My System

[mr sneff]

http://i1332.photobucket.com/albums/w608/mrdavidjanssen/System3_zpsc38239ef.jpg

http://i1332.photobucket.com/albums/w608/mrdavidjanssen/System2_zps7b956ec1.jpg

A couple of pictures of my system. Source is either an old Dell Inspiron laptop running J River into an Audioengine D1 USB DAC, or Pioneer PD-S705 CD player. Amp is a Quad 34/303 and the speakers are single driver John Blue jb3s, which work fine in the small room. I'm just awaiting delivery of a Temple Audio Bantam Gold and another DAC to try in the system :)

[synsei]

That's a tidy system you have there. Its good to see you have the Welsh flag colour scheme thing going on there David, green rack, red speakers and white walls... :)

[mr sneff]

That's a tidy system you have there. Its good to see you have the Welsh flag colour scheme thing going on there David, green rack, red speakers and white walls... :)

LOL! I hadn't thought of that. Actually it's the camera flash bleaching out the magnolia walls. The rack was originally a bog standard black 1980's rackthat had been in the garden shed for years. Amazing what a bit of wire wool and some Hammerite can do!

[struth]

good amps these .....nearly bought a set 3 times now...lol

[keiths]

That's a tidy-looking system you've got there David :thumbsup:

[jandl100]

Interesting speakers - I'd not heard of them before.
Review of them here http://www.tnt-audio.com/casse/jb3_e.html

[mr sneff]

http://i1332.photobucket.com/albums/w608/mrdavidjanssen/7f92c3c3-9dbb-41ee-9a75-e351cdbd10af_zps5784526b.jpg?t=1391510094

http://i1332.photobucket.com/albums/w608/mrdavidjanssen/100_1385_zps613b5d99.jpg

I've made a few changes to the system over the past couple of months. First in was the Matrix Mini Dac, which allows me to use the Pioneer CDP as a transport and also to connect the laptop via USB. The sound from the 2 sources is now broadly the same. The Audioengine DAC/Headphone amp is now on duty in the lounge on my Chromebook with a pair of noise cancelling headphones for listening to Spotify when my wife is watching something on the TV that doesn't interest me.

The most recent change is the speakers from the John Blue JB3s to a pair of Rega RS1s. After an appeal for help from AOS members http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?30246-Help-wanted-New-speakers-for-a-small-room I managed to pick up a pair of RS1s in immaculate condition at a very good price. I figured that if I really hated the RS1s I could probably sell them on for what I paid for them or only a small loss. As it happens I love them and, adding the Hi Fi Racks speaker stands is the icing on the cake:)

[Firebottle]

Nice. I'm thinking the CD racks may have been more rigid given the larger dimensions.

What do I know :scratch:

Cheers, Alan

[mr sneff]

Nice. I'm thinking the CD racks may have been more rigid given the larger dimensions.

What do I know :scratch:

Cheers, Alan

There was actually more movement in the racks, Alan, the stands still aren't completely stable, I'm thinking some granite or paving slabs under the stands to give more stability.

[mr sneff]

http://i1332.photobucket.com/albums/w608/mrdavidjanssen/100_1669-Edited_zps24112dcc.jpg

I’ve been meaning to update this post for some time as a fair bit of box swapping has gone on.

After getting the Rega RS1s I acquired a Beresford Caiman DAC, which I fitted with a Gator board, a lovely sounding DAC, but ultimately, having such a small listening space, I found the ‘tick’ of the muting relay a bit too annoying. So it was back to the Matrix mini-I, which has stayed put. Perhaps not quite as detailed as the Caiman, but I like its smooth, warm sound.

Next up was a flirtation with a Tisbury passive preamp. Why is it that on virtually all amps and preamps that I’ve ever used (not an exhaustive list, admittedly) that all the ‘action’ seems to take place in the first ¼ of available range? I always find that beyond 9 or 10 o’clock it’s too loud for me and that it’s difficult to fine tune the volume precisely, and this was the case with the Tisbury. I’ve now arrived at a compromise that seems to work well for me. The Quad 34 is back in the system; I’ve set the maximum volume I require on the 34 and then I fine tune the volume using the remote control on the Matrix mini-I DAC. For me it works well, the Matrix mini-I is on somewhere between -20 and -35 dB, so it gives a degree of attenuation and gives a more precise control over the volume.

Although the Quad 303 may look identical to the one in the first picture I took of the system it’s actually a different one. I managed to pick up a 303 at a very good price and sent it to Net Audio for a full upgrade and one of their new front panels. Sounds simple enough, I won’t go into the whole story of the upgrade here other than to say that it took far too long and ended up costing a lot more than the originally agreed price. What I ended up with was the full Mk 3 upgrade. I must admit that when the amp came back from Net Audio I was somewhat underwhelmed with the result. It still sounded like a 303, which was good, but it was a lot of money to pay for something that sounded only marginally different to the original 303 that I was using before. Anyway, I carried on listening to music, at some point prior to putting the Net Audio 303 in the system I had gone back to the JB3 speakers, and after about a month I just found that I was thinking ‘the system is sounding pretty good’. It still sounded like a 303 but with better bass, better treble, better soundstaging and more rhythmic ‘get up and go’! So I guess, at the end of the day, when all’s said and done, the Net Audio upgrade was worthwhile.

In addition to selling the Rega RS1s and putting the JB3s back in the system I’ve acquired a pair of Spendor S3/5R2s. They’re lovely speakers but I must admit that the jury is still out. They’re probably more accurate than the JB3s, but they’re also a little but ‘matter of fact’, whereas the JB3s are a bit livelier, perhaps the lack of a crossover gives them a directness that is somehow missing with the Spendors, they seem to be a bit warmer and the soundstaging is more out of the box too.

Oh, and I nearly forgot at some point in all of the above I bought a Sonos Connect and Bridge. So much easier to use and quieter than the old laptop, which I now just use for ripping CDs.

[Barry]

Is the NET 3 upgrade the one which modifies the circuit of the output stage to be fully complementary? Whatever, its good to see the old workhorse (the BBC used hundreds of 303s) soldering on, in use with a modern Quad 34 preamp. :)

[mr sneff]

Is the NET 3 upgrade the one which modifies the circuit of the output stage to be fully complementary? Whatever, its good to see the old workhorse (the BBC used hundreds of 303s) soldering on, in use with a modern Quad 34 preamp. :)

A bit too technical for me, Barry. Details of the Mk 3 upgrade are here (http://www.net-audio.co.uk/quad303mk3.html)

[struth]

Nice front plate

[mr sneff]

Nice front plate
Yes, it is, Grant, although the logistics of connecting everything up means that it's actually at the back :lol:

[struth]

ok, nice back front plate then....or is that front back plate ?:doh:

[mr sneff]

ok, nice back front plate then....or is that front back plate ?:doh:

:lol:

[jandl100]

In addition to selling the Rega RS1s and putting the JB3s back in the system I’ve acquired a pair of Spendor S3/5R2s. They’re lovely speakers but I must admit that the jury is still out. They’re probably more accurate than the JB3s, but they’re also a little but ‘matter of fact’, whereas the JB3s are a bit livelier, perhaps the lack of a crossover gives them a directness that is somehow missing with the Spendors, they seem to be a bit warmer and the soundstaging is more out of the box too.


I've no experience of the JB3, but I find Spendors I have heard (quite a few) to be a bit bland dynamically, they don't seem to track subtle dynamic changes very well, always feeling just a little bit left behind by the course of musical events. It gets worse with time as I grow accustomed to the sound, and ends up (for me) to be on a par with watching paint dry.
Other folks love them, though - :scratch: - they are usually very accurate tonally, and it's good to have low colouration but for me the musical baby gets thrown out with the coloured bathwater.
IMO YMMV :)