Audio Asylum - Inmate Systems

grhughes's GR's system System
IP Address: 69.71.1.1	Last Update: January 30, 2012 at 06:43:14
Amplifier:	Luxman MB-3045 x 3, modified to use tetrodes/pentodes in triode. Adcom GFA6000 5.1 AV system (for the wife and kids). Leach LTIM & superamp driving woofers and subs.
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Tube preamp built by me. Microphone mixer designed by me.
Speakers:	Gary Gillum G3. Gary Gillum worked with Paul Klipsch before he founded a company of his own and designed his own horn expansions. It's difficult to miniaturize a 32 foot standing wave in a living room!
Sources:
CD Player/DAC:	I have three;Sony,Phillips-Magnavox,Samsung. I believe that the recording industry could do much better in providing a quality release medium. They are only interested in profit. Most sound on CD is thin, horribly compressed and over processed! So called recording engineers and producers need to restrain themselves; LESS IS MORE! The less they process, the better it sounds.
Turntable/Phono Stage:	Presto Pirouette-highly modified with DC brushless motor and belt(for 78s), Grace G747 tone arm. Mayware Formula 4 viscous damped, uni-pivot tone arm, Techniques SP110 table (for 45 and 33.333 rpm). Grado and Ortofon MC cartridges. Preamps were built by me and are at the tone arm base.
Other Source(s):	Ampex AG440C-2 with servo capstan and constant hold back tension, Ampex 300-2 with Innovonics constant hold bsck tension, Crown CX800 play deck (7.5 and 3.750ips), Uher 4200. Computer-Macbook-Pro with MOTU, Protek Schott's effect FM tuner (however there is little serious music to listen to broadcast in my area). Denon cassette deck (I seldom use).
Other Accessories/Room/Misc.:
Speaker Cables/Interconnects:	1 foot speaker cable, 12 AWG. Power amps are at the speakers. I get cable out of the equation if possible!
Other (Power Conditioner, Racks etc.):	EIA 19inch racks, E-I CORE isolation transformer.
Tweaks:	Never-ending project!
Room Size (LxWxH):	35ft x 25ft x 16ft
Room Comments/Treatments:	If your wife is a picture straightener or a hose coiler and subscribes to Martha Stewart then you're in real trouble. Maybe we should send her, Kathy Lee Gifford and Oprah as the first women to MARS! They want to be heroes, let em!
Music Preferences and Comments:
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, opera, choral, jazz, film, folk music. I like big productions, full orchestras with lots of percussion, the vocalist out there with the musicians (all playing together in ONE session, in stereo like they did in the 60s), natural ambiance in a semi live acoustic environment and not very fond of rap, acid rock or synth, compression, over-processing; Recordings with air and space appeal where I can place the instruments in a 3d plane. Stereo, Blumlein mic technique is preferred. Alan D. Blumlein was a phenom and we owe much to him. Remixed mono is anathema! Most rock and pop is re-mixed monaural. Just panning a mono signal around to multiple channels/speakers is NOT STEREO! You can't use just one microphone! Human beings hear with two ears.
System Goals/Comments:	One can HYPE UP anything! The $#!t can get deep! We're a nation of SHEEP and SHEEP can be led!
System Strengths:	I believe that the best of audio can only be achieved from DIY. The audio industries are too hype oriented and hobbled by economic and design constraints where bottom lines, conformity of use and marketing ploy really get in the way. It's taken a very, very long time to learn to design with transistors for audio! Too LONG!
System Weaknesses:	Too large with too many wires!
Video/HT System: Separate
TV/Projector:	Toshiba monitor. Sony DVD player. I have a DVD player in my computer. There is nothing much that suits me on commercial television. If I want entertainment then I buy or rent a DVD. I do support Public Broadcasting but there is too much British programming on it. Don't see what is wrong with Steinbeck, Hemmingway and Mark Twain instead of the British diet of literature.
Processor/Receiver/Amplifiers:	3 Leach Low TIM amps driving woofers. They don't amplify anything over 125hz. Transistor amps only damp bass well, otherwise they are IMHO non musical arc welders only good for producing mounds of odd harmonic distortion..as they approach clipping. If they are not conducting in total Class A then forget it.
Sources (DVD/VCR):	Analog master tapes recorded in the field. 78, 45, and 33 rpm records. 1/4 track and 1/2 track RR tape, CD, DVD, Laser disc, IPOD, my MacbookPRO and the GD compact cassette (seldom used). There is no suitable listening material broadcast in my area worth tuning a tuner to.
Other HT Gear:	Tektronix, Hewlett Packard, Simpson, Weston test gear.
Comments on HT System:	I believe that technology, the audio press and the marketing philosophy of GREED has corrupted the audio industry rather than improve the quality of sound. The era of mediocrity is upon us! If you give everyone a pencil then very few of them will be a Leonardo da Vinci or can use the pencil well. Theater sound, THD, Imax or any AV associated 5.1, 7.1 is $#IT in my estimation and is at the lowest point I have ever seen or heard. The people who devised it are only interested in shaking the walls, not in lowest distortion. I hear amplifiers clipping and speaker suspensions bottoming out. The new TI DLP, 3D projection equipment is WONDERFUL but the sound is horrible. We were really over due for performance improvement over FILM! Western Electric, Westrex and RCA wrote the book of HIGH FIDELITY! Not much since then has really amounted to anything performance improvement wise. Loudspeakers are made much cheaper and not as efficient nowadays. Lowthers and Tannoys are nice! Altec 604S and WE755 are nice. Tannoy monitor Golds! RCA LC1A Pop Olson's speaker. They are not made like they used to.
Other Interests/Hobbies/Occupation:	HOBBIES; Horology, iconic brutalist architecture, churches and barns, current reading, building things of wood and metal, traveling on my sport bike motorcycle (put 7000 miles on it this summer). Media producer.