Howlin' dawgs Kennel

[howlindawg]

Well I was asked in the welcome thread to post up a few pictures of my system.
In the absence of up to date images I decided to pop up a few pictures I had to hand and will add more up to date images when I get the camera out.



This is the system as it was a few years back.
At this point the speakers were Aurum Cantus Leisure 2SE on B&W stands.
I had just made my first tentative steps towards a vinyl front end having dragged my old LPs out of dacades of storage.
TT was a Planer-3 with RB300, Goldring 2500 MM and MF X-LPSv3 Phono stage.
The RB300 was treated to a tungsten counterweight and a rewire.
The TT got a new ruby bearing and ISO subplatter.
Amplification was my long serving Musical Fidelity X-A2.
The MF A3.5CD player had just replaced a Rega Planet 2000 as the TT had taken up residence on the top shelf and SWMBO found the top loader awkward when under the shelf.
The Tuner is an Arcam which sounded pretty damn good when used with a decent external arial.






Moving on and there have been a few changes!
Speakers are now Reference 3A Veeenas which work beautifully in my room.
These have some mild tweaks on the HF side of things.
The High pass filter now features Mundorf Supreme silver in oil caps (which will be standard fitment from the factory in the next generation of Veena) and all the wiring on the HF side from tweeter to binding posts is soild silver.
I seem to have caught the vinyl bug at this point as the Rega TT has gone to a new home and has been replaced by a Pioneer PL-71 with Benz-Micro MC20E2-L and a Townshend Elite Rock II with Merlin PSU, Audio Origami fettled Excalibur tonearm fitted with a Goldring 2500MM.

Around this time I went on an orgy of experimentation and box swapping with phono stages and carts and also developed a taste for DIY.
More pics to follow.

[Spectral Morn]

Nice set up thanks for posting the photos.

Regards D S D L

[John]

I like the speed of the Ref 3a nice speakers and system

[Alex_UK]

Great stuff! Thanks! (I see the curtains "bought it" too! )

[Marco]

Yes, he's now made a frock out of them, so don't be jealous!

Marco.

[howlindawg]

(I see the curtains "bought it" too! )

LOL, they were full length and so interfered with the cables. Couldn't have that!
I took them down with the intention of having them shortened but somehow that never happened.
My limited DIY skills do not extend to "hemming"

Not sure about the frock idea Marco... a nice waistcoat perhaps.

[WOStantonCS100]

Quite nice. The vinyl bug bites again! (arrarrarrarrr)

[Techno Commander]

Excellent looking system. What was your opinion of the Leisure 2 SE?

[howlindawg]

Excellent looking system. What was your opinion of the Leisure 2 SE?

Thanks Andy.

The little Aurum Cantus were a complete eye opener for me, my first foray into Chi-Fi. I suppose the first thing that you notice about them is the build quality. They're heavy, solid and the standard of the veneering and piano lacquering is world class.

Sonicaly the ribbon tweeter is the star of the show, the upper frequencies are detailed, delicate and precise without any edginess or fatiguing nasties. It's VERY hard to listen to a conventional tweeter after the AC ribbon and not feel like you're downgrading.

The weakness is the bass performance. It doesn't do deep bass at all and get a bit ploddy as you get down to about 50-60Hz. But then it is a small bookshelf so not entirely unexpected.

Bottom line... for me they replaced a pair of B&W 705s. The ACs were better finished, were far more refined in the upper registers and had better definition in the mids. IMHO they were something of a HiFi bargain.

[Techno Commander]

Thanks for your description. I know what you mean about ribbon tweeters. I use Visaton ribbons and their detail and presentation is sublime. I had seen the 2SEs advertised in various places with a bargain basement price tag. They do appear to offer a lot for the money. I suppose bottom end is going to be somewhat compromised with a small box. It also shows how much the quality of some Chinese hifi is improving.