
    • Pro-Ject Audio Systems CD Box RS2T
    This is a superb Redbook CD playback transport. It’s both high resolution and impressively natural.

    . I’m  using the  excellent Fidelizer Nikola II LPS. Splendid pairing.  
    • Lavricables Grand and Master series Power Cables.
    Pure silver wire and unshielded power cables. These are used with all of my audio components. They are very open, transparent, high resolution with beautiful natural tone and timbre presentation.
    • Abbas Esoteric Audio 3.2SE
    Built by renown Ukrainian Abbas Zulfugarov. NOS DAC utilizing the classic Phillips TDA 1541 multi bit chip. Two 6080 tubes in the analog stage. 5 various rectifier tubes in the power supplies.

     3 separate toroidal transformers (And 2 chokes ) for the power supplies.A very serious and successful upper tier DAC implementation. Using with the Abbas SPDIF and power cable.
    • Frankenstein tubes.
    Tube complement 
    EML XLS 300b output.
    RCA 5U4G rectifier (1953)
    RCA 6EM7 driver (1960s).

Comments 1956

Showing all comments by dazzlingmd.

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Rebi,

It does sound like a different powercord is worth trying (I won't specifically comment on the old computer cord experiment). I picked up my Cardas Golden Reference PC for $225 used. There are a good number of used power cords listed on Audiogon, and that's one of the safer things to buy used in my view. You may get more bang for your buck that way. I have heard good things about the Pangea cords but have never tried them myself.

And Charles, it's good to know that the EML XLS tubes are a drop in replacement. They sounded significantly better than any other tubes I tried in my Diavolo. They are not dirt cheap (around $700 a pair new I think), but I was lucky enough to find a used pair listed here and from a seller 20 minutes from my house here in Denver. I'll never look back.

Rebi, you should definitely consider trying a pair of the EMLs as a less drastic measure, particularly if you really like your current speakers. I don't know the technical details, but I think the whole point of the 300B XLS tubes is to provide the magic of a 300B with a little more power.

dazzlingmd

I'm certainly no expert and new to SET amps myself (although loving it), but my new (to me) Art Audio Diavolo is pushing its limits to drive my Merlin speakers, and I did 2 things that helped. First, I inserted some EML 300BXLS tubes. I don't know if the Kit 1 can take those or not, but my understanding is that they give you a little more power if so.

Second, on a whim I tried a different power cord. I'm personally VERY SKEPTICAL about things like power cords making a difference (or a power cord having a "sonic signature" of any kind, but I'm not trying to start a debate here. But I substituted a used Cardas Golden Reference power cord for my stock cord, and it immediately provided more bass weight and it became harder to clip the amp. Even before the power cord change, I had to crank it up to near ear-bleeding levels to get it to distort like you're talking about, but the power cord made a difference there as well. And to me there's some logic in that--a more substantial power cord could provide some assistance to an amp that is pushing its limits.

Good luck with your continuing journey, which I've been following closely.

dazzlingmd

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