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How has your rig changed in 2007? And do you have any future plans?


postjack

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2007 was a very good year for my electrostatic rig. I finally stepped up my electrostatic collection and bought a SR-Omega, HE60, 4070, Airbow SR-SC1, SR-404, Lambda Pro, Lambda Nova Signature, SR-Sigma, SR-5NB, SR-3, SR-3N, Gamma, Gamma Pro, Alpha Pro Excellent and SR-X Mk2. Add to that all the other phones, amps, adapters, cables, tubes that I've bought and sold and it is a small fortune... :o I have the nasty habit of buying every great deal I come across so I often have multiples of something or I'm forced to buy the headphones I want bundled with something I have no use for. This can lead to some interesting collections such as 3 Lambda Signatures, 5 SRD-7 Mk2's and 5 SRM-T1 amps all at the same time... ::)

The main rig has remained unchanged for the most part since 2004 but I sold my Meridian G08 in December and I'm waiting for APL to finish updating my player. I did continue to work on my cable designs in 2007 so now my rig is ready for major upgrades in 2008. I'm going to finally invest in a good rack, upgrade my Blue Hawaii (or just build a new one) and rework my power situation by building a new all silver distribution block for the second dedicated line and finish building cases for the two huge transformers I use with all of my 100v and 117v gear. All in all 2008 should be a lot cheaper the 2007 unless I start to collect electrostatic speakers as well.

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2007 saw the transition from the Emu 0404 USB to the Bel Canto Dac3.

Other stuff came and went, but thats pretty much all worth noting.

I'll get the amp I bought in 2007 shipped in 2008.

Oh and my music collection doubled in size from ~4200 files to +8600. O0

Future plans include adding a pair of L3000s and possibly a high end Grado or top tier Allesandro.

And balanced interconnects, but not headphones.

Last but least, loads and loads and loads and loads of music.

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2007 Team Cheap-ass (otherwise known as married with 2 kids and underemployed wife :o). Mostly concentrated on speaker rig.

Sources: Rotel RCD-855; Thorens TD320 MkI / AT 440ML

Concentrated mainly on improving my source (digital). Started off the year getting a modified PFM Flea board done with /2 clocking (actually 2 Flea PSUs combined on one board) so that I could bypass the horrid clock distribution via the SAA7220 and do direct BCK to the TDA1541A. Put in a second transformer and Tread to provide the raw DC for this. Worked real good bubba.

Next for the source came the DIY DC-coupled discrete I/V stage. Got the discrete board(s) done this summer and finally got around to doing a proper PSU for them so I put one of them in. Major upgrade which has me in less of a mood to do anything else to the source right now. Opamps are no contest to this, at least for I/V. Need to listen to some of the more upscale players to compare; might grab a demo Meridian from Holm Audio to listen some >:D.

Amplification: Counterpoint SA5.1 preamp and Odyssey Stratos plus power amp. I'd always been fighting with the preamp regarding hum and noise. I even bought a Coda Window II preamp to try out... it lost, so I sold it (not bad sounding though). Got rid of almost all of the noise by replacing 2 huge Cerafine 2x220uf caps I had put in 3-4 years ago with 3 BG VK 150uf 350V caps. The Cerafines were too close to the pot, causing the noise. DOH! :stick: Probably not done though... back to a TKD pot for it, and replacement of the coupling caps. Next year I might send the Odyssey in and get the Extreme upgrades done. Don't think I can accommodate monos...

Speakers: Von Schweikert VR4 GenIIs, Soler Points stainless spikes, Kimber 8TC cables. Still like these, probably here to stay for awhile. If I come across a long 4TC run, I might go back to biwire.

Headphone rig: Still using a DIY Dynalo (headamp V2 PCB), AKG K601s. I know this is pretty lame for most of you :-[ I have alot of bits around for a Dynahi or 2 or 3, but the B22 also interests me. Not sure if I want to go balanced yet, as nothing else I have is balanced (other than the Aleph P1.7 clone I have the boards built for). Maybe...

The litz ground loop thing that Aerius mentions on the first or second page is interesting, though the boards I have done have full ground planes on them... might have to play around with that a bit though in some of the stuff. And possibly some interconnect upgrades (still using mainly old Audioquest Turquoise/Ruby cables). Pricey cables and team cheap-ass don't peacefully coexist though... Maybe try some Grovers out though... saw a UR5 on HF... would this be worthwhile?

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The various changes and such below are of little significance to the greater joy of my audio hobby compared with:

March/April 07: Dumped Mission M33. Bough Quad 21L.

Aside from that, put in a Pass Labs Aleph M power amp, Squeezebox 3, Audio Technica 440MLa, Pro-Ject Speedbox II.

The Aleph love the Quads and makes the AMT sound very lovely. Squeezebox is a great bit of kit.

Said goodbye to the aforementioned Missions, two sets of Jecklin Float Electrostatics, an HD280 Pro (awful awful headphones), a PX100, and a CX300 (awful awful awful awful earphones).

I also managed to lose my B&O A8, which I really liked, had great times with the TakeT H2 and enjoyed the UK meet.

Biggest lessons of 2007. Speakers are the win, amps DO matter, a lot, the K1000 is brilliant and I want one and vinyl is ftw.

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I've basically stopped browsing Audiogon, as I always seem to buy stuff. At this point, I really really don't need to be doing this (for lots of serious reasons)... I do have money set aside for a new transport. Well, it showed up on the 'gon, didn't sell and then showed up again and I randomly looked at it had just sold. This is all so frustrating, as I don't want to start lurking around there again (obsessively). So, I'm probably going to write a script to poll the site or find someone who with be an intermediary for me (volunteers?) :)

That being said </rant> and all that stuff, I'm planning on actually getting two pairs of speakers finished this year. I've been working on these forever and really really want to get them finished. One is a Morel compact 3-way using first-order slopes, the other is a Scan-Speak + Audiotechnology + Scan-Speak using mixed-order slopes, ala Thiel. I even have a builder that will finish the cabinets, but the plans are lacking. Yup, that's the crazy part. I've gone through 3? cabinet designs and am still not happy with the result.

Other than that, I have a DIY TT motor pod w/ controller I'm working on and a pair of souped-up Pass / First Watt F4 monoblocks that need to be cased up.

The rest of this year will be devoted to music!

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First rig change of 2008: all dynamic headphones except for two cheaper Grados and HD580 gone :o

(curse you Head-Case?)

(emphasis mine)

did you not sell the HF-1 deepak? or are you talking about other grados I'm unaware of?

edit: on second thought how dare you own any gear at all i am not aware of. you and your shady signature... >:(

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(emphasis mine)

did you not sell the HF-1 deepak? or are you talking about other grados I'm unaware of?

edit: on second thought how dare you own any gear at all i am not aware of. you and your shady signature... >:(

I have a Grado SR-60 (which I can't get rid of, first headphone intro into hifi) and woody SR-325.

HF-1 are interesting. They didn't quite do it for me with bowls, but they had too much bass with flats :-\

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I'm looking for a Muse Audio Eight CD/DVD transport :)

Is there a price range I should look out for?

I have a Grado SR-60 (which I can't get rid of, first headphone intro into hifi) and woody SR-325.

HF-1 are interesting. They didn't quite do it for me with bowls, but they had too much bass with flats :-\

That's how I felt about the HF-1's. Too much bass for me.

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