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A completely new direction for me, so I'm starting a new thread. Adding this to the old thread did not make sense. Said I'd stay away from valve pwr amps; and had reservations about horns, but stuff comes up and I made a change to what I never envisaged. It sounds good, but still more changes to come. From Magneplanar 20.7 to Trio XD. From AVM MA 8.2 to AR Ref 160M. From Koetsu Onyx to Ortofon MC Anna. The Onyx had a low output resulting in the phonostage running out of gain on the MG20.7. The MC Anna has even lower output, but luckily the change to Trio XD gives me plenty of gain to easily cover the low output of the MC Anna. For over two decades I have not been happy with my analog set up. It has under performed. I think I needed to use a step up transformer for the Onyx and have the Onyx retipped by Koetsu. With the MC Anna I love my analog sound. The Trio is not flat to 100hz. The REL does not go much above 120hz. We have a problem Houston. No midbass in the current setup. I've been moving the subs around, but there is no cure for component limitations. (See Later, I changed Trio setup). These pictures are ugly, but I'm an audiophile not a bloomin' home decorator. The setup is Ortofon MC Anna on Graham 1.5t on Aura tt. AR ph8 phonostage. AR Ref 6 preamp. AR Ref 160M pwr amp. Trio XD maiin speakers. REL 212se subs. Cables are Audioquest and Synergistic Research. Two dedicated 20A circuits and 2 dedicated 15A circuits. Custom fuses on any component that needs them. They do reduce noise floor.

I have been admiring all the systems being showcased and all of them look terrific. Beautifully set up in gorgeous or inviting rooms. I look at my rig and the best I can say is it looks industrial. I have industrial high-end audio. It has always been a case of form follows function for me. I try to get it to sound right first and then think about prettying it up. I am thinking of buying a Symposium Isis rack to pretty it up but I have to balance that purchase against buying a pair of Magnepan DWM woofers. The first rule to putting a good system together is getting the right speaker for the room. Ofcourse, I did not start off with the MG20.7 and I'm not really a fan of planar speakers, but for the price, the MG20.7 is perfect for this room. I never ever thought I would reach this level of sound in my life time, but you keep improving the system and one day you'll find you are listening to good sound, not just okay sound. When I bought this place I envisaged it as a music listening room. I ended up surprising myself by how good it is. I bought the Aura+Graham 1.5t secondhand from Mike Kontor when he was at Armadale. A few years ago he told me he sold his Aura tt. I think this tt was his.

Over the years there have been many tweaks to the Aura turntable. One tweak was to replace the springs with sorbothane or even sand. I never tried the sand, but I did try the sorbothane and did not like it. Too hifi. A tweak I eventually settled on was to blu-tack the top and bottom of each spring. That did give a slight improvement. Recently I have been putting Voodoo Cable Isopods under my components. These are the best footers I have used and they do what footers should, which is reduce the noise floor, without adding any colouration. It occurred to me to try the Isopods on the Aura. I removed the springs and replaced them with 4 Isopods. The noise floor reduced. It does not take the turntable up another level, but it does take it up half a level. Effect on the sound is typical of reducing the noise floor. The first thing I noticed was tighter bass and more slam. I feared when I returned to my seat for a listen, I would be assaulted by lean and hard treble. Not so. Treble was more lush with better micro timbre. Speed stability also improved. Because the Isopods lift the platter higher, you will need to slip a thin bamboo cutting board, or similar, under the motor to bring it level with the platter. Refer attached photo. This tweak is probably better than using a vibraplane, but I can't confirm this at the moment because my vibraplane is leaking and I can't be bothered fixing it. I am a lazy audiophile

Item: Aura Sound 1808 with brand new TC Sounds Pro5100 Baskets Location: Sale Victoria 3850 Price: $950 Item Condition: As new Reason for selling: Surplus Payment Method: Pickup, cash, bank transfer. Extra Info: Original Aura 1808 neo underhung motors fitted with brand new TC sounds replacement baskets essentially creating what TC called the Pro5100. These are no longer available and were about $1500 each when last in production. Specs here. I still have the original Aura baskets which come in the deal if you want them. One is still in good operating condition and the other has a split surround and open circuit voice coil. A working original 1808 basket in itself is serious unobtanium! I purchased the replacement baskets around 6 years ago when I noticed the split starting in one of the originals but it kept on going until only last year! That whole system has now been replaced with a new horn loaded design so I have no further use for these monsters. With over 60mm peak to peak excursion and high relative efficiency on of these will give you similar output to that of a serious dual 18 cabinet. The new baskets are dual VC and can handle much more power than the original 1808. The baskets are BRAND NEW and were installed and tested in cabinets only last week. Plenty of info on the net about these. I'll ship anywhere at your expense. Pictures:

I have started planning my HC room and looking into what speaker setup to go for. Doing some research it seems that the Atoms speaker setup isn't really compatible with the Aura or DTS-X setup. What concerns me the most is that DTS-X has been announced last year but still isn't available and isn't even promoted on the DTS home page. Aura 3D doesn't seem to have any support from the consumer AV industries so, not a likely candidate either. At some stage there was some talk of a joint venture of Aura and DTS-X, but at the moment it seems pretty dead. So, what is happening? I don't like to be stuck with a speaker layout restrictive to only one format. Aura and DTS seem to be more promising on that end.

hi guys, I am planning to put some bass shakers under my 1+2+1 seater recliner. As I have very little knowledge about the bass shakers, some help would be much appreciated. 1. which shakers i should go? 4 x aura $39 each 4 x buttkicker mini LFE $89 each 4 x clark 209 $99 each 2. Which amp i should go? Dayton Audio Sa230 amp Dayton Audio SPA 250 amp plate ButtKicker built the BKA-300-4/NW wireless ButtKicker built the BKA1000-N Crown XLS1000 Power Amp Behringer EUROPOWER EP2000 Professional I prefer to have the boxed solution rather than buy a plate and boxed it up by myself. I dont want to be in short of power if i decided to upgrade later to a better shaker say Buttkicker LFE or Clark 219, i havent seen or feel one bass shaker yet so i dont know how much power a lower end aura can give or would that be enough. What other components i needed? rubber isolators? ButtKicker BK-QCP quick select and connect kit ? for connecting 4 shakers to one amp, my receiver has two subwoofer outputs which can manage individually so i guess i dont need a Y connector. My floor is concrete and couch is in top of carpet. Can get isolators or rubber mats if needed as dont wanna damage the floor or any other room by shaking. Can some one here please put together a system and let me know how I can wire it. I am sure I can get done all the other handy works myself.