Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Joe Mac said:
Dammit @Mather

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Okay but here's a caveat.

The sound and crispness I'm getting from the VPI and the Halo are so precise, that some MIGHT describe the sound as ALMOST.... digital.

The Halo is warm, so it's got a wonderful full sound and wide wide soundstage. But the further you go in this direction, at least with the sound I'm getting, it could I suppose at some point start to lose some of that vinyl charm for some. I really dig what I'm hearing, and it'll just get better over the next 80 or so hours, but I could see some people regretting a loss of some of that stereotypical buttery, warm, bloomy, vinyl sound as they go up the chain.
 
MikeH said:
i have one setup in my office where most of my records are and I usually listen during the day when WFH. then my "main" setup is downstairs in our sitting room where I listen on the weekends and can sit undistracted. so i don't see myself ever getting rid of the 2nd setup. My downstairs setup is close to end game for me right now. Think I'd just be left with swapping carts out every once in awhile. Really like the Sutherland Insight down there.

I think I'll eventually swap out my amp upstairs (I have a NAD C316BEE v2 that i like but don't LOVE.) and maybe swap out your Jolida for something else. Not seriously considering anything at the moment. But hearing @Mather talk about his phono stage makes the itch get stronger haha
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I think if my 2 setups were situated like yours, in two completely separate rooms/areas, I'd probably have kept the two. But since my WFH/Office and listening room/area are one in the same, it made it an easier decision.
 
Mather said:
Okay but here's a caveat.

The sound and crispness I'm getting from the VPI and the Halo are so precise, that some MIGHT describe the sound as ALMOST.... digital.

The Halo is warm, so it's got a wonderful full sound and wide wide soundstage. But the further you go in this direction, at least with the sound I'm getting, it could I suppose at some point start to lose some of that vinyl charm for some. I really dig what I'm hearing, and it'll just get better over the next 80 or so hours, but I could see some people regretting a loss of some of that stereotypical buttery, warm, bloomy, vinyl sound as they go up the chain.
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And that’s where the 20/20 and Duo excel.
 
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John Curl’s designs have always sought the highest degree of transparency with clarity being of primary importance. It’s a whole wing of audio design and guys like Ron Sutherland have a different set of objectives. It’s wonderful that we have so many choices, all good. Break in won’t change the basic nature of the fantastic JC3+.
 
MikeH said:
who's getting the $60,000 Jony Ives Linn turntable?

Sondek LP12-50 | Turntables | Linn USA

Limited edition historic fiftieth anniversary Sondek LP12 turntable co-designed by Linn and Sir Jony Ive.
www.linn.co.uk www.linn.co.uk
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Ives is a talented designer, but he's disappeared up his own arse since leaving Apple (and his head was already well in place at that point).

That said, hey, get that rich guy money.
 
Mather said:
I cannot get over the channel separation on this Halo JC3+. It makes sense with the dual mono stage design I suppose but it's like there is now zero cross talk, on any pressing. The crispness and the separation from left to right and between individual instruments is just next level for anything I've ever owned. I threw on MMJs Evil Urges 45 and played Highly Suspicious (which is an awesome song and I will hear no slander regarding it) and it was like a new pressing. It sounded like an AP MMJ press, just bonkers. And prior to these upgrades that pressing basically just sounded like a CD on my previous setup.

Someone had asked about the new setup exposing poor quality vinyl a while back and I will say that I have started to notice on some pressings where the added detail and crispness is bringing out deficiencies in the pressings that I hadn't heard in the past. Particularly in the high treble. I think the Rega Aria was actually much warmer than I had previously thought, and it was glossing and smoothing over some of these minor issues which the new setup is bringing forward a bit. But I'd also say I'm probably at MAYBE 15 hours burn in of about 100, so I'm guessing even those will mellow a bit.

I threw on a JP pressing of T Rex The Slider that on my previous rig was kinda soft and a little muddy and again, it's completely and entirely not the same pressing now, no muddiness and there's punch and crispness and extension on everything. I really am kinda shocked by what these two units are doing.in conjunction with each other.
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Awesome that you’ve gotten such a significant improvement! Enjoy ripping through all your favorite albums again!
 
Slimwhit33 said:
Awesome that you’ve gotten such a significant improvement! Enjoy ripping through all your favorite albums again!
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It's funny because the place where I hear the least improvement is in my best pressings, which is to be expected I suppose. But there's a couple that at least on first listen don't actually sound as good as they did before and I can't actually figure out why. I spun my Ziggy Mofi last night, the guitar strum on five years used to just cut through the air, and it was much more muted this time, a bit more reserved. But with the crispness and precision this thing is putting out I actually expected that aspect of the song to be same or even more pronounced. It's interesting because I'm simply not exactly sure what it's doing. Now part of this may be that I had my amp fairly low last night and I have noticed that with the added power out of the Halo that I don't need much volume through the amp BUT I do think the Arcam performs better at louder volumes so I may have to go change the Input RMS to 2 from 1 to allow the amp to work a little harder. I'll have to give it a shot later at proper volume to see if that cutting sound comes back. But on the flip side the songs are more full and just enormous in terms of the stage. Still playing around with things. But it's all really interesting to hear how the same vinyl, cart, amp and speakers can sound so different.
 
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