Once Upon a Time

There was a broke audiophile (hereinafter known as BA) who had a pair of speakers that got unseated from the main listening room. The BA decided he would break out a CD player, preamp and amp from years past. Aha, the venerable second system was born!

The music was less than he was used to from the main listening room the music still was not dreamy so he decided a DAC would help. The DAC had a passive pre so the old pre went on Audiogon. The BA had to have a digital cable with the new DAC, of course. The CD player had also been banished from the main listening room. When the DAC arrived the BA had an AHA moment and decided to sell the CD player and purchase a universal player to be able to listen to SACDs.

Into the Audiogon breach once more! The magic of the main listening room's tube amp was missing so the old trusty SS amp got bumped for EL34 warmth. With such a nice tube now in the second system the sound was nice but analog magic was missing. Hey there is a cartridge laying around that has been upgraded in the main system. Plenty of hours left on that puppy. Ah, a turntable is needed! A nice vintage Thorens would do the trick. Alas, the BA had sold the pre with the phono stage so once again to Audiogon for a seperate phono stage! (A turntable in a second system, really..).

Along the way amps in and out, EL34 and EL84, integrateds and non integrated. The BA had to do something with the ipod the family got him for Christmas a year or two back so an ipod dock was in order. The DAC could only accept one digital cable so the idod dock gets the connection. Optical position is open on the DAC so to Rat Shack the BA goes to get an optical cable for the Univerasal to the DAC. Now the simple second system rivals the main system and the onzow zerodust and stylus cleaner travels constantly. Records strown everywhere!

Has the story ended, probably not.

The BA became even broker and thoughts turned to a bedroom system...