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Original post in Filipino Audiophiles Website (Wiredstate.com). Copying here on Robert's request.Let me tell you a story... but start with a tease :P
Just over a year ago, I described the audio journey of my cousin, Manuel in this post. Over the course of the past several months, Manny found his tastes evolving and, eventually, decided to replace his Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors and Pathos Classic One integrated with a more full-range system, one that'll allow him to enjoy more complex types of music.
As audiophiles, we outgrow our "starter" systems sooner or later but, oftentimes, move too fast and lose direction in the course of experimentation. While Manuel took three years to overhaul, the past year was spent carefully planning future steps alongside his trusted consultant ;). And so, this weekend saw the second coming of Mawę and we open another chapter in his journey.
But first, and of utmost importance: a well fed consultant, is a good consultant :) And since Mawę (diminutive nickname, as friends call Manny) knows that in my audio business ledger you'll see different forms of currency that derive from simple variations of pork, he whisked me off to the Barbeque Pit in Bergenfield, NJ, and we took home and gorged on a couple pounds of lechon and crispy chicharon bulaklak. Perfect way to start a weekend, donchathinkso? ;)
Okay, now we can get down to business. Starting with a summary of what's changed: speakers (+active amps), speaker cables, integrated amp, additional second phono stage, arm (+armboard assembly) and, finally, cartridge. Basically, the changes are top-to-bottom with a couple components still breaking in. In short, we're looking at a work-in-progress but there is a clear-cut direction and Manny's well on his way there.
I first heard Bastanis during RMAF '05 and since early last year, had been looking for a victim... er, consultee, lol. During one visit with Manny, I heard him complain about the lack of extension in his SF monitors and thought it an auspicious sign. Manny's listening had always been more into vocal-oriented music and small-combo jazz but during the early months of last year, we noted our tastes had been slowly reverting to the music our parents had forced on us when we were kids. And it didn't hurt that Manny's collection of classical music is sufficiently enormous, he doesn't know what he has! Pretty soon he was on the hunt for a new pair of speakers and a couple months ago, Mawę scored.
Although it wasn't much of a score, basically, it was just an assembled version of an earlier Prometheus kit. But we had to find an excuse to play, idea being if we can get Manny's brother-in-law, Jim, who's an accomplished woodworker in Maryland to build the baffles, then we might roll this into a business. Yeah, whatever, lol.
Good thing he's like a pitbull locking in as, over a month ago, I really had stopped paying attention even as Mawę was criscrossing NJ and Maryland, buying a few boards of bubinga, delivering them to Jim, picking them up, etc. that during his Christmas party I was shocked to see the final result. Jim had outdone himself.
Since I know virtually nothing about woodworking, I don't know how difficult it is to work bubinga compared to, say, chocnut, but I've heard a few people say that bubinga wood is hard. Although we don't see the cabinet's interlocking joints, it's difficult not to notice the fair amount of carvings and edgework and the fact that it's bubingic all over! Surely the edgework is functionally unnecessary but, who knows, Manny might want to inlay some mother-of-pearl... hey hey, that's not being backhanded! Quite honestly, I was simply shocked.
Moving on from his speakers, let me reintroduce you to Manny's rack. Without apology, you'll notice a $50 CD player and oftentimes hear Manny say-- with his collection, he doesn't need to buy CDs. Then I say, fuggin' vinyl snob, lol. Still, I did bring an $150 Oppo 970HD player which Manny tried and liked as we played half the Tchaikovsky 1812 but didn't get to the boom-boom because Manny was eyeing something else--
I had brought my Trigon Advance battery-powered phono to use with his new cart but Mawę had me hook it up to his Dynavector 20XL/Rega RB900 which he had relegated to backup status. For the record, I didn't plan on selling him my Trigon, I was convincing Manny to shoot for a Pass XONO... but there was another twist up ahead that kept the Trigon in this rack with the Dynie.
The new arm is an Origin Live Silver and, boy, was I impressed (more later). Notice how Mawę made use of the retaso (i.e. leftover) bubinga and had Jim make him a few armboards and pods. Notice also that the motor on his Acoustic Signature Final Tool is perched atop its own shelf attached to the LP rack. This keeps the motor completely isolated from the table and, on top of that, notice that old tabletennis rubber under the AC motor for further isolation. Manuel, who's easily rated 1900 when he plays tabletennis tournaments, swears that a 2.2mm red Sriver after an initial speedglue even outperforms his previous reference, an Avalox Purot 2.0mm black!... (and you believed it too, hehehe).
The new cartridge, a Shelter 5000, had less than 20 hours on it but one can hear its promise. This cart seems built for the Origin and this will be another combo to beat amongst the touted analog cart/arm pairings. The Shelter sounded fast and highly articulate, with virtually no detectable body resonance bleeding into its sound. This interation from Shelter continues along the lines of the 901/X, and not the 501, i.e. its mids are neutral, not quite the weight of my XV1s but faster! Besides its in-house siblings, another cart that this reminded me of was My Sonic Lab Eminent.
So perhaps, you'd think that Dynavector 20XL lurking in the shadows below was completely outclassed, right? Well, at first, yes. After Manny mounted the Shelter he realized it was a different league and tucked the Rega/Dynie away. But when I called him up Friday evening, I volunteered to bring my Trigon phono and it compelled Manny stay up way past his bedtime installing his second backup arm.
As the Trigon was getting hooked up, Mawę was complaining that he finished very late but I didn't offer much sympathy as 1AM is just "after dinner" for me. He did point out, however, this was the first time he's used the bubinga armboard+pod and as soon as we played we heard something special!
Folks, sometimes the audio gods are kind enough they throw a pinch of serendipity your way but this one was major. Now, the Dynavector didn't sound like a Dynie at all. Among the carts Manny had in his rig, the result of using the wood armboard/pod on his Dynavector cart/Rega arm sounded like a cross between his old Shelter 501 but with the extension and resolution of the Sumiko Blackbird. Before we knew it, listening to what was supposed to have been the backup rig, became the night. Eventually we swapped phonos but the yin/yang was lost. So, for symphonic, Origin+Shelter+Acoustic Signature Tango for vocal/small-combo jazz, Dyna+Rega+Trigon+retaso.
But we're not done yet, there's the new TRV-A300SE from the Triode Company of Japan. This 300B integrated was kept well within that operating region before too much THD kicked in by the 100dB Bastanis. As a result, it was more a pure/neutral SET sound than warm/fuzzy.
The only drawback is that since the amp doesn't have a passthrough and we were using speaker tap inputs on the Bastanis' woofer amps, the amount of output voltage from the amp was on the low side to drive the woofer amps sufficiently. To compensate, we used a more powerful spare amp but this issue (along with upgrading the tweeter to the more current production version) Manny has to work out with his vendor.
Regardless where we go from here, whether we decide to keep building kits or not, one thing's for sure-- the combo of vinyl, SET and OB takes Manny happily forward in his journey.
Thanks for reading!
Btw, Robert had suggested the speakers should be positioned parallel to each other. The picture with Manny listening above shows them toed-in but that was an earlier shot. Eventually we did get the speakers parallel--
Follow Ups:
Beautiful setup!
Are you still liking the Shelter 5000? I am looking at carts now and the Shelter 5k is on my shortlist.
Beautiful baffles. How many records???
Thanks, Clive, I think Manny has between 4-5 thousand in his music room and a couple thousand more stashed in another backroom.
Btw, here's a picture of an actual sample joint Jim gave Manny:
Awesome, awesome post. Thanks for putting so much time into it.I have the same speakers (albeit they're not nearly as good looking) and since I got my much-more-humble-than-that analog rig back up and running [Adcom cartridge -> Clearaudio Emotion Table -> Bottlehead Seduction phono stage -> Red Wine Audio Signature 30 Amp] I've been completely blown away by the sound. I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to listen to just one track to see how it sounds and ended up listening to a whole album side because I just got lost in the music.
Gary
p.s. If you give the business thing a shot, I'd be very interested in a set of new baffles for my speakers.
Thanks for the kind words, Gary, re:p.s. If you give the business thing a shot, I'd be very interested in a set of new baffles for my speakers.
The issue with making it a business is still a bit tricky. A couple weeks ago, Jim (our woodworker) came over for a visit and we brought up the idea but he made no commitments. Quite honestly, the vibe I got from him is that he's not so much interested in this as a business but rather he feels it's a form of "artistic expression." Well... he didn't actually say that but I'm sure you know what I mean.
So, the strategy Manny and I thought up is to, first, turn Jim into an audiophile. At the same time, maybe have him build one kit at a time perhaps starting with his own or mine. I believe the only way for Jim to commit and keep building is if he actually sees that there's more to these speakers than just pretty looks. While he did hear them at Manuel's, he also had his wife and four kids running around that I don't think he got fully immersed.
Furthermore, Bill Allen has an official representative in our area, Jon T. In fact, Manny bought the assembled kit from Jon. And along with another guy, Alan C, we're all friends! In fact, if Bill came over we'd be all hanging out tomorrow, Bill, Jon, Alan, Manuel and I, having a few beers and perhaps shooting some pool at hustler Jon's. So as far as business initiative is concerned, between the five of us, we can get anything going. At the end of the day, the challenge that remains is keeping Jim in play. So, let's see.
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