Put up a deer shield around the mccormack amp to keep the stoopid cats off it. They wouldn't stop hanging out on it, probably since it's warm, so now it's fenced with a plastic fence that's made of fishing line-like material with about 1" square holes to keep deer out of gardens. So far, seems to be working.
The stage has come to an exacting focus that is more razor sharp than I could have wanted, with a sense of depth that it never had. Everything is incredible now, though there is such a crisp clarity that the midrange seems a little thin. Most of this came into focus after some speaker placement tweaking. I had to toe them out a little more than before which made a huge difference.
I also went dumpster diving at the granite store (they said I could take all the scraps) for huge slabs of marble and granite that I've put underneath the preamp, cd player, and amp. I got some box like shelves about 12" high (actually shoe holders), and put two 1.25" thick slabs of granite on that, with the amp on top. I got a .75" thick slab of marble under the cd player, and another 1.25" granite slab under the preamp. This probably helped staging as well, and all shelves are rock solid now, literally. The bigger slabs under the amp weight about 50lbs each (guess) and are about 30" squares.
The preamp gets really loud very fast as well, which is unlike what most people say about passives. The volume pot doesn't track very well, or at all, once it reaches really low volumes, and the right channel cuts out before the left which is kind of annoying, but only when it's really low. I contacted McCormack Audio about it and they said they sacrificed perfect tracking for good sound. It is unnoticable when both channels come in and at all normal listening levels. I tried cleaning the pot with DeOxit, but no difference.
Got a lot of new cd's including 2 box sets, one Buffalo Springfield and one Brubeck Collection. They're both good and very different. Also got Mahler 3rd symphony, and Neil Young Silver and Gold. Buffalo Springfield has this old, rough edge to it that reminds me of Bob Dylan, except it's Stills, Young and 2 others. Brubeck is awesome as usual and there are some recordings from the 40's in the set. Mahler is ok, not quite what I thought.
Sound is getting so much better, drool...
I guess it really needed to break in, stage is coming into focus and highs and mids are getting silky smooth, yay. Almost 100 hours now (4 days), we'll see how it is tonight.
I had to contact McCormack Audio for a copy of the TLC-1 manual, so here it is:
The manual is the same for standard and deluxe model.
I've been on an audiophile binge the last few weeks. It doesn't help that I discovered the wonders of audiogon and home audio on ebay. I found a McCormack TLC-1 passive preamp on ebay that I just couldn't ignore, and I got a great deal on it, paid and delivered for $321 (listed for $1295). They're not in production anymore, though smcaudio still offers some neat looking upgrades. I also found a place in FL, Revelation Audio Labs, that sells a power umbilical for the connection between the Nelson Link III and the PowerBase (6 pin DIN); got that too for $139. It definitely improved the sound and range, bass is punchier now, but not as pronounced as some of the reviews. The high end was grainy to start, but it's smoothed out since. The company is owned by a creationist, and it is sort of strange to see "god bless you" in email exchanges and manuals, but he was friendly and prompt. Anyway it's nice to be able to replace the lame cord that came with the PowerBase. After spending money for the PowerBase itself, you'd think they'd offer decent power cords for it.
So, I now have the TLC-1 in place of the Creek and it is startlingly different. It is so much brighter and clean sounding, it's hard to believe there could be such a huge difference between two passive devices. The TLC-1 also has a buffered output which is supposed to be more dynamic, but lack a bit of transparancy, which I tried briefly and to me it sounded like the midrange came through a little more, but I preferred the passive so went back to it. The Creek was so much warmer sounding, almost like a soft, cloudy veil, which made things, especially vocals, sound ethereal and airy, but I can't help thinking that it was coloring the sound to such a degree.
The staging with the TLC-1 is not quite as precise as I would have liked, but I think it still needs to break in, along with the new power umbilical cord. I've had the TLC-1 on for about 48 hours, hopefully they both will bloom. The TLC-1 is so much more dynamic than the laid-back Creek sound, it's almost like the Act-III, only missing some of the precision stage placement, which seems odd since passives are supposed to improve that. The stage seems a little flat, which I'm hoping will improve. Anyway, rock and reggae are much tighter and bass is much deeper than the Creek. It's much crispier sounding, though the airiness of the Creek was relaxing and nice.
I also sold the Acurus ACD-11 on audiogon. I posted it and within 3 days had 2 interested buyers. I sold it to a guy from the Hartford area for $350, we met for a pick-up so no shipping to deal with. So in the end I basically traded the ACD-11 for the TLC-1, not bad. I'm thinking of selling the Creek as well which would help recoup the cost of the awesome Meridian. Selling on audiogon was a good experience, and it makes me want to buy things and experiment with them more because I can turn around and sell without too much trouble.
In my research I learned of a couple of new interesting devices, the most interesting of which is the Placette passive preamps which use super nice all-vishay resistor volume controls. I'm tempted to test drive one of these but the single input one is $1k, which is a lot, even though it does have a remote, unlike the TLC-1. It may end up being a major drawback not to be able to control the volume with a remote, but we'll see.