This system has evolved over 36 years. The PIoneer tuner was purchased in 1972. The Infinity RS1B was purchased in 1985. The VTL Deluxe 300 replace a Conrad Johnson Premier 5. The Spectral DCM 20 replaced a Audio Research SP 11 which replaced a SP 10. The Cosmos IV replaced a Star Saphire. The Titan i replaced a 5 year old Lyra Titan. The SME V was purchased when that arm first came out. The last addition was the Hovland Music Grove 2 phono cable which replaced the VDH cable which came with the SME V. The room is custom built and measures 32 long, by 10' high and 17 feet wide with a sky light over the equipment side of the room. Custom built record cabinets line one wall. The TV and equipment stands are custom made of 1 1/2" particle board with a laminate finish. I keep looking for a replacement for the RS1B without spending $150,000 but so far I have not found anything with the bass and dynamic response of the RS1B. This is a vinyl system but the TV in incorporated into it for two channel use. I gave up on the 5 channel system since the extra 3 channels degraded the sound quality.
I use this for Blue ray, dvd and cds. I do not like cds thus no big buck player. I have tried many and have decided the best cd player is no cd player.
Fine looking system. Reminds me of me. I had some RS 1Bs. In the mid eighties. I loved them. I had to downsize and went to some Avalons, which were also great speakers, but I missed the big sound. Recently I moved up to NOLA Baby Grands which gives me some of the old Infinity bigness.
My question regards your front end, the Titan Cartridge and SME arm. I also have a Cosmos with vacuum and an SME V. I am using a recently re tipped Jeff Rowland Complement cartridge originally made by Ikeda for Rowland. I have had it since the 90's. Still sounds great and I enjoy it, though I'm wondering if a jump in cartridges would make a big difference.
The price of top cartridges intimidates me, but I'm wondering...
My associated electronics are Audio Research- Ref. 150 amp, Ref. 3 preamp and Ref 2 phono pre.
Can you provide any thoughts or advice with this in mind?
Last question- was Hovland Music Grove 2 phono cable for the SME a significant improvement, or should my focus be on my cartridge now?
The Spectral DMC20 is compatible with the Cardas interconnects and the VTL tube amps and the Perreux bass amps. You should talk to a Spectral dealer about your specific questions. It is my understanding that a miss match between the preamp, amp a and cable can cause the amp to oscillate. Spectral may talk to you directly but they usually want you to go through a dealer with questions.
Very nice system and I love your setup. The system looks like it is very well though out, and I bet it sounds great especially with the IRS speakers. I am presently looking at possibly getting a Spectral DMC-30SL Reference Preamp. In the reading that I have done it sort of says that I can only use MIT for cables, and not to use tube amps. I am presently using ASR as my amp but want to back to the ML33 monoblocks in order to clear up the front of my room and also to put the gear next to me. Could you give me your opinion on the Spectral and also the MIT issue. Thanks, Mike
I was surprised how much difference the Hovaland phono cable made in the smoothness of the system. Whenever I am in NY I stop by Lyric HiFi and listen to their big system which does sound better than the RS1Bs, but as Mike Kaye said to me "you cannot change the law of physics" by which he meant that you must move a lot of air to accurately reproduce low frequencies. There is no inexpensive way to do that and most of todays speakers do not even try to reproduce the bottom octave of sound.
Beautiful system, it will be difficult to replace the RS1B's without spending $100K. I love the record racks! Did you find a big improvement replacing the cable on the SME? Thanks, Jeff
