First, although my appreciation of music and music reproduction is not new – I haven’t kept up with this hobby for about 20 years until about 3-4 months ago. Something hit me to finally replace my 1991 system which was Rotel with Mirage M460s. Which is to say the I don’t have the mental database most of you have as far as what sounds good, comparatively speaking anyway. I have heard really good tube amp systems in my old hifi store but that was a long time ago – but do remember how good it sounded, especially the airiness. I also may not have the ear many of you do.
While I did and do love the Mirages and could have purchased a nice sub to help the bass I wanted an entire new system and I’m very glad I did.
While I was waiting for my M3s to arrive my Primaluna 300 amp arrived and it wasn’t long that I ordered several kinds of new preamp tubes (yes w/o the stock ones getting burned in) and at this point went w/ 3 sets of the Mazda Cliftes (sp) and went to KT-150 Power tubes. The front end is a brand new Marantz Ruby K1 CD player so it was kind of cool hearing the differences between the new amp (and possibly the cd player) on speakers that were well burned in even though if they aren’t top notch. The Mirages do sound phenomenal in the higher mids and up btw, esp acoustic guitar. I very quickly found out how important the actual recording is with the new amp and CD player. Then came my new VPI Prime Signature and Modwright 9.0x. I mounted a Dynavector 20x2. Even with the Mirages, on some (!) recordings my new TT and cart sounded better with the same song/album than the same CD on most recordings. Fleetwood Mac Rumours was about the same. Alice in Chains, Jar of Flies to this point had been disappointing – too bright mids with the cymbals and electric guitar along with Layne’s voice sometimes crashing together.
Finally the M3s arrived! After I wanted in horror the UPS driver dropping one of them down the brown truck steps and then rolling over once (we live on a small mountain) I unpacked them immediately and all was well. Huge props to Clayton & Co. on their packing.
I hooked them up and ran through all the records that sounded the best so far like Aqualung, 2014 remix, FMac Rumors, Abby Road and a few others. I’ve purchased around 120 records over the past few months (I do have some older ones but not many besides electronic singles from my dj days and old school rap) so I didn’t have a lot to choose from at that time. The bass was WOW – what I have been missing and they sounded great! However, they were lacking some of the “crispness” on some tracks and music as the Mirages – they were very close but not quite. I must have played “Never Going Back Again” and “Mother Goose” 20 times and even went back and forth between the speakers. I read a review about this time about some speakers that only sounded good in this range but were quickly overpowered and then distorted once the volume went up and said something about “like having cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days per week” which seemed applicable here (to me anyway).
I knew I had to give them more time although again they sounded fantastic to my ears and also knew my amp, tubes, speaker cables and interconnects weren’t broken in. But…sometimes I get impatient. I knew that the Dynavector was the weak spot in my system and spend what little time I had reading reviews and scouring youtube for any info. By this time I would guess that I had about 25 hours on M3s but really had no idea. Sidenote: how are you keeping track of the hours on all of your components? I have no idea – well maybe a guess but not really. They may have sounded a little better than new (which again was great!) but not much. At the same time I was searching for my new cart I was also thinking about the front 2 preamp tubes. It turned out that I found both about the same time which for the tubes was a pair of Radiotechnique 12AU7 and a Van Dun Hul Crimson cart used with only 200 hours and had already been sent back to VDH for adjustment.
The tubes went in first because they don’t take 2-3 hours to install and although I could tell a difference to the better it wasn’t huge. The cart sat for about 10 days as I continued to read articles about different components and most of the seemed to say the same things over and over again in different ways which was if the product was outstanding it:
1. Was able to deliver such a good sound stage you could pick out where the instruments were and
2. The ability to separate those instruments themselves (meaning even if it were a mono recording)
3. Hearing things they had never heard before
I thought they were all full of BS (and probably some of them are) but after the new VDH cart went on:
I spent about 2 hours with a smile and sometimes laughing out loud at what I was now hearing. Now it all made sense. I was now hearing the sound stage and the instruments in different areas and yes in some recordings things I have never heard before.
About a week later I remembered Jar of Flies and wanted to see how that would sound as it has continued to be disappointing up to this point and WOW – finally! Amazing. Bass was now there and separation w/o distortion up top! Phenomenal.
At some point in the previous weeks I figured out that 2 of the Mazda tubes had a noise and traded them in for some NOS old Mullards. One day I decided to put those on and listened to them at lower level for a few days and while I could tell a difference between those and the Radios, I was listening to a lower levels and didn’t hear a big difference – some for sure but not a lot.
I’ve learned that tube amps and vinyl seem to go better with acoustic or even electronic music vs. heavy guitar (not that the latter sounds bad but I don’t feel that the tubes and vinyl can elevate the heavy electric guitar as much) but put on a newly arrived record that I have always loved and listened to Stranglehold. I was back to the same issue of the guitar breaking up some esp w/ cymbals. I put back in the Radios and ………..gone!
I really don’t know how many hours I have on my speakers but I would guess around 40-60 at this point but I can say:
I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE HOW GOOD MY NEW STEREO SOUNDS. I still will just sit and LOL sometimes it is sounds so amazing. Most of the albums you have already heard with a special nod to Thievery Corporation Symphonik for one of the first LOLs in amazement. Many others as well – “Waiting for the Sun” by doors is WOW as is Friday Night in San Francisco which was another great suggestion I got from this forum. The remix of Mad Season – even the remix of Ill Communication. Shambala! Oh, and on Friday I finally put on DSOtM. Phenomenal! Been listening to that since I could walk (dad had original vinyl) and hearing new stuff.
At some point I MIGHT start looking at cleaner AC, better interconnects (mostly DH labs) and speaker cable (analysis plus Oval 9) and even a better tonearm but ………I may not. After only 3-4 months of deep diving as much as I could I found the (almost) perfect system for me. I’m sure there is better but I don’t want to hear it (!). I know people spend decades in pursuit of the “perfect system” but mine is pretty close for my ears. The surface noise during quiet parts of the record can be pretty high and maybe a tonearm and/or better interconnects and/or a power conditioner and better power cords will help but I can live w/ that for now.
Also, the acoustics of my listening room in the basement should be terrible but as long as I remember to turn off the HVAC I have no complaints there either.
I’ve learned that what you feed your speakers – both components and quality of recording can make a HUGE difference. Again, maybe I’ll start demo’ing different cables, a/c conditioner and try out a Fatboy tone arm but OTOH at this point I think I’m done for a while. I’m certainly done w/ the speakers, amp, cd player, TT and cart.
Oh, and the hardware for my GAIAs should be arriving soon – so will still have that (probable) improvement.
If I get another revelation with 100 hours (not that I will know when I will actually reach 100 hours) I’ll check back in.
