Picture Notes:

1) view of system rack, turntable and right hand speaker

2) view of my living room in "listening" mode from near the

   listening position, EQ near the listening seat on the couch

3) view of the Turntable, affectionately known as "The

   three-armed Monster"

4) External view of transformer passive linestage

5) Internal view of the transformer passive linestage

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Turntable: Acoustic Solid "Solid One" on Acoustic Solid Stand

which stands on an home-build Symposium style isolation platform which

in turn is on home-build String Suspension Concept "SSC" isolators.

Three Arm/Pickup combos are mounted, right now they are:

1) For modern records, audiophile re-pressings ect.

Origin Live Silver 250 with Goldring Elite MC

2) For most older pressings down to around 1970 etc.

SME 3009 MKII with Denon DL-103

3) For very old pressings (pre 1970's) and most

older Decca/DGG and sublabel classical etc.

Ortofon RS-212 Special with Ortofon SPU-GTE

CD Player: Philips LHH-1000 DAC (nee Marantz CD/DA-12) restored

and upgraded (Op-Amp's, Capacitors etc.)with a Pioneer DV-505 DVD Player (modified) a

Transport, also Heart/Marantz CD-6000 as Transport

Preamplifier: Opera Audio Consonance Reference 1.2

A new LCR eqalised Phonostage (E810F, 600 Ohm passive LCR RIAA, EC8020) is being

built right now.

Equalizer: Behringer Ultracurve 8024 (modified Op-Amp's,

Capacitors, Output Transformers) on small

Hostess Trolley style "rack", to be placed at the

listening position for "critical"

listening

Amplifier: "The Hylo Idealistic Single Ended 300B Amplifier"

an ever evolving concept on the chassis of the

DIY-HiFisupply Billie Chassis

currently configured WE 437A Driver, TJ "Mesh" 300B

(or WE or Svetlana),

WE 274A Rectifier

A pair of Loftin White Monoblocks based on the

Original Design (UX-224, UX-245, RCA 5R4GY)

is being build slowly.

Speakers: Tannoy Monitor Red 15 Inch Dual Concentric Drivers

in Corner York enclosure build

by a friend from Tannoy Plans in 1" Solid Wood,

original crossovers, drivers C37

lacquered and dust-cap removed. Previously used

super-tweeters removed from system

Music: Much Jazz and Blues, a lot of music from the Age of

Enlightenment (Haendel, Vivaldi et al),

some modern US and Russian classical composers

(Copland and Shostakovitch especially),

Soul/Funk/Rap, Electronica, Easy Listening, lyrical

rock, hard rock, Metal, World Music

Photos taken by Adnan Arduman, slightly outdated. New ones soon.

My system is aimed primarily at allowing me to enjoy a huge range of music

from Vinyl Records of all sorts of ages and providence. It is not optimized

to excel in any specific area, but is weighted towards a natural, "live"

type of presentation, with an emphasis on realistic Sound Pressure Levels,

strong dynamic and pace and realistic tonality.

As over the years that are included in my collection many changes occurred,

from wide swings in style rake angle, groove wall angle, the use or absence

of tracing distortion compensators and so on, I have found that using

several cartridges with strongly varying characteristics seems best.

The records pressed from the late 1960's all the way through the 1970's tend

to have used a tracing simulator during cutting and thus require a pickup

with a conical stylus (I use a Denon DL-103) to work correctly, though

gentle elliptical styli cuts like the one used on the Ortofon SPU-GTE also

seem to work from a subjective point. Recordings mastered before the

widespread use of tracing simulators (generally before the late 1960's) tend

to sound best to my ears on the old SPU-GTE, maybe not unrelated to the fact

that the QC listening at the factory would have likely included exactly such

a pickup. Modern pressings from around the late 1970's/early 1980's onwards

tend to have a pretty uniform SRA and groove wall angel, thus allowing the

theoretical superiority of line contact styli to be leveraged effectively,

so most of such LP's tend to be played with the "modern" combination, though

depending on recording and mood I may choose one of the others too, there is

no dogma to the use of pickups.

Equally, first, but not solely corrects the Room and Speaker related

problems (primarily the room modes at low frequencies and the well

documented midrange "hump" for the older (pre Monitor Gold) Tannoy Driver.

Also, my room is a little asymmetric which again is corrected by the

equalizer. I have further programmed some "psycho-acoustic" overlay curves

based on a range of research, especially however that by Mr. Jens Blauert

from Germany, a piece of very neat understanding how frequency response

manipulation affect our spatial perception. Here a little narrow boost in

some ranges to the tune of 1 to 3db and a little broadband cuts in others to

the tune of -0.5 to -1.5db can make the difference between a perceived

exceptionally wide and deep soundstage and one that is flat and un-layered.

Sadly this research is not widely known or publicized, especially in the

audiophile press, a shame as it would often ease the correlation of measured

speaker response and perceived spatiality.

Beyond all that however I have programmed the essential corrections for

several widely used cutting Equalizers when replayed via a RIAA equalized

Phono-stage (the deviations may reach as much as 10db at very low

frequencies). More specifically, the Decca EQ as used by Telfunken, Teldec,

Decca and Deutsche Gramophone Gesellschaft, the Columbia EQ used by

Columbia/CBS et al and the CCIR EQ used by some European (especially eastern

europe) are covered at the moment by my presets. Further of course I tend to

adjust for what I perceive as tonal flaws in the Recording, if such are

present. Using the EQ in "restorative" mode on such things as the film

soundtrack from "The Wizard of Oz" or very bad sounding recordings, such as

the "Beginnings" Live session of Chicago (then still known as Chicago

Transit Authority) can be amazing. For example it is possible to cut through

"muddy" sound and bring vocals clearly into focus, make the drum-kit and

percussion audible through the wall of guitar sound on the Chicago LP.

To me at least the use of an Equalizer is not optional in a high performance

audio system, any more than I could accept the notion of a single Arm/Pickup

combo that gives the best results regardless of vintage and providence of

the actual LP. In order to keep alive the great cultural heritage of mankind

embodied by old LP's and in order to appreciate the Music fully I feel that

an approach a little more baroque and a little less calvinist, minimalist

and masochist than that preached by the High End press and practiced sadly

by far too many people, is essential.

Ciao T

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