What new gear have you just bought?


 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.

 

128x128toddsyr

Darzeel CTH 8550 MK3

dCS Lina DAC

dCS Lina Clock

Artisan Fidelity Lenco L75

Cary Audio DMS-700 Network Audio Player. I’m really liking this, sounds great and has a nice iPad interface with the Cary app.
@theflattire That 9.0 is a standout phono preamp

what oddiofyl said

Your unit is just missing the ground pin but the recessed shape looks to be the same as any  3 prong.

My Luxman has the same 2 prong and I use an after market 3 prong cord.

Where you plug the cord into the back of the CD player is recessed. I three prong cord won't fit into it.

Your Rotel looks as if it is double insulated .   It has no earth ground but it will still accept any IEC 15 amp power cord .       

@oddiofyl 

It's for the Rotel CD11 Tribute I spoke of at the beginning of the thread. Standard US 110 volt I would imagine. It's a standard plug that comes with it.

@cey i’ll let you know. I’m super impressed with the virtual subwoofer. I was able to unhook my subwoofer and I actually just use my regular speakers. Absolutely amazing how it works. I was skeptical, but he was cool with sending it back if you didn’t like it. I’m hooking up the deck preamp today and the EQ. I won’t have the preamp for another two or three weeks. If you don’t hear from me send me a note and I’ll fill you in. 

 rhljazz stated "I swapped out the supplied 18g power cord for another 14g generic cord I had laying around.  This resulted in an improvement in every sonic category."

 I definitely want to try this also. But for the life of me I can't find a two prong 14 AWG power cord. There's tons of 3 prong ones out there but they won't fit. I've spent a good 2 hours+ looking on the 'net to no avail. I'm guessing an adapter would defeat the whole purpose of swapping out the cord.

 Any help is welcome. Thank you.

I wanted to get all this dialed in before fall and winter comes. Swiss digital fuse box here. Installed it. Giving it some time to breath. It is doing very nicely so far. Also got a Puron I will install after the fuse box settles in. Then I got a core power tech 1800 mk 3 I will install after the Puron settles in. 

Since the used market is pretty soft right now, I took the plunge and upgraded to D’Agostino Momentum M400 MvX’s and the MSB Technology Premier dac.

A Swiss Digital Fusebox?????? That does sound madeup!

You can buy them direct from Mark, he is the distributor.

https://verafiaudiollc.com/

 

PS Audio offered me a great deal to trade my BHK250 for the BHK300 mono's that I just couldn't pass up.  Then I found a great deal on a PS P20 power re-generator at Upscale I couldn't pass up.  Those are the 2 newest upgrades lately in a stream of upgrades in the last 4 years or so.

Ive always had the Krell FPB 600 solid state amp and I recently purchased the Audio Research Ref 750s mono amps as I’ve always loved those amps and finally had the money to purchase them. I also upgraded my Audio Research Ref 6 to the 6 SE. I couldn’t be more happier with them. 

Last month finished an isobaric sub, Scanspeak drivers and Bryston powered. Sounds FAR better than anything I've heard - even keeps up with the planars.

Just finished a NiCad control box for my phono/pre. Phono/pre is always on with standby power, and a built-in meter allows measurement of each cell or string of cells. Meter is noisy so can be disengaged. NiCad is engaged with or without diode protection and fused in one of two ways, or can be recharged independently.

Just an exercise in circuit logic, but very useful. Dead quiet, but not much better than alkaline - but I had to try.

Been on a bit of a spending spree over the last month or so…

Harbeth 40.3 XD (used)

Ton Trager stands (open box from TMR)

Iso Acoustics ISO-Puck 76 for Harbeth’s

Iso Acoustics Gaia for the RELs

Cullen Cable power box

Puron AC Line filter

Swiss Digital Fuse Box 

My Townshend Audio seismic bars where just delivered. Haven't had a chance to do anything with them as life showed up bout the same time they did. Hopefully I'll get them under my Salk 3beat Encores in the next couple of days. Of all the tweaks I've done in the last couple of years, this one is the one I've looked forward to the most.

@raysmtb1 i dyin to hear the space tech labs gear. saw a dac on USAM a while back i was gobsmacked. if hat stuff sounds half as good as it sounds it must be out of this world. 

just this past year i bought some homemade mogami 2539 interconnects, a redboy microtrans SUT and a denon DL-301mk2, and a homemade 2549 phono cable for my redboy SUT. bought quite a few tubes as well. im pretty thrilled. ill have the time in a coupla of months to put all this to work.

Yesterday I finished an EAR 834 clone (black board).  Sounds great!

Not going to replace my Modwright PH9.0 but would be a nice back up if I hadn't butchered the chassis!

A pair of Radian 5210 - 10" Coaxial drivers and (realizing my own limitations) a new Crossover pair (designed and made by Solen, Montreal). Many thanks to both Lowes and HD, the new cabinets/insulation/damping and stands are as imagined. Early in the Test/Adjust cycle but I have decided to retire my ESL's... :)

Schiit Loki Max. Just bought it, not here yet. Will use it with CD transport, streamer, tuner and DVD player. Main TT will remain pure. Secondary TT already has the Puffin. I am all after the best sound for my ears and could care less how I get there. Can't wait to see the Loki Max knobs turning on their own via remote from my listening seat. That will be cool, and the sound adjustments hopefully will be just as cool. 

It looks interesting...  i am the type of guy that is very skeptical of any tweeks.    You would have to prove to me in a real world setting that it works.   It would have to be more than subtle 

@vinylvalet 

I am having a pair of Omega Super Alnico Monitors built now....   i should have them in a week or two...

Space tech tm-1000 equalizer 

space tech streamer/dac

space tech virtual sub woofer

space tech preamp QA-115-Mk4...V4

all handmade for me. The most amazing stuff I’ve ever heard

I needed a quality build high-end subwoofer to flesh out the bottom end where my HARBETH 30.2XD’s roll-off at 50hz.

This bottom-firing real wood veneer 12” ATC subwoofer fits the bill

ATC C1 Sub Mk2

  • Handmade ATC 12″/314mm driver with massive motor assembly and ribbon voice coil. which is hand pressed and assembled
  • ATC 200W class A/B MOSFET amplifier

 

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I recently purchased the Benchmark DAC3 HGC. It has Four balanced SABRE 32-bit D/A converters that are summed together to create each balanced analog output. This 4:1 summation provides a 6 dB noise reduction, and gives the DAC3 industry-leading performance.

The Benchmark DAC3 HGC sports the latest ESS Technology ES9028PRO 32-bit D/A converter chip, which performs all the unit’s digital-to-analog conversion.

It sounds great and I like it very much.

Benchmark DAC3 HGC Link:

rhljazz, I actually read about swapping out the power cord for the Rotel. It was probably in a post by you somewhere.

It is on the to do list for sure. For what it would cost it is definitely worth a shot.

Not finding too many 2 prong (ungrounded) power cords though.

Lots of other good posts in this thread too. I look into as many of the mentioned items as my time permits. It’s fun and I learn things here and there.

toddsyr, I also recently purchased the Rotel Tribute cd player.  I’ve been using it quite a bit this summer.  I wasn’t too impressed, finding the sound basically blah and not involving.  I gave it plenty of run in time but it just sounded like a nice player that was fine for background music.

On a whim, I swapped out the supplied 18g power cord for another 14g generic cord I had laying around.  This resulted in an improvement in every sonic category.  I highly recommend a better power cord than the one supplied.

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Bought a pair of PS Audio M1200 amps a couple of months ago.  Wasn’t planning to use them any time soon, but the the AC died and running the tube monos just didn’t make sense until it was fixed.  VERY happy the the M1200s.

Not new but my most recent purchase: a Quatre Gain Cell DG250 amp in real nice condition from a Virginia eBay seller. $150+$28 shipping. The Audio Critic gave it a positive review using it to drive the DQ10’s back in ’77. I have the DQ10’s so it should be an interesting listen!

I bought a new Amazon 4K Firestick with the upgraded wifi connection for my new router. The video, meh. But the audio on Tidal music, nice upgrade (actually shocking via HDMI into my processor) and it was less than $50 on sale.

Enjoy your new gear.    I just picked up a new Cyrus i7-XR integrated amp.   Built in DAC and Phono.   I'm mainly into tubes but this was perfect for a second system.   

It's the size of a shoebox and half the height but it sounds like a real HiFi component.  I had it in my main system for over two weeks , it sounds that good !  Listening to it right now.  Thanks to TMR for the great close out deal.