Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

[wmeugene]

I like the blue jeans at their price. Currently using the bi wire and just ordered a set of the BJC Ten for the new speakers.

I'd second the blue jeans recommendation. Great quality cables and one stop shopping for all cable needs.

 

[displayname]

Any recommendations on speaker cables? Zu Audio? Analysis Plus? Kimber? Coat hangers? I’m currently using bulk cable.

BJC on a lower budget. Zu is good at their auction prices, but their interconnects have impressed me more than their speaker cable. Wireworld is my favorite in the next step up, and if I was financially going above that I'm do more research. I kind of want to try Van Den Hul at some point because I know that my speakers use their cabling internally.

 

[Mr Moustache]

thank you.. i'd also probably be looking around a good amount on USaudiomart

just looking for a good companion for a mofi studiodeck (the ultradeck seems a bit too expensive but it depends on how money i have in the coming couple years) and a Hana SL.. that is about a 2000 dollar combination so i dont wanna spend it all on something like a PS audio Stellar (though i hear thats an amazing phono preamp it gives me no money for a good bigger headphone amp like a THX 789) but still be able to run the low voltage preamp with the over 400 ohm recommended loading

There are basically 2 schools of thinking out there: people tend to divide their gear by %. The first is 20% for the source, 10% for phono pre, 20% for amplification and 50% speakers. The second is roughly 25% for each components. I tend toward the second. You seem to be tending toward the first. So you would spend $300-600 right? I guess the logical phono pre to match the studiodeck is the studiophono? Graham slee is good too, but overpriced on this side of the ocean, unless you by directly from the website and avoid taxes. The big plus with GS is the loaning program to try it out on your system. The Sutherland KC vibe is well regarded but maybe too expensive for your needs? And there’s always the Rega fono. I’ve read good things about the Lehmann Audio Black cube and Parks Audio Puffin. I guess everybody here will encourage you to select 3-4 of them and try them on your system, if you can... If I may ask, I guess you’re not thinking end game component at the moment right? You may want to upgrade later on? If so I would advise to stay in the $300-500 bracket, because if you want significant improvement later on, you’ll need to spend something like $1500-2000. Hope this helps a bit. I sure know making this kind of decision is not easy. As much as people here tend to criticize the SHF (and I understand them) I like to browse the equipment section from time to time to see what people recommend. I would take a look at some of the phono preamp thread there.

 

[kvetcha]

As much as people here tend to criticize the SHF (and I understand them) I like to browse the equipment section from time to time to see what people recommend. I would take a look at some of the phono preamp thread there.

SHF is a valuable repository of knowledge, and knowledgeable people, but boy, the snobbery. You're not wrong, though.

 

[AnthonyI]

SHF is a valuable repository of knowledge, and knowledgeable people, but boy, the snobbery. You're not wrong, though.

Lurking SHF is approved

 

[Jango]

There are basically 2 schools of thinking out there: people tend to divide their gear by %. The first is 20% for the source, 10% for phono pre, 20% for amplification and 50% speakers. The second is roughly 25% for each components. I tend toward the second. You seem to be tending toward the first. So you would spend $300-600 right? I guess the logical phono pre to match the studiodeck is the studiophono? Graham slee is good too, but overpriced on this side of the ocean, unless you by directly from the website and avoid taxes. The big plus with GS is the loaning program to try it out on your system. The Sutherland KC vibe is well regarded but maybe too expensive for your needs? And there’s always the Rega fono. I’ve read good things about the Lehmann Audio Black cube and Parks Audio Puffin. I guess everybody here will encourage you to select 3-4 of them and try them on your system, if you can... If I may ask, I guess you’re not thinking end game component at the moment right? You may want to upgrade later on? If so I would advise to stay in the $300-500 bracket, because if you want significant improvement later on, you’ll need to spend something like $1500-2000. Hope this helps a bit. I sure know making this kind of decision is not easy. As much as people here tend to criticize the SHF (and I understand them) I like to browse the equipment section from time to time to see what people recommend. I would take a look at some of the phono preamp thread there.

One thing I would add is don’t overlook the secondhand market. Upgrade-itis is real and, once you know what you want, you can stretch your dollar there. Nearly my entire system is secondhand. It’s saved me literally thousands of dollars.

 

[kvetcha]

One thing I would add is don’t overlook the secondhand market. Upgrade-itis is real and, once you know what you want, you can stretch your dollar there. Nearly my entire system is secondhand. It’s saved me literally thousands of dollars.

Ditto.

 

[dropsonde]

Ditto.

What are some recommended secondary market sources (besides here, of course).

 

[HiFi Guy]

What are some recommended secondary market sources (besides here, of course).

Audiogon, eBay. US Audiomart, Canuckaudiomart

 

[kvetcha]

Audiogon, eBay. US Audiomart, Canuckaudiomart

I've also bought pre-owned units from Echo Audio and HiFi Heaven.

 

[Jango]

What are some recommended secondary market sources (besides here, of course).

Echo Audio and The Music Room are the ones I check regularly.

Hifi Shark is a good aggregator. If you’re looking for something specific you can setup alerts, see historical pricing, etc.

 

[AnthonyI]

Audiogon, eBay. US Audiomart, Canuckaudiomart

New Years resolution, turn off all notifications from all these places, lol

 

[Splunders]

What are some recommended secondary market sources (besides here, of course).

I've purchased from The Music Room a couple times. The have a limited warranty and return window as well. Upscale Audio also sells a limited selection of used stuff.

 

[wenis]

Bought the Vincent Pho 8 for a song. Very excited to get it in about a week or so. Enough time to find a better furniture situation (or get it built).

 

[AnthonyI]

Bought the Vincent Pho 8 for a song. Very excited to get it in about a week or so. Enough time to find a better furniture situation (or get it built).

Coming together nicely

 

[duke86fan]

There are basically 2 schools of thinking out there: people tend to divide their gear by %. The first is 20% for the source, 10% for phono pre, 20% for amplification and 50% speakers. The second is roughly 25% for each components. I tend toward the second. You seem to be tending toward the first. So you would spend $300-600 right? I guess the logical phono pre to match the studiodeck is the studiophono? Graham slee is good too, but overpriced on this side of the ocean, unless you by directly from the website and avoid taxes. The big plus with GS is the loaning program to try it out on your system. The Sutherland KC vibe is well regarded but maybe too expensive for your needs? And there’s always the Rega fono. I’ve read good things about the Lehmann Audio Black cube and Parks Audio Puffin. I guess everybody here will encourage you to select 3-4 of them and try them on your system, if you can... If I may ask, I guess you’re not thinking end game component at the moment right? You may want to upgrade later on? If so I would advise to stay in the $300-500 bracket, because if you want significant improvement later on, you’ll need to spend something like $1500-2000. Hope this helps a bit. I sure know making this kind of decision is not easy. As much as people here tend to criticize the SHF (and I understand them) I like to browse the equipment section from time to time to see what people recommend. I would take a look at some of the phono preamp thread there.

i mean i am not going to use speakers (i exclusively use headphones) so i just needed a phono pre and a headphone amp toe complete the mofi and hana combo

 

[Mr Moustache]

i mean i am not going to use speakers (i exclusively use headphones) so i just needed a phono pre and a headphone amp toe complete the mofi and hana combo

I don’t think this makes a difference

 

[VMPKJ]

So the Insight has been plugged in and played a while.

Insight to TubeBox DS: There is a difference for sure, it's not the huge jump the amps where from the original so far. It does have better and deeper bass vs. the DS. There is also more clarity and dimension. what is great is that everything became more natural. It sounds effortless for lack of words and more musical. (I'm expecting it to get even better here per comments) Where it shines so far is that my background noise was evaporated. That's saying something because I didn't think I had any background noise to speak of. You can put your ear to the speaker half up and nothing.

With the insight and the two amps (Stellar Strata and Arcam SA20): The differences here are the same but more apparent. I'd say Arcam has a better sound stage than the M2si but it's not in the same league with the Strata. Once the Sutherland was in the Strata felt like you were in the room with the music, and by comparison the Arcam sounded less like that afterward. The mix issues where better in some ways because everything was more defined so it wasn't missing as much, but this almost highlighted the issue more. You could hear everything and it was more obvious that some things were up front too much.

I do need some help as I was loading my Zu Audio's before to match the M2si. The last thing I did was run the speakers without the 25ohm resistors. It took a layer off the sound, but it was too much and the amp lost some meat. I'm thinking something in between no resistor and 25ohms might be the answer?

Thanks!

 

[apholden]

I do need some help as I was loading my Zu Audio's before to match the M2si. The last thing I did was run the speakers without the 25ohm resistors. It took a layer off the sound, but it was too much and the amp lost some meat. I'm thinking something in between no resistor and 25ohms might be the answer?

The resistors are wired across the speaker terminals, right? Larger resistors would have a lower effect. For your speakers, the overall impedance for different resistors is calculated by (12*r)/(r+12) where r is the value of the resistor you connect.
60Ω resistors should give you an impedance of 10Ω, about halfway between your current resistors and no resistors.

 

[VMPKJ]

The resistors are wired across the speaker terminals, right? Larger resistors would have a lower effect. For your speakers, the overall impedance for different resistors is calculated by (12*r)/(r+12) where r is the value of the resistor you connect.
60Ω resistors should give you an impedance of 10Ω, about halfway between your current resistors and no resistors.

This chart on Zu's site is confusing to me. They seem to say the opposite. But, they also seem to change after the 50ohm total to greater or lesser values but still changes the impedance in the same direction?