Somewhere on here I have a "Behold the treehouse system!" thread about the stereo in my little sunroom. Well, nothing in that setup is still in my sunroom, its been spread out among other stereos here (or in the basement). So I just wanted to jibber jabber a bit about the current state of things.
First, its a difficult room with windows on three sides. It should sound worse than it does, but it does kind of limit me on the scale of things.
Speakers: Dynaudio Special 40. These took a long time to figure out and I didn't like them at first, but now I really dig 'em. They want a lot of power, they want the tweeter to be exactly at ear-height, they like to be decoupled from their stands (they're on little nubby spikes on the stands' top plate), they like a specific placement. High maintenance! But they reward you if you give in.
Amplification: Luxman 507u. I love this thing and can't say enough about it. Would I like the newest version that's like $9000? Sure. But I bought this used a few years ago for a fraction of that and I just can't fault anything about it. I'm even using its internal phono stage which I almost never do, despite having several top-notch phono stages laying around. The only tweak is that I'm running it with a SUT, as I prefer how it sounds with this particular LOMC.
Turntable: Sony TTS-3000 w/PUA-286 tonearm. This is with the larger of the TTS-3000 bases, and the longer of the Sony arms contemporary to it. I bought this on a whim late last year because I always thought the 3000 was one of the prettiest tables. To my surprise the performance keeps up with its looks. Its a fantastic turntable and I haven't felt the need to do anything to it. There's a thick Funk Firm Acromat on it but that's only to get the cart level. The PUA-286 uses a standard SME style connector on the headshell but the Sony headshell is ....odd. If you use a different headshell, you can't get the arm low enough for level VTA. And I needed to use a different headshell because my cart won't fit on the Sony one. So..stack the platter! I think there's also a thin Nagaoka acrylic mat under the Acromat.
Cartridge: Cello (Mark Levinson) Chorale. This is a rebadged Miyabi LOMC cartridge and its incredible. It's big and heavy, though and doesn't like every arm. Its also got a little stubby cantilever that's hard to see and setup. Oh, and it likes to ride a bit tail-high but that's beneficial here (see above with the headshell quirks).
CD Player: Sony CDP-X7ESD. This was one of those "we're going to show off" pieces that the Japanese audio industry gets into now and then. I'll just say I have a bruise on my forearm from carrying it up from the basement the other day with one arm. It weighs more than some of the integrated amps I've had. The balanced output uses actual transformers. Soundwise it makes a pretty good argument that digital really hasn't advanced much, sound-wise, since it was built. I prefer it sonically, on CD, to my 'audiophile darling' EMM Labs CDSAse. Plus it's just classy, and pictures don't do it justice. It was one of the last players before single-bit/bitstream/delta-sigma or whatever. I have a philips TDA-1541/CDM-1 based McIntosh player in the other room and this rivals it sonically...more scale/authority, slightly less 'musical'. Its really awesome, though.
Streaming/DAC: Wiim Pro w/Berkeley Alpha DAC. 1st generation Alpha DAC from Berkeley Audio Designs, affiliated with studio-pros Pacific Microsonics. I'd say its dated by now but I'm using an even older CD player. I'd guess its from about 2005 and recently beat out the "better-measuring" Topping D70 for use in this setup. The Topping will migrate with another Wiim to another system.
Reel to Reel: Pioneer RT-707. Man, I love this thing. Pioneer really went to town with this thing and its just....cool. I play a few pre-recorded tapes but mostly I record high-res streaming audio of things I really want to just keep and play off-line. It's.... again...its just so cool.
And that's it. Oh, the cabinet is from Modernica, an Eames ESU storage unit in walnut, with a Modernica Nelson half-moon lamp and some danish-modern owls keeping watch. Beats me what the speaker stands are, bought them used, but I put some cheap spikes on them from Amazon that are surprisingly well made.
Cheers!
Pictures to follow....
First, its a difficult room with windows on three sides. It should sound worse than it does, but it does kind of limit me on the scale of things.
Speakers: Dynaudio Special 40. These took a long time to figure out and I didn't like them at first, but now I really dig 'em. They want a lot of power, they want the tweeter to be exactly at ear-height, they like to be decoupled from their stands (they're on little nubby spikes on the stands' top plate), they like a specific placement. High maintenance! But they reward you if you give in.
Amplification: Luxman 507u. I love this thing and can't say enough about it. Would I like the newest version that's like $9000? Sure. But I bought this used a few years ago for a fraction of that and I just can't fault anything about it. I'm even using its internal phono stage which I almost never do, despite having several top-notch phono stages laying around. The only tweak is that I'm running it with a SUT, as I prefer how it sounds with this particular LOMC.
Turntable: Sony TTS-3000 w/PUA-286 tonearm. This is with the larger of the TTS-3000 bases, and the longer of the Sony arms contemporary to it. I bought this on a whim late last year because I always thought the 3000 was one of the prettiest tables. To my surprise the performance keeps up with its looks. Its a fantastic turntable and I haven't felt the need to do anything to it. There's a thick Funk Firm Acromat on it but that's only to get the cart level. The PUA-286 uses a standard SME style connector on the headshell but the Sony headshell is ....odd. If you use a different headshell, you can't get the arm low enough for level VTA. And I needed to use a different headshell because my cart won't fit on the Sony one. So..stack the platter! I think there's also a thin Nagaoka acrylic mat under the Acromat.
Cartridge: Cello (Mark Levinson) Chorale. This is a rebadged Miyabi LOMC cartridge and its incredible. It's big and heavy, though and doesn't like every arm. Its also got a little stubby cantilever that's hard to see and setup. Oh, and it likes to ride a bit tail-high but that's beneficial here (see above with the headshell quirks).
CD Player: Sony CDP-X7ESD. This was one of those "we're going to show off" pieces that the Japanese audio industry gets into now and then. I'll just say I have a bruise on my forearm from carrying it up from the basement the other day with one arm. It weighs more than some of the integrated amps I've had. The balanced output uses actual transformers. Soundwise it makes a pretty good argument that digital really hasn't advanced much, sound-wise, since it was built. I prefer it sonically, on CD, to my 'audiophile darling' EMM Labs CDSAse. Plus it's just classy, and pictures don't do it justice. It was one of the last players before single-bit/bitstream/delta-sigma or whatever. I have a philips TDA-1541/CDM-1 based McIntosh player in the other room and this rivals it sonically...more scale/authority, slightly less 'musical'. Its really awesome, though.
Streaming/DAC: Wiim Pro w/Berkeley Alpha DAC. 1st generation Alpha DAC from Berkeley Audio Designs, affiliated with studio-pros Pacific Microsonics. I'd say its dated by now but I'm using an even older CD player. I'd guess its from about 2005 and recently beat out the "better-measuring" Topping D70 for use in this setup. The Topping will migrate with another Wiim to another system.
Reel to Reel: Pioneer RT-707. Man, I love this thing. Pioneer really went to town with this thing and its just....cool. I play a few pre-recorded tapes but mostly I record high-res streaming audio of things I really want to just keep and play off-line. It's.... again...its just so cool.
And that's it. Oh, the cabinet is from Modernica, an Eames ESU storage unit in walnut, with a Modernica Nelson half-moon lamp and some danish-modern owls keeping watch. Beats me what the speaker stands are, bought them used, but I put some cheap spikes on them from Amazon that are surprisingly well made.
Cheers!
Pictures to follow....
Last edited:
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