$50k - $80k Budget…Opinions please.


Long story short, I sold my beloved 2-channel to reduce family debt. In about a year-ish, I’ll be in a position to rebuild with a hefty budget. I loved my Harbeth + Pass Labs combo. My REL sub died before I really got to integrate it, so opinions wanted there as well. I fully understand the diminishing margin of returns when moving into some arenas, but that’s ok, opinions are strongly encouraged.

I listen to a lot of Miles Davis/Coltrane, Radiohead, Tool, Pearl Jam, Brent Cobb. I’ve often preferred “organic” or neutral, not sure how technical that is.

toddcowles

Showing 1 response by kairosman

@toddcowles lots of envy of your stated budget in the comments as usual, ignore that and spend what you want. The best advice as a few wise souls have mentioned comes from your original post - Harbeth and Pass is what you had and liked, the safest bet is to stick with that combo. Extrapolating from that combo’s sonic profile, if you want vinyl playback get a Linn LP12 TT and Lampizator phonostage, and if you want digital playback get an Aurender server and Lampizator DAC.

A left-field choice for something with fewer boxes would be to get the new Gryphon 333 integrated with DAC and phonostage options and their new EOS speakers. All you’d need is the TT and the Aurender and a loom of Gryphon cables and you’d have a balls-to-the-wall system for about $80K.

I mention this combo because I heard those EOS speakers with my Diablo 300 and its DAC fed by an Aurender with a loom of Gryphon cables, and the sonic fireworks had drool coming out of my mouth. Particularly noteworthy tracks were AC/DC’s "It’s A Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock ’n Roll" and Leonard Cohen’s "The Night of Santiago". The combo makes poor recordings listenable and good recordings great.

If you have a good Gryphon dealer in your area you’d be able to demo the whole system as any good Gryphon dealer will also carry either Aurender or Lumin, and most likely Linn or something similar.