Curiosity is Dangerous

[j3brow]

Agree 100%

[prepress]

An all-Super IC setup is $5360; I can't afford that, frankly. Not all at once, for sure. This would be a 1m pair, three 1.5m pair, and two 2m pair. Some creative system re-configuration could shave one 1.5m pair off that and a 1m pair could replace another 1.5m pair, if I don't mind the visually awkward result. I would mind, however.

I'm still exploring (when I have a chance) the improvements the HPPCs have wrought, which are showing me what the Plus ICs were actually doing that I didn't hear before. What I could do at some future point is get one pair of Super and put it on my pre/power connection to see if there's a difference there; if there is and it's significant enough, then I could maybe get a 1.5m and 1m pair for my two main sources (SACD and Blu-ray) at a later point, with the Plus ICs moving to non-critical sources and displacing the Kimber Hero that's still on those (and which still sounds good to my ears). That's a more likely scenario.

Meantime I sent an e-mail off to my contact at Transparent to see what he thinks. It was he who encouraged me that the HPPCs were just fine for my 501s and the Premium PCs weren't necessary. He's also the reason I went up to Plus instead of the MusicLink I was considering initially.

[prepress]

I heard from Transparent, and the main point is cost vs. performance. My contact tried Opus speaker cables with his MC452, and he heard a difference, but that's seriously over-cabling the 452. I agree with him.

He went on to say that in reality, Super or Ultra would be a good match for my C2300/MC501 connection, but my more measured approach is a good move (i.e., perhaps trying out one pair of Super to see if I hear a real improvement). Any trial would be best on a source, most likely CD.

See, now I'm curious about this, and I should be looking the other way.

[prepress]

Not sure what it means, but I sent an e-mail to Stereo Exchange (from which I bought two pairs of Plus in 2016) via their new website, inquiring as to whether I could get a pair of Transparent Super ICs to try for a week or two at home. I let them know I'd been in touch with Transparent and that a pair could be shipped out to them for this purpose. Lo and behold, the e-mail came back undelivered! The message was "Info wasn't found at stereoexchange.com." There is a bunch of suggestions from Office 365 on how to fix this, apparently for Microsoft Outlook (which I don't have). Perhaps this is a sign I shouldn't go down the Super road.

For sure, I balk a bit at spending almost $1k for a mere pair of 2m interconnects, but I wonder if there's more music to be had, as per 2fastdriving. Then, there is a Greg Weaver write-up in the current TAS on a system at AXPONA wired with—you guessed it—Transparent Super. He raved about the sound. I'm not familiar with any of the equipment, but his comments had me balking at my balk. And, there's always Innovative Audio to try as well. They are an "Ultimate" dealer, meaning they carry the entire line with systems set up and wired with Transparent and I'd think more likely to have a direct comparison in-store, even. Or, I can just take an expensive chance and buy a pair, hook it up, and see what happens.

I have to think more about this, I'm afraid.

[prepress]

Oh, well.

I have ordered a 2m pair of Super interconnects from the Transparent store.

I decided I didn't want to expend the time and trouble (more the time, which is quite precious these days) of going to a dealer and arranging an audition. So I am taking what I've already termed an "expensive chance." Most likely the Supers will arrive next week.

The intent is to put them on the C2300, replacing the non-Gen 5 MusicLink Plus there now. If that config sticks, the MLP will move to the LD player. Once I'm satisfied the Supers are "broken in," I may move them to my SACD player to try there, putting the MLP back where it was. That's very dangerous, for if there's more improvement with the Super/MLP chain than the Plus/Super one, it opens the door to consideration of an all-Super IC setup, or Super on sources and upgrading the MLP to Gen 5 Plus (both too much money now). What I could do is have the current Plus ICs upgraded to Supers, which I'm sure is less than all-new Supers. If I prefer the Plus/Super chain, or there's no real difference between the two chains, then the Super stays on the 2300 and I would consider going Plus on the tuner with the MLP going to the LD player as mentioned previously (SACD and BD have Plus already). I could remove the Aragon phono pre and go straight to the 2300 with the TT as well, saving the expense of an additional pair of ICs.

A die of some kind is now cast, so we'll see what's what.

[2fastdriving]

Originally Posted by prepress

Oh, well.

I have ordered a 2m pair of Super interconnects from the Transparent store.

I decided I didn't want to expend the time and trouble (more the time, which is quite precious these days) of going to a dealer and arranging an audition. So I am taking what I've already termed an "expensive chance." Most likely the Supers will arrive next week.

The intent is to put them on the C2300, replacing the non-Gen 5 MusicLink Plus there now. If that config sticks, the MLP will move to the LD player. Once I'm satisfied the Supers are "broken in," I may move them to my SACD player to try there, putting the MLP back where it was. That's very dangerous, for if there's more improvement with the Super/MLP chain than the Plus/Super one, it opens the door to consideration of an all-Super IC setup, or Super on sources and upgrading the MLP to Gen 5 Plus (both too much money now). What I could do is have the current Plus ICs upgraded to Supers, which I'm sure is less than all-new Supers. If I prefer the Plus/Super chain, or there's no real difference between the two chains, then the Super stays on the 2300 and I would consider going Plus on the tuner with the MLP going to the LD player as mentioned previously (SACD and BD have Plus already). I could remove the Aragon phono pre and go straight to the 2300 with the TT as well, saving the expense of an additional pair of ICs.

A die of some kind is now cast, so we'll see what's what.

Good luck! I just replaced my supers with reference. It's a disease!

[prepress]

Originally Posted by 2fastdriving

Good luck! I just replaced my supers with reference. It's a disease!

One I'll need to get over soon; if nothing else my wallet will demand it in short order.

But the Super ICs arrived yesterday. I put them on my C2300, replacing the MusicLink Plus, as planned. First thing I noticed is the Supers are thicker than the Plus, though I don't know if this is due to bigger conductors or not. I played a couple of CDs, about 90 minutes total. This is mostly to get some hours on them. The first was a solo piano disc of Beethoven. The second was Antonio Carlos Jobim's Wave. Though the Beethoven CD's not that familiar, the piano sounded like a piano pretty much. The Jobim disc, on the other hand, is quite familiar, and on a track or two I noticed some details I hadn't before. Not to say they weren't there previously, but I was aware (or more aware) of them now. Maybe the Supers found some details the MLP didn't; I'd have to go back to the MLP to be sure.

Also, if the Super behaves as the Plus did, I can expect the sound to smooth out some, especially on top. That will take more hours.

[prepress]

Originally Posted by prepress

The primary reason for posting this is, frankly, to get it out of my system. I doubt it works, but maybe it'll help. I do wonder if anyone else goes through things like this, though.

In recent days, the cumulative effect of exposure to audio (and to a lesser extent video) through AA and other sources has set off a firestorm of curiosity; in a few cases curiosity is moving toward interest. It's not new, but the intensity is different. I've been struck with the following all at once. In no particular order:

Tuner. Replace my Magnum Dynalab MD 90 with a McIntosh MR88. Glenlee's great-looking MR88 photo in his FS thread pushed me near the edge on this. I have no complaint about the MD 90's sound, but the idea of having such a cool-looking component as the MR88 is appealing, plus I'd regain AM capability, something I lost when the MD replaced a Denon TU-800. HD radio would be in play, too. There's also a thought of trading up to the MD 105, MD's current top SS tuner. From time to time I've grumbled slightly at having to get up to change the station (the MD 90 is manual, of course) or missed AM capability. Not enough to do anything about it yet, but the curiosity's been there. Maybe either tuner will pull in a few more stations.

Power Cords. No real complaints about the WW cords I'm using, but the curiosity about Kimber PK10s has been around a long time. I was sorry the jacket colors changed to all black, but I wonder how much of a difference they might make, being 10AWG versus the WW's 12AWG. I certainly like the 12TC speaker cables and the Hero interconnects, although I did replace the Hero with AQ King Cobra a few months ago (curiosity again) because I thought it might have better bass performance based upon a direct comparison in my pre/power connection. A quite possible move is to replace the Aurora 5.2 cord on the preamp with an Electra 7 (still don't really like the Aurora jacket color). There is also curiosity around the Shunyata Venom HC, also 10AWG, for my 501s.

Interconnects. Replace them all with Transparent MusicLink Plus. I have a pair in my pre/power connection because I thought they were slightly better than the AQ in the bass. That comparison was a long time ago and it wasn't night and day. I'm curious as to what would happen if I switched the MLP with the KC on one component. To mitigate the cost I could go down one notch to regular MusicLink ($230 vs. $440 for 1.5m).

Preamp. This one isn't as strong as some of the others but is persistent. The C2300 was deemed a long-term experiment, as I'm a solid-state person essentially. I like what the C2300 does, but there is one thing I miss, which is the power factor. It doesn't, to my ears, have the same low-end weight as its SS predecessor or play as loudly. Fortunately, there are tone controls, and the bass is set to +3 on all sources. This helps. I've had flashes of replacing the 2300 with a C48, which some would consider a downgrade; but it would give me something important, and the reports from MORTIS on his C48 thread are encouraging.

Phono Preamp. The C2300 is considered to have a pretty good phono stage. Having an Aragon 47k already in the system, I continued to use it until recently when, as a clutter reduction move, I took it out of the system. But I have long been curious as to whether the Parasound JC 3 (now 3+) would be better than either, or how much better. I came thisclose to buying a JC 3 and then the 3+ came out. I balked at the extra $600 cost then, but have begun to reconsider it. Maybe it would re-stoke my record playing.

It was interesting to look back at my original post. Of the things I mentioned there, these are the ones I actually did something about. The MD90 tuner was replaced with a MD102, the WW power cords replaced with Transparents (and soon the last WW wth a Shunyata), and some of the Kimber Hero interconnects were replaced with Transparent Plus. The MusicLink Plus IC on the 2300 was moved to the LD player, and Transparent Super now connects the 2300 to the 501s. The phono preamp was removed from the system for a while, but re-inserted; it could be removed again if I decide to change out more interconnects; that will save money as I'll need one pair less. As for the 2300, it wasn't replaced but I did resort to tube-rolling in order to change the sound. JJ gold-pin tubes are in the line section now, and they have the heftiest bass of everything I tried. Black Diamonds (made by JJ, in partnership with the new iteration of Telefunken) are a pretty close second and I might still try them at some point with the new power cords to see what that sounds like, but I'm in no hurry. And of course, the 2300's phono stage is good enough to use for any LPs I play.

It's quite obvious that I'll have to start paying more attention to finances, which is why it's unlikely I'll go all Super ICs; the one pair on the 2300 will stay, and because I like what I hear so far I may just "Plus" the remaining sources that still have Hero and call it quits on that. It's occurred to me that I need more in the checking account to fall back on in case any gear needs repair or replacing (if repair isn't an option). The only gear I have that's still under warranty is my main BD player, and maybe the 102, so I need to be ready.

We'll see what, if anything, changes down the road. the NY Audio Show returns in November, and I bought a ticket. That might not have been smart, but I'm going anyway.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by prepress

The NY Audio Show returns in November, and I bought a ticket. That might not have been smart, but I'm going anyway.

Charles.......Tempting fate, uha? .

[prepress]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Charles.......Tempting fate, uha? .

I plan to beat it. Unless Legacy Focus SEs are on sale at 50% off.

Having been free of Tostitos Hint of Jalapeño tortilla chips and Breyers gelato for well over a month, I'm confident.