re: Audiophile/Vinyl Thread - Post Pics, Advice, Questions, Setups, etc.

I have been fighting a bass “hole” in my new room now for a few months. It is a physics thing. So I am entertaining the idea of a radical speaker change—large open baffles.

Pure Audio Project makes open baffle kits (easy to assemble) that are really reasonably priced for what you get.

I am looking at the Quintet 15....it has (4) 15” open baffle woofers and (1) 8” Voxativ full range mid/high OR a Compression horn driver for mid/high per speaker. I will need to use an active crossover and another amp for the full range driver (probably a McIntosh MC75 tube monos).


If you have never heard an open baffle, you will be amazed at the amount of bass a speaker specifically designed to have no cabinet, can produce. The soundstage and presence of this type of speaker is huge...and they are also very efficient (95-96dB efficient—means they can play loudly with just 50 watts of power).

I have a good friend here in NOLA that has the smaller pair (the Trio), and was amazed when I heard them driven with 25 watts of power.

Here they are...

This is calling out to me for my office...

Ultimately, I would love to move to Pathos for power and pre, but the Adrenalin amps and Synapse pre are pushing $75k now...


...but man, that Italian gear is beautiful!

Hand crafted hybrid tube/solid state power...

Marco,

We had a good conversation about McIntosh CD players several months ago. I had been using my Oppo as the player (awesome performing) but finally decided to take the plunge and get a McIntosh player. I didn't want to break the bank on the first purchase, so I went with a used MCD301 from Audio Classics. It seems to be popular model with Mac fans due to it's build quality, reliability, and SQ of course. The face plate to mount in the rack came in a couple of weeks ago and she joined all of her Mac siblings. It sounds fantastic and it shocked me how much cleaner the SACD playback is compared to the Oppo. Here she is! It looks damn good thrown in there with all the other Mac gear.

Since you are getting into home theater now too, you get how distracting those blue meters and lights can be. The first rack pic as the door closed and you can tell how much is dulls out the meters. I can't imagine watching a movie in the dark without that tinted door.

Very nice. Looks sharp. I’m going to be in Austin in the next few weeks so I’m hoping I’ll have time to stop into some shops and listen to SF & Focal as well as others.

And I really dig that Kanta style. A quick search puts them at just under $10k, which is out of my range, even if a dealer knocked a bit off. But they look great, would be nice to hear them. This one is my favorite I think...

I wish the new transports had the dial/knob to jump from track to track like the CD players—but alas, only buttons.

I have all the Mc pieces linked with triggers, and with the push of one button on the master remote, I can kill all the blue meters while still keeping the subtle green backlighting on.

You may be able to get a deal on Agon on a pair of Aria as some of the Aria owners are jumping up to the Katana and Sopra and listing their Aria.

Ever43...

This transport/DAC has me buying SACDs now. I’ve got about 15 now—stuff I listen to often, and I will say, they are clean, extended, and just downright pleasant. Problem is, they are $30 a pop for albums I already have on vinyl, Red book CD, and maybe even, cassette

Just how many copies of Breakfast in America do I need?

PhillipMarlowe...


You ever consider a pair of Magneplanar 1.7 and a sub? You can get the Maggie’s new for around $2300 and the Vandersteen (3) x 8” sub (great sub for planar speakers) for around $1400.

Magneplanars only weakness is really low bass, however, almost every owner augments it with a sub. Their mids are just about as good as mids get, and the ribbon tweeter is smooth.

Go to a dealer (there are many around the U.S.) and give Magneplanar a shot—you may walk away pleasantly surprised!

I am running g the 285ES....no need for me for the 385 as I don’t need the memory settings as I don’t do cinema wide—-just 16:9. I believe there is no difference between the 285 and 385 in lumens or picture quality. In fact, they use the same bulb.