What stage are you at with your system?

What stage are you at?

  • I'm thinking about it

    Votes: 4 1.1%
  • You got the flu and are dreaming

    Votes: 8 2.2%
  • starting to build

    Votes: 48 13.2%
  • still building-half done? three quarters?

    Votes: 84 23.0%
  • a satisfying point- still some tweaking to do?

    Votes: 155 42.5%
  • dream system achieved-but maybe....

    Votes: 56 15.3%
  • holy grail of dream systems-pinnacle of hifi

    Votes: 10 2.7%

  • Total voters
    365
I'm very happy with the main system, and I think I'm done. Of course, I've said that about once a year for last 30 years ...
 
I'm at the point where my dream system is achieved. It got to a point that I'm buying music only and I don't want any more tape decks, receivers or speakers. I have 7 receivers around the house and I like the way all of them sound. I just have to repair my Akai GX4000D open reel deck then I will be set. :music:
 
Mostly done... still have to upgrade my RTR, get my interconnects & wire it up. Also need to do some sound treatment in the room and I need to find a real mancave chair for the room. But, all of the major components are there.

John

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the better my gear gets, the further from perfection my system gets..:yes:

I hear you brother.

Mine is in a slow decay. Sony Cassette deck needs cleaning and belts, Hitachi Turntable has a bad motor, Realistic Receiver needs switches. It all works, just not optimum. But the speakers I built still rock out. :thmbsp:

Still in process of building my turntable. Getting the final machining on the platter done, and finishing the spindle. 1" plate steel is bloody heavy (yeah, it's getting degaussed when it's done), plus the cork and MDF is gonna put it over the 20 kg mark. 4" of MDF makes up the plinth. Still have to build the table and suspension for the Turntable........this is gonna take a while.
 
I hear you brother.

Mine is in a slow decay. Sony Cassette deck needs cleaning and belts, Hitachi Turntable has a bad motor, Realistic Receiver needs switches. It all works, just not optimum. But the speakers I built still rock out. :thmbsp:

Still in process of building my turntable. Getting the final machining on the platter done, and finishing the spindle. 1" plate steel is bloody heavy (yeah, it's getting degaussed when it's done), plus the cork and MDF is gonna put it over the 20 kg mark. 4" of MDF makes up the plinth. Still have to build the table and suspension for the Turntable........this is gonna take a while.

good lord..20 kilos? 1" plate steel? gonna put Chobam armor on it too?:lmao:
 
You know, I have 5 systems in my home that I NEVER thought I would have. Solid state, tube, console, you name it. Hell, even my garage stereo blows the doors off anything I had growing up. I'm at the point now where I really want to sit back and just listen. There are a few tweeks I'll go after sometime soon. A better TT and CD player are going to be in the works here eventually. But there's no rush. When the oppurtunity presents itself I'll be ready. Oh, and BTW, AudioKarma is directly responsible for any education, knowledge, and even contentment that I have with or about my systems today. that's for another thread though.
 
My home system is in my sig line. Perfectly happy with it. I do need some decent headphones, but that's really it.

At some point the 13-year-old Sony 5-CD changer will fail (I thought it was dying two years ago, but it fixed itself--dammit!), and then I'll get a multi-format player to replace it.

Other things to possibly try, if the opportunity presents itself:

-A different cartridge or two for variety's sake
-Moving to an integrated amp
-Different/better speakers
-Tubes :banana:
 
good lord..20 kilos? 1" plate steel? gonna put Chobam armor on it too?:lmao:

No, but a 2-pole 27 watt AC Synchronous motor is needed to get the thing spinning within 20 seconds.

May be heavier than 20 kilograms when all is said and done.......:D
 
I enjoy my system very much just the way it is, and I also recognize the large amount of room there is for improvement. I'll keep picking away at improvements (sometimes in small bites, sometimes large) while still enjoying it along the way.
 
I think "a satisfying point - still some tweaking to do" pretty well sums things up for me.

I swap gear around for the fun of it, to hear what things sound like and to seek out synergies, etc... but generally I like a lot of what I hear, esp. in the main system, especially when I have the RS IIs hooked up.

SPEAKERS:

I don't know how much it might be synergy between speakers and room, or what, but I have yet to find a pair of speakers --of any type-- for sale that I think is significantly better than my RS IIs. They are so revealing that I can't listen to most of my CDs through them, but with good recordings (mostly analog) they have such a musical reality that I still get chills down my spine sometimes, even after nearly five years of listening to them. Yes, I've heard better: the IRS Vs. But that was years ago, and I have no reason to believe that there is realistically a set of those on my visible horizon. Maybe one day, further out, I'll get them, or perhaps 1bs, but I wouldn't swap my RS IIs for the Utopias, Acoustats, Magneplanars, Avante Gardes, big JBLs, vintage Altecs, Ohm Walsch, MBLs, or any other fine speakers I've heard.

What I do have a real HOPE will sound even better, in terms of speakers, is my DIY project: an open baffle line array of "Great" Heil AMTs on each side. PERHAPS supplemented with columnar Watkins woofers on each side, a la the IRS Vs. But these will, no doubt, take a couple more years to complete, as finding affordable AMTs is getting harder each year.

So am I satisfied in the meantime, with my speakers? YOU BET! I have others like the NS-1000Ms for near-field and daily background listening, which are also very fine, and a selection of other speakers (DQ, DCM, AR, etc...) to choose from for variety. Any of these I could live with and not feel frustrated, if they were all I had. They are all GOOD speakers.

I have three active crossovers to play with, and between them I'm okay; they give me sufficient flexibility. I may upgrade them one day to something superior like the Accuphase ones, but I can't hear any deterioration that bothers me with any of them.

ANALOG SOURCES:

My best turntable is, no doubt, the newest one: the Yahama GT-2000. I think it is as good as I'm going to get, at least for a long time. Again, I've heard very few that I think were noticeably better-sounding, and then only if you are being "golden ears nit-picky". I'm more likely to be tweaking and upgrading that TT, than pursuing any upgrades, for some time to come.

As back-ups and for playing other carts (Mono, 78s, etc...) I have other tables I like, too, including the ultra-rare Pioneer PL-L1, Pioneer Pl-C590, Sansui SR-929, Thorens TD124 (in need of TLC/restoration), a Lenco 75 (working, but awaiting a plinth upgrade), two Dual 1219s, and some other lesser ones I haven't got rid of yet. I'll probably get a Yamaha PF-800 tomorrow, but more for the cartridge on it than for the TT. There are other TTs I hope to get and try one day, but only just to hear them. I am having fun designing a DIY TT, but I'm in no hurry to finish it; it is just for fun, and I don't expect it to sound better than the GT-2000. No, I think I'm satisfied with that one; the rest is just tweaking it and playing with others for fun.

I'll be upgrading cartridges as time goes by, but I'm not dis-satisfied with what I have, only searching for EVEN BETTER sound. More in the nature of tweaking, since things already sound quite good.

DIGITAL SOURCES:
This is where I am still playing around. I just bought a new external DAC, which so far I like (the Musical Fidelity X-24K), and I have some decent transports, but I'll definitely be ugrading this area.

That said, I'm only trying to bring CD sound back up to where it doesn't disappoint me after listening to my best analog stuff. It's getting close, esp. with the better recordings. I'm satisfied with the analog, and digital at its best sounds good enough to me, too. Just trying to make the lesser digital recordings sound better, which falls more under "tweaking".

I'll be heading towards storing all my CDs on a music server in the next year or two. I think the quality of digital stuff and the price (for terabyte discs, for example) has reached the point where it makes sense to do this seriously, and especially so after I get the CD source/DAC to where I want it, so I have good enough sound to store in the first place. I'll probably add a TOTL squeezebox, as well. [Note: I have iTunes and an iPod, but only for convenience of music on the subway, etc... I definitely don't consider it hi-fi, nor very important to me!] But again, to me this is more like tweaking; it is something for convenience and fun, and it doesn't bother me in the least that I don't have it right now. I'd rather spin vinyl, most of the time! :D

AMPS:

I do intend to upgrade here, one day, to something more "spectacular" to put between the GT-2000 and the RS-IIs, but again, I'm content "enough" with the sound of the Soundcraftsmen 5002MA, the Adcom 555s, the Sansui BA/CA-2000 set, the Marantz 3650s + 300dcs, the Yamaha M2, several Chinese-made tube amps, and a few others. Again, while I plan to upgrade eventually, it isn't urgent to me, because I am not dis-satisfied with what I hear. I like to compare different amps with different speakers, but feel less need to do that as time passes, and I've tried more combinations.

I haven't even touched on receivers or tape sources, but I have to go to work now, so I'll cut this short (well, shorter...:D) . I'd say I'm blessed to have the gear that I do, and I'm satisfied enough that my emphasis these days is more on getting rid of lesser stuff and just tweaking out the best that I already have, than anything else. I'll be shifting towards DIY projects for fun, and putting more emphasis on the software -- the LP collection and putting the CDs on hard disk -- rather than pursuing more hardware.
 
Within the last month I have added a component to my system that I didn't ever think I would be able to acquire.

As a result, with the extremely small chance of acquiring a pair of JBL L-300s at a reasonable price, I am done.

I have been at the point where I was very satisfied for quite a few years now, and the new house gave me the opportunity to have a "Stereo Den" where I could once again put into service some gear that I have had packed away for many years.

Still working on the exact layout of my gear, but hoping to be able to devote more time to "listening" and less time to "arranging".

I can only hope that every member here will have the opportunity to have their own "Stereo Den", if they don't now.
 
I think I'm done..........for a while.............a new rack would be nice...............or bigger speakers..................Arrrgggghhhhh, where does this end???
 
I put "got the flu". I have most of the components for my basement* system now and should have them set up within the week. It's been nearly a year since I last fired this stuff up (new house) and it's still yet to be determined if this will be the "main" system. It will sort of depend on how nice a place it will be to hang out down there. I already have some changes/additions in mind, but it's going to be a slow process due to a shoestring budget.

This will be my "stereo den", so in that sense I am quite happy with the situation already.
 
I have a very satisfactory 5.1 system with two powered subs. I haven't yet gone completely to HD. I have a 30" LG slim CRT that will play 1080i HD though the HDMI input only, but the processor is slow as molasses. I also don't have a Blu-Ray. The ideal finishers would be the Oppo Blu-Ray, a newhome theater receiver with HDMI ins/outs, and a 42" or larger LED TV, preferably a Samsung.
 
I started this madness in January so It’s still new and fun. I have an enjoyable system but still have not figured out what direction I really want to go. Once my daughter graduates from college I plan on playing with separates and more articulate speakers. Maybe my musical taste will mature to match the capabilities of a dream system, maybe I will just continue to play that Blasters album when no one is watching.
 
I' ve voted for the "a satisfying point- still some tweaking to do?" option. It is interesting that, as of now, it is the most voted option with about 43 % of the choices. To me this is good news!
 
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