Got a new Audioquest VDM-5 to replace a VDM-3 which I moved to the main Digital Director output (second coax output got the MIT digital, retired one VDM-2). I love the audioquest digital cables, they sound better than any I've heard (under $500) including the MIT. The MIT AVT1 analog interconnects and speaker cables are awesome, but for digital I like the AQ better. The whole system is starting to break in and sound pretty incredible. I never want to turn it off anymore and my recent acquisitions of remastered Sketches of Spain, Best of Coltrane and Miles, are just amazing.
New digital cable is breaking in now, we'll see how it matches up with the VDM-3, but I can already hear subtle differences, mainly that quiet parts seem *really* quiet and it seemed to warm up the overall sound (less gritty and bright).
I also did some surgery to the McCormack the other day. I accidentally broke one of the binding posts in an attempt to connect the bare wire to the speaker cable. So I ripped out the left channel binding posts (cheapo posts) and ordered some top of the line Cardas (CCGR-L), with which I am going to replace both sets of posts. Right now the bare wire is connected directly to the MIT cable pin (w/o the banana), and I can't really hear a difference between that loose connection and the right channel cheap binding post connection. We'll see what improvements the Cardas makes, it better be good because they are $75 posts.
Amplification:
McCormack DNA-125
NAD 925THX
Pre-amp:
Acurus Act-III
Speakers:
Monitor Audio Silver 7 (main)
Monitor Audio Silver 3 (rear)
Monitor Audio Silver 10 (center)
Monitor Audio ASW-210 (powered sub)
Digital:
Acurus ACD-11 CD Transport
MSB Link III w/Full Nelson DAC
MSB Digital Director
MSB ADD-1 (A/D converter)
Panasonic A120 DVD
AC:
MSB PowerBase 1000 (LinkIII)
Acurus RPC-120 (DNA-125, 925THX, PM-8)
Furman PM-8 (everything else, including PowerBase and SS6B)
Furman SS6B Plugs (Digital Director, TV)
Cables:
MIT AVT-1 biwire speaker (DNA-125 to silver 7)
MIT AVT-1 interconnects (ActIII to DNA-125 and Link III to ActIII)
Audioquest VDM-3 digital coax (ACD-11 to Link III)
MIT Terminator 3 digital coax (Digital Director to ActIII)
Audioquest VDM-2 digital coax (Digital Director (2nd output) to ActIII and DVD to Digital Director)
MIT Terminator 2 speaker (NAD 925THX bi-amping silver 10 center channel)
MIT Terminator 3 interconnects (Act III to ASW-210 stereo)
Audioquest Turquoise interconnects (ActIII to NAD925THX, rears)
MIT Z-Cord I power (ACD-11)
MIT Z-Cord II power (ActIII)
Audioquest NRG-2 power (DNA-125 and MSB PowerBase)
Audioquest SA S-Video (ActIII to TV)
Monster S-Video crapola (VCR to ActIII and DVD to ActIII)
AudioQuest VDM-2 digital coax (6m run from computer to Digital Director, 6m in reverse too)
Tape:
NAD 613
VCR:
Panasonic SVHS PV-S6470
TV:
27" RCA stereo monitor
PC:
P4 2.8Ghz, 1Gb RAM
WinXP
250Gb dedicated media drive
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
This system has gone through many permutations to get where it is now, which is pretty obvious from the setup. It currently sounds better than it ever has I think, thanks to the recent additions of the MSB Link DAC w/PowerBase and Digital Director. It is also obvious that video is not very important in this system, yet. The new DAC added a distinct warmth and mid-range boost without sacrificing any clarity, which took me a while to figure out, and it has markedly improved overall listenability. I'm currently running it overclocked at 132KHz oversampling (I had to take out the HDCD module).
I'm currently ending a phase of cable rejuvenation, which has concluded with some success. The MIT deal I got was amazing and I still think their speaker cables and analog interconnects are more accurate than anything in their range by far. I like the Audioquest silver digital cable better than the MIT digital though (have another VDM-5 on order), or maybe I'm just not spending enough money. As for power, the only thing plugged into the wall outlet is the RPC-120, everything goes through the PM-8 except the amps which are plugged directly into the RPC-120. I'm always reconfiguring the cables, so this is just a current snapshot (but a good one)...
A few words about the computer as a music machine...
I've used wget to get the entire contents of gdlive.com GD and phish files. This took about 300Gb of space, and now I have 100's of shows mostly soundboards, in lossless shorten files. Awesome. These all output through the Audigy 2 ZS digital coax, reclocked with the Digital Director, and digital to the Act III. I've never heard these shows sound so good.
Next addition is a passive preamp or just a very good quality volume attenuator to go straight from the DAC to the McCormack amp.
I would characterize the overall sound to be incredible in staging and dimensionality, but just "very good" at purity, clarity, and smoothness of sound. There's just something about those silky smooth sounding B&W Nautilus and Martin Logans driven by Mark Levinson that my system lacks (not a fair comparison, for illustration only).
This blog is about audio, sound, music and all things related. It is mainly for my own review of the evolution of my system and feelings.