ThomasOK's System

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Post by lejonklou »

ThomasOK wrote:It appears that doing a high-quality black anodizing on aluminum is substantially more difficult than a clear anodizing showing the natural aluminum color.
I can confirm this. It's much easier to just anodise than to anodise with a colour, black in particular.

This is one of the reasons why I've started painting my Slipsik 5 enclosures, in black and gloss white. It looks better, is more scratch resistant and the colour options are endless. Silver remains clear anodised aluminium, as it's the best looking silver finish in my opinion.
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Post by Tony Tune-age »

Tony Tune-age wrote:
ThomasOK wrote:Image

Image

Image
Nice looking system Thomas... 8) But is that the same Klimax Kontrol preamplifier that you have currently?
Thomas, will you be taking another picture of your system, now that you have a new audio rack :?:
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Post by Lefreak »

Oh yes PLEASE... and with a "grand Plan" of the gorgeous KK :D
LINN stuff:
SneakyDS, Majik DSi, G-ADSM-DAC, KDSM/2, Uphoric Phono Pre/
Component sub
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Post by ThomasOK »

Lefreak wrote:Oh yes PLEASE... and with a "grand Plan" of the gorgeous KK :D
I will take a couple more system photos once I get the setup finalized (as if anything is ever finalized :) ).

In the meantime you can check out the photo I posted of the Mimer rack as it currently sits with the "object of affection" :wink: lovingly placed on top at this thread.

http://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewtopi ... 6&start=50
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Post by Tony Tune-age »

.
ThomasOK wrote:In the meantime you can check out the photo I posted of the Mimer rack as it currently sits with the "object of affection" :wink: lovingly placed on top at this thread.

http://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewtopi ... 6&start=50
Yes indeed, the very unique and certainly rare "Black Linn Klimax Kontrol :!: " Nice acquisition Thomas, good job 8).
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Post by Per A »

Thomas,

I am curious how do you get along with the Majik DS?
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Post by ThomasOK »

I am pretty happy with the musical quality of the Majik DS - certainly the best digital sound I've had in the house. But I'll likely end up getting one of the new ADS before long as the performance upgrade should be quite large.

I haven't done that much work on optimizing the feed to the DS yet. To be honest I still enjoy the LP12 so much that I don't listen to digital all that much. With the vinyl renaissance I can really get most of the music I want on vinyl so I don't have a lot of incentive to deal with digital - at least not for serious listening. New records are on the way: the new Robert Plant, Leon Russel and Elton John "Union", Esperanza Spalding and the re-issued "In the Court of the Crimson King" and another one or two I don't remember right now. So I'll be LP12ing for a while.
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Post by ThomasOK »

Per A, The link isn't working.
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Post by ThomasOK »

Makes sense now. :) I expect I'll be looking at that upgrade sometime after the first of the year - too much to do over the next few weeks to even contemplate making any changes right now. But it wouldn't be bad to take advantage of the new 10% off "Cash for Clunkers" promotion.
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Post by ThomasOK »

Well, a new and welcome addition to my system that I hadn't really planned on. I now have a Kremlin tuner that I am using in place of the Pekin. I saw one online going for a good price and took a chance on it as I have thought about getting one from time to time. My sharp eye helped me get a good deal on this one - it had an early serial number denoting manufacture in 1994 and the original Brilliant power supply - many of which are starting to have problems. Bit from the photos of the front and back I was pretty sure that this unit had been converted to the SMPS much later. When I received it I found out I was correct - it is fully up to date with the SMPS power supply and the all new casework that generally accompanied it.

I once had a brief chance to compare a Kremlin and a Pekin and felt that the Kremiln was not that much better although I didn't have a very strong signal which I know is important to the Kremlin. I still don't have an optimum antenna yet but have managed to get adequate signal strength for a quiet background. I'm sure it can be a fair bit better with a better antenna. However, even as it is I am now finding the Kremlin quite a bit more musical than the Pekin now that I have time to listen to and compare both. Interestingly from a sound point of view the two are very similar - the same kind of frequency balance, etc. The musical quality is a whole different story! With the Kremlin you really hear more of the subtlety of playing, notes and rhythms are easier to follow, and you find yourself moving more to the music. Last night for the first time I can remember in years I tuned in the local Jazz station to hear the end of a segment I had been listening to on the way home and just played the radio for three hours. Most of the time just listening from the other room but always aware of how good it sounded.

It is probably due to this station that I still have a tuner at all. When I bought the MDS I thought I would end up switching over to internet radio and just selling the Pekin. (Well I am selling the Pekin but now for a different reason!) But I just am not happy with the sound quality of most internet radio stations. Admittedly the Linn stations can sound quite good but few internet stations seem to put out a very high quality. But we have a local radio station coming out of Detroit called WCRJ that broadcasts Classical during the day and Jazz at night and has good signal strength here and even enough to reach Ann Arbor, although barely, in my car (some 30 miles farther West). They actually put out a quite good signal and overall have a very good selection of music going. They tend more to the more classic Jazz pieces rather than some of the more dissonant Avant-Garde stuff and that is OK with me. Their Classical selections are also generally quite good too although I confess to being less happy when they do a string of show tunes or marches in the morning. I started listening to them several years ago on the way to and from work. Because of my work hours I get Classical on the way to work and Jazz on the way home which I find quite cool. But I am now often finding I want to keep listening when I get home so the tuner had to stay. What makes this even better is that WCRJ often broadcasts live concerts of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Opera Theater and other musical performers - including some Jazz. I have listened to a couple of these with the Pekin and they were a real treat - I really look forward to hearing them with the Kremlin as I hear a live broadcast over the Kremlin is supposed to rival even the best other sources. Hearing just how musical it makes the regular broadcasts from the station (I'm listening to it now and have been for two hours) I can really believe it. It certainly is a top notch source. It is interesting to note that Debbie, who normally just turns on the TV while going on facebook, surfing the web or working on her classes has seen fit to leave the TV off yesterday and today and just listen to the radio while she does her stuff.

I have to also say that looking at the circuitry inside the Pekin (one small board taking up something like 25% of the area of the case - including the power supply) and comparing it to what is inside the Kremlin (one large board covering the entire bottom with a second large board and the SMPS almost filling the top - it looks like they almost needed a bigger case) gives one pause. From the obvious sophistication of the circuitry to the flexibility and precision of the tuning system to the wonderful sound it is obvious that the Kremlin was an all out assault on wresting the best that radio could give and that it was designed by people with understanding of what a serious FM enthusiast would want in a tuner. I salute Linn for having made such a product and suffering the typical reaction at the time over the selling price. It is sad that the current state of FM broadcasting (the huge reduction in diversity of programming combined with a similar reduction in sound quality from many stations that seems typical - at least in the US) makes the desire for a quality tuner so low that Linn (and many other manufacturers) don't even bother to make them any more. My Kremlin is a real treasure and I hope that I always have at least a few good stations to feed it.
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Post by ThomasOK »

I haven't posted much up here lately as my system has mostly remained stable. (For that matter I haven't had the time lately to do much in the way of system investigations - and I've been mostly happy with my system so I didn't need to do much in the way of investigations.) However, I have made a couple of changes in my system in the recent past. One is that I sold my Majik DS. It wasn't getting used by anybody but me and I wasn't using it much vastly preferring to listen to vinyl. I also have found the Kremlin tuned into WRCJ to be quite enjoyable when I'm in the mood for a mixed palate of Jazz (which they play every evening starting at 7:00PM). I have not replaced the Majik DS as I had a use for the money elsewhere (had to stock some Tundras) and I realized I would likely need something of at least ADS level to really find streaming satisfying. (OK time for those who initially suggested this to put in their "I told you so!" statements.)

However I did make a relatively small but enjoyable change to my system a few weeks ago by making a new set of the unbalanced to balanced Silver cables that go between my KK/2 and the ATC 100s. There were two things the made me want to try this change: First, when I made the original cables I did not have access to a precise, temperature controlled soldering station and I didn't have the Lejonklou solder. Second, over time, as I have posted elsewhere on here, I have become less enamored of the Vidar cable burn-in system. On my latest investigations of power cable performance and interconnect cable comparisons I have found the cables treated with the Vidar to be somewhat superficially more detailed but on the whole less musical and tuneful with a bit of a loss of the natural flow of the music. This effect lessens over time but is still audible even several years after the burn-in. I had already replaced my power cables with the newer Linn Longwell ones as detailed in the power cable thread and had found that those without Vidar were preferred. This lead me to check Linn factory Silver interconnects with and without Vidar and I preferred the latter. So I now have non-Vidared interconnects going from the Urika to the KK/2 (or I should say I did have and will again soon - see below).

But that still left me with a Vidar treated cable between the KK/2 and the speakers. Well, after a recent large system install we had some Linn Silver balanced interconnect cable left over and I had spare connectors so it was time to try this out. I also now own the same soldering station that Fredrik does and in doing some tests on K400 I found out that indeed I could hear differences that 1°F in the soldering temperature makes (thanks to Fredrik for the guidance on the soldering) so I had the right tools for the job. So I made a pair of 4 meter interconnects with fresh Linn Silver balanced cable, Linn Silver XLRs and original non-slotted Linn Silver RCAs using Lejonklou solder and the precise right temperature. These are the same length and configuration as my original cables. The result? Definitely more musical, tuneful and flowing musical performance. I could get into the music more and could hear better what the instruments and musicians were doing. It had a better feel and togetherness to the rhythm and a greater sense of ease. I'm sure some of this was down to the removal of the slight forwardness and stilted quality of the Vidar treatment but I'm sure a lot of it was from the improved solder and soldering technique. Regardless of what is responsible for the change I am happy that my system has taken another small step forward in musicality.

I will soon have to do some more comparisons as Linn has already (I believe after less than a year) replaced the Longwell cables in the US with a new one that has I-Sheng on it and yet different IEC and RCA plugs. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet but a customer with a quality all Linn system has tried fresh versions of both and while he likes the Longwell better than his older Linn power cables, he feels the new I-Sheng is even better yet. So I will have to go through the power cable comparison tests all over again. This, however, will have to wait a couple of weeks as I sold my Radikal, Urika and Keel and am awaiting their replacements which should ship late this week. I am replacing them with the same versions so there are no expectations for performance upgrades here (nor would I likely hear them with a few weeks between listening sessions). So I will report back once I have a chance to do the power cable comparisons.
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Post by markiteight »

I was perusing some popular second-had audio websites last night when I happened upon a for sale listing for a certain pair of ATC SCM100 ASLs. So what's the next step? Curious minds want to know!

I certainly wish I had the dosh to pick up those amazing speakers but I just spent almost the same money on an Audi S6 Avant. Hmmm...speakers and a bus pass or an entire car...that's actually a tougher decision than it ought to be!

-Adam
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Post by ThomasOK »

Yes, I have put the ATCs up for sale. They still sound as sweet as ever and I just recently went over all the torques (there are a LOT of bolts on those speakers!) so everything is optimal right now.

My original plan was to just sell them and replace them with an identical pair, as I tend to do with most of my system from time to time. I still may do this but I am also weighing two other options. If I were to find a pair of Komris that I liked the looks of at a good price I might consider them. The release of the Tundra amps makes the driving of them more reasonable and I have never tried them in my house so it would be an interesting experiment. If it ended up I didn't like them as well as the ATCs I could probably turn them around with little loss. The other possibility would be to pull a pair of Isobariks up from the basement and put them into the main system (I currently have a 4 Isobarik surround system!). This would free up some cash to put into the Nokturne Audio business.

No hard and firm decisions yet but it would be one of those three options. Once I've sold the ATCs I guess I'll have to make up my mind.
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Post by Rufus McDufus »

markiteight wrote:Hmmm...speakers and a bus pass or an entire car...that's actually a tougher decision than it ought to be!

-Adam
You still get free buses in the centre of Seattle do you? Well there's your excuse!
(Been a while since I was there)
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Post by markiteight »

Rufus McDufus wrote:You still get free buses in the centre of Seattle do you? Well there's your excuse!
(Been a while since I was there)
As a matter of fact we don't! The Ride Free zone went away last September.

-Adam
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Post by Music Lover »

ThomasOK wrote:Yes, I have put the ATCs up for sale.
Good decision*!
Looking forward reading about your tests with other speakers.
I hope you get a chance to test Komri in your living room.

* I consider Linn speakers superior as you know.
It's all about musical understanding!
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Post by matthias »

ThomasOK wrote: My original plan was to just sell them and replace them with an identical pair, as I tend to do with most of my system from time to time.
Thomas,

could you be so kind and explain the basic rationale behind this procedure ?

KR

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Post by ThomasOK »

matthias wrote:
ThomasOK wrote: My original plan was to just sell them and replace them with an identical pair, as I tend to do with most of my system from time to time.
Thomas,

could you be so kind and explain the basic rationale behind this procedure ?

KR

matthias
It is really quite simple. Since I work in the industry I am able to purchase equipment at a quite nice price with the proviso I keep it for my own use for a certain period of time (usually one or two years). At that point I can sell it and buy something else or another one if I wish. So lets say I buy a pair of ElectroIso Fantasmagoria speakers, use them for two years and then sell them. I am able to sell an item that is generally in near new condition, that has been taken care of and optimized by somebody who knows what he is doing and I can do so at a price that can save somebody a substantial amount compared to buying new. At the same time I am actually making a bit of money compared to what I paid for the Fantasmagorias so if I buy another pair I have a bit extra to put into upgrading something else. Since I m not an oil magnate, this has allowed me to own the kind of system I have.

As in all such things there is, of course, a downside. When you are putting new equipment into your system all the time you can end up in an almost constant state of burn in. "Ah, good the PseudoHarmonics are finally burned in and sounding really good...too bad it's time to sell them."
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Post by ThomasOK »

Music Lover wrote:
ThomasOK wrote:Yes, I have put the ATCs up for sale.
Good decision*!
Looking forward reading about your tests with other speakers.
I hope you get a chance to test Komri in your living room.

* I consider Linn speakers superior as you know.
I thought you'd approve! And it is, in part, your comments on the Komris that helped create my interest.

However, as I have had a optimally torqued set of the most recent 242s driven by a really great sounding Tundra 1.1 in my house and still found my precision torqued ATC 100s superior (as did Debbie) it would take something like the Komri to tempt me away from them.
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Post by matthias »

Thank you, Thomas,

BTW do you know the actual state of affairs regarding ATCs own tweeter for the 100 ?

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Post by Music Lover »

ThomasOK wrote: However, as I have had a optimally torqued set of the most recent 242s driven by a really great sounding Tundra 1.1 in my house and still found my precision torqued ATC 100s superior (as did Debbie) it would take something like the Komri to tempt me away from them.
Please test 242 with Tundra Monos and Solos (preferably dynamiked) before dismissing them.
It's all about musical understanding!
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Post by anthony »

Music Lover wrote:
ThomasOK wrote: However, as I have had a optimally torqued set of the most recent 242s driven by a really great sounding Tundra 1.1 in my house and still found my precision torqued ATC 100s superior (as did Debbie) it would take something like the Komri to tempt me away from them.
Please test 242 with Tundra Monos and Solos (preferably dynamiked) before dismissing them.
Agreed!
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Post by ThomasOK »

Music Lover wrote:
ThomasOK wrote: However, as I have had a optimally torqued set of the most recent 242s driven by a really great sounding Tundra 1.1 in my house and still found my precision torqued ATC 100s superior (as did Debbie) it would take something like the Komri to tempt me away from them.
Please test 242 with Tundra Monos and Solos (preferably dynamiked) before dismissing them.
At the same time I tested them with the Tundra stereo I did also test them with the Solos (although not Dynamiked) and still easily preferred the ATCs. Since my Tundra has been found, by myself and several others, to essentially be equivalent to the non-Dynamik Solos (with a bit different strengths and weaknesses) and pretty close to Dynamiked Solos I doubt even they could tilt the decision. But who knows what the Tundra Monos would do.

However, as we recently sold the store demo 242s and will not be buying replacements until at least we are in the new store, I don't know when I'll be able to do the comparison again. We shall see...
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