I am grateful to the 'Gon community for their help to reduce my buyers remorse; and help me assemble a system that has exceeded my expectations...I'm in mid 50's; ..trying to mature and evolve; I started my ugprade journey with a pair of Dali Halicon 800's powered by Sunfire...nice enough sound; but I wanted more...met a great audiophile and seller in Dave Weinhart here in Los Angels; and made a big jump to MBL 111's, with Meridian front end; and 8011 mono amps...Dev, a "gon member suggested I up my amps to Bryston 28sst's; which I did; and still enjoy greatly. I grew frustrated with the Meridian gear; sounded a bit too digital with my analog speakers; hated to connect laptop to tweak; and could never get full low end base extension. Took Dev's recommendation again; traded my gear in on a VAC Phi Beta tubed preamp; and switched digital to PSAudio Perfect wave D/T combo..thought the redbook cd playback via I2S with the Haromonic tech cable was great. But the DAC in the perfect wave fell a bit short in giving me the detail from my Qsonix music server. Qsonix is made locally to me; Mike Weaver is a true gentleman; and has created an awesome product; even though they don't advertise like Sooloos. Their touch screen; and hi res capabilites are wonderful. I also had an opportunity to audition Venture speakers at the home of the US distributor; who lives locally; Mike Slaminski; another perfect gentleman; with great ears; and patience. Thought his Belgium made Venture speakers were the best sounding set up I have ever heard; including the Magico Q5's, or the Wilson Shasa's ..but they were beyond my affordablility index. On a whim; I called Mike; and he received the Excellence III in burl wood back from a reviewer; but they suffered damage in shipping and had a noticiable ding in the finish...so I grabbed them. The detail, staging, depth; richness of tone; incredible accuracy of response throughout the range; and vocals...the carbon/ abbaca paper drivers and crossover design made me just want to sit and listen forever. Mike set up the speakers with a slight toe in; and viola; magic. But then I went to THE Show in Newport, CA; and heard Ayon's room. That was special; right after their great review in TAS. Was able to pick up show sample of Ayon CD5-s transport/dac/preamp with upgraded tubes. Once this piece broke in; and replaced my PSAudio DAC; now I can't imaginge any better digital for me and my room. I sit and just listen to the music; without focusing on the gear. I tried it as preamp direct to amp; but found I prefered it running thru the VAC. My cables are a mixture of MIT balanced interconnects and bi-wire speaker cables, with Purist audio Venestus for digital and interconnect. I also use my rig for combined HT/two channel; its in my family room; and I needed huge WAF; the Ventures have it in spades, the MBL's, not so much. I obtained much of my gear and advice from local dealers, and the 'Gon from dealers used. It's great that the 'Gon is here to help us buy and sell gear as we experiement and balance quality, cost, and always exceed our budget. I also have three dedicated 20 amp lines. Room is a problem; had to set up on the diaganolfrom long/short wall. So I am done for now; will try to work on improving room with traps; isolation tweeks; and was amazed at the improvement in detail shown at THE show by Synergistic Research ART with their tiny 'cup and saucers' harmonic resonance improvements...if it were only less expensive...will post photos soon; but really; try to listen to Venture, unbelievable quality and detail.; but to my ears...the best I've heard; and I feel fortunate to have put together this quality of system with lots of help; and time...great to meet so many fellow hobbiests; after all, its all about enjoying the music. I finally got around to posting my system after this long journey....probably don't need all the power of my Bryston 1000 watt amps now that I've gone from MBL to Venture's; which are more effecient; but so far the slam and control of base is just fantastic; and the detail and prat pleases me...not sure what might be better; prefer to remain in SS for amps.
well built battery powered, with 4 6h30 tubes, extremely quiet and resolving
Hegel H30
one amp running in stereo config; at 350 quality watts/side. Huge sound stage; agree with Robert Harley's review
Playback Design PS5D
fantastic dedicated DAC, no transport;; with the usb-box, it upconverts computer files to DSD resolution; and via standard AES digital in; converts all files to 24/192. A fantastic upgrade for computer audio sources. Try DSD!
Oppo 105D, modded by EVS
replaces Sony 5000es; wanted streaming Netflix, etc, and 3-d
Qsonix 205
1 TB hi-res music server; with phenominal 15
Marantz AV8802
home theater processor, for hdmi; blue ray; sat, and zone 2
Bedrock Rack of Silence Rack of Silence
semi custom 4 shelf; each shelf weighs 28lbs; made of both HDF and MDF, and special vibration control. And it looks nice.
Aerial Acoustics CC-5
great center channel; blends with many different speakers; made my own custom stand
Parasound A-51
5 channels of 250 watts/side; warm running, smooth sounding for center channel; rears, and outdoor zone 2
Velodyne DD-15
used for LFE for Home theater use; don't use for two channel listening, the 50 lb sandbag covered in pillow case helps with bass,anchors to floor; reduces 'booming'
JL Audio Fathom F113
really fills in the bass for just two channel listening..
Equi-tech Q15
power conditioner
EnKlein Taurus power cord
6' silver, shielded, flexible PC. Made a huge improvement in detail powering my Hegel H30 amp. Highly recommended component
High Fidelity one pair CT 1-Ulitimates, 1 pr CT-E
Rick's magnet wave guide cables, the hype is real. Makes a nice synergistic improvement
Klee Grand Illusion ribbon sc
a nice open sounding ribbon alloy SC, but it is designed with a higher reistance level than my FMS.
PS audio Power base PS audio base
20lb vibration control and power conditioner; used for computer and 4TB hard drive
Hi-Fi tuning fuses Black; premium
placed upgraded fuses in the Ayon and the VAC, can't really tell how much improvement they made; system already working at a high level
Tara Power cords The One
Two Tara pc's, one to equip-tech, one to amp
Stein Music Harmonizers A and B and magic stone
Little black cubes that create magic on the sound stage and depth and detail. Tremendous tweak for me, helped with room problems
Standout Design six foot
well designed; well built AV component stand; has a huge shelf to place a large center channel speaker; I placed my Aerial CC-5 and it fits great; weighs 85 lbs...big help
Stillpoints Ultra SS footers
superb resonance control devices
Stillpoint Ultra 5's
added three Stillpoint Ultra 5's with adaptor threads to my Ventures. Nice improvement over stock footers
Granite Audio Ground Zero
A star design universal grounding platform, comes with quality ground cables and easy instructions. Nicely lowered ground loop hiss and floor noise. Highly recommend if you have a grounding issue at modest price point
HiDiamond 2 P-4 power cords
I realize that my SR PC's were not allowing all my music to flow, replaced two with HiDiamond P-4's. Much better sound, have them on my amp and digital. Bested also my Tara the One.
Audioquest USB 1 pr Coffee, 1 pr Carbon
silver usb cable, big improvement over stock, and belkan used previously
PS Audio P-5 Power regenerator
a nice addition to assist in clean, and controlledp power, using mainly for video/home theater pieces. My amp and pre are plugged into dedicated 20 amp lines
Thank you Mribob! If you are ever near Greenville SC, let me know. With advance notice so I can schedule around work travel, etc...we can definitely make something happen.
As far as IT issues are concerned, I've not had many on Audiogon but sending an email to the help/support group usually takes care of things. What are you seeing exactly in terms of an issue posting a new photo?
Mribob...beautiful system! I've heard alot about those speakers and many other components you own and based on reputation alone, this must all sum up to one hell of a system! Glad to see you are still enjoying the Granite Audio star grounding station. In the years since I picked one up, there are several MUCH more expensive grounding systems out there but I remain very happy with the GA product, regarless of price!
Dev: the GA removed all but the very faintest of 'ear next to ribbon tweeter' hiss that several knowledgeable people have told me is the result of ultra-efficient speakers and extremely revealing (high ribbon content) interconnects, speaker cables and power cords that I utilize. It's only audible with ear direclty over the ribbon tweeters in my AERIS speakers.
I got a big bang for the buck a short while ago by taking out a Bybee v3 that I loved very much (and still miss at times) but moved to a much more transparent and accurate/non-colored system based upon 2 power conditioners working together (by design), the Isotek EVO3 TITAN and EOV3 SIGMAS; one hell of a combination,...I am extremely impressed that the power baseline in my system could improve that much.