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.
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.
To me "dark" is somber, deep-tone and almost mournful, but definitely not happy and light and fast-paced. I have other CDs that I consider to be in a similar style such as the ones by the Helge Lien trio.
Charles. It is all about the exchange rate. The dollar is strong. In Japanese yen, the price has remained relatively constant. 144,000 yen. Although I think that there was a slight bump when the factory transitioned from white to black bases. Also a good time to visit Japan. And buy a back-up pair of tubes.
Charles. You are right. I corresponded with the Japanese distributor before buying my first pair. He was rather insulted when I inquired about reliability of a newly manufactured tube. I have the advantage of many friends and colleagues in Japan as well as visiting once or twice each year. However, they are easily sourced for about 1200USD.
What is also interesting is that the top tier 300b are all of relatively new manufacturer. The Takatsukis have only been in production for about 5 years.
As Charles said, especially for 300b, there are really good "classical" design choices. I can vouch especially for the Takatsuki in terms of sound and reliability. Am curious about the Elrogs, but have not decided whether to get a pair to try. The main issue, however, is cost. The various options are all in the range of 1000+USD; the EML XLS being a relative bargain.
Rebbi: If you decide to look for different speakers, many manufacturers who sell direct - Tekton, Zu, etc - offer extensive in-home trial periods of 30 days or more.
Rebbi - I had a similar experience, but with Branford Marsalis in Seoul, Korea . . . dinner with his band and a few friends, live concert (including a top down version of Arirang, a Korean folksong), and then several hours sitting in a bar.
Manufacturers that make both high sensitivity speakers and SET amplifiers would seem to have an advantage. But that clearly is not the case. Some do not do both well or are known for speaker or amplifiers, but not both.
Reading this and other threads, I am struck by how each of us discovered the beauty of SET and then rebuilt our systems accordingly. While there are many high sensitivity speakers on the market, they are still relatively few in number. I was once told that I should first find a speaker that I love and then select the amplifier and other electronics. Perhaps this was not the best advice since I went through several amplifiers - first non-SET and then a series of SET amplifiers (45, 2a3, and then 300b) each with a series of tubes. Fortunately, I was able to do this relatively quickly and without losing a lot of money; as I learned, speaker - SET amplifier matching is crucial. So maybe there is a better way than starting with the choice of the speaker?
Here are a couple of suggestions that are not widely known
Voyage by Youn Sun Nah. Korean, but sings in English. IMHO this is her best CD; her others do not compare. I heard her once is a small venue in NYC; too self-effacing in public.
The Paul Robeson Legacy by Sir Willard White. Tremendous bass voice that really sounds like Robeson although the selections are more spiritual than jazz and the arrangements are more White than Robeson.
Honestly, this is pretty funny. But maybe it is a business opportunity - for A'gon or someone else - to provide photography services to A'gon members to "optimize" their system pages.
Oh no. The Green Mill is a dive bar, apparently in her neighborhood. Very informal, dark, cheap drinks, bring your own food if you want, etc. It does not get any more intimate than that.
Thanks for the tip about the Carmen McCrae XRCD disc. Really, really good! I have other XRCDs. The Oistrakh recording of the Bruch Scottish Fantasy is also worthwhile.
Charles - In this you and I disagree. Unless someone tells me that EML mesh is better than the Takatsuki, I have no interest in experimenting. However, I do have a couple of jazz recommendations for you if you like female vocals. Holy Cole Don't Smoke in Bed and Youn Sun Nah Voyage. (Hopefully, I did not already suggest these to you.)
I agree with Charles. I was thrilled with the RP. . . until I tried the Takatsuki. Since then, the RP have sat in the closet; and I bought a back-up pair of Takatsuki. But it is twice the price of the RP.
I used the EML 2a3 and found it to be excellent. (As I remember, it was the solid plate.) However, like Charles, I now use the Takatsuki 300b; I was fortunate to discover and buy them before the price hike. They are truly excellent and replaced the RPs that replaced the Shuguang BTs.
