Bob's New Listening Room and System

[Bobvin]

Listening to Bob's system was an experience I will never forget, and one that I won't be likely to ever replicate in my own home, so a big thank you to Bob for hosting a wonderful evening of incredible music reproduction.

Thank you David for the kind words.

Another member of the Portland Audiophile Club who visited Tuesday had these nice comments about the system with the VYGER: “Detail, check. Imaging, check. Tonality and color, check. Emotion, check. A real revelation!”

With my current setup including Pilium and Alsyvox, my sources were not quite to the level I’d been hoping for. When the AMG v12 was my table, I’d have said I had parity with my dCS Rossini. Vinyl always won out but the delta between my analog source and digital wasn’t huge. Both were very enjoyable, but not quite in the upper echelon. And with the Taiko Extreme server (and XDMS-NSM) I can listen all night to digital without fatigue. Now the debate on the digital side is what will the analog out of XDMI bring on the Olympus platform, so holding off a DAC upgrade.

But the VYGER just catapulted my analog to a completely new level. Everyone (so far) has been gobsmacked. I‘m getting more pillows so there isn’t such a loud thud when people’s jaws hit the floor.

A particular track I’d listened to with MikeL I just couldn’t replicate in my room. I wondered how my room acoustics vs Mike’s may have contributed? Now with Vyger I realize the issue was my table, not my room. (oh, there is more of course.) But that particular track now reaches and sorts out the bass line in the 45rpm version of Stevie Ray‘s “Tin Pan Alley“ where before it just didn’t have the detail and clarity in the subterranean growl of that bass guitar. OMG its so fun!

 

[Bobvin]

Very excited to be adding something totally new and different… I have ordered a pair of Heretic 612s, and a Triode Labs 45EVO integrated amplifier for fun and demo purposes. For a while I‘ve wanted to add an SET amp to feed the Diesis Romas, so this promises to be an exceptionally fun new adventure for me. With the Vyger as a source I’m expecting a whole new world to open up.

And the Heretic speakers are also very high efficiency and from all reports are just plain fun. I’m not expecting performance like Alsyvox or Diesis, but the engineering choices are different from “conventional” in many ways and the results (apparently) speak for themselves.

Flea watt power on high efficiency speakers — I’m a total novice eagerly awaiting what lies ahead.

 

[cjfrbw]

Flea watt power on high efficiency speakers — I’m a total novice eagerly awaiting what lies ahead.

I'm guessing you'll like it. A different thing for sure.

It would probably be good for most audiophiles to listen for a while to some kind of effective 45 based system as a mental reference if nothing else. It would probably influence their judgement by comparison, not the least of which would be the high power mythos.

You don't have to worry if the 100th watt is making that sound, because there isn't any 100th watt. Maybe 3-4 watt transients at most.
And yet.....

 

[anomaly7]

Very excited to be adding something totally new and different… I have ordered a pair of Heretic 612s, and a Triode Labs 45EVO integrated amplifier for fun and demo purposes. For a while I‘ve wanted to add an SET amp to feed the Diesis Romas, so this promises to be an exceptionally fun new adventure for me. With the Vyger as a source I’m expecting a whole new world to open up.

And the Heretic speakers are also very high efficiency and from all reports are just plain fun. I’m not expecting performance like Alsyvox or Diesis, but the engineering choices are different from “conventional” in many ways and the results (apparently) speak for themselves.

Flea watt power on high efficiency speakers — I’m a total novice eagerly awaiting what lies ahead.

Oh my, looks like a great combo of integrated amp and speakers. Some fun!

 

[Kingrex]

Cool stuff Bob.
Is the TT a Rhapsody product?

What about the new 45 amp and speaker. I am guessing these are for personal fun. Rounding the knowledge

 

[Bobvin]

All are lines imported by Rhapsody.

Bob.east has been US distributor for Vyger for a very long time. The Heretic and Triode Lab brands are more recent.

As mentioned above, I’d been wanting to have an SET amp to use on the Diesis which sound amazing with Pilium, but before joining with Rhapsody I’d always been a high power tubes guy (Audio Research). I don’t really miss (high power) tube sound with Pilium offering such amazing liquidity, but Diesis high efficiency just begs to be fed something a bit different.

As Karen Summer wrote in her thread, most musical information doesn’t reside at the extremes so this of course is the wheelhouse of SET amps. I heard an SET setup many years back up in Seattle fed with a First Sound preamp (can’t remember the amp brand) and I was stunned by the liquidity and natural sound of voices. It has always been on my mind to get a taste of that.

I’ve told my wife many times if the world goes to hell or for some reason we need to sell off all the audio kit, I know I could assemble a very, very pleasing system for a fraction of the price what is in-house now. A Triode Lab integrated, a pair of Heretic speakers (about $10k each), a turntable and some wires, I’m in business.

 

[Kingrex]

All are lines imported by Rhapsody.

Bob.east has been US distributor for Vyger for a very long time. The Heretic and Triode Lab brands are more recent.

As mentioned above, I’d been wanting to have an SET amp to use on the Diesis which sound amazing with Pilium, but before joining with Rhapsody I’d always been a high power tubes guy (Audio Research). I don’t really miss (high power) tube sound with Pilium offering such amazing liquidity, but Diesis high efficiency just begs to be fed something a bit different.

As Karen Summer wrote in her thread, most musical information doesn’t reside at the extremes so this of course is the wheelhouse of SET amps. I heard an SET setup many years back up in Seattle fed with a First Sound preamp (can’t remember the amp brand) and I was stunned by the liquidity and natural sound of voices. It has always been on my mind to get a taste of that.

I’ve told my wife many times if the world goes to hell or for some reason we need to sell off all the audio kit, I know I could assemble a very, very pleasing system for a fraction of the price what is in-house now. A Triode Lab integrated, a pair of Heretic speakers (about $10k each), a turntable and some wires, I’m in business.

I have to come to Portland to pick up my Audio 845. Maybe we can plug it into your system to give a listen to the two. Not sure when it will happen. It's been 6 month in the repairs.

 

[Bobvin]

I have to come to Portland to pick up my Audio 845. Maybe we can plug it into your system to give a listen to the two. Not sure when it will happen. It's been 6 month in the repairs.

Ping me Rex, if I have things sorted I’d be happy to have some comparison fun.

 

[Bobvin]

On the previous page WBF member anomaly7 (David) posted about his visit several months back. At the time I had no information telling me writes and posts on what is now the "Audiophile Foundation" website, previously San Francisco Audio Federation (Foundation?) David dropped some new prose there recently with much more detail about his visit. Have a read for yourself, David's a very accessible writer... (Thanks David for the kind words.)

https://sfaf.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=5&club_id=794405&item_id=103260&