Wilson owner since 2010

rockitman

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Sep 20, 2011
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My Wilson journey started back in 2010 when I finally retired my Aerial Acoustic 10t's which were purchased back in 1994. At the time, my dealer also was showing off the Wilson Watt 3/Puppy 2 speakers. I liked them better than my Aerials but could not afford them at the time. When I decided to go back on my latest high end audio journey, the Wilson Watt Puppy 8 was purchased. The result of which made me desire a full system upgrade. I retired my Mark Levinson No. 27.5, No. 380S Pre and No. 36 DAC. I bought Pass XA-100.5 mono amps and the XP-30 main preamp. In 2012 with the introduction of XLF, I had an opportunity to step into Alexandria X-2.2's for a song and a dance, factory recertified and warrantied. I yearned for more scale and dynamics that only larger speakers could provide. I will be posting new pics of my system with descriptions over the weekend. It has come a long way.

edit: here is last night's photo shoot of my system:

The room, front view, rear view
 

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LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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It sure has!!! And I have been one (of many) who have watched it with great interest and admiration...congrats. Look forward to the ongoing story...
 

rockitman

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Now for some component close-ups. I have recently added Stillpoints Ultra 5's under my amps top chassis (gain stage). Previously I used them under the PS chassis only. There was an improvement in sound albeit not as significant as putting them under the PS's. Ultra 5's were also added under the Allnic H5000 DHT phono PS and the Pass XP-30 PS/Controller chassis. I previously used Ultra SS as they were cheaper and I felt were adequate for rack style components. In other words I deluded myself into thinking Ultra 5's would be overkill for rack components. I was wrong... Ultra 5's provided a significant improvement over Ultra SS under the power supplies. Recitifer tubes I use for the Allnic H5000 include Tele GZ32, Mullard and Valvo GZ34, Mullard GZ37, Westinghouse 5U4GB, Jan Phillips 5Y3WGTA and JAN RCA 5U4G (my favorite).
 

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rockitman

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now the turntables and United Home Audio Phase 11S RTR with outboard PS:
 

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rockitman

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Last pic is the XP-30 PS/Controller chassis which will soon be replaced by the Pass XS pre. After that, maybe I will check out those exotic ground boxes.
 

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Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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If I had words I'd express some thoughts. I don't, so I'll just drool!
 

Frank750

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Jul 8, 2011
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Looks great Christian! Congratulations on putting together a wonderful system.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
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Wow, what amazing hardware! Audio "man cave" doesn't get better than this. :D

The industrial design of the ALLNIC is just remarkable. I don't think I have ever seen a tube amp that has so well integrated the tubes into the chassis design.
 

rockitman

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Sep 20, 2011
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Wow, what amazing hardware! Audio "man cave" doesn't get better than this. :D

The industrial design of the ALLNIC is just remarkable. I don't think I have ever seen a tube amp that has so well integrated the tubes into the chassis design.

Thanks Amir. The clutter behind the chair is an O-scope, A810 circuit Bd spares, signal generator, spooling motor spares for Studer A810's and Technics 1500's. I now have a place, out of the room for that stuff, hence my de-clutter statement earlier. I keep some of the tube/cage covers on the Allnic off for easier tube swaps or if a tube needs a thwack, re-seat on the gain stage cuz it's noisy on start up. On the power supply, I keep it off since the rectifier is the hottest tube. I figure cooler is better for longer life and since they don't hold the signal, adverse microphonics shouldn't be an issue.
 

PeterA

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Dec 6, 2011
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Christian, Thanks for starting this thread. I particularly like the first photo of the entire room. For some reason, all previous images gave me a much different impression. I've followed your system fairly closely, first because of your Pass electronics, which have always been top models, and second because you were one of the first to own the TechDas and active isolation. Are the Pass XS Pre and Phono possible future upgrades?

If you can get around to it, would you post a bit about your music collection and possibly which format gives you the most pleasure?

Congratulations. It must sound incredible.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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Christian - I see you have these tuning dots scattered on your walls and I've seen it before on other setups. What improvement in sound did you achieve?
 

Elberoth

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Dec 15, 2012
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Nice to see a room, where someone actually spent some time optimizing the acoustics. I see way too many mega buck systems, thrown into completely untreated rooms (and I'm not talking bass traps in the corners here ...), even here on WBF.

Anyway - congrats, great system !
 

rockitman

Member Sponsor
Sep 20, 2011
7,097
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Are the Pass XS Pre and Phono possible future upgrades?

If you can get around to it, would you post a bit about your music collection and possibly which format gives you the most pleasure?

Congratulations. It must sound incredible.

The XS pre is on my radar for demo/purchase soon. My very recent indulgence expenditure on the Lyra Olympos mono cart may delay the purchase for a month. The XS phono is still a question mark. It all depends on the features, number of inputs, sound and of course price. I am very happy with the Allnic H5000 DHT phono which has such a variety of sound characters based solely on rolling the ps rectifier tubes.

My primary format is vinyl. I have most of what I want in rock/pop, jazz and classical. Each of which makes up about 30% of my listening time. Tape gets quite a bit of play, but the collection is far less than what I have on vinyl. As far as digital goes, mostly live recording...predominantly Grateful Dead. Thanks for the kind words.
 
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