BruceP’s Odyssey

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BruceP
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BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by BruceP »

Hello forum.

I have lots to say and to give back as I have taken so much from this forum, the many engaging topics and the passion that you all bring to to this precious resource that is an ongoing source of inspiration for all of the forum members.

It is rare in our world to find a shared space that is as pure and coherent as this forum.

What’s more, our passion - musical reproduction at home - is something that can produce life-changing moments at almost any time in our too-dreary daily lives.

First post to come,
BruceP
Spotify - KRDS - Sagatun 1.3 - Silvers - Tundra 2.2 - K400 - Ninkas
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by beck »

A varm welcome to you BruceP. Dive in and enjoy it! :-)
Playing cd’s…………
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by Charlie1 »

Yes, welcome and please do.

Nice system you have, and cost effective too.
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by BruceP »

My interest in Hi-Fi began in the Seventies when I was growing up in Connecticut, USA and already listening to a lot of music as a favorite pastime. Musical interests included jam-centric rock (Allman Brothers), jazz-rock (such as Larry Coryell, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and others were playing at that time), and progressive rock like Genesis, ELP, or Jethro Tull. Some of my friends had impressive hi-fi setups and it was a favorite after-school activity to visit their houses, turn up the volume and bliss out.

One memorable system featured a Thorens TD-125 Mk II and Phase Linear pre- and power amplification driving Concert Grand speakers from Bozak. This system was set up in a smallish bedroom. No matter, nobody cared about soundstage or imaging, what mattered was POWER! Another system of note was based on McIntosh tube amps and Bozak speakers. What a treat it was to listen to jazz records on that. Small-group recordings and vocals had a charm that was undeniable.

So I guess it was inevitable that I’d end up on a life-long odyssey in search of the most musical system that I could afford. After college I moved to Manhattan and in a small apartment there enjoyed a system based around Harman-Kardon separates and NHT Model Two speakers. I recall the thrill of making adjustments in the speakers’ positions and being rewarded with incredible improvements in overall sound, balance, and imaging. Gilberto Gil, Wynton Marsalis, Sting, I was well and truly bitten by the bug.

When we moved to France in the Nineties I left the HK/NHT rig in the States and had a series of modest budget systems as we got stuck in to our new European life. I still did a lot of listening, and entered a Blues period where Taj Mahal, Robben Ford, or Joe Louis Walker got a lot of play at my house. Walker’s Live at Slim’s records were (and are) particularly compelling.

This was when I discovered what we know as the musical hi-fi experience. A friend played some of my favorite records on a now-classic small rig: Marantz CD-72, Nait 1, and Kans. I recall thinking that it sounded like Joni Mitchell was in the next room. Wow!

This is when I became a Linnie. I visited the excellent Audio Synthèse in Paris, the Linn stockist, and came home with a set of Keilidhs, Mimik CD player, and Kolektor/LK-85. Scott Hamilton, Tommy Flanagan, Ella’s songbook series fed my ceaseless appetite for new musical discoveries, and I found that with careful placement the Keilidhs were able to lock in to my living room in a really nice way. I was a happy unit.

Then I took a job in DC which had me selling off my system again. Upon settling in DC I picked up some used Keilidhs and a Classik, which I thought would be a good way of reducing the box count. Indeed it was, although it wasn’t long before I was bi-amping the Keilidhs with the Classik and an LK-85. I tuned in to some of the local bluegrass and blue-grass-influenced Americana music that was popular in the DC area: Crooked Still, Sarah Jarosz, Infamous Stringdusters. It was great to have a chance to see these artists and others on numerous occasions in the vibrant DC music scene. I later added a subwoofer to the system which although a bit hard to integrate transparently (always tweaking!) did add some slam to the whole affair which was fun. Curiously, it also added some harmonic authenticity to things like solo piano. Bonus!

Some years later when we moved back to Paris, I had to sell off that system and start fresh again. By this time streaming was coming on line, and it made sense in our small apartment to try and make a mini system with maxi sound quality. I tried a Sneaky DSM with Komponent 104s and a REL T5 sub, and found the Sneaky a bit tuneless and underpowered, although I found the 104s to be really pure sounding and enjoyable within their limits. Gypsy jazz is quite popular in France, with numerous players old and new continuing in the tradition of Django Reinhardt: Romane, Patrick Saussois and Alma Sinti, Pearl Django.

Various experiments ensued as a Supernait v1 entered the picture paired with an Auralic Airies streamer replacing the Sneaky. The Supernait had lots of detail but sounded a bit relentless and overpowering in our small room. Meanwhile, the Aries was temperamental and while brilliant sounding at times not user-friendly enough to take a long term place in our home. So I sold those on.

I then picked up another old Classik and found it like going home. The tuner and CD player provided good-enough source signals, the remote works brilliantly and allows a lot of adjustments to balance, bass/treble, etc in addition to volume and source selection. The 104s were sold off and another set of Keilidhs came along (now my third pair). Streaming source moved to a Sonore microRendu paired first with a Musical Fidelity vDAC II, which was a lovely combination. The microRendu was especially user-friendly, and surprisingly fine sounding too. I found it usefully improved by powering it with a linear power supply from Uptone. Then a Schitt Bifrost Multibit DAC added another layer of clarity and musical expressiveness.

At this time I spent a lot of time (virtually) in Brazil thanks to Bebel Gilberto, Marisa Monte, Djavan, Ceu, Luca Mundaca, and a host of others. It was around this time that I discovered this forum, which has been an ongoing source of knowledge and insight.

As you’ve gathered by now, I’ve spent a lot of time with older, used, and budget components. Aside from being budget-friendly, which has been a necessity throughout my time as a hi-fi buff, it has also allowed a lot of trying and switching of components. I’ve found I can buy equipment on the used market if I’m curious, and sell it on fairly readily if it doesn’t satisfy for some reason.

Most of my buying and selling has been within the Linn universe. The microRendu / Bifrost was replaced by a Majik DS/1. The Classik took on preamp/tuner/CD duties when I got a Chakra 4100 and went aktiv with the Keilidhs. That was not a bad solution. As many here have noted, aktiv makes a great difference particularly with older Linn speakers like Keilidhs. As several here have noted, Keilidhs do surprisingly well as better source and amplification come into play.

Next I added an Exotik preamp which was miles ahead of the Classik and demonstrated the strong influence that a preamp has in the overall quality of a separates system. Source first!

The next step in my journey was a source upgrade to a Klimax Renew DS. It was easy to appreciate the improvement in sound that the KRDS brought into the living room. However it was surprising to see that changing the source necessitated repositioning of the Keilidhs in the listening room: not intuitive but wow what a difference a few centimeters can make! I think at this point I commented somewhere on this forum that I was done with upgrades forever since I had now reached nirvana.

My wife smiled at that one since she knew better (as wives generally do). Part of the trouble is the constant temptation of online for sale sites. In my defense, I find it’s a great pastime to leaf through during idle moments to see what’s available here or there, and to imagine what nirvana level 2 might sound like. Yes, even imagining a future upgrade can bring pleasure. Is that like an addict imagining the rush of his next hit?

In any case, nirvana level 2 came in the form of a set of Ninkas with upgrade bases, picked up on the local used-goods marketplace here in France. This was a good move, as the closed-box design works well in our room (as well as the D’Appolito driver layout perhaps) but Ninkas improve on the Keilidhs’ strengths adding a bit more refinement and air. How easy was it to switch the Keilidhs out and pop the Ninkas’ configuration cards to Bi-wire Aktiv and plug in the K400s. Job done!

Nirvana level 2 was pretty good indeed, bringing Tunisian oudist Anouar Brahem’s quartet into the room, or alternately transporting our living room to various concert halls for Melody Gardot’s Live in Europe set. Tranquil, introspective, hard-driving or exuberant, we’ve got a system that gets out of the way and lets the music take over.

So clearly we’re not done with upgrades just yet. Although I suspect that Ninkas are not the last word in speakers today in 2023, I was more interested in trying some of the Lejonklou electronics that so many are raving about. Nirvana level 3 is now the KRDS feeding a Sagatun Stereo and Tundra 2.2 via Linn Silvers, K400s in single-wire mode to the Ninkas on Skeets.

It has been a few weeks now with the new rig and while I instantly found the Sagatun a radical upgrade which allowed me to hear more detail and expressiveness in well-known records, I found the Ninkas sounded very different driven passive with the Tundra versus aktiv with the 4100. That was okay I thought and so began a period in which I switched amps every week or so to listen for the differences, and ultimately to make a choice of aktiv or passive.

This got very interesting. Initially I preferred the Sagatun / 4100 combo as it sounded more impressive in hi-fi terms. Actually it sounded more like what I had been used to, only better. More spectacular might be a good term to describe it. Switching to passive with Tundra changed the sound considerably to something quite different to what I had become used to (the “aktiv sound”). The mix actually sounded different with Tundra, as if different parts of the mix - background vocals for example - were mixed in a step or two down in volume in comparison to other instruments or vocal tracks. How could this be when we are listening to the same mix?

Another difference I noticed with passive Tundra was clearly more lifelike dynamics, timbres, and harmonics. The sound of a drumstick hitting the metal on the side of a snare drum for example. I grew used to the ‘Tundra sound’ slowly, and ultimately understood it enabled a better experience of the music, as opposed to a better experience of the sound.

As I write these words I’ve got Luca Mundaca’s Primeiro record playing and I’m having a great time. The sun is shining and it’s a day off and I’m having a third cup of coffee. It’s going to be a great day. Nirvana level 4 may be out there somewhere but right now I’ve got nothing better to do than enjoy what I’ve got and browse around Qobuz for more excellent music to listen to. Thanks to everybody on this forum!
Spotify - KRDS - Sagatun 1.3 - Silvers - Tundra 2.2 - K400 - Ninkas
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lejonklou
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by lejonklou »

Thank you BruceP for that long and fascinating story of your journeys from Nirvana to Nirvana!
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by beck »

Thank you BruceP for a lovely story that many can relate to. I enjoyed reading it. :-)
Playing cd’s…………
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by Hermann »

Interesting read Bruce, thank you. Surely some will remember their own odyssey.
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by ThomasOK »

Thanks for sharing your odyssey with us. Your travels through audio systems and across the ocean and back are interesting to read about. In my earlier years I moved from the Detroit Michigan suburbs to North County San Diego area to Indianapolis, Indiana, back to Encinitas (NC San Diego) and then to the West side of michigan to a little town named Paw Paw. Note the first three transcontinental moves happened over a 3 year period! I also tended to sell my systems before moving (after all Isobariks are quite heavy) and buy new systems on the other end. But in my case the systems from 1980 (two years before the first of the moves above) through to 2004 always featured Linn Isobarik speakers with either top line Naim or Linn electronics driving them. So not quite as many changes in systems.

I'm glad to hear you are coming to terms with the increased musicality of the Lejonklou gear and wish you well in your continuing journey. Have fun!
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by Charlie1 »

Really enjoyed reading your story Bruce.

I can identify with a lot of what you wrote.
BruceP wrote: 2023-05-29 11:25 Part of the trouble is the constant temptation of online for sale sites. In my defense, I find it’s a great pastime to leaf through during idle moments to see what’s available here or there, and to imagine what nirvana level 2 might sound like. Yes, even imagining a future upgrade can bring pleasure. Is that like an addict imagining the rush of his next hit?
Been in the same boat here. Its so easy to flip second hard purchases (compared to buying new via a dealer and losing a load of cash) and gets quite addictive. So many times there has been another tempting stone to look under.
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by ThomasOK »

Charlie1 wrote: 2023-06-01 09:30 Been in the same boat here. Its so easy to flip second hard purchases (compared to buying new via a dealer and losing a load of cash) and gets quite addictive. So many times there has been another tempting stone to look under.
So that's how you get stoned! ;-)
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Re: BruceP’s Odyssey

Post by Charlie1 »

Exactly :)
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