Steve's Rig

Hi A.Wayne,

I have had 3 Clearaudio carts. I loved them all. The pinnacle is the GFS and certainly is an awesome cart with a HUGE dynamic sound like tape. I would best describe it as full bodied that screams live performance in your face. You have to ask yourself though whether it's value is worth the price. I moved up through the Clearudio trade-up programme. It is safe to say, the GFS is a no compromise cart and once you have a Goldfinger Statement there is no going back.

I loathe the day I have to re tip it/replace it because it will be for another GFS.

I kind of wish that I didn't go up past the DaVinci V2. I really did love that cart also, not quite in the same league but up there and the best value cart in their range, IMO. I highly recommend it and would gladly own it again if I had more arms!

Also, the GFS has no problem pushing 1000ohms, smooth as with most material, articulating incredible resolution.
 
Nice looking system Steve and lovely pics. Like Mike, you need to squeeze more equipment in-between those speakers....:disbelief:
 
Steve said:
Hi A.Wayne,

I have had 3 Clearaudio carts. I loved them all. The pinnacle is the GFS and certainly is an awesome cart with a HUGE dynamic sound like tape. I would best describe it as full bodied that screams live performance in your face. You have to ask yourself though whether it's value is worth the price. I moved up through the Clearudio trade-up programme. It is safe to say, the GFS is a no compromise cart and once you have a Goldfinger Statement there is no going back.

I loathe the day I have to re tip it/replace it because it will be for another GFS.

I kind of wish that I didn't go up past the DaVinci V2. I really did love that cart also, not quite in the same league but up there and the best value cart in their range, IMO. I highly recommend it and would gladly own it again if I had more arms!

Also, the GFS has no problem pushing 1000ohms, smooth as with most material, articulating incredible resolution.
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Thanks for the response Steve , yes they are special....
 
Geardaddy said:
Nice looking system Steve and lovely pics. Like Mike, you need to squeeze more equipment in-between those speakers....:disbelief:
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Thank you. If it's feasible, Why not? The deployment of this hybrid system is very useable given the intended multi-purpose application. IMO, you buy stuff to use and look after not just to look at and covert. It's going to depreciate. Some HiFi is known to have vintage collectability desirability (eg McIntosh), but if you don't use it, what's the fun in that... A good system should be used to it's fullest potential and used often as say watching TV...otherwise it is money not well spent.

I may rack another DAC...

Speaker placement is more forward than the pics taken several years ago. Notwithstanding, the plane of Dali loudspeakers are front-on. Their performance is less susceptible to compromise by the density of equipment "in between".

I'm with Mike on this one. Buy stuff to enjoy. If it's no longer giving you the satisfaction you desire, get rid of it and do something else. Life is too short to covert stuff for someone else when your dead.
 
Steve said:
Thank you. If it's feasible, Why not? The deployment of this hybrid system is very useable given the intended multi-purpose application. IMO, you buy stuff to use and look after not just to look at and covert. It's going to depreciate. Some HiFi is known to have vintage collectability desirability (eg McIntosh), but if you don't use it, what's the fun in that... A good system should be used to it's fullest potential and used often as say watching TV...otherwise it is money not well spent.

I may rack another DAC...

Speaker placement is more forward than the pics taken several years ago. Notwithstanding, the plane of Dali loudspeakers are front-on. Their performance is less susceptible to compromise by the density of equipment "in between".

I'm with Mike on this one. Buy stuff to enjoy. If it's no longer giving you the satisfaction you desire, get rid of it and do something else. Life is too short to covert stuff for someone else when your dead.
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Hi Steve. I jest of course. I think it's a beautiful system. Visually, Macintosh has a vintage grace to it. I love looking at it. I also covet the tape machine you have. Every time I see one in a system, I covet ...

As for equipment placement vis-à-vis the speakers, it's an interesting discussion. That wasn't really my intention to flag an error in your system. I do have friends who strongly believe that there should be no equipment between the speakers or it should be very low to the ground. As for physics and speaker types, it would be interesting to know what designs are the most impervious to her that phenomena.

All this being said, I think you're listening partner in photograph 3 is not terribly impressed with your system😜
 
Thank you. The Studer is one of my favorite pieces. It is something very special and sounds incredible.

Difficult to find condition, but if you come across one that has been restored and cared for, then buy it! Tape is arguably one of the best if not still the best sounding medium to this day.
 
New addition. KORG DS-DAC-10R

1 bit USB ADC-DAC. NATIVE ASIO 2.1/WDM DSD RECORDER.

Vinyl to DSD 5.6448 MHz anyone?

Could be my ticket into digital....

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Geardaddy said:
Nice looking system Steve and lovely pics. Like Mike, you need to squeeze more equipment in-between those speakers....:disbelief:
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BaHahahahaha. That' exactly what I'm doing. I've had to buy 3 more shelves. Not to worry it will work. These loudspeakers perform best without toe-in, so I'm relatively safe... :D
 
Studer A721 and Studer A726 on its way. May take some time to commission more analogue gear with cabling.
 
Steve said:
Studer A721 and Studer A726 on its way. May take some time to commission more analogue gear with cabling.
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I have seen many photos of these reel to reel and cassette players lately. They look fun! Can you still buy pre-recorded music and all that stuff? I guess what I am trying to ask is what do you do with a cassette and real to real - is it like owning a turn table?
 
Golucid said:
I have seen many photos of these real to real and cassette players lately. They look fun! Can you still buy pre-recorded music and all that stuff? I guess what I am trying to ask is what do you do with a cassette and real to real - is it like owning a turn table?
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R2R is better than vinyl!!!! Yes, you can buy pre-recorded music on R2R. Expensive, and as close to the analogue master you can get.

A high quality cassette professional level deck like the Studer A721 or Nakamichi CR-7 is very close to pro R2R. Definitely on par with unmodified prosumer gear. Cassette tape head enthusiasts mainly use the cassette medium for personal recording purposes nowadays.

Tape is THE recording medium for the analogue domain. Our respective C1000 pre-amps were built for the job. :D
 
Steve said:
R2R is better than vinyl!!!! Yes, you can buy pre-recorded music on R2R. Expensive, and as close to the analogue master you can get.

A high quality cassette professional level deck like the Studer A721 or Nakamichi CR-7 is very close to pro R2R. Definitely on par with unmodified prosumer gear. Cassette tape head enthusiasts mainly use the cassette medium for personal recording purposes nowadays.

Tape is THE recording medium for the analogue domain. Our respective C1000 pre-amps were built for the job. :D
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I thought of getting a R2R as a kewl decoration and had no intention of using it other than a conversation piece - it's so old! I love it. What do you listen on R2R - some examples? Any modern music? I do like some old stuff like Bowie, Zep and stuff. But mainly, I like stuff from the late 90s/2000s. Any techno high energy stuff on R2R?

BTW: I did a quick query on eBay. Gasp, the stuff available appears rather ancient!

David
 
David, Please chime in on the new R2R thread. Would love to have this discussion there. This is something you may want to do. You have the perfect rig for a R2R. Mike is into it too.

Not really those genres though. You can find lots of jazz and blues on R2R tape. It is also a convenient recording medium for when you don't feel like spinning vinyl. Tape is easier to enjoy and certainly the mechanical precision of the medium is a cool conversation piece.

1/4" is the way to go. Forget about eBay. Here is your starting point: http://tapeproject.com/
 
McIntosh MDA1000 on its way. Soon I will learn what the all the legacy fuss is all about!

I also hope to have the opportunity to compare against another classic with a Philips TDA 1541 DAC.
 
That looks great a lot of horse power. But most important it looks like the dog likes it.
 
Maintenance Day! Don't you just hate this fricken job... I do, so time to get The Lady involved in that!

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Mike said:
Steve - how many hours are you finding you are getting out of the KT88's?
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Mike...This is a VERY interesting question. I'm still testing and comparing to my Jan 2013 readings as the baseline. 2/3rds are 12 months older.

The results so far indicate that on average after approx 8,500 hours of daily use they are less than 10% below spec. The avg is closer to 8% overall. I AM VERY IMPRESSED BY THE RESULTS.

Out of 36, one went supernova a month or so ago and two currently read in the 50's. So I will match and swap a mere 2 tubes out.

I found that if you buy HOT matched sets, they appear that they will last a very long time.

This hot tube here perfectly demonstrates that it has lost nothing since JAN13 and has nearly 8,500 hours on it. It reads exactly the same as 2013.

As for the TFK ECC801S, well they are reading immortal.

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They get on average 8 hours a day because of the HT hybrid setup. You know, I fall asleep often in front of the TV doing work, deals and Audioshark...

Maybe it's the clean power that is prolonging their life?
 

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