All new room and modified system to fit the room. Converted the garage to a dedicated music room with remote AC system, completely dedicated 10 foot ground spike and dedicated circuits. GIK treatments throughout (diffusion on the ceilings and absorption everywhere else) has made the system sing.
And thank you to the following Audiogon gurus: SKushino, Syntax and Halcro.
The tape deck is great sounding and is also a nice conversation piece. It is media dependent, as I actually have some records that sound better than the tapes.
No surface noise, clicks or pops is pretty nice though.....
My wife did banish me to the garage.....and it saved our marriage! She has the den back to watch terrible Lifetime movies and I have the fully air conditioned and insulated garage. The grounding rod did help a lot, honestly the garage sounds better than the house.
System edited: New addition to the family, Fostex 900 super tweeter. Every slight modification I make to the Avantgardes increase listening enjoyment immensely. 1. All tube amplification 2. Sound Anchor Stands 3. Time alignment of the midrange horn 4. Addition of horn based super tweeter
Last month I went to hear Jeffs system. It always sounds fantastic and it is always evolving. The modified Sonorus Tape Deck is his new addition. I must say its the best source I have heard. Ive never head music sound so engaging. The music was clear, holographic, and musical. A perfect match for his horns. Also the reel-to-reel look is so sexy, so retro but yet so bold and relevant. Congratulations.
Thank you for your kind comments. Cables.....I have to admit they are the least interesting thing in audio to me. I have mostly Hovland cables throughout my system (speaker and Interconnect) and Signal Cable power.
When I do cable A/B's in my system, I hear differences but I can't say a $2000 cable is better than a $500 cable. I purchased a $1000 USB cable that was absolutely, to my ears and many more, much worse in my system to the $40 Belkin. This experienced made me realize that cables are about system matching and not cost.
A very fine choice of components IMHO Jeff. The Sit-1s and Avantgarde Uno Nano, with Hovland Pre sounds like something I would find simply HiFi nirvana. Congrad's on compiling such a winning combination. If I might ask, what type of cabling have you chose to lace this altogether? and do you feel settled with it? I would love to read some observations you might have gain from sitting in front of such a kit.
Thank you for your kind words. The table is a vintage George Nelson bench. Herman Miller still makes this bench, it is a classic of American modernism.
Hi Jeff - awesome setup! May I ask where you got that slat coffee table? Thanks so much - showed your pics to my wife and it opened her mind to how stylish a music room can look! Thanks you!!!
No problem, believe it is a real eye opener. It builds on a theme that I've seen from Avantgarde owners, they usually move on to home brew - time aligned horns.
I found myself moving my listening chair closer and cloSer to the music to get a more integrated sound. I've also heard Skashino's horn system many times and it just sounded more like music, and less "audiophile" than mine. After researching the issues with non time aligned horn speakers (Rommy's site) I decided this was the discontinunity I was hearing. The first thing I did was place books and a towel from the top of the sub to the horns. Then I unbolted the horns and began to move them forward until the sound met my expectations. This position was within a mm of the front holes. So I ended in just swapping horns left to right and using just the two back holes on the horns, removing the back rail altogether. Needed to add a piece of wood (pained black to match the rails) so the horn wouldn't sag.
I'd many people over (including a PFO reviewer) who have said it's by far the best my system has ever sounded. PM me if you'd like.
System edited: Two big additions/changes to the system. I've now time aligned my mid range horn with the tweeter. The tweeks made to the Avantgardes have moved the system to a different level. Physical time alignment of horns adds smoothness and presence that the system never had before. Also added a Sonorus Modified Revox PR99 so I can play the amazing Holograph Imaging tapes.
After reading a lot about time alignment I decided to experiment with time aligning the midrange horn (the tweeter is not moveable). I'll post pics but I can say that the sound is revolutionary.
Honestly the best sound I've heard from my system. Will post pictures soon.
System edited: Added the Cyrus Brenneman Bel Air tube mono's to the system. After hearing the Brenneman stereo amp best the Lamm SET's in a friends system, I had to have one! The system jumped in emotion and detail.....I'm very lucky to have these amps.
Yes I read that thread before going for the SIT's. It was interesting to read Phil's perception of the SIT mono's being clearly superior to the SIT stereo amp.
Hesse amps are great with my horns and dead quite.
Jeff, There is an archive thread on the First Watt SIT-2 (much talk of the SIT-1 as well).Very good comparisons with SETs and comments by 213cobra (Phil), Keithr and Srajan(6 Moons). Very interesting, of course it always comes down to personal preferences. Charles,
The SIT have about 40 hours on them and I have to say the sound is easily the best I've heard in my system. The resolution of the instruments, the blackness behind the notes is......something I've only heard on systems with top end (Lamm) SET amps.
I'm not saying that the SIT's totally replace SET, but they do offer some the magic that SET brings.
You must demo if you are on the fence about this new technology.
