Audiophile Spirituality

Mobiusman

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2010
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As some of you might know I have been assembling my retirement dream system, first conceived when I was 10 years old at a SF audio show with my dad. I retired on 5/1/20, and by previous sacred promise knew that all of my new system had to be fully owned by the day I retired. I also had a budget guideline that was totally unrealistic since I spent much more than the entire budget on my speaker purchase, and thus was more than 5 times overbudget.

The system is a smaller version of the Von Schweikert, VAC, MasterBuilt $1.5 million show super system. I have Ultra 9’s instead of Ultra 11’s because of my room size and budget issues. I used VAC for the core, putting my money into a Statement 450iQ Statement Stereo, and stepping down a small step to the Master Pre-Amp and Renaissance Phono Pre. My digital arm is a Taiko Extreme with the USB board enroute, connected to a MSB Reference 70 fempto DAC, and my analog arm is a Bergmann/Odin on a vibraplane with a ZYX Universe Optimum cartridge, into the VAC Phono Pre, all through a complete loom of MasterBuilt Ultra cabling.

I quickly realized that while my system sounded amazing, I did not have enough power or power balls. So, I took advantage of some very close connections and mutual benefit scenarios to replace my VAC 450 Stereo with a pair of VAC 452 music blocs running in mono. As you can see from the accompanying picture, the 452’s are each inboard from the 9’s about 22” center of speaker to front center of the amp, sitting on CMS 1.5 footers on a Stainless support plate.

The amps are so tall, especially with the addition of the CMS 1.5 footers and ¾” of stainless steel, that the top of the amp chassis blocks about 6 vertical inches and 9 inches wide of the LG 77” OLED screen that sits on top of my two shelf equipment rack. I have already purchased 8 CMS LS 1.5 footers for my speakers when Damon and Leif come for an extended visit and Ultra 9 footer tweak in late May or early June.

So you are probably asking what this post has to do with the title Audiophile Spirituality, you will see that the previous build up is necessary to understand where the power to be a spiritual moment came from.

I was trying to figure out how much height I needed to elevate the LG 77 and decided that four of the LS 1.5’s would give a good idea for starters!!!---see where this is going? Immediately I knew it was a bad idea, but the old stubborn part of me said I can do this. I almost had it propped up properly when the 77” LG OLED screen fell forward and landed directly on top of my pair of 452’s, not to mention likely striking one or two of my Ultra 9’s, requiring them to be shipped to Riverside, repaired and repainted combined with at shipping would be least $4k. The VAC’s which the screen was now laying on could not be seen and the music suddenly stopped, as did my heart from beating.

Bottom line, my $5k 77” OLED fell on top of a pair of $150k amps and barely in between a pair of $225K pair of gloss black Ultra 9’s. The OLED was toast, although I got greedy and wished for a couple of seconds for it to be okay also. The screen was chipped, splintered and cracked and a flashing wide white band was all that illuminated the screen.

Amazingly, there is not a mark on either of the 452’s, the sound stopping with the time of screen falling came from me tripping on the 20 Amp PC to the Furman, knocking the sound at the source, while 452’s went on without missing a beat.

It would have just been a lot of money drawn when it no longer flows like it once did making it a really hurt, but somehow other than needing a new 77”LG OLED that is now $!K cheaper than when I bought the one I broke and the picture is vastly superior, I am thankful that nothing more dangerous or expensive happened.

Yesterday’s takeaway. Remember you are just a rider on the bus and my big choice is what bus I get on. I was fortunate yesterday in many ways. I also used up a bunch of karma bonus points as I did on my mountain biking trip.

russ
 

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SeagoatLeo

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Feb 23, 2015
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I stay concerned that living in Southern California, there are occasional earthquakes. My equipment is on a 3000 psi 12" steel reinforced slab. The 1994 quake didn't move the equipment in my prior home which had 1/2 the thick slab and solid walls but not 16" multilayered thick walls that I currently have. Some friends who have TV/Movies in their audio room/video room have projection screens mounted in the ceiling which drop for viewing and hide for listening. OLED TVs are nice though (I have two 75" Sony LCD top line TVs in video only rooms with mid-fi equipment).
 

SeagoatLeo

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Feb 23, 2015
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P.S. I heard the $1 million dollar system. It's the best I've ever heard. Someday perhaps I will own the Ultra 9s.
 

Mobiusman

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2010
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P.S. I heard the $1 million dollar system. It's the best I've ever heard. Someday perhaps I will own the Ultra 9s.
The show system is serious, but I can tell you that it does not hold a candle to what my system sounds like because it is totally broken in, including 2000 hours on the amps, which is critical and the show systems had amps with less than 100 hours on them, and I have a full loom of MB Ultra and CMS footers under everything including speakers and dedicated circuits.

VSA will be using my home between NYC and Philly as a site for prospective customers to come listen to the best case scenario.

The 9's are truly remarkable.
 
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Ron Resnick

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Jan 24, 2015
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I am glad none of the stereo components got damaged. Please, Russ, no more close calls like that!
 

BlueFox

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Nov 8, 2013
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I put my stereo in one room, and the home theater in another room. That way I can only break one thing at a time. Plus, I now have a spare stereo if the main stereo breaks.
 

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