Old Vs New ..... Transport and dac.

@lou_setriodes 

Hi Lou, I know this drive very well. Until recently, I lived near where the seller is. It's  a beautiful part of the country ( i'm in New Zealand) . I get to drive through Tongariro national park. Which was used for filming parts of the Lord of the rings films. This time of year there will be snow on the mountains. It will be beautiful . I had a good long chat with the guy selling and he seems like a very good natured enthusiast. I love a road trip and to make it more enjoyable, I will travel there, spend a lovely evening listening to the system, and chatting, drink some local wine (in moderation of course)....book a hotel room for the night, and travel back the next day. It will be a beautiful adventure. I will return a different way which has a great walk up to a waterfall. It wasn't part for my original plan, but now you have me thinking that I should do the hike ( about 2 hours all up, what a great idea ). Weather permitting of course.

You are absolutety right, It's not all about absolute measured performance. A lot of what we love in music is the soul and intangible beauty of it all. I think the Combak Reimyo fits very much into this Artisan, lovingly created category.

When anyone asks me what piece of Hi-fi I've enjoyed the most , my answer is always the Yamamoto A-08s , Tube power amp( 2 watts per channel) that I bought new, directly from Yamamoto san in Japan. When it turned up it was a thing of beauty. Beautiful cherry wood, top and sides, ebony feet(all hand finished), hand wound transformers and it sounded amazing... I loved that thing. So much Tone and nuance, flow and presence. It really got to the heart of the music. Of course this is subjective....

Anyhow, thanks for your thought provoking input. I will enjoy the process as well as the end result.

Take care. B.

@yoyoyaya 

Hi again Yoyo. The plan was to focus this system on CD playback, and start to collect cd's, given how cheap you can buy them.... And how expensive new record are to collect.....I was a bit reluctant to buy a "budget" turntable...My last Turntable was a Brinkmann lagrange, with a Kuzma 4point tone arm and an emt cartridge. So i was thinking that the clear audio may not live up to my Vinyl expectations. I almost didn't get it. but its like new, in its box. It comes with the clearaudio dust cover, and the owner made me an offer I couldn't refuse and was happy to sell it for 500 USD. I couldn't turn it down. At least it will allow me to play my record collection at some level. I'm interested in how I'll find MM cartridges. I bought a new Nagaoka MP200. because I don't think the arm would stand a low compliance cart... Otherwise I'd have loved a Miyajima Shilabe Cart. But I don't think it'lll work on that low mass arm.... 

It's great to know that you think the Concept can perform well. I may well try and get a better power supply for it at some point... but one thing at a time. 

Anyway... thanks very much for your thoughts, all these conversation anre helping me think through and make my decisions. I much prefer to chatting through ideas and establish the way forward. 

Cheers !!! 

B.

Hello again also Borg7x9. You are absolutely right about the economics of buying CDs v vinyl records. I'm sure you are sorry to see your Brinkmann/Kuzma go but the good thing with the Concept is that such "sins" as it has are those of omission and it sounds very balanced. The external PSU is well worth considering as it does measurably lower the noise floor. Best of luck and happy listening on both vinyl and digital. Y

@borg7x9 

Thats amazing!  Hopefully, in the future you will always look back on acquiring this  new gear as an awesome adventure.  
 

I remember about 12.5 years ago, I was soon to be getting separated and was selling my whole system.  It was the dead of winter, on a freezing cold day, when a young man dressed like royalty, wearing a 3 piece suit with the old school charm of a pocket watch hanging from his vest and French cuffs carrying 2 violin cases came down my walkway and knocked on my door.  He explained that he was a in the Orchestra and also a violin teacher and that he simply could not leave his prized violins in the car or they would be ruined and the 2 of them were worth about $8K.  
 

He ended up buying my entire stereo system and even the large audio stand as well. A custom Conn organ amp model to run 6bG6’s in PP Triode, Yamaha preamp, Rega Planar 3, Nakamichi BX125, and Linn Nexus speakers with stands.  He then honored us with a private concert for about an hour in our living room.  
 

About a month later, I received a nice hand written letter from him written by a calligrapher with the envelope sealed with wax, like it was from the 18th century.  I really needed to sell the whole system too but what a total experience it had been!   Have a feeling you may be in store for something equally as memorable.

@lou_setriodes 

That's brilliant...what a serendipitous series of events...It's funny how things can work out if we are open to it. 

I hope I'll have a similarly rewarding experience. Only one way to find out.

I'm hoping to travel down next week sometime. I'll be sure to report back how it goes. including my thoughts on the transport and dac.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

B.