souladdikt
Active Member
My first system is already going through some changes, so I thought I'd document them here.
I've been putting together a system that's geared toward casual and social listening. I don't have a dedicated listening room and I live in a mid-century ranch with a relatively open floor plan. The house is also furnished with a lot of mid-century modern furniture and when I decided to put a system together I knew I wanted gear that matched the space. This meant keeping things simple: turntable, integrated amp with built-in phono pre, speakers.
Here's how things actually started:
Here you can see the entire floor plan I'm working with:
The turntable is a SL-1200 I've had since college. I knew going into this system that this table would be a placeholder for something else. I actually pulled this table from my DJ setup. And, despite the fact that I don't really DJ anymore, I didn't want to break up the pair of SL-1200s that have always been a set. True to my DJ roots, the cartridge is a Shure M44-7. I also had a cheap Behringer phono pre laying around, so I figured I'd use it. It's hooked up to a SMSL SA-60. I imagined this as a placeholder too. I'd been reading the long thread on the TPA3116 chips and figured I'd hear what the fuss was about. I also added an Airport Express for an easy streaming solution. Speakers are a pair of Tekton Lore Reference. The speakers were the only thing I knew I'd be keeping in this system long term.
Here is the system six months later:
The old phono pre was replaced first--it was pretty terrible. In its place is a Schiit Mani. The RP6 came next. It's fitted with an Exact cartridge. The rest is the same. I'll probably get a new integrated next. I'm also planning on adding a dac.
I've been putting together a system that's geared toward casual and social listening. I don't have a dedicated listening room and I live in a mid-century ranch with a relatively open floor plan. The house is also furnished with a lot of mid-century modern furniture and when I decided to put a system together I knew I wanted gear that matched the space. This meant keeping things simple: turntable, integrated amp with built-in phono pre, speakers.
Here's how things actually started:
Here you can see the entire floor plan I'm working with:
The turntable is a SL-1200 I've had since college. I knew going into this system that this table would be a placeholder for something else. I actually pulled this table from my DJ setup. And, despite the fact that I don't really DJ anymore, I didn't want to break up the pair of SL-1200s that have always been a set. True to my DJ roots, the cartridge is a Shure M44-7. I also had a cheap Behringer phono pre laying around, so I figured I'd use it. It's hooked up to a SMSL SA-60. I imagined this as a placeholder too. I'd been reading the long thread on the TPA3116 chips and figured I'd hear what the fuss was about. I also added an Airport Express for an easy streaming solution. Speakers are a pair of Tekton Lore Reference. The speakers were the only thing I knew I'd be keeping in this system long term.
Here is the system six months later:
The old phono pre was replaced first--it was pretty terrible. In its place is a Schiit Mani. The RP6 came next. It's fitted with an Exact cartridge. The rest is the same. I'll probably get a new integrated next. I'm also planning on adding a dac.
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