Caber10
03-01-2018, 00:11
I have been lurking here for a while mostly via TapATalk however feel the need to surface and chat a bit about my system which , I think as of yesterday reached a state of maturity! Back in the day ( student days!) I got interested in music and a sound system to listen. Back then ( a very long time ago!) I had a Trio 2002 amp, Keith Monks Elf speakers and a garrard deck that I cannot remember. The only major upgrades to that system were a connoisseur BD1 turntable kit with an SME 3009 Mk2 improved arm and a Shure M75 cartridge. I also added a graphic equaliser which went between pre and power amps on the Trio. This kit soldiered on until I moved in 1989 when the deck got parked in storage and I used a variety of CD drives, I wasn't really listening to much apart from background music then.
The next change came in the mid 90s when I bought a Cyrus 3 , Cyrus CD and a pair of Celestion A7 stand mounts on the advice of Colin from HiFi corner in Edinburgh. This system lasted until a couple of years ago when I rediscovered vinyl. Starting off with one of those convert you vinyl to MP3 decks as I was after recovering some music that had never made it to CD or digital download. This was so revealing that I promptly upgraded to Project Classic that I rewired the arm and put a 2mRed cartridge on. The poor phono stage in the Cyrus 3 resulted in the purchase of an Audiolab 8000A quickly followed by a pair of CELEF speakers.Next came a Thorens 160Mk 2 and I resurected my SME and stuck a stanton 681EE on the end again an amazing improvement. After a while i was introduced to Valves so set about building a Chinese amplifier kit with EL34s that sounded pretty good and in a lot of ways better than the Audiolab. So next was a search for speakers more suitable for valves. I was lent a pair of Quad ESL57 and wow were they different! the main problem was the narrow dispersion and there only being 1 seat on the sofa where you could properly appreciate them so they went back and I decided the CELEFs were really not that bad however the electrostatic itch needed scratched and a pair of ESL63s came my way via gumtree. They were demonstrated to me with a Quad 33/303 set up and once home I realised that neither of my amps was up to driving them so I got hold of a basket case 33/303 set up which I had rebuilt and at last I had what would have ben my dream system in the early 80's The final piece has been the acquisition of a pair of Gradient SW63s and the improvement these have made has been really unexpectedly astonishing. I was expecting better bas but the real improvement is the cleanness and clarity in mids and highs that I think is magic in the active crossover, the ESL63s sound much better even when I forgot to switch on the audiolab that is driving the SW63s.
SO have I reached audio Nirvana? I think so, I certainly have reached the point I was aiming for in having a system that pretty much sounds like the studio monitoring and record company listening of the late 70s which matches my preferred music. It certainly shows up poor recording engineering and poor music production ( and those guffawing that all 70's music is poor leave it! We all like what we like:) So where do I go from here ?
Caber10 :)
The next change came in the mid 90s when I bought a Cyrus 3 , Cyrus CD and a pair of Celestion A7 stand mounts on the advice of Colin from HiFi corner in Edinburgh. This system lasted until a couple of years ago when I rediscovered vinyl. Starting off with one of those convert you vinyl to MP3 decks as I was after recovering some music that had never made it to CD or digital download. This was so revealing that I promptly upgraded to Project Classic that I rewired the arm and put a 2mRed cartridge on. The poor phono stage in the Cyrus 3 resulted in the purchase of an Audiolab 8000A quickly followed by a pair of CELEF speakers.Next came a Thorens 160Mk 2 and I resurected my SME and stuck a stanton 681EE on the end again an amazing improvement. After a while i was introduced to Valves so set about building a Chinese amplifier kit with EL34s that sounded pretty good and in a lot of ways better than the Audiolab. So next was a search for speakers more suitable for valves. I was lent a pair of Quad ESL57 and wow were they different! the main problem was the narrow dispersion and there only being 1 seat on the sofa where you could properly appreciate them so they went back and I decided the CELEFs were really not that bad however the electrostatic itch needed scratched and a pair of ESL63s came my way via gumtree. They were demonstrated to me with a Quad 33/303 set up and once home I realised that neither of my amps was up to driving them so I got hold of a basket case 33/303 set up which I had rebuilt and at last I had what would have ben my dream system in the early 80's The final piece has been the acquisition of a pair of Gradient SW63s and the improvement these have made has been really unexpectedly astonishing. I was expecting better bas but the real improvement is the cleanness and clarity in mids and highs that I think is magic in the active crossover, the ESL63s sound much better even when I forgot to switch on the audiolab that is driving the SW63s.
SO have I reached audio Nirvana? I think so, I certainly have reached the point I was aiming for in having a system that pretty much sounds like the studio monitoring and record company listening of the late 70s which matches my preferred music. It certainly shows up poor recording engineering and poor music production ( and those guffawing that all 70's music is poor leave it! We all like what we like:) So where do I go from here ?
Caber10 :)