Audiophile jewelry - most beautiful Cd players, turntables and other gear

[Sal1950]

I thought Bob Carver most always had good taste in the cosmetic design of his gear.
A few of my personal fav's were,

The Phase Linear 4000 Series II Preamp, a forward thinking design incorporating some innovative noise reduction- dynamic range expansion & rumble filter circuits that could be quite valuable at improving the flawed sources of the time.

Not to mention the Phase Linear 700B power amp, one of which I owned for many years.

Also the Phase Linear 5000 FM Tuner, designed by A.P. Van Meter and reputed to be a very good tuner in it's day.

 

[Angsty]

Luxman PD-191A
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I have the PD-151 Mk2; this upgrade is a beautiful one! I’m intrigued most by the upgrade to the tonearm.

 

[Waxx]

Full snakeoil priced, but gorgious looking i have to say. It's the Thomas Mayer 211 Single Ended Mono Power Amplifier, in this version (silver wire transfo's) only 145K for a pair (like shown). These are only build on order off course.

The power supplies (the two towers in the middle) use a hybrid rectifier bridge with two 866A and two 6AU4 tubes. The amp itself is a 211 driving a 211 tube. All electronics are discrete, transformer coupled and with big oil caps like a true snake oil amp should be. And all this gives you a 2 x 20w of tubepower...

 

[Sal1950]

These are only build on order off course.

They mostly resemble RF transmitters to me.

 

[fpitas]

Hardly in the same price league as a lot of audiophile stuff, but the SEAS Excel woofers are spiffy looking:

 

[Sal1950]

Hardly in the same price league as a lot of audiophile stuff, but the SEAS Excel woofers are spiffy looking:

Looks like what Joseph Audio uses.

 

[fpitas]

Looks like what Joseph Audio uses.

Yup. Not the easiest to cross over because of the rising characteristic and the 5kHz peak, but worth a little trouble.

 

[Sal1950]

Yup. Not the easiest to cross over because of the rising characteristic and the 5kHz peak, but worth a little trouble.

I've heard the Joseph stuff at shows a number of times and found them very listenable.

FLORIDA AUDIO EXPO FEB 7-9th 2020

Tampa Terrace: MBL; United Home Audio; Wireworld Cable Technology and Suncoast Audio. MBL speakers look and sound out of this world. I like that they just play music. We spent 15 or 20 minutes in this room just listening to beautiful music. Kilgore: The Audio Company; VAC; Von Schweikert...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The current pricing of the Perspective 2 Graphene model I heard is now $21,000+
Cabinetry and the rest is incredibly beautiful, at that price it better be.

John Atkinson both reviewed and measured the older Perspective towers
and in an uncharacteristic manner gave them somewhat of a negative slam finding them "lean in bass, unforgiving in the treble and hot" to paraphrase his words. Highly unusual, I got the feeling he was put off by their $13,000 pricing, and that was 10 years ago ???

Joseph Audio Perspective loudspeaker Page 2

www.stereophile.com

 

[Audioagnostic]

I just ordered this, to use as a transport:
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New Shanling EC3. Sure, it is by no means Audio Jewelry. But it is decently cheap for a top-loading CDP!

Hi @VintageFlanker ,

How is your experience with this player? Most important for me is the ability to play scratched disks. I have a lot of CDs with a bit of damage that play fine in my current player but gave me issues in my previous one.

Looking for a small player the Shanling seems to be a nice looking option. If I understand correctly it also has volume control so I would not need a pre amp or dac.

This will make my wife happy as well. Less boxes...

Thanks in advance!

 

[MattHooper]

Hardly in the same price league as a lot of audiophile stuff, but the SEAS Excel woofers are spiffy looking:

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I've said before that I generally don't like seeing speaker drivers, and prefer the clean look of a speaker with the grills on. Speaker drivers tend to distract me and they make me aware of precisely where the sound is coming from.

HOWEVER, the Seas drivers are one of the very few drivers I actually like the looks off. They look really high quality and I like the copper phase plug too, which on the Joseph Perspective speakers I own matches the copper ring around the tweeter. So the speakers look even more luxurious with the grills off.

Yup. Not the easiest to cross over because of the rising characteristic and the 5kHz peak, but worth a little trouble.

Joseph audio uses their ultra steep "infinite slope" crossover, in this case a super steep drop for the SEAS woofers, which Joseph claims allows them to take advantage of the desirable qualities (e.g. good power/long throw output) of such drivers while avoiding the resonances. All I can say is that the Joseph speakers are about the smoothest sounding speakers I've heard so I think they are doing something right.

John Atkinson both reviewed and measured the older Perspective towers
and in an uncharacteristic manner gave them somewhat of a negative slam finding them "lean in bass, unforgiving in the treble and hot" to paraphrase his words. Highly unusual, I got the feeling he was put off by their $13,000 pricing, and that was 10 years ago ???

Yeah I remember that. I first heard the original perspectives and then later saw the Stereophile review and it took me back a little bit. But I didn't find the originals too bright and they worked well in my room. Then I had them upgraded to the "2" version with the new graphene drivers and re-worked crossover, and as JA noted in the follow up review of the newer Perspectives, they are smoother in the highs and no longer struck him as bright, but wrote: "The new edition of Joseph Audio's Perspective is a superbly well-balanced loudspeaker..." which is what I hear too.

And per the thread, I find they are nice "audio jewellery" too.

 

[Gringoaudio1]

Me not so much. The SAE "industrial" look was very busy and I find the numerous red LEDs and indicators to be relentless.

Not "industrial", rather maybe "lab instrument" as for ARC equipment is more to my taste. Though perhaps I slightly prefer the older look to the newest.

I think the lab equipment aesthetic gave men who weren’t important the sense that they were doing something important when they adjusted the controls. Haha.

 

[Mikig]

Mark Levinson N 31.5

I think one of the most beautiful CD player designs

 

[Gorgonzola]

I think the lab equipment aesthetic gave men who weren’t important the sense that they were doing something important when they adjusted the controls. Haha.

By "the lab equipment aesthetic" you referring Audio Research (ARC) stuff for which I stated a fondness ... I suppose you're right (at least in some cases).

But generalize that a bit. All expensive equipment of pretentious appearance is designed to make the owner feel, important, smart, rich, chic, or trendy.

 

[Gringoaudio1]

By "the lab equipment aesthetic" you referring Audio Research (ARC) stuff for which I stated a fondness ... I suppose you're right (at least in some cases).

But generalize that a bit. All expensive equipment of pretentious appearance is designed to make the owner feel, important, smart, rich, chic, or trendy.

I am completely guilty of this by the way! Ha! Audio Research is one. But lots of other older stuff has that lol too. Gear and the mastery of it is a challenge that gives us a feeling of having expertise. Something we all want.

 

[thunderchicken]

By "the lab equipment aesthetic" you referring Audio Research (ARC) stuff for which I stated a fondness ... I suppose you're right (at least in some cases).

But generalize that a bit. All expensive equipment of pretentious appearance is designed to make the owner feel, important, smart, rich, chic, or trendy.

I was thinking Nagra, but same deal. I love ARC stuff too.

 

[Anton D]

By "the lab equipment aesthetic" you referring Audio Research (ARC) stuff for which I stated a fondness ... I suppose you're right (at least in some cases).

But generalize that a bit. All expensive equipment of pretentious appearance is designed to make the owner feel, important, smart, rich, chic, or trendy.

Ah, the standard Hi Fi virtual signaling list!

 

[anmpr1]

The Phase Linear 4000 Series II Preamp

I'm not sure of the actual timeline, but sometime in the late '70s Carver sold his company to Pioneer. Pioneer then marketed some of their more expensive 'Japan only' gear under the Phase Linear name. Also, about that time they also imported other 'higher end' gear under their Series 20 moniker. Pioneer was probably the largest consumer electronics manufacturer in the world back then--now a former shell of what it once was.

Phase Series II 4000 appeared around the time Carver left, sporting a similar but modified front panel. The original preamp had the 'famous' joystick control. I guess that was for some kind of 4-channel balance?

I don't know if the Series II was a 'Carver' design or a Pioneer. Or a hybrid caught up in the middle of the corporate transition. Below is a pic of the first gen, lifted from the Skyfi site. For the collector it would be something pretty unique, but I wouldn't want to try and get it serviced today.

 

[Peerke007]

Bought this little amp just before the millennium. Special made (one out of seven in total) Houston mini 1998 with separate power unit and passive selector. The amplifier was completely redesigned and made with hard-wired high quality components and thick silver wire.

Jewelry or not, it sounds great to my ears.

 

[holbob]

Never seen a 11 grand amplifier made out of polystyrene before :-

 

[Sal1950]

I'm not sure of the actual timeline, but sometime in the late '70s Carver sold his company to Pioneer.

Back in the day one of the strangest but really nice occurrences in my Hi Fi journey happened then.
My PL 700B blew up, taking out a couple drivers in my La Scalas. For lack of funds at the time my rig remained
silent for a couple months while I saved up. Looking for somewhere to repair it I found a Pioneer-Jensen repair place
only a couple miles from my house. The amp was quite old at this time with half of the meter lights burned out, etc. I had actually bought it as their demo model from my local Pacific Stereo where I had drooled over the thought of owning it for a long time till it was replaced by the Series II stuff and sold at a big discount.
Anywho I got a call a few weeks later that it was done, so holding my breath I grabbed my checkbook and went to get it.
The counter man carried it out and set it down with the bill. I asked "How Much", to which the guy said No Charge. ???
I was dumbfounded and picked up the bill off the counter that listed a number of electrical repairs and included replacement
of all the meter lamps, which I had even never mentioned, sure enough the in the bottom total column it was marked NC
Never being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I said thank you very much, picked up my Flame Liner and walked out.
I was sure there would be a call in a few days saying "ah, we made a mistake" but that call never came?
It sure was great not only to have everything playing music again but to see the ole girl running, even looking like new with
all the lights working again. Once in a while the Hi-Fi Gods smile on you.

For many years I also ran the stand alone "autocorrelation noise reduction" unit that was an internal part of that big 4000 preamp. It worked wonderfully at taking down LP surface noise, removing low end rumble, and perking up the dynamic range.
I much admired Bob Carver for his ground breaking engineering work in the early days of Hi-Fi.