System edited: Another unexpected great upgrade in the form of the Parts Connexion modded PS Audio GHPC phono stage. I bought as a stop gap while I looked for a newer tube phono stage, but after listening to this, I'm keeping it for good!!

macdadtexas March 15, 2010 15:30

Are you saying Benchmark vs. Bryston? The Bryston is much better, it is also much more, not less expensive, about twice the price. But I thought it was about 10 times the DAC.

macdadtexas March 10, 2010 05:26

Thank you for the response on the amp and 1.6's I see you are using the Bryston DAC and you are enjoying it. I wanted to move up like you said on to the Benchmark. But the reviews and comments on it seem to make it a very revealing DAC. Which the maggies aready are. Do you think that saving a little more and going with the Bryston would be a better choice?

Robert Doyle

inwanw March 10, 2010 00:40

No no laptop, I have my AppleTV hooked up to an iTunes account with all of the music stored on a Droboshare. I don't use it much though, since I got addicted to vinyl last year, I can't really listen to anything else.

macdadtexas December 13, 2009 05:08

Your system is awesome. Is the laptop hooked up to the system. If so, what do you use it for.

Steve

sjcinci December 12, 2009 17:50

System edited: OK, I have the new Grado cartridge and Graham Slee Elevator broken in and I couldn't be happier. This combo is a BASS monster, the low end is much extended. The whole soundstage is deeper, and the high's have continued to smooth out. Much more extended than my wonderful Sumiko Blackbird, or the other cartridges that I auditioned. I'm extremele pleased with the combo. I have had some big feedback issues since putting in the Graham Slee, they were mostly fixed by using a Granite Audio Ground Zero, but not completely.

macdadtexas December 04, 2009 19:02

System edited: OK, I got the Grado Reference 1 (low output Statement edition) integrated into the system and even without it being broken it, I love it. Detail I didn't know I was missing, a tad warmer, and bass to die for. I have a Graham Slee Elevator feeding the phono stage of my Cary preamp, and I don't seem to notice it at all. Which is super high praise. I am having feedback issues between the turntable and my Rel B1 high level connections again, I need to vet that out. What is really weird is the the feedback goes WAY down when I put the turntable arm over the record. That's just weird. Lovin it so far.

macdadtexas November 16, 2009 03:09

Somehow this post ended up here rather than in answer to your other post! Sorry for the confusion.

chadeffect November 06, 2009 20:00

Macdadtexas,

just to add to your pain, and as an ex maggie owner and maggie lover who was there too, Audio Research+Magnepan=happiness. Just how long the happiness lasts is another question.

As I said earlier, buy more music as it helps to stop the habit of comparing the same recording from one night to another. A computer does help as a source, as you can have instant access to huge amounts of music with the press of a key. No more searching the shelves for that elusive CD or LP. Your listening habits will change.

chadeffect November 06, 2009 13:33

Thx Macdad. I knew I was getting something wrong. That makes a lot more sense. Well let us know how you like the Grado Ref 1 with the Graham Slee SUT. Sounds like you are having a good time seeing what the VPI Classic is capable of. Enjoy.

cmalak November 03, 2009 22:18

The Reference 1 comes in 2 configurations High Output and Low Output, if it's the "Statement" Ref 1 it has 0.5 Mv output. It's a bit confusing, but after a listen to both, I thought the Low Output version had more depth and clarity. Of course that could have the difference from the phono stages, and I may end up being disappointed. It's all so freakin' complicated!!

macdadtexas November 03, 2009 14:57

So Macdadtexas, you are using the Graham Slee Elevator SUT with the grado Reference 1 cart and running it thru the MM phono on the Cary SLP-98P. Is that correct? If yes, I am a bit confused because the Grado Reference 1 Wood Body Phono cart is a 4.0mv output cart, in which case I don't know why you need the Graham Slee Elevator SUT. I am sure I am getting something wrong in my understanding of your setup. In any case, would love to hear the comparisons to the Sumiko Blackbird and what prompted the upgrade (beyond upgradeitis :-)). Thx for the feedback in advance and keep on spinning that vinyl. Thx

cmalak November 03, 2009 04:24

System edited: I am in process of changing out cartridges after doing some trials with different ones and I am happy to have ordered a Grado The Reference 1 after borrowing one to try. Fantastic. I bought a Graham Slee Elevator as well, I haven't gotten it yet, but man, could Graham be any easier to work with? Great guy. My tube rolling kind of sucked. I ended up back with the orginal tubes after trying several kinds. I am not real happy with who I bought the first set from either. He never answered a few questions after I told him they were not a good match for my system. Last time I buy from him.

macdadtexas November 03, 2009 01:02

System edited: rolled some tubes. Bought some Zalytron NOS from Upscale and when I added them to the system it warmed up, but the highs got a little bright and almost distored. So then I took 2 of them out and replaced them with the stock tubes and.....AWESOME!!! A bit warmer, highs are back to their clear, smooth selves. Nice improvement, and now I have a full set of back up tubes!! I also added a Signal Cable Speakeron cable for my Rel sub, and I hate to admit it, but a nice upgrade. Sub seems even faster if that's possible, and my intermittent and annoying feedback problem is gone.

macdadtexas October 06, 2009 23:56

FYI: Just got a Havana back in and am listening. I realize now why I lamented selling the other one I had. The Cary needs to break in still. It sounds a little restricted at the moment, but by no means bad.

mimberman August 27, 2009 02:57

Thanks so much for that comparison - very helpful. I am considering it myself and this would be my first tt setup ever, so I also have to consider what phono and cartridge to mate it with but it sounds like you are having good results with the Sumiko Blackbird thru the MM phono stage of the Cary SLP-98p. I am glad you are enjoying it so much and it gives me added confidence to take the step. Thanks again.

cmalak August 14, 2009 01:36

I love it. I had the Aries I with the 10.5 arm, for a short time I had the Scoutmaster Signature. The Aries had the original platter, and I don't know that I ever had it set up right (I did use a MintLP protractor and a Gingko 9a platform), but I never got great results. Regardless of VTA or other set up parameters it always sounded rather bright, with a restricted low end.

I like the Scoutmaster a lot, but I had to adjust it constantly, and the bottom seemed a little bloated and slow. It was still very nice.

The Clearaudio Performace I had before those, I thought was a full step ahead of both of them in sound. It was fast, coherent, smooth top end, and went very, very deep on the low end. I wish I had kept it instead of trying the first 2 VPI's to be honest.

I don't know what made me try the Classic. Maybe because I had been trying out, or listening to I should say, some "classic" Technics, Denon, and AR turntable lately, and I really liked the fullness of the sound. Maybe not the most natural or transparent sound, but very full and a ton of slam on rock music. I was listening to a buddies AR ES-1 with Klipschorns and a Mac 225 amp through an C22 preamp, and it was just fantastic. I think that got me on the path to a classic table, and then reading about the VPI, I thought it could be the best of the new and the old new, and I think it is.

This new table is very very fast, has a ton of upper extension, very smooth, and is a bass monster. I guess that's the 10.5i arm with the copper wiring. It just sounds great, great, great.

I love it.

macdadtexas August 13, 2009 19:06

Hi Macdadtexas. Congrats on the new VPI Classic tt. Can you provide your thoughts on how it compares to your prior VPI tt (I believe it was an Aries Scout)? How would you describe the main sonic differences? I am assuming you are using same phono and cart between the two tts, so this should be a valid comparison. Thanks a lot.

cmalak August 13, 2009 13:08

I'm not a big "Cable" guy, let me start with that. After trying many different interconnects and power cables I settled on Kimber Heros and Signal Cable Power Cables, because they sounded the best, and as good as those I got that cost 5x as much. I never heard much improvement from power cables (certainly conditioning the power makes a difference) so I settled on the nice and not too expensive Signals.

Anyway, on digital it just never made sense that the "0"'s and "1"'s from the binary code would sound much different through different cables so I never gave it much thought. Finally though, since AppleTV only takes Toslink I did quite a bit of research and decided to try the Audioquest Optilink 5, and definitively I can say that "YES" it is a sizeable improvment as far as sound quality. I still think the DAC is 95% of the sound, but any hint of upper end harshness or brightness went away, and bottom end got tighter.

V nice improvement.

macdadtexas August 13, 2009 02:21

So have you found a better toslink cable to make a big improvement? I have been on the fence about buying the Audioquest optilink 5 myself. I am using a cheap freebie toslink cable now with my Apple TV.

ejlif August 12, 2009 14:31

System edited: New Turntable ROCKS!! Way to go VPI for thinking outside the box by going back to the classics.

macdadtexas August 11, 2009 04:05

I use the AppleTV for digital exclusively, through an Audioquest Optilink 5 Toslink cable. I don't ever toss on a CD, every once in a while I will listen to an SACD or DVD-Audio. Also, the AppleTV usb is not enabled, so I have never used it.

The Bryston is by far the best of the DAC's I have tried, but honestly, I really listen to vinyl about 90% of the time.

macdadtexas August 07, 2009 20:53

Nice system. I'm curious to how you listen to digital. Is it via Apple TV via toslink mostly or are you playing the CDs from your Oppo? I noticed you had the Havana DAC as well as some others. Did you play those via USB?

Those Maggies sure are nice if you have the space. I had some and loved the sound but I sold them only because they overtook the room visually and my wife was not having it. They are a heck of a buy for what you get compared to speakers of the same price that is for sure.

ejlif August 07, 2009 15:46

I thought the Havana was much warmer and had a great easy listening quality. The BelCanto had a much bigger soundstage and tighter, faster bass, more extended highs, but sounded just slightly bright to me, well compared to the Havana. The Bryston has the best of both of these. I can't believe how well it performs, I'm completely sold.

My speaker/amp combo would tend towards brightness so I am always conscience of that, so take that into consideration. If you have a warmer speaker/amp combo the BelCanto could be the Be-All-End-All. It is very good.

macdadtexas July 28, 2009 14:08

How would you compare to Havana and Bel Canto?

mimberman July 27, 2009 21:02