Back to Solid State(No More!) I missed the musicality, 3 dimensional sound stage and the "in the room realism" of my VAC tube electronics and sold all my solid state equipment and returned to the magic of Kevin Hayes at VAC and Kevin Malgrem at Evolution Acoustics. I am listening to music again. Winning the EAR DAC in a raffle allowed me to add the magic of tubes to my digital front end. The sleeper component in my system is the Snake River Audio cabling; it offers the uncanny ability to provide all the inner detail and nuance we want in a musical way without being analytical. Snake River Audio is one to consider.
Irish65, forgot to comment on the sub! The one Velodyne DD-15 inch is more than sufficient in this room. I thought about two subs, but the set up is a little more difficult, so I started with one and have been very satisfied with the bass quality in my smallish room.
Irish65, the Sistrum SP-101 stands under the VAC Phi 220 monos are the only Sistrums I have ever owned and I can't compare them to the older model. I am very happy with the stands I presently have and fell they have added to the sound as compared to the cheap Stand design platform stands I was using. When I had my Krell 750 amps, I did demo for a few weeks a prototype Sistrum stand made for guitar amplifiers that was very good too as a monoblock amp stand; however, I don't think Sistrum is manufacturing that stand now.
Nice looking rig. I would be interested to hear your opinion on the difference in sound between the older Sistrum stand and the newer one you currently have? Have you tried to run two subs or do you feel one is sufficient? Again congrats on a very nice looking setup.
System edited: Installed Auricap .47uF; 600V caps; two per AC outlet. This is a very inexpensive tweak that has reduced the noise floor of the soundstage and seems to have reduced grunge in the AC line further.
Owl, yes, I did run the VAC on the big Wilsons and they did supprisingly well for tube amps. They actually seemed to go deeper than my Krell 750's, but were not as tight. I preferred my Wilsons with the Krell. I think the big Wilson's do best with a good solid state amp, but I have heard the X-1's with Audio Research 600's and they sounded as good as they did with the Krell amps driving them previous to the owner going to the tubes.
System edited: Replaced Horizon Microphone cable used with subwoofer with a Harmonic Technology XLR Subwoofer cable and find it cleaner sounding with better articulation of bass notes.
I am checking my system to make some additions and noticed all your kind comments and appreciate them. Yes, the VAC equipment allows hours of unfatiguing listening. It is hard to leave the room to sleep. The speaker cable is from Prana Wire; the T.V. is gone now and was there to see the adjustments for the Velodyne DD-15 inch subwoofer. All are welcome to listen if in Scottsdale, AZ. Thanks.
Awesome system Mark! As a fellow VAC Phi 220/2.0 owner I can definitely relate to the incredible sound you are hearing. As I tell most people, pictures do not do the look and build quality of the Phi series justice- it is absolutely stunning. I would love to have a listen of those Caravelle monitors with the Phi gear.
More Phi to come! I hope to post my system shortly.
Mark, this is one fantastic system. You too made a radical changes in your system like I did. As a former Krell user(700cx and KCT) I am almost sure those VAC gear you have now is better then Krell in most areas. Enjoy your new system and happy listening.. David
Solid state to Tubes is a very easy move to do and even easier with the VAC equipment (and it looks great also)
What speaker cable is that?
Quick Tweak on the Sub you should do, is go buy a 25lb bag of #6-#7 pound Lead Shot at a gun shop and set it on top of the sub and either put the sub on a Sistrum rack SP4 or Float it with some Aurio Pro's. The Bass will tighten up even more!
What component do you have the Juice Goose on? and did it make a big difference?
