The most musical system you ever build?


May be there are similar posts before, but could we do it for new comers.

Not the best hi-fi you ever build!
"Musical" means the enjoyment of music for you or your family.
I like jazz/classical vocal, so I list my favorite one for that set up:

SONY XA7ES + P1/P3A DAC
ARC LS-15 + ARC VT-1000-II
Celestion SL600 + REL Strat-III
TMC interconnects + AudioQuest speaker cables
DIY speaker stand + DIY room treatment
Oracle Delphi-II + FR arm + blue point special + ARC PH3SE

Some of them are very old, most used.
But they are very "musical" to me in the things I spin on them.

Try: Ella Fitzerald, Carerras, Jennifer Warnes....
cello is very good also.

LS-15's cap upgrade open up the mid and almost any other brand of tubes improves in the bass area.
Room treatment is very crucial in my small room.
Speaker is tuff to drive, and LS-15's gain is only barely enough for a pretty powerful VT-100.
Will use ProAC 3.8 for chamber music and up, musical too.
Actually, ProAC is easier to drive than the little SL600.
Hear more transpant sound in hi-fi stores, but seldom more musical than this one, IMHO.

Please share your tricks or memory for something you can't forget.
Or something you wish to go back, leaving your state-of-art equipment.
bluefin

Showing 1 response by rbirke

When I was 14, I had a Sansui 5000A receiver, a Dual turntable with a Shure cartridge, a pair of Sansui speakers with wood and cloth grills, all strung together with zip cord. I listened to it for years on end and was in hog heaven.

Now I have Bryston 7B-ST's, a Rogue 99, Revel F50's, Meridian 508-24, and very pricey wires. I had a Well-Tempered table and Goldring cartridge but sold it and am now shopping for a new vinyl rig. Oh yeah, and a power pillow and aftermarket power cords. And I's still chasing the ghost of my teenage rig in terms of sheer pleasure. Of course, back then I had no job, no wife and kids, and I was liking the wacky tabacky too.

Musicality is, like so many things, all wrapped up in context.

An unexamined life may not be worth living, but an examined one is not all it's cracked up to be, either.