Pieter, I think one thing you will find out real fast, the last 20 years have not been kind to Mark Levinson. The 331 will probably seem flat, dry and sterile compared to a much less expensive (and powerful) tube integrated. Here in the US I am buying Raven Audio but were I over there I would be seriously looking into audiohungary.com they seem to have a couple highly regarded tube integrated amps, with maybe even a good built-in phono stage. That would be the high value way to go. Remember the importance of vibration control means putting all your money into components is leaving performance on the table. The more components the more Pods, interconnects, and power cords. These things really add up and account for why it is almost always much better to go integrated than separates.
Returning to audiophilism after 20 years: a little guidance would be nice :-)
Hello all,
I’m Pieter, a dutch intrinsic music lover that has been sucked up by family life for the last 20 years, leaving little time to do what I liked most while I was still unattached. I sold off most of my equipment back then (2002) and haven’t done any serious music listening since.
Now that my kids are around 15 y/o I dug up my nostalgic Thorens TD126mkIII TT just to show them the concept. I never could have dreamed it would suck me right back into the good old days when I was enjoying music on audiophile equipment and being able to hear the soundstage depth, lively pianos and guitars, well, I suppose I don’t need to tell you guys how fulfilling such could be.
What am I looking for here? Well, in twenty years time technology must have progressed (especially digital) so I am looking for some guidance where and how to start over. I’d like to find the approach that suits my situation best.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask "what is the best amplifier for under $5000" kind of questions. But I am interested in the current vinyl vs digital discussion (has digital/streaming earned its place compared to vinyl, does it hold its own) so I can start exploring in a good direction.
Is this the kind of question that fits this community? If so, is this a good subforum?
All I kept when selling my stuff back then are my Thorens TD126mkIII (still in good shape) and Triangle Meridien speakers (French brand). So I’m in the market for a more than decent amplifier, phono preamp and a digital source such as a streamer or CD player. Might go the Tidal route, along with playing records. I still have around a 100 CD's. I just got a MoFi StudioPhono to connect the TT to my low tier receiver amp.
Can’t wait to hear what you might say.
Kind regards to all,
Pieter
I’m Pieter, a dutch intrinsic music lover that has been sucked up by family life for the last 20 years, leaving little time to do what I liked most while I was still unattached. I sold off most of my equipment back then (2002) and haven’t done any serious music listening since.
Now that my kids are around 15 y/o I dug up my nostalgic Thorens TD126mkIII TT just to show them the concept. I never could have dreamed it would suck me right back into the good old days when I was enjoying music on audiophile equipment and being able to hear the soundstage depth, lively pianos and guitars, well, I suppose I don’t need to tell you guys how fulfilling such could be.
What am I looking for here? Well, in twenty years time technology must have progressed (especially digital) so I am looking for some guidance where and how to start over. I’d like to find the approach that suits my situation best.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask "what is the best amplifier for under $5000" kind of questions. But I am interested in the current vinyl vs digital discussion (has digital/streaming earned its place compared to vinyl, does it hold its own) so I can start exploring in a good direction.
Is this the kind of question that fits this community? If so, is this a good subforum?
All I kept when selling my stuff back then are my Thorens TD126mkIII (still in good shape) and Triangle Meridien speakers (French brand). So I’m in the market for a more than decent amplifier, phono preamp and a digital source such as a streamer or CD player. Might go the Tidal route, along with playing records. I still have around a 100 CD's. I just got a MoFi StudioPhono to connect the TT to my low tier receiver amp.
Can’t wait to hear what you might say.
Kind regards to all,
Pieter
Showing 2 responses by millercarbon
I had a similar experience myself many years ago. In my case the technology shock was first the huge improvements in wire, and second the even bigger shock that my old Technics SL-1700 turntable sounded better than any CD then on the market. Since then I am happy to say digital has improved so much and is improving so fast that it is entirely possible it will approach entry level turntable level in as little as 5 to 10 more years. That is something I never thought would happen and shows the progress being made in digital. The biggest advances in the last 20 years are in vibration control, including room acoustics, low bass, and speakers. It is now possible to have true state of the art bass for as little as $3k to $4k. The technology that makes this possible is the Distributed Bass Array. Four subs located randomly around the room produces more but smaller bass modes that results in incredibly smooth articulate and deep bass. You have to hear this on classical to believe it. Vibration control, springs are the new cones. Springs prevent components from vibrating the room and each other. This reduces ringing, removing a layer of hardness, and smearing, for greatly improved detail. The bargain spring, which is really incredibly good for the money, is Nobsound. These work great but are not damped and so leave a good deal of resonance that colors the sound. Townshend Pods and Podiums are springs with a small amount of damping that removes these resonances resulting in incredibly clean clear natural timbre. Not at all subtle, some consider them critical to a good system. Room acoustics, you can still do old school panels and traps. But there are now things like Synergistic HFT that improve clarity and imaging and make speakers disappear, way beyond anything you would ever imagine to look at these tiny little dots. ECT and PHT work similarly well. All this stuff works together. In speakers the great technological innovation of the last 20 years is Eric Alexander’s Tekton engineering of low stiction/low mass and the MTM array. The Tekton approach uses off the shelf drivers to achieve a level of performance as good or better than the bespoke drivers used in much more expensive speakers. I’ve been using all this stuff for some time now. They all seem to fall anywhere from unlikely to impossible, yet the fact is they all work so well that, well read the comments on my system page. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 People saying they feel a sense of envelopment, images you can reach out and touch, take away all the stuff I just mentioned and believe me they will not be gushing like that. This is where the performance is at. So much so that if you do all these little tweaks then you will not have to spend near as much on components to achieve incredible sound quality. Especially not for what you mentioned, " being able to hear the soundstage depth, lively pianos and guitars". You get the soundstage depth from tubes and turntables. You get the lively piano and guitars from Tekton MTM. You get this all with crazy good 3D depth that envelops you with DBA and all the rest. So now you are up to speed on the big developments of the last 20 years. If you really want to immerse yourself in it https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/townshend-audio-podiums-the-full-review https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/vibration-control-and-the-townshend-audio-seismic-pods https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/tekton-design-moab-2 https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/a-diy-swarm-based-distributed-bass-array-for-sota-bass https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/a-diy-swarm-based-distributed-bass-array-for-sota-bass https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/a-diy-swarm-based-distributed-bass-array-for-sota-bass Being over there in the EU you should probably take a good look at audiohungary.com |