asilker's Apartment Arrangement *photos*

What's new with Asilker?
P_20161105_185036.jpg
A new little tree! (The one on the left). Well isn't that cute.

Oh and I found this in the trash
P_20161029_190937_DF.jpg
P_20161029_190904.jpg

Just kidding this Jelco definitely wasn't a trash pick, I've been saving pennies. Still working on what I'm going to out around this arm. Going to meet up with an auto painter this week, maybe I'll have some fun photos to share after that.
 

Attachments

  • P_20161029_190847.jpg
    P_20161029_190847.jpg
    23.5 KB · Views: 24
modified Technics sl1200, Jelco 750d and ebony armboard, Denon 103R, Budgie cinemag SUTs are now all up and running together.

Will take time to zero in alignment and take a few photos sometime this week. Remarks on sound quality will follow. A buddy was over today who is not interested in audio but has heard my system many times. When the needle first dropped, he stopped what he was doing and said "wow. that sounds really good."
 
P_20161205_154914.jpg

P_20161205_154930.jpg

P_20161205_154950.jpg

Running the Denon 103R through cinemag transformers (budgie SUT). I love it.

Very happy with the technics table. I moved from the Thorens 145 mkii to SL1200 with a high mass Jelco 750d arm. On the same resting surface, the technics table is MUCH less susceptible to vibration from the floor. Very pleased.

Having moved from a low mass Thorens TD16 MKII with Audio Technica at120e, the Jelco/Denon tracks much better. Surface noise, dynamics, tone, etc are better. Since this is a move up the chain it's a little bit apples to oranges, so I suppose I should stop at saying it really does make a difference to match components (ie cart to arm).

I doubt this will be my last LOMC cart. Also, the 103r handles surface noise better in large part because it seems to push the noise to the far left and right boundaries of the soundstage. Useful behavior. I wonder if that's because of the spherical diamond.
 
Great read! Glad you like that 1543 dac. Ive got a magnavox cd player with those chips. So you prefered that sound over the original (not multibit) Modi? Thanks!

p.s. youve got a cool wife for having all that gear in a small apartment!
I've actually heard those early Magnavox CD players too. However we were putting it against something in the ballpark of $3k so the comparison was a little unfair. But I remember the Magnavox 1543 sounding just like my DAC at home. Great soundstage, accurate placement, just lacks resolution sometimes. IMO an obvious choice over the D/S modi ( but I would love to hear the multibit model).

And yes... My wife is the coolest. I think she understands that exploring is part of who I am and she's able to love me for it. I laugh about 90% of my waking minutes too, so we try to keep things enjoyable.
asilker you really know your stuff brother!
Thanks Mark!! Really I'm still pretty near the start of the hobby. I feel like I've gotten an handle on the basics and now I'm a bit more able to decipher what's good design and what's not... But there's a lot out there I have 0 experience with. At the same time, God has been good to me and I've had the pleasure of catching some great gear at very affordable prices.
 
I noticed a lot of comments over the life of the post on different speaker/ amp / reciever combos. The nice thing is that they all probably sounded wonderful on their own, and maybe not better but different. The equipment spectrum of the pre 80's era had that quality..It seems that these days it's boutique gear that's expensive but sometimes sterile & uninvolving, high end brand names at stratosphere pricing that almost ruins the experience due to financial trauma ...or just plain new black plastic junk...The vintage stuff always seems at least better than good, sometimes amazing and in general very consistent..just my thoughts on your great thread.
 
I noticed a lot of comments over the life of the post on different speaker/ amp / reciever combos. The nice thing is that they all probably sounded wonderful on their own, and maybe not better but different. The equipment spectrum of the pre 80's era had that quality..It seems that these days it's boutique gear that's expensive but sometimes sterile & uninvolving, high end brand names at stratosphere pricing that almost ruins the experience due to financial trauma ...or just plain new black plastic junk...The vintage stuff always seems at least better than good, sometimes amazing and in general very consistent..just my thoughts on your great thread.
Yeah, there's definitely a balance when considering price point. Really though I think the only pre-1980 parts in my system are the Dynaco cage and transformers; since it's been rebuilt it's an amp circuit from the 2000's. And I guess the plinth and motor in my turntable could be 1979, but it's been so modified that it's kind of hard to call it vintage.

I like to think of my gear as "vintage modified". Most of it is from a traditional design ethic (tubes, high efficiency speakers, Phillips production DAC chip, Denon broadcast cartridge), but there are a lot of changes in the smaller details and execution.
 
Cool stuff, and no techno/ financial snobbery, which is the part of the system(s) I like the best..It seems like a lot of people can't admit that a certain Pioneer reciever or Sony whatever actually sounds wonderful in the real world at their house. Usually for no other reason than it doesn't cost more than something else, or have snob appeal. Your enjoyment of all the gear on its own merits is what kept me reading.
 
Tonight I'm auditioning a freshly refoamed and recapped pair of Paradigm 3se's. I do a lot of repairs and cleanups that never make it to a post, but I'm dropping a comment here because I really like Paradigm.

The models employ a simple 1 cap/1 resistor/1 inductor first order crossover to integrate two Vifa drivers. These are 6.5" drivers. The bass is as you'd expect with a little bit of pump from the back port. The tektons have me spoiled as far as deep bass goes so maybe I'm a little picky. They reach far enough and I could live comfortably with them.

Paradigm do a great job with all around likable speakers. Staging is a little forward but comfortable, good sense of forward and back, and nice detail retrieval. Timbres are satisfying. Definitely more colored than a Yamaha or Monitor Audio, but I would take this color between the two. The staging is gorgeous and things are involving; strong center image. If the people responsible for this speaker ever read this, kudos for designing great and affordable speakers.

I'm consistently surprised at how cheap these are selling on the used market. If I was starting out again, it would be with paradigms I think.
P_20170125_195442.jpg
Ps I rotated the speaker's to the other side of the room

PPS I'm not getting up to turn the lights on OK?

Edit half an hour later: popped my Chapman BBC monitors onto the chairs to compare and theyre way more musical. They cost more though. There are some real values out there but sometimes the good stuff really does sound better.
 
Last edited:
Audio nirvana 15"? Bet they sound nice!
Yes, audio nirvana! They are the stamped frame 12" supers with ferrite mags. In open baffle they're extremely sensitive to placement. We had company all weekend so I'm just getting some time to play with them today.

I am not used to open baffle. I'd like to be slow to judgement, and I will be playing with foobar EQ adjustments as well as room treatment and probably zobel networks/baffle step compensation.

The Tektons and Chapman's are hard to beat. Usually in the past when I've said that I don't think it could get much better, I ended up eating my words. But I REALLY like the tektons.
 
how is the bass? that will be the challenge. they probably need to be farther out into the room. maybe 3' from the back wall?
 
Back
Top Bottom