Hello - does purchasing a tube amp make me an audiophile?

[SLS]

Hi, new to the forum.

Music tastes: went to school a short walk from the Hammersmith Odeon, so got a rock education, went to university a short walk from the South Bank, so got a classical education, married a ballet dancer so got that sorted (although went to a lot of dance and opera before I met her), and have developed a liking for jazz and folk in the comfort of my living room (although I did take my rock-loving Glasto 16 year old to Bob Dylan last week - he found it "interesting").

Kit: Bought a nice house and built a music room and put in a Primare kit. Kids put paid to that for 10+ years. Having got it back 3 years ago, decided to get a digital (Linn) system mostly ex-demo or s/h as my CDs had mostly been used for place mats and frisbees for several years. Hated the digital Linn sound and my son persuaded me to go back to vinyl. Now listen mostly to vinyl. System evolved over the last two years and is now Claro Dual deck, Origin Live Illustrious 12" Linear flow arm, XX2 Mk2 cart, TQ Iridium phono, ART Audio Jota amp (being modified by Tom to fully integrated with couch potato remote) and PMC Fact8 speakers. Digital is Linn Akurate DS and Ava Media Zara Premium NAS drive (with MCRU's 12A PSU). Speaker and i/c cables are all TQ Ultra Black. PS Audio P3 regenerator and lots of MCRU power cables. New HiFi Racks on order to match existing HFR wall plinth for deck.

In case anybody asks, the Fact8's sound great with the Jota tube amp. 89dB/1m but no problem at all.

Many thanks also to Tim at What Records and Alan at Alan's Record Store for supplying endless new and used vinyl respectively. Tim for being the being the nicest bloke on the planet and Alan for keeping my son happy with his great deals.

Looking for advice on my next cartridge.

[Audio Al]

Hi Steve

Welcome aboard

Very wise to go back to vinyl

You can pick up lots of LP's from boot sales for 50p - £1 each

I know as all my music is obtained this way

[SLS]

The problem is, all these audio people send you recommendations and - Bingo ! - another LP on its way.

Thanks to a David Brook recommendation, was £15 poorer before I had time to make my first coffee this morning.

Was trying to stick to 50:50 new:used, but proving difficult.

[Andrei]

HI
Nice introduction and a pleasure to read as I could relate to a fair bit of it. Two years ago I was a vinyl wannabe and now I am a tube wannabe.
My comment on your question is: Being an audiophile makes you purchase a tube amp.

PS System pics would be nice.

[SLS]

Thanks Andrei
System pics will follow when the HiFi Racks turns up, in a few weeks with a bit of luck.

Was drawn down the tubes path after discussing Claro/Origin Live combination with a customer of theirs in OZ, and demo'ing a PrimaLuna tube integrated at HiFi Lounge. For £2,500 the PL integrated produces a fantastic sound and great value, but not a match for my system. Pete at Claro recommended ART Audio (Claro make ART's decks - see Musicosis review of the Composer-1), as did all ART's great reviews, and I wanted something hand-built in Blightly. Also, a great amp turned up at Emporium. So many tube products are made in China. The ART is being modified by Tom Willis 2 hours up the M1, which is a lot nearer than Guangdong and he speaks English rather than Cantonese.
There is a Quintet Mk2 being sold at the moment, but my speakers are perhaps not sensitive enough for that.

[keiths]

Hi Steven,

A great intro there - welcome to the forum

[MartinT]

Hello Steven and welcome to AoS. How do you find the TQ Iridium?

[SLS]

Firstly, let me say I like TQ products a lot, have Ultra Black speaker cables and an Ultra Black interconnect. My son even has Colin Wonfor's Inca Tech Claymore from 1986 and it is still superb.

Use an MC cartridge, and was using the volume control straight into a Bryston amp. Initially I had problems. There was a grounding problem. Sent it back and Colin fixed it by return. Then had a nasty bouncy hum at higher volumes. Was about to throw it out the window. Purchased a linear PSU for my NAS drive from MCRU and the hum went. Must have been interference from the Chinese £20 transformer previously attached to the NAS. Still some constant hum. Then changed by turntable and the hum went completely.

Put the Iridium through a serious test today. Changed my amp to an Art Audio Jota 20w Class A. 300BXLS output tubes. Was with Tom Wallis for modifications and he brought it down today. He also brought down some of his silver cables. In fact we had solid silver mains, solid silver interconnect and solid silver bi-wired speaker cables. Speaker cables were about ten 2mm insulated woven strands with some magic treatment and probably about £20k worth. Anyway, the result was jaw-dropingly articulate and spacious, just fantastic all round. I also have a fairly high tech turntable and the speakers are PMC Fact8. If anything, the Iridium should have been the weak link, if you judge things by price. Far from it. It may cost £1,400, but it did its job perfectly. Quiet as a church mouse. Provided the goods however much tech we threw in front of it. Were I to get the silver speaker cables, would I feel the need to upgrade it to a Whest or an EAR 88PB for £4k? Absolutely not.

On top of that, for the last 18 months I was running it straight into my power amp using the volume control, no pre-amp and shorter signal path (as Colin intended). It can even accommodate two inputs (one each of low and high output), handy as my new deck can accommodate two arms.

I only wish the MM/MC toggle was on the front and not the back. Otherwise, I cannot say a bad word about it.

[MartinT]

Sounds good, Steven. There seems to be very little information on it, not even on TQ's website!

[SLS]

I read a review which is listed on KOG's website.
TQ's electronics are poorly displayed, if at all, on their website. I suspect not their top priority.
I bought it out of necessity and minimal research, ex-demo from Analogue Seduction. For reasons of family life I just wanted a good digital solid state system, but it was disappointing and my son got me to add analogue. I bought an old but good Clearaudio, which I was able to trade in and get my money back in full after 18 months, and now have a much better system all round, thanks to a lot of asking and listening, but still have the Linn Akurate DS, the last man standing from the beginning of this process. Maybe a bit of beginner's luck, am now a lot more aware, but no desire to change.

May need a new cart in the next 6 months, or just try something new. The little I know about the Shelter 5000 is that is it superb. I saw your other post that you got it from the HK/eBay guy. Don't buy from HK, but can I trust him? He is selling it for £835. Interested to see it in your system, rather than something more expensive from Japan.