UPDATE (12/23/07): added the MBL 5011 preamp. After living with my Esoteric front end for almost 3 months without a pre, I came to the realization that a pre was definitely needed. Without a pre, the sound was a bit thin and lacking bass. The 5011 addressed these issues and so much more. I did not realize how poor my soundstaging was until I introduced the 5011. This pre does in incredible job of layering the soundstage as well as separating each individual instrument.
UPDATE (12/07/07): added the Ayre MX-R amps. These were broken in by my dealer for 2 weeks before I took delivery. I rarely am taken back by gear but I was startled at how much real these amps sounded to me than my previous amps. There is more detail, more immediacy of notes, very good separation of instruments, and a very nice holographic presentation. I can go on and on but by far these amps are the most realistic sounding I have come across. They are just so enjoyable to listen to!
UPDATE (9/29/07): added Esoteric P-03 transport and D-05 DAC. The D-05 has the latest 32 bit DAC from AKM. Even only after a few hours I hear much better separation between instruments and notes, better sustain and decay, and more authoritative bass. More updates to follow.
UPDATE (8/03/07): added the Oyaide R1 outlet for my amps. Everything is a bit livelier with much better detail. I am hearing so many little nuances I have never heard before!
UPDATE (7/24/07): added the Oyaide SWO-GX Ultimo outlet to my front end. What a difference! The bass now goes lower and there is more detail across the board. I will adding another outlet for my amps next. This is by far one of the best tweaks I have ever done.
UPDATE (7/13/07): I finally got around to adding some heavy silk drapes and they made a world of difference. Everything is much smoother. I will continue to look for ways to judiciously treat my room without making it look like a recording studio.
Beauty:
-The sound is just incredible. Vocals are holographic and textured.
-The MBL 5011 preamp is beautiful to look at. Luckily the sound is just as good.
-The Ayre MX-R amps are just gorgeous to look at. The casework is outstanding. And as my wife said, "they are so cute"!
Beasts:
-The Usher BE-10 speakers are big and thick producing a powerful yet delicate sound.
-The Esoteric P-03 transport is incredibly heavy (75lb) and big but it sure sounds good.
My system has undergone A LOT of changes over the last few years. This has been mainly to me figuring out my own listening preferences and understanding what I wanted to get out of my system. After swapping out a lot of components and spending too much money, I have finally settled down a bit.
I listen to all kinds of music but tend to favor anything with female vocals, particularly acoustic folk and vocal jazz. I also favor simple orchestration and basic instrumentation with a preference for acoustic guitar and piano. The less number of instruments between me and the vocals the better. I mainly go to listen to music in small, intimate venues where I am able to sit within a few feet of the band.
Given my musical tastes, I wanted to put together a system that is able to reproduce the sound as organically as possible. I want to hear every little detail like the quiver in a singer's voice, the sound of the guitar pick striking the string, the feeling of the hammer hitting the piano string. To me, these tiny nuances help to make the music sound as real (i.e. organic) as possible. To this end, I wanted a system that was detailed, dynamic, fast, and immediate with just a hint of warmth. I did not want anything that was too syrupy sounding though. My current system gives me everything I am looking for. It is as close to hearing musicians in my room that I have ever heard with any previous iteration of my system.
I love the Esoteric sound so much I had to get their P-03 transport.
Esoteric D-05
Anniversary model with new AKM 32 bit DAC
Esoteric VRDS-Neo
This transport is a work of art! By far, the best, most accurate transport available. The amount of detail it extracts is amazing!
Sonos ZP-80
Wireless digital music system. Digital output is sent to Esoteric D-05 DAC, a huge improvement over internal DAC. I enjoy my music so much more now that I have instant access to my 40K song library
MBL 5011
A very musical preamp with outstanding soundstaging and separation of each instrument.
Ayre Acoustics MX-R
I am so happy with these amps. They make everything sound so real it is startling! The transparency and dynamics suit my preferences perfectly!
Usher BE-10
Very dynamic and neutral sounding speaker. I am sold on beryllium!
Tara Labs The One
Very transparent and "tight" sounding cable that also offers weight and solidity. These give me all the virtues I admired in my previous speaker cable, the Nordost Blue Heaven while providing what it was missing.
Acoustic Zen Silver Reference II
Used between my source and preamp. Great detail without sounding bright or edgy.
Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference II
Used between my preamp and amp. Very smooth sounding.
Acoustic Zen MC2 XLR
AES/EBU digital cable from Esoteric P-03 transport to D-05 DAC.
Acoustic Zen Silver Byte
Used to synch the word clock from the Esoteric D-05 DAC to the P-03 transport.
Acoustic Zen MC2 RCA
Digital cable from Sonos ZP-80 wireless digital music system to Esoteric D-05 DAC.
Virtual Dynamics Nite 3
Being used to power by MBL 5011 preamp. Like all VD power cables I immediately noticed more dynamics, speed, and authority. The soundstage with the VD power cables are incredible!
Star Sound Technology SP-4 Sistrum Stand
Great amp stand that helped to add smoothness to my system.
Oyaide SWO-GX Ultimo
Double cryo'd outlet with 24K gold plating - used for cdp and preamp
Oyaide R1
Cryo'd ac outlet with Beryllium/copper and palladium plating - used for amps
HiFi Tuning Fuse
I added this "audiophile" fuse to my MBL 5011 preamp. I am not sure it made any difference but it was cheap and lord knows I have spent much more money on things that actually made my system sound worse! My previous preamp, Classe CP-700 did respond positively to these fuses though. I still may try some in my other components.
Hear hear. Live is the standard... life or lifelike being the operative word. I think that live events (atleast big ones, like large concerts) are not what we are after because those are amplified through their own set of PAs and amps. What we are after is that "small jazz bar" feel.
Atleast, that's what I'm after.
But I understand exactly what Tommy was trying to say in his initial statement. I agree.. organic is good.
Hey! I love the spice girls! That why I spent so much money on my system...so I can get their cds to sounds as good as possible!!! OK, just kidding. RAS422 eloquently put into words what I was trying to say. Thank you....
good discussion--live music is the standard we are looking for but not a spice girls concert with 10k screaming 11yr old girls--next time you are listening to live jazz in a small venue --look around and ask whether or not you are the only person trying to figure out how far back the drummer sounds from the piano etc or whether you can hear the hammer hitting the pads etc--this what we all do trying to remember that natural sound and get our systems to get as close as possible too--then to just enjoy the music and not only listen to the electronics--remember these are systems and finding the right blend of components to make it sound great is the key imho--rich
got it audphile. What I meant when I say "live" is at big open air concert. To me those situations sound horrible. I prefer smaller, intimate settings like a small jazz venue or bar. In these settings I find music to sound more warm, dense, and cohesive. I hope this is clear but I probably lack the right vocabulary to explain myself.
By the way, you are always welcomed! Nothing wrong with someone calling me out for not making any sense. My wife does it daily!
T, I guess I didn't make a point.... It does not matter what instrument we are talking about.
My misunderstanding of your post was where you indicated
I have finally figured out that I am after an organic sound, not necessarily live sound because I think live music sounds horrible.
and then you go on saying
By organic I mean the music has to sound like its real, including all of the imperfections and tiny nuances (like being able to hear the guitar pick actually hitting the string or a saxophone reed vibrating).
. These 2 statements are contradicting. You're saying that you don't like live music. What is real to you then? What live music events you've attended that you are comparing to your system? If it does indeed sound better than live performance, I'd love to hear it.....if I'm welcomed after this. :)
Have fun dude. Enjoy the game of trading components.
audphile1, I do not take any offense to your comments at all. I think the problem is in the way I phrased my sentence. I guess what I mean to say is that I want to hear everything that is generated from an instrument (sax, voice, etc). That means all of the imperfections and nuances. Perhaps I should have stayed with an instrument I know, guitar. With a guitar, you can actually hear and almost feel the pick hitting the string, or with a piano, you can sense the hammer hitting the string. I hope this makes sense...if not I guess I am just crazy!
10-03-07: Tboooe...That being said, I have finally figured out that I am after an organic sound, not necessarily live sound because I think live music sounds horrible. By organic I mean the music has to sound like its real, including all of the imperfections and tiny nuances (like being able to hear the guitar pick actually hitting the string or a saxophone reed vibrating). With this is mind, I tended to favor preamps and amps that a bit of warmth to it, which led me to the Pass amps.
Tommy, this is one very interesting paragraph. For me, live music is the reference in sound. Home system is sound reproduction and every one I heard does not come close to a live performance....well unless you hear some amateurs in a bar doing Karaoke and then compare that to a professional recorded performance of the same music.
With all due respect, allow me to disagree with regards to your assessment above. I appreciate your setting a goal to achieve the sound you like, that's great and I hope you arrive there one day, but you have one sentence that contradicts the next one.
I play saxophone and clarinet and I never heard a reed vibrate. I do feel it, that's what the reed does it vibrates, but I don't hear it.
I hope you don't take my comments the wrong way though.
Calgarian, thanks for the kind words. I took at your system and it very nice as well! As for my amp upgrade, I went from Rotel RB 1080, to Parasound A21, to Pass XA160. Part of my upgrade was due to my own increasing understanding of what kind of sound I was after and how I felt a system should be put together. So after too much money and swapping out, I have come to this philosophy: 1. The source and speakers are the most important parts of a system as to my ears, they have the biggest impact on sound. A source must be able to retrieve all of the information from the medium (disk, Lp, etc) because one it is lost, there is no way to get it back. Along the same lines, speakers have to be able to accurately reproduce whatever signal it is fed. Again, if a speaker rolls of a signal or adds some bloom or some other coloration, it is difficult to either retrieve or get rid of the issue. 2. With a solid foundation for the source and speakers, preamps and amps can be chosen to give you whatever sound you are after.
That being said, I have finally figured out that I am after an organic sound, not necessarily live sound because I think live music sounds horrible. By organic I mean the music has to sound like its real, including all of the imperfections and tiny nuances (like being able to hear the guitar pick actually hitting the string or a saxophone reed vibrating). With this is mind, I tended to favor preamps and amps that a bit of warmth to it, which led me to the Pass amps.
In terms of improvement with each upgrade, I also believe that after a certain price point, the improvements are small. There are mainly differences, not necessarily improvements. But some things I heard were better control, better dynamics, better note sustain and decay, less distortion.
I too do not listen to my music loud (70 db) so low level detail is important to me, which is why I favored an amp with a fair amount of pure Class A power. At low levels, quality of the power is much more important than quantity. I developed a spreadsheet that allowed me to calculate the max amp power I would need given speaker sensitivity, distance away from the speaker, and listening level. This showed me that I needed less than 10W. This takes into account a 12db peak at any time above my nominal listening level of 70db.
Will the XA100s be a significant upgrade from your YBA? I do not know because this depends on how sensitive your ears are. I would focus on quality of power and the ability of the amp to deliver more current when it needs it.
I apologize for how long this became...I didnt realize I had that much to say. Feel free to send me an email if you want to discuss further.
Tboooe.... Amazing system you have! I was wondering if you can comment on your amplifier upgrade path; what amps did you own previously? How much of a sonic improvement did you get with each upgrade? I'm currently in a townhouse style home which is fairly narrow and am currently running a 70 wpc amplifier with relatively inefficient speakers (87db). I don't play my music loud, but I certainly appreciate the quality of sound. I'm just curious if more wattage makes that much of a sound improvement in a room about the size of your living room. I think I have a fairly decent amplifier now with my YBA Alpha 2, but was thinking of upgrading to perhaps the XA100's...or something similar. Any perspective you can provide would be appreciated. calgarian
Yes! I actually bought a TT! Finally! I bought a VPI Scoutmaster with upgraded steel delrin clamp! Complete with Dynavector 20XH cartridge from a dealer in FL. I have not taken delivery yet, but am definitely excited for this baby!
I also noticed that you mentioned you were auditioning the Evolution Acoustics MM3 (or 2, I forget which) early in August/September. I did not see your posts regarding your impressions of those speakers and was wondering what you thought of them.
go to the esoteric web site-look under technologies and they talk about breakin and give you a link to the isotek site--it works well just don't have anyone around while it is playing or they will lock you up and ask me for bail:):)--250 hrsplus using the cd and I still think it is changing--yes it is lots of fun the esoteric is just so dynamic--I thought my old transport and dac were great til i got talked into the so3se --soundstage detail and bass just have gone to another level--then added a couple of furman ref it 15's with bptL10 pwr cord and I was hearing things that I never heard on music that i had listened to for years --if you want to have fun --buy the jazz at the pawnshop XRCD--from audiophile resource it will make you just think you are there !!!--any ? just email me --going to watch the WAR on pbs --rich
Your story makes me feel better. It can be an endless viscous cycle cant it?? But its sooo fun!
As for the break in cd, I have never heard of it. Can you please enlighten me and let me know where to buy it? How long before your X-03se was fully broken in?
do it while you can:) I just finished a home theater up stairs that got way out of hand --go figure then just have upgraded -my dedicated 2ch system downstairs thinking of another sub and getting a xover made if I get another sub--pretty happy with my toys for now--it is also amazing -how much better the esoteric sounds after it breaks in --did you get the rec cd for breaking in the player??
Thanks Rich. My previous player was the X-03se. It is a fantastic player! I honestly thought I was done upgrading after I listened to it. But then I wanted to get a separate DAC for my digital music source. Of course this led to too much mental gyrations and now I have the P3D5 combo!
I love the Oyaides. I will be getting the Oyaide power strip soon as well. As for kids in college, mine are too young so I figure I better get my toys now before they get older.
congrats--you should be thrilled when the esoteric breaks in--I have an xo3se and just love it--also have the same oyaide outlets hard to believe that they can improve bass the way they do--will have to hear about the esoteric later --got one more in college so can't make the jump yet--happy listening----Rich
Thanks Joey and great to hear from you. I think I am moving in the right direction. The longer I am involved in this hobby the better I understand my philosophy regarding building a system. For me, I think the source and speakers are most important. The preamp and amps are important but I think they have less of an impact on the sound than the source and speakers. For me then, it makes the most sense to spend most of my money and time on these components and try to pick good pre and amps. A lot of people may disagree but to my ears (perhaps they are made of wood), I do not hear as much of a difference between different good pres and amps. After a certain level, the sound is more alike than different. Anyway, just my humble little take on putting together a system that suits my ears.
Congrats on the upgrade to the P3 and D5 in your system! Having gone through the upgrade path from DV-50s to UX-1 to UX-1 Ltd to P-03U with D-03 and later adding the G-0s clock, your listening is about to take a big leap forward once you take your new units through 275-300+ hour break-in period that was necessary for the magic to really come out of the units here...
Audphile, then I guess I shouldnt tell you that I am using a cheapie Staples/Office Depot power strip???? Man I got a long way to go...champagne taste on a wine cooler budget!
it's like wearing an Armani suit with Payless shoes LOL
No seriously, when you get a better rack, there will most likely be an improvement in sound as well. I got very nice sonic improvement with my SolidStell rack. Symposium rack should be way better....at least on paper it is.
