In my journey some of the things that has made an incredible change and improvement of the sound of my system are 1. Acoustic Panels and measurements for my music room, 2. Power conditioners, 3. Quality Cables and interconnections, 4. Speaker isolation stand feet and anti vibration damping and absorbing pads for all my system components, 5. Periodic cleaning of all connections of all components with Deoxit D5, it takes time patience and money but it is rewarding to see and hear the results, thank you for your videos, happy listening!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I am definetly going to add room treatment as soon as new speakers are set up. Power conditioning is on my list to do along with speakers and some of the cables. Thanks again!
Great video Mike Really enjoy you sharing your audio journey with us I’m a big fan of Wilson speakers also They have a good certified preowned program that helps with the cost and the dealer will still set up for you with warranty Raghu
You should attend the Capital audio fest in November. Show conditions are not always the best representation of what the speaker can offer, but you can sniff the potential. you’ll be able to hear many manufacturer and brands
If I am not able to make the Pacific Audio show in a couple of weeks I will be definetly try to get out to DC. I have not been to that show so that would be treat! Thank you.
@@MikesVinylExperience definitely a lot of good energy at the shows. You’ll meet a lot of great people and you get to meet a lot of people behind the brands but it’s definitely a treat to be had.
Mike, If you watch your own video, it seems clear to me you’ve already figured out what you want, and it’s the right decision. Buy the SabrinaX speakers. The B&Ws are bright and analytic. You’ve already heaped praise on the Wilson mid-range and above. Just go for it. I just fulfilled my lifetime dream by buying a 10-year-old pair of Sabrinas and they are in a league of their own. I’m in audio heaven. I also heard the SabrinaX’s at the Wilson factory (with $200k of electronics!) and it was the most amazing audio experience I’ve ever had. There is nothing as magical as a Wilson. No need for further dithering. Buy them. You’ll never regret it.
WOW! Thank you for your thoughts, I have been very impressed with the Sabrina's. I think in my room (22'x14' they would be awesome. I am nearing my deciesion and hope to get it done either this week or next. Thank you once again for your advice!
Man, I sure wish I were in your shoes right now! Nothing can compare to the experience of shopping speakers at this level in my opinion. Sounds like Wilson is speaking to you. If you can deal with the cost and weight you may have found your brand. Have you considered used Wilsons? Something to think about. On the other hand, they keep improving their materials all the time and that can have a big influence on their sound. Also, buying new gives you the opportunity to choose your own color. On another note, I personally can recommend the PS Audio Stellar phono amplifier. Love the ability to change moving coil loading in real time from the comfort of my listening chair. I find I change loading depending on the record I’m playing. Opens up whole worlds of possibilities when listening to vinyl. Sounds great as well.
Thank you for thoughts and suggestions! I have not heard the Stellar phono preamp, but now I do know where to go to hear PS Audio gear so I will give it a listen. One of the nice things about the wilson's is the dealer will set them up for you whic is nice since the sabrina's are over 100lbs and the watt puppies are almost double that. I am always looking for used wilson's and actually the dealership I am working with does have a pair of Sabrina's that are about 6 years old but look nice good, just not as good ast the X. Thank you!
Go with the speaker you “really really” want Mike. Life’s too short. Definitely do look at a better phono stage, one with as many loading options but also variable gain settings. This will give you freedom in choice when changing cartridges in future and also get the best out of your existing cartridge. Fantastic channel👍
That is great advise! Thank you! I have been looking at an Aesthetix Rhea phono stage that looks to have plenty of loading options and it sound very nice. I am thinking I might see if I can bring it home and see what it sounds like in my system. Thank you once again.
I have heard rummors about that! I wonder when that will be? If that was within 6 months or so I would likely wait and see what it sounds like. Thank for the great suggestion!
I’d give a listen to meridian. They are exhilarating and huge and muscular. With built in Amazing suite of electronics, amp per driver, built in upsampling dac, avoids wire issues, and maximum deployment of dip to address unique aspects of your space. Pretty great solution. So elegant.
I would love too! As I have found out it hasn't been easy finding some brands that I have wanted to listen to. I am not sure there is a Meridian dealer anywhere me. I do however remember hearing Meridian at CES many years ago and I was always wanting one of there CD players. They always sounded to good. I will check and see if they are anywhere around the Mountain West. Thank you!
Mike, I think you are doing it right, and if you are like me you have already made your decision, it’s just a big one. If you can swing it, you live once, go with Watt Puppy 50th, it’s a lifetime speaker. It’s your corvette or boat. Best of luck, BTW did you see the Sutherland Dos Locos Buenos is featured in September Stereophile.
Yes I did see that! The Dos Locos, It looks and sound like it is amazing! I would love to hear it action! Sutherland has always made excellent phono preamps. The Watt Puppy is definetly an amazing sounding speaker that I could build around. Just didn't want to part with that much for speakers but you are right they are a lifetime speaker at least for me they would be! Thank you for your suggestions and advise
I think you could get by with the Sutherland MK II with LPS, the Transducer phono stages are interesting but you need a low Impedance cartridge, ideally less than 50ohms.
Hi Mike, not sure what your budget is. I have many similar components to you. Cp60 and a pair of ca100 bridged to mono hapz1 and an xa5400 sacd. I went through four pairs of speakers looking for nirvana on a sane budget. I found it with the Elac unifi reference. They made 3 versions of this speaker. The last version was a 6ohm. The equivalent of more watts. Also Audioquest earth interconnects balanced everywhere. YMMV Duane
Sounds like a great sounding system. I have always been impressed with Elac speakers. I have heard them at audio shows and have liked them. That is some nice interconnects as well. I am using the diamondbacks (all balanced) and they have been good. Thank you for sharing your system. Have the CA100's been good on the 6ohm Elac's?
@@MikesVinylExperience What I found in my search for speakers is that it is the electrical match between amp and speaker that counts. I had vandersteen, psb that sounded great on friends system but not on mine in my room. The classe amps when driving a well matched speaker are not bright sounding. The audioquest earth cables are in a different league. I have diamonds backs,panthers, Jaguars etc. the earths, although expensive,(I bought all used). Transformed my sound staging and tone. I recently was using just one ca100 amp as it seemed to be fine. I bridged them to mono and the increase in power was another quantum leap, not louder, but fuller and much more detailed without being bright. Although your amps(mine too) are getting on in years, I think you will need to spend some serious coin to beat them. May I suggest a second ca150. But the Elac unifi reference to my ears were a perfect sonic match to my amps. YMMV. Love your vinyl reviews.
another great speaker/brand with excellent price-performance ratio would be the "Gershman’s - Grand Avant Garde", extremly musical speakers IMO. Oh and I love that you liked the psaudio FR30 that much and I guess there is some room above them with different electronics, I can´t stop listening to my rig and to me it is zero fatiguing even for many hours of listening
I have read about the Gershman's but have never seen or heard them in person. I am hoping to go to the Pacific Audio show in Seattle in a couple weeks so that will help with some of the brands that I don't have near me. Thank you!
So much i could say.... First, thank you for bringing us on your audio adventure! I love a nice ribbon tweeter (Elysian). Absolutely lust after some Audio Research but tube amplification is a separate issue I think you should have a grasp on before choosing the speaker as efficiency and some other aspects like brightness, room placement etc... are different after that. It sounds as if you've actually decided on Wilsons to me. Midrange is where the bulk of the music is presented but no amplifier will change the bass to midrange to treble balance. They'll present differently but won't alter the factory design. I will interject that I'm no fan of separate subwoofers as I would be playing with their balance every track or so. I'd prefer a loudspeaker that is balanced to my liking straight from the factory and enjoy listening to the artist/engineer's balancing and choices. Also, i like my system to look elegant as well as sound great so aesthetics have to be factored in and considered. If you do choose the Sabrina X don't be concerned about the Watt Puppy. You'll forget about the difference as you enjoy your new upgrades in your space. It's a fun, fun, fun process. As always, best wishes!!! I don't believe there is a wrong answer FYI.
You are so wright in that is no really wrong answers! And to be honest tubes do scare me just a little, I have had tubes in the past (Sonic Frontiers preamp and Counterpoint SA 220 power amp, I loved this set up) but you always are worried when the tubes start going bad if you can find good ones to replace them with. And like you, I really would like to avoid the subwoofer set up and get a speaker that I will satisfied with in the bottem end and yes the look of the room is important to me. I want to not only be happy with sound but It needs and should look good as well. Thank you for sharing!!
@@MikesVinylExperience If you go with the Wilson Audio speakers, as I believe you are leaning toward, I think it would be great if they gave you a factory tour for your RUclips channel friends to view!!!!
I would love to auditon Borrense speakers! I would need to head to the west coast to see and check them out. I will see what happens in the next few weeks. Thank you.
I told you on one of your last videos I said I bet you go with Wilson audio. Wilson are hard to beat. They are great speakers. Have you considered magico?
There are many great speaker companies Tannoy, Wharfedale, Living Voice, Spendor, Harbeth, Focal, Karma, Wilson, PMC, Neat, ATC, Sonus Faber, Epos, Dali, Xavian, Monitor Audio, KEF, B&W, Paradigm, Elac, PSB, Mordaunt Short, Klipsch, Revel, Martin Logan and many more. Too many to choose from.
I have heard Magico at audio shows and they are amazing sounding. But once again, no one near me carries them. I am possibly going to the Pacific Audio Show next weekend. If I can make it, I am sure someone will be shoing Magico. Thank you.
You've already chosen your next speaker............................ Almost every speaker mentioned is a Home Theater Tower awaiting a subwoofer(s). Classical Music playback is a long, long way away from home theater. A different speaker than the B&W towers would be Open Baffle or Magnapan style or floorstanding horn speakers or 360 degree speakers etc. etc. etc. most of which would make for lousy HT speakers. None of those can playback the HT's LFE (low frequency effects) channel. So, you've already chosen your next speaker. It's just a matter now of choosing how much elbow-grease labor your willing to pay to shine & polish wooden cabinets. Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
This is just going to be 2 channel audio ( the screen and projector are going away) So this will be just a dedicated 2 channel listening room. I would love to hear some open baffle speakers. I have heard Magnapan and have alwasy like thier presentation, but I really prefer the imidacy and power of dynamic speakers. They somehow appeal to me in a different way. Thank you for your suggestions.
@@MikesVinylExperience I have owned Magellan’s as my primary speakers since 1999 starting with 1.6Q and my last pair with 3.7i which I sold a year ago. I went to my local dealer (Magnepan as well as Wilson dealer) to buy a pair of Sabrina X after many auditions, until I listened to the Sasha….if you like the Sabrina you might want to give the Sasha a listen and consider a used pair.
I see you have a Sony Z1ES. I have one. How do you utilize yours? Im looking for more ways to use it, other than just storage of my CD collection, via FLAC. Do you connect it in some special way to utilize its DSD aspect, or does it even have a DAC and you use that in some external matter? What's the benefit other than storage for you? Have you check to see how SONY plans to keep the unit updated, are there any plans to upgrade the device that you are aware of? Your knowledge of the device would help me understand how further I may use this piece of equipment. Thank you.
To be hones I have purchased about 600 albums most DSD over the past 9 years i have had the unit. I am using the internal DAC. I have it hooked to my preamp with Audioquest Diamond Balanced interconnects and I think it still sounds great! I realize it is getting old and would not compare to some of the new DAC's out there today. I would like to update my digital high rez audio at some point. I have seen a lot of DCS and Lumin in my shopping for speakers and they are amazing sounding but they are also way expensive for me. I have thought at one point I might try and assymble a NAS but not sure yet. I am not aware of Sony doing any upgrades. I don't think they have any plans of doing any more firmwear updates either but not sure. It's been a couple years since they did any of that. Sony ES products have always been very well built and sound great. I love the Z1ES as well as my Sony ES sacd/cd player. I wish Sony would get back into the high rez game again. Let me know if you any other questions on the Sony. Thank you.
Looking at your system and speakers you have now what’s dissatisfying you to hunt down a completely new system? Just curious as you have first class equipment presently and will the new system provide that much more of a difference???
Just really wanting to one last time upgrade my sytem. I spend a lot of time listening to it and would to see what is currently out there that would get me a little closer to the music. My current system is very good and works great but just would like to grab something new since it is 30+ years old. I think new speakers are (from what I have been listening to lately) going to give me a really good change in sound that I can enjoy for the next however many years. So not dissatisted in anyway just wanting to get a little better! Thank you.
Actually in my opinion and a other audiophile's as well ( i say about 50/50) that there really is no such thing as "accuracy"! ALL recorded music is a "planned" illusion to make it sound as live as possible! Theres no way to take two microphones do nothing to it and have it sounding "natural"! But saying that, it a different thing when it comes to speaker's representing the instrument! In that aspect, i agree! So i Guess this comment is rather pointless! Mostly, im speaking about the entire musical performance instead of individual instruments!😊
Your right. And I guess the trick is to find what moves you in whatever way the music is being presented. It has always been the goal I guess to reproduce as close as possible to what the live or in the studio sound was really like. Since most of us were not there at the recorded event it's pretty much a guess to really what we all think individually on how it should sound. Agree with you it's the whole music event that maters to each of us on how it sounds. Thank you for your comment!
In my journey some of the things that has made an incredible change and improvement of the sound of my system are 1. Acoustic Panels and measurements for my music room, 2. Power conditioners, 3. Quality Cables and interconnections, 4. Speaker isolation stand feet and anti vibration damping and absorbing pads for all my system components, 5. Periodic cleaning of all connections of all components with Deoxit D5, it takes time patience and money but it is rewarding to see and hear the results, thank you for your videos, happy listening!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I am definetly going to add room treatment as soon as new speakers are set up. Power conditioning is on my list to do along with speakers and some of the cables. Thanks again!
Great video Mike
Really enjoy you sharing your audio journey with us
I’m a big fan of Wilson speakers also
They have a good certified preowned program that helps with the cost and the dealer will still set up for you with warranty
Raghu
My local dealer actually has a pair of used Sabrina's (not the X) that sound very nice and that is an option. Thank you!!
You should attend the Capital audio fest in November. Show conditions are not always the best representation of what the speaker can offer, but you can sniff the potential. you’ll be able to hear many manufacturer and brands
If I am not able to make the Pacific Audio show in a couple of weeks I will be definetly try to get out to DC. I have not been to that show so that would be treat! Thank you.
@@MikesVinylExperience definitely a lot of good energy at the shows. You’ll meet a lot of great people and you get to meet a lot of people behind the brands but it’s definitely a treat to be had.
I really like your CD rack, nice organization!😊
It's a Boltz rack and it has been very nice and very well built. Thank you.
Many thanks and good morning Mike✌️🤘
Thank you! Good morning to you as well!
Mike, If you watch your own video, it seems clear to me you’ve already figured out what you want, and it’s the right decision. Buy the SabrinaX speakers. The B&Ws are bright and analytic. You’ve already heaped praise on the Wilson mid-range and above. Just go for it. I just fulfilled my lifetime dream by buying a 10-year-old pair of Sabrinas and they are in a league of their own. I’m in audio heaven. I also heard the SabrinaX’s at the Wilson factory (with $200k of electronics!) and it was the most amazing audio experience I’ve ever had. There is nothing as magical as a Wilson. No need for further dithering. Buy them. You’ll never regret it.
WOW! Thank you for your thoughts, I have been very impressed with the Sabrina's. I think in my room (22'x14' they would be awesome. I am nearing my deciesion and hope to get it done either this week or next. Thank you once again for your advice!
Man, I sure wish I were in your shoes right now! Nothing can compare to the experience of shopping speakers at this level in my opinion. Sounds like Wilson is speaking to you. If you can deal with the cost and weight you may have found your brand. Have you considered used Wilsons? Something to think about. On the other hand, they keep improving their materials all the time and that can have a big influence on their sound. Also, buying new gives you the opportunity to choose your own color.
On another note, I personally can recommend the PS Audio Stellar phono amplifier. Love the ability to change moving coil loading in real time from the comfort of my listening chair. I find I change loading depending on the record I’m playing. Opens up whole worlds of possibilities when listening to vinyl. Sounds great as well.
Thank you for thoughts and suggestions! I have not heard the Stellar phono preamp, but now I do know where to go to hear PS Audio gear so I will give it a listen. One of the nice things about the wilson's is the dealer will set them up for you whic is nice since the sabrina's are over 100lbs and the watt puppies are almost double that. I am always looking for used wilson's and actually the dealership I am working with does have a pair of Sabrina's that are about 6 years old but look nice good, just not as good ast the X. Thank you!
Go with the speaker you “really really” want Mike. Life’s too short. Definitely do look at a better phono stage, one with as many loading options but also variable gain settings. This will give you freedom in choice when changing cartridges in future and also get the best out of your existing cartridge. Fantastic channel👍
That is great advise! Thank you! I have been looking at an Aesthetix Rhea phono stage that looks to have plenty of loading options and it sound very nice. I am thinking I might see if I can bring it home and see what it sounds like in my system. Thank you once again.
Mike - a well thought out analysis. Many good choices. If you go with the Sabrina model I would wait for the new Sabriana V which is forthcoming.
I have heard rummors about that! I wonder when that will be? If that was within 6 months or so I would likely wait and see what it sounds like. Thank for the great suggestion!
@@MikesVinylExperience Ask your dealer or call Wilson directly
Room correction is a must, cabasse rialto have room correction, room dampening is everything, good luck.
I do think treatment to the room will be huge, even though the room sounds pretty good I am sure treatment would be a major improvement. Thank you.
I’d give a listen to meridian. They are exhilarating and huge and muscular. With built in Amazing suite of electronics, amp per driver, built in upsampling dac, avoids wire issues, and maximum deployment of dip to address unique aspects of your space. Pretty great solution. So elegant.
I would love too! As I have found out it hasn't been easy finding some brands that I have wanted to listen to. I am not sure there is a Meridian dealer anywhere me. I do however remember hearing Meridian at CES many years ago and I was always wanting one of there CD players. They always sounded to good. I will check and see if they are anywhere around the Mountain West. Thank you!
Mike, I think you are doing it right, and if you are like me you have already made your decision, it’s just a big one. If you can swing it, you live once, go with Watt Puppy 50th, it’s a lifetime speaker. It’s your corvette or boat. Best of luck, BTW did you see the Sutherland Dos Locos Buenos is featured in September Stereophile.
Yes I did see that! The Dos Locos, It looks and sound like it is amazing! I would love to hear it action! Sutherland has always made excellent phono preamps. The Watt Puppy is definetly an amazing sounding speaker that I could build around. Just didn't want to part with that much for speakers but you are right they are a lifetime speaker at least for me they would be! Thank you for your suggestions and advise
I think you could get by with the Sutherland MK II with LPS, the Transducer phono stages are interesting but you need a low Impedance cartridge, ideally less than 50ohms.
Bear speakers might be Osborne loudspeakers in Australia
Hi Mike, not sure what your budget is. I have many similar components to you.
Cp60 and a pair of ca100 bridged to mono hapz1 and an xa5400 sacd.
I went through four pairs of speakers looking for nirvana on a sane budget. I found it with the Elac unifi reference.
They made 3 versions of this speaker. The last version was a 6ohm. The equivalent of more watts.
Also Audioquest earth interconnects balanced everywhere. YMMV
Duane
Sounds like a great sounding system. I have always been impressed with Elac speakers. I have heard them at audio shows and have liked them. That is some nice interconnects as well. I am using the diamondbacks (all balanced) and they have been good. Thank you for sharing your system. Have the CA100's been good on the 6ohm Elac's?
@@MikesVinylExperience What I found in my search for speakers is that it is the electrical match between amp and speaker that counts. I had vandersteen, psb that sounded great on friends system but not on mine in my room.
The classe amps when driving a well matched speaker are not bright sounding. The audioquest earth cables are in a different league.
I have diamonds backs,panthers, Jaguars etc. the earths, although expensive,(I bought all used). Transformed my sound staging and tone. I recently was using just one ca100 amp as it seemed to be fine.
I bridged them to mono and the increase in power was another quantum leap, not louder, but fuller and much more detailed without being bright. Although your amps(mine too) are getting on in years, I think you will need to spend some serious coin to beat them.
May I suggest a second ca150.
But the Elac unifi reference to my ears were a perfect sonic match to my amps. YMMV. Love your vinyl reviews.
another great speaker/brand with excellent price-performance ratio would be the "Gershman’s - Grand Avant Garde", extremly musical speakers IMO.
Oh and I love that you liked the psaudio FR30 that much and I guess there is some room above them with different electronics, I can´t stop listening to my rig and to me it is zero fatiguing even for many hours of listening
I have read about the Gershman's but have never seen or heard them in person. I am hoping to go to the Pacific Audio show in Seattle in a couple weeks so that will help with some of the brands that I don't have near me. Thank you!
I love charity shop CDs. Best offers are 8 for £1 😊
I have found some great ones at those shops as well! Thank you.
Another brand to check out is Fischer and Fischer
I have heard of the brand but not seen them in person. I will see if they have dealer in my area. Thank you.
Try the puritan for power conditioning
Great for the price
I will check them out! Thank you.
So much i could say.... First, thank you for bringing us on your audio adventure! I love a nice ribbon tweeter (Elysian). Absolutely lust after some Audio Research but tube amplification is a separate issue I think you should have a grasp on before choosing the speaker as efficiency and some other aspects like brightness, room placement etc... are different after that.
It sounds as if you've actually decided on Wilsons to me. Midrange is where the bulk of the music is presented but no amplifier will change the bass to midrange to treble balance. They'll present differently but won't alter the factory design. I will interject that I'm no fan of separate subwoofers as I would be playing with their balance every track or so. I'd prefer a loudspeaker that is balanced to my liking straight from the factory and enjoy listening to the artist/engineer's balancing and choices. Also, i like my system to look elegant as well as sound great so aesthetics have to be factored in and considered. If you do choose the Sabrina X don't be concerned about the Watt Puppy. You'll forget about the difference as you enjoy your new upgrades in your space. It's a fun, fun, fun process. As always, best wishes!!! I don't believe there is a wrong answer FYI.
You are so wright in that is no really wrong answers! And to be honest tubes do scare me just a little, I have had tubes in the past (Sonic Frontiers preamp and Counterpoint SA 220 power amp, I loved this set up) but you always are worried when the tubes start going bad if you can find good ones to replace them with. And like you, I really would like to avoid the subwoofer set up and get a speaker that I will satisfied with in the bottem end and yes the look of the room is important to me. I want to not only be happy with sound but It needs and should look good as well. Thank you for sharing!!
@@MikesVinylExperience If you go with the Wilson Audio speakers, as I believe you are leaning toward, I think it would be great if they gave you a factory tour for your RUclips channel friends to view!!!!
@@brianbillings6815 That would be my hope if I end up with Wilson! Thanks Brian.
Try the bórrense x6
I love mine
I would love to auditon Borrense speakers! I would need to head to the west coast to see and check them out. I will see what happens in the next few weeks. Thank you.
I told you on one of your last videos I said I bet you go with Wilson audio. Wilson are hard to beat. They are great speakers. Have you considered magico?
There are many great speaker companies
Tannoy, Wharfedale, Living Voice, Spendor, Harbeth, Focal, Karma, Wilson, PMC, Neat, ATC, Sonus Faber, Epos, Dali, Xavian, Monitor Audio, KEF, B&W, Paradigm, Elac, PSB, Mordaunt Short, Klipsch, Revel, Martin Logan and many more. Too many to choose from.
I have heard Magico at audio shows and they are amazing sounding. But once again, no one near me carries them. I am possibly going to the Pacific Audio Show next weekend. If I can make it, I am sure someone will be shoing Magico. Thank you.
You've already chosen your next speaker............................
Almost every speaker mentioned is a Home Theater Tower awaiting a subwoofer(s). Classical Music playback is a long, long way away from home theater.
A different speaker than the B&W towers would be Open Baffle or Magnapan style or floorstanding horn speakers or 360 degree speakers etc. etc. etc. most of which would make for lousy HT speakers. None of those can playback the HT's LFE (low frequency effects) channel.
So, you've already chosen your next speaker. It's just a matter now of choosing how much elbow-grease labor your willing to pay to shine & polish wooden cabinets.
Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
. If you want quick bass with great midrange, consider the JBL's Everest. But it's not for listening to Super-Hero Spider movies..
He's doing 2-channel audio, not home theater
This is just going to be 2 channel audio ( the screen and projector are going away) So this will be just a dedicated 2 channel listening room. I would love to hear some open baffle speakers. I have heard Magnapan and have alwasy like thier presentation, but I really prefer the imidacy and power of dynamic speakers. They somehow appeal to me in a different way. Thank you for your suggestions.
Songer S1 open field coil 😊
Made in Oregon $35k 😮
@@MikesVinylExperience I have owned Magellan’s as my primary speakers since 1999 starting with 1.6Q and my last pair with 3.7i which I sold a year ago. I went to my local dealer (Magnepan as well as Wilson dealer) to buy a pair of Sabrina X after many auditions, until I listened to the Sasha….if you like the Sabrina you might want to give the Sasha a listen and consider a used pair.
BTO: U ain't seen nothing yet 😊
Thank you!
I see you have a Sony Z1ES. I have one. How do you utilize yours? Im looking for more ways to use it, other than just storage of my CD collection, via FLAC. Do you connect it in some special way to utilize its DSD aspect, or does it even have a DAC and you use that in some external matter? What's the benefit other than storage for you? Have you check to see how SONY plans to keep the unit updated, are there any plans to upgrade the device that you are aware of? Your knowledge of the device would help me understand how further I may use this piece of equipment. Thank you.
To be hones I have purchased about 600 albums most DSD over the past 9 years i have had the unit. I am using the internal DAC. I have it hooked to my preamp with Audioquest Diamond Balanced interconnects and I think it still sounds great! I realize it is getting old and would not compare to some of the new DAC's out there today. I would like to update my digital high rez audio at some point. I have seen a lot of DCS and Lumin in my shopping for speakers and they are amazing sounding but they are also way expensive for me. I have thought at one point I might try and assymble a NAS but not sure yet. I am not aware of Sony doing any upgrades. I don't think they have any plans of doing any more firmwear updates either but not sure. It's been a couple years since they did any of that. Sony ES products have always been very well built and sound great. I love the Z1ES as well as my Sony ES sacd/cd player. I wish Sony would get back into the high rez game again. Let me know if you any other questions on the Sony. Thank you.
Try an audio music preamp. Try a battery powered power supply
I have heard great things about the battery power supplys. Thank you for the suggestion.
Looking at your system and speakers you have now what’s dissatisfying you to hunt down a completely new system? Just curious as you have first class equipment presently and will the new system provide that much more of a difference???
Just really wanting to one last time upgrade my sytem. I spend a lot of time listening to it and would to see what is currently out there that would get me a little closer to the music. My current system is very good and works great but just would like to grab something new since it is 30+ years old. I think new speakers are (from what I have been listening to lately) going to give me a really good change in sound that I can enjoy for the next however many years. So not dissatisted in anyway just wanting to get a little better! Thank you.
Actually in my opinion and a other audiophile's as well ( i say about 50/50) that there really is no such thing as "accuracy"! ALL recorded music is a "planned" illusion to make it sound as live as possible! Theres no way to take two microphones do nothing to it and have it sounding "natural"! But saying that, it a different thing when it comes to speaker's representing the instrument! In that aspect, i agree! So i Guess this comment is rather pointless! Mostly, im speaking about the entire musical performance instead of individual instruments!😊
Your right. And I guess the trick is to find what moves you in whatever way the music is being presented. It has always been the goal I guess to reproduce as close as possible to what the live or in the studio sound was really like. Since most of us were not there at the recorded event it's pretty much a guess to really what we all think individually on how it should sound. Agree with you it's the whole music event that maters to each of us on how it sounds. Thank you for your comment!