LIVESTRONG's Music Room - A Journey

[livestrong]

Chapter (unlucky) 13: Crushed

I'm well overdue on for an update here so I wrote it up over the weekend.

In search for a full range floor standing speaker that could make me as happy as my Canton monitors, I finally got tired of falling just a little short and decided to pull the trigger on a pair of Canton Reference 7.2 DC's. They were a dream speaker for me and I found a nice deal on a new pair being closed out - I was over the moon excite for them to arrive.

They're here…THEY'RE HERE - YES!!!


NO!!!!!!!!!!





I was absolutely crushed - l couldn't even believe it. I have had great luck thus far in my journey with relatively good shipping experiences and the one time it goes wrong - it goes very wrong on my biggest purchase to date.

I had to at least get one picture of them in my system before FedEx picked them back up...


Fast forward a month and a half of back and forth between FedEx and the dealer I bought them from, I found out that they can't replace them. Thankfully I at least got my money back

A couple other brief updates/experiments...
I wanted to try out a new phono preamp so I found a deal on a Musical Fidelity M1ViNL. It is a very nice phono preamp that is VERY quite. It didn't have as much power as my PS Audio GCPH, but that is kind of a giant killer in my book anyway. Overall, I think the M1ViNL is a very nice phono pre.


I probably would have hung on to it, but...

I've always wanted to try out a VPI Scout - well, I found someone that was looking for a new phono cartridge and phono preamp. So I traded the M1ViNL and a cartridge I had for it. I had an Ortofon Vivo Red MC cart mounted on it and WOW - the VPI Scout really impressed me! A very solidly built table that sounded absolutely fantastic! Makes me wonder how good the Classic sounds...



And finally, I bought a Schiit Valhalla tube headphone amp since my Vincent Audio integrated didn't have one built-in. What a cool piece of gear - it is good Schiit


Time to move on to another chapter - it is going to be a MONSTER!

[livestrong]

Chapter 14: On Tilt

If your'e familiar with the term "on tilt" in poker - I think it best describes how I was feeling after my Canton speakers were destroyed in transit. I had a few - "I'm done - going to sell it all" moments. I should have done a little better job of capturing the incremental changes that you're about to see, but oh well.

My goal was to keep things as simple as possible - so I started thinking maybe my "sell it all" thought could help me out. Hmmm…if I "downgrade" my turntable it would free up cash for another part of my system. That got me into a shop drooling over McIntosh gear like I was a little kid. Which actually fit very nicely with my goal of simplicity without feeling like I'm sacrificing something. When I busted out the calculator and started adding things up, I was pretty shocked at how much could be in my audio piggy bank by selling some gear. Heck, if you think about it one of the McIntosh integrated amps is really 6 pieces of gear in one (pre amp, amp, MM & MC phono preamp, AM/FM/HD tuner, headphone amp, and DAC).

Trying to keep a long story short, I was connected with Andy over at Audio Classics (highly recommend) who hooked me up with a demo a…

McIntosh MAC6700



When this beast arrived I was pretty blow away by the build quality and for some reason the size caught me a little off guard (I knew the dimensions, but they didn't really register until it was sitting in front of me). Better hit the drawing board for a new rack



Moving on - I mentioned "downgrading" my turntable earlier to help fund other gear. I had been talking to a guy about his Pro-Ject Xtension 10 off and on for a couple months. He is one of the nicest guys I've met in audio and neither of us were really in a hurry - we both wanted it to be the right thing. So far I think it was! The pictures of this table don't do it justice - it is built like a tank and the fit and finish is impressive. I don't think the table gets enough respect - so I'd say it is underrated (if you can say such a thing about a table at its price point).



Now for the speakers. While I gave up on my Canton dream (just couldn't afford the speakers I really wanted in their lineup) I was considering keeping my Canton monitors and adding an REL or JL subwoofer. But then these Tannoy Definition DC10 T's sort of just came out of the blue - I had been looking for a used/demo pair for over a year (since I heard them when I picked up my Vincent Audio integrated amp - I guess timing is everything. These are one of the few speakers that I think will make me forget about a subwoofer.


And finally, some new Avanti Audio Allegro speaker cables. These are AWESOME - so impressed with the build quality and working with Mike from AA was great. I'll be picking up more from him no doubt…



Time to put it all together and clean it up!.


Yep…still having a blast here

[jdandy]

livestrong.......That was an interesting journey as your commitment grew. You present system looks very nice. Thanks for all the photos. It was fun to see it all come together.

[crwilli]

Okay, that was fun reading through it. for some strange reason, it makes me want to say 'Keep the Faith" as you had a dark moment with the Shipping debacle but have likely ended up in an even better place! I will remember that for myself.

[bart]

JD, thank you for sharing your journey!

[JemHadar]

THX for sharing...what a journey !

[redm]

That was a fun read, its interesting that you've been taking photos throughout the entire journey. The photos are well done and you've cycled through a ton of equipment. Kudos to you on great room and an exciting journey.

Where are you headed next?

[Still-One]

Thank you for sharing. That was a fun trip.

[EfeTe]

Congratulations present setup looks a million bucks and the process itself was enjoyable enough as well. Great stuff!

[Masterlu]

More like an Evolution; looks great! thanks for sharing.