FREE HIGH-END AUDIO SETUP CONSULTATIONS

Keith, yes, you're right - free and no obligation. The only thing is, the forum engine doesn't seem very useful for question-and-answer messages. If you want to ask something, use my WhatsApp 917 721-54-34 or Instagram @colossal_sound_ca

Pindac, since I've been mostly listening to rock music, I prefered vinyl records and tapes. And when I was testing various tonearms/cartridges/turntables, I used a Tascam 3000 to compare test records - it was very fast and easy. BTW, I still have a number of those tracks - maybe I will make a page with links to them, and you will be able to compare ADC XLM on SME series III vs Shure V15 on 3009 vs Air Tight on Moerch DP8 vs Denon 103 on SAEC etc without actually having all that gear. 

When I decided to immigrate in 2022, I recorded my entire vinyl collection simply because I couldn't take it with me. And now I have it all on one small HD. When I was recording all those records, my vinyl end was almost at the limit of perfection. I used a tweaked Micro Seiki RX5000, Ikeda 9Gss on Ikeda 407 12," and Koetsu Jade on the same type of tonearm for 20% of the collection. By the way, I think it's a good topic material - to explain how to use 2-3 tonearms and 2-3 cartridges wisely. Very often, I see people just put one MM cartridge and one MC cart on a 2-tonearm TT and think it gives some good variety, though it doesn't.

Your idea of saving an expensive MC cartridge by listening to digitized records makes sense only if you're listening to them all day, day after day. And actually, you won't save much anyway. The Tascam 3000 costs about $1,200, but to make it sound on par with the original vinyl (and still a bit worse), you need cables that add at least $6-8K to the system. Enough for a new good MC cartridge. And honestly, I can't imagine I would listen to my digital files if I had my old record collection and the vinyl end with me. I would listen to the original source for sure.

EFFECTIVE DRIVE MASS

Some time ago, I developed my own personal audio term — something I had never encountered in books, engineering papers, or audiophile discussions, yet something that perfectly describes an important phenomenon I constantly run into when matching amplifiers and loudspeakers.

I call it Effective Drive Mass.

To be clear from the beginning: this is not an official engineering specification or a scientifically measurable parameter. It is simply a practical concept — my own attempt to describe the combination of factors that determines how easy or difficult it is for an amplifier to truly energize and control a loudspeaker system.

The idea first came to me many years ago, during the early stage of my audiophile journey, after an experience that completely overturned my understanding of speaker sensitivity and amplifier matching.

Back in 2015, I was already helping people assemble systems built around vintage Japanese audio equipment and considered myself a fairly experienced audiophile. At home, I owned a large vintage system based on the legendary Japanese Diatone DS-5000 speakers, driven by a vinyl front end created by a well-known analog specialist and a Nakamichi 1000 cassette deck.

The amplification was bi-amped: a solid-state Sansui controlled the bass section, while a KT66 tube integrated amplifier handled the mids and highs. Everything was connected through an Audio Research SP-3 preamplifier — a legendary component that was ranked among the top vintage components by Tone Publications and placed first in The Absolute Sound’s list of “12 Most Significant Preamps of All Time.”

And honestly, the system sounded wonderful to me at the time.

I could not even imagine then that years later I would improve its sound by another twelve or fifteen “levels” — by levels, I mean specific moments when, after some “tweak”, the system suddenly crossed into a noticeably higher class of realism and musicality.

Here is how that system looked several years later: in addition to various systems in the showroom, I had the "personal toy" in my workshop, where I’ve been restoring vintage speakers and experimenting - a vintage multi-amping system with two active crossovers.

That multiamp setup was built in 2020, and in 2015, I still had the bi-amping system. Furthermore, I had used the KT66 integrated amplifier along with those Diatones, and the speakers still played quite convincingly. Yes, the bass was somewhat soft and not particularly articulate, but there was never any feeling that the amplifier was incapable of driving the speakers. The system still had energy, body, and musical involvement.

At that stage of my experience, most of my audio world revolved around vintage equipment: Sansui, Audio Research, Technics, Diatone, and similar components. It was an incredibly useful period for understanding sound, but I had not yet truly encountered serious modern high-end systems.

Then one day, a customer contacted me. He had brought a pair of Blumenhofer Gioia horn speakers from Germany and asked me to help him find the right amplification. He had already experimented with various setups, but nothing completely satisfied him. One amplifier sounded too cold and analytical; another, too aggressive; another, lacking emotional involvement. At the time, the system was running with a Boulder power amplifier and an EAR 912 preamplifier.

I should say immediately: even in that configuration, the sound of the Blumenhofers completely shocked me.

Up until then, I had heard many good vintage systems, loved my own setup, attended High End exhibitions where most systems left me cold but a few impressed me deeply, and generally believed I understood the approximate limits of what audio reproduction could achieve.

Then suddenly those limits disappeared.

It no longer felt like a sound system. The room itself disappeared. There was only this enormous, almost cosmic vocal floating in vast black space far beyond the walls, with instruments existing independently inside a huge three-dimensional environment.

Yes, one could argue that the presentation sounded slightly cold and sterile — and that is precisely why the owner wanted to move away from the Boulder amplification. With horn speakers, Boulder created an extremely precise, hyper-analytical sound that lacked emotional warmth.

Trying not to show how shocked I was by what I had heard — and being absolutely confident in my own audiophile expertise — I said:

“Don’t worry. This is easy. We’ll make the system sing.”

My logic seemed perfectly reasonable.

If my Diatones, with roughly 93 dB sensitivity, could play convincingly even with a relatively modest KT66 tube amplifier, then surely Blumenhofers, rated at 96 dB sensitivity, should absolutely fly with the same tubes. Furthermore, the Gioias allowed bi-amping. At that time, I was fascinated by the possibilities of bi-amping and considered it almost a secret audiophile weapon. I was certain I was about to amaze the owner of the Blumenhofers.

So, I brought two tube integrated amplifiers: a push-pull KT66 amplifier and a single-ended KT120 amplifier.

The plan sounded beautiful in my head: the more powerful and controlled KT120 would handle the bass section, while the KT66 would drive the upper horn section, giving us speed, dynamics, scale, tonal richness, and beautiful tube texture.

We connected everything. Turned on the music. And the owner of the Blumenhofers was indeed amazed. The speakers suddenly sounded like old public-address radio horns. The music became flat, lifeless, compressed, and weak. No dynamics. No authority. No sense of scale or energy. Even at high volume, the system sounded as though the amplifiers could barely move the drivers.

I remember sitting there completely confused.

How could speakers rated at 96 dB sensitivity perform so much worse with these amplifiers than my 93 dB Diatones?

A week later, I eventually found a completely different solution for those speakers — an amplifier built around the legendary GU48 tube, also known as the 833A.

I will definitely return to the 833A in a future article because, in my opinion, it is one of the greatest audio tubes ever created.

But the important thing is this:

That experience forced me to ask myself a question.

What factor exists in amplifier and speaker matching beyond sensitivity and impedance?

Why did the Diatone DS-5000 perform reasonably similarly with both the GU48 and the KT66/KT120 combinations, while the far more sensitive Blumenhofer barely functioned with the KT amplifiers yet became magnificent with the GU48?

That was when I began disassembling speakers, studying crossover networks, examining driver structures, magnets, and internal construction. Comparing vintage Japanese systems with modern high-end designs, I started noticing a pattern.

If you open vintage Japanese speakers like Diatone or Technics, you often find relatively small magnets, lightweight voice coils, thinner wire, and fairly simple crossover networks with a modest number of components.

Even if the cabinet itself is physically large, the system’s internal mechanical and electrical “mass” is surprisingly low.

Now open a serious modern high-end loudspeaker like a Blumenhofer.

Everything changes.

Huge magnets.

Massive motor structures.

Large voice coils.

Heavy crossover assemblies filled with giant Mundorf components.

Thick internal wiring.

Enormous stored mechanical and electrical energy.

And at some point, I finally understood something very important:

High sensitivity does not necessarily mean easy drivability.

Because an amplifier does not simply produce volume. It controls and energizes an entire mechanical and electrical system. And that is exactly what I now call Effective Drive Mass. In other words, the total mechanical and electrical “weight” that an amplifier must energize and control.

This includes:

• crossover complexity,
• voice coil mass,
• internal wiring,
• mechanical inertia,
• stored energy,
• and the overall physical complexity of the system.

If we use a car analogy, the amplifier is the engine, and the loudspeaker is the vehicle’s total mass. Accelerating a small, lightweight car is dramatically easier than moving a heavy luxury sedan. Imagine a Maybach powered by the engine from a Toyota Prius, and you immediately understand why the Blumenhofer Gioias barely played with those tube integrated amplifiers.

The same analogy also explains why the Diatone DS-5000 sounded relatively similar with both the KT amplifiers and the massive GU48 amplifier. The Effective Drive Mass of the Diatone was simply far lower. Put a Maybach engine into a Prius, and the car will not suddenly become a Formula 1 machine. The rest of the engineering limitations remain.

Since then, I have become less cautious about judging speakers purely by sensitivity numbers. And far more attentive to Effective Drive Mass.

That is exactly why, recently, when someone on an audio forum asked whether a Mastersound Compact 845 integrated amplifier could properly drive Harbeth SHL5XD speakers with their relatively modest 87 dB sensitivity, I looked at the situation very differently than I would have eleven years ago.

If I were still the version of myself from 2015, I probably would have answered:

“No, 87 dB is probably too low for a tube amplifier.”

But today I think differently.

In my opinion, the Harbeth SHL5XD has a relatively low Effective Drive Mass. The drivers are not excessively heavy. The voice coils are comparatively modest. Mechanical inertia is moderate. The crossover structure is relatively simple.

At the same time, the 845 tube possesses extraordinary linearity and dynamic headroom. An 845 tube typically operates at plate voltages of 900–1200 volts, while a KT120 usually operates at 400–700 volts. That enormous voltage reserve allows the amplifier to reproduce transient peaks with less compression and with a much greater sense of ease and scale.

Because of its natural linearity, a properly designed 845 amplifier produces:

• more textured bass,
• smoother and less grainy treble,
• deeper soundstage layering,
• and a more relaxed yet authoritative presentation.

But perhaps most importantly, the 845 controls loudspeakers exceptionally well because it maintains signal structure under complex dynamic loads more effortlessly than many smaller tubes. In simple terms, the 845 transmits musical energy with less sensation of mechanical strain.

And that is why, despite the relatively low sensitivity of the Harbeth SHL5XD, a good 845 amplifier — especially something like a Mastersound — can not only drive them successfully, but actually produce an exceptionally beautiful, alive, rich, and emotionally convincing sound. Definitely more emotionally engaging than many solid-state amplifiers within a similar price range.

So what practical value does the idea of Effective Drive Mass offer to music lovers? It reminds us that amplifier matching cannot be reduced to sensitivity numbers alone. Sometimes a 96 dB speaker turns out to be an incredibly demanding load. And sometimes an 86–87 dB speaker with low Effective Drive Mass suddenly comes alive beautifully with a well-designed medium-powered tube amplifier.

That is why I believe Effective Drive Mass can sometimes tell us far more about real-world amplifier matching than the dry numbers printed in specification sheets.

In the next article, I will talk about my close encounter with the legendary 833A — also known as the GU48 — the extraordinary tube that ultimately transformed the Blumenhofer Gioia system discussed in this story.

 

@colossalsound - To clarify, I am a Gon member with several decades of experience in audio as a hobby. During that period, I completed the work required to create a Vinyl Source that I am very much focused on, and it is very well received by those who have an opportunity to receive a demo. Most recently, after a longish patient wait, a custom design and built for me by the designer SS Phonostage is once more introduced to the home system. It seems SS Phonstages have been absent from the go-to phonostage options since the early 20's.     

With that said, and letting only my age be the influence on my choices being investigated for an option for a third Source at the current time. For my own purposes, I lean to the idea of avoiding streaming and having a substantial music collection that is not a Hard Medium Source. The notion that quality recordings can have their sound heard throughout the home, without my needing to be in attendance at the designated space monitoring the audio system, really appeals.

Moving away from Valve Circuit Amplification to SS circuits for the same role really appeals. The SS designs are quite predictable and typically of little concern when Powered On. Allowing their usage without constantly monitoring them whilst in use. Extending on this newly developing interest. I was out on a long round trip journey today, to experience a completely new design for an SS Power Amp with the designer/builder of the amp as the host. I was initially attending as a long-overdue social visit, with the amp debut as a segment of the day’s entertainment. After offering my assessment of the end sound being experienced and how I felt it compared to the prior used SS Power Amp. I have underpinned my positive comments by having signed on to having one produced for me. The demo was very much to my liking, and the new design power amp is 'exactly' the support I want to be at hand for my future SS experiences. 

My audio Journey (age-related, I suspect) has been challenged by a chipping away to the point that there is now the strong idea of stepping away from hard media as the commonly used methods to produce music replays.

I am completely sold on the notion of SD Card - FLAC File replays and any other files I can become familiar with producing that surpass FLAC, that are stored on storage hardware. I am more than happy to take guidance, but am not going to the multi-thousand-dollar cables suggested; I am confident all I need is on offer from much less costly cables.

I buy into your suggestion to broaden your info sharing. Commencing the creation of other Threads as sub-topics and guidance on methods used for audio replays is an attractive proposition.    

 

Pindac, in that case, using a Tascam recorder for digitizing vinyl may be a useful idea. Regarding the cables - the point is that you need a good power cord and an interconnect to make Tascam work really well. Believe me, I didn't want to plug in a 1200 dollar device with Nordost Valhalla. It sounds crazy and looks absurd. But since I heard the difference, I can't listen to this device any other way. 

When I listened to the same digital files before with some other cabling, I heard a big difference between original analog and DSD file. Digital copy was harsh, less dynamic, had grainy treble. With Valhalla Tascam plays almost on par with original. This is simply the fact I wanted to tell you. If you have some other cable that will work for Tascam so well that you won't hear a difference with the original - it's your luck. If not - now you know where the bottleneck is. 

HOW MY APPROACH IN AUDIO WAS FORMED

In the previous topic, I wrote about my first encounter with Blumenhofer loudspeakers and about helping their owner choose an amplifier in 2015. At that time, I was already deeply immersed in audio. I was helping to assemble vintage systems for other music lovers, experimenting with components, occasionally restoring old speakers, and writing articles for my site.

The person I had helped with the amplifier was planning something similar — but in the world of modern high-end audio. He had passion and ambition, but didn’t yet understand how to approach this world properly. My website, where I published my audio articles, was already quite popular. I wrote about my practical observations, experiments, discoveries, mistakes, and conclusions. People actually read them because they weren’t written from the perspective of a salesman trying to move inventory. They were written from the perspective of someone genuinely trying to understand why one system works emotionally while another does not.

We decided to unite our passions in sound and try to work together. And it worked!  

We became friends and partners. Within five years, we had a showroom packed with high-end equipment, clients from different cities, and a reputation built not on selling hardware but on helping people finally achieve the sound they had been searching for.

That may sound like a cliché, but at the time, our approach was genuinely unusual.

Most dealers operate according to a very understandable business model: they sell the brands they carry. If a customer buys loudspeakers from them, they will naturally try to sell an amplifier from their own portfolio as well. And if they do not carry a certain type of product — for example, horn speakers — they are unlikely to recommend the customer visit another store that does.

This is not criticism. It is simply how traditional retail works.

But we accidentally built something very different. Instead of competing with other dealers, we started cooperating with them. We built relationships with distributors across the market and began assembling systems based on how they match, rather than on brand loyalty.

That changed everything.

The reality is that components within the same dealership portfolio are not automatically ideal partners. Sometimes they work beautifully together. Sometimes they absolutely do not. And even if they technically match, they may still completely miss the listener’s emotional priorities.

Someone who primarily listens to chamber music and small acoustic ensembles may emotionally connect most strongly with horn speakers. But if a dealer doesn’t carry horns, they will rarely say:

“Actually, you should go buy the speakers you’d love at that place.”

We did the opposite.

We started building systems around the listener rather than around inventory. And because we had access to products from many distributors, we could experiment constantly: different amplifiers with different speakers, different cables, different cartridges... With all the possible inventory around us. 

At the same time, my earlier experience with vintage Japanese equipment proved to be unexpectedly valuable. It taught understanding why certain speakers behave the way they do, why some amplifiers control bass differently, why some systems create emotional coherence while others only produce detail.

We began applying that understanding to modern high-end systems as well.

And sometimes that led to combinations that traditional dealers would never assemble.

For example, we occasionally used relatively inexpensive custom-made components within extremely expensive systems simply because they performed better in that context or allowed the customer to achieve a much higher level of sound without overspending.

That philosophy proved very successful. People began saying something we heard again and again: “For the first time, I’m hearing the kind of sound I was looking for.”

And then they brought friends.

Very soon, we were no longer only assembling systems from other brands — we became official representatives of Blumenhofer and several other well-known high-end manufacturers, building large-scale systems and increasingly ambitious projects.

But the most important part of all this was the experimentation itself.

Because we worked with so many brands simultaneously, we were constantly comparing, mixing, listening, learning, and reevaluating assumptions. Those years became an enormous practical laboratory.

At the beginning of 2022, our showroom was in its prime. But if you compare the expression on my face in the first photo with the one in the photo below, you may notice a difference - sadness in the eyes. It’s not a riddle - I already knew that I am leaving all that behind and jumping into the unknown.  

Now I have started writing audio articles again. The first articles I wrote many years ago were written in real time, almost like a diary of discovery. I would learn something new, test something, become excited about it, and immediately write an article. In fact, many articles on my old website are now partially outdated simply because my understanding has evolved. That is inevitable in audio if you continue listening seriously for many years.

Today I write retrospectively. I look back at years of experiments, successes, mistakes, expensive lessons, unexpected discoveries, and changing opinions — and try to compress all of that distilled experience into something useful and practical for other music lovers.

I’m not trying to convince anybody of anything or sell something. I just share, and it’s your choice how to use it.

__________________________________________

And that brings me to a question.

I will eventually write about all of these topics, but which one would you personally like to read first?

Why do some turntables use multiple tonearms, and how should they actually be used?

How to get the maximum performance from vinyl without spending much money.

Several practical ways to improve the sound of a vinyl playback chain.

How and why cables really influence a system.

I’m curious which direction interests readers most right now.