While its been quiet here I've been off upgrading!

[Phil Rose]

I thought that I'd share what I've been up to since we last had a discussion about power amps.

If you recall, I finally took the plunge and installed a pair of Bryston 7B to drive my N802s. What great amps and what an improvement in the handling of the speakers!

Well, after that, I figured that as much as I liked my Sony 9000ES pre/pro there was more to be had by putting in a dedicated preamp. I sat on the fence and pondered this for a long time and finally got a Sonic Frontiers Line 3. That too is great. I think the thing that got me about the SF was that it was always described as neutral and very clean and it lives up to its reputation.In addition, it has the SSP loop so that it exists in the system with the Sony perfectly.

I really didn't want have a lush, warm tube sound but wanted to lose some of the digital edge that I could hear. Well, when I compare the Sony to the SF Line 3 it's pretty much a carbon copy of the sound balance that the Sony presents but with the HF grit gone. Another benefit is the improvement in width and depth of the sound stage.

Knowing that the front end of the system has been a little lacking, that was the next area that I started to look at. While I was in West Palm Beach, when all the election shenannigans were going on, I had the chance to listen to a Sony SCD-1 feeding a Krell 250 amp and preamp combo driving a pair of N802s. Well the Krell amp didn't do a good job with the woofers of the N802s but I could hear the beautiful sounds of the SCD-1. I was very smitten by this and have been contemplating the next moves for the front end of the system.

My big hang up with the SCD-1 is that I don't know where the SACD thing is going, I hear people adding external DACs to it for redbook CD and I'm not really ready to go back to a single play transport for a lot of my music. So, I decided that I'd add an external DAC to handle the digital from my Sony DVP-7700 and CX555ES changer.

I chose the Perpetual Technologies P-3A DAC and P-1A dejitter/DSP engine with a third party HD power supply. The P-3A is an 24/96 upsampling converter that will handle AES/EBU, coax and Toslink. The P-1A is a SHARC DSP base dejitter unit that also has the ability to enhance the basic signal and perform speaker and room correction with the addition of software. These units look to be upgradeable to 128k sample frequency and DSD formats so, I hope that when/if a universal transport becomes available the DAC system may be able decode SACD and possibly DVD-A as well. Another nice thing is that you can get the DAC and DSP separately which does spread out the pain of purchasing if you don't want to go all the way at once.

How does it sound?? If your interested I'll let you know after I get things installed and the DAC system has a chance to break in. As for deals on the PT gear, I wasn't able to get much off of list but the vendor did throw in a DHLabs D75 digital cable and gave me a good price break on a 3-meter pair of DHLabs AirMatrix cables to go from the Line 3 to the Brystons.

If multi-channel gets sorted out I'll probably embrace that too but for now I'm concentrating on 2-channel for music. My 2-channel rig is happy as a clam in the middle of my HT and when I crank-up a movie I'm just thrilled with the sound.

[John Holmes]

It looks like you've been very busy indeed! That is a lot of great equipment. It doesn't sound as if you will be dissapointed with it's performance.

Enjoy.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[MichaelW]

Phil,

Congrats on all the new upgrades. Once you get settled in and break-in the gear, you might want to look at doing some tube rolling for the SF Line 3. This will give you a even further sonic improvement, especially over the stock 6922 tubes. I would suggest trying the some 7308 tubes, maybe Amperex or Siemens.

[Andrew Pratt]

Wow you've been busy over the holidays Those are some nice new toys you've picked up let us know what you think when you've had soem time with them

[Phil Rose]

Michael,

When I got the Line 3 the dealer, Kevin Deal @ Upscale Audio, suggested that I might want to roll the tubes after a while. He also said that only 2 of the tubes would have to change not the full rack.

I've seen many posts about the 7308s being a very good upgrade however, the one thing that I don't want to do is get the preamp sounding heavy in the mid-range. What is your take on the change in sound that the 7308s would produce?

I'm not too sure about rolling if the sound of the preamp gets bloated in the midrange. That is one of the things that I was apprehensive about when I was choosing the preamp in the first place.

[MichaelW]

Phil,

The 7308 is a low noise/disortion version of the 6DJ8 tube. In my experience, I find that the 7308 tube gives a cleaner and clearer sound over the 6922 tube. Of course, a lot of what one hears, from using a particular set of tubes, will depend on the rest of the system. It is all a balancing act that requires careful component synergy.

Do yourself a favor and at least swap out the stock Sovtek 6922 tubes for some NOS 6922 tubes, maybe RCA or Siemens. The reason that SF chose to use the stock 6922 tubes that they do is because they are cheap and easy to obtain.

Kevin is absolutely right, don't do any tube rolling until you get a handle on the sound that you are currently getting.

[Bing Fung]

Bryston 7B's and N802's ??? :E

I idolize you


Very nice Phil, the head room with that system must be incredible!




Bing

[Lexman]

Very cool Phil! Even cooler that there is actually something to talk about in two channel. If I didn't know better, I would say Michael was stealing our 2 channel members for some underground haven, lol. (JK)

When you say over emphasising the mids, I really have a hard time believing that one could do that. Fact is, so few speakers do mid-range right, your usually looking for a fix to increase, rather than decrease the mids.

The sweet mids of my Sonus faber speakers are incredible! I couldn't imagine doing anything that might take away from that.

So, I guess I have a hard time understanding a tube that could actually overemphasize this.

Lex

[Phil Rose]

Michael,

Thanks for your impressions on the 7308 and advice on the NOS 6922s. I've seen several descriptions of the Sovtek's as being "tizzy" and they may have a point on that one. So, I think that after I get the DAC and dejitter unit broken in I'll start to do some of rolling. Something new to learn about! Yippee!

Bing,

Envy is fine, no need to idolize me. But, seriously, I've always wanted to make a very good 2-channel rig since age 17, and this is my goal here.

As for headroom, the amps and speakers do deliver! When the music plays, it's just there from top to bottom. Clear, unrestrained and able to go from silence to thunderous levels. It really is effortless.

Lex,

You sir, are right on target with your observation about speakers and midrange from what I've encountered. That is the major thing that drew me to the N802's, besides their looks.

When I auditioned Dynaudios C3.0's next to the N802's there was a distinct lack of mids on the Dyn's IMHO. Whatever I do in the electronics I don't want to emphasize any part of the spectrum because I think that the voicing of the B&Ws is just wonderful (again IMHO).

I had thought about a SimAudio Moon P-5 but one reviewer stated that it was "reticent" in the mid-range. So, I picked the Line 3 because it was touted as being very neutral. Also, I figured that if I needed a change, I could roll tubes for far less money than changing major components.

I would love to hear the Sonus Fabers because I've only heard positive thing about them. From those accounts I'd guess that the B&Ws and SF's aren't too far apart in the mid-range. Have you ever listened to the B&W's??

[Phil Rose]

I guess that I forgot to mention that I also installed a Lehmann Black Cube phono stage and Shure V15VxMR cartrige in my 20+ year old Thorens TD-126 mkII. I didn't go for anything exotic here because my collection is pretty old.

All in all, this really made a positive difference and my collection never has sounded better.

[Lexman]

Well Phil, Sonus faber speakers are indeed everything you have heard, and maybe more.

In fact, I have seen a pair of 802s I think. But they were in the boxes. So, no audition. Unfortuately, that's as close to a B&W speaker I have ever been.

Lex

[MichaelW]

Phil,

My brother owns a 20+ year old Thorens TD-160 turntable. Thorens made some pretty nice sounding turntables, even by todays standards. I am helping my father in-law build his ultimate 2 channel/HT system. One of the things I aquired for him recently was a Nottingham Mentor Reference turntable. Have not set it up for him yet but if it is anywhere near as good sounding as I think it is then I may end up purchasing one of them for my system as well. I have always loved the sound of vinyl and it would my dream to add something of the caliber of the Nottingham turntable to my system.