Hi from Leeds

[wholesome]

Hi all,

I've been lurking around here so often and so frequently, I thought I better introduce myself before someone takes out a restraining order!

I'm Richard from Leeds, and my musical tastes are fairly varied but there's a lot of alternative, folk, 'alt-folk' and 'alt-country' as they call it, Americana, as well as electronica and a little of nearly everything else. End of the Road Festival lineups always feel like they were hand-picked for me.

My equipment list is like this:

Digital
USB out of MacBook Pro using Fidelia software for playback
Optical out of Apple TV 2
Coax out of Sky+ HD Box

all that goes into a Gigawork 24/192 upsamplig DAC with Burson Audio discrete opamps. Further mods are planned at some point.

I've also got a Pioneer DV-757Ai for CD, DVD, DVD-A playback, but use the analogue out of that, when I rarely use it. It's more one for the Mrs who finds it familiar! :)

Vinyl
The ubiquitous 1210. Mine's a Mk5 with:
- Isonoe feet, glass coasters and sorbothane footers
- Michell TecnoArm
- Dynavector DV20XL
- Mike New Bearing
- KAB USA Strobe Disabler
- DIY PSU using the Fidelity Audio SPower DC regulator
- 285mm Sound Dead Steel IsoPlatMat
- Oyaide MJ-12 Mat
- Acoustic Signature The Grip record clamp
(describe a product as CNC machined and I just can't resist!!!!)

That goes into my 47 Labs Shigaraki phono stage

Amps
My pre/power are semi-DIY and semi-integrated. I bought some of the small scale commercial products and re-boxed them to cut down on mains and interconnect cables, and stop me constantly changing a cable, or a component, or mixing the positions of the cables etc, and also so I could put linear power supplies together for all the DC stuff.

So, transformers in one box, and in the other are
- more SPower regulators
- a DIYParadise Eva II
- Burson Audio Buffer and its regulator
- 2 x Trends TA10.2P (Tripath TA2024) amps with the output stages running in parallel, and upgraded input caps as well as other minor mods

Speakers
Quad ESL 57's and Townshend Supertweeters. Just before Christmas I replaced the EHT boards, all the components in the audio transformer, rewired and refurbished the frames of the ESL's.


It's fair to say that if you combine an LDR preamp with TA2024 amps and Quad ESL's, you get a fairly transparent system in the midrange! Whenever we take video of the kids on a cheap digital camera with music on in the background, when I play the video back on my laptop it sounds like the music soundtrack was added in post-production!


Sorry, quite a long intro, but after nearly 3 years, I thought you should know what ideas I've stolen from you and put to use in my system! ;)

cheers
Richard

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hi Richard,
Here's a warm welcome to you from me as you emerge from the shadows.
Great introduction.
Cheers

[Tarzan]

Hi all,

I've been lurking around here so often and so frequently, I thought I better introduce myself before someone takes out a restraining order!

I'm Richard from Leeds, and my musical tastes are fairly varied but there's a lot of alternative, folk, 'alt-folk' and 'alt-country' as they call it, Americana, as well as electronica and a little of nearly everything else. End of the Road Festival lineups always feel like they were hand-picked for me.

My equipment list is like this:

Digital
USB out of MacBook Pro using Fidelia software for playback
Optical out of Apple TV 2
Coax out of Sky+ HD Box

all that goes into a Gigawork 24/192 upsamplig DAC with Burson Audio discrete opamps. Further mods are planned at some point.

I've also got a Pioneer DV-757Ai for CD, DVD, DVD-A playback, but use the analogue out of that, when I rarely use it. It's more one for the Mrs who finds it familiar! :)

Vinyl
The ubiquitous 1210. Mine's a Mk5 with:
- Isonoe feet, glass coasters and sorbothane footers
- Michell TecnoArm
- Dynavector DV20XL
- Mike New Bearing
- KAB USA Strobe Disabler
- DIY PSU using the Fidelity Audio SPower DC regulator
- 285mm Sound Dead Steel IsoPlatMat
- Oyaide MJ-12 Mat
- Acoustic Signature The Grip record clamp
(describe a product as CNC machined and I just can't resist!!!!)

That goes into my 47 Labs Shigaraki phono stage

Amps
My pre/power are semi-DIY and semi-integrated. I bought some of the small scale commercial products and re-boxed them to cut down on mains and interconnect cables, and stop me constantly changing a cable, or a component, or mixing the positions of the cables etc, and also so I could put linear power supplies together for all the DC stuff.

So, transformers in one box, and in the other are
- more SPower regulators
- a DIYParadise Eva II
- Burson Audio Buffer and its regulator
- 2 x Trends TA10.2P (Tripath TA2024) amps with the output stages running in parallel, and upgraded input caps as well as other minor mods

Speakers
Quad ESL 57's and Townshend Supertweeters. Just before Christmas I replaced the EHT boards, all the components in the audio transformer, rewired and refurbished the frames of the ESL's.


It's fair to say that if you combine an LDR preamp with TA2024 amps and Quad ESL's, you get a fairly transparent system in the midrange! Whenever we take video of the kids on a cheap digital camera with music on in the background, when I play the video back on my laptop it sounds like the music soundtrack was added in post-production!


Sorry, quite a long intro, but after nearly 3 years, I thought you should know what ideas I've stolen from you and put to use in my system! ;)

cheers
Richard



Nice system there Richard but.....:worthless:

[Wakefield Turntables]

Richard,

Welcome, I live in Wakefield so just down the road from you.





Vinyl
The ubiquitous 1210. Mine's a Mk5 with:
- Isonoe feet, glass coasters and sorbothane footers
- Michell TecnoArm
- Dynavector DV20XL
- Mike New Bearing
- KAB USA Strobe Disabler
- DIY PSU using the Fidelity Audio SPower DC regulator
- 285mm Sound Dead Steel IsoPlatMat
- Oyaide MJ-12 Mat
- Acoustic Signature The Grip record clamp
(describe a product as CNC machined and I just can't resist!!!!)



Speakers
Quad ESL 57's and Townshend Supertweeters. Just before Christmas I replaced the EHT boards, all the components in the audio transformer, rewired and refurbished the frames of the ESL's.




As you may see I have a 1210 as well. I also have ESL57's, so we have a similar setup. What differences did you notice with the supertweeters?




Nice system there Richard but.....:worthless:

+1 :cool:

[Reid Malenfant]

Hi Richard, welcome to the forum from me as well :) I must admit I have seen you lurking on numerous occasions & it's a pleasure to now see you coming out of the woods so to speak.

Nice load of kit you have there & I can only repeat what has already been said, that it'd be great to see some pictures up in the gallery ;)

Meanwhile I hope you enjoy your stay here :cool:

[Alex_UK]

What they all said! Welcome to the big wide world of posting, Richard - you actually joined way before me! Enjoy! :)

[wholesome]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I promise I'll get some pics in the gallery asap. I'm definitely looking forward to getting some hints and tips from the DIY section in due course

Andrew, 1210 and ESL's is a strange combo - what one does well (bass) the other doesn't, until you start modding the 1210 anyway to get it to do more - do you use yours in the same system?

The super tweeters are fantastic! I think the ESL's start rolling off at something like 15-16KHz, and the Townshends come in at something like 12KHz upwards. I know there are lots of debates/arguments about whether super tweeters can really have an effect when they operate above 20KHz, but whether the effect is psycho-acoustic(?), placebo, or none at all doesn't really matter when they do something in the audible frequency range! There's also that debate about improving the bass etc. I think I noticed a level of improvement there, and the science of harmonics kind of makes sense to me, but again, there's no way I could separate whether the improvements are from what I can hear them doing, or also what they're doing that I can't hear.

In my system, they do what you'd expect - fill in the top end, and help make the sound more cohesive. From the moment I plugged them in, it was obvious there had been something missing. I'd love a sub or two to subtly fill in at the other end, but living in a semi-detached with small kids, I actually bought the ESL's because they don't have loads of bass and I can listen a bit louder, a bit later without disturbing everyone or using headphones.

cheers
Richard