Quote:
Originally Posted by dpod4
Stephen, awesome thread. True testament when a quad diehard raves about another speaker. Thats like getting a Greenbay Packer's fan to compliment another team! It is always awesome to have a friend with similar listening preferences on what their ears value. Sounds like your system has reached the summit! Btw what are the two tables you have? Darrin
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Thanks, Darrin.
I currently have three TTs: a Clearaudio Concept with a mono Grado Ref Sonata1 that I use as exclusively as a mono deck for the many jazz and classical mono LPs I have, a Michell Gyro SE MkII with SME V arm and Koetsu Urushi Vermilion cartridge (basically the same deck Jdandy has), and a Rega P5 with a Sumiko Pearwood Celebration II cartridge. Both the Koetsu and Pearwood are amazing. What's more amazing is the P5/Pearwood cost me a total of about $2500 and it competes very favorably with the much more expensive Michell.
I've just purchased Serge's EAR324P phono stage that has two inputs, so I will use that for two of the tables, and my EAR 834P for the third table. I also run a Bob's Devices step up transformer for both MC carts on the Michell and Rega.
Now that I have a phono stage that will accomodate two TTs, the last area for improvement may be a really top-flight DAC; I'm very interested in the new Wadia 121 as I really like Wadia DACs; they're exceptional. Or I might not; the Schiit Bifrost is getting to be REALLY good, better and better all the time. And for $449, it's ridiculous.
To get the digital front end source comparable to the level of quality of the rest of the system, though, I might look seriously at the Wadia.
The other areas I need to address are ancillaries: I now need a 6 outlet Shunyata Hydra and a few more Venom3 power cords, but after that, that would be it as far as my system is concerned. Maybe one day I will splurge for a Finite Elemente rack.
On the whole, though, I'm very, very happy with the system and quite honestly don't feel the need to upgrade anything. I could spend more money on C-J LP275 monos, or an ET-5 preamp, or this or that, but even if I decide to sell the CT-5 and keep the Premier 17 preamp, I really don't think these "upgrades" would mean that the experience of enjoying the music I have would be any more rewarding or fulfilling than I am finding it now. It would be more money spent, but I'm not sure it would result in greater musical fulfillment
The focus after that will be solely on music; i want to get all the new Verve jazz remasters/reissues that Analogue Productions will be putting out as LPs from Quality Record Pressings, and of course, more stuff from my favorite remaster/reissue company, Speakers Corner
