Thanks Merchman
Well, it was pretty darn interesting. Here is the upstairs system, work in progress.
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Don't know why my pix don't show up. Anyway ...
The consensus is, the Fancy system sounds great, extremely dynamic, huge sounding. Leonard Cohen's LP
You Want It Darker was a test of the system's bass. Bass was fairly tight, very powerful even though the speakers only go down to about 32Hz. The mids were terrific. Not much in the way of highs. As far as frequency range, the album is like a banjo with one string. Bass heavy.
Paris Texas was incredibly dynamic. Everything came together beautifully across the entire frequency range. Very musical. Very exciting. Very enjoyable.
I finally set up my Schiit Bifrost MultiBit DAC for the CD player and cable box. Only played Mussorgsky's
Pictures from an Exhibition. Spectacularly dynamic. No digital haze or glare.
I think this is a system anyone would love, certainly all the nuts loved it.
Got the upstairs dialed in (pretty much). Hooked the CD player (Sony CA9ES) to the Marantz NA7004 DAC. Swapped out the Mullards in the Yaqin Moving Magnet tube phono-stage with a pair of JJ Teslas. No audible hum while playing music but the Yaqity Yaq definitely has a hum. Didn't used to. Nevertheless, Miles Davis Blue Note LP sounded great, CDs sounded beautiful as well. Once the Yaqin was turned off, the 55 year old refurbished Harman Kardon was dead quiet.
Here's the surprise. The Audio Nuts all agreed, the Axiom-made Michaura M66s (very large book shelf speakers, extremely solid hex shaped cabinet, twin Axiom 6.5" drivers and an Axiom 0.75" titanium tweeter), sound truly excellent. The sound is pure. The highs are wonderful, lots of air, sparkle and purity. Mids are similarly pure, and full. Bass is excellent, though not in the same league as the Klipsch Fortes.
Makes me think the M5HPs might be
terrific stereo speakers. I could listen to either system all day long! I think the nuts were shocked by the sound quality of the Axiom made speakers!
Neither system had the benefit of subwoofers. I think I'll go with a pair of EP500s with the Fancy System, and a big HSU upstairs in the legacy system.
One thing we all agreed on: The used ($260) Denon DP45f turntable with an old Grado Gold 2 retipped cartridge with a slightly injured Yaqin tube phono stage sounded as good as the $1,200 MMF 7.1, with a $750 Hana MC cartridge and $750 Phonomena II+ phono stage.
Furthermore, the old Denon has an incredible tone arm which tracks truer than any of the other tables the audio nuts enjoy. It also is automatic, so I don't have to jump up when the record finishes, it has an automatic drop, so I don't have to fiddle aiming the stylus at the beginning of the record.
I could have saved myself a boat-load of money there.
