What GF gear do you own?

Looks great Retro and sure makes a lot more sense looking at the room, swapping out the speakers. Are you going to try Rita with the V-518's in the big room?

I did mention they needed a decent sized room :)

Cheers,
Ian
 
Couple of pics showing the smaller room to the larger, and vice/versa:

pb090038.jpg


pb090030.jpg





Retro
 
iGrant said:
Looks great Retro and sure makes a lot more sense looking at the room, swapping out the speakers. Are you going to try Rita with the V-518's in the big room?

I did mention they needed a decent sized room :)

Cheers,
Ian
Click to expand...

Yes Ian, you did mention they needed a decent-sized room a couple of times, and I think I got it now. :D

The smaller room was the first one remodeled and I couldn't wait any longer to get that RITA and those V-518s set up. :D

As far as moving the RITA into the larger room with the V-518s, I do believe I will give that a shot sometime in the future, but right now I'm just enjoying the way it is right now. With the Tyler D4s being 87 dB efficient and the V-518s being 92 dB, the extra RITA power is working pretty good on the D4s right now.



Retro
 
Retro Stereo said:
Yes Ian, you did mention they needed a decent-sized room a couple of times, and I think I got it now. :D

The smaller room was the first one remodeled and I couldn't wait any longer to get that RITA and those V-518s set up. :D

As far as moving the RITA into the larger room with the V-518s, I do believe I will give that a shot sometime in the future, but right now I'm just enjoying the way it is right now. With the Tyler D4s being 87 dB efficient and the V-518s being 92 dB, the extra RITA power is working pretty good on the D4s right now.



Retro
Click to expand...

Congrats on the beautiful reno job, the flooring is awesome. How did you ever talk the wife into 2 systems? I'm sure others would like to know. I used the 'I can make money from it' line, she bought it, but then quit her job to become my boss. Oops :) and now she gets all the money, I do get lots of toys thought to play with.

Will the wife let you move speakers around a bit?

Cheers,
Ian
 
Retro Stereo said:
Couple of pics showing the smaller room to the larger, and vice/versa:

pb090038.jpg


pb090030.jpg





Retro
Click to expand...

Way off topic. but that is obviously an old, well-built house. Are the internal pillars a cosmetic element, or the back balance for cantilevered gables balancing against the house's roof or upper floor? I've seen that in American houses built in the early 1800's and it's an advancement of the flying arches used in medieval cathedrals.
 
iGrant said:
MM, If you don't have any of the LS3/5A versions do think hard about it. They come up used often enough to grab a pair. I of course I like ours but look around first. Seeing that you in the business and also an audiophile or musicphile, these things are kind of a must to have, even if only as a reference to compare other speakers against. I do it all the time when doing crossovers for our other speakers, the LS3/5A brings me back to ground zero on the midrange and other things.

The RBS-1's are a nice step up, giving you the bass that the LS3/5A without the trade-offs bass normally introduces for studio work.

The Yaqin VK-2100 has a bass hump that the designer of Yaqin loves in some of his gear, basically a loudness button (his words to me). I think you mentioned that you tamed it with a tube roll, but when I used the A-534B (design/build by Yaqin) to remaster some work, it was like I was in heaven and that is hen I decided I wanted to shoot the guys that taught us we could only use SS in the studio. The remaster traveled exactly like I had heard it.

The A-534B may not be enough to impress clients that need the floor shaking, that is where Rita comes in. Say goodbye to every 20 minutes breaks to avoid ear fatigue from the typical studio culprits. Not just GF amps, try any tube amp for monitoring, your ears will adjust in minutes.

Cheers,
Ian
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Somehow I missed the updates to this thread until today.. My apologies.

More and more I wish I'd spent money on a tube power amp rather than the VK2100 - which is doing a great job, I've no complaints - and a couple of non audio items. I'm still driving Mach II's, speaker purchasing will have to wait until next year. Meanwhile what might I find NOW for a tube amp with at least 50 watts, less than 2% distortion (some of the Yaqins have 2.5%) and maxing at $600. Again I'm always ready for demos. :D

The TD-124 is all restored and working well, (the speed issue is resolved,) and it's running with a V15 type III with Ed Saunders and OEM ellipticals, as well as the OEM VN78, and the system sounds absolutely fantastic, remarkably better than I was expecting; 78s sound exceptionally good, being transparent and quiet. Some of the 78s are showing things on them that I've never heard before... A lot of that solidity and drive to the audio is no doubt due to the TD-124, its reputation is quite deserved. However a vacuum tube power amp will probably add a bit of sweetness to the sound, which currently has some artificiality and, as you mention, does produce fatigue, which is not the fault of the RS speakers.
 
MelodyMaster said:
Way off topic. but that is obviously an old, well-built house. Are the internal pillars a cosmetic element, or the back balance for cantilevered gables balancing against the house's roof or upper floor? I've seen that in American houses built in the early 1800's and it's an advancement of the flying arches used in medieval cathedrals.
Click to expand...

The internal pillars in this particular house are purely cosmetic. The house itself will be 100 years old in about 5 years. Well-built is an understatement, as a 90 mph straight-line wind blew through town here a few years back and I didn't even wake up, and I'm a light sleeper.



Retro
 
iGrant said:
Congrats on the beautiful reno job, the flooring is awesome. How did you ever talk the wife into 2 systems? I'm sure others would like to know. I used the 'I can make money from it' line, she bought it, but then quit her job to become my boss. Oops :) and now she gets all the money, I do get lots of toys thought to play with.

Will the wife let you move speakers around a bit?

Cheers,
Ian
Click to expand...

Ian, thanks for the kind words on the reno, it was a lot of work and I'm glad it is finally nearing completion.

I actually have 3 very nce systems currently set up. The third is down in the family room and it consists of an EchoWars rebuilt Pioneer SPEC 1 & 2, another Pioneer Elite PD-65 CDP (also being used as a transport), another Music Hall 25.2 Tube DAC, and a pair of Thiel CS3.6 Speakers. Speaking of which, I see you came out with a new pair of speakers that look a bit like my Thiels:

wz5ses_y_01.jpg


How do I get away with it as far as my wife goes? She knows it is a passion of mine and she enjoys the music as well. I also bribed her by doing the reno and getting rid of my huge surround sound system that took up half the living room. I also promised her I would be selling off all my other equipment, which is a lot.

I also have an office system consisting of the only receiver I use, a Pioneer SX-D5000 (excellent tuner section), another Pioneer Elite PD-65 CDP, my newer Gateway laptop being "analogized" by a "Grant Fidelity" Tube DAC-09. Excellent combination and sounds really good to me. I swap a few different pairs of speakers in and out of that system, but because of the promise I made to my wife, I'll have to settle on one pair in the near future. I think I'll start a thread in the speaker forum to help me decide which pair to keep, Design Acoustics PS-10s, Polk Monitor 7s, or Infinity RS-3001s? I already have a favorite pair out of the 3 pairs, I'm just curious as to what everyone else's choice would be.





Retro
 
Retro Stereo said:
The internal pillars in this particular house are purely cosmetic. The house itself will be 100 years old in about 5 years. Well-built is an understatement, as a 90 mph straight-line wind blew through town here a few years back and I didn't even wake up, and I'm a light sleeper.



Retro
Click to expand...

I'll bet that solidity means less sympathetic vibration from the walls and less colouration to the sound, helping the already good system sound even better.

A small hotel in Macedon NY, on the old Erie Canal, built in the late 1770s of interlocking wood beams held in place by cork pegs, was tilted by 6 degrees, some 2 degrees out of true, seeming to be collapsing, thus it was listed for demolition. A powered ditch digger tried to knock down a corner of the building in preparation for a general controlled collapse, and it wouldn't budge! After further inspection of the house they realized how well it was constructed, did a cosmetic repair to that wall, cranked up the drooping end of the house, and it is now still standing as a very sturdy private home belonging to friends of mine. I love old houses.. but that's a digression.
 
Installed my Tube DAC 09 as a buffer between pre and amp...guess what? It's staying there!!! Ads a bit more depth to my vinyl. Also use the DAC as a pre amp via optical from the ps3 for CD's, DVD's and mp3's straight to my amp. Works like a charm! Pink Floyd's The Wall on CD is closing in on the vinyl copy on my system for dynamics and sound stage. Possibly have found a limitation in my vinyl setup? Got me thinking of a tube phono stage from GF now!!! And so it begins again!!!!
 
After many years of owning a pretty decent stereo I decided to start buying some new equipment . I started off at the end of last year by buying a pair of Axiom
M3 v2 bookshelf speakers. I really like these speakers. I know these aren't "audiophile" speakers but man can they sing. A few months later I took the plunge and bought Jungson JA-88E Class A/B (80w/ch) Integrated Amplifier. I've been enjoying this amp for 6 now and it's far better then anything you could buy at any of the big box stores ( hello Bestbuy & Futureshop ). Why waste your good hard earned money on cheap gear when you can buy well made Chinese equipment. I find it has great bass and midrange with a slight roll off in the upper register, nothing startling but even my old abused ears can hear it. It's more noticeable on older cd's then on newer ones but if the cd is well recorded I doubt the difference would be enough to cause you to over look this well made amp.

Next up I bought the B-283 Tube Processor. This little processor is a magic box. It really opened up the sound of my 15 year old Luxman cd player. The soundstage and depth opened up alot over the entire bandwidth. Instruments were easily located 2-3 feet beyond the speakers which wasn't there before !! The SPC-2.5 5n Copper Performance Speaker Cables were the next purchase from Grant. For the meager price of $89 these are really nice speaker cables. The quality is really startling when when you factor in the quality of the sound and the way these cables are manufactured. You could easily spend over $100 for bulk cable at the Bigbox stores and still have to either use bare cable or buy spades/banana plugs/ pins .

I then bought RCA-1 Performance Interconnect Cable. All I can say is that for $99 these are very good quality interconnects. They sound great and are nicely made.

My last purchase is definitely my best purchase so far from Grant ( not that i'm complaining about any of my puchases because i'm not). I was going to buy the Shengya CD-18CS Tube CD Player but Rachel emailed me let me know that it was on back-order and that she would let me have the Grant CD-327A Upsampling Tube CD Player at the same price !! This is a serious CDP. I'm rediscovering my 1500+ cd collection again. I love this player. It's even better then my Pioneer Elite CDP I owned back in the late 80's and that was a fine CDP.

Thanks Ian and Rachel for bringing affordable high quality audio equipment from China to the masses in North America !!
 
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My first foray into the land of tubes is on its way--Tube DAC 09-my first Grant Fidelity
purchase. I must say even without hearing the product yet I'm delighted I chose GF as the customer service is fabulous. I'm so pumped, I must check the freight progress like 20 times a day!! LOL!!! Got some tubes from a fellow Audio Circle gentlemen on the way also..life is good!!!:music:
 
I just picked up a DAC-09 this afternoon. Currently running a Toslink optical cable from my pc's soundcard (Auzentech X-Plosion cinema in this pc).

I will be doing some non-scientific testing over the weekend. So far I think there's a slight difference, but I may hear more as I get used to the new toy :)

Thanks Ian, Rachel & Cam!
 
My B283 MkII arrived at the weekend. Haven't had time to run it in yet, but already it's making a difference to the soundstage. Looking forward to further improvements once it has a few hours use. I wanted to post to echo everyone else's comments regarding Ian et al at Grant Fidelity - a real pleasure to deal and always on hand to answer questions (no matter how silly they might be...!)
 
:music:hello all, I'm a new member, and relatively new owner of multiple Grant Fidelity pieces. I've moved from a lot of vintage equipment to my current list :
A-348 amp with EL34 Treasures, TJ full music 12AX7, and Treasure CV-181-Z tubes.
CD-327A cd player with Pavane 12AX7 tubes
DAC-09
MPF-120 power conditioner,
3 x PC-1.5 power cables
SPC-2.5 speaker cables
MBS-1 monitors
Nobility WMP-1A MKII turntable stand
next.......
I think the tubes are here to stay!
 
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Well, I am new to this forum....Hi. Have just ordered the Jungson 99D from Ian. Never new about the store till I was doing some searches on some equipment. Ian sold me over the phone. Now just can't wait till it gets delivered. Sold my Adcom 565's and my Logan's and Musical Fidelity pre and cd player. Starting all over......... I have a set of B&W 802 Matrix 3 that I have not been able to listen too so will be anxious to get delivery of the amp. Anybody else here have this amp?
 
As of now I have only two pieces to share. First off, I have a Shengya A-17 Integrated Amplifier. For those that are not familiar with this amp, it is a hybrid that shares common componentry with the much more expensive Vincent Audio gear. It is a gem, and for the price that GF sells it for, it is hard to beat. It is the anchor for my "2nd" system.

Most recently, I have purchased a Grant Fidelity DAC 09. Another major bang for the buck player. I am not sure whether I like it better as a preamp or a DAC. IMHO, what sets it apart from many others is the flexibility it has. Currently, I use it with a custom 40 watt RMS 6L6 tube amplifier and a Dared SL2000a tube preamp, all with NOS tubes.

Future purchases include a quad set of Shuguang Treasure 6CA7-Z's, a pair of Pavane 12au7's for my power amp, and a set of Pavane 12at7's for my preamp.
 
Have the A-348, A-34, the then prototype RBS-1, power conditioner and a power cable to two. Was introduce to tubes via GF and have not look back.

I think the RBS-1 is a good speaker but honestly can't tell you as I've been lending it to friends who like it so much I never get to see it. One of these days I gotta track it down. It's out there somewhere.

Fell in love with Rita a couple of years ago and will take her home (to stay) one of these days. Haven't upgraded anything in years as I'm happy with what I got. Hmmm....maybe it's due time to upgrade the 12ax7 to Pavane.
 
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