If you love the GR, you’ll flip your lid with the G.
Let's See What Makes Your Vinyl Spin!
- Thread starter AnthonyI
- Start date
Yeah I have been following your journey on the Technics thread. lol I need to not be a lunatic with my vinyl purchases for awhile to save up.
JohnnyCashFan
Well-Known Member
@Tanqueray Just curious whah happens when you widen your speakers apart a little but more ? From ther picture the distance does look a bit narrow than usual and you have some space to your side walls to work with. I think it most cases you will get a wider soundstage.Well……. Well…… Well………. Dramatic change for me
Cpl months ago I started “toying” with the idea of setting up a 3rdSystem . My goal was to put together a “Retro” look system, but modern inside
I decided after hearing the KLH 5 to steal a pair . This speaker for the cointhey asked truly is a winner ! Clean mids and enough balanced bass to keep my toe tapping
The Tube Amp I picked was the Doge 5 PADC. With the build quality and features I was looking for I ordered one without *gasp* hearing it
I got it with Pavane Tubes all around .
What a sweet sounding little beast from the East ! With an output power of 30 watts into Class A ( max 60) and 40 watts into Class AB( max 70) it easily drives the KLH 5 and I can toast my breadon top of it easily
TT I sent for a Fluance RT84B hooked to a Cambridge ALVA Solo MM Preamplifier.
So far this has been a great duo/combo !
All this gear is still being broken in as I type this .
So you may ask ….. why did I change from a McIntosh Reference System with Kef Reference 5 Speakers to my newly acquired system???
The answer is very simple ……… FUN!!
Since 2008 I’ve had diff Reference systems of diff High End companies and I loved them all and don’t regret getting any of them or giving/selling them to change/move on.
For this change I just wanted a simple set and forget system that don’t have me analyzing and tweaking to much to reach that “Audio Nirvana” never ending rabbit hole.
So far I love this system …… Colour me happy indeed in this next chapter of my Audio Adventures in life
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Indeed you generally do and I’m going to experiment on diff placement in my room today . Been a bit lazy since summer started lol
JohnnyCashFan
Well-Known Member
Thats always fun, finding the room and speakers sweet spot. Not sure about toe in, from memory last time I used vintage KLH 17's they liked a little toe in but not much, of course yours are different monsters.
AnthonyI
Well-Known Member
...............well, we got a pretty velvet bag.
The Denmarkian Wonder
Well-Known Member
Is that the Musical Fidelity you considered a couple years ago?
AnthonyI
Well-Known Member
Yes and no, I was looking at the M3si before landing on the Marantz. This is actually the M2si, which essentially is the M3si, minus the DAC, phono and a few other minor things. I still have a hard time calling anything that costs $1k a "budget" option, but, out of the box I'm truly surprised with how it sounds.
So this came about because the Marantz isn't giving me any choice, it's been acting up for a while. It was hard to pin point the issue, the tubes in the Manley were also on the short list of culprits, but with only 650-ish hours on them, that was a hard pill to swallow.
So, an Amazon purchase seemed an easy way to A. Determine if it was the amp causing the issues, or the tubes, and B. See what the Musical Fidelity sound was like in an amp that I've been curious about for a long time.
The "good" news, it wasn't the tubes. I'm really in a perplexed position with the M2si "right now", I'm going to run it all weekend and see how it handles sources and pressings across the board, I think part of me is more impressed than I anticipated, but I also don't want to fall into a placebo effect here. First impressions, very positive, just want to ease into it and make sure "other" things aren't coloring my opinion.
Side note, this unit is beautifully built and looks great, Musical Fidelity continues to impress me.
The Denmarkian Wonder
Well-Known Member
I got the same model and I agree about the build and looks
Awesome! I’m glad you’re having a positive experience MF. I love my MX-VYNL and if I do move up I am increasingly tempted to do so to their range to the M6 or, if I can afford it, the nu vista.
AnthonyI
Well-Known Member
That's the one thing I'm trying to keep at bay at the moment.
"If this sounds that good, maybe I should go up the line", lol.
Hypothetically speaking, the M2 to the M3 (Might have to research this a bit more though) makes no sense from my standpoint. I don't want to spend M6 money, so it lands on the M5 and if an additional $1k is worth it. Again, all hypothetical, I need to just go into this from a completely "are you happy with the sound" standpoint and be done with it, just like everything else
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Slimwhit33
Well-Known Member
Love my M6x Vinyl. My first piece from Musical Fidelity and I’ve been very impressed with it.
DeadwaxDude
Well-Known Member
New Turntable! Upgraded my YP-D6 to this and I'm very happy!
Yamaha YP-D10 (Direct Drive Quartz Lock)
In really great condition, built in 1979. Adjusted the VTA for my thick mat and definitely hearing the difference. Lovely lovely lovely. Going to look into oiling the veneer but happy for now. Quartz lock holds speed perfect which is why I upgraded because my YP-D6 was slipping on my 45s. This is incredible, gonna upgrade to a Hana MC someday I'm thinking now that I have VTA control!
Yamaha YP-D10 (Direct Drive Quartz Lock)
In really great condition, built in 1979. Adjusted the VTA for my thick mat and definitely hearing the difference. Lovely lovely lovely. Going to look into oiling the veneer but happy for now. Quartz lock holds speed perfect which is why I upgraded because my YP-D6 was slipping on my 45s. This is incredible, gonna upgrade to a Hana MC someday I'm thinking now that I have VTA control!
Russ I
Well-Known Member
Man, that's a pretty table! Congrats!
AnthonyI
Well-Known Member
Very nice
MongoLike
New Member
I've been auditioning three new pieces of audio gear simultaneously:
- Goldring E3 phono cartridge. This is my first experience with Goldring. After reading many reviews, I decided to give it a go. At $159 with free shipping from HiFi Heaven, seemed very reasonable. Mounting it on my Music Hall MMF 1.5 turntable was a breeze. Really appreciate the cartridge body shape, making it easy to handle and align. The pre-threaded holes are also a big plus. Sound wise, it started off a little thin but after about 30 hours of playing, it has settled in nicely with a warm yet detailed sound. Tracks very well with minimal, if any, IGD. With a 3.5 mV output, it needs a phono preamp with good amount of gain to get the full benefit of the cartridge. The E3 is a great cartridge for the price and seems to do everything very well. Highly recommended.
- Parasound Zphono. I traded in some old audio gear I wasn't using to get this little monster. I call it that because in the MM setting, it has 46 dB of gain! I started out using it with a cartridge that had 5.0 mV output. That was way too much for the Zphono and I could barely touch the volume knob before it started clipping. Thus my logic for getting the Goldring E3 with it's 3.5 mV output. I would not recommend this phono preamp for any cartridge with an output of >4.0 mV. The Goldring E3 is a much better match for the Zphono. So far I'm really enjoying it. Our friends at ASR recommended the Zphono and the test results show a nice flat RIAA response. The Zphono is in fact very neutral in sound response. The highs are just a bit rolled off which is fine by me. Goes well with the horn tweeters in my Klipsch towers. I'd recommend the Zphono only in systems that can handle it's monstrous gain. Otherwise be prepared to make some adjustments to your amplification levels.
- JJ 5751 preamp tubes. I also decided to cut the gain on the front end of my Black Ice Audio (Jolida) Fusion 3502 Integrated Amp. The 5751 provides a 30% reduction on gain over the regular 12AX7 preamp tube. This really helped tame the Parasound Zphono 46 dB of gain even further. The surprising thing about the JJ 5751's is that they only cost $20 per tube, which is really cheap considering the current audio tube shortage. What was even more surprising is how nice the JJ 5751's sound. I had been listening to some new old stock (NOS) 12AX7's from the early 1960's. Not cheap tubes by a long shot. I didn't have high expectations for the JJ 5751's when compared to the NOS tubes. But the JJ 5751's are a really great sounding tube. For the price, they can't be beat. Highly recommended.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
I’m fond of JJs, honestly. Great bang for your buck, and I’ve always preferred them to Gold Lions on my system.
MongoLike
New Member
Agreed. I'm currently running with the Gold Lion KT77 power tubes. Picked them up recently at a very reasonable price. I've had just about every versions of JJ power tubes in my system before and had some reliability issues. But not so with their preamp tubes. In fact, I'm using the JJ ECC81 gold pin driver tubes in my system. They're a perfect match for the JJ 5751 preamp tubes.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
I’ve been running JJ power tubes in my KingKo, with Tung-Sols on the output. No issues so far, but this amp does not push them terribly hard.
Angsty
Well-Known Member
System synergy matters!