Another C-J Sonographe SA250 for this kid

[jimtranr]

With a C-J PR17/MF2500/Paradigm SE-3 combo in the main system and a Sonographe SC-25/SA250/SE-1 lineup in the bedroom, my intent was to furnish my wife's office with a Counterpoint SA-2000/Rotel 60-watt amp/Atoms, or possibly SE-1, setup. But she's so pleased with her Christmas-gift new computer and its associated audio system that I decided to begin upgrading my computer audio (I've gotten into hi-rez classical, jazz, and vocal downloads lately) by putting what were supposed to be her components in my home office.

All well and good, except that the 12-year-old Rotel decided to go kaput last evening. Faced with the decision about whether to repair that amp (for the second time in five months) or perhaps spend my limited discretionary income elsewhere, I did an eBay search on "Sonographe" not expecting to find much. What should pop up but an SA250 with a this-morning bid closing time. I made sure to get up early enough to bid timely if the cost looked right...and I snagged the 250 in the final seconds.

When it gets here, I'll have my local tech check it out and, as he did with the bedroom 250, reposition new input jacks (Vampire or some Cardas I can cannibalize from an old Anodyne DAC) and maybe install some Cardas speaker terminals I have on hand as well.

The bedroom-system mating of the 250 and SE-1's has proved so "right" that that will be the computer audio configuration as well. Once I find a USB DAC I can afford, I expect to have a somewhat-more-than-decent platform with which to evaluate 24/96, and ultimately 24/192, downloads, since I'm considering the possibility of building a PC music server for the main C-J system.

Timing is, as they say, everything, and in this instance I lucked out big-time.

[chessman]

Jim, nice score. Congrats!!

[Puma Cat]

Congrats, Jim, nice score!

[jimtranr]

Thanks, Randy and Stephen. For starters, I've ordered Wireworld Solstice mini-jack-to-RCA and RCA-to-RCA IC's from you-know-who to feed the line stage and the amp. As noted earlier, I really like the way the SA250 and SE-1's mesh sonically and will probably do that setup justice with some WW SC and USB cable down the line once I get my hands on a USB DAC.

It also turns out that my wife likes what she has so much already that the MR74 originally intended for her computer setup will wind up in mine instead.

[Puma Cat]

Jim,
I just bought a Schiitt Bifrost USB DAC and I like it very much. 24/192 Asynchronous USB 2.0 capable, along with S/PDIF via optical and coax, all for $449. Uses a real power cord instead of a wall-wart. 15 day in-home trial and a 5 year warranty. Also has an upgradeable DAC chip for future-proof enhancements. FWIW, heard great things about the WW USB cable.

[jimtranr]

Stephen, thanks for the tip on the Bifrost. I'll have to give it a look.

[jimtranr]

The second eBay-acquired SA250 arrived today at mid-afternoon with a faceplate that had a much bigger scratch than pictured in the offering, a bottom-right-corner dent also not evident in the photos, and two of its chassis feet missing (remedied when I installed it by placing it atop four inverted Mc MR77 feet removed from the tuner for installation in a Mc cabinet). These glitches don't appear to be shipping-inflicted, as the unit was excellently packed and isolated.

Cosmetic issues aside, the amp is in excellent functional shape--no loose inputs, output terminals, or power switch. And once hooked up, no extraneous hum, noise, or hash.

To recap the setup and application: The amp and a stock Counterpoint SA-2000 6922-based line stage coupled with a pair of standmounted Paradigm SE-1 speakers consitute the electronics and output transducers of an HP desktop computer system. The stock sound card line output feeds the SA-2000 via a Wireworld Solstice 6 mini-jack-to-RCA IC, and the SA-2000-to-SA250 connection is a Solstice 6 RCA-to-RCA IC. The SC is banana-terminated Liberty cable. Primary source is 24/88 and 24/96 program, mostly classical and jazz, downloaded from HDTracks.

The amp has now run with program, much of it dynamically demanding, continuously for nearly four hours and exhibits no sonic anomalies, so the faceplate dings don't bother me. As already demonstrated in my bedroom system, the SA250 is an excellent match for the SE-1's. (Right now, Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice is belting out of the 1's, an apt reflection of the sonic magic being woven with the 250 in place.)

Overkill for a computer system? Not in my estimation, given the time I spend at the keyboard. And once I get a 24/192 USB DAC (yep, Stephen, it's likely to be a Bifrost), it should give me an excellent platform with which to evaluate hi-rez downloads and their incorporation, with the construction of a PC-based server, as program source in my primary system.

[jimtranr]

I liked the job my local tech did with upgrading and wide-separating the input jacks on the bedroom-system SA250 and I had him do the same with the one driving the SE-1's in the home office system. And then some. Since I had a couple of sets of Cardas speaker binding posts available, I had him install one set on the "new" one. He wanted to go the extra mile because he felt badly about the Rotel that he'd repaired failing after five months (not his fault), so on his own hook he also upgraded some of the stock caps with film types and made some other adjustments that, even "cold," result in a blacker background and cleaner top end with the 24/192 MJQ "Final Concert" download that's playing as I type this.



Looks at this point like he's going to get the other 250 for the same treatment.