New member intro & system

[cannonball24]

Hello everybody, I am relatively new to the forums and not yet an official member of the Lejonklou family but still a huge fan based on all my research. And both Fredrik and Thomas have been very helpful answering my rookie questions personally, which made me want to join the family even more. Hoping to add an Entity to my system as soon as possible! :)

I have been a music lover my whole life and had various multi media systems over the years but more for home theater than dedicated listening or serious HiFi. I started out my HiFi journey last year when I was cleaning out a storage unit of my grandparents. Stumbled over a vintage 1970s Pioneer SX-424 receiver with built in phono stage. Sent a photo to a couple audiophile friends to ask if this was worth saving and got a resounding yes! So I brought it home, cleaned it up, borrowed a pair of speakers from my buddies and eventually bought a turntable to go with it. It’s been a roller coaster ride from then on. Sadly I did find a Garrard manual in the storage unit as well but the TT wasn’t there. I’m still crying about that and have some questions for my brother lol.

I’ve since setup a dedicated listening room and graduated to a more serious system. The Pioneer was great and really got me going in this journey. And still have it of course. But I knew there was room for improvement. So piece by piece over the last year, I have been upgrading the system to its current specs (listed below). And I know everybody loves their own sauce and I am surely biased, but I have to say I am blown away by the audio quality I’ve been able to achieve and never would have thought this was possible.

I love researching new components and reading reviews, etc. I like to take many opinions into account and then make my decisions based on what I feel in my gut is likely to yield the “best” or “right” sound for my personal taste. And I use those words lightly as I realize it’s all relative and subjective. My ultimate goal has been to achieve an incredible sound stage above all else. But then try to stay as true to source and faithfulness to artists intent as possible. And I think so far I have been able to achieve these goals pretty effectively.

Been loving every minute of the journey so far and can’t wait to see (and hear) what’s next. And what’s next is hopefully a Lejonklou Entity to go with my new Hana ML cartridge. My linto phono is great and seems to pair quite well with the Hana - which in and of itself was an incredible upgrade from my original MoFi UltraTracker MM cartridge I started with. But I feel like the entity is going to take things yet again to the next level. I feel like my downstream components have not yet been pushed to their full potential. So excited for an upgrade closer to the source to hopefully bring the best out of everything else. Haven't found a bad review of the entity yet, not that I’ve been trying, but I have read every review I can find cover to cover and each one makes me want to hear it even more.

As for my record collection it’s growing - probably too fast lol but I am a huge Jazz fan and been trying to get my hands on as many Blue Note / Music Matters reissues as I can. Also a big fan of the Blue Note Tone Poet series. Honestly anything mastered and lacquered by Kevin Gray can join my collection any day. When I first did an A/B test of a “generic” pressing of Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin Else compared to the music matters reissue, I couldn’t believe the difference. It’s still probably my favorite album although a few others are slowly encroaching on that territory for sure. This made me really appreciate my source material and from then on I spent waaaaay more time and effort researching and selecting my vinyls.

Anyway sorry for rambling on a bit but don’t often get the chance to share my enthusiasm with like minded people who can relate to it. I’ve enjoyed reading many of the stories from other users and hope to get to know some more of you soon!


SYSTEM SPECS:
MoFi UltraDeck TT
Hana ML MC Cartridge
Linn Linto Phono (soon to be Entity 1.2!)
Topping DX7 Pro DAC
Schiit Freya+ Preamp w/ Mil Spec NOS Tubes:
—Buffer: Ken-Rad JAN-CKR 6SN7GT VT-231
—Gain: Sylvania “Bad Boy” JAN-CHS 6SN7WGT
Schiit Aegir Monoblock Amps
Zu Audio DWX Speakers
Monolith Stands (hollow legs filled with sand)
iFi PowerStation Active Conditioner running off an AQ Hurricane High-Current Power Cable
iFi Nova Power Cables for Amps
AQ Blizzard Source Cable for DAC
AQ NRG-4 Power Cables for other components
AQ King Cobra RCA & XLR Interconnects
iFi AC Purifiers x2

For fun and what got me started:
Vintage 70’s Pioneer SX-424 Receiver

On a side note; one of the most profound upgrades to my system was the 4-leg speaker stands with hollow legs that I filled with sand. I really just did it to make the stands more sturdy because the freaking Zu “bookshelf” speakers are enormous and heavy as heck. The speakers plus the stands probably now weigh close to 150lbs each. But the sonic improvement vs the wooden-leg stands I was using previously was astounding. Borderline mind-blowing even. I can’t explain it and never would have thought stands could have such an effect. But if you have bookshelves I can’t recommend this strongly enough. They’re cheap and available on Amazon as well. Never tested this with any other speakers so can’t promise it will work for everybody, but for the short money I’d say it’s definitely worth a try.

Future Upgrade Plans: install dedicated 20 amp circuit (THHN #10 AWG braided wire with single ground, Blue Carlon conduit, Square D 20 amp circuit breaker and Maestro duplex cryo treated outlet)


SYSTEM PICS:

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[Tendaberry]

Hello and welcome! Nice to see a very different setup to most of the others here.
Some of the Tone Poet reissues are really good. Normally I always go for first or early analog pressings, but the prices for some jazz originals are just silly these days.

[Ianw]

Welcome.
Interesting system.

I see you like Dexter so you’ll be fine here.

[lejonklou]

Welcome to the forum, cannonball24!

[Tony Tune-age]

Good afternoon Cannonball,

Welcome to the forum, there's plenty of useful information here! And your music room looks great!

Cheers

[John]

Welcome! Cool looking room and system!