Hello from Melbourne, Australia

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Bodhi

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Hello from Melbourne, Australia
« on: 17 Jul 2025, 10:30 am »
Hi all. To introduce myself, I've been an audiophile for 35 years, and into high end audio for the last 16 years. I'm planning to sell my current system and build a new system based around high efficiency speakers and valves. So i'm looking forward to sharing that journey, learning from members here, and hopefully sharing my knowledge where I can. Here are some pics of my system circa 2015. The major change since then is I upgraded to Magico S5 Mk2 speakers + SPods.





« Last Edit: 17 Jul 2025, 08:04 pm by Bodhi »

I.Greyhound Fan

Re: Hello from Melbourne, Australia
« Reply #1 on: 17 Jul 2025, 01:46 pm »
Welcome Mate.  Nice gear you have there.  Are those a couple of pieces of Conrad Johnson gear there?

Bodhi

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Re: Hello from Melbourne, Australia
« Reply #2 on: 17 Jul 2025, 02:05 pm »
Welcome Mate.  Nice gear you have there.  Are those a couple of pieces of Conrad Johnson gear there?
Thank you for the welcome & compliment :beer:. No, i'm running a Vitus SIA-025 integrated amp, Vitus SCD-025Mk2 cdp and Gigwatt PC-3 SE Evo conditioner. Vitus and Magico have good synergy.

JLM

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Re: Hello from Melbourne, Australia
« Reply #3 on: 17 Jul 2025, 02:18 pm »
Tried going high efficiency plus valves.  Found the valves all have a warmth that made everything sound warm.  Found the high efficiency speakers all had various colorations.  Ended up first with 92 dB/w/m speakers and class D amps.  Then went to active monitors, much more dynamic, deeper bass than what you'd expect, and simpler (no speaker cables, matching amps to speakers).  Good luck on your search.

Bodhi

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Re: Hello from Melbourne, Australia
« Reply #4 on: 17 Jul 2025, 02:55 pm »
Tried going high efficiency plus valves.  Found the valves all have a warmth that made everything sound warm.  Found the high efficiency speakers all had various colorations.  Ended up first with 92 dB/w/m speakers and class D amps.  Then went to active monitors, much more dynamic, deeper bass than what you'd expect, and simpler (no speaker cables, matching amps to speakers).  Good luck on your search.

Hi and thank you for your welcome. Yes tube gear can have a warm, lush sound. Though it depends on the amp and valves. Re: high efficiency speakers, I plan to go with Coherent Audio GR18 Platinum speakers which are 102db @8 ohms, and only need about 3.5 watts to sing. The GR18's lack unpleasant colourations due to their high quality drivers, sophisticated constrained layer cabinet construction & simple, but very high quality x-overs. Those speakers sound best with 2a3 tubes. So after a lot of research, I plan to go with a custom version of Earle Weston's new Time Machine Dual Mono integrated amp with several upgrades, incl: an excellent sounding Khozmo 48 step volume control with remote, Duelund coupling caps, upgraded RCA and speaker terminals, Furutech NCF iec's (there are two!) & premium EML and NOS Sylvania tubes. I heard the first build on Earle's bench recently which is a standard spec amp, but with upgraded EML Mesh tubes & was impressed. Build quality is excellent. Here is a pic of the amp I auditioned..



Phil A

Re: Hello from Melbourne, Australia
« Reply #5 on: 17 Jul 2025, 05:13 pm »
Welcome!

Bodhi

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Re: Hello from Melbourne, Australia
« Reply #6 on: 17 Jul 2025, 07:59 pm »
@Phil A Thank you for the warm welcome :thumb: