Exceptionally timeless rigs that outperform.

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Steve

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At the 7-8 thousand hour mark, I don't believe its a placebo effect or premature hearing loss.

Living with a McIntosh rig for some 4 years, it's musicality inexplicably continues to improve over time. The hybrid 2ch/multi Ch system gets approx 2,000 hours per annum and is on most days of the year.

I have made a few cable improvements along the way which have mostly been additive. I seldom go back there to disturb anything.

Tubes are getting of age, an excellent run with the Gold Lion KT88 reissues in the MC2301s which are being pushed by TFK ECC801s NOS. A combination of Tesla E83CC on the front porch and TFK ECC803S NOS in the phono stage allows the C1000T to express itself with verisimilitude.

It's common to hear solid state electronics to burn-in and continue to improve up to 1,000 hours. Tube life also peaks as they slowly exhaust and fade away or supernova... The McIntosh tube driven system is approaching 8,000 hours.

I attribute the magic to the McIntosh MC2301 and C1000T combination but there could be more happening with the system organics as a whole.

Who has experienced a similar phenomena with a system over 5,000 hours that just keeps on giving more?
 
Well!!! Don't expect Mike Joe or myself to know what the hell your talking about :snicker: I reckon Dan would perchance.
 
bzr said:
Well!!! Don't expect Mike Joe or myself to know what the hell your talking about :snicker: I reckon Dan would perchance.
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There could be a world of difference between the gear swapped and the gear hugged. If only the gear swapper took the time to listen... :P
 
Steve, I know where you are coming from. I have a Soulution 520 pre that I reckon it's got close to 3.5k hrs on it now. It's the longest I have owned any component period. I was going to swap it for another & an external phono but as I used the phono stage in the preamp I again realised just how good it is The other part of it is that I reckon the only way I'll be happy is to stay in the Soulution family & thats going to get really exxy fast!
 
bzr said:
Steve, I know where you are coming from. I have a Soulution 520 pre that I reckon it's got close to 3.5k hrs on it now. It's the longest I have owned any component period. I was going to swap it for another & an external phono but as I used the phono stage in the preamp I again realised just how good it is The other part of it is that I reckon the only way I'll be happy is to stay in the Soulution family & thats going to get really exxy fast!
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Hi Steve,

I really love my Soulution 520/501 combo too. The synergy with the Raidho D3's is off the charts great. These are three components that I plan to keep for the long term.

Ken
 
Soulution is my favorite Class AB gear of all time and one of the reasons I picked up the brand recently. I know the 7 series is better, but I love the look and sound of the 5 series. Maybe it's because I can actually carry the 501's by myself. LOL. The 520 is a tremendous product with a great phonostage. You guys must really be in heaven.

Back to the OP, Steve you have a great system, I know, because I owned it! I miss the 2301's very much. They are very very special. They invoked such emotion when I listened to them and I should never have sold them.

I can't say I have any piece with 5000 hours. My original Lumin has the most hours since it's now a couple of years old and sounding as great as the first day I got it. I've had Pass Class A amps in the system that long, including 60.5's, 160.5's, 100.8's and now the pinnacle for me, XS150's, XS Preamp, XS "killer" Phonostage. I'm a huge fan of the Pass sound and will always have Pass gear in the system.
 
I have used the darTZeel preamp/phono (NHB-18NS) for almost 9 years; 7 of those with the darTZeel stereo amp (NHB-108). that's about 11,000 hours for the 7 years. during that time the stereo amp did get an upgrade (SNCP), and the preamp had some too (added second improved phono stage, improved charging system for the battery power, improved volume control....OVER 9 YEARS). and now I've had the big mono darts (NHB-458) for 2 and 1/2 years with that same pre.....which is about to be replaced by a totally new dart pre (any day now).

as my system continued to evolve over that 7 year period, and has continued since, it would be difficult to say that the dart gear itself continued to improve as the hours mounted up. too many variables to be able to say that clearly......although it would not surprise me that it was the case.

what I will say is that the dart gear has never become a limitation to system progress. and for coming up on 10 year old models to still kick ass after that time has to be remarkable.
 
Mike said:
Soulution is my favorite Class AB gear of all time and one of the reasons I picked up the brand recently. I know the 7 series is better, but I love the look and sound of the 5 series. Maybe it's because I can actually carry the 501's by myself. LOL. The 520 is a tremendous product with a great phonostage. You guys must really be in heaven.

Back to the OP, Steve you have a great system, I know, because I owned it! I miss the 2301's very much. They are very very special. They invoked such emotion when I listened to them and I should never have sold them.

I can't say I have any piece with 5000 hours. My original Lumin has the most hours since it's now a couple of years old and sounding as great as the first day I got it. I've had Pass Class A amps in the system that long, including 60.5's, 160.5's, 100.8's and now the pinnacle for me, XS150's, XS Preamp, XS "killer" Phonostage. I'm a huge fan of the Pass sound and will always have Pass gear in the system.
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Thanks Mike and congratulations on becoming a Soulution dealer! Right back at ya on your Pass Labs XS components. Even as technology continues to move forward, I think your XS components will always sound tremendously lifelike, whether they are one or fifteen years old. Hey, even the Alephs still sound amazing after all this time!

Ken
 
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