Inmate Systems - Audio Asylum

elektron's The Time Machines System
IP Address: 70.195.65.245	Last Update: March 21, 2015 at 03:05:10
Amplifier:	mostly all home made SETs - 300B, parallel 300B, 45, 50,and 2A3. reworked Berning EA-230 as a sub woof amp for best bass yet! Also have Luxman MB-3045, McIntosh MC-225, etc. Cary CAD-300SE with Ag wound outputs (primary & secondary - no kidding) factory built Dynaco Stereo 70, and it goes on from there.
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	cj Premier Fourteen, cj Premier ten, cj PV-5, Luxman CL-34 - I like the remote control Prem 14 a lot - 6GK5.
Speakers:	home made: dipole panels 60" x 24" with 6-5" full range per side operating from 120 to 2K, two electrodynamic tweeters, Fostex super tweeters, passive roll off at 120 Hz. Separate preamp feed to electronic low pass (Crown VFX-2A) and dual 12" accoustic suspension subs; also second system with ALTEC Model Nineteens reworked & currently being used as low freq reproducers with Edgar Salad Bowl 400 Hz horns on top with RCA MI-1428 field coil drivers doubling for the 811 horns and ALTEC drivers
Sources:
CD Player/DAC:	Oppo BDP-103D (Darbee chip!), BURL B2 Stealth DAC. The Oppo (sheer virtuosity unleashed) operates mostly in Pure Audio mode feeding the BURL DAC at 192kH.
Turntable/Phono Stage:	Technics SP-15 with Technics base, SONY biotracer arm
Other Source(s):	Viking reel to reel 1/4 track stereo recorder/player, Crown (Amcron) 700 series reel to reel 1/2 track 7 1/2 & 15 ips recorder/player/ RCA RT-11 mono tube 1/4"
Other Accessories/Room/Misc.:
Speaker Cables/Interconnects:	mostly home made 100% Ag wire sheathed in Teflon tube with Cardas & Canare connectors. I am still using some Monster Interlink Reference and Reference A, Canare speaker 4S11 for subs. Hint: experiment with annealed Ag wire & Teflon tube. It will prove to be an education. Also try a PP tube amp (Class B) to drive woofs. Better than any solid state thing I've ever heard/tried. I use Berning EA-230 rebuilt with Black Gates in the PS, Fairchild Stealth, Rel-Cap RTX couplers. Organic Bass!
Other (Power Conditioner, Racks etc.):	Equi-Tech 2Q 2KVA Balanced Power unit, Monster HTPS 7000 balanced power.
Tweaks:	I're rebuilt or reworked every amp I have - Black Gate, ASC, Cerafine: Ag wire in signal paths, Ag ground buss, Stealth diodes, Rel Cap RTX and TFT, VH TFTF, Jensen coppers, Tango interstage transformers. Hint: I removed all RU K-40Y caps after increasing DC leakage caused persistent noise. These caps may be a cheap but do not even hint at best of current manufacture. Quote: 'NOS can also mean Nasty Old Shit.'
Room Comments/Treatments:	My room is not square. It also has a built in bass trap and two long passages leading from it allowing low frequency wavelengths to develop.
Music Preferences and Comments:
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	recorded music from the beginning of electrical recording (c.1925) and before. Jazz recorded from 1920 through 1937. Classic Ragtime, early jazz, Zez Confrey, Al Bowly, Scriabin, Listz, Schubert. Special love for romantic piano. Robert Fine recordings, The Classic Film Score series on RCA, Arthur Rubenstein, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Arthur Schutt, Eric Leinsdorf, Fritz Reiner, Otto Klemperer, The Beau Hunks (BASTA records Holland), Frankie Carle, The Boswell Sisters, Vitaphone sound on film, Tariq Harb (classical guitar)
System Goals/Comments:	Clarity, color, emotion, sheer musicality. I am closer to this goal than ever before. I started this electronic journey in 1959. Thank you EICO. Of course before that I was a just a 'listener'. Musicians need listeners however. I stumbled into 78s thanks to Bill Fornaciari - the kid next door. I had always been fascinated by tube amplified music reproduction & radio. Moved to Phila, got to build EICO tube amp & pre, and attended my first HiFi show at the Franklin Holtel in Phila that year. It was a vintage year.
System Strengths:	Clarity, color, & emotion. I want all the color, emotion, clarity, and most importantly the breath of life in the music. The only way in setting up a recording chain to achieve this is to keep it simple.
System Weaknesses:	Nothing physical is perfect except on paper or as a notion in the brain. However it is the art & science of audio to balance the plus and minus to achieve a certain magical synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. At least that is the idea.
Video/HT System: Integrated
TV/Projector:	SONY Bravia XBR 55" 4K Ultra HD LED TV
Processor/Receiver/Amplifiers:	A processor belongs in a kitchen.
Speakers (Center, Surrounds, Sub):	multi-channel AV sound = crap
Sources (DVD/VCR):	Pioneer Laser disc player which is needing replacement (hah! good luck!), SONY VHS, Oppo BDP-103D (Darbee!)
Other Interests/Hobbies/Occupation:	I work with sound on a professional basis which dovetails with the audio hobby.