New(ish) system

ClusterChuck

Well-Known Member
Last winter's audio project.

Home assembled tube pre & power amps from http://www.tubes4hifi.com

Amps by Bob Latino.
M-125 mono amps stuffed with Tung-Sol KT120
Rolling to Telefunken Black Diamond KT88's in the next month or so.

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Bob Mottrans SP14 stuffed with Tung-Sol 6SN7, Mundorf silver-oil PIO output caps and Khozmo 64 step remote control volume.

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Home assembled file server.
Streacom F12C Chassis stuffed with
ASUS PRIME Z270-ATX Motherboard
Intel Pentium G4600 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor
Corsair Vengeance LPX 4GB DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz
Noctua L-Type Quiet CPU Cooler
WD Blue 3D NAND 250GB PC SSD
Corsair AX SeriesAX760 80+ Platinum
Samsung 1TB EVO flash storage
SOtM tX-USBexp USB Card
Softeware:
Windows 10, stripped
AudiophileOptimizer
iTunes (don't hate me)

Easy build, only took about 6 hours. Literally plug together. It would have taken less time if I hadn't let OCD take over wire route options.

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Rebuilt my long shelved Harman Kardon ST7
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And swap between it and a equally long idle Thorens 125 with Sumiko arm and Dynavector Ruby.
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Maggie 3.7i's
NAD M51 DAC
Parasound phone pre & ADAC (temporary, budgeting fro one of Roy Mottran's tube phono pre's)
Home made Belkin Brilliance USB between server & DAC.
 

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Very nice set up. Seems you don't mess around when it comes to builds or repairs. I haven't tried either although a tube kit might be fun.
Thank you Thom. Should you ever need to scratch the itch for a tube project, tubes4hifi.com gets a double thumbs up from me. Aside fro excellent value, Roy and Bob put together kits flawlessly and are extremely responsive to inquiries. Highly recommended!

One thing, if you go the M-125 route, make sure there's a hand truck close by on delivery day. Components and chassis for both amps arrive in a single, well packed & protected package. Unnaturally heavy!
 
Thanks for the heads up on tubes4hifi.com. I’m going to investigate their offerings. Winters are long and cold up here and this could provide a nice indoor diversion.
 
Made new speaker cables this afternoon. Used a bunch of spare stuff I had laying around in the garage/spare parts audio storage area.

Replaced ancient SoundKing 12GA OFC spiral wound cables with NOS Monster SR14-4R-CL. Sleeved with TechFlex, terminated with locking bananas from BlueJeans and Parts Express. The Monster cable is 4 conductor 14 GA designed for in wall installation. Nothing fancy but its flexible and the copper strands are very fine and easy to work with.

The final assembly looks nicer than the SoundKing but I don't hear a lick of difference between the 2. Maybe when there time to concentrate things will change but so far the audible result is MEH.

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Also made a new USB A to B that sits between the file server and NAD M51. Using only + & - data lines with Belden Brilliance cable. This one turned out a little nicer than the last.

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Haven't had time to listen critically to this but I'm not counting on any revelations. Nice Sunday afternoon project.
 
The home front is in a state of flux as I prepare for a new set up to take me into retirement. In the downstairs family room, the aging home theater system and furniture was packed into a POD and taken to storage, along with a mess of other stuff. That was a ball buster for my aging frame but I got i done. Most of the system above is still functioning in the upstairs listening room - except for the turntables, which were also packed away.

Aside from occasional movie nights, the downstairs system mostly served to provide music when cooking and generally hanging out. After it was packed away, it only took a few days to realize how badly tunes on demand were missed around here. To fill the void, I temporarily set up my lovely and long idle Marantz 1060 integrated amp, placing it on a funky Harbor Freight work bench next to my recently restored Advent 300 - purchased new many moons ago. The Advent is driving over head speakers in the kitchen while the Marantz powers newly acquired Klipsch RP 600M's. I purchased the Klipsch without hearing them (!!!) based on a gushing review in the March edition of Stereophile. https://www.stereophile.com/content/klipsch-reference-premiere-rp-600m-loudspeaker I wasn't sure about Piano Black cabinets, but they really are attractive.

The Marantz is fed with a Gen3 iPod playing back lossless files via a dock connected fixed analog audio out into AUX input. So this is a mix of old meets new. I am certainly not disappointed. Soon as everything was set up, Shuffle cued up Santana's 'Aqua Marine' followed by Genesis 'Los Endos' & Porcupine 'Tree Russia On Ice'.

Right out of the box, the Klipsch served up convincing low end and a deep/wide sound stage. I'm looking forward to the improvement break in will bring.

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BTW: Under the blue bandanna are Carver TL-3220 and a first generation Rega Planet disc players.
 
Wow. Awesome collection.
I have not got into tube kits either, but it looks like it would be
a fun to learn. I have been building computers since the
mid 90's, so the server you built is more in my comfort zone.
Nice build with good components, Only thing I would maybe add
to it is another 4 gig stick of DDR4.
 
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