Scott's penultimate system?

by sdcampbell on Done For Now

Description

The virtual system posting I've maintained on Audiogon for 15 years somehow got deleted, so this is a re-listing. Posted May 1, 2015. Revised October, 2016.
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Room Details

Dimensions: 18’ × 13’  Medium
Ceiling: 8’

Components Toggle details

    • Main System:
    Installed in 13'x18' living room.
    • VPI Industries Classic 3 turntable
    AC synchronous motor; belt drive; unipivot tonearm; periphery ring clamp; TNT record weight; aftermarket platter mat.
    • VPI 12-inch 3-D printed tonearm
    Epoxy resin tonearm made on 3-D printer; SoundSmith "CounterIntuitive" installed. Will add "Duo-Pivot" accessory when available from VPI.
    • VPI Synchronous Drive System (SDS)
    Voltage & speed controller for turntable.
    • Grado Statement1 cartridge
    Moving iron; 0.5 mV output; 1.6 gram tracking force.
    • Parasound JC3+ phono preamplifier
    John Curl designed MC/MM phono stage.
    • Oppo 103D Blu-ray player
    Universal player with Darbee video processing.
    • HP Pavilion laptop music server
    Model 15t-n200; Intel i5 CPU; 1 TB hard drive; 8gb RAM; JRiver Media Center v21 software.
    • Mytek Stereo96 A-D converter
    24/96 analog-to-digital converter; used mainly to transcribe LP's to digital files.
    • Bryston BDA-2 DAC
    USB asynchronous DAC; resolution to 24/192. May 2016: updated by Bryston to BDA-3 driver.
    • Bryston BP-17 preamplifier
    Line stage preamp.
    • Bryston 4B-SST2 amplifier
    Stereo amp; 300/500 wpc @ 8/4 ohms.
    • Vandersteen Model 5A Carbon
    Full range speaker system.
    • Sennheiser HD700 headphones
    Open back, circumaural headphones; 150 ohm impedance.
    • Pangea HP-201
    Hybrid headphone amplifier with 24/196 DAC.
    • Nordost Tyr 2 speaker cable
    2-meter biwire pair with banana connectors.
    • Nordost Tyr 1 interconnects (3 pair)
    1.0 meter ic's with RCA jacks; from turntable junction box to phono stage; phono stage to line preamp; preamp to power amp.
    • Nordost Frey 2 interconnects (4 pair)
    4 pair of 1-meter cables with RCA jacks.
    • Nordost Blue Heaven USB cable
    3.0 meter, from laptop to Bryston DAC.
    • Kimber Kable 12TC subwoofer cable
    12 strand, Teflon coated speaker cable for subwoofers.
    • PS Audio AC-10 & AC-5 power cords (3 + 3)
    1.0 meter power cords for phono stage, preamp, power amp, DAC, Oppo, etc.
    • Wiremold ULM6-6 power strips (2)
    Pair of 6 outlet power strips, rated for hospital use.
    • Dennesen Soundtraktor
    Cartridge alignment protractor.
    • Digi-Pas DWL-1000 XY digital level
    2-axis digital level used to level turntable platter; accurate to .005 degrees.
    • VPI HW-16.5 record cleaning machine
    Semi-automatic LP cleaning machine.
    • Recordings: LP's, CD's, SACD's, Blu-ray
    LP's = ~3500 (acquired over past 50 years; almost all mint or near-mint); CD's = ~1400; SACD's = ~125; Blu-ray = ~35. Jazz, classical, blues, folk, '60's rock, world music.
    • Workshop System:
    Partial vintage equipment system, installed in a large workshop that my wife and I share. The Fisher 500 receiver is the first piece of hi-fi gear I ever bought (1964), followed by the Fisher 400 circa 1966. The KLH speakers were acquired circa 1967. The Tandberg tape deck was bought in 1971 during my second Army tour in Germany.
    • Parasound Z-CD
    Parasound 1/2-rack CD player with silver faceplate.
    • Tandberg 6000x tape deck
    4-track, 3 speed, 1/4" tape deck made in Norway; built circa 1971.
    • The Fisher 500-C receiver
    Vintage 1964 tube FM receiver; 25 wpc RMS @ 0.5% THD, 20-20kHz, both channels driven. Complete rebuild in 2015 by Ken & Lloyd Leonard, Analog Engineering Associates.
    • The Fisher 400 receiver
    25 wpc FM stereo receiver, circa 1964. Rebuilt by Analog Engineering Associates in 2015.
    • KLH Model 6 speakers
    2-way, 8 ohm bookshelf speaker designed by Henry Kloss; 10" mid/woofer; built circa 1964-66.
    • Monitor Audio Silver RX-2 speakers
    2-way, 6 ohm bookshelf monitors; 8" mid/woofer. Speltz Anti-Cable jumpers replaced stock plate connectors.
    • Speltz Anti-Cable speaker cable
    7-ft pair with copper spades.
    • Portrait of the audiophile as a young man...
    Circa 1952, doing some serious near-field listening on his new analog rig.

Comments 4

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Owner
System edited: I decided early this year to assemble and
install a vintage audio system in my workshop. I already owned
several components, but they needed an upgrade or restoration.
It's been very enjoyable putting this "time machine" together
and mentally travelling back to my early audiophile days. This
vintage gear still sounds great, and has held up better than
my ears!

sdcampbell

Scott, nice system! If you have time I would like to see some pictures of your system.

I did a large upgrade/revamp of my system over the last year also. Even when you think you are done there always seems to be one more thing or two to change, so penultimate is a great is a great term to use.

jperry

Owner
Just leaving my options open (like any good audiophile) … :)

sdcampbell

Penultimate implies you are not finished.

narrod

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