What makes my system special ? I get juiced up, put on my favorite CD in 5 minutes I"m out like a boxer in the 13th round. I wake up and its time to go to work. You can not beat that.
What Makes your System Special?
Could be anything but interested in what makes it special for you. Is there something you would want to change?
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Surely everything in a system matters. And it is difficult to name one component as the most significant. But the one piece that my entire system was built around is my Woodsong Garrard 301. I looked for many years for a special used rebuilt 301. When I finally found mine it became the the rock and center of my now fully analog system. |
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All of the road trips and untold hours finding and fixing old Altec parts. Turntable from Czech Republic, cabinets from Austin Texas, horns from Vietnam, speakers from high in the Ozarks, trips to Bill at GPA in Oklahoma City. Tubes from Canada, Crossovers from Washington. We have been all over the place picking up parts one thing at a time as the system evolves. There’s a story and a reason for each purchase. The kids understand not to put it in the dumpster when we kick off. |
I’ve had a number of systems over the years: at least 3 different 2-channel setups in 1st house; casual 2-channel system in TV viewing area of this 2nd house; and a series of ever-changing gear in home office which has a complicated desktop/nearfield system (on 5th or 6th set of powered monitors/or speakers here). In all that time, I had 2 systems that really nailed the heart of the music: big Vandersteen 4s in 1st house (tube amp on mids/upper & SS on subs); and the vintage but so good sounding KEF 103.2s on the desktop now. They both bring out heart & soul of music, all the different genres I listen to. I never expected the KEFs would so easily dethrone my really excellent previous fave, the ATC SCM12 Pro passive monitors. But the KEFs locked in from day-1. I shouldn’t be surprised. I heard these ~35 year old 2-ways back in the late ’80s (my college roommate was given a pair when he graduated med school). And I had heard the very impressive, musically satisfying larger KEFs in audio salons back then. In my experience, it’s a happy accident when one stumbles over a system that just locks in with music and satisfies the listener... |
Careful auditioning and selection of gear, so system has been built to the type of sound I prefer, allowing me to listen to high quality music reproduction for hours on end. Desire to change anything? Only to exchange tubed gear for solid state (to reduce maintenance effort, cost of new tubes, reduce warm-up time with the ability to keep the system on 24x7 so I could listen at a moment's notice) without spending loads of cash and without losing any sound quality. But I think this is not possible. So no. |
What makes mine special? Starts with the shortest signal path. Dac runs direct to the mono amps via balanced XLR connections. Amps are located at base of the open baffle speakers and connected with 1’ of DIY speaker cable. Servo controlled open baffle DIY subs. Room is diffused live end / absorbed dead end. Ekornes stressless lounger. Fatigue free - always. Future improvements would be ceiling treatments...a larger room, possibly. (I run DAC Cherry amps and dacs feeding Spatial Audio speakers. Subs are GR Research) |
I got lucky with my listening room. 14' vaulted ceilings. 20'X24'. But the cool part is a 6'wX4'd cut out in the center of the wall that houses my gear. My Dali Euphonia MS5 speakers have better sound stage depth because of the cut out. The other thing that's special is the look on friend's faces when they hear a good system for the first time.I'm done upgrading, now I just sit and enjoy, daily. |
Well, a lot of highs really, but the thing that makes it most special for me is the midrange of my Stax F-81 electrostatics. With the POSSIBLE exception of Roger Sanders’ electrostats I have never heard a more realistic rendering of midrange. Soundstaging is also fantastic, but on a smaller scale than many audiophile systems. What would I change? I wish their bass extension were on the same level as the rest of their range. Quality is very good down to the lower mid bass. After that my two REL subs take over with fairly good success. A bit frustrating, but no way would I give up that midrange. |
Finally ENJOYING the cheap system I have. All the electronics were expensive 1980's new but purchased broken cheap off of ebay. eg, shipping cost more than the unit. Well known brand speakers purchased very inexpensively off of craigslist. More I listened to them, the more I hated them. Got better after I replace the tweeters (air motion tweeters for cars) and modified the crossover. But still marginal. Small apartment so speakers need to and are mounted up in the corners out of the way. Years if repairing and modifying the electronics got them doing well. Thanks to monies from the government got a decent used pair of speakers, upgraded the speakers wires and interconnects. Now we spend hours listening to music. Yes improvements can be made. But from here on will become expensive. Like a larger home. |
I'm with Hilde on this one, I lived in a house with tall ceilings 24 ft tall or so at the living room area, the living area was 25 ft wide at the speakers wall and 18 from speakers to listening spot, I could move my speakers off from the wall and the tall ceiling made a big difference. The living area opened into kitchen and dining on the sides for reflections to escape. In addition to this less than a mile away there is a hospital and just half mile away or less there was an electrical substation with electrical feed just coming straight to the houses nearby including mine. Sound was magical in that room, no close neighbors, no buzz coming from my system.I moved to a town home with weird geometry, electric feed passes through 29 other townhouses before reaching mine I have a buzz with 30 dbm peaks at 120, 180, 240 and 300 hz. As good as my system sounds now the old house was much much more forgiving on system quality. The bright side? I know now how important that is and just looking forward to move to a select place. All your opinions are valid, in my case, my room and place made it very special. Nice post mapman |
One of the things I haven’t seen mentioned (unless I’ve missed it) is the sentimental value. When I look at my almost 40-year-old Klipsch Cornwalls, which I found on Craigslist, I remember the three-hour, one-way trip the kids and I made to Kansas City in the rain (both ways!) to pick them up and eat at a Waffle House (note to Waffle House: add more franchises further north). It was probably the best rainy day I ever spent. When I look at the McIntosh MX110Z preamp, I remember all the years longing for a McIntosh tube preamp and wondering how I could ever afford something so expensive. Then after my grandmother left me a few thousand dollars of inheritance, after paying off a few bills, I finally had enough to see what all the raving was about. So each time I look at it, I remember the longing and I remember my beloved grandmother. I hope to some day upgrade my power amp and maybe my turntable, but I’m taking those Corwalls and MX110Z to my grave. |
My Tannoys make it special. I love looking at them and listening to them, they speak to me so to speak, lol. What else? My hana el cartridge, tavish tubed phono preamp and the Jensen step up, just a great combination with out mortgaging the house. I’m amazed at what can be had for the money today. Lastly, the environment I listen in is a real world room. I'm surrounded by things of which I love. I'm at peace in this room. |
Most of my electronics are in a pine cabinet my father built around the time I was born - 1954 - for our family's first TV. It used to have a front panel with little cut-outs for the TV's controls. I've removed that, but otherwise the cabinet has been in more-or-less continuous use for nearly the whole history of home audio-video systems. One of my sons crashed his trike into one of the cabinet doors about 25 years ago. We repaired it. Between the floor-standing speakers there's now a gorgeous coffee table he (my son) later built from African mahogany. Payback. The listening room is in a log structure that dates back at least to the Civil War (based on a newspaper fragment found in the chinking). The walls are about a foot thick. The floor slopes down slightly; the walls aren't perfectly straight and parallel. This probably is a good thing for acoustics. REW shows a nearly flat FR from about 15 Hz to 15+ KHz, without any room treatments other than furniture and carpet. |
Nice topic, mapman! For me, it is that my hodge podge of components, wires and speakers all work together synergistically to make music I love listening to, even when the source material is not up to audiophile standards. I have heard many systems, at shows, stores, and homes, and the only time I have any envy is on rare systems that cost multiples of what I have spent on mine over the years. @hilde45... I have 6 foot ceilings in my man cave, and although it's hardly ideal, I have done only a little work on the room acoustics. I think my quasi omni speakers have helped in this regard. And since it's a super quiet basement, I can crank it without disturbing the rest of the house or the neighbors. |
It sounds like someone is playing a freakin’ banjo in my living room. Or porch? https://youtu.be/NFutge4xn3w?t=45 |
Great post! Hard to pick one thing, especially as my second go round journey (had to sell off my original system 20 years ago after divorce) has evolved so much especially only recently. My temptation is to say either my Dynaudio's or my Bifrost 2, or my Simaudio Titan...They would be the obvious, easy choices. But right now I'd have to say my Brennan B2 as crazy as that may sound. It has given me a way to not only listen to all of my cd's again (something I haven't really been able to do for 20 years) I am now buying and expanding my collection. Even my old cd carousel back in the day did not have the capacity or convenience even close to the B2... |
What makes my system special? It transports you to another place and time. Actual video https://youtu.be/wxN2Mewamj0?t=228 yes this was from a while back. Even better now. |
I love my 35 year old Tannoy monitors. When I learned that Pass voices his amps with a hybrid version of a Tannoy, I mated mine with his INT 25. Sold the separates to simplify. Sold the TT and phono stage too. Now happily streaming Qobuz via Roon. Bought an Innuos Zen 3 streamer which also burns and stores. Less boxes again. Enjoying new music everyday. DACs still catch my attention as the improvements are so rapid. Using one of Vlad's AM Tubadours coupled to the Uptone Ether Regen. Love to listen to as many speakers as I can. So far only one I have heard that I may like more than what I have. |