Smart move to wait and see. IME using cables of the same brand does tend to improve things and just makes it easier to match. I don't think mixing the same brands of interconnects and power cords makes as much of a difference but I have not tried this.
New Condo, time to downsize??
Hi Goners,
A moment of your time please. The girlfriend and I are buying our first home, a lovely little condo in downtown Washington, DC. We are going down in size significantly, our current place is 1250 sq. ft, the new place will be 850 sq. ft. Small, cozy even, but an excellent layout makes it extremely livable. It is also extremely hip and modern, stainless steel appliances in an open kitchen, futuristic looking lighting fixtures, etc. Our living/dining room is 20x12 with 9 ft ceilings, but that 20 is one wall, opposite it is the wall the system will reside on and that wall is 10 ft before becoming the open kitchen. The current system is Tube Technology CD player, Rega Planar 3, running into a Camelot Lancelot Pro phono stage, and a Herron VTSP-1a/166 preamp, running into a KR Audio Antares V300 stero tube amp using a pair of 842VHD tubes giving me 12 watts a side and powering a pair of floorstanding Lotus SE MkIII speakers. This is an excellent system that I like quite a bit, but I'm not averse to change. A few thoughts that have crossed my mind, go integrated with something like a Rowland Concentra or a YBA Passion Integre. Or perhaps powered speakers of some sort. Or simply more compact and stylish components, the new TAS reviews the new G-series from Meridian, very chic looking and reportedly great sounding components. Visual appeal for the first time becomes an issue, our current home is much bigger and more traditional, not quite as hip and modern. I want my gear to visually complement the space and not just be something that my partner merely tolerates. She is however the best, she has said that she is fine with me keeping the system completely unchanged which is pretty cool. She's also making quite a bit of sense, saying we should move in, set the system up, and see how we like it. Needless to say I'm a very lucky man, but I really want to try and do something for her. I've been on the tubes/big efficient speakers path for a while, but SS seems to be improving, and there are some great, fairly compact speakers out there. And honestly, I might not mind a little simplicity and a sense of style in my system. So what do you guys think?
A moment of your time please. The girlfriend and I are buying our first home, a lovely little condo in downtown Washington, DC. We are going down in size significantly, our current place is 1250 sq. ft, the new place will be 850 sq. ft. Small, cozy even, but an excellent layout makes it extremely livable. It is also extremely hip and modern, stainless steel appliances in an open kitchen, futuristic looking lighting fixtures, etc. Our living/dining room is 20x12 with 9 ft ceilings, but that 20 is one wall, opposite it is the wall the system will reside on and that wall is 10 ft before becoming the open kitchen. The current system is Tube Technology CD player, Rega Planar 3, running into a Camelot Lancelot Pro phono stage, and a Herron VTSP-1a/166 preamp, running into a KR Audio Antares V300 stero tube amp using a pair of 842VHD tubes giving me 12 watts a side and powering a pair of floorstanding Lotus SE MkIII speakers. This is an excellent system that I like quite a bit, but I'm not averse to change. A few thoughts that have crossed my mind, go integrated with something like a Rowland Concentra or a YBA Passion Integre. Or perhaps powered speakers of some sort. Or simply more compact and stylish components, the new TAS reviews the new G-series from Meridian, very chic looking and reportedly great sounding components. Visual appeal for the first time becomes an issue, our current home is much bigger and more traditional, not quite as hip and modern. I want my gear to visually complement the space and not just be something that my partner merely tolerates. She is however the best, she has said that she is fine with me keeping the system completely unchanged which is pretty cool. She's also making quite a bit of sense, saying we should move in, set the system up, and see how we like it. Needless to say I'm a very lucky man, but I really want to try and do something for her. I've been on the tubes/big efficient speakers path for a while, but SS seems to be improving, and there are some great, fairly compact speakers out there. And honestly, I might not mind a little simplicity and a sense of style in my system. So what do you guys think?
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Well guys I've really thought about this and I've decided that I have a great system and in fact the new condo is 1/3rd smaller but the actual living room that will house the system is in fact a bit larger than the room it's in now. So it makes sense to plop this system in the room and see what happens. I've also decided a sea change in approach, a stop to the continuous gear shuffling and more concentration on what I have now. I think the next step is an integrate whole system cable and power setup from a single manufacturer. I've decided on Nordost, starting with a Red Dawn interconnect from cd player to preamp, next will be another Red Dawn from preamp to power amp. For speaker cables I'm probably sticking with very good and cost effective tri-wire speaker cables from Alon. I will go with the new Nordost power cables, if I can afford to Vishnu's, if not then the Shiva. I think this could take my system to the next level. I like the thought of an integrated, comprehensive cable/power system. Any thoughts? |
Well, it's (Rowland Concentra II) a great SS integrated, with lots more power, to give you more speaker options. It is not etched or too smooth. I would say it leans towards the warm side. Somewhat tubey sounding, but not nearly as fleshed out as a SET tube amp, IMHO. Then again, you won't find that in any integrated except for a Cary 300B SEI(LX20) (as far as I know, there may be more SET integrated options I'm not aware of). The Cary would be an integrated that will give you SET amp sound (20 wpc) and a headphone jack, but no phono. The Rowland would give you 7.5 times more power, which will open up your options for many more speaker choices, and a very nice phono stage as well. Happy hunting, John |
The Rowland equipment is tuby smooth and grainless but without any bloat, there is no Solid state edge, but it isn't overly warm (aka CJ) or dark (Cary). It's a excellent compromise, plus the fit and finish are amazing, not to mention how cool the volumn control is on the Rowland (0.5dB increments!!!) The meridian gear is also excellent but if you like tubes you will prefer the Rowland equipment to the exactness of the Meridian. I love my Rowland Preamp! |
Here you go Jond, it even has a nice built in phono stage. Jeff Rowland Concentra II w/ phono I've considered simplifying myself sometimes. Something like this would tempt me. BTW, I have no affiliation with the seller, of course. Cheers, John |
Newbee, You'll see I mentioned my turntable and phono stage. I would like to keep them but really only listen to vinyl about 3% of the time. That thought has crossed my mind, I figure by selling my current player, my preamp, my phono preamp, and turntable, I could afford a really great player with money left over for some great cables or something. I would of course hang onto my 50 or so records so I would always have the option of jumping back in. Thanks. |
If you are just into CD's, I probably get a CDP with analog volume control and connect it directly into a medium powered triode amp connected to some small(er) floor standing speakers dynamic speakers with efficiencies in the 90's and a relatively flat impedence curve. That could produce high quality sound with minimum visual distraction. |