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.
They measured 1.3k with my meter and they are 25watts. The joints look good, could it be that the auto-bias could go out of range with the higher value resistor?
I don't want to high jack Charles site. Can you give me a call or text me?
Maybe you could help me out. I changed the cathode resistor to a 1.2k. Before I tried my better tubes I put in the original chinese tubes. Once I powered up the amps I noticed the plates of the tubes to glow reddish, but sounded fine. I played music for about 4 hours with no trouble. I had no smoke coming from the amps, thank god.
Do you remember if that was normal with those tubes. Also did you get a smell like new components breaking in from the new resistor?
Bill, It's nice to get to a point after all these years where we are finally content with our system. I'm happy for you. I'm at that point also, and every time I turn on my system it puts a smile on my face. No more analyzing the sound just sitting back and thoroughly enjoying the music.
Charles, can you tell me the differences between the Elrog and Takatsuki. Does the Elrog have more weight and impact in the upper bass and midrange? How do they compare with female vocals, etc?
If you like those CD's I can suggest many more, let me know.
Hi Charles, if I may here is another ECM artist Tord Gustavsen Trio (The Ground)which is very good. I have four of his CD's. If you like Stefano Bollani's CD's that Dan suggested, try Enrico Rava (Easy Living) he has Stefano playing piano and Rava's trumpet. Late night soothing music and all ECM recordings are excellent!
I ordered the Elrogs looking forward to getting them.
