gdnrbob, unfortunately, that addresses a concern that we had about the 2's. Keep in mind, that this is our first system. We will probably upgrade to the quattros in the future and move these speakers to another room where they will be better suited. Thanks for the recommendation for Audioconnection! I'll be sure to reach out to him! |
Infection, I already have a decent amount of dislike for dealers. I can't believe how they go out of their way not to help you.
Erik_squires, room acoustics is something we are already planning to work on and will be trying to improve them as we go. |
Thanks inna! We are primarily into piano heavy jazz and vocals. Orchestra isn't our thing, so huge amounts of power shouldn't be a concern. You were right when you said we want a warm cozy relaxed sound, but we also want to make sure we have decent clarity with tight bass. Due to the nature of the BnB, we won't be able to accommodate face melting volume, so again you are right on with that assumption.
The room is large. It is approximately 20 x 40. The speakers will be placed at about the mid point of the room facing one of the walls. So the listening area will be about 20x20 with the kitchen area BEHIND the speakers. Leaving a 20x20 space behind the listening area. We know that this isn't optimal, but it's what we have for now. The ceiling is 11 ft tall.
If I didn't address your questions properly, please let me know as I'm still learning :-) |
Wow, thank you all for your responses! I've been going through all of your recommendations and trying to research them to the best of my ability with the resources that I know of at this time.
I do want to reiterate something at this point so that you are all aware of my plan moving forward. This is my introductory system. I know that it may not be 100% optimal for the room it is going in at this point in time. I do plan to upgrade as it makes sense moving forward. We have been building the BnB over the last year and want to make audio a main part of the experience for our guests and plan on having a very nice option in all the rooms. I'm sorry if I was unclear about that up front.
@facten I was not aware of the virtual systems page. Thank you very much for pointing that out and I've already spent a good amount of time checking it out. That is a phenomenal resource!
@inna I've been looking into the Cronus Magnum II and it looks like a very solid option and right along the lines of what we are looking for. Speaker cables shouldn't have to be over 10ft. We are ok with an "entry" level table, and are ok spending around $1-2K give or take at this point.
@robr45 the rp3 is compelling and right in the sweet spot for our current price range. My local shop already tried to deal with me on an rp1, so maybe they will extend that to the 3.
@oleschool buying used is a scary proposition for me. I'm not saying I'm against it, but I would like a solid recommendation or two on places that you might suggest to look for used gear.
@stevecham Those are both really nice options, were you left wanting for power at all?
@mapman We are in Denver...I'm afraid it will be a while till it will be up to an audiophiles standards though :-) We used to own a cafe, so it's a much more relaxing way to do what we love!
Thank you all for your responses. If I didn't mention you, it's probably because I'm still digging into what you had to say.
I'm currently visiting Minneapolis, do any of you have a recommendation on a shop or two that I should visit?
|
Ok, so I was able to go to the Needle Doctor in Minneapolis yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised with how I was treated by their staff. It was the first time in over 15 years that I had an audio salesman who actually was into the hobby and not just there to sell me on the most expensive gear. I dealt with Brad and would highly recommend him if you are in the area. The showroom wasn't anything special, but they did have plenty of gear to audition and he actually knew what he was talking about when I asked questions. This was a completely different experience than dealing with Listen Up in Denver. They have a beautiful store, but no substance or support.
I was able to audition the Cronus Magnum II and was really happy with what I heard! Once I get back to Colorado, I'm going to head up to Fort Collins to visit The Audio Alternative to audition some Vandys and to pick their brain. Unfortunately, I think it is going to be hard to get the Rogue and Vandys together.
@oleschool and @gdnrbob Thanks for the reassurance on buying used, it's a leap of faith, but I think I'll be ok.
@inna that VAC looks amazing, I'm not ready to buy just yet, so I hope it is around in another month or two!
@raymonda thanks for the offer on the Thorens! It looks like an awesome table and if it's around in another month or two, I may make you an offer :-)
@emailists I appreciate your concern on burn out and ease of use. However, keep in mind that people are coming to Denver to spend time in the mountains, go out to dinners/bars, and enjoy the local cannabis scene. Most of our guests spend very little time in our home. Also, there is no way in hell that we will be allowing people to operate the system themselves. This is my full time job, so I will always be home to cook for them when they want and since our kitchen is part of our living room, we thought this would be a great way to incorporate a passion of ours into their experience. Once we have the system(s) dialed in, we will make it more of a fixture in the BnB experience. If we burn through tubes, I'm fine with that because that would mean that I'm surround by beautiful music all day long :-)
@polkalover Room treatments will definitely happen as soon as possible! Thanks for the recommendation on treatments!
I'm going to be attending the Rocky Mountain Audio Festival in October. If any of you will be in town for it, I'd love to pick your brains in person and listen to some awesome gear together! I'd offer up our BnB for you to stay in, but we are already booked solid till November.
|
Ok, so I'm strongly considering going with a set of used vandy 3a sigs. Same price as new 2ce sig II, so why not? I have found a couple of used sets online, but I'm waiting to hear back from the sellers on details. One seller is apparently a member here, but hasn't replied to my text or PM yet. I have been digging to try to figure out if the 3a's have changed at all over the years. I know that the 2s have and that their name has changed slightly to reflect the upgrades. However, it seems that the 3a sigs haven't gone through any upgrades? Does any one have any light to shed on this for me? I just want to make sure I don't buy something that isn't what I think it is.
@inna after doing a bunch of research on the VAC, I'm leaning that direction. Sounds like a phenomenal piece of kit. You already know that, but I had to poke around myself. The only downside is I won't be able to audition it :-/
|
Well, I unfortunately missed the deal on the Cronus Magnum ii, because our travels over the holiday got a bit crazy. In addition, we were faced with the option of opening up a second BnB location that would have eliminated our stereo budget. We had to kind of back away for a while and make a big decision.
On the bright side, I now have a slightly larger stereo budget (8-10K) as we decided to pass on the second location :-) Based on the new budget, if I am able to find some decent used gear, i should have a nice system to start with.
Unfortunately, I may be asking you all for a bit more advice moving forward. I really appreciate all of the help and recommendations so far!
Time for me to start doing a little more research...
|
@inna I learned my lesson the hard way on that. I was actually sitting down with my wife to make a decision on the VAC last night and it was gone. I found the same amp listed on another forum from the same seller, but I doubt it is still available. |
|
Thanks for the reassurance @oleschool and @gdnrbob. I know I’ll find what suits my needs/wants best eventually. I had a local shop turn me onto the PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP. Does any one have any thoughts/experience with that amp? @miner42 I believe you brought that unit up in an earlier post, care to weigh in on the recommendation? |
@terry9 We are extremely fortunate that our listening area will be directly above our garage which houses our breaker box. So running a dedicated power line will be extremely easy as will housing power dedicated equipment. A record cleaner will be purchased the day I buy my table. I was unfortunate enough to audition some equipment at a store that hadn't cleaned their vinyl and I was appalled at how bad it sounded.
@inna I know that cables are a hotly contested subject. That's part of the reason I haven't brought them up yet. Also because I'm waiting to pick out my gear before I begin to dive into that topic. We'll revisit that when the time comes :) |
So, I have been watching every youtube video I can find in my spare time in preparation for the RMAF trying to come up with a game plan of which equipment and presentations I want to see. I have a 3 day pass, so I should have enough time to cover a lot of ground and I'm fortunate that my wife is really into this and will be attending the show with me. Have any of you attended the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest before? Any recommendations on brands/models to check out or people I should try to talk to?
Personally, I have been intrigued by Pure Audio Project's Trio15 Voxativ and Peter Brunniger (sp?) from AV Showrooms seemed to be very impressed by them. I have no grounds for my interest other than the fact that they are in my price range and they seem to be getting really good reviews. However, the Vandy 3A sigs or Treo CTs are still at the top of my list.
I'm also starting to lean towards the Primaluna DiaLogue Premium HP Integrated but with the KT150 tubes. I'm headed to Golden Sound in Denver today to audition it. I'm not going to lie, I'm not terribly impressed how Primaluna touts what they do as a company. I know they have quality gear, but constantly trying to point out other companies flaws to try to stand out is pretty lame. Let the gear speak for itself.
I have about 3 weeks till RMAF to try to audition as much gear as possible and once the show is over, we are hoping to finalize our decision on what we want to get.
@inna The Nottingham Interspace looks pretty damn nice. I checked out their site and can't find any US dealers and they won't be attending RMAF, so I probably won't be able to audition one. How do you feel about buying a table without hearing it? |
So the audition of the Primaluna was pretty disappointing due to the speaker options. Nothing against the shop I was at or Focal lovers, but the only real option for the audition was the Aria 948. For a $5,000 speaker I was extremely surprised at the lack of balance it had. It was so bright that my ears fatigued after 3 songs. 3 hours later, my ears still feel like I was at a 4 hour long heavy metal concert and the most extreme thing I listened to was Steely Dan. High piano and guitar notes were downright metallic and piercing. It seemed as if some one turned the volume up several notches every time there was a high note. Trying to find a decent place to audition gear is turning out to be a challenge. One thing I can take away, is that the Primaluna didn't seem to have a hard time powering the Arias. |
@oleschool, I'm in Colorado...downtown Denver.
@gdnrbob, I'll look into them, thanks for the recommendation! |
I have a lot of posts to catch up on here :)
Regardless of your opinions, I do appreciate the input. I haven't researched audio gear for about 10 years, so I have a lot of catching up to do.
@hifiman5 I agree 100%. Audiophiles are very passionate about this hobby and rightfully so. We all hear things differently and you all have put a LOT of time and money into your passion. We truly appreciate you all taking the time to guide us along the way. User reviews are my main source for information. I'm not sure if the audio industry has gone the way of the automotive industry, but I know that at times, reviewers can be swayed to say certain things. This isn't a dig at reviewers, I'm just very skeptical when it comes to magazines and websites that need to keep companies happy so that they can sell advertising to stay in business.
Keep in mind that I haven't had the opportunity to audition a lot of gear yet. I'm incredibly lucky that RMAF is happening when we are looking to dive into this. We are going to be able to hear a LOT of gear over the 3 days and also be able to talk to a lot of people in the industry face to face.
The amount of time that I have been dedicating to this decision is kind of sick :-) Thankfully my wife is understanding and supportive of me trying to make the right decision for our investment. We have been looking into companies like Nottingham, Vienna, Zu, Audion, Melody, Line Magnetic, and many MANY more. We are still 100% committed to tubes and that will not change. However, seeing as we have been unable to audition the Vandys that we are interested in, we are open to changing our towers. This is the main thing we want to take away from RMAF and we are hoping that we might be able to buy a set of demos off the company that we decide to go with seeing as how we are only 8 blocks away from the event and can spare them from lugging the gear home :-)
One thing I can tell you is that we will not be going with Primaluna. Their approach to touting their gear has completely turned us off on the company. Pointing out another companies shortcomings is not a good way to promote your product.
|
@audioman2015 The parasound amps are actually a product I have auditioned. I was able to hear them with the Focal Aria 948s. There was definitely no shortage of power and they drove them beautifully. However, we are not a fan of the Focals so we didn't hear the potential of the amp as we would have liked too. In addition, we are only interested in tube amps for this system. |
@mapman I am in 100% agreement with the fact that tubes might not be the best choice for the Vandys and our budget. They are definitely not the most efficient speakers. This is why we have become more open minded about the speaker choice as we are 100% committed to running tubes. (Sorry to flip flop every one)
Since our space is so large, we have begun to consider running or eventually upgrading to 1 or even 2 subs. This will probably happen down the line. So this opens up a new dilemma with my amp choice...eventually getting signal to the subs. |
The JM labs are out of our range. But the VPI Classic is in our sweet spot for the table. If we go smaller on the speakers, we would invest more in the table. We want the table we buy to stay in the main system for a couple years. You have us talking about it... |
@inna Do you think the Spacedeck will suffice? Also, I just checked out DeVore and Coincident...beautiful looking speakers. I'll look deeper into them tonight. I know VAC is a phenominal company, I'll just have to find a decent used unit. The new stuff is out of reach for now.
@frogman We want to go with tubes for 3 main reasons. I have been in love with them since I was a kid. Personally, I think the sound that you get is more musical, cozy, warm, what ever you want to call it. Sometimes people who like tubes struggle to put it into words. The third reason is that they look cool as hell. Remember, we are running a bed and breakfast. Any one can do this and make a little bit of money and people could be a little happy that they saved money on a high end hotel and had a clean comfortable bed to sleep in. Or, we can deliver a unique experience that they will remember for ever. We want to deliver the latter. A simple box on a rack doesn't really scream unique. But glowing tubes when the lights are low does. Personally, the last reason isn't why I want to run tubes, but it doesn't hurt the image of our business. |
I'll have to post pics of the room so that you guys can see the challenges of our space. Corner placement isn't an option. We have two potential options and this is why this decision is getting to be so tough. If I go for what we set out to do, the speakers will be placed about 10 feet from the seating area. The area in front of the speakers would account for 1/3 of the length of the room. That means that there is about 26-28 feet behind the speakers. At the widest point and in the listening area, the room is about 20 feet wide. Our ceilings are 11 ft. We are considering going with a smaller system that would be in the same area but with a different speaker placement. The speakers would be perpendicular to the original placement and the listening area would be approximately 15 feet wide by 20 deep. The speakers would end up being about 12-15 feet from the sweet spot. In this configuration there would be no wall on the right hand side as you look at the speakers. Obviously none of this is optimal. Knowing that doing this right with our original speaker placement, we may have to spend a lot more than we want to at this point in time. This is why we are considering the second option. With this option, we would opt to go for a higher efficiency speaker with a sub(s) and run a lower output class A integrated or Mono set up. The idea here is that we have a system that we can use for the BnB and move it to a bedroom when we can sink the cash into a proper large room system. Lots to think about. I'll try to get pics up tomorrow so that you can see what I'm talking about. |
@inna, Not at all :-) We've had a busy couple of days with guests and honestly, I needed to step back for a few days and let some info and ideas sink in. I've committed to not buying anything till after RMAF. There are going to be several companies there with gear that we're interested in and I think it's best to audition as much as we can in our price range since we have an amazing 3 day long opportunity. I have a lot of info to sift through, as you all have some awesome ideas that have got me thinking...
I'll try to reply to all of the posts tomorrow :-) |
@facten they are pretty pricy, so I'd have to snag a used one...which I'm not opposed to. |
I have nothing against Maggies, just not my thing.
I've been doing a lot of looking at some higher efficiency speakers and also what amps I'd be interested in pairing with them. So far, this is what I have found and am considering:
Audio Space Reference 3.1 300B
Trafomatic Experience Elegance
Ampsandsound Casablancas (not integrated)
Line Magnetic 518IA
Elliott Studio Arts 66-001 (not integrated)
AUDION STERLING STEREO KT88 (not integrated)
Ayon Scorpio
Serious Stereo 2A3
Primaluna Dialogue HP
VAC (something used)
Obviously each of these amps has it's own strengths and matching them to the speaker choice is key.
These are some of the better reviewed amps in my price range. However, Serious Stereo, Ampsandsound, and Elliott Studio Arts are not the easiest amps to dig info up on. I really like the idea of an American made product, but I'm not sure how they would stand up to the other brands? Seeing as they are not widely reviewed and info is scarce, it would be hard to consider them seriously at this point unless, any one has info on them?
A few of these options exceed our price range, but that's not to say that we might go over a bit if we find exactly what fits us. Hopefully a good chunk of the these companies will be represented at RMAF.
I wish the audio fest was this weekend...this is torture :-) |
never mind...I just saw the other lines of product. |
Does any one have thoughts or info on Audio Space? It looks like their products were well thought of some time ago, they seemed to disappear for a while, and now I've seen them pop up in a few places. Cosmetically, their products haven't changed at all. So I'm wondering if they were updated or if they were so solid that they don't need to be updated? |
Well, I thought it would be time for a quick update since we are a week out form RMAF and I'm narrowing down my decision. Here is what I'm thinking:
Speakers: Zu Soule Supremes or Druids
Amp: Audion 120 Super Sterling SET, Audion Silver Night 300B SE, or Line Magnetic 518IA
Table: Still researching a lot here, but I'm thinking Hanss T10 or Nottingham interspace Jr. to start with and then upgrade the front end in a year or so. We are probably going to end up over budget due to the amp/speaker selection so we will move the table to one of the bedrooms when we can upgrade.
Any feedback is always appreciated! |
I’m just going to throw a potentially stupid room treatment idea out there to combat our extremely large listening area and see what you guys thing...
What if I were to install a heavy floor to ceiling track and curtain that could cut the room down to one third of the size for serious listening sessions?
I mean more of a nice heavy/backed velvet curtain, not a cheep accordion style room divider by the way.
|
OK, we'll revisit the room treatments down the road...
I'm really starting to get to a point that I don't know which direction to go in. After lots of reading posts and reviews, it seems like the "true tube experience" lies in SET set ups. Then you get into the type of tube that has the characteristics that you are looking for. Then you try to find what is in your price range (which is somewhat limiting in this case). I wish I had 15-20K to drop on monoblocks, but we don't at this time.
From what I have read, It seems like an 845 or well designed 300b are what I'm looking for in a SET set up. I'm also considering Atma-Sphere's OTL s30 and the Audion kt120 SET. Based on what I'm seeing, 300b's are great at midrange, but suffer at low and high end. Audion apparently has fixed this issue with their new transformer. The price on the 300b SE is possibly a marriage breaker :-)
Line Magnetic obviously makes the 218 and 518 models for the SET845. The price seems right and so do the reviews on the gear. I'm not sure how easy it is to deal with repairs/warranty issues here though? I'm also not seeing many down sides to the 845 tube. Possibly some one could enlighten me here?
The negatives that people have expressed on the Atma-Sphere (which I don't know how well founded they are) are that there is either some noise that can be heard due to the amp or due to the amps ability to reveal it in the recording. Also, it sounds like the tubes that are used are somewhat scarce and there are very few options to roll tubes. In another thread, it seems like proper speaker matching is extremely important with this amp. On the flip side, I have yet to find a negative about the company or the owner. It sounds like they stand behind their product if there are issues that arise and also that their build quality is top notch. This is also my wife's favorite amp based on the retro looks. The fact that they are an American made company from my wife's home town is also a bonus.
The Audion Kt120 SET is very intriguing. There is a RAVE review of the product linked from the distributor's site. I believe this product was only made for the American market. My conundrum is that I'm not sure how the KT120 is going to sound as an SET? The price and power output seem to be perfect, so this would be a great option if it's a good fit for the speaker choice. The dealer I talked to tried to steer me towards the 300b set up, which is the more expensive option. It sounded like he had my best interest when doing so, but I'm a tad skeptical.
I'm not going to lie, researching everything is starting to wear on me. I just want to sit back with the lights off and watch my tubes glow as I listen to vinyl. Making the right choice is stressing me out more than it should, but this is probably the 3rd biggest investment behind house and car that we have made. On top of it, we want guests to love it!
Sorry to ramble on here, just don't really know where to turn at this point.
6 days till RMAF. Hopefully, I will have an eye opening experience that will make the decision easier. |
well, day 1 at RMAF is in the books. Although I'm probably going back tonight to hang with the Zu crew and listen to some more vinyl. I have to admit, I was both impressed and disappointed in my first day. I listened to $200,000+ systems that were terrible (in my opinion) and some $6,000 systems that absolutely blew me away. The biggest lesson I learned was that price does NOT equal quality in the audio world. I also listened to some PHENOMINAL flagship systems.
So far my 3 favorite rooms were:
#3 VAC with Harbeth 40.2s The speakers completely disappeared in this room. I found myself staring at the wall above the amp because that's where the guitar and vocals were coming from. You could literally hear where every instrument in the band was. If I had the funds/listening room set up, I would be extremely drawn to this set up.
#2 Vincent Audio Sp-T700s paired with Ryan R620s. This was honestly every bit as good as the VAC room, except on a smaller scale. The speakers disappeared completely, were dynamic and warm. Again, with the right living situation, I would definitely be a potential customer here.
#1 Zu Audio. I went into the show expecting/hoping for good things from Zu and I was blown away. They were paired with Peachtree audio, so not my ideal tube set up, but they still sounded phenominal. The soul supremes were in a very large room and they still sounded dynamic, had zero listening fatigue, were extremely warm...basically all of the things I'm looking for in my price range. They definitely perform way above their price range and everyone that was in their room (which was a lot) couldn't believe how good they were for the price. I'd say that Zu is a company that people need to take note of.
Honorable Mention was Natural Sound Speakers and the Pass Labs rooms. They were so far out of my price range, I couldn't justify putting them in my top 3, but WOW! There was also an importer from Colorado that had the best set up I heard, but I can't remember the companies as i didn't take the literature. Hands down the best system at the show. But again, I'd have to win the lottery to even consider a system like that.
I'll try to do another write up tomorrow night. |
@inna The Harbeths were unique. I don't know if it was their ported design, but it almost was like they were breathing bass on you. I felt like they had a bit more range down low. The highs were seamless thanks to the 3 way design, but to me lacked a little bit of realism. The Soul Supremes had a much tighter bass that went lower than expected, but you can see where adding a sub would complete the presentation. My wife and I go to see a lot of live music...blues, jazz, symphony and concerts. To me, the Zus delivered a much more life like and live sound. The tweeter definitely delivered a more realistic symbol strike and electric guitar sound.
Don't get me wrong, the Harbeths were amazing, but not at 3 times the price of the Zus. They also had more than $50,000 of gear driving them where the Soul Supremes had a $1,000 Peachtree 125(new unreleased model). This is an apples to oranges comparison and I'm obviously injecting my opinion here. Their rooms are about 20ft apart, so I'll try to give you a little bit better description tonight.
If I were going to sum up each speaker with one word:
Harbeth: Soundstage
Zu: Realism |
@inna I forgot to mention, that every system that had VAC components was really solid. You are right in saying that the amazing soundstage that I heard on the Harbeths was as a result of their amps. That was a common characteristic in all set ups that featured their gear. I'm leaning towards the Audion 300b Silver Night Special Edition, but If I can find the right used deal, I may grab a VAC. I have had several people tell me that the Audion/Zu combo is a home run, so I'm torn. For the time being, we will be running a peachtree Nova 150. We need to save some funds because our budget has almost doubled. We will be completing the system by the start of summer at the latest. |
Day two is in the books and it was a great day!
My wife was with me today and she had a blast. To be honest, I purchased the baby blue set of Zu Soul Supremes from the cover of Stereophile yesterday. I didn't want to say anything, because I had a small case of second guessing myself. I left today feeling like I 100% made the right choice and my wife agreed. She even said, that there wasn't anything close within $7-10k of their price. We hit every room that was in our range, all the flagship rooms, some solid state rooms, and every tube room we could find. She also left saying that she doesn't understand why everyone doesn't run tubes...I married wisely :-) We spent a fair amount of time in the Austin Audio room because she didn't want to leave. They were our, "cost is no option" room of the day.
Zu also brought a new prototype speaker to the show called the Experience. They have been running them on the Peachtree Nova 300 both days. Supposedly, it will be in the 30K price range and appears to feature 2 of their 10 inch drivers, their top of the line tweeter, and a massive 18 inch woofer. There hasn't been a person in the room who wasn't blown away by the range and presence of that set up. I can't wait to see the final product.
Another thing I should mention, is that we were both really impressed by the fact that the Peachtree/Zu room is at least 2000 square feet. The Soul Supremes had no problem filling the room with a significant amount of tight bass that extended lower today than I thought it did yesterday. Again, I don't think a single person could believe that that speaker only cost $4,500 and while running on an "entry level" amp. I really can't tell you how many people were blown away by that room.
We couldn't make it to the Zu party last night, but we will be there tonight...tomorrow I get to bring my new speakers home :-) |
Well, day 3 is done. I went to pick up my speakers from the hotel and they wouldn't fit in my car. Without hesitating, Sean had Harvey drive them to my house and help me carry them in. Zu is a complete class act company.
Attending RMAF really helped shape my opinion of where I am and where I'm going in the hobby. When I started this, I had no clue what I was doing. Still, I don't know a lot. However, I do know that I am ecstatic with my decision and I don't see that ever changing. The number of rooms that I went into that had well over $100k worth of gear was impressive. In my opinion, most of those rooms sounded terrible. It makes zero sense to me why you would want to take a pure signal and pass it through countless devices and connections to, "improve it." To my ears, it was obvious that those rooms tried to do too much for no reason at all other than to sell gear.
The most simple rooms sounded the most musical and much closer to reality. I can't tell you how many rooms my wife and I went into and left after 30 seconds because our ears were hurting. It wasn't because the systems were too loud. It was because they were totally unnatural. If you ever hear live Jazz, a full upright bass doesn't shake the room and trumpets don't make you want to cover your ears. We rocked out for 4 hours in the Zu room last night at concert levels and our ears never hurt once. Companies need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel for the sake of being original. Sorry if this offends you, it's just a young punks $.02.
To get me by till we can afford our tubes, I'm going to be buying a Marantz 220. There is no reason for me to spend $1600 on the Peachtree. Simplicity is the goal moving forward. Speakers, Amp, Phono Stage, Table. That's it. Oh yeah, LOTS of vinyl!
I really appreciate every one's help and options along the way. I may not agree with you and you may not agree with me, but you helped me research and find what works for me and my wife. We are incredibly grateful for that! I will be continuing to update as we add the final gear for this system. We will be building at least 2 more systems in the next year or two and would love to share the experience with any one that wants to listen to good music and check out Denver!
Thank you all again! |
@inna I'd agree with you on that point. FYI, I just bought a Marantz 2235b to get me by. I love the looks of the amp and I'll definitely keep it around somewhere when I upgrade. |
@mapman I've started on a virtual system. I just want to get everything up and running in their proper positions before I add pics. I need to wait for the amp to arrive because I bought it from Classic Audio in Canada. Hopefully it won't get hung up at customs. |
@oleschool We are up and running. However, no table yet. We are just running Tidal through our computer which is less than ideal, but by far the best sounding system I have heard in a home. The Soul Supremes continue to blow me away! I can't wait to get the Audion amp and table in place. We are planning on starting the Audiophile listing around the first of the year and are hoping to have the bedrooms outfitted by the summer time :-) |
So I have had some time to play around with speaker positions in our room and also to get to know the Marantz 2235b. I have probably spent 4-6 hours a day with the stereo on since we got the Zu Soul Supremes, so I've gotten to know the set up as it sits now. Speaker cable will be getting an upgrade shortly and I'm extremely excited to see how that affects the sound! So my review on the set up as it sits, is that the 2235 does amazingly well with Jazz, 60s and 70s Rock, Jam Bands, Pink Floyd, and blues. It doesn't exactly shine when it comes to modern electronic music. We listen to pretty much anything except top 40 bs so we have had the chance to put the Marantz to the test. The bass extends fairly low, but lacks a bit of the upper bass punch. Kick drums sound fine, but electronic bass has something missing. It's not unexpected considering that the amp was produced for those types of music. The fact that this amp has only 35 watts is unbelievable to us. At less than 50% volume we can shake the house pretty damn well. It just shows how awesome high efficiency speakers can be. The Soul Supremes continue to make me smile every day. The review in Stereophile was spot on. You just can't stop listening to them! They play everything with ease, clarity, and realism. We have had 3 guests since we purchased them and every one of them has been in awe of their sound and appearance. We will be upgrading to the Audion 300b SE around the first of the year and also adding table in the near future. It is really awesome to progressively grow a system and see it evolve! |
