My current system reflects a heartfelt appreciation for some of the smaller manufacturers in our hobby and the importance of resonance control, hence the "not off the rack" moniker.
Theodore Leavitt famously told his MBA students that "People don't want a 1/4" drill. They want a 1/4" hole." Don't get me wrong, I like shiny toys. I view my audio system as simply a tool; a means to the end of enjoying music. My philosophy is to "buy and hold". I try and buy the best, not only because it only hurts once, but in the long run it costs less money. I am fortunate to have a small, dedicated listening room, specifically designed for audio.
Ironically, it was the purchase of a new CD player, the SimMoon Andromeda, that rekindled my love affair with vinyl. At the time, I had been listening primarily to CDs. After purchasing the Andromeda as my 'final CD player', I was shocked to hear how better digital sounded when compared to my trusty Linn Sondek and realized that it was time to consider a new analog path. After auditioning a number of other fine turntables, I got to know Galibier's Thom Mackris and purchased my 'last turntable'. Thom has been been a terrific 'vinyl mentor', incredibly giving of his time and expertise. Through Galibier, I have met a number of like-minded music lovers, including Joel Durand, a composer at the University of Washington. Joel is one of many of the wonderful audiophiles I have met in the Seattle area where I am blessed with many friendships that have resulted from our listening sessions. Music is always more meaningful when shared with great friends.
I recently added a Durand Telos tonearm for stereo paired with the Benz LPS. I use a Durand Talea with a Miyajima mono cartridge. If you are interested in pre 1970 recordings and haven't heard a well recorded mono record with a good mono cartridge, you owe it to yourself an audition. I currently own ~200 mono jazz records and an equal number of mono classical LPs. Now they don't all sound great (especially if recorded prior to the early 1950's), but the tonal richness and lack of stereo artificiality are quite seductive to my ears.
The Experience Music Pre-amplification has brought things to another level. After auditioning a number of highly regarding and often expensive line and phono stages, I fell hard for Jeffrey Jackson's equipment. Jeffrey is a true music aficionado. During the audition and purchasing process, our conversations would always dwell on music, rather than the equipment. He customizes his designs to tailor to the individual's tastes. Since this is my 'end of life' amplification, I went all out; mercury rectification, separate power supplies, and LCR phono stage. (I did pass on the uber-expensive Western Electric tubes.) The Experience Music equipment simply reveals a degree of tonal richness, harmonic complexity and dynamics that I've never 'experienced' with other electronics. They are the 'fastest' electronics I've ever heard. Tube rolling can tailor sound to taste and IMO, WE rectifiers and Sylvania triodes are heavenly.
Amplifiers are Found-Music's "Blade" tube amps. Each amp uses two EL34/6AC7, and single 6SN7 and OD3 tubes.
My speakers are the Daedalus Ulysses. Daedalus had not been on my radar until I heard them at 2008 RMAF. After talking with Lou Hinkley, I auditioned at his workshop and arranged an in-home audition. The sound was so natural and dynamic; so life-like...I was smitten. Best of all, Lou is delightful and like Thom, one of the great people in our hobby. Lou continuously makes small, but significant upgrades to his speakers which always provide excellent value. I have found that the Einstein Light-In-Dark amplifier has great synergy with the Ulysses. Currently I am using Amperex Bugle Boys and hope to try either Siemens or Telefunken CCa's in the future.
Last but not least: equipment racks and cabling. The SRA Scuttle rack and Ohio Class amp stands not only look great but lower the noise floor, clean up treble and produce deeper, richer bass. I have yet to find a bigger bang for the cable buck than the Found-Music products...highly recommended.
Record cleaning machine. I use Audio Intelligent Solutions
Sim Audio Andromeda
Two box system
Experience Music Kahn Phono Stage
Separate power supply with mercury rectification. Big improvement with Fivre 56 and Mullard 7788 tubes. Custom wound Intact Audio step ups in the signal box with separate mono and stereo inputs. Variable cartridge loading. Stainless chassis by Jeff Kahn at Ferra Design weigh in at 90# each.
Experience Music Kahn 71A Line Stage
Separate signal and power boxes weighing 90-100# each. Mercury rectification. Big upgrade with Sylvania JAN 71a tubes. Intact Audio autoformer volume control with remote and interstage transformer
Daedalus Audio Ulysses
With all-poly crossover
Found Music N/A
Custom interconnects.
Found Music Speaker Cable
Killer speaker cable for the money.
Silent Running Audio Scuttle
Three level rack.
Found-Music FiNeSS
Killer Power Cords.
Found-Music 2012
Single-ended interconnects
Found-Music E+
Tremendous speaker cable value
Found-Music Blade
Mono amplifiers using Sylvania NOS OD3 Voltage regulator tubes, Ken-Rad VT 231 NOS 6SN7 driver tubes and Genalex KT77 power tubes.
Silent Running Audio Ohio Class Amplifier Stands
Beautifully made and actually improve the sound.
Kosmic/Furutech Custom 5 Duplex Power Strip
5-Pack Power Distribution unit included 5 Furutech GTX-DR NCF duplex receptacles, 104-D Cover plates (carbon fiber over stainless steel) and Wall Frames (CNC Aluminum with damping coating). All of the Furutech components are great by themselves, but in this product they are mounted on a carbon fiber sandwich plate which is further mounted to an acrylic enclosure (high molecular weight), resulting in a three-layer damping system.
Caught George Clinton with Funkadelic at The Showbox last night. The people watching was worth the cover. They played all their hits and displayed their legendary showmanship, but sadly Clinton's voice is shot
Last night I took my aspiring high-school saxophonist son to Jazz Alley to hear the Benny Golson quartet. The quartet featuring Sharp Radway(p), Jason Marsalis(d) and Ben Drummond(b)was wonderful. First time I've heard Sharp Radway whose first CD is coming out next month. But the star of the show was the 83 year old Golson who performed some of his standards including "Along Came Betty". You may remember he was the 'McGuffin' in the Tom Hanks/Catherine Zeta-Jones movie "The Terminal".
He told some great stories about growing up in Philadelphia including practicing and gigging with his contemporary; John Coltrane. He even autographed an LP cover for my son. A wonderful, memorable evening.
Good question regarding room treatments. The equipment is along the front wall which has a mild convex curvature and is treated with acoustic material and covered with fabric. The corners act as bass traps. The right wall houses the records/CDs. The left wall has diffusion treatments. The back wall is similar to the front wall but flat (not curved like the front). I've been waiting on further treatments until my system was completed so I'm definitely thinking about them now.
Sounds like fun...definitely gonna pick that up! Phil Kelly CDs should be here Monday and the list above plus some Dave Holland Band has been spinning lately with great results and alot of enjoyment!
On a completely different note, has anyone picked up any of the Stockfisch SACDs by Allan Taylor, McKinley Black, etc...? They and the other SF catalog entries on RBCD are of outstanding quality both musically and sonically. Gunter Pauler and his crew know how to lay down amazing work...
JazzDoc...thanks for the recommendations on Zooh and MaxJazz. I have not tried them or Music Matters; I will have to check these out. Several years ago Red Trumpet went out of business and I snagged a large cache of K2 mini-LP packaged CDs when MusicDirect bought up their whole liquidation inventory. There are many classics in there and with the better pressing quality of the Japanese releases, I find myself continually comparing these and XRCD releases of varying bit depths to the 'latest' SACD and CD releases of these classic discs.
Ella4ever...agreed on the Venus label releases; their quality makes me forget most times that I don't have a vinyl setup!
I have many Mapleshade releases and you are spot on with regards to sound quality. Have you tried any of the MusicMatters XRCD releases? I only because their vinyl reissues have been uniformly excellent.
A couple other CD labels with acoustics to match performance are Zoho (http://zohomusic.com/) and MaxJazz (www.maxjazz.com).
Without wishing to thread crap , there have been a number of stellar releases from Venus recently.Sally Night " Love for Sale" , Emil Viklicky " Kafka on the Shore",Cyrus Chestnut " Moonlight Sonata", Nicki Parrott "Sakura Sakura" , Dezron Douglas "Ganbare Nippon" to name a few. All extremely well recorded , all nearly make me forget they're not on vinyl ( my preference for Venus recordings).Jazdoc , given your love of band style music , you may find the Dezron Douglas to your taste.CHeers
I order the 3 that are available yesterday and look forward to the Kelly disc arrivals. I agree with you on the New York Trio's "Always" recording; it was a letdown but the rest are amazing. I usually check in with a guy on Ebay out of Hong Kong ('internationalrecords' I think) for many releases that are hard to find here but I've not seen anything new pop up for Venus in quite some time. I've got the collection boxed for the most part now recovering from some house-renovation activity so I should be able to go back through those next week and post a few of my favorite titles. Another good label for quality jazz recordings is Mapleshade; I find his recordings to be extremely real and with their flaws from venue background sounds, etc...very lifelike. The artists being non-mainstream are also a breath of fresh air. Some of my favorites as well as of late are the remasters onto XRCD24 from Audiowave (courtesy of Elusive Disc) of several classic releases. The quality of these XRCD24s is first rate and I swear I'm listening to a good vinyl setup, it's that natural sounding with all the right elements. Have a great day, more later!
The Phil Kelly CD's are excellent. My favorite is the "SW Santa Ana Winds" that was in many top 10 lists the year of its release. BTW, his website is very content rich with lots of samples (http://www.philkellymusic.com/index.html)
I have a few Venus records and with one exception (The New York Trio's "Always") they are exceptionally well recorded. I am a big Ken Peplowski fan and also enjoy the Chano Dominiguez record "Con Alma". They seem to have had supply difficulties since the earthquake/meltdown last year. Which specific releases do you recommend? (Thanks in advance!)
Big Phat Band is amazing; I have a DVD-A of theirs (Swing'in for the Fences) that is sonically and musically amazing and a couple of other discs. My only regret is they don't have more discs out there! I heard a couple of these guys play when they were in college back in the early 80s. I don't have any Phil Kelly but will get some at this point. Dick Hyman and several others also spin regularly on my system.
BTW....are you familiar with Jazz recordings (Eric Alexander, Higgins and several others) on the Venus "HyperMagnum" label? They seem to record/master everything at 24/192 and then lay it down on some of the best RBCD burns I've ever heard with little or no compression. The sonics are huge and the players are amazing...
You are very welcome...the Peter af Ugglas disc is tremendous both sonically and musically. I can only imagine how good the vinyl is! I am on an endless quest for new, old and in a nutshell "MORE" music. BTW...do you like Big Band (old and new Glenn Miller to Akiyoshi, Big Phat Band and Beyond)?
Thanks for the list. I really like the Peter af Ugglas....a great demo disc if you can still track down the vinyl. I'll bet the SACD is very good. Greta Matassa is a local legend and Tula's is a great spot for listening to music with terrific food. My next stop is Amazon to hunt for others!
I picked up a $10 mint copy of David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name" on Ebay for my wife who is a big CSN fan. To my surprise, the music holds up extremely well and now I understand why this is an audiophile favorite...great sonics.
Jazdoc...hope you all are well. I'm currently enjoying;
- Miles Davis "Kind of Blue", Fidelity Japan import SACD - Kartet "The Bay Window", SACD - Jerry Granelli "V16" The Sonic Temple (SACD) - Color of Sound, new definitely must hear to appreciate SACD - Michael Brecker "Pilgrimage" SACD - "Autumn Shuffle", Peder af Ugglas, XRCD24, amazing - Brian Smith, "Rendezvous", SACD, keeps coming back to enjoy - Dean Peer, "Think...It's all Good", stunning RBCD - Dean Peer, "Airborne", lots of fun, amazing sonics - Jean Fry Sidwell, "Portrait" Vol. 1 and 2, XRCD24 - Greta Matassa, "Live at Tula's", SACD - Hiromi, several of her SACDs keep coming back - Shelby Lynne, Melody Gardot, Madeleine Peyroux, Anne Beson - Several of the latest Ben Webster SACD discs - Audiowave Bluenote XRCD24s from Elusive Disc, all 16 out thus far are amazing (IMHO) and I prefer them over their SACD/other equivalents...
Not a vinyl list I grant you but we have fun here!
Really enjoying Leonard Cohen's new release "Old Ideas". Very strong songwriting and as some reviewers have commented, it has the feeling of a valedictory. Very good sonics. The 180gm LP includes a copy of the CD.
Thanks for the comments. Please look me up if you are ever in the Pacific NW.
I have really enjoyed working with Jeffrey who is definitely one of the good guys in high end audio. Having a system largely made up of bespoke products, I would say that it is most certainly different than working with a high end dealer or one of the name brands. Most of the designers are one or two person operations meaning that in addition to designing and building equipment they are responsible for sales, marketing, website, shipping, ordering parts, etc. Many of these designers also have day jobs and families. Delays from suppliers and the routine vagaries of regular life are a given. Not an excuse for a slow customer response, but rather a reality check. For me, the results were certainly worthwhile, but I understand that this may not be satisfactory for many (?most) audiophiles.
FWIW, my advice to someone considering this path is to get comfortable with the person(s) behind the product first; it will save you a lot of angst down the road. That said, I can enthusiastically recommend Jeffrey (Experience Music), Thom Mackris (Galibier Design), Joel Durand (Durand Tonearms) and Lou Hinkley (Daedalus Speakers).
BTW I like your name. Great looking system, I bet it sounds incredible. I wanted to know how your experience dealing with Jeffery Jackson went? I have communicated with him in the past about some products but there are times when his responses were extremely slow. Anyway your system got me thinging about Jeffery's products.
Saw this post about the Winterpills efforts to get their latest release on high quality vinyl (via Michael Lavorgna's great blog "Twittering Machines"):
