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Replaced Everything, New Gears waiting to be installed...

Well, I went for it! I replaced everything this year, purchasing at the top-end of my budget, hoping to stave off upgraditus for a few years. The equipment has been arriving, and the boxes are piling up. This weekend I will put it all together. Can’t wait...

New stuff (most still in boxes):

  • Accuphase E-380 Integrated Amp
  • REL Vintage 98 Subwoofer
  • Thorens TD-1601 Turntable (Walnut)
  • Nagaoka MP-200 Cartridge
  • Schitt Skoll Phono Preamp
  • Balanced XLR Cables Turntable > Preamp > Integrated
  • Rose HiFi 150b Streamer/DAC (put in service recently)
  • Grant Fidelity B-283 (Vintage) Tube Buffer w/ fresh Mullard Tubes : MAY place in the Tape Monitor Loop to tame the HiFi Rose if needed
  • Paradigm Reference Studio 40 v2 (a personal favorite, bought and put in service recently)
  • Shunyata Research Defender Power Conditioner
  • also replacing all interconnects and speaker cales. Custom made Cardas and Morgami.
  • ... and I crafted a new Rack to hold/house it all.

I thought about bringing it into service piece-by-piece, and thus seeing the incremental difference. But I kind of didn’t want to open the boxes...weird.

Many thanks to the Audiogon community; this forum and the occasional thread greatly informed my ideas and purchases. Will report back.

 

gemoody

Showing 1 response by jji666

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jji666
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Wow, that is quite an amazing amount of gear and I'll bet loads of fun to install.

Only comment is that I doubt the tube buffer is going to stick. There is at least a theoretical reason why tubes in an analog stage could be beneficial or to taste, but a tube buffer is just an extra box that adds color without need.  If you want tube, I'd recommend a tube preamp or a DAC with an analog stage that actually uses the tubes.  

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