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| Pro-ject Perspective w/ Pro-ject 9 arm on a Target VW1 turntable wall mount |
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| JMLab Electra 926 |
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| JMLab SW900 active subwoofer |
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| Clearaudio balanced preamplifier |
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| Highphonic MCA-300 cartridge |
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| Interconnects: VdH The First, The First Ultimate & Puresonic 8010A balanced |
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| Monarchy Audio SE-100 delux class A amplifier |
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| Teac VRDS-T1 w/ Trichord Clock II modification & Monarchy Audio 22B DAC (+Monarchy Audio DIP anti-jitter box) |
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| Standesign Saturn 5 with all the electronics |
Starting as a 13 years old with a mono phonograph and soon got the Audiophile virus. In the past I have been writing for hifi magazines and today I am a reviewer for www.hifi.nl.
My system has seen many components among names as
Dynaco, dB Systems, Acoustic Research, Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Thorens, Hadcock, Supex. I was one of the first persons in the Netherands that understood the importance of interconnects and speaker cables in a complete system. The latest inprovements have been achieved by installing mains filters and adding a sub woofer into the system.
Hifi has become part of my living and I enjoy the gift of music from so many artists everyday.
Audio Magazines I am reading are: Hifi Plus, Hifi Choice, HVT, Music Emotion, Vi-Fi, LP etc...
In my record collection I have: 600 Lp's, 700 CD's and 150 DVD's, which are categorized as: classical (10%), jazz (30%) and other (60%).
The Lp's and CD's I am using for evaluation are the following:
- Patricia Barber collection.
- Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue.
- Holly Cole collection.
- Oscar Peterson We get requests.
- Rachelle Ferrell First Instrument.
- The Chieftains Tears Of Stone.
- Hugh Masekela Hope.
- Juliette Greco - Ses grandes chansons.
- Mary Black - Live.
- Death Can Dance - Into the labyrinth.
- Roger Waters - Amused to death.
- The Weavers - Reunion at Carnegie Hall.
- Jachinta - Lush life.
- Jheena Lodwick - Getting to know you.
- Juliette Greco - Ses grandes chansons.
- Dire Straits - Brothers in arms.
- Many, many others, in all genres.
Interesting questions:
Q.:
How would you describe your system's sound?A.: Neutral and very transparent. Much power in lower registers due to the large speakers and subwoofer.
Q.:
Do you think there is room for improvement?A.: The CD drive can be replaced with a better one to regain a bit of emotion on live cd's. Also the cartridge becomes very old although it still sounds perfect.
Q.:
Have you got plans for upgrading?A.: Yes replace the CD drive by a CEC drive.
Page follow-up... (info entered on 12 October 2002)Lately, I have made the following changes:
The
Clearaudio Basic phono amp has been replaced by a
Transrotor phono amp. The cable from the turntable to the phono amp is a
Siltech 'MXT' New York. I have also replaced my
Monarchy Audio 22B DAC with the
M-Audio Superdac 24/96 and changed all digital cables to
Apogee Wyde-Eye. I still use the
Monarchy Audio DIP anti-jitter box. I only replaced my
d/a converter 22B. So the actual...
... setup of the digital front end is:
Teac VRDS-T1 with Trichord clock 2 modification
Apogee Wyde-Eye 75 Ohm S/PDIF cable
Monarchy Audio DIP Mk2 anti jitter box
Apogee Wyde-Eye 110 AES/EBU cable
M-Audio Superdac 2496 d/a converter
Van den Hul The First Ultimate analog interlink to pre-amp. | ... and the analogue front end consists of:
Pro-ject Perspective player with Pro-ject 9 arm
Highphonic MC-A300 cartridge.
Siltech MXT Professional Series New York.
Transrotor phono amp.
Van den Hul The Source Hybrid to pre-amp. |
Listening comments:
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| M-Audio Superdac 24/96 (back) |
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| Apogee Wyde-Eye digital cables |
I have replaced my
Monarchy Audio M22B DAC by a
M-Audio Superdac 24/96. Although this tiny DAC costs only 310 Euro and has a wall mart power supply, this DAC is one of the best I ever heard. We placed it along side a
Mark Levinson cd player, matched the input levels and reached the conclusion that it sounded different, but not worse. In comparison with the
Monarchy, much more detail can be heard, a bit less depth, better and tighter bass lines and never ever a digital harshness. One of the cheapest and smartest upgrades I ever did. Do compare this DAC against the best and be amazed. I have tried a lot of CD players and DACs in the past. This little box outperforms all including a CEC combination with its own superlink. Some friends tried my
M-audio DAC and they all bought one afterwards.
For long I have used
Van den Hul 'The First' as a digital interconnect. I have tried over a dozen other digital cables, but never felt a replacement usefull. Until I laid my hand on
Apogee Wyde-Eye cable, very cheap compared to other high-end cable. Comes from
Apogee a professional d/a + D/A Converter manufacturer. I replaced my
Puresonic cable on the 110 Ohm AES/EBU side, between anti jitter box and DAC, and it became clear, this
Wyde-Eye improved the overall performance. Then, I also replaced the cable between my transport and jitter box, just to find this was even a greater improvement. The digital sky broke open and a mist was cleared. A mist I had not been aware of. On detailed music and a good cd the sound now comes close to analogue and I must admit that bass notes are far better. This cable will surpass a lot of digital cables up to 250 euro or perhaps even more.
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| Transrotor Phono preamplifier (front) |
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| Transrotor Phono preamplifier (back) |
The analogue front end has been upgraded by replacing the
Clearaudio Basic with a
Transrotor phono amp and a
Siltech MXT New York cable. The
Transrotor is easily ajustable for any cartridge and is therefore far better match than the fixed input of the
Clearaudio. The sound has become more stable, more grunt in the lower registers and a bit softer in the hights. Voices are more natural and easier on the ear. The
Siltech cable is a perfect match, very open and detailed - an improvement over my
Linn Analogue cable. The
Transrotor is expensive, not due to the electronics inside, being not special, but due to the casework. It is hard to recommend if you look at this box this way, but the sound and the flexibility makes the total packange worth the price. I wished
Transrotor comes with a budget version in a simpler case for far less.
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| the Garrard 301 when I picked it up months ago |
Another update has been made in my set. I have added a second record player.
It is a
Garrard 301 motor unit with a DIY console. The arm is a
Pro-ject 9 carbon and the cartridge is the
Highphonic MC-A300 the one I once used in the
Pro-ject Perspective. Cabling
Siltech MXT New York to the
Tansrotor phono amp.
The
Garrard 301 motor unit is very famous for its excellent sound. It was manufactured in 1959 as far as I could find out. I have cleaned the unit, which was all I had to do. The bearings and inner wheel are still perfect after all these years. On the internet, I found how to construct a plinth. The plinth or console is home made of MDF (inside) and plywood (outside). The top-plate itself is lightweight and supported on soft rubber strips. The console is very heavy and damped with lead bitimous. The arm was chosen due to the good results with the all metal
Pro-ject 9 arm. But the marriage between the carbon version and my
Highphonic is a lot better.
The results compared to my
Perspective are astonishing. The image projected in the room is rock stable.
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| the complete record player almost finished mounting the cartridge |
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| Garrard playing its marvellous sound |
The lower frequenties go deeper than usual and are further detailed. Mid and high tones are soft and easy on the ear, but without any loss of detail. The sound can be described as "natural, open, dynamic and detailed with very good image".
I often wondered why audiophiles in the Far East, UK and USA were so excited about
Garrard motor units but I can see (or better hear) their point. No rumble on my part, only musical information in true high end style. The console adds to this. The combination of low mass and high mass dampens the unwanted resonances without destroying dynamics or detail. When this level can be reached with a relative cheap arm and a 12 years old cartridge, I question myself how far one can reach with a top arm and cartridge on a 301 deck.
Page follow-up... (info entered on 05 November 2003) |
| Assemblage D2D-1 upsampler |
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| Apogee mini-dac |
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| Marsh Sound Design P2000b pre-amp |
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Benz Micro Glider L2
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| Digital interconnects from Apogee and analog from Siltech |
A lot of updates to get a better sounding system. The cartridge had to be replaced, the
Highphonic worn out. With te
Benz Glider L2 a
Linn Linto sounded superb, so I sold the
Transrotor. My digital front-end was updated with an
Assemblage up-sampler that feeds the
Apogee Mini-Dac studio converter. In my ears one of the best converters around, not with an audiophile sound but making pure music and gets you involved without loss of detail or transparency. The new pre-amp adds to the upgrades as well as the investment in cables. To find synergy I only use
Siltech 'classic' for interconnects as well as for speaker cables (single-wired due the the cost).
I suppose your favorite questions can be answered now as follows:
Q.:
How would you describe your system's sound?A.: Much better than before...
Q.:
Do you think there is room for improvement?A.: Maybe a SACD player would add to the sound.
Q.:
Have you got plans for upgrading?A.: I might replace the
Monarchy SE-100 Delux amps with a
Marsh Sound Designone...
Page follow-up... (info entered on 14 January 2006) |
| My previous system set-up |
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| Ayon Audio 300B amp with 300B-S tubes by EAT |
The last year I changed from solid state to tubes in amps and cd player. After my CD chain broke down I changed into an integrated player, with tubes in the output section. A lot has been done on the electrical section, power filters and isolating transformer made by
'Kemp Elektroniks' in the Netherlands.
Actually a lot has changed in my system. Even the position of the speakers in the room is completely different. Speakers used to be half way the room in the length and now they are positioned on the long wall, necessary after buying a LCD TV for home cinema use. They also changed from
Focal-JMlab Electra 926 to the
Anniversary Edition 927 Be with the unequalled beryllium tweeters. Still I had trouble with the bass. It blow up much to much.
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| The complete system by the time the Teac was still around, it broke down afterwards |
Changing amps helped. First I bought a
PrimaLuna ProLogue Five power amp with KT-88. It replaced my
Marsh power amp. Bass became in control but I lost on detail and the sound was harsh. New tubes (JJ) helped but still I was not satisfied. A new amp, made by
Ayon with special 300B tubes, became available. This amp has a power output of 20 watts per channel. Enough for the
Focal's in my room. This amp, far more expensive than the
PrimaLuna, has a higher resolution and has much more detail. It betters the
Marsh set as well as the
PL5. No harsh sound, wide open soundstage, never overblown in the bass and extremely good on female voices - my favourites. Since it is an integrated amp, the
Marsh pre-amp went out as well.
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| Part of the set, the processor, tuner and SACD player |
We like to watch movies. So home cinema became part of the system. Unwilling to invest as heavy into home cinema as in stereo I added an
Atoll PR5.1 processor and
Atoll AM50 power amps. One for the rear channels, one bi-amped for the center. I invested in center and rear speakers from
Focal, the Cobalt series, a series cheaper than
Electra. Surround is fine, the difference between center and front was to much. With the
PrimaLuna still available I changed the front
AM50 for the
PL5. And bi-amped again. Two KT-88 tubes for the bass, two for the tweeter. This results in a more even system, now the difference between center and front is less. The
Atoll PR5.1 integrates good with the
Ayon, since it has a direct input.
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| The center home cinema setup with digital cable receiver and a HD recorder |
On the
Ayon, I use my record player direct, my
Magnum-Dynalab tuner and my
Lua CD player. Through the PR5.1 I use my digital TV receiver (digital cable TV), my
Marantz SA8400 SACD player and my
DV7600 DVD player. The
DV7600 will play SACD in multi-channel, although this option is not often used. For music I prefer stereo. But mixing the sets makes it possible to enjoy movies without degrading the stereo system.
How it sounds? Well… Very transparent, not always kind on material, no bass problems, fast and accurate, enormous power available for film, great dynamics due to the tube amps, involving and sexy. Still there is space for improvement, but isn't there always? The sound is also very clean and an ink black background exists, mainly due to the investments in power cleaning and conditioning by a filter and a power transformer. Both are especially made for music reproduction and do not change dynamics in any way. Power cords are expensive ones (Crystal Cable) for the main components and Lapp DIY shielded cables for less important components like the home cinema system.
Page follow-up... (info entered on 29 April 2007)Recently, I have made some changes to my system. First, I will list them:
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| My previous system set-up |
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| Transrotor Super Seven w/SME 3500 |
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Garrard 301 record deck changed to
Transrotor Super Seven 40/60/TMD.
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Pro-ject 9C arm changed to
Transrotor/SME 3500.
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Benz Micro Glider L2 cartridge changed to
Phase Tech P-3 Alexandrite.
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Van Medevoort PHM3 phono stage changed to
EAR 834P DeLuxe.
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Lua Cantilena Mk 2 CD player changed to
Lua Cantilena SEL.
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Focal 927Be Anniversary Edition speakers changed to
Focal 937Be Anniversary Edition. Focal SW900 subwoofer is still in use.
- Added is an
EAR 834L line stage and
Ayon 300B is used as power amp only.
- Added are
Crystal Cable Ultra power cords and interconnects for the main devices.
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| EAR 834P DeLuxe & 834L line |
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| double rack with the main electronics |
D e s c r i p t i o n
In the past year a lot has changed in my system. Having an Ayon 300B amp made me a tube lover. I had just bought a CD player with tubes when I had the opportunity to change it in a higher model. So the
Lua Cantilena Mk.2 became the larger SEL model. Still a 44/16 player that sounds very well. Especially, since I changed the tubes inside (ECC81 and 83) to old Telefunken tubes. Makes a hell of a difference. I like the sound of this player because it is fast, open and not as unstable as many 24/192 players and converters.
