Odourboy,

It is great fun getting new gear and seeing how it will sound. You are in for a fun journey!!

I almost bought a pair of logan Aerious (sp?) and was running a CJ MV55 at the time (50w x2) I did extensive research and got lots of different opinions. It is doable for sure, I had people telling me they were running logans on SE 5w gear - so anything is possible. I think it really boils down to the size of your room and levels you would like to listen. This may be a really good solution for you since you have extra SS amo - Bi Amp your logans!(SS to bass & tube to panels) Easily done and Adcom's are tough rugged amps - just fine to power the bass. What is great about the logans is that they have bass control levels on the woofers which will allow you to balance your system. It's the panel that requires the power, but I think your Amp 1 will handle that OK. That would be a pretty sweet rig!!

As for wires, here are some I found to be really good at or under $150 new!

Love Homegrown Audio silver lace (HomegrownAudio.com) great guys, awsome quality product,good honest people offering a quality product at very reasonable prices. Kit apprx $100, assembled $150. AWSOME - great sound stage & depth!! I have done lots of comparisons and these hold thier own against some pretty expensive stuff - they are EXCELLENT if you have a warm system. If your system is already bright, these may not be the best choice.

The Music Cable - "The-Music-Cable.com": I have thier "truly Balanced" cable - very nice for the price, it is a shotgun run. They sound really good - great company.

Van Den Hul - "www.vandenhul.com" is supposed to have some good stuff too. Never heard it but it gets good reviews.

Higher priced Stuff:

My favorite: Audition Au24 - expensive, look like cheap crap, but by far the best wires I have heard!!!

Acuastic Zen Matrix - buy used - I have them now and really like them.

Luminious Audio Synchestra & Synchestra Signiture: Good cable, maybe try and find used. They don't feel like much to the touch, but they are a really good cable. The owner is a friend, and he makes really top notch stuff. Very warm and musical cable, if you have a brightness problem, these will solve it without any negative trade offs.

Play around with cables, it's fun and can really make a difference. It is really system dependant and you may find mixing and matching works best. Pay more attention to source to pre-amp, that's your biggest improvement. I really love Accoustic Zen Satori speaker wire, it made a big improvement in my system. I don't believe in the really pricy stuff - I think some of the more reasonable stuff is just as good.

Good Luck

groove September 05, 2004 19:58

I think you are off to a pretty good start - with a total spend of $2500, i'd say you did damn good!!!

At this point you will find everyone has an opinion - here is what matters. Your system synergy - it will take time and you will go through TON's of stuff until it's right. Here's the bad news - it will NEVER be right - sorry your in it now, no getting out.

The speakers are very nice and you can really continue to build on those. (Everything is nice - it's all in how it blends together though) I am not sure about the power of the amp 1, ML's tend to be power hungary - you may be fine though depending on what levels you want to listen, etc. If you find you a power issue, you could switch to SS amp and move to tube pre amp. (I'm a tube head so I like that you have tube amplification though) You could go with a CJ tube pre.

I have heard the pre and it has the CJ signiture, smooth & warm. I can see it being forgiving and good for Jazz, not a bad place to start at all. (I like the CJ sound - very warm and musical)

Overall I think your system should sound really nice - if you find something lacking besides power, try playing around with different wires first - then maybe your source. Wires DO make a difference.

Good luck and welcome to the journey.

groove September 04, 2004 22:48