Casually Giving This a Go Again (Living Room Main System Introduction)

Hello to everyone reading this blog (are there any of you left!?) — it’s the author, back after yet another long absence that crept up out of nowhere. As has become something of a tradition here, poor health kept me away from the blog from April onwards, but things seem to be gradually — maybe — moving in the right direction, so I’d like to make my return for the time being. The original plan was to take about a month off and be back on the 1st of May, but that didn’t go as hoped, and it ended up being three months all told. It appears that switching my medication in March was not a good idea, and it took me quite a while to even realise that was the problem, so the whole thing just dragged on and on.

That said, in the meantime my Hi-Fi, PC-related things, and the CDs I’ve been collecting have all been steadily evolving. The main system plus three miniature sub-systems, plus PC audio and car audio — six playback setups in total, each one being worked on slowly but surely. This blog runs to 300 pages, and yet I still haven’t written articles on even half the equipment I actually own — which is rather embarrassing. And yet I’ll go and do a detailed review of something I heard at a shop, which just goes to show I haven’t changed: I’m still the same scatterbrained author with no particular plan. I’d be grateful if you could continue to watch over me with a sort of warm indulgence.

For now, let me list out my current listening setups, partly to get things in order — or really, this is more of a memo to sort things out inside my own head.

【Main System】

· Plasma monitor　PIONEER PureVision PDP-427HX
· Speakers　Vienna Acoustics MOZART T-2
· Valve integrated amplifier　Tokyo Sound Valve300
· CD player CEC TL5100Z
· CD-R recorder MARANTZ CDR630
· Hi-Vision DVD recorder　PIONEER DVR-DT100
· Analogue DVD recorder　TOSHIBA RD-XS40
· FM/AM tuner　PHILIPS FT930

· Speaker cable　SILTECH FT-12G3
· CDP / RCA cable　Red Rose Music 1934
· Power distribution block　J1 Project PT-4
· CDP power cable　Kharma KPL Reference/1a
· Amplifier power cable　Ortofon PSC-3500XG Silver
· Main power cable　PS AUDIO Prelude XPD/1.8MK2
· Wall outlet　PAD CRYOMAG

This is a 16-tatami living room used for both AV and audio, though it’s not a home theatre setup as such — the audio side is pure 2-channel stereo. The thing that niggles me most about the main system is the valve amplifier, which is profoundly unstable. The sound quality is distinctive and appealing, but a valve device that cannot maintain consistent sound quality over extended periods of being switched on doesn’t seem to suit my nerves. The Valve300 does not allow user bias adjustment, so swapping valves is not something I can do casually. On top of that, the Vienna Acoustics T-2 is a speaker that has always been prone to shifting in character with changes in temperature and humidity, so its sound swings between good and bad quite dramatically and it can be difficult to live with. That said, there’s no question that this system has the highest potential in the house, and when it’s in good form it sounds absolutely wonderful — the trouble is that good form never lasts.

AUDIO STYLE

インテグレーテッドアンプ (プリメインアンプ) – category –

Incidentally, the part I most want to change right now is the integrated amplifier. For eight years and counting, I’ve had my eye on the INTEGRE LDT from French brand YBA. I’d also love to have Red Rose Music’s SilverOne as my interconnect cable — the model that sits above the 1934 I’m currently using. And then there’s an SACD player. As I wrote previously, what I’d really like is the Goldmund MIMESIS SR CD3-G, but… it is rather expensive. Note: I’ve actually never auditioned this model at all. Knowing my luck, the innards would turn out to be a PIONEER DV-600 anyway. Of more attainable models, I do rather like the design of DENON’s DCD-CX3. Though whether an eccentric author who uses CEC should be buying such things, I honestly don’t know.

Now then, briefly — next time I’ll write about Sub-system No. 1.