Hi, Mark:
Still a work in progress. I am considering a custom build, among other things. The L2 has a wonderful midrange voice, just a little dark, and it is not the last word in extension at the frequency extremes. It is a very musical line stage, though. And, I'm not buying something else just for change sake. This may take some time, since I am essentially starting the relocation process by the end of the year, and the system won't be reassembled in Austin until we buy a place there and I get a room built.
I would like to migrate to a larger full horn system, including horn loaded woofers- possibly antiquarian style stuff. In addition, I have a considerable pile of vintage Quad stuff, and would love to get it fully restored, along with the Decca ribbons I used back in the 80's, and set up a proper stacked array of Quad 57's.
So far, I really like what the Allnic phono stage is doing, and I'd be hard-pressed to give up the Lamm ML2, which I love, at least on the horns I have now. And, I keep buying more vinyl. So, I'm going to need a good sized space to do this right!
I'll keep you posted on any additional changes I make in the meantime, before the system gets broken down for the move.
Best,
Bill

whart September 16, 2012 19:47

Bill,
I see you are selling your Lamm pre amp. Did you find something you like better?

markpao September 16, 2012 18:14

System featured in latest issue of HiFi+ Magazine (No. 91). The visit by Alan Sircom occurred prior to the change in phono stages.

whart September 14, 2012 14:09

Charles1dad
You are correct and if the SET happens to be DHT ...Nirvana

goldeneraguy July 01, 2012 00:11

Goldeneraguy,
Horning speakers and a good SET amp would be very difficult to beat if the objective is 'natural' sound and realism.
Regards,

charles1dad June 30, 2012 11:28

Mapman
Best of luck

goldeneraguy June 29, 2012 19:59

I think OHMs factory used to be on Taffe Street in Brooklyn back then, so that rings a bell.

Things have come a long way since the 70's all over I would say!

HAve never heard Hornings or Avantgarde, though Avantgarde has always caught my attention in reading. I have heard other modern horn systems that were very good indeed and have a vision of a second smaller system built around a pair of high efficiency speakers someday.

mapman June 29, 2012 19:14

Mapman,I Think it was back in the mid 70's(was it on Taffe street)that I heard Ohm speakers I dont remember which model.From my recollection though I was not impressed.
This is not a put down of Ohm speakers.
It may have been my ears listening to a speaker I haven't heard before along with electronics and in a room I was unfamiliar with.
Now that was close 40 years ago and my taste in music and equipment has changed,also I hope I have learned how to listen over these years.
If I heard the Ohm's today I may think differently.
Presently I have Horning Speakers.They seem to fit the room
and sound better then any speaker I have had here.
Given a larger room I would opt for either the larger Horning's or the Avantgardes.
The maker of my Pre,uses Avantgardes as his reference
As you know this hobby is extremely subjective,if we all enjoyed the same sound there wouldn't be as many manufacturers.
Again,enjoy your Ohms. I appreciate all your posts,even when.I am not in agreement

goldeneraguy June 29, 2012 19:06

I only mention it here in teh context of the conversation at present and that I feel the OHMs are a different and reasonable option for one that might be looking for a sound that I find captures a lot of the unique positive aspects of not just the better Electrostats, but horns I have heard in one place. It's the Walsh driver approach done well that uniquely enables this. The big difference would be the more omnidirectional nature of the OHMs versus the more directional nature of both horns and electrostats. Apples/Oranges in that regard.

Were my system built around a pair of Avantgardes, I suspect I would be quite happy as well!

mapman June 29, 2012 17:27

Nah, Ed, we're cool. and Mapman has been a good contributor, here and elsewhere, and discussing attributes is what we do here, i guess.

whart June 29, 2012 17:15

Mapmap , thank you for the info.This might not be the best thread for discussion on other speakers. It is after all Wharts system page.
Enjoy your OHM's

goldeneraguy June 29, 2012 17:08

"Went back to dynamic speakers,but could never capture the Quad mid range."

I liked the Quad MR as well but settled on a pair of larger OHM Walsh speakers for a fraction of the cost. SEt up well, these can be quite Quad ESL like sounding but also with the authority of a dynamic driver in the bass and the highest degree of coherency through the midrange as a result of the wide range Walsh-style driver that crosses over at 7khz or so, well beyond where most dynamic speakers do and beyond the range where most of the music occurs.

ALso made in Brooklyn, NY and sold direct only with a generous in-house audition period. Might be worth a try.

mapman June 29, 2012 13:50

Ed, I am near Nyack, not far from you. Why don't you ping me by email and we'll see if we can get together. [email protected]

whart June 29, 2012 09:29

Whart,I am located on long Island and smiled when you mentioned that the real place for improvement is the room.
I have thought about listing my components with the heading "If I Only Had A Room"
My foray into this crazy hobby was with my infatuation with the Quad ESL63 speakers.
I loved the mid range but could not get the high frequency or the bass to work with the mids.I tried different wires,
stands,Entec subs and a few mods but they just wouldn't work in my room.Went back to dynamic speakers,but could never capture the Quad mid range.
Then by chance I heard the new breed of horns.(I did hear Klipsch way back when, but they didn't sound as good as the Allison Ones I had at the time.
I now have hybrid horns
I still cant capture the Quad mid range but to me, horns come closer to the sound and emotion of live music then other type of speaker.
Ialso use a Kuzma Reference table (not the XL) and am now thinking of upgrading the tonearm.Can I ask who your Kuzma dealer is.
Again,your system brings a smile to my face.I can only imagine what it must sound like.
Where are you located ??
All the best
Ed

goldeneraguy June 29, 2012 02:29

Goldenera: Thank you for your kind words. There are many different approaches, and I was along time electrostat listener before I started with horns. The horns have a sense of aliveness that is very much like real music; of course, the other side of that liveliness can be a tendancy toward brightness or glare if the whole rig is not absolutely right. I've never been happy with the bass (this is my mantra), and I'm looking forward to trying the system in a new dedicated room which gives me enough space for bass. I think the real place for improvement in the system is the room and AC power at this point.
Where are you located?

whart June 28, 2012 22:35

Whart , As a lover of Horns,SET's and Kuzma turntables I must salute you on having and appreciating one of the finest systems shown here at Audiogon.
Enjoy your music

goldeneraguy June 28, 2012 20:01

The Kuzma is very 'absent' in the sense that you don't hear the turntable- bass is incredible and once it is set-up, it doesn't require any tweaking. The Airline arm is wonderful- I had an ET 2 at one point, but just gave up on air-bearing arms until this one. (I do not like the pump supplied with the Airline, and I gather that it may be under-sized for what it has to do- it has to kick on more often than a bigger pump would, and that means it is working harder, it has a nasty electrical snap that I could only eliminate by plugging the pump into a 240 volt step down, etc. Kuzma offers a much bigger pump/compressor/surge tank as an aftermarket option, and I may go for that if I don't change arms and get out of the pump thing altogether). Immediately before this, I had the Kuzma Reference, which is a suspension table that is easy to set up and isolates great, with a Triplanar VII, also a very well made, good sounding arm. Far less work to isolate than the big Kuzma. And before that, in my Quad 63 system, with all ARC tube electronics, I used a heavily tweaked Well-Tempered, the original table. It was able to deliver a high level of everything at a relatively modest price, particularly given the time period, when the turntable market was in the doldrums, and there were fewer options than there are today.

whart June 06, 2012 19:02

Nice looking system. I bet it sounds great. How do you like the Kuzma TT and tonearm? What TT did you use before that?

Sean

sarcher30 June 06, 2012 03:20

Nope, not feeling guilty about liking equipment, but I also have fallen into the trap oh so many times over the years of listening to the system rather than the music. And, I guess part of my joy the other day was that it was all so 'of a piece' that i didn't bother with the analytical part of my brain. I know reviewers often say this- I forgot to take notes because i was suddenly so captivated- but honestly, that rarely happens to me. And, I agree with you, a great hi-fi is not necessarily great musically.
I had planned to spend all afternoon listening, but we suddenly got unpredicted thunder storms, so power got pulled and i spent the last two hours culling through records and pulling some stuff I want to listen to.
My records are not at all organized, so if I pick stuff on the fly during a listening session, I often find myself hunting, and not finding what i want.
when I move, one of the things on my list is putting some order to that chaos.

whart June 03, 2012 21:32

I see nothing wrong with being a"gearhead", we all are to some varying degree or we would`nt spend time posting on this site. But in my case the ultimate aim is to get as much natural/organic sound and live like realism as I can reasonably manage and experience the intoxicating emotion and joy that music provides.
Regards,

charles1dad June 03, 2012 20:10

Thanks Charlesdad, i have seen some of your postings since i got back on the Gon in the last few months and you seem committed. I will confess that I am a gearhead, i think most of us are- yes, in service of music, but also because we like electro-mechanical things, futzing with them, etc. I now have more time in my life to do that, but, as I mentioned, we plan on moving soon, so I will be starting with a new room.

whart June 03, 2012 18:52

Whart,
It seems to me you have a system that actually reproduces music with the emotional connection and beauty that is inherent. If a system fails to convey this aspect then just fulfilling the 'audiophile' approved checklist is merely 'Hifi'.
Congratulations on your achievement.

charles1dad June 03, 2012 13:35

well, the Lamm L2 line stage is back and I rarely wax enthusiastic about my own system, but there is magic going on here- the combination of the Allnic H3000>Lamm L2>Lamm ML2 amps is really alive; those passages that sometimes sound a little shouty on horns are just natural dynamics that don't sound constrained (the system is playing louder on these passages, and i normally don't listen a high volumes anymore); rather than looking for richness or detail to overcome a slight electronic haze, i'm hearing lot's of little things that sound real, so it isn't 'detail' -its just more resolving, retrieving and delivering the tone, the space and the individual voices of instruments much more distinctly;the conventional wisdom about the Duos' shortcoming -that of bass discontinuity from the horns- is far less conspicuous, because I'm hearing tonality in the bass where it was far more one-notish before,( except for special recordings where the bass was a closely miked acoustic instrument) . In short, this fking thing is making music, and i'm pulling out records that i love for music- none of them 'audiophile' recordings as such. All this stuff really is worth the trouble!
Call it synergy, call it a good match of very good, but not necessarly the most expensive, latest and greatest, but it is so very, very good.
Nice that this stuff makes ya happy once in a while, eh?
:)

whart May 31, 2012 23:10

Alright, i will look for you there, slipnot, and thanks for the input. That's one of the valuable things about these Internet communities- and i've met a number of good people in the process.
Best,
bill

whart May 30, 2012 03:50

AudiogoN is about the only place I post, and then only on occasion. I got involved with Allnic early on and gladly answer any questions I can. I really only post consistently on the "what's on your turntable tonight?" thread.

I suspect that aha moment is sneaking up on you already. That "one more LP before bed" feeling is keeping you up later than normal. You are really going to enjoy the ride. One of the outstanding characteristics of the Allnic phono stage designs is the deep black quiet that the music jumps out from.

Your front end and system components certainly will allow you to take full measure of what the H3000 has to offer.

slipknot1 May 30, 2012 02:16