Building a System based on Music Preference

Yeah exactly what I want to avoid for when looking for in an amp.

 

For sure. What I think he meant is how some speakers can seem "dark" and you can kind of wake them up with a "bright" amp... and the Concept is not one of those kinds of speakers.

I went back to re-read the stereophile review and, boy, those measurements are impressive. Clean, articulate, quiet.

 

Question regarding bi-amping... The Concept 300s have the option of being bi-amped, I have read that some people go with a tube amp for the HF and an SS amp for the LF. I was thinking of getting maybe a Class A amp (like a Schiit Aegir) for the HF and maybe the Benchmark AHB2 or SPL S800 for the LF, would that be a good idea to get a more "musical" sound out of the speakers?

 

I agree with you. Massive Attack requires massive speakers to achieve massive sound. Which is the way Massive Attack is best auditioned. You need speakers that can really carry weight.

 

Forte's are good for rock and metal. Cornwall's are better for jazz and generally better all around.

Forte's, despite having a high sensitivity rating do need a fair amount of power to perform their best.

Cornwall's do not require as much power and will perform better at the lower SPL's that you listen at. Should you move to tube amplification at some point in the future, this will give you more options with regard to less powerful but higher quality class "A" amplification.

 

In general, I think it is better to avoid bi-amping in a home environment. It is more difficult to match everything up level wise and you also end up with different sound signatures.

Also, most reasonable options dictate that you use an active digital crossover in the circuit. I think that keeping an all analog signal path is preferable (after the DAC on the digital arm). This means using a quality passive analog crossover. I will note that I have legacy Altec horn speakers and I use passive crossovers and all tubes upstream.

 

Love Massive Attack! Great “involvingy feelingy” stuff. Horace Andy’s great and the room moves when I play some of their stuff.

 

I suppose one could build a system based on music preferences, but only within very general limits.

Any given genre, indeed, any given performer's canon within a genre will have variations in recording, mixing and mastering that would tend to defeat overly restrictive choices in gear, etc.

 

I understand that, but as you said in a general limit kind of way, it should be possible... since certain types of music follow similar sound characteristics, so it would be possible to find components that reproduce the sound more suitably than others for that particular music genre

 

I think its really more about how you want to reproduce music not the type of music you want to reproduce.

 

Interesting you have posted this. A Fisher 400/500/800 with replacement paper/oil coupling caps plays rock and roll like I never heard before. Just pleasing.

 

I have not heard the SPL Performer S800, however I just purchased one sight unseen (unheard). I am hoping it is good. I like the company philosophy and they seem forward thinking. I am getting it in 5 days so I will post initial observations.

 

Same here, well kind of... I found a dealer who is letting me home demo one. So far so good, but then again my speakers are new, so they will need to be broken in

 

@ptrlhd now that some months have passed, do you feel like you've got your system sorted out? Are you in a happy place?

 

So far yes I’m happy with my system… I purchased some PSVane 6SN7 tubes (CV181-T MKII and tennis ball versions) for tube rolling. Sound has improved with more detail. Was thinking of trying an SPL Director MK2 preamp after reading good reviews about it to partner the SPL S800 amp, but for now I’m happy with my Freya with the new tubes. Might add a second S800 amp for bi-amping if it’s worth it.

Now I’m looking into upgrading my sources… I got a Parasound JC3 Jr. phono stage, so I’m looking if it is worth getting a better cartridge (maybe try an MC cart) for my Pro-Ject TT or upgrade the table first, whichever would give me a better bang for my buck. Also looking into upgrading the Bifrost DAC, not sure what specs to look into for a DAC to stream the highest quality from Tidal (currently using Spotify and waiting for their CD quality stream to launch, but if hi-res Tidal is worth it I will move to it)

 

I’m not sure if your tonearm is up for the task going into MC cart land. Maybe one of the Ortofon carts in the Quintet series might suit the tonearm though. I would look for upgrading the turntable first if I walked in your shoes. What’s your budget in that case?

 

Yeah that’s what I thought too… Looking to spend around $2k for the turntable

 

IMO to upgrade your turntable means you are reaching the point of discovering audio nirvana, or opening a potential can of worms.
I hope this doesn’t sound too obvious, but you already have a respectable deck and cartridge which I assume sounds good with your existing vinyl collection. I also use a 2M Blue on my modified Roksan Xerxes deck out of convenience due to my MC20 being damaged, but the cheaper cartridge is providing almost equal enjoyment to my MC largely due to the dynamics of the deck and the very good MM phono stage of my integrated amp. My own experiences, many auditions, and lately my own experiments have shown to my satisfaction that more upmarket and cleverly engineered turntables can actually boost the signal to noise ratio because they better control unwanted resonances from reaching the arm and free the cartridge to transduce the musical signals closer to their maximum potential.....phew! This is why I am working towards improving my own deck again before any change of arm or cartridge.

However the above qualities of more expensive decks are never guaranteed when you part with your cash so tread carefully. It is possible to buy a more expensive deck and or a more expensive cartridge which might not show your musical tastes and records in the same light as your current set up. I would try to visit some hifi dealers who can demonstrate some logical upgrades from your Debut, even to the point of fitting a 2M Blue to the better deck just to show how the deck alone can improve a system.
Then move up to a 2M Bronze or similar grade of transducer or you might want to stick with the Blue if that is the way you want to travel. I find that taking an old favourite LP along for the ride helps to shape your judgement.

 

I get that upgrading doesn’t always mean better, but for me to upgrade a turntable is to upgrade to a better build quality and better tonearm.