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Old 12-18-2018, 10:03 PM
SL1800 SL1800 is offline
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Default Will travel for high-end audio.

I have the good fortune of working in a seasonal industry which affords me about 6 months off every year. This down time is usually spent listening to and tweaking my own audio system and wood working.

This year I have decided the only way to determine what my system really needs is to travel and hear other peoples systems. I know most would do so by attending shows and their local dealers but that hasn't proven to yield what I'm looking for. So the next idea was to travel to other AA members homes and listen to their systems. These trips have yielded some good listening sessions and great friendships.

It started last March and again in October, traveling to hear Timobi's great system in Louisiana, 500 mile drive each way. Tim is a super nice guy and let me listen to his mighty Martin Logan CLX speakers. If you haven't ever heard these speakers you really should. And OMG the ClearAudio Innovation!!

Next trip was a short one to visit with gadawg in Texas. This was my first chance to hear the Wilson Sasha II speakers with top flight Levinson gear. George was a gracious host and let me even bring my own dac for comparisons to to Esoteric K01Xs. This was one of those systems that really showed me how badly I need a bigger listening room, you could fit 3 to 4 of my rooms in George's room.

My last trip of the year was a flight to Seattle to spend 5 days hanging out with 2fastdriving aka Marc, For The Love of Music aka Ed, and Antonmb aka Tony. Marc was gracious enough to let me crash at his house for the duration. Both Marc and Ed have Wilson Alexia speakers but completely different electronics. The listening session at Ed's was short but fruitful, it left me once again yearning for a larger listening room. Do to distance and time constraints I wasn't able to hear Tony's system, maybe next time. Over the course of several days Marc and I were able to improve his system with some tweaking of room acoustic placement, making his Alexia's really come alive. After returning home I have gone to work again on my room acoustics to bring out some of the qualities I heard in all of these systems, stage depth and image placement.

I'm sure your asking what I plan to purchase after hearing all of these systems? I had already bought Audio Research gear, same as Marc's, before I went there. But after visiting Tim's, I came home lusting for a ClearAudio Innovation TT. As for speakers the hunt for perfection is still on.

Thanks to all for your friendship and for sharing your great systems with me.
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  #2  
Old 12-18-2018, 10:11 PM
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Masterlu Masterlu is online now
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Steve... I’ll leave the light on for you.

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MX136, MC1.2KW(10) MC2KW(2), MCD1100, MS750(2) MVP881, C1000C/P/T, MPC1500, HT-2 SUBS(2) HT3F(2) WS350(2) XRT2K, XCS2K, XR27(2) XCS350(2) JL GOTHAM v2 SUBS(2) SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, LUMAGEN RADIANCE SCALER, SONY VPH-G90U 4K PROJECTOR, STEWART 120" MOTORIZED SCREEN, CINEMA-TECH SEATING, WW PLATINUM CABLES
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MX150, MC501(2) MC1.2KW(10) MC2301(2) MR88, MVP881, MCD1100, MDA1000, C1000C/P/T, MPC1500, ESOTERIC K-01X 30th ANNIVERSARY (BLACK) SACD/CD PLAYER, G02-X CLOCK, HT3F(2) XRT2K, XCS2K, XR27(2) JL GOTHAM v2 SUBS(2) JL FATHOM F113v2 SUBS(4) SOUND ANCHOR STANDS(2) KALEIDESCAPE STRATO & TERRA SERVERS 80-TB, LUMAGEN RADIANCE SCALER, SONY VPH-G90U 4K PROJECTOR, STEWART 120" SCREEN, SONUS FABER STRADIVARI, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, FORTRESS SEATING, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Analog Rig: CLEARAUDIO INNOVATION WOOD, UNIVERSAL ARM w/ Da VINCI' CART, 2nd UNIVERSAL ARM w/ GOLDFINGER STATEMENT CART, HRS-MXR REFERENCE RACK-GLOSS BLACK w/ M3X SHELVES, AESTHETIX RHEA SIG PHONO-PRE, BRYSTON BHA-1 HEADPHONE AMP, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Reference System: BURMESTER 911MK3 AMP(3), 088 PRE-AMP, 089 CD PLAYER, 100 PHONO PRE-AMP, 948 POWER CONDITIONER, ACCUPHASE DG-68 VOICING EQUALIZER, AVID ACUTUS REFERENCE SP TT, GRAHAM PHANTOM II SUPREME ARM, BENZ MICRO LP-S CART, GRANDIOSO P1X/D1X STACK, G1X RUBIDIUM MASTER CLOCK, N05 NETWORK PLAYER, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, HRS-SXR CUSTOM RACK w/ M3X SHELVES, SONUS FABER AIDA SPEAKERS, JL FATHOM F113v2 SUBS(2) SOUND ANCHOR STANDS(2) WW PLATINUM CABLES

Library System: GRANDIOSO M1 MONOBLOCK AMPS, C1 LINESTAGE PRE-AMP, K1X CD/SACD PLAYER, G1 MASTER RUBIDIUM CLOCK, E02 PHONO-PRE, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, AERIAL ACOUSTICS 20T V2, AERIAL SW12 SUBS(2), CANTON REF K1’s, VPI HRX TT w/ SDS POWER SUPPLY, ORTOFON CADENZA BLACK CART, KLAUDIO RCM, SHUNYATA DENALI 6000/S v2, SHUNYATA OMEGA QR’s, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Esoteric/Bryston System: ESOTERIC C02-X PRE-AMP, P-02X TRANSPORT, D02-X DAC, G02-X CLOCK, BRYSTON 28B3 CUBED MONOBLOCK AMPS(4), BRYSTON BHA-1 HEADPHONE AMP, SHUNYATA DENALI 6000/S v2(2) EVEREST 8000 POWER CONDITIONER(2) ALTAIRA CG & SG HUBS, AMR-DP777-SE DAC, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, TAD REFERENCE ONE MK2 LOUDSPEAKERS, QUADRASPIRE RACK, WW PLATINUM CABLES
Accuphase/Canton System: ACCUPHASE E800 INTEGRATED, DP570 CD/SACD PLAYER, T1200 FM STEREO TUNER, DG-68 VOICING EQUALIZER, PS530 POWER SUPPLY, CANTON REF K3’s, CANTON REF K5’s, SILENZIO MUSIC SERVER, HRS MXR REFERENCE MAHOGHANY RACK w/ M3X2 SHELVES, WW GOLD CABLES
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  #3  
Old 12-18-2018, 10:20 PM
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audioguy3107 audioguy3107 is offline
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Steve - the ATL is always open for ya, but remember, with a visit here you also have to be on kid duty with rambunctious 5 and 8 year old girls.! We need a nanny, come on down!

- Buck
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  #4  
Old 12-19-2018, 12:09 AM
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For The Love of Music For The Love of Music is offline
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Fruitful, but we had pizza.

Glad you enjoyed your trip, I believe we all had a good time, great group. Now take Marc’s and my valuables off Craigslist!
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  #5  
Old 12-19-2018, 12:22 AM
2fastdriving 2fastdriving is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Masterlu View Post
Steve... I’ll leave the light on for you.
Are you sure you want him in your house, he'll be rearranging your acoustic panels in 5 minutes!

Seriously it was good having you over, Steve. We did a lot of listening, I learned lots of new artists and demo tracks. I know I had a lot of fun visiting Ed and having Tony over as well.

Steve didn't mention, but we also spent some time at Definitive in Seattle and Bellevue, listening to multiple systems. We were not very impressed with the Lilium they had, but we were more impressed with the Sasha DAW, Alexia 2, and Alexx. We also came away with a real positive impression of the Linn Klimax DS, which sounded better than the DCS Rossini with clock, to our ears. It was fantastic.

The Alexx was our favorite, though. Sounded great with vinyl on the Clearaudio master innovation and stand and Goldfinger cart. Amplification was all D'Agostino momentum.

We did some interesting tests while steve was here, too. We tested the MicroRendu vs. straight from my music server to the dac (toss up...). We tested cheap wireworlds vs. my TA Reference speaker cables (no contest there, which is good considering the difference in cost!). Finally we tested the merits of different filters, upsampling and clock on/off in my Esoteric front-end. Mostly not many changes between upsampling and filters to his ear, but I still prefer S_DLY2 filter. Clock definitely made a difference at times, other times it was hard to hear much of a difference. Kind of just depended on what we were listening to.

All in all, a fun time. I sure wish I had some AA buddies really close. The closest is Ed, still 40 minutes away or so, and we are both pretty busy and rarely get together. Next up for me is a trip to visit Tony, nearly 3 hours away.
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  #6  
Old 12-19-2018, 01:14 AM
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MtnHam MtnHam is offline
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I'm located in San Francisco and would welcome any AA members who might be interested in a visit. SF is my 2nd residence and has a different, evolving system about which I would appreciate feedback. The system listed below is located 2 hours away in the boonies, but shares some attributes.

Last edited by MtnHam; 12-19-2018 at 01:21 AM.
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  #7  
Old 12-19-2018, 01:23 AM
2fastdriving 2fastdriving is offline
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Here's proof of life. Ed made Steve display a record store find. Haha










IMG_1248.jpeg

Last edited by jdandy; 12-19-2018 at 01:32 AM. Reason: enlarge photo
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  #8  
Old 12-19-2018, 01:36 AM
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Default Will travel for high-end audio.

I also very much enjoyed our get-together in Seattle. I’ve been meaning to get to Marc’s place for some time now, and Steve arriving was that little extra push I needed to make the 3 hour drive. Marc has a great system, and getting a chance to meet Ed and listen to his excellent system was the icing on the cake. I enjoyed spending time with Marc, Ed and Steve, and came away with some great music suggestions as well.

Here’s a short video clip of Marc’s system - ignore the iphone sound quality, it’s a an awesome system.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...T54dK-1280.mp4

Here’s Steve listening to Ed’s system.



And here’s the famous pizza at this great place in South Seattle Ed took us to.

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Old 12-19-2018, 08:07 AM
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gaboudreaux gaboudreaux is offline
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Very cool thread... that's what it's all about!
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  #10  
Old 12-19-2018, 08:52 AM
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bart bart is offline
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Thank you for sharing!
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