The kit we bought, our current setups

[Sal1950]

I commissioned it, he built a guitar amp for me a few years ago. I’ve always loved the look for Marshall amps, those full stacks are so cool. Rola Amplification is his company, he actually works as an commercial electrician and does the amp stuff as a side gig. He builds really nice stuff, top of the line parts. I see you’re in Seattle, PM me if you want his info.

-Derek

Looks like a fun system, enjoy!

 

[typericey]

Sharing Mine:
LG C8 55 OLED TV
Acer Veriton thin client (JRiver, Spotify)
Topping D70 DAC
Rotel RA-1572 integrated amp
JBL 4312SE monitors
SVS SB-2000 subwoofer
Nordost speaker cables (decade old hand me down)
Blue Jeans XLR cables
Custom Narra wood speaker stands (buy local!)
(SL-1200 Mk 3 turntable w/ Clearaudio Aurum Beta not connected, I don't do vinyl anymore)

 

[Sal1950]

@typericey nice kit, thanks for posting.
I love your custom speaker stands, they're beautiful!

 

[typericey]

Thanks @Sal1950. I am quite proud of the stands because Narra is a treasured hardwood in our part of the globe (and practically unobtainable in the West). I thought of painting them black to match the speakers but I didn’t want to cover the grain.

 

[Willem]

I have never suffered from Audiophilia Nervosa so I have kept my gear for decades.
My first system, bought in my (graduate) student days in the 1970's by working in a bookstore:
Quad ELS 57, Quad 33/303/fm 3 electronics and Linn Sondek LP 12/SME 3009ii/Shure V15iii
In the early 1980's my parents gave me a first generation Philips cd player that I replaced by a Marantz multi format dvd player twenty years later and that I replaced in turn some years later by a Panasonic Bluray player to work with the new Plasma screen.
A bit later, and when we were living in a much larger house, I replaced the old Quad stats with the current 2805s.
The Quad 303 proved a bit weak to drive these less efficient speakers in the much larger room, so I bought a refurbished Quad 606-2. I also added a B&W PV1d subwoofer, and soon after added an Antimode 8033 to tame it.
In recent years streaming via the Chromecast Audio had become our primary source, so this year I finally bit the bullet and replaced the old Quad 33 preamp with an RME ADI-2 DAC. The fm tuner has now also been retired and was replaced by internet radio. The family would not let me sell the turntable, so I bought a Pro-ject Optibox E phono preamp and ADC to connect it digitally to the DAC/Preamp. Vinyl purists may be horrified, but the sound is pretty decent (better than into the Quad 33).
So the pattern has largely been to follow developments in sources, an update of the speakers before they would fail, and more power (plus a sub) to match the much bigger room.
I still have the old ELS 57, Q33/303/fm3 system. Recently I had to get it out of storage when my new Quad 2805s had developed an issue (something with the wrong glue having been used at the time). So while those were being repaired, I listened to the old system. I could still very happily live with it.

And yes, this has been pretty expensive gear, but amortized over such a long period it was not too bad. I know may people who have spent more per annum for less listening pleasure.

 

[anmpr1]

Here is a secondary analog system I use at times. Gear I've accumulated over the years. Most old, some kind of recent.

JBL L-100 recently refurbished (originally bought in 1977).
Technics SL-110 w/Grace 707 arm (originally bought in or around 1977).
Technics SL-1200 Mk5 (circa 1985).
Dyna Mk IV clone kit (sourced from Dynakitparts dot com).
PAS kit from Erhard audio (with phono stage for SL-110).
Bellari phono preamp for SL-1200.
Schhhhiiiiiiit headphone amp.

 

[THW]

simple stuff for me really, just DX3 Pro with Sennheiser HD 600 most of the time.

if I don't have access to AC power though, I just use my FiiO Q1 Mk II with balanced output. if I don't want to plug stuff into my phone, I just use a BTR3 with an MSR7b.

 

[anmpr1]

A main system. A bit more modern, or old, depending upon how you look at it.

Benchmark integrated amp.
Garrard Z-100 w/Pickering XSV-1200e (same as Stanton 681eee).
PC for flac files using Music Bee Wasapi.
Project Phonobox.
Paul Klipsch speakers and subwoofer (decorated by my wife in order to hide them--LOL).

 

[watchnerd]

Here is a secondary analog system I use at times. Gear I've accumulated over the years. Most old, some kind of recent.

JBL L-100 recently refurbished (originally bought in 1977).
Technics SL-110 w/Grace 707 arm (originally bought in or around 1977).
Technics SL-1200 Mk5 (circa 1985).
Dyna Mk IV clone kit (sourced from Dynakitparts dot com).
PAS kit from Erhard audio (with phono stage for SL-110).
Bellari phono preamp for SL-1200.
Schhhhiiiiiiit headphone amp.



View attachment 30797

Look, @Sal1950 another Ikea Kallax

 

[anmpr1]

Look, @Sal1950 another Ikea Kallax

I think kallax is swedish for record album holder. And it all sounds better with meatballs.

 

[Sal1950]

Paul Klipsch speakers and subwoofer (decorated by my wife in order to hide them--LOL)

Tell her I can still see the La Scala's under that bandana.

 

[typericey]

bandana = -0.25dB @ 22kHz

 

[jeffbook]

I am relatively new to ASR, but have been fooling around in this hobby since 1973. So here is my current music setup:

PC laptop with entire music library ripped via dBPowerAmp to a 500gb SSD. Also has SACD ripped to DSD64 with an Oppo BDP-105 on the same SSD.

USB out from the laptop via Foobar2000 controlled with a Monkeymote iOS app on my iPhone. USB feeds a Topping D!0 for conversion to TOSlink.

TOSlink then goes to a powered splitter with the output feeding two miniDSP 2x4HD units that serve as active crossovers and EQ for a pair of Linkwitz Lab LXmini speakers. Each LXmini is supplemented by dual 10" woofers in an H frame dipole configuration. These two woofers are refugees from my Linkwitz Orion speakers that were replaced by the LXminis. The LXminis work better than the Orions did in my room. Siegfried improved the sound dispersion characteristics in the LXmini design as compared to the older Orion design.

The right and left channels, each having a total of 4 speaker drivers, are each powered by an Adcom GFA2535 4 channel amp. The Adcom amps are at least 20 years old, have inherent hum problems ( I have measured it and it is NOT pretty...) due to internal wiring configuration and poor transformer shielding, and are scheduled to be replaced within, hopefully, two weeks by a Nord NCore 8 channel amp.

There also exist various other components for home theater, CD, SACD, Blu-Ray disc playing etc, that access the LXmini and other speakers via various various switching means, but these are sidelines to the main event, which is music reproduction.

 

[anmpr1]

Tell her I can still see the La Scala's under that bandana.

If you've found a wife who will tolerate a hi-fi hobby, to include horn speakers in the living room, you pretty much have to consider yourself a lucky man.

 

[anmpr1]

...LXminis work better than the Orions did in my room. Siegfried improved the sound dispersion characteristics in the LXmini design as compared to the older Orion design.

Siegfried Linkwitz was a giant in the field of audio, spending his time where it counts--at the speaker, to include the speaker/amplifier interface. His thinking about sound propagation was different than the typical thing out there. Some folks like the traditional 'box' sound, and that's fine, but from my first hi-fi experience my reaction was (and still is) anti-box. My 'first time' was at a dealer that sold Wharfedale. They were supposed to have packed the enclosure with sand to remove resonances. My impression was, "You know, it sounds good, better than anything I've heard before, but why does everything sound like it is coming from inside a box." For me the worst offenders were often times considered by the crowd to be the best speakers--like AR acoustic suspension designs, and their clones. It was 'closed in' and un-live. Real sound never sounded that way. To me.

Horns, panels (electrostatics and other 'force over area' planar designs), the ESS AMT speaker, omnis, plasma (Dukane, Plasmatronics), even Amar Bose's thing, were all an attempt to overcome the 'boxed in' sound. Sure, those designs had their own problems, but they were not 'boxy'. I don't think anyone can say that. I haven't heard a lot of new speakers, these days, so I don't know how it is. I heard the B&O ice module speaker with the wave guides, the cone that looked like it was from Dr. Who, and that sounded very open and unboxy. But I don't think I'm too wrong to say that no matter how much $$$ you spend on a box speaker, no matter how good it is, no matter how you massage it, cone drivers nailed to a baffle burried inside a box will pretty much always sound boxy.

I've never heard a discouraging word about his speakers. Sure, the LX Mini looks like plumbing, but I'll take plumbing over a 'monkey coffin', when it comes to sound. Is that 'form follows function'? That was Siegfried's thing, and what he worked to overcome. May he RIP.

 

[Percheron]

If you've found a wife who will tolerate a hi-fi hobby, to include horn speakers in the living room, you pretty much have to consider yourself a lucky man.

I would think most would love big speakers, they can put cute stuff on them, like my wife has with my Forte II’s. How many Klipsch speakers do you see on Craigslist with water rings on top, most?

 

[CTRLM]

Here's mine. The audiophile baby quilt and door stops have made a night & day difference.

Allo Digione Signature
MiniDSP DDRC-22D
Chord Qutest
Metrum Pavane
MF M6 500i
B&W 803D

 

[anmpr1]

Here's mine. The audiophile baby quilt and door stops have made a night & day difference.

View attachment 30863

Allo Digione Signature
MiniDSP DDRC-22D
Chord Qutest
Metrum Pavane
MF M6 500i
B&W 803D

2 questions. Does the sonic 'image' improve if the speakers are 'toed in' pointing at the listener, or does that not matter with 803s? Second, what's at the bottom of the speakers? Is it some kind of anti-resonance stand?

 

[CTRLM]

2 questions. Does the sonic 'image' improve if the speakers are 'toed in' pointing at the listener, or does that not matter with 803s? Second, what's at the bottom of the speakers? Is it some kind of anti-resonance stand?

It's hard to see in the photos but they are toed in slightly - approx. 10 degrees. It's been a few years since I last played around with the toe-in but they always imaged really well with a rock solid central image regardless of angle, as long as the distances were spot on. I didn't notice much difference with a more aggressive angle other than the highs from the Diamond tweeters getting a bit harsh. I now use digital room correction but the imaging doesn't suffer with it disabled.

Yes the speakers are sitting on Townshend speaker bars and they are supposedly for anti-vibration but I bought them 2nd hand on a hunch as a neighbour friendly solution. I am in a fairly modern large apartment with great insulation between dwellings so there isn't any problem with fairly high volume levels but I did have a problem with bass resonating down into the apartment below me. After reading a blog by Barry Diament on how he de-coupled his speakers from the floor, I gave this a go and it stopped the problem dead in it's tracks without any obvious side affects

 

[Deleted member 65]

I think kallax is swedish for record album holder. And it all sounds better with meatballs.

No, know this since I'm born in Luleå.

Kallax (Finnish: Kalalaksi) is a locality situated in Luleå Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden with 321 inhabitants in 2010.[1] Luleå Airport is situated near Kallax.