Awesome analogue set-up!

robforst1 June 13, 2016 15:23

System edited: Bought a new source component , reel to reel , good stuff

andromedaaudio March 06, 2013 11:46

System edited: New system pic, Had a good deal on the krells and traded them in after having had them for over 2 year , fantastic amplifiers . Haven t had much expirience with Boulder ,... 1060.

andromedaaudio June 26, 2012 15:10

The nagra is long sold , i have a cat now .
It doesnt give a sound when plugged straight into the zanden 7000 , gain issue probably , it does need a MM stage.

andromedaaudio June 25, 2012 13:28

I'm wondering about jacking that cartridge's output straight into the Nagra's line input - what about the RIAA curve that is needed to re-create the proper output for amplification??

-RW-

rlwainwright June 25, 2012 13:21

Thanks , i m gonna look into that , i cannot say they will be my final destination, who knows
But it does a lot of things superbly well .
Making music is one of them and that cannot be said by all of the " high end " claimers these days

andromedaaudio June 25, 2012 11:13

Hi,
I got my Takatsuki tubes direct from japan via amtrans.co.jp This was before the april price increase. I paid 1450.00 USD and will happily buy them again when the time comes.The 300b SET amplifiers are the final destination for me.

charles1dad June 24, 2012 20:02

Thanks i read a great deal of it already .
Well whenever the sophia RP runs out of steam , i might buy the takatsuki although its 1800 retail here in europe .
Are there other cheaper places to buy it ???

andromedaaudio June 24, 2012 17:20

Hi Henk jan,
You should be happy with the Sophia Royal Princess 300b, it`s an excellent tube.I wrote a comparision of this tube and the Takatsuki in the thread "favorite 300b,Sophia or KR" . There`re other owners who also compared these two tubes. It begins in the feb-march 2012 portion of the thread.There`re lots of comments.I wish you the best sucess with your speakers.
Regards,

charles1dad June 24, 2012 17:14

I want to add that i am in the proces of making a "flagship" model.
A modular construction with 11 and 13 inch high efficiency very stiff woofers in the bassmodule
And a MTM module placed on top .
The papercomposite mids which will have a combined efficiency of around 93 /94 dB altogether .
This will be no more in high density MDF but will consist of modern stiff /high density industrial materials ( or 6000/7000 series aluminium).
This will all be done in CAD drawings and then CNC machined , so it will take quit some time and require a substantial investment
But i hope to have it ready before the end of the year.
I intend to sell the MTM seperately

Greetings henk jan

andromedaaudio June 24, 2012 10:49

The speakers driven by the zanden are of 90,5 db efficiency , with a maximum impedance drop of around 10 Ohms , very easy to drive with any amp .
I also design a 3 way which has 91 db efficiency as i changed to a paper mid which sounds more natural than the accuton to me , it did bring the efficiency down 1 db in contrast to the stated 92,5 db claim by the unitmanufacturer, its also possible with accuton mid off course
It can have both a accuton tweeter or a very high quality soft dome if people want that

In what way the presentation will improve more with the takatsuki , although i am extremely pleased at the moment .

greetings henk jan

andromedaaudio June 24, 2012 10:01

You wrote "the feeling of reality has much improved". That sums it up well.When I switched to my current 8 watt 300b SET among 'many' attributes the sense of real live performers presence and transparency stood out the most.

Adding the Takatsuki 300b tubes elevates it to the sublime level.I can completely relate to your satisfaction with the Zanden amplifier.What is the sensitivity and load of your speakers?
Regards,

charles1dad June 24, 2012 09:35

Well its time for a zanden review , the review is based on the zanden alone not with the cat driving it, it is used with the sophia electric royal princess tube 1000 euro pair considered one off the best , the takatsuki possibly bettering it at 1800 euro retail :

I was a bit afraid how well it would drive the speakers , but the zanden SET 300 B came along for a reasonable price from a person who lived in amsterdam , so i thought i give it a try .
Plus :
most obvious is more transparency and detail , it is said SET s are detailchamps and that is very true compared to the cat /krell/hawk amp .
Bass , believe it or not bass has improved , it has more weight /aplomb it is fuller and more defined , it fills the room with low freq more so than the krell, especially with organ or orchestra music , most movies as well , although gunshots(heat ) sound a bit more fierce/snappy with krell.
Voices and music on cd and musicaldetailsoveral are on another level , the feeling of reality has much improved
sense of space has improved and the soundstage became bigger
I think its been a logical upgrade and a good learningexperience .
I probably would state from now on that tubebass is better than SS
Headroom is enough but that is all , i usually listen to cd s at vol 12 or 1 oclock and movies at 3 oclock so i have some headroom left although its not that much but no problem there .
There is absolutely no sign of compression when driven with volume fully open , no smearing or harshness just pure clear sound.
Able to portray the dynamics of a trumpet with incredible dynamics , completely floating free in space
The person whom i bought it from said he never heard the zanden better , he heard it on tannoy and audio note speakers
He himself listened usually with AKG K1000 headphones

neg :
I am afraid i will have to buy the zanden 1200 phono as well in the future , the cat phono is now to noisy at listening volume and i think the zanden will deliver much more detail and transparency and overal sound quality .
I do know the legend is much more quit and has a step up transformer built inside for up to 58 db gain
The zanden 1200 has 2 gain outputs 1(high) is 68 db (probably more dynamic sounding then compared to the legend )
I do suspect a problem though , using my beloved decca carts on the zanden as it has a fixed loading of 4 ohm on the high gain output and a fixed 40 ohms loading on the low gain output , deccas need the 47 kohm loading to sound good and going lower reduces the soundlevel and doesnt sound nice , on the cat that is
The krells do sound a bit better with electronic music / house

andromedaaudio June 24, 2012 04:34

System edited: Update/pics : i bought another power amp (with vol control), to see what 8 watts can do as i dont really need the power . The krells are fantastic especially with the cat , but zanden is zanden , magic stuff the krells are for sale

andromedaaudio June 14, 2012 13:01

Yes it became quit an obsession over the years , but i got it right in the end
Time to let go and enjoy .
I am sitting front row with not even that large amount of $$$ spent .

andromedaaudio April 08, 2012 04:57

You are a real haunted Audiophile :-)

Congrats and Happy Listening

syntax April 07, 2012 09:56

Well ,i have been playing now for 3 or 4 weeks with a 3 mm layer of natural woolfelt around the tweeter and midrange covering the whole top 1 / 3 of the speaker .
Impressions: it robbes the music of some chaotic livelyness .
you could call it a little dull sounding.
The speakerdissapearing act gets in higher gear , now virtually completely non locatable as a sound source .
More stressfree listening .
it invites you more to just sit between the speakers and focus on the performance .
Further i am very curious as how the new big 13 inch stiff/ hexacone woofers will sound like in the new model , i am curious as to how they will exite the low frequencies compared to 2 8 inch or a 10 inch woofer .
The bigger woofer having more membrane weight to move air with , so it could sound slower as a downside

andromedaaudio March 04, 2012 03:44

well i have some nice pics to show , but i cant get into my system page , i ll post them sometime later on the " other forum "
I bought a new stand alone audio analyzer from kirchner electronic
Which does :
• Electric and acoustic amplitude frequency response
• SPL Electric and acoustic phase frequency response
• Impedance measurement
• Step response
• Distortion THD
• Distortion IMD
• RMS (sound) level meter
. waterfall diagphrams

I got the new woofers and tweeters in .
13 and 11 inch hexacone and soft domes .

andromedaaudio February 11, 2012 04:44

Funny thing was that we listened to the new nagra 300 B amp as well on the blumenhofers.
When we changed to the 250 watt octave monos we could hear a improvement of sound and authority /control .
The speakers are probably round 99 dB or something so i thought it woulnt matter but it did .

andromedaaudio January 28, 2012 01:47

I listened today to Hornspeakers .
Blumenhofer speakers (50000)
driven by the top zanden dac , zanden pre and octave jubilee monos .
And also a expensive analogue front .
Nice sound , i still like zanden for sure , and the jubilee as well .
different from conventinal box designs , nice mid highs but i like a bit more raw impact in the lows, its sounded friendly

andromedaaudio January 26, 2012 15:07

Me too i cannot get into my systempage .
Audiogon has put an end to the reckless gearchanging business, its over. (lol)

andromedaaudio January 15, 2012 03:30

Me four!! When I go to virtual system on my page it says "nothing saved" but my system still shows in Ever Evolving in virtual system.

samhar January 14, 2012 22:34

Thanks Andromedaaudio. Your system is also impressive.
I've heard the Krells although not in my room and driving the big Focal EMs.
I love my Halcros but could not really recommend Halcro as they no longer exist as an Australian Company so parts and technical help would be scarce.
A real pity as high-end technologically advanced products like Halcro and Continuum are hard to produce now due to the incredibly high value of the Aussie dollar?

halcro January 14, 2012 21:05

I have the same problem as Halcro, I can see my system and want to edit it but when I go to virtual systems it says I have none saved.

stanwal January 14, 2012 16:10

oh oh thats bad , but hey its still saved somewhere cause i can read it today .
Well i got into my threads but only after i changed the pass word .
Halcro nice system by the way , have you got any idea what i would gain(or lose ) if i would swap the krells for a pair of DM 68 or 88.
They are on my try list just as :
levinson 33 or 33h
convergent jl3 sign
the big Chord monos.
Audio research top ref monos .
and some more i forgot just now
I swapped the 20 mm diamond cones for the 25 mm ceramic ones today, and i must say very nice sound , i think the plp brought a kind of hardness to the high freq which is gone with the convergent pre.
I might move away from the 20 diagphram the impact is to low combined with a 7 inch mid .
I was in a shop today and i was listening to the dynaudio C 2 and mc intosh.
A nice and romantic sound , completely different from mine , which is ultra high resolution /super controlled and sounds more like see through glass.
I am very happy with the paper composite mid , which will be used in the future model

andromedaaudio January 14, 2012 13:57