No more "High End" for me...Back to Reality Audio


After a 3 year roller coaster ride with so called "Audiophile High End" Tube Amps,/Tube Preamps, multi thousand dollar DAC's, Speakers of all shapes and sizes, and several DIY mods. I've settled on what will be my "forever system" and stop chasing a Dragon that I'll never catch. There's more important things in life to worry about. Plus HIgh End crap can be very fickle at times. It has taught me though what sounds good and how to get there and of course how much it will cost new or slightly used.

For the first time, I'm building a system around the Speakers. I'm an electronics Geek so that has ALWAYS come first. I've always done DIY Speakers as well form High School to College to married life (my Wife puts up with A LOT).

My Bose 901 "passion" will be with me forever. I will defend those Sealed Box odd shaped boxes till I do. Any old Geezer will be told off wherever they knock that Brand down. I did it last last week.

Anyways, the list :

  • Klipsch Cornwall IV's driven by a pair of resto modded McIntosh MC50's
  • Sony UBP-X1000ES (gotta get some more before they and the 1100ES become as rare as the overpriced Oppo crap) with my mods to the Analog Output boards
  • Orchard Audio Ultra Amplifers x6 (I'm getting near the end of hand buiding/soldering the 6 pcb's)
  • Stax SRM-007tA with Koss 95/X Electrostatics
  • Surround Speakers will be 4x Series I/II Speakers with two on Tulip Stands and two more hung from the ceiling (what the Wife can see sitting down but can hear is always a good thing)
  • Center Channel with be two Heresy's resting horizontally angled up towards the screen slightly
  • two double stacked 12" H-Frame Subwoofers on the back wall 
  • All the Electronics will be mounted in the wall giving lots of space for the Cornwall to do their "thang"

To those still chasing the Dragon. Enjoy !

 

 

rajugsw

congrats to you.

you lost me at Sony UBP-X1000ES and surround speakers.

personally i am thinking about the same topic, selling off and simplifying.  smaller speakers, integrated tube amp, ditching the subwoofers.  

I just returned my friends KEF R3’s and in turn he lent me a pair of PMC TB2’s while I wait to payoff the Gentleman with the Cornwall IV’s and pick them up in 3 weeks.

Anyone who says nearfield Studio Monitors can’t be repurposed as Home Speakers is f.o.s. It’s just Speaker drivers and a crossover in a box ! In these little boxes, there’s a Transmission Line. So Bass is limited by design and I actually had to add a mild boost above 10kHz and a large boost below 100Hz.  They sound very very three dimensional but lack the Bass extension of the R3’s.

”I like Big Bass and I cannot lie”