No big changes lately, except the Dynavector XX2MKII returns this season to the system after an excellent rebuild. Sounds sweet as ever. Kleos SL rebuilt and waiting her turn. Looking next to replacing the venerable Mac stereo amplifier with monoblocs and free up the fireplace. Here’s the catch: all changes have to be substantial upgrades . . . Do I stay with Mac or? Tubes or SS?
At last made the move to a Lyra Kleos cartridge (Soundsmith has rebuilt my Dyna XX2MkII). This is an upgrade that provides a smoother, more refined, an slightly more detailed sound, at least to my ears. But now I've got phono stage resources going unused, what with the C2300 MC/MM and ModWright MM options not being used currently. Maybe it's time to find a second decent turntable and tonearm with removable head shell, so as to allow swapping lesser/interesting cartridges and finally getting an OK mono cartridge into the mix.
OK, I have to admit: this rig finally sounds great. Not sure what to change at this point. Maybe just keep listening to records? Digital gets the job done, but I know it's not state of the art. But is digital ever going to satisfy like analog already does?
Consider additional sound treatments (see first photo for baby steps in that direction)?
Upgrade my 5 year old, 1000-hour-plus, but just-won't-say-die Dynavector XX2MKII cart?
@ije Good to meet another ModWright PH-150 user. And a Vandy 5A user as well! Not too many of us in these parts, so far as I can tell. I've had the PH-150 installed in my system for several months now, and I'm very happy with it. Considerable improvement in detail over the previous tube phono stage of the McIntosh C2300 preamp. It's got all the gain we could want, and in my experience it's been extremely quiet from the get go. I'm using it with an old-ish Dyna XX-2MKII cartridge (low output MC), and it's worked out great. Longer term, I've got in mind adding a dedicated Mono arm or table, and this will give me the flexibility to try that when the time comes. How's your own working out?
@islandmandan Good to hear from you again, Dan. You've given some welcome advice in the past, further down this thread. Back when I was threatening to switch out my XX-2 cart in favor of, well I don't know what. But I was itchy to do something or other! Invested instead in the new ModWright phono stage and then a Sony digital player. Gotta save a few more bucks before doing anything on the cartridge front. We also traded some guitar ideas back then. I'm out of Martins now and have traded them for an older Collings D3A, for when I'm not spinning vinyl.
Thanks for the note. We agree on the cartridge. Mine is pretty new and breaking in, still. And by the way your Garrard DYI looks incredible, as does your carefully designed system. Wish I knew more about these DYI plinth rigs for old turntables that I see on various systems and would like to hear one some day.
By the way, the Martins are a 2005 standard D-28 and a fairly unusual SP000-16R from about 1995, I think. It was a special edition, and a bit expensive than either the 000-18 or 000-28, but I think it sounds pretty nice.
Thanks for the kind words. You know, as a matter of fact I lived in Durham (Morehead Hill) for several years, and I'd take you up on the offer if was still in the area. Looks like you've got the digital rig figured out nicely, and I especially like the set up with two subwoofers. I need to get busy in the digital part of audio, one of these days.
Alan: the VPI Aries is a solid player. I've got the Aries II Black Knight, which has a black acrylic platter. The arm is recently upgraded to the VPI 10.5i with Dynavector XX-2 mkII cartridge, and everything is breaking in nicely. I've also found that the SDS speed control and Gingko isolation platform are important upgrades for this rig. I don't see any reason to go further up the VPI line, although one day budget permitting the Galibier turntables look pretty impressive and in keeping with my preference for massive, unsuspended record players.
I'm going to try and audition the Andras sometime soon, since from what I've heard they've got the authority to bring a bigger sound than the current set up, which is nice but lacks some weight and presence, I think, compared to what it might be. My room is smaller than yours, however, and I wonder how the Andras will do in a 15 x 15 foot space that opens onto two other rooms that are fairly large.
Heyitsmedusty: Sorry for the much-delayed reply. Good call on the displayed Sufjan Stevens record. It's the inside flap of "Come on Feel the Illinoise."
Updates: Dynavector XX-2 MkII on the way, along with JWW 10.5i arm upgrade. Any guesses on what changes these will bring?
Also am looking at changing the phone cable with the new arm/cartridge set up. Who's got a likely cable recommendation at under $500.00?
Vernneal -- Thank you for the good suggestions. No HT issues here, so I recently opted to exchange the AR linestage for McIntosh C2300 preamplifier, mainly because I wanted to try a tube preamp with the solid state MC352. Thus far, this is working out great, and as an added bonus the C2300 MC phono stage is excellent.
Zigonht: I've had the Rega Planet 2000 since it was first introduced, about 5 years ago. Probably it's time for a change, but it's been a decent player all that time and still works great despite being replaced in the Rega line by the Apollo, etc., which I've not yet heard. Frankly, I listen to vinyl so exclusively these days that digital has become a lower priority, although I've begun including iPod lossless playback for parties and such.
Khoward: the LP shelves, which are reasonably priced from www.musicdirect.com, have worked out quite well. These racks are available in various sizes and the price is decent. So far it's been quite sturdy, as I've had it in place for about 3 years with no sagging. The Billy Bags shelves are surely better, but they're a lot more expensive the last time I checked. This particular rack holds about 300 LPs, only a portion of my collection (total about 1500 LPs), but it's reasonably attractive and so is allowed to stay in the music room while the larger collection goes elsewhere in the house. I use an indoor coaxial-cable antenna from Crane Co. (about 25 dollars) for the tuner, but where I live FM is a pretty low priority. I'm about 100 miles from decent FM radio, and even a rooftop antenna would likely give me marginal reception. The local college station tunes in reasonably well, though, and sometimes that's worthwhile.
