The Elder Geeks Digital-Analog Man Cave

DaLarry

The Elder Geek
I've finally decided to post a few pics of my little system(s). Our 2nd bedroom is my home office/Digital-Analog Man Cave. The digital heart of the system is a hot rodded Gateway desktop I purchased in 2005. You can see it to the left of my smaller Grundig Console. It's the first desktop I didn't build from scratch in the last 15 years or so.

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The main processor is a dated Pentium P4 3.06Ghz with hyperthreading. It came with 2GB of ram. It's now got 4GB or ram but because of it's age it only recognizes 3GB. It's only capable of running a 32bit OS so I've got it running Win 7 Pro x86. It's peppy enough for it's current duty but I am thinking of upgrading to a more powerful CPU that will handle more ram and run a 64bit OS. It came with a wimpy Intel video chipset but I added an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 512MB of video memory. Plenty of power for what I do with it. The display is an "El Cheapo" Polaroid 36" LCD tv connected via HDMI to the Gateway.

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My main speakers are a pair of ADS L1230's, and you can see one of my restored Grundig Consoles in between. I listen to it occasionally. The computer system also came with a wimpy Realtek HD sound card chipset which I bypassed with an ESI Juli@ card which runs ASIO under J. River Media Center 16 which is my main tunes library manager. I control it all from Mission Control (more on that later) with an HP remote control and a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. I also added a TV tuner card and ditched cable because I almost never watch TV anymore. However, I use Microsoft's Media Center to record a few things like Nova, Frontline, Secrets of the Dead, etc. that I like to watch occasionally. I find Microsoft's Media Center is great for TV but J.R. River Media Center is untouchable for organizing and playing tunes.

The Gateway came with one 160MB hard drive. As you can see in the next image we are waaayy past that now.

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The main HD is now 1TB and It now has 4, count 'em, 4 hard drives and one external HD.

I have 3 1TB drives internally and a 300GB drive. Externally I have a 500GB La Cie brick sitting on top of the Gateway. We use that as kind of a shared storage for the 3 other computers floating around the house. The 300GB internal is the one dedicated to my music. You can see it in red on the display because it is almost full. I'm going to replace that soon with a 1.5 or 2TB drive. The other 2 1TB drives are dedicated to movies and recorded TV: one for media from A to L and the other for media from M to Z.

The next image shows J. River Media Center churning through my playlist I call "Favorites". Vintage jazz is just about all I listen too with a smattering of Brazilian.

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The next image is J. River Media in "Theater View" showing Eliane Elias, one of my favorite musicians.

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I have a vintage Akai RTR but I can also record LP's directly to my hard drive using BIAS SoundSaver. $20 well spent.

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Now we get to the Analog part. My recently acquired Scott 222-D is on top of the heap, figuratively and literally. It's been kicking sand in the face of my previous top dog, A Sony TA-E86B preamp driving an ESI modded Dynaco ST-70. A really sweet combination but I think the Scott integrated is perhaps a smidgen "better", whatever that means. The tuner is a Pioneer TX 8500 II. Very nice. I have two "front line" turntables, neither of which I'm completely happy with. I have a utilitarian looking Pioneer PL 510A which sounds OK but doesn't complete the cycle at the end of a record. I also have a beautiful Pioneer PL-50A which has a more robust sound when it feels like working but I think the anti-skate control is broken. It always skips off the record to the right no matter how I adjust it. I'm also starting to hear a little motor noise. I use my Shure M97Xe on whichever one is in the rotation.

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A recent addition is a discarded "Ratshack" mini stereo mixing console I found. It came in really handy because it permitted me to easily add a couple of extra line level sources to either the Scott or Sony. The extra or aux was usually dedicated to the Juli@ card on the computer. If I wanted to play the CD for some reason I'd have to switch them out. The phono section of the Scott was also acting a little squirrelly. Sometimes it would be deep and rich like you'd expect vinyl to be. Other times it would be thin and wimpy. I switched out tubes, cleaned it but nothing was a permanent fix. I didn't want to part with it for diagnosis and repair just yet and the Ratshack mixer let me finesse it because it had two inputs for magnetic cartridges. Problem solved with the mixer. It also gave me the ability to record to the computer and the tape simultaneously. Sweet.

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I have a pair of dynakit Mark IV monoblocks awaiting a refurb as well as a Dynaco PAT 4 and PAS3x.

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Mission Control is my Lenovo T60p. It has a 2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4Gigs of ram and two hardrives: a 750GB and a 500GB internal in an ultrabay. I also have a WD Passport 750GB that is almost always online. I have a dual monitor setup with a portion of my desktop on the Lenovo and an attached Samsung Syncmaster EX2220 21.5" secondary monitor. I also use an HP wireless keyboard and mouse.

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On the other side of the monitor you can see my living room with my other Grundig Console and my Yammie 5.1 home theater system. The main speakers are vintage Mission 705's. I haven't hooked up the rear surrounds yet. The Grundig is a refurbished KS 490WE and sounds amazing. My media computer can drive either the man cave system or the home theater system.

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That's it....for now!
 
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Hi DaLarry,
Eliane Elias is one of my favorite jazz Divas too. Check out Connie Evingson

Whattup Jazzman! I'm fascinated by your DIY Electrostats! I think I'm going to try them out. Last year I was at Vintage Voltage Expo accompanied by my wife who is Chinese. She got hung up listening to some electrostats, or as she called them "doors music boxes". It was all I could do to drag her way. She's also supportive of my vintage collecting. I also see you're a fan of Diana Krall. I about fell out of my chair the first time I saw her on Austin City Limits. As my daddy would say, she's got an "old soul." I'm probably only one of seven people who've been to her hometown, Nanaimo, BC Canada, but that's a story for another day. I'll check Connie Evingson and let you know what I think. I listen to KUVO here in Denver pretty much all day everyday. It's one of the few jazz stations left. The play everybody and everything but I've never heard her. Thanx for the tip.
 
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Great setup & gear, Larry.

Makes my Dell 4500 P4 with 1GB of RAM, PNY 512MB flash drive, & a Seagate 160GB blush.

Rome
 
Whattup Jazzman! I'm fascinated by your DIY Electrostats! I think I'm going to try them out. Last year I was at Vintage Voltage Expo accompanied by my wife who is Chinese. She got hung up listening to some electrostats, or as she called them "doors music boxes". It was all I could do to drag her way. She's also supportive of my vintage collecting. I also see you're a fan of Diana Krall. I about fell out of my chair the first time I saw her on Austin City Limits. As my daddy would say, she's got an "old soul." I'm probably only one of seven people who've been to her hometown, Nanaimo, BC Canada, but that's a story for another day. I'll check Connie Evingson and let you know what I think. I listen to KUVO here in Denver pretty much all day everyday. It's one of the few jazz stations left. The play everybody and everything but I've never heard her. Thanx for the tip.

Hey, I'm with you on Diana Krall... she's my first love jazz diva, and not just her singing either-- her piano chops are bad-ass! I have to say though, I think her music has gone down a notch since she hooked up with Elvis. Quiet Nights was too "whispery" and lacking that swing that I love about her. I'm hoping she gets back to her bop roots soon and cuts loose that marvelous voice and piano.

A couple other singers I like a lot are Inga Swearingen and Connie Evingson. Connie's jazzed up tribute to the Beatles, "Let it Be Jazz" is fabulous, and likewise her Peggy Lee tribute album, "Fever". You might also like Laverne Butler's "Blues in the City".

BTW, glad you like my ESL website. I get a huge kick out of it.. especially when someone gets inspired enough to actually build their own ESL's and they write to me raving about how great they sound. I'm on a mission to make it easy and cheap but I do need to post a simpler frame and woofer box to go with the stat panels, though-- as my beam-splitter transmission line cabinets are a bridge too far for most people.
 
Hey, I'm with you on Diana Krall... she's my first love jazz diva, and not just her singing either-- her piano chops are bad-ass! I have to say though, I think her music has gone down a notch since she hooked up with Elvis. Quiet Nights was too "whispery" and lacking that swing that I love about her. I'm hoping she gets back to her bop roots soon and cuts loose that marvelous voice and piano.

A couple other singers I like a lot are Inga Swearingen and Connie Evingson. Connie's jazzed up tribute to the Beatles, "Let it Be Jazz" is fabulous, and likewise her Peggy Lee tribute album, "Fever". You might also like Laverne Butler's "Blues in the City".

Couldn't agree more about the slight downward trend since Elvis. Twin boys may have something to do with it too. I've got most of her albums. "Steppin' Out" is my favorite; "The Girl in The Other Room" is my least favorite. We live in Denver and we saw her a few years back up in Aspen when she was just beginning to show. I've got some great shots of her in performance and may post them when I find them. Eliane also came out with a "pop" style album, "Around the City" which I like. Jane Monheit is also starting to grow on me as well as Anna Luna from Spain and Sophie Millman from Israel.
 
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I really like your systems and the mix of old and new.

Thanx. I've got some other pieces sitting around including some nice speakers as well as a couple of speakers that need either refoaming or refinishing. When I get bored I might get to some of the refurb / upgrades but that may be a while.
 
Great stuff - bet your wife has no clue how to run that gear!!

Not a clue, but she is down for the trip and is always on the lookout for a "find". I had to discourage her from bringing them home without checking with me first after she showed up with a pair of Bose 802 -III's which needed all 800 +/- drivers refoamed!
 
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