What happened to Jfox

Thanks twb2. It will be a couple more months and I can replace the back plates. I'm just having too much fun restoring my car to be quieter, smoother and faster.

That you Rleff but I like the looks of the A1s. And a back plate swap is easier that a speaker swap!

Wow! What an honor. Oh my gosh. Thank you.

I have not written much here the last 3 or so years since I accepted a job in San Clemente for a company that builds a very specialized implantable cardiovascular device that uses no leads directly to the heart! And of course, we got gobbled up by a twin cities company, so I hope to be returning to MN by the end of the year.

Not sure where to start or how to thank everyone here for their very nice comments. I read the forums here occasionally but with me away from my magical minnesota music box, I have been very much out of touch with keeping up on the latest breakthroughs. And the comment above about not wanting to rehash the same debates such as the importance of cables, modifications, the power of tube rolling, etc., has put my focus elsewhere. But it's nice to be back.

Apt. life has pushed me into audio's mid-tier zone…..but this has been a fun adventure to discover the magic of 20-30 year designs that nobody ever knew was possible. Having a pair of Jade Ref ICs in such a system is major crazy expensive, but it makes one aware of how good some of the components were long ago. I will share some of my happy findings in my current "budget" system in a follow-on writeup here. But first, I would like to share some experiences at the recent Newport Audio Shows here.

Sadly, this year's show is best described as one word: disappointing. Whereas last year and the previous year, there were several setups in the $10-20k system price that just knocked my socks off. I don't know if it is limited time for setup or the challenges of the hotel rooms, or what, but the $100k+ based systems do not justify their cost with such auditions there…..with one exception…..the demo of the Estelon speakers. Wow, wow, wow! But overall, the focus seems to be again and again about detail and I walk away nearly every time asking, "where's the dimensionality?"

At these shows, it seems like there's not much focus to assemble a SYSTEM. Too many setups with a $15k source, $2k of crappy solid state electronics, often ignoring cables altogether, and then a pair $2-3k or $10-20k speakers! I can understand the skepticism on the importance of cables, but electronics? still?

The little $2k Napa systems conquered several systems that were much more expensive. Sadly, only one room really got my full salute this year - as always the Von Gaylord systems are exceptional. And this year was no different. The previous two years I camped in the Nola speaker room. This year it was good too, but not like before. The Nola Contender speakers at $3600 have no competition……just incredible. The designer said to me more than once, "you again?" Yes, they were so very good…..and with mid-line ARC integrated amp and CD player. I ended up buying the Nola Boxers for my apt.

The only other overall presentation that impressed me greatly this year was the SoundLab room. They sounded so good even with mediocre (at best) electronics. if the dealer listens to these speakers with those electronics, he has no idea what these speakers really can do. Gosh I would have loved to just drop in the Aria preamp at that moment! But they sounded so good! Made me smile.

Other product lines that caught my attention were the Totem speakers (oh my, so good!) and systems with Cary tube electronics. If I were to start from scratch, I would do a serious shootout between Cary and Von Gaylord, pick the "winner" and set that as my reference point. And I know nothing about these lines.

A few times I went into JD mode and moved a chair to near field position. I got a few looks but I also told the presenter that he should try it some day. Maybe they did later when nobody was looking. 8-)

Not having much experience with mid-level systems, I have learned much in the 3+ years here, but sadly, not much from going to these shows. The Napa systems made me very aware what magic can be had for cheap but I want more. One does not easily transition from SoundLabs, Cat amps and the Aria preamp to a $2k system of a zillion compromises, but the Napa system is an awesome start and then to work back up. And moving to a dedicated basement room for a system and then to an apt living room 2/3 the size has been a challenge. But there have been a few WOW moments and discoveries here and also at a friend's house nearby. When you take a 30 year old tube preamp to a friend's home and replace theirs with this, and your friend's wife from an adjacent room suddenly asks what just happened because she never heard music like that in their home ….. mission accomplished! Another convert. 8-)

More next time on my apt system and comments on a few pieces I bought/sold/kept from A'gon activities.

Thank you again.

John

I must pitch in a few other names of people here who taught me so much and had a lot to do with my system's performance to grow exponentially in just a matter of a few years. Albert Porter (knowledge of Aesthetix, SoundLab and Purist Audio) and Bart Posner (tube guru extraordinaire). And I always enjoyed the contributions by Bill (audiofeil) in his constant swatting of those who clearly deserved it. Oh, the good ol' days.

It is interesting to see how many of us have scaled down from our super system to the apartment setup. You gotta love it. But our knowledge allows us to assemble a system for so much less $ and get some mighty impressive results. Still, nothing matches the all-out-assault that so many of us slowly built in 20-30+ years, one painful/costly upgrade after another. I always wanted a 911. With all the audio upgrades, I could have had one or two, and a new Audi each for the wife and kids. Oh well.

And speaking of cars, with no ambition here for me to go crazy insane expensive on the apt audio system, I picked up this cool grandpa classic 1991, MB 560 SEL. It is in impeccable condition in n out. I just replaced 4 speakers in it last week and got new wheels and tires on it yesterday. The seller took pics and posted them on his ebay site yesterday. Have a look. Go to ebay and enter 230957122134 in the search text field. Check out the pictures.....the white car is mine. Ain't she a beauty? When my wife saw it she said, "What???????????, that's an old man car". I smiled and nodded and told her to just get in. When I get back to MN, I will take JD out for a spin and get us a cheesecake for some long overdue Lucinda listening sessions.

More next time on some great (re)discoveries in classic audio pieces I have played with here and currently own. What we can get for the $ and performance can be so impressive.

John

Finally back here to answer Baranyi request.

I have mentioned here a few times of the great discovery of the Counterpoint SA5 full-function MM-only preamp. I shared much praise here before of the SA2 head amp that I used with the Aria. But when I moved to So Cal I needed a line stage and the SA5 was a great great discovery. It has its problems of frequency extreme coverage and mediocre detail, but this unit screams musical enjoyment.

My apt system was becoming a bit too tubey and the SA5 was such a killer performer at a friend's house that I sold it to him. The newer products from Wyred4Sound and AudioHorizons were no match to the SA5 recreation of harmonics and decays. He sold both of those and runs with the SA5 now for nearly 2 years. And they were not at all what I was looking for either.

I was then on a hunt for a replacement. I could not find anything and then another SA5 became available so I jumped on it. It was great to have that back! And I still had a few special 6922 tubes from my stash. This held me over as I was looking for something else to try.

Remembering the ARC SP-10 vs CJ Premier 3 dominance in the early 80s along with the SA5, I stumbled across the CJ Motif MC7 for sale here soon after getting the second SA5. The MC7 was the "replacement" for the Premier 3 in the mid 80s. A friend in Tucson did this "upgrade" and he never looked back. I stayed with the SP-10 many years later. But with the MC7 here available, I thought I'd give it a try. It's design was for the phono lover with ability for MC and MM and a line input.

The MC7 turned out to be a great surprise. I had found a sleeper. Finally Finally I had found something that stood out! It was hard to admit but the MC7 was a nice refinement to the SA5. There was just a slight reduction in the 3D magic of the SA5 but with the MC7, the noise floor was lower and more detail throughout. Surely, the MC7 was a step in the right direction and a big one at that.

I will move back to MN in December. Once I get the CAT amps re-tubed and the basement room cleaned up to set up the system there, I will have the Aria to make a better assessment to the MC7's true abilities and weaknesses and report back then. But for a phono lover on a budget, I think the MC7 would be an awesome place to start and build the system from there.

The other incredible discovery has been a Silent Source Ref IC. I had discovered and used another SS IC years before and was greatly impressed. Michael Elliot of Counterpoint/Aria talked of SS on his website and now I know why he liked this cable line. As much as I liked the mid-level SS years back, nothing came close to the Jade Ref's combination of clarity AND 3D performance. Only that the SS was shielded and I needed this for the one phono connection. The SS Ref here was for sale at a killer price. I bought it but could not use it on my apt system as it was XLR. So I took it to MN and tried it on a friend's system. The performance of this caught us both by surprise. For the price I got it (1100), it was clearly the greatest cable find I ever had. We all talk about neutrality.

From all the cable lines I have experienced, I would have to say that the SS line "appears" to be the most tonally neutral with killer low-level resolution. For those out there who need a super quiet shielded cable, this may be the answer.

John

Wow, look at all the A'gon veterans appearing here again. So nice.

Many of us have gotten pulled into new priorities that override our audio system refinements. It was not that long ago that our audio systems had been overriding all other priorities.

In time I think we ultimately miss those times of enjoying the sound quality that we worked decades to achieve. We return to the escape of music as before. And for many of us, the system sounds so impressive now that if we do even one update in two years, it is surprising.

As JD pointed out, we all spent so much time trying out audio cables. I have no desire to ever again get into that. Cable threads of guys spending $10k on a cable majorly turns me off here now.

Sadly, I recently had a component in one SoundLab back plate fail. The speaker works at low-mid volume but goes crazy when I turn it up. I was all set to send the plates in for major updates but I ran out of dough from all the updates I have recently done on the classic MB. So the speakers and the two 20A circuits to the living room and a new set of tubes for the amps will just have to wait a few more months. A change of priorities indeed. But I need to take JD out for a ride in the UN limo. I just wish I could somehow rewire all the audio cables in my car with Jade Ref's. I guess that only comes with AMG modded MB's. 8-)

And yes I had a minor health setback early this year but that will change in 2 more months and things much better again. What I have gone through in 6 months can not even begin to match what JD has gone through for many years.