Hello, fellow audioholics!
I'm coming to you from Central Iowa. I retired after a carreer-ending injury while working for the largest American motorcycle manufacturer, gimping along on SSDI while my long-suffering wife works at a local factory. Bad new$ for an acute audioholic but there it is...
At the moment I have three different systems: System one is the best musical set-up I can afford at the moment; System two is a home theater in progress and, along with #1, resides in my unfinished listening room; System three is what remains of my pro audio system from back in my DJ days, primarily speakers.
System one is the top priority for me. It consists of the motor, platter, bearing/spindle and idler drive out of a Lenco L-78, a PTP5 stealth top plate, diy plinth of 3/4" Baltic birch plywood sandwiched between 1/2 MDF, Origin Live Encounter tonearm, and a Shelter 501 cartridge with a Soundsmith ruby cantilever and line contact diamond stylus (I broke the cantelever attempting to install the cart so back to Soundsmith the cart goes. I stole the Lyra Lydian cart from system two's turntable ITMT). Finally, the Cardas Silver phono leads go into a Creek Audio OMH9. Other sources include a pristine Onkyo cassette deck and a Marantz CD5001 CD player.
The sources all feed into a clean old Conrad Johnson PV5 tube preamp, an even cleaner and older QSC 3800 power amp and finally a pair of Apogee Centaur hybrid planar/conventional speakers and a Polk Audio PSW10 active subwoofer. This system blows my mind, it works with any and all musical genres, and is accurate yet warm.
System two starts with a heavily modded VPI HW19 Junior, its motor is completely isolated from the plinth by Herbie's Grunge Buster isolation material, the plinth is isolated from the frame via Herbie's Tall Feet, and the frame is isolated from the stand by AudioPoints brass cone feet. Tone arm is a Rega RB 300 with Incognito wiring, Pete Riggle VTAF, counterweght and stub. The platter, bearing & spindle are all VPI TNT with a Boca ceramic ball bearing. This goes into the photo stage of the CJ PV5 and then tape monitor out to the tape input of my B&K AVR202. The B&K has a fresh rebuild/servicing from Audio Labs in Des Moines, Iowa. Front L/R speakers are AR PSW 610s with fresh refoams on the woofers. Rear L/R are Advent Prodigy IIs that are in need of woofer refoams, sub is the PSW10 shared with system one. Center channel will be a diy with two Peavey 15" Black Widows, two RCF TW 101 compression drivers with horns, and two Peavey titanium diaphragm bullet tweeters. It's possible I may forgo the mids & tweeters and instead use one or two JBL MI291 horns and an MI 291 crossover, haven't decided yet.
As far as the video end, I'd like to go with a decent LCD projector, preferably with an LED engine instead of an incandescent bulb. Also, I need a nice roll-up screen, as big as I can afford.
Thumbs are aching so that's all for now. Looking forward to comments...
