Musings during an evening of joyful listening with the tubes glowin' gently - Luv those JPO's!!. - Dave VH

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Musings during an evening of joyful listening with the tubes glowin' gently - Luv those JPO's!!.

Telefunken 12AX7's in the DAC, Mullard 6SN7's in the Supratek, and PCL82's in the Waves, and
Ye old moderator recently cleared out his room to finally set up a pair of long-stored (2 years) Wavelength JPO Memorial speakers. The JPO's are a single-driver speaker designed around the Diatone P-610M single full-range speaker. (I use a CAL Delta transport + Alpha 24/96 tube output DAC, the Supratek preamp, with a pair of ASL Wave AV8's currently driving the speakers.)
Right now I'm listening to the Sounds of Wood and Steel, a compilation of acoustic guitar music from Windham Hill. It's clear and detailed, and the little fingering noises are perfectly audible, but not over-emphasized as with many systems. You can hear what you want to hear - it's all there, and no single artifact of the recording thrusts itself into your face. It's eash to listen to the "performance" and become immersed in the pure music and not be aware that sound is too often the primary goal. When the sound is "right" the music simply flows!
Before Wood & Steel, I listened to Kendra Shank's vocals on Afterglow, one of those fantastically recorded Mapleshade CD's. Listening at low volumes in a small room, the sound is ALIVE. Pat Metheny's "Still Life Talking" with it's delicate percussion and haunting wordless vocals comes mext.
I have several tube amps (Pilot EL84 PP, Tektron 2A3 SET, ASL KT88 SE and the Waves), and only one preamp - a transformer-coupled Supratek from Mick Maloney. I feel that it helps produce clear and transparent, non-fatiguing, but life-like music. I just have no desire to replace it or even "upgrade" it, even though it has a SS external power supply. is a great preamp, and one of Mick's first in the series. I use a pair of stubby Mullard 6SN7's and haven't done any tube rolling. (I can't believe my incredible good fortune in getting this preamp for $1,000 before the word got out.)
I am amazed at how I was able to assemble such a great sounding system (for my needs and tastes) without auditioning much at home, although I did buy and sell several pieces of used gear before I settled on my current system. I've learned to read the lines, between the lines, and even behind the lines of Asylum posts and magazine reviews, and have a pretty good idea of whose tastes might match mine.
And now, I'm going to turn off this noisy PC and really get into the music.
Later, people!
Dave van Harn

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Topic - Musings during an evening of joyful listening with the tubes glowin' gently - Luv those JPO's!!. - Dave VH 22:47:29 07/24/02 (0)

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