Description

I recently moved my audio into a better room than my original almost square room. The new room is around 14 wide 8 high with no back wall. It opens into a living room that is over 30 ft. For the last years I have had nothing but horns like Altec, and Klipsch (which I still have and love) but this new setup is AMAZING! The Alon Lotus speakers with the Cary 805C amps sound great I use a pair of Sonance subs but they rarley kick in. I recently heard a setup I fell in love with but the price tag was 10x what I have in mine so I am very pleased so far. So far so good the stage is HUGE and WIDE and the vocals and instruments sound great!

Im using a Plinius Jarrah phono stage with a Transfiguration Spirit MKII cartridge, and an Immedia RPM arm, on my VPI TNT 3.5.

The racks are filled with lead. The room treatments are from GIK acoustics.

The cables are now Pure Note Paragon silver connects, speaker cables, and power cables are PS Audio xStream Plus SC. The speakers are around 6.5ft from the rear wall and 3.8ft from the side walls. Pretty close to Cards rules. Sometimes I will throw in my electraPrint 300B amps for some amazing vocals. Even though they are only 7-10 watts these amps are Awesome.

Also my attempt at an isolation box for my TT made a great improvment in sound as well. For starters my TT is rather large so this box may seem overkill. The box is made of solid maple pieces. Maple is very good for vibration control. The box is 2 inches thick. It measures 6" tall x 24" deep x by 32" wide. The box is screwed together then Ii caulked the inside so no sand could escape. The box itself weighs around 60lbs. Then i filled it almost to the top with 100lbs of fine washed beach sand that I bought at Lowes for about 4 bucks a 50lb bag. Then I had a 1" thick slab of granite cut to the inside demensions of the box. I placed the granite slab inside and moved it back and forth checking it with a bubble level. Then I put the TT on top. Each material has a resonance point. Using 3 different materials sand, maple, and granite I tried to have the platform as dead as possible. Finally underneath the box are 8 2" brass cones. with the TT sitting on the box the whole thing weighs close to 275lbs. Here are some picture from the front, top, and side. They are not the best since they are from my camera phone but you get the idea. If it works out which it seems it will I will paint it gloss black and get a black granite slab to match all my other equipment, but I'm in in no hurry to do that as it weighs a ton.
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Components Toggle details

    • Arcarain Alon Lotus Elite
    Open Baffle bliss!
    • VPI Industries TNT-4
    This is as close as I could find in the listings. It's my VPI TNT 3.5
    • Cary Audio Design CAD-805c
    Not much to say!
    • Cary Audio Design SLP-98p
    This pre mates perfect with the 805C amps.
    • Plinius Jarrah
    For the price this is a great phono stage.
    • Immedia RPM
    Great arm once it's setup correct. Like any other arm right?
    • Transfiguration Spirit MKII
    NICE with Jazz and I'm finding out much more!
    • Mapleshade Heavy Foot
    I have a dozen of these under stuff and they work great.
    • Lovan Classic II
    Lead filled and foam lined these are nice but the shelves are a little thin.
    • Pure Note Paragon
    these silver cables are GREAT. They are not stiff either compared to other giant cables full of filler to make them look huge.
    • Pure note Paragon
    These are silver Bi-Wire and sound great with the silver interconnects I have from Pure Note as well.
    • Ps Audio xStream Plus SC
    Great power cords for the price. What can I say.
    • ElectraPrint 300B
    DRD 300B monoblocks from Jack Elliano. These things sound great to me.
    • Maple,sand,granite iso box DIY
    Heres my attempt at an isolation box for my TT. See system for description.
    • Thorens TD-124
    Well I have always wanted one of these and after many years I have added one today to my system. It's amazing after 40+ years the table with the SME 3009 II arm is an amazing combo!
    • Decware MG944
    My first x-overless speakers. AMAZING!

Comments 19

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Would you mind telling us a little about your experiences with the Thorens and VPI ?

Gregg

greggdeering