I am appreciative of everyone's comments to date, in particular your carefully chosen words in regards to my(current) Mac set up. The order is placed for the DI's and if I am as thrilled with their performance as I am hoping, you will soon notice a mint pair of Sopra 2's on AG. Perhaps the substantial difference in price might tempt me to try a SET approach.
Cheers and good listening!
Brian |
Eric states that the DI's will arrive on Friday. My initial findings will be written sometime after the weekend.
Thanks again!
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On the heels of the two most recent posts to this now legendary thread.
The last time I contributed to this post I was a couple of days away from delivery of my DI's. At that time my set consisted of a pair of MCIntosh MC 601', a Mac C2300 preamp and a pair of Focal Sopra 2's. I had long been a, "Mac Guy" but while doing some auditioning prior to the purchase of the Sopra's, I had a chance to listen to many other gear builders best work. Once the DI's were wired into the set up, I knew immediately that the Sopra's were going to be sold...they were that good at a fraction of what I had recently paid for the Focal's.
After letting the DI's break in for a few weeks, I knew next that the Mac gear was soon to follow in the path of the Sopra's. Enter a pair of Pass Labs XA 60.8's and the XP 20 line stage. However now I needed a phono preamp, as the Mac 2300 was pretty versatile in that it had a better than average phono stage. Impressed by all the accolades many on this thread were saying about Aric Kimball of Aric Audio that I reached out to Aric and picked up one of his MM preamps. Upon plugging it it and wiring it up, I was blown away with the sound that was coming from my turntable compared to the Mac! Richness, detail, dimensionality, it was there in spades. However I was becoming less than impressed with the Pass XP-20 line stage. It was anemic compared to my neighbors Audio Research Reference 5 that I plugged in as reference.
At this time I realized that I needed to go back to a tube preamp to get the sound that I desired and that fit my listening room best. Tube Research Labs, The Dude came up and was highly regarded by our very own Grannyring as being the best sounding preamp he has heard at any price point. Now I had to have one, but quickly learned that the company had folded after the founder's recent passing and finding one on the used market was going to be a test of my patience, which is in very short supply. I reached back to Aric and mentioned how much I loved his phono preamp and could he build me something that resembled The Dude in terms of its overbuilt everything and use of the best components available. He said that he would be more than happy to work with me on this, "cost no object" piece, but he would also send me one of his current preamps to listen to in the meantime and to use as a base point. Once I received and plugged it into the system and fed those fantastic XA 60.8's, the XP-20 was for sale. The synergy that I was hoping to gain by having two pieces of Pass gear was not there, but Aric's preamp was sonic bliss!
Fast forward to today and Aric has completed the preamp and is now letting it break in to fine tune the finished product. I am going to let Aric provide the details of the build and to field any questions, but excitedly he states that it is one of the best pieces of gear to come off his bench. Aric has been great to work with and is treasure in our little esoteric audio community! Those of you who are familiar with Aric and his fine products know very well what I am speaking of, and for those of you who are continuously, "chasing the audio dragon", you owe it to yourself to reach out to Aric!
Oh, and by the way...The other Eric (who's masterful works we sing of), Tekton DI's continued to impress me and all those who are privy to my listening room to the extent that I have ordered the SE's and they are in the production queue!
Cheers and happy listening!
Brian |
@david_ten, it was certainly my pleasure to share the experience of the past few months. Unfortunately, the day prior to my post yesterday I had written an even more lengthy and detailed write up, replete with all those audio superlatives, and the characteristics of each of the components I listed. However, upon hitting, "post your response", I received an error message and my effort on the matter was lost. So my post from yesterday was somewhat abbreviated. I will tell you, as someone who currently has Pass gear and the XP-20 specifically, that I was underwhelmed from the moment I introduced it to the XA 60.8's. Yes it was detailed and un-coloring, but the imaging was poor, the soundstage seemed compressed...it just did not sound,"musical" to my ears and taste. The moment I was able to to an A-B comparison using Aric's loaned preamp, I knew I was on to something special. The sound was much bigger, expressive, rich yet detailed, there was more space between the instruments..."that sounds live", was my wife's quote. And you know that is what we all strive for. Aric expects to finish up work on, The Motherlode, as we have appropriately named it, and after I have given it ample time to break in and integrate with my Pass amps and DI's(soon to be the SE's), I will report back. I will share with you some of the features: - Dual brushed aluminum chasis design separating the power supply and the control stage
- A huge toroidal transfer with several large Clarity TC filtering caps in the power supply
- the preamp will have a built in MM stage with two 6SL7 tubes and Jupiter output caps
- the line stage will have its own set of 6SL7 tunes and use two massive Dueland Cast PIO output caps
- TKD pots for both the volume and gain
Again, I am pretty excited to hear for myself, but Aric states that his initial listening was nothing short of mind blowing. Thanks! Brian |
Bill,
Difficult to top, The Dude, in terms of audio gear monikers! |
charles1dad's-
When Aric and I were making all the considerations given what is was going to be paired with, this was his written quote, "
I checked Pass XA60.8 specs, and we need 26 Db gain (so 6SN7 at 20 db is too weak), and then 50kohms single ended (RCA). The 6SL7 will rock in this position for all 4 tubes."
And truth be told, cost WAS some object. I wanted to do Dueland at every turn but that quickly escalated the overall cost. Aric was great in suggesting where I should not compromise, and where over spending was going to provide little to no ROI. |
charles1dad's,
Agreed, and so Aric made the gain adjustable so that I have more play in volume settings. |
@grannyring, Bill, yes, tube regulated power supply. And thank you again for all of your input on both The Dude and more importantly, what specific requirements I brought to Aric in what I would prefer to incorporate his, Dude Killer, as we originally began referring to it as. The information, and your experience in particular, that you shared with me was extremely helpful.
@mac48025, Tom, I knew that Aric was doing something special for you as well as I was reading through this thread the last month or so. Just based on the piece of gear he loaned me, what he did with yours must sound fantastic!
Perhaps Aric will throw up some pics of The Motherlode on his site when complete, if not, I will do so when I receive it and give it a proper audition.
Brian |
Agreed...stated with some bias, obviously.
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@sbayne-Thanks! However, as I have mentioned, Bill's(grannyring) guidance, and Aric's willingness and talents to pull this off, take centerstage. I cannot begin to express my excitement about seeing and hearing it in person!
On an unrelated note, after taking delivery of The Motherlode next week and the DI-SE's in the coming few weeks, my attention will soon turn to a dedicated DAC with excellent volume control. Currently I am utilizing my Oppo 205 as a transport and DAC to stream Tidal, but want to take it up a notch. I am eyeing the Hegel HD30, and I see there is a used one on the site. However, in my attempts to mitigate any more multi-thousand dollar audio investments, as well as stave off divorce, if there is a better bargain, as well a better performer, I would look forward to any guidance on the matter. To keep the integrity of this thread and not veer too far off its subject matter, you can message me with your thoughts and experience.
Thanks in advance!
Cheers!
Brian |
@david_ten-Yes, I was using the Oppo to feed the XP-20. Prior to the Oppo, I had an old(er) Copland 288 CD/SACD transport.
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Update on Aric Audio's, The Motherlode.
The long awaited delivery took place yesterday afternoon. Taking into consideration that the big Dueland capacitors can take a few hundred hours to break in, and I am using freshly unboxed NOS tubes from Andy(shout out to Vintage Tube Services), I am already in awe of its sonic qualities. Big, punchy bass, a huge, articulate, three dimensional soundstage, dead quite in both the line stage and phono stage...this masterwork is destined to continue to bloom into an audio bouquet that stimulates all the senses...said for taste, suffice it to say! I am keeping it on and running a signal through it to speed up break in, and will report back in a few hundred hours or so. Aric, you are a credit to your craft...this piece is stunning in every way!
Cheers and happy listening!
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Thanks Bill! As mentioned, you were instrumental in this collaborative process. |
Good day all, and with all apologies to grannyring.
During the last couple of weeks as I have been thoroughly enjoying the break-in process of Aric Audio's, The Motherlode, I have had many private inquiries about the piece. I have tried to reply to all of them, but in the interest of efficiency, I have cut and paste my latest response.
Now again, I am far from a reviewer, so you will have to excuse my lack of use of audio superlatives. First and foremost, Aric is fantastic to work with! He could have easily said, "look, I have several preamps in my lineup to select from that I know punch well above their weight", but he didn't. He was happy to work with me and take his background and knowledge in what works and apply that, coupled with a grade of components that Bill(grannyring) had suggested that would rival that of The Dude. I have never even heard The Dude, but I knew that my Pass preamp was not doing it for me. So I have a bout 150 hours on the tubes, Dueland and Jupiter caps, and it sounds nothing short of amazing! Big, expressive, detailed yet rich, huge 3 dimensional soundstage with great separation between instruments, dead silent in all line levels and phono stage. It is by far the best preamp that I have had in my system and listening room, and I have had and borrowed a lot of high end, expensive gear...it just sounds Natural and LIVE! Here is what I would say that best describes my thoughts on what I am hearing from this piece to date(and it is not even close to being broken in yet), if this piece had a $15K price tag on it, I would consider it an audio bargain... And I only paid $4800! I am not a paid spokesperson for Aric Audio, but what he is putting out in terms of tube gear, should have the likes of Audio Research, Ayre, Atma-sphere, and the like, rethinking their approach to the business. I will never again buy from a mass produced company!
Later this year I am going to have Aric build me a completely spec'd out SET amp.
I hope this helps.
Cheers!
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@charles1dad , Aric and I have not decided on the tube specific as yet. He mentions that he is working on some projects that push our decision one way or another. As mentioned, this piece is a bit further out for me.
@corelli, HBD indeed! This thread has been wicked instrumental in taking my system to an extremely pleasing level. Thank you! |
So as a piggy back to earlier posts regarding whether to consider the DI's, or go all out on the SE's...I just popped the top on my newly delivered SE's earlier today. I am about 50 tracks into the audition/break-in and I can state without hesitation that, out of the box, the SE's have far bettered the DI's! Much more refined, transparent and dimensional than my broken in DI's! Coupled with the Aric Audio Motherlode, I am almost rendered speechless! I can only Imagine what the next few months have in store for me as each of them bloom and settle into their true character!
Cheers to the talents of the small business audio geniuses!
Brian |
@david_ten My apologies for the delay in reply in regard to your inquiry as to how my DI SE's are settling in...you very well that is rhetorical. They have completely broken now and they sound incredible! The fine detail, the deep, punchy bass, the imaging...it is everything I had hoped for when upgrading from the DI's!
Mac-if you think you like the sound of your new Duelund caps now, wait until they break in, which takes a good 400-500 hours, you will see why they are 3-4x the cost of their competitive peer! Aric's Motherlode preamp is in full bloom, and I cannot think of any piece of gear that would better it's performance at any price! At any price that I would consider paying, anyway.
And once again, I have to give thanks and shout out to Bill(grannyring) for opening my eyes and ears to what is possible in sonic improvements from a DIY perspective! A month or so back I was reading on this thread about the NOS Western Electric cable that some people were using with great results in their DIY projects. Of course Bill was one of the voices on this and other forum threads that I ran across as well in researching further. I reached out to Bill to see if he would build me a USB cable using the WE wire and he said yes, but that he would use the new(er) Duelund tinned copper wire, as the results were even better. Suffice it to say that it blew away the rather pedestrian Audioquest USB cable that I was using at the time.
This got me thinking that now with all new gear that I have in my system over the past year or so(Tekton, Aric Audio and Pass Labs), all of my cables are most likely a weak link. Bill said he will build me speaker and interconnects using the Duelund wire, but I wanted to try my own hand at DIY. Bill was gracious enough to suggest where to source, what to purchase and how to construct each type of cable. My first project was a pair of speaker cables, as they seemed to be the easiest to build. I was floored with the result! The Audioquest Comet cables sounded like I was using lamp cord in comparison. I am now in the process of building a shielded phono cable as well as two sets of IC's using the Duelund 20g and 16g respectively.
So what is the moral of the story, said for the fact that Bill kicks ass?!?! For the last 25 years I have been, "chasing the audio dragon", as I like to refer to it as(it is in fact addicting, as you know), and thankfully, my system has never sounded better. And I did it by liquidating all of my expensive, over marketed, heavily reviewed gear in favor of craftsman who are as equally passionate about music and sound as I have become. Not parties who appear(to me anyway now that I have had the opportunity to become involved in the build) to be over engineering the process with low(er) end parts. Just saying...
Cheers and happy listening!
Brian |
Xenophon-Good call on The Motherlode(said with some bias)...you will love it! Aric is great to work with, and his gear is first rate! |
Good evening fellow Tekton fans! A note to alert anyone in Southern California that I am going to soon be putting my much beloved Tekton Double Impact SE's in high gloss black on the market. As anyone who has had a pair delivered, they do not travel well, so local is probably best for private sale. They are in mint condition! I have moved my gear into a larger space so I am moving up the Tekton line to match the room. Message me if you wish to see and audition.
Cheers, and happy listening!
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And by the way, has anyone reading spent time on the Tekton website as of late and seen the discounted prices?!?! I question the decision on several levels. |
ggeers222, Obviously yours truly is in that boat and also prepping to sell my DI SE's. I was all but certain that I was going to move up in the Tekton line, but this de-valuing decision by Eric has given me pause.
David, I am not certain that I agree with your take on why he has decided to offer the middle finger to those who have been loyal to his gear, and aided to his success by offering their opinion on forums such as this one. I surmise that the "hype" around the brand has subsided, and he is sitting on too much inventory with too many variations. I am not arguing that the speakers punch far above their weight(respective to price) and sound great comparatively, but how many times have you seen significant price reductions(if at all) in new audio gear, bespoke or big-name alike?!?!
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@david_ten, apologies, as I cannot edit the post due to elapsed time. I will state to the forum that my, "middle finger" reference in my earlier post was my own opinion and that of no other's.
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+2 for Aric Audio! His gear is first rate, and his client service is equally great. I have the original Motherlode preamp and it continues to impress me and all those who see and hear it.
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