Best Hardware Acquisition of 2018

This was a busy year from an audio standpoint...

My nominees, in order of acquisition...

VAS Nova Signature MC phono cartridge
VAS MC-One SUT
VPI Aries 3D Turntable
Modwright KWA 100 SE
Modwright KWA 150 SE
Daedalus DA1.1 v2 speakers
Daedalus speaker cables by Wywires
Modwright SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition
Modwright PH 9.0 Phono Amp (beta)

I think I have to give the nod to the Daedalus speakers. They are truly outstanding to listen to and to look at. Handcrafted with hardwood, they are heirloom quality. They tell the truth, but the truth doesn’t hurt!

Here’s a shot of the (mostly) current rig.

...And I can’t get a picture to link from Flikr...any ideas?

 

Use Imgur instead

 

Thus far, NOS Amperex JAN 7308 Green vacuum tubes for my headphone amplifier.

 

Dealer demo pair of Rega RX 5's almost 1/2 price it was a great deal and
I think they are amazingly good [Mod: Please re-post and identify the model and make when posting links. Thanks!]

 

Rega RX-5's

 

I know I’m cheating here because all of my gear was purchased in 2018 and I’ve already upgraded my amp and speakers in that nine month time frame.

This is the piece that inspired it all and from the moment I saw it in the shop, I knew there was no turning back. I had to have it. I was looking for a $500 table but I knew that anything less than that Goldnote Valore 425+ was never gonna cut it. Who knew that the phono stage or even the cartridge was going to be over double the cost of what I was looking to spend on a TT at the time???

It’s a slippery slope this audiophile thing, but to look at this every single day is worth it.

 

Usher mini dancer 2's

 

Woo WA-7 and HD800 cans

 

I finished 2017 with a bang (the ProJect RPM5 Carbon) but this year I made it sing with Hana EH cartridge and, most recently, a Lehmann Black Cube SE II. The phono stage was the missing link that pushed my vinyl playback ahead of my cheap-as-borscht digital rig.

I was using my old rig as a backup for 45s until now, but it's so far out of its class that I'm letting it all go for a couple hundred bucks to get another sucker a young friend headed down this audiophile path.

 

It's been a quiet year component wise but I did essentially redo most of my cable loom:

Dac to Preamp: Siltech SQ88 Classic Mk 2 to Kondo KSL-Vc
Speaker Cables: Cerious Technology Graphene Extreme to Audio Note Lexus 80
Power Cables on Dac and Preamp: Cerious Tech Nano Signatures to Furutech S-032N with FM-11 Gold Connectors

Hard to pick one of those cables so lets just say all of them.

 

Getting to the end of the year now, and I'm going to plump for the Leema Acoustics Stream as my favourite acquisition of the year. There been cables, and a new preamp, but the Stream has elevated the standard nicely. If you see one, snap it up. A decade on, it's still a terrific player.

 

Gaia Isolator

It was worth every dollar to my system.

It make the soundstage more transparent and add better focus and details.

 

Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge.

 

Sennheiser HD 700 Headphones.

 

This is a great sounding system. It's pretty much the show system Dan Wright has put together for recent shows. Congrats!

 

I got the MIT Vero Reference headphone cable a few weeks ago. It replaced the Hifiman stock cable. The difference was ground breaking. The best headphone cables I've heard on my Hifiman 1000V2. I also have heard ALO, Black Dragon, Cardas and Nordost on the Hifiman.

 

And as a follow up, I took delivery this week of a new pair of Dynaudio Confidence C2 Platinum speakers in piano black. I also added a second REL R-328 subwoofer a couple weeks ago.

I still plan to get a set of isoAcoustics Gaia II speaker isolators, and an outer limit ring for my turntable. Next year we will replace the Salamander equipment cabinet with two stacks of Naim Fraim shelves.

 

So..please tell me...did you place them under speakers or components? I see those are the screw on ones.A buddy of mine have been telling me to get some for a while, so I'm intrigued.

 

The Gaia series are for speakers, and designed to replace the spikes under them. isoAcoustics has other products for components.

 

Oh man I've seen that up close and personal at my local hifi shop; an absolute work of art. That'll be the TT that replaces my current Marantz 6300 which will be donating its Goldnote Vasari Red cart probably.

 

An Ortofon SPU#1E.

 

I have a feeling that I will have some purchases to make this year yet but so far...

Focal Clear Headphones and PS Audio Sprout100 for the desktop

 

A Technics SL1210GR turntable. They hype surrounding these is real. It really is shockingly good.

 

I'm curious about the Sprout 100 and Clear combo. How do they sound on the headphone amp section ? And what do you think of the Sprout100 in general?