Nate's interim

Redboy

a few good watts
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I'm in transition.

My "trade up" effort has been going on for a while now. I've been divesting of surplus audio salmagundi and I'm making a conscious effort to move toward fewer, better things. It's a system distillation of sorts.

Right now I am in the "in between" stage. Some of what you see here will carry over into the future setup, some is borrowed, and some will be repurposed... elsewhere.



Photos, of course!

Here's the view from the sweet spot.

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Another angle

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Heh! Thanks guys.

My local audio buddies have been great.

The RESO speakers are on loan from ejfud.

The rack is borrowed from AK good guy doucanoe.

From top to bottom:

  • Garrard 301, slate plinth, Schick tonearm, DL103 cart
  • Bel Canto CD2
  • DIY passive preamp with Bent Audio parts
  • my DIY SE EL84 monoblock amplifiers
  • a switchy thingy

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Also set up at the moment is my Empire Skele-208 with a Decca mkIII cartridge on it. I love my Deccas and until I can get a compatible 12" arm for the Garrard, I'll have to run two turntables...

Oh, well. :)

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Thanks Carl! I need you to come over to take better pics of it all.

Here's another shoddy shot...

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And one more of the amps 'cause I like 'em...

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looks great Nate! glad to see you put the 301 back in the system, is that a Fidelity Research cartridge (FR7?)sitting up on the slate plinth? how do you like it?
 
I'd like to come over and take photos and listen for a while!


I recently got some hardcore Yaskawa servo motors and controllers. I thought of you. You could probably make a hardcore TT with them.
 
looks great Nate! glad to see you put the 301 back in the system, is that a Fidelity Research cartridge (FR7?)sitting up on the slate plinth? how do you like it?
The 301 is nice. :)

The FR cart is next up. I need to dig around a little for specs on how to set it up properly.

I'd like to come over and take photos and listen for a while!


I recently got some hardcore Yaskawa servo motors and controllers. I thought of you. You could probably make a hardcore TT with them.
I'd love to have you over, man. No photography necessary - it would be fun to just hang out.

The motors sound cool. Whatcha gonna do with 'em?
 
I had a couple of buddies over tonight for a listen. The setup right now is not what I would call "dialed in," but they appeared to enjoy themselves anyway.

I had to explain that very little of this has been here for more than a few months, days, or in the phonostage's case, hours. I'd hurriedly finished it up earlier today in anticipation of having some people over. It fired right up nicely, but I still need to put it into a better enclosure. No pics of that one, yet. :)

The speakers, while very nice, are temporary stand-ins. I've got different speakers coming eventually. The rack is not mine to keep unless I talk RC out of it somehow, and I'll keep the amplifiers but I have others to build. I expect those to replace these as my mains. So it's an interim affair.
 
Sure looks very nice for an "interim." I bet it sounds great too. I enjoy taking photos and listening too, so it would be fun all around.

Probably sell the motors, since my DIY talents are mediocre at best. Kinda freaked when I found out how much some of these motors cost brand new... $1000+. I wish my friend still had his CNC machine.
 
If that qualifies as a temporary go-between affair I am afraid I'll have to bin my audio stuff.
Always a pleasure to read about your audio/diy efforts Nate. If tt's were sacred objects your place would be a place of worship. ;)
 
I've always liked your DIY work Redboy, as it is exceptional. I see you aren't using your massive wood horns anymore. The system looks excellent! Two thumbs up! :thmbsp::thmbsp: and those monoblocks you built... :drool:
 
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Nice battery pack. :)

And bonus points for "salmagundi."

Looks great, and looking forward to where it goes from here.
 
If that qualifies as a temporary go-between affair I am afraid I'll have to bin my audio stuff.
Always a pleasure to read about your audio/diy efforts Nate. If tt's were sacred objects your place would be a place of worship. ;)
Hah! :)

I should make a point to say that much of what's shown here will carry over into the "future state" setup - I'm not going to chuck all of it for the next iteration.

Part of the focus has been to choose which single pieces stay, and sell or give away the duplicates or multiples that I've "collected" in a given category. I don't want to be a collector - I don't have the space for it and nobody's very impressed by that anyway, at least not the people that count in my life.

The Garrard's a keeper. I'm going to focus my efforts on that table as my main. The Empire stays because it was built for me, but it might get relegated to second or backup table duty.

I need to get a rack! It's strange that I've never had one up to this point and this borrowed one from Ron is really slick. I have some ideas for a DIY approach that I'm working on.

Different speakers are in the works. I really like the RESOs but they're a bit on the large side.

The amps... well, I'll always have DIY amps, I think. I love building them and I've learned that this is my favorite aspect of this hobby. That means I'll be building more of them over time, so at some point I may have more amps than I can justify keeping around. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, though.
 
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