Best Hardware Acquisition of 2018

A brand new pair of MA Silver 300 to replace the Silver 8....love these speakers

 

They seem to have really hit their stride with the new Silver 300s. They have the new Studio out now that looks to be something special too... new Hi-Fi Choice review conclusion ...

 

Definitely my ELAC Unifi BS U5 Slim speakers! Makes me feel like I’m sitting at the grown-up table now.

 

This looks awesome! I wish I could hear that set up, but my wallet is probably glad that I can't.

 

No components but I have been tweaking.

IsoAcoustic Gaia III for my Amp and Gaia II for my Speakers.




Orea Indigo for my Preamp, Phono Preamp and CD Player

Aperta 300 for my Center Channel

These pieces are ridiculously good for the price. They beat Stillpoints in my system.

 

These. Real HiFi for small rooms or near-field. Easy to supplement with a sub to get the deep bass.

 

Lounge MK III phono stage.

 

FANTASTIC speakers! Unbelievable for $2k. I'm done for a long time!

 

I had that same system 1993-2003. P3ESRs, AMC sub, Levinson pre-amp\amp, Denon DP-80 TT, DL-103 cart & Cal Audio Icon MkII cd player.
Those little Harbeths are killer.

 

A used PrimaLuna ProLogue Four power amp. With my GoldenEar Triton 2+ speakers you don't need a lot of power, so the amp really shines in this combination. Stock EL34 tubes right now, but I'm going to try some cryo'd KT-88s. Fun to be back in the realm of tubes, and the PrimaLuna is easy to use and dead quiet.

John K.

 

I just received my Aric Audio "Unlimited"preamp. So far it performs way above what I paid. Plus,who doesn't just love glowing tubes!!

 

Sony Walkman NWA-45 with 128gig micro sd card. Best $200 I’ve spent in quite a while. It’s got 10,000 songs on it now with room to spare. I love this thing and pretty much everyone Ive shown it too agrees.

 

Currently, I have ten tube amplifier's that I have been playing with, from a small 3.9-Watt Decware single ended pentode to large Rogue M-150 monoblocks with a quad of KT88's in each one.

Until it was recently unseated by an L4 Audio Note Kit Amp (purchased fully assembled), that currently has a quad of NOS EL34 tubes from Europe, the KT88 based Five was the system all around star.

The only thing that I have ever hooked the tube amps up to is, these.



But, over the past weekend, I was trying out the PL Five with one pair of the front mains, being the Zu Audio, Omen Definition's.

They are the outside pair, on either side of the TV. I keep two pair of speakers and I can select the pair that I want to have playing with the small speaker A/B switch on top of the Polk LSiM707's (the one on the right side, next to the Zu).

The tube power amps are all sitting behind the TV on a table that was specifically reinforced for that reason.

I have made several big changes to the system over the weekend and afterward.

After hearing the PL Five, with the Zu's, I only want to use tube amplification on them, EVER. Listening to them with any of the SS amps, just was not cutting it for my listening tastes.

With the Five, it is heavenly, with the right music, metal, 80's rock and such, are not the best match for a speaker that has a natural tendency to be bright and forward. Couple them with Jazz, vocals and some other less "dynamic" types of music, and the Zu's can really take you places!

The A/B switch has been removed. I now have the Emotiva XPA-2, hooked directly up to the Polk's and the Five, hooked up to the Zu's.

I can listen to either or both at the same time, which works out better that it should.

I like and "fancy" KT88 tubes, and had never had an issue in using and preferring them over EL34's.

That is, until I installed the ANK L4 about a month ago or so.

The L4, with it's EL34's, had more and better bass than the Five, with it's KT88's, which is something that continues to baffle me, though I have accepted it.

Something to alternately consider, the Five is better designed than the Four for use with KT88's, better power supply and other factors.

Because of this, I doubt that you will reap the benefits that the KT88, can bring to the table, instead of the EL34's, like they can in the Five.

You might want to look into the SQ of NOS EL34's in your Four, instead of going with the KT88's. The NOS tubes have taken the L4 to an entirely new place entirely.

Just some input and ideas, I was having while reading your post.

Above all, keep enjoying your Four, it is a really beautiful amp and quite magnificent considering the close out pricing from Upscale Audio.

 

How to pick since I upgraded everything in my system this year other than speakers or digital front end. I bought a VPI Prime with Hana SH cartridge, Parasound Halo P5 preamp and Parasound Halo A21.
Out of these I’d give the #1 ribbon to the Halo P5 since it’s surprised me the most as to what I’d expected from it vs what it delivered sound wise with my analog or digital sources. It’s an amazing bargain for the price, it’s utterly dead quiet and neutral and fantastically detailed. The mm portion of the phono stage is frightfully good as well.

 

They do seem to make some nice gear for the price. Is that the one with the solid stage phono preamp? Do you use it only as a line stage, or use the phono too? I'm curious about some of those higher priced comparisons, any more details about what you are comparing too? Always fun to hear about good deals around here, and to see some of the one-man operations producing a nice line of gear, someone else posted their review of one of the Aric tube phono stages the other day here. Interesting times in audio, even with all the inexpensive Chinese competition through ebay, there's still some small US-based companies producing nice gear for a good price, especially in the tube-based market, refreshing to see

 

I'll go with the combination Parks Audio Budgie + Cinemag 3440 based SUT I got back in the spring. Huge sound upgrade from the Jolida JD9 phono pre I was using. Super stoked about the sound I'm getting from my analog rig.

 

I recently bought a used pair of Audio Physic's Tempo 25 + for a very reasonable price.



And they proved to be a big step up from my old Yaras (also Audio Physic). I'm pretty sure this will be my best hardware acquistion this year, even though I will at some point get the respective speakers to complete a new 5.1 set (Celsius as center and Steps as rears) from the same seller. I think Audio Physic makes great speakers.

But on a very different level I recieved just today a new toy, which sounds surprisingly great for its price. Say hello to my little friend (and little it is indeed):



It's a Topping D50 DAC, that handles pretty much every resolution known to men, either in PCM or DSD.

 

My Budgie Hybrid I picked up a couple of months ago. Just in the nick of time.

 

I just ordered a Border Patrol dac. I hope it's as good as everybody says.

 

Hey Davey,
The Unlimited I purchased is line stage only. I run an mc cart on my table,and I already have a phono stage. The preamps I've had in my system are,Promitheus Audio TVC,Audio Alchemy DLC,Aric Audio 3.5,NAD C-160,and probably a couple I can't remember! The Promitheus is a fine preamp,however when I run my Nola Boxer 2's with a First Watt F5 I needed a little more gain to drive them. I popped the older Aric Audio pre in my system,and it knocked my socks off! After that,I was hooked,and pulled the trigger on the Unlimited. I'm so glad I did! It's a very well built unit,and it sounds absolutely splendid in my system. The holographic imaging is ridiculous. I'm addicted! I can't speak for any other tube pre's,but I can wholeheartedly recommend any of Aric's products.

 

Nice, umm, box collection. Killer looking system.

 

I could not agree more! I just purchased the Gaia II and my Martin Logan 60XT's never sounded so amazing! I cannot believe how much of a difference I am hearing. I was super reluctant to spend so much for "feet" but holy smokes.... these things are worth every penny.

 

Well I just recently picked up a couple of new to me pieces of gear.

Started with an H2O Audio 250 Signature amplifier. This one looks like mine, but its not my picture. The second image is of the standard amp, while the Signature series one has dual toroidial transformers in it, which is what mine is.





The piece de resistance is an Esoteric EO3 phono stage. I like it a lot, and its probably an end game component for me, as I don't think I can afford better than this one.

 

Hope to have the same results. I just ordered 2 sets of GAIA III for my B&W 704's, a set of Orea Indigo's for the TT, and the Aperta for my B&W 608 sub.

 

I upgraded to an used Michell Orbe SE in February- a great sounding turntable and a surprisingly quite big step up from the Michell Gyro SE soundwise. The Gyro SE is still around as my second deck and I'm now looking for a good quality "mid priced" MC cart for it.