Mike's gear

[Mike A]

http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/Mike_A1/mike1.jpg
http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/Mike_A1/mike2.jpg
http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/Mike_A1/mike3.jpg

From the top:-

TT: Clearaudio Champion with CMB, vdh One Super, SME M2-9, Lehmann Black Cube (battery powered)

CD: Copland CDA 266 (reclocked)

Pre: Cambridge Audio 840E

Power: 2x Audio Consequent Sonito

Speakers: Usher Dancer Mini 2 (bi-amped)

ICs: Antipodes Audio Katipo

Speaker Cable: Neotech 3001

Racks: finite elemente Signature

Power: Thor smart power station

And it all sounds pretty good to me :)

[vouk]

As it should, considering the gear at play; Really, really cool set up you have there Mike!
What's your take on the Antipodes cables? I've heard some rave reviews from people on Audiogon and have been tempted. They hail from New Zealand, right?
Also, if you have the time to spare, did you upgrade the t/t with the CMB? It is available as a separate upgrade for all Clearaudio tables, if I am not mistaken. You thoughts on this?

Cheers and happy listening!

[jandl100]

Lovely looking system, Mike. :thumbsup: I wish mine was as neat and tidy!

What are those large black discs on the floor?

I've not come across the Audio Consequent brand before - are they German? And the Sonitos are 50wpc stereo power amps?

I'm just curious! :)

[Spectral Morn]

Very nice looking system and well set up as well, the care and attention to detail is obvious in the photos.



Regards D S D L

[Tarzan]

Very nice looking system and well set up as well, the care and attention to detail is obvious in the photos.



Regards D S D L



x2 bet that sounds as good as it looks Mike, well done:)

[Slippershod]

lovely set-up - clearaudio and sme arm looking super-cool...

that wooden thing on the wall above your rack looks very attractive - does it have an aural effect too (or intended)?
actually reminds me of one those kind of bagatelle games you used to see about at Christmas...

[Mike A]

Thanks everyone

John, I really like the Antipodes cables but they aren't easy to describe as they tend to disappear in the system, as for the CMB that is easy, I was quite astonished by how much quieter it was over the old bearing, so for me it was well worth the money for the upgrade.

Jerry, the black discs are the speaker covers. Audio Consequent are a small German company that make some very nice gear, the Sonitos are 50wpc into 8 ohms and 100wpc into 4 ohms and they play lovely music, their cd player is brilliant but costs €7000 complete which is out of my range.

Marc, the wooden thing on the wall is an Echohush Acoustic panel and it kills slap echo and just quietens the room down without being too ugly. They come in other designs and finishes but I just liked it in wood and so up it went.

[Reid Malenfant]

Cheers for posting up some lovely pictures Mike :D Superb looking system & I'm sure it sounds very nice to! A bit daring of you letting pussy play with your record deck even if the cover is on :lol: Nice cats to!

Those monoblocks have an awful lot of heatsinking for such a low power level, are they by any chance class A or at the least heavily biased that way?

I hope you don't mind me asking, but what are the two boxes either side of the stands & between them & the speakers? Only asking as I'm assuming the rather large lump to the left of the left speaker is the power conditioner ;)

[Mike A]

I had to cat proof the TT lid to stop it sliding off as it was almost impossible to keep the cats off.
The boxes between stands and speakers house the toroidal transformers and the switching for the power supplies in the amps which run mostly in class A and are actually stereo hence all the heat sinking.

[Reid Malenfant]

So you are bi-amping your speakers? Nicer & nicer....

:D

[jason]

Very nice Mark infact thats a stunning looking system.

Jason

[Mike A]

Had this here for audition for 2 weeks and liked it so much it's staying

http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/Mike_A1/mike4.jpg

:D:D:D:D

[Mike A]

This arrived in the post yesterday (look away now, Marco):

http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/Mike_A1/mike6.jpg

It has specially treated copper cabling from cartridge tags to WBT next gen phonos and sounds a lot better than my M2-9 :D

[Mike A]

It's now been 4 weeks since I installed the SME V and I was going to wax lyrical about the whole experience but I decided not to bore you all with my dull prose, so a quick run down instead.

The arm came from a friend in Germany who had two and offered me his spare one.
The cabling was done by a guy in Karlsruhe, I think, who runs 1 amp through them for 4 days and lacquers them while they are warm.

The differences to my M2-9 are quite obvious starting with a more solid, powerful, dynamic and open sound. Imageing is better depicted and more precise, with more air around the instruments. Bass is quite astonishing really and surface noise is much less obtrusive.
A much more musical sound overall and my feet keep tapping which is quite a good sign.

All in all money well spent as I have done nothing but listen to LPs since I got it.

The M2-9 is now in my very old Marantz Model 6320 with a Shure V15 III which will go in my second system when I can tear myself away from the music.

:gig: