The updates I am planning are the Ayre Pre Amp and the Ayre Mono Blocks, to be followed with Martin Logan CLX speakers. I also need to upgrade my interconnects. Looking at Virtual Dynamics and Cardas. I may remove the reel to reel the CD player and the tuner not using them so they should go. After I get the ayre pre and mono blocks in place I need a phono stage Ayre maybe.
Purchased new in 1978. Only 1300 pairs made. Bass speakers replaced once by Infinity and reconed once after that. Anyone who thinks these speakers are a thing of the past has not heard them with better cables the martin logan clx are better but a lot of newer speakers only wish they were QLS's they fill a room in more ways than one.
Conrad Johnson Premier 1B
Bought this amp in late 1980's and ran it with EL34's, then 6550's. After a major meltdown, I had the amp rebuilt by Sonic Frontiers. It is now running KT88 Gold Lions.
Conrad Johnson DR-1
Tube CD player
Sota Sapphire sV
Oak finish, recently upgraded by Sota, new mat, bearings. Has vacumn hold down.
SME Series V
Have had this arm for years. Never any trouble.
Schelter 90X
Works great
Sonic Frontiers Prototype
Prototype model that was never put into production. Serial #000000. All tube, dual volume controls.
Vandersteen Brown
Brown
Cardas Golden Reference
3 metre Bi-wire
Magnum Dynalab FT-101a Etude
Also have the FM Signal Sleuth
Granite Custom Made
Shelves are 4" thick Ebony Mist granite supported by 4" thick Crystal Blue (grey) granite risers. Three sets each 4 feet long, double tiered.
Great system. I've been using ayre monos and pre for some time and. I love these monos mxr so much. To be honest you would have to jump to a higher much higher price amp to beat em. Best of luck. And good listening.
I too have a set of QLS speakers; but I did not know so few were produced. I just last year got a set of Infinity RS-1b speakers that have been modded with Peavy elec. crossovers and use Infinity SS-210 servo subs for my lower octive. Check my system out under virtual systems" INFINITY REFERANCE 1".
Cant go wrong with the Ayre products. I have both the K-5xemp Pre-Amp and CX-7emp CD Player in my system but in auditioning the Ayre Power Amps found that they had a little less "Rock N Roll" slam that I was looking for and ended up with the Classe' Delta Series SA-2200 (NLA). I didnt audition the mono blocks from Ayre BUT I'm actually considering trading up to the Classe' MA-600's so mono block minds think alike! All interconnects are MIT Shotgun S-3 Balanced and RCA. For my phono pre-amp I went with the Grahmn Slee ERA Gold. Check it out, it's pretty darn good for the money! You've got a great system going there, have fun!
Thanks for your thoughts markevens skook domgom and all others. As to your question of how much does the stand weigh 4,317 lbs empty as to why I am a stone guy so I made it my house is slab on grade my floors are slate and much of the house is stone. I have moved to mostly ayre gear I think it is sounding great. I went with ayre ICs and cardas clear speaker cables. Oh cost to buy a stand like this 4 to 5 thousand set up in your home would be about right.
Nice looking setup! I think aesthetics are important in a room. Too many setups I see are very sterile and uninviting. What's the point of all that gear and it loks like a lab? Questions on the marble stands: What did they cost, how much do they wiegh, and what is the reasoning from your point of view of having such mass?
Hello Garnels . Nice set up , great stand . You will like the Ayre preamp , I own the KXR , but prefer it with a Levinson power amp . A friend owns the CLXs , I find them very fatiqueing , but he loves them .
Don't discount the mid level cable from Nordost. I use the Frey in a highly musical and revealing system and have been very satisfied. A step up from the top of the line from Harmonic Tech and far superior -in my system-than anything from Cardas
Thank you for your input so far I have added an ayre phono stage P5-xe Ayre pre amp MX-R ayre mono blocks KX-R Ayre power line conditioner L5-XE and virtyal Dynamics interconect 1 set pre amp to amps. I have also picked up 7 power cords from virtual dynamics 4 black in colour 3 silver thou I have not added them to the system yet. While I was at the Rocky Mt. Audio Show I bought a ultra sonic Record cleaning machine it is being shipped soon. I am working with my local dealer to get hold of ayre inter conects as well as cardas pure. I have heard ayre is relly a modded Golden ref cable from cardas. I will try as may as I can but some are not in this area to try.
Bombaywalla you are correct Virtual Dynamics is gone I bought one set of inter connects and 7 power cords the last of their stock.
Flex2 thanks for the advice as well as Jimc555 I will ask if these cables are avalable in my area for trial. I will up date the pic of my system soom
I use and whole heartedly recommend ($$$expense aside) Transparent Audio Reference MM2 Interconnects and Speaker Cable, a demo on your system will let you hear what is possible.
For that combination of electronics and loudspeaker I would recommend that you try Wireworld Gold Eclipse 6 or Platinum 6. I think you will find their lack of smear, transparency, weight and dynamic impact to be very well suited with Martin Logans electrostatic loudspeakers. Despite that they are silver cables I find these interconnects to have the most natural dynamic impact so far. Overall excellent interconnects.
For loudspeakercables ? Mid/high I would say Magnan Signature, and for lows something from MIT's better range. Like MH-770 CVT Twin. That combination will perform excellently without making a hole in your wallet.
I have tried a lot of different Cardas cables too, but to me they sound quite colored and lacking in both the extreme low and highs. Midrange and upper bass have some extra glare that some find appealing. Not me. Both Wireworlds will outperform anything from Cardas with quite some margin IMHO.
Re. cables you are certainly NOT looking @ Virtual Dynamics anymore! They are out-of-business now. If you are going for Ayre components then Charlie Hansen sells his tweaked (or it is untweaked??) version of Cardas interconnects & speaker cables that are said to match his Ayre gear. Might want to look into that before you look elsewhere since Charlie's cables are said to have synergy with his Ayre gear.
TSV_1 I have also been thinking the stands are a touch light maybe I will go to 6 inch thick shelfs and most likely not.
I like MASS as much as I like Bass. As to the CLX Martin Logans they realy impressed me on their natural life like sound. I too think they could have more bass. I would like to hear them with the martin logan subs or have the opinion of anyone who has heard this combo. I have not listened to even a fraction of the great speakers out there and in this area most of the to die for class of speakers is only on the internet and not in dealers showrooms. The clxs are the best I have listened to and that is why I am thinking of buying them.
As to interconnects: that is an odd world even for HiFi. I am using some nice cables now. Cardas has good stuff and is a company that seems to want to do it right and is sold in my area. Morrow is a cable I have only read about but at that price I may buy some just to try them out.
I have never been a big Martin Logan fan but the CLXs really do sound good when I listened to them with the Ayre amps. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
You may want to add some mass to those stands (I kid, I kid ;-)
On interconnects, I've come to realize over the years that it's easy to pay big for diminishing returns. Also, what one person swears by is often unlistenable to another's ears. There may be no other component as subjectively praised/loathed as interconnects. Best of luck finding ICs that sound good to you in your system. FWIW, I've been through many, many cables (Nordost, Transparent, Anti-Cables, Kimber, AQ, Cardas, and on and on... I'm currently running a pair of balanced Reference cables from Morrow - and they sound just fine (to me).
May I ask why you are planning to migrate to Martin Logan CLX? I've been having the same thoughts lately (currently very much enjoying a pair of ML Summit X)... but I'm somewhat hung-up on that missing bottom-end of the CLX.
I would recommend MIT cables. I too am facing the delima of deleting a cd player and a tuner from my rig but just cant or wont do it. Good luck and happy listening!
