Previous Setup
This is what I had been listening through for the past
several months. I picked up the Magnepan
MG1.4 inexpensively through the local Craigslist, there is a little
delaminating on the left panel, and one of the socks is torn, and they were
missing feet.
I was able to source feet and new socks right from Magnepan
(pretty cool!) - attached the feet and promptly fell in love with the Maggies
on my system so there they stayed.
However, they were just too big for the room, needed to come way off the
back walls for them to sound right - so they were retired to the workshop for
the aforementioned restoration and to make room for my next Craigslist find!
- Source: Mac Mini i5 with 2TB Rosewill external enclosure (some High Res 24/96, mostly ALAC, and some .WAV rips)
- Source 2: Pro Ject Debut III with upgraded OM20 stylus
- Source 3: (Rarely used) Denon DCD-570
- DAC: Apogee ONE (USB in to mini-jack RCA - cheap cables)
- Integrated Amp: 1972 McIntosh MA-6100
- Speaker wire: Radio Shack junk
McIntosh MA-6100
Currently on Craigslist for too high of a price - I am not
sure I really want to sell this beauty.
I bought it at an estate sale when a friend of mine who frequents them
called me up "Hey, I know you are into stereo equipment - ever heard of
McIntosh?" Umm. Yes I have.
This amp, along with the optional wooden panloc enclosure is
in the most amazing mint condition - I couldn't believe it. When you slide the amp out of the enclosure,
the inside is factory perfect. The
silkscreen logo, everything is just perfect in there. The only flaw is at the bottom of the glass
front, there is the slightest of bubbling/discoloration - pretty normal from
what I hear.
Picture of the McIntosh from the estate sale:
I didn't score the tuner...I know they are quite valuable,
but I do not listen to the radio.
ProAc Response D15
ProAc. So, let me
explain. Back in around 1993/1994 I was
in the last high-end stereo store in Providence, RI in my first journey towards
getting a high quality stereo system. I
was fresh out of college, after being infected with the bug by my roommate who
had big, loud Adcom separates feeding a pair of Klipsch floorstanders. My roommate said "Sit here, an equal
distance away from the width of the speakers... see the
"image"?" - I was hooked.
So went my first taste of the "high end." That system was the nicest on campus - we
would run the speakers facing out to the quad in the summertime and fill it
with music. I fell asleep to 'A Decade
of Steely Dan' on that system nearly every night - it made a big
impression.
Anyway, I was at this shop to listen to the much vaunted
Vandersteen 2Ce's. I had a little bit of
dough in my pocket from my first job, and set out to see what the local dealer
had. I thought what I wanted were
floorstanding speakers that sounded great, threw out a killer image like I
heard from those Klipsch's and could get loud (of course.)
Long story longer - he then put on a disc through a set of
separate California Audio CD transport/DAC system (seemed very exotic at the time!)
through Audio Research amplification to a pair of ProAc Studio 100's - the
speakers did their famous "disappearing act" - the imaging, the sound
quality, the everything - just made a huge impression on me, and while I didn't
have the money to purchase ProAc at the time - I was always on the lookout for
a reasonably priced pair, but once this particular audio shop closed down,
there were no ProAc dealers anywhere nearby, so I never got a chance to hear
other models or consider a purchase as time went on.
Eventually, I ended up purchasing some Rotel separates
(RB980bx amplifer, and RC972 preamp) along with a Rotel CD player that died a
few years later. I paired this gear up
with some inexpensive but great sounding Paradigm Titans (then upgraded those to
Paradigm Mini Monitors) which sufficed for several years - but never quite
delivered on that magical sound I heard at that shop in Providence - I felt
especially that I was always dealing with an inherent brightness that took away
from the overall enjoyment - I wanted something with a much smoother treble,
but also kept a solid focus on the detail, separation and imaging.
When I was doing a search of different speaker brands on
Craigslist recently, these D15's popped up (surprisingly), I went to listen to
them at the sellers house (again, through AR amplification!) and was able to
negotiate a fair price. Finally, some
speakers that got me in touch with a higher quality of sound than I had ever
been able to achieve before. This is
when I started "doing it wrong..." by rapidly changing almost every
component in my system in a non-scientific flurry of purchases.
Closeup of ProAc Response D15
Floorstanders were the choice, as I have a curious 18 month
old flying around my house these days, and since the Maggies were too big, and
stand-mounted bookshelves too tippy. I
also considered Totem Arro's...
The intermediate setup
I wired up the new-to-me ProAc's to my existing system with
cheapo speaker cable from Radio Shack, and was immediately greeted with nothing
but goodness, more detail, more clarity, and generally better highs and lows -
no more brightness when compared to my Paradigms. So much so, that even the Mrs. noticed! We also use this system to watch TV shows and
movies hosted from the Mac Mini via XBMC, and the detail and sound quality of
some TV shows was truly amazing.
In come the tubes....first up - Scott 299b
When I bought the Maggies, the seller also had this
interesting vintage tube amp for sale.
It is pretty highly regarded by the vintage tube aficianados out there -
plus the price was right, and I was always curious about this tube-y warmth
that everyone talks about - so I bought it as well. When I hooked up this old school, low powered
amp to my Paradigm monitors, I got a taste of what tubes can do - and I liked
it. However, this old amp needs a full
restoration (it now has a home in a small attic room system until I ship it
off) and I was hopeful that I could find a tube integrated that had that tube
magic, but was a bit more modern and reliable.
I had been doing some research and the amps from Primaluna
seemed to hit on all marks in terms of build quality, solid reviews, and nice
modern features like a smart auto-bias circuit and a remote.
Primaluna Prologue Premium integrated amplifier
I felt like I finally had some speakers of a quality that
deserve some higher quality gear in the chain - so I began executing against a
plan that every audiophile worth their salt knows is wrong - I started buying a
pile of gear with the intent of making a big change, instead of adding in one
component at a time in order to better understand what each one did to the
sound. But, I was impatient, and I had
speakers that gave me a taste of what was possible. So I started calling dealers in a 2-hour
radius from my location, as there are no audio stores really close by.
The original place I had purchased my Rotel and Paradigm
gear from was also a Primaluna dealer, so I called them up.
The downside of no close stores is not being able to listen
to gear and demo it appropriately, but the upside of the Internet is lots and
lots (and lots) of opinions about gear through either "professional"
reviews, or peoples listening notes - which certainly not enough to make a
foolproof purchase, it is information that can be used to help. Plus, these days, one can purchase a piece of
gear, and test it at home in their own rooms, with their own equipment, draw
their own conclusions, and use the return period, should it not work out.
When I called the store that stocked Primaluna, I was told
that they have no stock currently (in fact NO local dealers had anything in
stock), all they had was a demo unit that was for sale. Hmmmmm.
The ability to buy a broken-in piece of gear at a discount price? Count me in!
I asked which model, and it was the exact one I was interested in, a
silver faced Prologue Premium (with remote!).
This one was specced with the optional (higher powered) KT-88 power
tubes. I figured I should jump on it, we
negotiated a good price, and they offered to ship it to me for free, so I could
return it no questions asked if it didn't work out. Nice.
New DAC and async USB to SPDIF converter
In parallel, I had been constantly doing research about DAC
replacement options, as I felt my Apogee One probably could use an
upgrade. I liked the idea of
asynchronous USB, and I liked what I was hearing about the Peachtree DACiT
(mainly thanks to the good folks over at Computeraudiophile.com) - and I had
the opportunity to purchase some DAC gear with the ability to return it
worry-free. On the reviews I read, and
the specifications I wanted, I bought the DAC, along with a Musical Fidelity
V-Link II, as I wanted to be able to play 24/88 and 24/96 files - which the
Peachtree only supports through the Coax connection, plus it brought async USB
to the table - which seems like a "good thing" due to its ability to
lower jitter well. I did a bunch of late
night A/B tests between the DACiT and the Apogee, and was actually surprised to
find the differences were actually rather small.
The DACiT seemed to put a little more air and separation
into the mix, and warmed up the top-end a bit, but again, the differences were
not night and day. This was done before
I received the Link II, I plan to continue my A/Bing of this setup now that my
new amplification, etc. is all set up.
Guess I need new furniture too...
After extensive discussion with the Mrs. - who is always extremely patient with my
obsessions (she tolerated a Porsche 911 whaletail in our kitchen many years ago
for several months - long story!) - we decided to use the opportunity of getting
new equipment to improve the design of our living room space as well. We found this inexpensive bookshelf from
Target (after researching various options at Ikea and other places) which would
allow me to put the amp and turntable on top (out of reach of small hands) and
provide some good LP storage as well.
The plan was to fabricate a shelf for the top midlde cube and put the
computer and DAC setup there.
Old and new
The plan is to relocate the TV (Sony XBR 46" LED LCD)
onto the wall, and move the cable box/DVR to another location and use a wired
IR extender remote setup for it.
I probably should buy some new cables.
If for nothing else but the convenience of banana clips, I
decided to get some new cables. I also
needed a digital coax (RCA) cable, so I made some purchases. Knowing that debating cables can result in
one of those raucous debates that only audiophiles are capable of, so I will
spare you any analysis in this regard.
But I will share my own cable philosophy. I don't have the patience to A/B test or
compare cables in my system, plus the time it takes to either have a setup to
easily allow this, or swap cables back and forth and back and forth while
trying to hear subtle differences is not something that appeals to me - I
obsess over lots of other things, doing it with cables might drive me to be
institutionalized. Therefore, what I do
is buy firmly at the entry level. I look
for a reputable company and good connectors, as in my mind a solid connection
just seems like good common sense, and reliability is important, as I tend to
hold onto gear for a loooong time.
This led me to what I bought. Blue Jeans cable is a great little outfit
that has been selling budget audiophile cables for a long time - I bought their
biwire speaker cable (built on Canare 4s11), an Audioquest entry level VDM-X
coax cable, and an Audioquest Forest USB cable.
Now you may notice I breezed by another highly debatable topic -
biwiring. Again in synch with my
philosophy, I decided to not sweat the small stuff, and since ProAc recommends
the use of biwiring, it didn't add much to the overall cost, and since I have
never tried it, I decided to give it a whirl.
Plus, the little pins that bridged the connectors on the speakers were
too darn fiddly!
Starting to shape up
Added in the fabricated shelf for the DAC and computer.
Getting closer...
Put some of my records in, and pulled out the shelf again to
drill for cable routing, trying to keep it nice and neat.
TV wall mount
Note: the TV looks WAY high in this pic - in reality it doesn't seem high at all
My father came over to help me mount the TV on the wall -
once we had located the studs and measured everything up, it was relatively
easy. Wired everything up temporarily to
verify the location would work.
Electrical work
I had my electrician come over to install a power outlet,
and help me run the two HDMI cables (one to cable box/DVR, and one to the Mac
Mini in the stereo shelf) and a Toslink optical cable to go to the DAC for the
TV audio. I terminated the Mac's HDMI
into an HDMI jack, and ran a shorter HDMI cable from the jack to the computer. Worked out well, and nice and neat. The reason for the "mistake" next
to the power outlet was we ran into a strangely placed stud in the wall. My house is relatively old (~1904) and we
find weird things from time to time - mainly strange construction decisions
made in the '70s...
While he was here, I also had him run a dedicated 15amp
circuit for the amplifier to isolate it onto its own link, and keep the noisier
(from an AC perspective) computer and other gear on its own circuit.
I also used the time to install a wired IR repeater (Sanus)
for the cable box/DVR - this worked amazingly well. The box now sits on a shelf in the basement,
and the "eye" is installed into a jack near the floor above an RJ-45
outlet.
Basically done!
All cables routed and mainly hidden, everything in
place. I added a clip-mounted LED light
for the turntable which comes in handy.
A little light on records at the moment - about 2-3x this
amount are sitting in my basement in queue for a cleaning - I don't like to run
dirty used vinyl on this rig - everything gets a full vacuum clean and a fresh
Mofi sleeve.
Ahh that warm tube glow
All in all, even though I did it "wrong" - I am
really happy with the end result. Both
aesthetically, and sonically. I have
finally gotten the sound I have been chasing for years now in my living
room. I have gone on multiple vinyl
buying sprees and have been playing more 24/88 and 24/96 HD recordings sourced
from HDTracks and others.
So naturally the right question is ...what next? Maybe a new turntable? The Clearaudio Concept sure looks nice...
maybe some mods to the Pro Ject in the form of the acrylic platter (less dust
attraction than the damn felt mat!) and the Speedbox...? Tube rolling? I just
ordered some Mullard EL34 reissue tubes to see how they compare to the KT88's -
I hear the '34s are a bit warmer and more "classic tube" sound.
I have also been testing out some of the higher-end software
players that plug into iTunes (my library of choice for my digital music) - I
have tried Amarra, PureMusic, and Audirvana so far - I definitely like the fact
that these players can automatically change my sample rate settings for me, and
the memory play feature logically seems like it would be an improvement -
however the jury is still out on which one I will ultimately invest in. Amarra seemed to sound the best - however, I
found it to be rather buggy and would interrupt the beginnings of songs, I
couldn't get gapless play to work right, etc.
So more to come here.
For now- I plan to change nothing, buy more music and kick
back and listen as often as I can.
So far so good.
