Jazdoc's "Not Off The Rack" System

by jazdoc on All Out Assault

Description

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.

My jazz/rock vinyl collection:

http://connect.collectorz.com/users/jazdoc/music/view
Read more...

Components Toggle details

    • Galibier Stelvio I
    Thom Mackris' belt drive table.
    • Durand Tonearms Telos
    For mono
    • Miyabi Fuuga
    Stereo cartridge
    • Durand Tonearms Tosca
    For stereo
    • Miyajima Zero
    Mono cartridge
    • Loricraft PRC-4
    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.
    • Urishi Bordeaux
    Stereo Cartridge

Comments 157

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Owner
Zephyr--
Thanks for the heads up re: Melody Gardot. Loved her last LP on vinyl.

Taksil--
Thank you! The Experience Music gear is terrific - for me an end of life purchase.

jazdoc

Jazdoc,

Those amp Experience Music amps make me drool with their retro look.

Enjoy!

taksil

BTW...there is a track 12 ("The Willow") that is only present on the Japanese SHM disc. Tracks 1-11 available on all the discs will impress you for all the reasons above. Track 12 is audiophile-dream material to an even greater extent, its haunting, ethereal laced with various instruments including gongs, chimes, Buddhist prayer bowls, etc.....that one track is worth the extra money for the SHM pressing alone!

zephyr24069

All: I just finished listening to the new Melody Gardot album "The Absence" (SHM Japan CD pressing). Like her first album, the sonics are amazing and the music extremely compelling,interesting and laid down masterfully. There is a ton of talent here from the vocals, compositions, backing musicians all the way to the mastering by Bernie Grundmann. This is worth checking out and is my favorite thus far; Moroccan, Brazilian, Argentinean (Tango), and Spanish influences dominate. If you haven't heard her work, you are definitely missing out!

zephyr24069

Owner
The latest updates to the Collectorz music database system are out and it's a huge improvement. The interface is much more intuitive. It feels much more like the iTunes with the 'cover flow' feature. Finding cover images is considerably improved. If you own a previous version, the upgrade is well worth it and if you are looking to catalog your music collection visit collectorz.com for a look.

BTW, you can view my Jazz and Pop LPs at:

http://connect.collectorz.com/users/jazdoc/music/view

jazdoc

Lucky you. Song #2,"Sway", is my favorite Stones song, and illustrates plainly what the Stones lost when Mick Taylor left the band. One of rock's most beautiful solos, and a guitar sound that is so lucious and tubey.

roxy54

Owner
Finally found a quality original pressing of the Stones' "Sticky Fingers". Truly like hearing it for the first time. Well worth seeking out and paying up.

Also just ordered the limited edition EP "Gorelick" by the Dead Kenny G's...promises to be a classic. You can find them at http://thedeadkennygs.com/

jazdoc

Owner
Calle_jr

Thanks for the kind words. Please look me up if you and Ringo are ever in the Pacific NW.

BTW, I really like the LPs on your system page...I suspect we share some similar musical tastes.

jazdoc

Even if I don't have much of a clue what this system sounds like, I fell for it immediately. It's a unique composition of components which wasn't made in a day, and not near to the mainstream standards.

calle_jr

Owner
Meet some friends at The Black Dog in Snoqualmie last evening to hear local artist Charlie Loesel perform an acoustic set. Fabulous singer-songwriter definitely worth checking out (http://www.charlieloesel.com/). I'm listening to his excellent first CD 'Westfalia'...My favorite song is "Jack Daniels and Johnny Cash" ;-)

jazdoc

The latter 4 are great and I have them on other formats. I'll definitely check out the Whit and Jurado titles. In addition, you'll want to check out "Up Close" by Ornstein et. al. and "Four Winds" (Dick de Graaf) also on Turtle; the recordings are exceptionally good and the improvs/arrangements of even the more common standards are interesting and definitely worth a listen. Have a great day!

zephyr24069

Owner
Thanks for the heads up on "Jungle Boldie"...just nabbed a copy on Amazon. No vinyl yet :-(

I'm a big fan of Dave Holland. He has exquisite taste and is definitely worth seeing live.

I've been enjoying a couple new LPs:

Jack White "Blunderbuss"
Damien Jurado "Maraqopa"

Additionally, the recent sets from MusicMatters Jazz have been spectacular including:

Wayne Shorter "Adams Apple"
Herbie Hancock "Empyrean Isles"
Dexter Gordon "Our Man In Paris"
Freddie Hubbard "Ready for Freddie"

jazdoc

Currently spinning: "Jungle Boldie" (Ornstein, Overwater and Kegel on Turtle Records as well as "Op" by the same trio. I don't know if these are available on vinyl but the SACD versions are stunning and very enjoyable musically. I've also been revisiting a number of Dave Holland and Big Phat Band discs over the past few days. Hope all is well!

zephyr24069

Thanks...I was looking at the Pro version as well as I want the peace of mind of knowing that no matter what happens wiht the software vendor/site in question that I have a local copy of the DB.

zephyr24069

Owner
Zephyr24069

I purchased the Pro version which pays for the local version on my Macs and the online version. I don't use a scanner but in retrospect wish I had purchased one.

jazdoc

Jazdoc: Thanks for the link to the music collection software. Do you only use the online version or have you tried the version that runs locally on the PC or the Mac? Which scanner did you purchase and is the scanning process expedient? Having a large collection like you I am hoping to find a solution that allows many swipes in sequence while the software batches them up and retries disc info in the background. Thanks!

zephyr24069

Owner
A few new LPs in heavy rotation:

Leonard Cohen "Live in Fredericton" EP
Portland Cello Project "Homage"
Heartless Bastards "Arrow"
Shins "Port of Morrow" - great recod with outstanding sonics

jazdoc

Owner
Caught Elvis Costello at the Paramount Theatre last night. Hadn't seen him live since "The Imperial Bedroom" tour of 1982.

He brought his spinning songbook so that audience members could participate in choosing the songs. He's a great entertainer. I have newfound respect for his guitar playing. No he's not the 2nd coming of Jimi Hendrix, but much better than I remembered. The Attractions are a great backing band.

Bonus: We weren't the oldest people there...

jazdoc

Owner
Caught the Galactic show last Friday at the Showbox SODO. Fabulous band with Corey Glover (Living Color) on vocals. Incredibly fun, contemporary New Orleans funk music. Stanton Moore is a drum god!

Also first exposure to the opening act Orgone...bought some of their vinyl at the merch table.

Definitely worth checking out...

jazdoc

Owner
Mapman,

The software is extremely easy to use for CD; just put the CD in the CD/DVD drive or use their bar scanner (which costs extra).

Vinyl is more labor intensive. The scanner makes more recent LPs with bar codes easy. For older LPs or those without a bar code, you have to manually search the database which populates the fields if available. If not in the database, you have to manually key in all the data. For that, I took advantage of my teenage son's desire for an electric guitar. I paid him $0.10 an LP. OK, a few child labor laws may have been broken, but it was worth it. My database is done and my son has a guitar.

jazdoc

Jaz,

I've not seen that site before. Also very cool! I may have to look into that to get my vinyl collection cataloged.

Did you manually catalog your entire vinyl collection on that site?

That sounds like a massive endeavor! How long did it take total? Per album? I would have to think that site provides some automation tools similar to online reference services used by CD ripping software to create home music libraries?

mapman

Owner
Mapman - thanks for the kind comments.

I've added a link to my vinyl jazz/rock collection:
http://connect.collectorz.com/users/jazdoc/music/view

jazdoc

Very cool rig and music library!

mapman

Owner
Metralla,

I'm happy with the Scuttle. I bought it as a replacement for my (now discountinued) rack system. My prior solution was very good for isolation and resonance control but unattractive and well, let's just say it was ergonomically challenging.

With the impending arrival of my non-standard sized 4-box preamp, each box weighing 90-100#, I bought the Scuttle based on reputation and yes, I liked the looks.

The folks at SRA were very friendly and helpful. Kevin Tellenkamp believes that the Scuttles are very competitive with the top of the line CRAZ racks. My unit arrived incredibly well packed with excellent instructions. The Scuttle is quite attractive and fits my equipment well. Despite having no expectations for performance, I was pleasantly surprised...the unit seems even better than my prior rack solution: decreased noise, deeper bass and better high frequencies.

I believe that resonance control and rejecting/draining vibration is often overlooked. IMO, an effective equipment rack should be viewed as a component; just as important as the right TT or amplifier. I'm very happy with the Scuttle and feel very comfortable recommending it.

jazdoc

How do you like your SRA Scuttle stand? They are certainly more reasonably priced than the CraZ rack, so I'm wondering how effective they are. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

metralla

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