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It's 2022. Thinking of making any changes to your system? Like what?

naimnut

Deep in the Mines of Soul
First off I want to thank Tony L for continuing to host and moderate this Forum. It's a fun part of my life and something I look forward to, each and every day. And thanks also to the many fine folks - I consider you friends - who've shared their thoughts, comments, opinions, photos and experience over the years. THANK YOU TONY. THANK YOU PFM FRIENDS.:D:p:);)

I'll kick the discussion off. As some of you know, I continue to be distracted by the idea of some flavor of SPU in my system. In support of that them I will probably continue to keep my eye peeled for a fair deal on a Jelco 850L or one of the other usual suspects that could support such an experiment.

I also plan to upgrade the support for my turntable to provide better isolation and the capability to refine/tweak leveling as needed.

I recently saw a Craigslist ad for Altec Valencia 846Bs at a not too unreasonable price. I might bring a pair of those in so I could do a proper shoot-out between the Altecs and the JBLs with the object being to keep the "better" pair. I proceed with caution, tho', because of my concern that I might want to keep both.

Repair/replace the Valhalla power supply on my Linn. Maybe upgrade the bearing while I'm at it. Mober? Karousel? How to decide? Who knows...

Anyway, Happy New Year to everyone and, since it's possibly a holiday where you are, I hope you enjoy an extra listening session today and a great cup of coffee.o_O
 
Will probably do Karousel & some kind of sub chassis upgrade on LP12. May look at a different rack at some point, looks of Fraim are not doing it for me anymore.
 
Last autumn I reintroduced speakers back into my system replacing the headphones based system that I had been using since 2015 :).

The speakers in question are the new Rega Kytes. I have them driven by Rega's new baby Io amplifier. Rest of system is a P9/RB1000/Apheta and Ios phono stage :).

Speakers and amp are now settling in and on the few occasions I have been able to play at reasonable volume the system sounds fabulous :).

The bigger soundstage is a joy and I commented to Mrs C that on one recording it was like being front row :).

But out of consideration to my neighbour and missus moderate to low volume is mostly the order of the day and of course that means no late night listening (at reasonable volume) or any reasonable volume most of the time :(.

Scratching the speaker itch is turning out to be only an occasional thrill :(.

For longer term satisfaction I maybe should have stayed with cans :oops:.

I've kind of made up my mind that I'm going back :confused:.
 
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I think I’m going to have to do something about the upstairs system, which is beginning to show its age. (Exposure pre/power and CDP). Unsure whether that will amount to a refurb or a rethink.
 
I have to remedy my JPW Gold Monitors that hammer nails into my eyes. It could be quite a project as the square tweeter surrounds play badly with the drivers. Unfortunately, they may be the best things south of small sealed boxes costing thousands, as I know of no others in a more affordable stylee.
 
I'm turning my attention to the LP12, as well. COVID permitting, Peter Swain hopefully will be visiting in the spring and I'll be getting a new plinth to replace my black ash one (I have no idea why I chose that color in the first place), a Karousel, an Aro Keel, a new DV 20x2L, and, though I haven't mentioned it to him yet, probably a Radikal 2. Oh, and a new platter: my current one has a spot on it that drives me nuts.

After that, I think I'm done for the foreseeable. I have a long-term plan to pull a @Tony L and restore a Thorens TD-124 mk. 2 to run alongside the Linn, just to have a different "flavor" on tap. I may not get there this year, though, as the LP12 fettling is already pushing the boat out pretty far budget-wise!

Happy new year to all!

--Joe
 
No pressing plans here. Some things are always on my list, e.g. if I found a mint boxed perfectly working pair of ESL 57s I’d find it remarkably hard not to buy them, same with a really good clean pair of 15” Reds, but both of those are more things that would only occur as a chance scenario. I am neither actively looking nor avoiding. They will find me if they want to.

I’m not convinced I have shown the Pass Aleph a preamp it likes yet, so that may be an area to research further, but again no rush. I’d also like to experiment with wood speaker stands as I seem to be moving further and further away from rigid/mass/spikes etc audiophile accepted wisdom and that’s really the last frontier to test, but again no rush as I actually have more speaker stands than speakers.

PS Thank you for the kind words, appreciated.
 
Nothing, really.

Probably play around with various carts and headshells, both of which I already have. Perhaps some isolation tweaks for my bad sounding turntable stands.

Other than that, just getting more records/cds, more record cleaning and much more listening!
 
Speakers on my list as possible purchases:

AVI Neutron IV’s. Enjoying my Nu Neutrons, but there’s a touch of harshness on the treble. As the IV’s are generally considered the best version, I’m keen to see if they address this.

Spendor S3/5 seem to be a cheaper and more recent alternative to LS3/5a’s.

Original LS3/5a. Borrowed a pair of these for a couple of months, and really enjoyed them. Feel like everyone should own a pair at least once.

Falcon LS3/5a. The only way to own a new, correct, version?

Basically which ones I end up with, will be decided by how expensive my house move is.
 
Source a new EHT transformer for my Croft Mega Micro to finish the rebuild (currently phono stage is sharing one), commission the TD-124 I bought 4 or 5 years ago but have never heard and sell off as much kit I’ve collected as possible :)
 
Got a couple of plans

1. Should be upgrading the Rega Elex R (which was always stopgap to get my then new office system up and running) which powers my KEF LS50 Meta's. Planning to replace with one of following integrated amps: Rega Aethos, Primare I35 Prisma, Cambridge Audio Edge A, Marantz PM10, Fidelity Audio NuVista 800. At the moment erring towards the Cambridge Audio (reviews are stunning from everyone). Others considered though in honesty too expensive for the project are Pass Labs INT-25, MBL N51 and Gryphon Diablo 120 - would love to own any of these. Heard all the brands over many years at many shows; Munich for the MBL and Gryphon's - drooling. Dependent on what amp I go for will dictate whether I need a dedicated DAC or not later on. Others considered Cyrus i9-XR though decided no as I've been through 30 odd Cyrus boxes; also heard from a dealer that reliability is still an issue with Cyrus.

2. Bite the bullet and get the EL57's sorted out. Just lazyness on my part not getting these sorted out.

3. Replace my Yamaha DSP-Z7 receiver and speakers to go full atmos/dts x (this may hold to 2023 though).
 


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