Those are amazingly

 

That's a fancy spittoon!

 

Finally DEAFboy chimes in on the HiFi thread

 

Beautiful.

 

Nice. Vintage stats still compete very well with the newest stuff made today. I still have my Stax SRD-7 Pro with SR-Lambda and SR-Lambda Nova Signature (and SR-5 Gold). I also have a Woo WEE transformer, and a Cavalli Audio eXstatA tube hybrid amp (need to install new amp boards). My Favorite stats are my Sennheiser HE-60 "Baby Orpheus" with HEV-70 amp.

 

In fact, years ago I used to be a passionate audiophile (I'm now cured of that disease).
When I was a bachelor's student I had co-op work term in the field of semiconductor infra-red detectors at the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC). Also on campus was a research group on the loudspeaker performance headed by Dr. Floyd Toole. He is known, in part, of research to correlate loudspeaker measurements and with people's perception of sound. I met Dr. Toole to discuss of possibly of doing graduate studies in acoustics. A very gracious man, he took the time to explain his current research interests and showed me the facilities, such as the large anechoic chamber. My studies took a different direction, laser science and engineering, but I will always fondly remember that encounter with Dr. Toole.

 

Glad to see McIntosh gear well represented, both tube and SS.



First picture just ambient light with flash to show the pretty McIntosh lights, then lights on, then back side facing into another room where TT, tuner and most lps are located. Curtain with opaque black liner separates area and allows room to serve as movie/tv room, also. Patio/windows/door behind also with opaque treatments to be used when total darkness is wanted.

McIntosh 30x2 mono amps
McIntosh C33 preamp (C22 in dry dock)
McIntosh MR 78 tuner
Klipsch LaScala (circa 1975) speakers
Sony SACD-S9000ES w/ Modwright tube line stage and separate tube power supply.
OPPO 83 SE Blu-Ray/all format(DVD-Audio!) CD player
Sony SACD-C333ES 5-disc changer (modded)
Technics 1210 M5G w/ Ortofon Black
LG 55” OLED E9 glass display
McIntosh 2255 amp..... for the blue meters, of course!!(and if the 30’s need a stay in dry dock)
Vintage tubes to my taste-15 year experimentation.
Purist Custom power, speaker and RCA interconnects
StillPoints Ultra-Mini

Circa 1955 Chet Baker playing now.

 

love the beaten up La Scala and the tube stash’s

 

Thanks

They were flat black and used by a local band as stage speakers when I bought them circa 1984.

I had cabinet makers skin them with golden oak veneer and ordered from Klipsch two pieces of black fabric to use to cover the fronts when not in use, held on with Velcro. They used pieces of 1/4” fiberboard as a skeleton to add rigidity.

That small box are tubes( still rolling!!) but a mere drop in the bucket.

 

Loving all the gear. Marriage ended my constant gear turnover. Wife aesthetics and destructive 4 yo boy rule the house (happily so, wouldn't trade for the world). Have slowly pieced together a system that is under the radar enough to not attract undue attention. Indestructible Krell integrated bought in 1996 with dedicated 20A outlet obviously not in the photo. Originally had Apogee Scintilla to run, so need the amps. Had to actually put bookshelf speakers in a bookshelf (the horror!) but the little Kefs are as good as the hype and I bought a spare set to keep in a box for no good reason other than I love them and they were on sale. The CD transport and combo DAC/headphone amp are amazing Japanese products (Olasonic) that are tiny and therefore my wife assumes inexpensive . Whole collection of headphones not shown but only way to do loud listening when there is always someone else around.

Not surprised watch geeks are audio geeks too. And Lego geeks . Of course as I get older I find myself wearing my Cartier Pasha and Casio F-91W posse a lot and my vintage Longines less, so my taste may be trending towards the questionable.

 

Good to see Stax headphones here - it doesn’t surprise me to see such great analogue equipment on this forum. Stax headphones come up once in a while on the Bay, but it’s difficult to value them. I have some Lambda Pros and the idea of an extension is appealing as I’m a lazy git these days .

 

All, I see a lot of tube gear on these pages. I come from an Audiophile family. Grew up with tube gear owned by my uncle ( civil engineer) and my father ( physicist) As soon as they could, they pitched it all. They both saw tubes as a pain in the ass obsolete technology. When I look at specs, none of the new stuff puts out enough power. Of course I came of age in the super receiver era of the 70s. What are the pros and cons?

 

Yikes, as a civil engineer I think your uncle was short-sighted Nothing is worse then hearing the phrase 'obsolete technology', which is largely tossed about by marketing departs of new, often largely unproven, technology trying to gain market share over much more established competition.

Tube amps and preamps do a lot of things well. Yes, replacing tubes means ongoing hassles with sourcing as well as repeated costs, but these days many tubed components have self-biasing circuits or very user-friendly bias adjustments that make it easy to keep the component at its best.

The classic 'warm' tube sound has largely been improved upon over the last few decades, although there is still some gear out there that is made to sound that way because some people prefer it. And thankfully solid state has also tremendously improved, to the point where most gear no longer grates on your ears when listening.

It's probably easiest just to go to an hi-end audio shop and listen to some tubed systems yourself. When paired with complimentary speakers they make beautiful music. Low-efficiency speakers generally do not match well, although some tube configurations can put out a lot of power.

My system is a 'balance' of a solid state amp and a tubed preamp. The last iteration of my system was configured the same.

 

That's what I've done as well. I have had several power-hungry speakers with nasty impedance curves and have found a Krell will run them all without issue. In a bit of audiophile exuberance I had dedicated outlet put in for my past amps (when I had the Scintillas and needed stupid power). I would use a Conrad-Johnson tube preamp (dating myself to 80's and 90's now!) to get that 'tube' sound. Was more important in early days of digital. I still remember my first CD player through Grado phone and solid-state headphone output and shrill treble and it being almost unlistenable. Digital and solid-state gear so much better nowadays, and with Tidal or other higher-end streaming services you can get great uncompressed digital input.

Would still love to get a low-powered tube setup with high-efficiency speakers but my boy would likely destroy them quickly and my wife would roll her eyes and tell me it all sounds the same to her and what a waste and... Hence my foray into watches, where I can hide my proclivities much easier. That being said, looking into adding a Cartier Roadster to complement my Pasha, so once again, my viewpoints and opinions are suspect.

 

@BlackTalon .. I remember my uncle bemoaning the harsh sound of solid state but he was resigned . It was literally getting impossible to repair some of the 60s gear and those 70s brands were killer. My dad’s gear died and he just went solid state. In his case he regarded tubes as obsolete. Will keep this stuff in mind. I’m already invested in power hungry speakers and the beef to drive em. No plans to make any changes. It’s amazing that Tubes and Vinyl are back. As are cassets. (On that note I’m glad I went large on a Sony deck just before they vanished.)

 

Looks like the sound is Ok

 

I guess the cat approves of Zu Audio gear.

 

Particularly the upgraded capacitor for the super tweeter

 

Think I did a thread about Hi-Fi some time ago, but always a pleasure to see other peoples kit. In my main system it is mostly Bottlehead (US DIY company) for amplification. Turntable is an Acoustic Signature from Germany (which replaced my SME 20A) as I hated swapping cartridges, so this turntable has three arms (used to be four). I do play CD's, but any old player will do for that - I bought a Philips 1st generation when they launched CD and would still be using it today, but it failed eventually so bought a NAD which I've had for ages - just two CD players since they were commercially released! Speakers are also DIY Corner Horns designed by Wayne Parham of Pi Speakers. As for cables - well I don't really go there anymore and stick to well built commercial brands (cheap). Sorry for the quality of some of the pictures, don't have any recent ones, just some that I've used over the years to add to my online DIY blogs.





This was an early configuration, the REGA arm has long gone as well as the beautiful sounding but very high maintenance Keith Monks Unipivot - just couldn't keep the mercury baths clean enough to achieve perfect electrical continuity! Still using the; SME M12 fitted with a vintage Goldring MC, Roksan NIMA - fitted with the Decca London Export, but when last re-built had a super gold tip put on, and now have a 12 inch Jelco for the Ortofon SPU.




Of course I do have some other systems - in this room I also run a vintage Solid State Quad set-up, with 44 pre, FM4 tuner and 405.2 power amp all going into a pair of over 45 year old Videoton Minimax's. In the main house we also have a slightly newer quad, 34, FM4, 304 running into a small pair of Mordant Short speakers, all probably over 35 years old now.

Paul