I figured this might be an interesting topic for people of all levels of audio knowledge. For folks like me at the lower end of the spectrum, we might even learn some things from it.
I'll start off with a couple of my recent purchases which entails a CD recorder and a CD player.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased the Tascam CD-RW900SX CD Recorder/Player. I bought this to make a CD out of an old cassette I made way back in 1988. The tape still sounds mint but it won't forever so I wanted the digital copy before it was too late. The machine itself works pretty good. I had a tough time with some of the instructions but finally figured most of it out. The CD's came out great. It took two blank CD's because it is a 90 minute cassette. If anybody is wondering, I used Maxell blank CD's. I'll get some Verbatim blank discs now that I know what I'm doing. The cassette was done on a Maxell XLll blank tape 35 years ago.
My other recent purchase was this week. I bought a Rotel CD11 Tribute (Black) CD player. The Rotel name seems to come up on Audiogon a lot so I figured it must be decent for it's price range. I could simply use the aforementioned recorder as a player also but I don't want to use the transport in the recorder for simple playback so it will last longer. The Rotel sounds pretty good to me in my system for as much as I've tried it out so far. Especially for it's price range. All I've played so far was Robert Plant Fate of Nations because it was the first thing I grabbed off the shelf. This weekend I'll check it out further with some Pink Floyd and a little classical music to boot. Specifically,Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. I love the rendition I have of that with real cannon and musket fire!
The Rotel CD11 Tribute is not a super expensive CD player but it will be a good stand-in until I can get my vintage Harman Kardon CD players serviced. Two of them stopped reading discs just a few weeks apart.
Anybody else want to share some recent purchases? I'll be sure to look up more information on anything that piques my interest. Also, if anyone has any questions on my recent acquisitions I'll do my best to answer them . Thanks.
Bunch of recent purchases, but most recent were an Audio Sensibility power strip (star-wired) and an iFi GND Defender (safe way to lift ground). Why? After I paired my new Leben RS30-EQ (tube phono pre) with my almost as new Leben CS600x, I noticed a low level hum. I played around with various combos of power strips, conditioners, straight to wall, etc., and had some success, but hoped I could do a little better. Theorized that I had a slight ground loop. So the combination of the AS strip, which is not very much $, with the GND Defender got my phono section within 2db of the noise level of my digital side. Am thrilled with results, everything plugged into power strip.
Btw, I came up with a crude but effective way of measuring noise: I have the Decibel X app on my phone. I measure noise at one inch from speakers. Baseline is with volume at 0 - I call this “room noise.” Then for digital and phono, I measure at noon on volume control. My measurements were 38db, 40db, and 42db, respectively.
Thanks for trying to help steakster. According to the one link you provided, I would need a C17/C18 cord. That would be 2 prongs on one end, 2 slots on the other. I still don’t see one of those in 14 gauge doing a quick look. I’ve put more than enough time into this. Unless of course you’re saying the cords I said I bought aren’t going to be safe or work.
I haven’t done a serious change in the chain for sometime now. Either I’ve become complacent or just gave into the fact that my ears aren’t as nicely tuned as they may once have been. Occasionally, audio nervosa will get the better of me and prompt me to change a DAC or one of the preamps I like to play with (preamps are my favorite component to facilitate audible difference), however this year I’ve gone over the top (in terms of change) and I’m kind of happy I did. I recently changed up my DAC to a Schiit Yggdrasil LIM (certainly not the best DAC I’ve ever had, but really kind of magical in an inexplicable way) now followed by the amp and preamps. I had a fairly ’old’ Conrad Johnson M2300A, an absolutely lovely and powerful poweramp that really does no wrong. It adapted beautifully with whatever I put with it over the course of the last five or six years. Sometimes it shocked me how good, for instance, the bass was when adding say, the Schiit Yggdrasil LIM or a Krell HRC. Listening to 50’s and 60s Jazz that’s mostly what I listen to or some of the mostly deep track 60s/70s/80s rock albums, it never occurred to me how deep and tight the bass could go in my system. It was something like adding a subwoofer. In any event, it was a beautiful amp with a little magic and lots of headroom (400wpc into my Audio Physic Virgo 2’s) , tons of air, pretty good holography and lovely timbre. Very responsive to whatever I put in it. Now, I’ve added monoblocks, PS Audio M700 Stellar monoblocks. In terms of ’headroom’, I think I’m at 700wpc into 4ohms. I wanted to play with some class D stuff and if I’m being truthful, they’re leaner and less tight on the bottom end than the CJ. Nonetheless, I’m still going through the music and getting to know these monoblocks. Way more impressive, and seriously super satisfyingly, the Doge 8 Clarity with 1966 Siemens German ECC81’s. I was using the stock tubes just to hear what they sounded like when it first came in, it wasn’t impressive and I doubted what I did. I switched to the Siemens and this is possibly the greatest preamp I’ve ever had in my system- and I’ve had a lot of good preamps since the mid 90s. And in our world of mostly questionable audio hyperbole, this preamp is absolutely as good as all the hyperbole you’ve read about it. I love everything about the sound, with these tubes and it’s really simply incredible and I don’t say that about anything. I haven’t tried the phono section yet, which is a great bonus to the Doge 8 Clarity because my old Technics SL1800 can use a slight tune-up before I start seriously spinning vinyl again, but that gives me every reason to do a tune-up.
It’s rare that I spin CDs these days because I’ve uploaded quite a few terabytes of CD music to a hard drive (started this years ago) and that’s what I listen to, but I’m now inspired to insert a better CD transport than the Rotel changer I’ve been working with for the last 20 or so years. Bottom line, just sharing and I’m happy to report I’m enjoying my stereo immensely for the first time in a while. Enough to make me spend a little more money f’ing up ’the happy place’ I’ve stumbled upon.
Yesterday I got my new Legacy Audio Focus XD speakers going, now I am burning them in. I traded my old speakers in for the Legacy Wavelet II which I will get in a few weeks, then I am done for a while. Next upgrade will be a DAC most likely. But that is close to a year out.
A DNA Starlett headphone amplifier from Donald North Audio. I received my Starlett in late July 2023 after an 18 month wait to have it custom built. Great headphone amplifier for dynamic headphones; especially the high impedance Sennheiser HD6XO series..
I recently bought a pre-owned Yamaha A-S2100 integrated in the gorgeous silver finish (even though all my other components are black).
Previously, I owned the A-S1100 and had an in-home audition of the newer 2200. I find the 2100 is a nice step up from the 1100, and I prefer its overall sound to the newer 2200. Since I also have my “reference” separates, the Yamaha 2100 will serve as my “end game” backup integrated. Actually, it’s good enough that I could easily live with it if I were to consolidate to a simpler system.
FWIW, the power cords I referred to a bit earlier arrived and fit both my Tascam CD Recorder and my Rotel CD player. The new cord is actually a better (more snug) fit than the one that came with the Rotel. Thank you to all that helped out in the thread and through messages.
2 Puritan Classic AC cords, VERY nice. and a pair of Marrow MA 3 interconnects. Jury is still out on those. Sounded better out of the box. 10 days on 24/7 no big woop BUT Marrow says "that's normal" for them to get worse before they get better.... they were on sale....my Beldins are standing by.
Gabriel Gold Infusion V2 RCA cables for my second system. Excellent cables, sound signature very similar to Wywires, at least both in my main and second systems.
@mahgisterHave you listened to the SPL Phonitor series of headphone amplifiers. I have the Phonitor 2 (Studio) that I use as a preamplifier and headphone amplifier and I absolutely love it. Love the detail, flexibility, with zero coloration, exactly what you would want in the studio.
But the microzotl i bought cost me 1000 bucks, was one of the best reviewed headphone amplifier there is, and there is not even an inch of comparison possible with my 35 years old Sansui alpha...
The Phonitor is way over my budget... And the SWnsui alpha being the best of Sansui shine so much i will no more seek any upgrade...
Read about the Sansui alpha you will see why... 😊
And the AKG K340 is the most harder to drive headphone not just in raw power but in some other aspects...
@mahgisterHave you listened to the SPL Phonitor series of headphone amplifiers. I have the Phonitor 2 (Studio) that I use as a preamplifier and headphone amplifier and I absolutely love it. Love the detail, flexibility, with zero coloration, exactly what you would want in the studio.
I just picked up an Earthquake MiniMe DSP P12 Subwoofer. It's a 15" cube with a 12" active and 12" passive radiator . It rocks for the modest price I paid. Used mostly for movies but sometimes I' ll use it for music when I want to rock out.
It really digs deep . It's scary with movies..... I put my smaller REL in system 2 where it pairs better with my SF Concerto
A decent sub at It's street price of $1100 , a deal at $640. I needed a sub that could keep pace with my klipsch and not break the bank.
After getting my system utterly dialed in to my tastes I just bought a Loki Max. I was worried it would pick up transformer hum (Schiit says this is a thing) since I use a Bryston BIT-15 conditioner that's basically a large toroidal Piltron in a box, and a couple of other small power supply cleanup transformers but no problemo. Put the Max on its own shelf below the preamp in my rack and oh yeah...quiet as a mouse. Amazing gizmo, although not surprising since I own various Schiit items, including a couple of Lokis. Maybe pricey for some, but man...I'm a musician/sound engineer and have used EQs of various sorts for decades, but this thing is like a recording re-mix (if needed of course) rescue tool of extremely high caliber. Just pure fun without any negative impact on my "purist" gear heap. Very cool.
The remote, the relay pots (like in my Freya), and the build quality. Totally worth it even after just a few days enjoying it. I'm sure the Lokius sounds great also as do the 2 Lokis I've used, so there may not be that much incentive to get the Max if you already have a Lokius. Note that it's not always in the mix but it works so well when it is (like the Loki it replaced...now relegated to my headphone amp. My other Loki in in my video rig) it's just cool. I wish they could have somehow put little lights in the knobs so you could see what's what from the listening position (I have a preamp with a tiny knob light that works great, relegated to the video stuff), but...meh. Maybe I'll put a little paint dot on the knobs. Another good thing is that the lights aren't too bright...I went through hell taking my original version Freya apart to paint the lights with something to dim them, as re-assembling the Freya with the lights matching their respective holes was very difficult. Whew. I tried the balanced inputs on the Max and they sound exactly like the RCAs so I'm leaving in the RCAs (take up less space). Highly recommended.
Just ordered this for work. Can’t wait to take this baby out for a spin. Single driver, good coherence for nearfield listening. Audiophile doesn’t always have to be relevant to price. It’s passion about getting the right presentation that works well in a particular listening environment. I’ve heard songs that I swear must have been mastered on a boombox because the sound is so perfect.
First upgrade in about 5 years. JL Audio E112 subwoofer and Tributary 3 meter cables for the JL. The subwoofer adds the bottom octaves to my Paradigm Studio 100 speakers.
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