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 wenterprisesnw

Sony CDP-XA7ES (compact disc player)
Conrad-Johnson PV10 (tube preamp)
Clayton Audio S40 (class A stereo 45 wpc power amplifier)
Kimber 8AG (bi-wired speaker cables)
Stealth PGS (gold interconnects w/Neutrik Pro-Fi RCAs)
Chang Lightspeed CLS 3200 MkII (A/C line conditioner)
Audience powerChord (x 3)
Merlin TSM-SE (minimonitors in Ruby Heart paint finish)

This system wasn't the deepest in the bass (but very good though!), nor was it the loudest playing system (though good enough for a 13x10 room), but it surrounded me with so much clarity, tonal balance, and utter 3-dimensional sound that if I turned out the lights, it was so real that it was like the performers were right there playing for me.