Leonidas crossover. Cross-over cables have been upgraded to Verastarr Illusion Copper Foil and critical cross-over components have been upgraded to Path Audio resistors and Clarity Capacitor CSA caps.
Simon Audio CD5 CD Transport/Player
Using this as a transport only to a DAC. My one and oly input - Redbook CDs.
Mapletree Audio Line 2A SE/ PS 2 Linestage Preamp
NOS 12SN7 Tung-Sol grey T plates; separate power supply; NOS Raytheon JAN-CRP 6X5WGT rectifier; Black Gate filter capacitor. Gains: 10dB, 10dB, and 18dB. Two outputs.
Whammerdyne DGA-1
4.3 Watts stereo amp sporting a pair of NOS Sylvania 2A3 tubes.
Harmonic Technology Pro-9 Plus Speaker Cables
Copper wire, spades.
VH Audio Flavor 4 Power Cords
With Furutech FI-25 Gold connectors for amp and preamp
Brick Wall (Zero Surge) PW8R15AUD
AC Protection & Filter: 15 amp; 8 isolated by duplex receptacles (6 switched, 2 unswitched) for CDP and pre, and also non-system gear (DVD, TV, cable box). Brick Wall is a "private label" customer of Zero Surge.
Star Sound Technologies Audio Points
Points under everything. Had I the scratch I'd set each component on a Sistrum Platform, but for now the Audio Points will do.
GIK Room Treatments
(4) 244 Bass Traps on side walls at first and second reflection points; (2) pairs (double-stacked) Tri-Traps front corners; (2) 6A Alpha Pro Series Bass Trap Diffusor/Absorbers 2D(a) on front wall; (3) Evolution PolyFusors on rear wall.
Silnote Audio Morpheus Reference Classic II Series II S/PDIF Cable and Interconnects
S/PDIF cable for CD transport to DAC, and interconnects for all the rest.
Furutech FPX (Cu) AC Outlet
20 amps - one for amp and one for the Brick Wall/Zero Surge
An entire year and no changes! Just been buying music like a crazy person. I like my system just as it stands. However, could it be better? Not sure. I might consider trying out a few different preamps to see if it makes any improvement. A few which interest me for various reasons at the moment: DeHavilland Ultraverve III; Melody Pure Black 101 (used); Music First Passive Magnetic.
System edited: Sistrum SP-101s added to mains. Better clarity. More relaxed presentation, as if the speaker has been set free. For me, they are the answer to my questions, "What do I put under my speakers? Do I spike? Do I isolate? Do I couple?" Terrific.
But the sound had a slight unnatural hollowness to it, enough to bother me.
Please IGNORE this comment! I am an IDIOT! Apparently hollowness (among other undesirable sonics) can be attributed to applying only 6 volts to 12 volt tubes!
While the amps were out for upgrades I was messing with my preamp connections and somehow, accidentally, flipped the 6SN7/12SN7 switch to 6SN7 setting, although 12SN7s were installed. After installing newly upgraded amps they were inadvertantly being driven by my 12SN7 tubed preamp with its voltage selection switched to 6SN7 setting! Well duh friggin' duh! No wonder I disliked the sonics of my newly upgraded amps. They sounded unacceptable because I AM AN IDIOT!
Reinstalled (previously preferred) 12SN7 tubes into preamp and verified 12SN7 switch setting. Now I can continue evaluating the amp upgrades properly.
Got the Audio Mirror 45 Watt SET monos upgraded: eliminated signal path capacitor; swapped in Dynamicaps for others; auto-bias; power tube protection circuit; high voltage cutoff switch, supplying only to filament to break in new power tubes when necessary.
Excellent functional upgrade. And sonically delivered quieter background, cleaner sound, more snap, and better defined bass. But the sound had a slight unnatural hollowness to it, enough to bother me. My pre had a pair of Tung-Sol 12SN7 grey T-plate tubes. I thought if I swapped those out for a more bolder sounding tube I could regain my preferred sound. Fortunately I had a spare pair of NOS Sylvania 6SN7GTAs to swap in. Voila! Not only restored the type of sound I preferred (big, bold, natural), but even better with the amp upgrades.
Hello Ray. Now that A'gon allows contacting members again (so they say, though I've not yet tried), just give me a shout. Advance notice always preferred since I am married with horses and my "mancave" is our living room (more accurately a womancave, like all other rooms in the house ;^)
Sounds like your where you want to be with your system and just enjoying it now.I have a brother and cousin in Atl. if I ever get around to a visit,ill be sure to get in touch.I have not changed anything in my system in a while.I just moved into a much smaller place which has pros and cons,certainly need less power.It will take some time to get the best out of this room.Now I think ill concern myself with finding a lifetime supply of good 6SN7s !Ray
Wow. One year later and I have not made any changes other than moving my speakers around just a bit. I guess proof that I am terrifically satisfied. If anyone is near the Atlanta area and wishes to hear a pair of Egglestons driven by a pair of powerful SETs, drop me line.
NOS is boss! I love the NOS Sylvania chromes in my amps, but for my pre I've settled on a pair of (very affordable) NOS 12SN7 Tung-Sol grey T plates. My system is now done (again, eh?). This time I'm serious. It is perfect for me. No more upgrades necessary.
Scott - are you referring to the ACI in-line filters? If so, I did try them, and liked them at first. But in the end preferred to not use them as the 45 Watt SET amps have enough juice to drive my mains without the filters.
Ry - I am sorry I do not know as my amp mfr suggests not using one so I've never tried my power amps other than straight into the wall. I don't have dedicated circuits yet, but plug them into circuits on which I keep other appliances off during listening. For surge protection I leave them unplugged until ready to use. And never use during a storm. Have had good luck with Brick Wall/Zero Surge on rest of components though. Sorry I could not have been more help. Would not hurt to try, just might not get current as quick/much as amp requires, but do not know for sure.
Replaced stock Russian input and driver tubes in my Audio Mirror 45 watt SET monos with Sylvania 6SL7GT/VT-229 blk base, blk plates, JAN military, early 50's (input); and Sylvania 6SN7GTA short glass, heavy top & side getter flashing, 40's era (driver). Holy crap! I thought my system sounded very good before, but now ... holy crap! Awesome clean, clear highs, wonderful meaty mids and lows, but not tubby or chesty at all - still SET magic, but now with balls. The sound just envelops me like never before. My system went from very good to astounding. Tremendous even. Ordered a matched pair of Sylvania "chrome domes" for my Mapletree pre. NOS is boss!
Replied to Richard via e-mail but also will respond here for others' benefit ... WyWires is fairly new full-function (phono, ICs, speaker, power) wire seller who designs and builds his own cables. At this time I believe he offers a 60-day no risk (except shipping cost of course) trial - plenty of time to properly evaluate. For prices you can reference the "What to Buy" link on his web site, then look towards bottom, embedded within text, for pricing sheet link to a pdf attachment. Alex prefers to speak with you because he has more than one flavor of IC, has different ICs depending on the application (source->pre vs. pre->power), and needs to know what gear you have and your listening preferences to help decide which flavor to use. NOT to hard-sell you. As for how they sound to me just bounce up to my 9-15-10 entry above and see. Allow me to add that they bettered (clarity, openness, full accurate tone without anomalies, as heard with ALL other cables I tried) Kimber 1011, Harmonic Technology MAGIC-Link II, Cardas Golden Cross, and a few other similarly priced ICs.
Hi, nice system, what can you tell me about the wywires? What is the cost? I tried looking up a price to no avail. If I understand the web site, they want to talk to you in other words sell you?? is that correct? Anyway I have seen them mentioned a couple of times and any info you could share would be appreciated. Thanks Richard
The Wywires ICs ended up being the final piece to my audio puzzle. I am seriously done changing gear/wires. My system, for me, has been perfected. It does everything extremely well but for two attributes not important to me: 1. superb sound at low volumes - my speakers' drivers usually seem to require some juice to excel, at least a couple of watts; and 2. large scale - cannot do rock concert volume levels or blow you out of your seat on the 1812 Overture. If I had to catagorize my system I might say it somewhat leans to the intimate side, but can still swing and rock. Three characteristics absolutely required: intimacy, swing, and rock.
I AM DONE! No more shopping, just listening. What a long, rewarding journey it has been for me.
Settled on ICs ... finally! What an expensive, frustrating journey, but well worth it in the end. (Swapping gear is fun for most, but not me. I know what I want to hear and have little patience to attain it.) I tried many different ICs at different price levels and tried to settle a few times but never was able to reach the level of openness I'd craved, until now. Wywires have done it for me. They ended up being the most extended, clear, natural, and open ICs in my system without glare, etch, steely, or forced sound. Because of their ability to allow the flow of music pass so naturally, they can switch from delicate sound to growling, or whatever the music is, in the blink of an eye. CDs which, with other clear sounding ICs I'd had, had too steely an edge to their sound at greater than low to medium volume (Rory Block, Mike Bloomfield, Eva Cassidy, Weather Report), now sound perfectly natural with the Wywires. Steely edge is gone without sacrificing clarity and openness. For example, on Weather Report's Black Market CD which has lots of different types of cymbals and gong, they are more easily individually identified as opposed to sounding like similar crashes. And Wayne Shorter's sax, though brilliantly clear in sound, is no longer so piercing. Well done! This is what I was after and Alex at Wywires has accomplished this (for me in my system). However, I did have to get the long pair (12 feet, from my pre to amps) cooked in order to sound best.
I've since ended up removing the 85Hz high-pass filters and now run the Fontaines full range (augmented with two subs) ... glorious. And the 45 Watt SET Audio Mirror amps have plenty of power for me at all times. I prefer this amp/speaker combo for voice and piano better than any other set up I've heard ... clarity of sound with purity of tone to die for. A great combination.
Going to try Audio Mirror 45 Watt SET monos (pair of 6C33C tubes per) - first tube power amps ever for me! Hopefully they will sound good (of course) and hopefully enough power. Vlad says they put out closer to 55 watts, with peaks to 90 watts. Have never seen measurments for my speakers, but SP has measured Andras, the Fontaines bigger brother.
In the SP Andra review JA states they are, "moderately sensitive", although they did run them with huge amps. However, my Fontaines don't have the 12" Ws the Andras have, only the same TMMs. Since the Fontaines' MMs are run full (not limited, direct to amp) as on the Andras, perhaps I can extract impedance and phase angle from the SP plots of the Andras?
Since I high-pass at 85Hz, I figure I can assume by the time the freq. gets down to 70Hz the load becomes insignificant. Viewing the plots down to 70Hz: min impedance drops to only 7 ohms; phase angle is greatest (+45 deg) at 80Hz, then smooth elongated sinewave, dropping at 4kHz to -25 deg.
Thus, I am hoping that it is acceptable for me to assume that: with one +45 deg phase angle on an overall smooth plot; and since I high-pass am avoiding the lowest impedances, seeing nothing below 7 ohms; that these SETs may likely be a good match.
One person says (paraphrasing) that my Fontaines are not a reactive load up to the tweeter crossover frequency, because they do not use any crossover for the bass/midrange drivers. The drivers are connected directly to the binding posts. With no midrange crossover, a direct connection to the amplifier allows for fast bass/midrange and should love SET amps.
I find this very encouraging and am excited to try my first tube power amp(s). Its hard to believe they'll be better than my current set up, but I don't know what I don't know so I must at least give them a try.
"Done" but not dead. Cash-strapped, mostly. Anyone in Atlantaland with a tube amp interested in lugging it over to my place to hear a pair of Egglestons and/or dual subs? I'll supply the beer (current stock includes: Stone Arrogant Bastard (you are what you eat?); Clipper City Heavy Seas Loose Cannon (Hop3 Ale); Dale's Pale Ale; and a 25 oz. bottle of St. Bernardus ABT 12 http://www.specialtybeer.com/beer,index,st._bernardus_abt_12.html).
