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The most musical system you ever build?

May be there are similar posts before, but could we do it for new comers.

Not the best hi-fi you ever build!
"Musical" means the enjoyment of music for you or your family.
I like jazz/classical vocal, so I list my favorite one for that set up:

SONY XA7ES + P1/P3A DAC
ARC LS-15 + ARC VT-1000-II
Celestion SL600 + REL Strat-III
TMC interconnects + AudioQuest speaker cables
DIY speaker stand + DIY room treatment
Oracle Delphi-II + FR arm + blue point special + ARC PH3SE

Some of them are very old, most used.
But they are very "musical" to me in the things I spin on them.

Try: Ella Fitzerald, Carerras, Jennifer Warnes....
cello is very good also.

LS-15's cap upgrade open up the mid and almost any other brand of tubes improves in the bass area.
Room treatment is very crucial in my small room.
Speaker is tuff to drive, and LS-15's gain is only barely enough for a pretty powerful VT-100.
Will use ProAC 3.8 for chamber music and up, musical too.
Actually, ProAC is easier to drive than the little SL600.
Hear more transpant sound in hi-fi stores, but seldom more musical than this one, IMHO.

Please share your tricks or memory for something you can't forget.
Or something you wish to go back, leaving your state-of-art equipment.
bluefin

Showing 1 response by sugarbrie

sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Brian..."Cleaner" does not mean more musical. Many times it is worse (sterile).
I have copies of interviews with the guys at Conrad Johnson and Blue Circle. In both cases they were asked why this or that component does not lab test with noise and/or distortion as low as many other designs. In both cases, the answer was that they could have very easily reduced the distortion, but at the cost of reducing the musicality as well.

Many audiophiles are looking for something other than "accurate" reproduction. Have you ever been to a live concert that you could describe as being "transparent" or with a dead quiet background? It was probably still a lot more musical than recorded music.

There was a good post a while back where someone asked...."Do you listen to sound or music?"

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