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System Rebuild

Fellow Agoners!

  Need some input assembling “the last” system. (Famous last words!) Cannibalized system to pay for doctoral studies and now I’m suffering audio DT’s and need to get my music back! However, funds are very limited @15K and I need speakers, Tube preamplifier, and digital source. I listen to 95% jazz, all idioms. (60/40 vinyl preference) Imaging and tonality are most important. Last speakers I owned were Scansonic MB2.5’s….and no, I never got rid of the bass boom despite owning for over a year and putting many hours through them. My dedicated listening room is 16 x 30 with 7.5 ceilings! I have Ethernet connection and power direct to panel just for this room.

Former components were PS Audio Direct Stream with Bridge, AR LS17, Primaluna Dialogue Pre, Aesthetix Calypso. Cables are all Analysis Plus Silver Oval or Solo Crystal Oval.

 

What’s left is my analog setup – anchored by ZYX 4D and AVID Pellere phono stage, and Quicksilver V4 mono tube amplifiers – KT150 version. What I’m considering:

Speakers in order of interest (used/demo):

1.     Nola KO I

2.     Acoustic Zen Crescendo I

3.     Harbeth 40.1

4.     Focal 1038Be

5.     ScanSonic MB-6

 

Digital in order of interest (used/demo):

1.     AYON CD-3sx

2.     Lumin D2

3.     Mytek Manhattan II

 

Tube Pre in order of interest (used/demo):

1.     BAT 33SE

2.     Primaluna Dialogue Premium

3.     Audio Research Ref 5

 

I’m also remotely considering all-in-one such as Lyngdorf 2170/3400 or Micromega 150.

I don’t listen loud. Emmerson into the musical experience is my goal and passion.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments.


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Showing 2 responses by bondmanp

bondmanp
1,782 posts
 
I am not familiar with the electronics you listed (as in, I haven't heard them), so I can only comment on your speaker choices, some of which I have heard.

I have always enjoyed the Acoustic Zens, especially their ribbon tweets.  Hard to see how you could wrong there.  

Harbeths and Jazz are a good combo.

Personally, I am not big Nola fan.  I have never "gotten" them.

My suggestion, though, a bit outside the box, so to speak, would be to try a home demo of Ohm Walsh 3000s.  I have had the 2000s for nine years, and love them.  Even though my front end has been upgraded numerous times, the 2000s have improved with every upgrade.  The 3000s are the correct model for your room volume, and will only set you back $4000 (but less if you wait for a sale, like they usually have on Labor Day).  I am not all-Jazz like you are, but I listen to a lot of it.  These are great sounding (and just okay looking) speakers, that sound great at lower volumes and higher volumes.  They do like a bit of power, so a decent amp will get more out of them.  That will leave you around $11K for your electronics, which should help.  I know it sounds silly to put $4K speakers in front of a $11K+ front end, but I have learned from experience that, like most things in audio, it just depends.  In the case of the Ohms, which punch way above their class, it is not a silly concept at all, IMHO.
bondmanp
1,782 posts
 

kalali - The Ohms are a little different than standard dynamic loudspeakers.  Yes, they have a really large soundstage, tall wide and deep.  I have found, however, that they image surprisingly well, especially for an omni.  Part of this is that the tweeter is not omnidirectional, and part of it is that designer John Strohbeen just knows how to design and voice loudspeakers.  As my front end has improved over the nine years I have had the Ohms, every aspect of their sound has improved, including the imaging.  Now, I won't tell you they have razor sharp imaging (which, IME, you don't get with live music, either).  But there is enough imaging so that you can clearly point to an instrument or vocalist within the soundtage.  On decent source material, the speakers completely disappear into the soundstage, too.  So, I guess it depends on where your priorities for speaker are.  To me, the Ohms are a Goldilocks speaker - affordable, fun to listen to, and respond really well to electronics and cabling upgrades.  I have heard the Ohms at two audio shows.  Both times, I thought my own system with Ohms sounded better, a lot better.  John Strohbeen likes to demo his speakers with mid-fi gear.  They work well this way, and I suspect Ohm does not want their speakers to be known as tweaky, or demanding of high-end electronics.  Yet, they are so well designed, IMHO, that they just keep getting better as your source gear, cables and amplification improve.  At list prices, I now have about $8000 worth of electronics (excluding my vinyl rig) in front of the $2800 Ohm Walsh 2000s, and I do not see this as a mismatch at all.  (Disclaimer:  I do run them with a pair of Vandersteen 2Wq subs and crossovers, because, well, I am a bass freak.  Many Ohm users run their speakers full range with no complaints about the lower octaves.)


Look at it this way:  You get a 120 day in home trial (which you will need because they do take a while to break in).  There is no better way to audition a speaker, as far as I am concerned.  If they aren't for you, you're out the round-trip shipping.


(I have no affiliation with Ohm Acoustics other than being a satisfied customer.)

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