Todd's AG Trio G3 System -- it's about time

[AudioLibertarian]

Tom,
Many videos of my systems can be found in the following threads here:

Friday night listening

There is a smarter way

Many Videos of my latest reference system can be found here:
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Designing and assembling the ultimate horn based system

Just looked at your Oct 2019 video. Do you still own and use the Tube Research Labs preamp and amp? Is that GT-100 ? Thanks!

 

[Carlos269]

Just looked at your Oct 2019 video. Do you still own and use the Tube Research Labs preamp and amp? Is that GT-100 ? Thanks!

Yes, I still own two Tube Research Labs Golden Triode References Platinum edition preamps. I was not a big fan of Paul’s amps,, only of his preamps.

 

[AudioLibertarian]

Yes, I still own two Tube Research Labs Golden Triode References Platinum edition preamps. I was not a big fan of Paul’s amps,, only of his preamps.

Have you had a chance to listen to the GT-400 with real Brimar EL 34? That was something extraordinary in my experience, even made Wilson Watt &Puppies sound tolerable for longer than 10 minutes... Are your preamps custom built with optional remote control for volume by any chance? Thanks

 

[Carlos269]

Have you had a chance to listen to the GT-400 with real Brimar EL 34? That was something extraordinary in my experience, even made Wilson Watt &Puppies sound tolerable for longer than 10 minutes... Are your preamps custom built with optional remote control for volume by any chance? Thanks

No, I never did hear his GT-400 with real Brimar EL-34 tubes. Both preamps are custom built but neither has remote control option. My second unit was Winston Ma’s unit and can be seen in pictures of his home’s listening room, First Impression fame.

 

[bonzo75]

Collecting Beethoven 5th third movement

 

[sbnx]

According to Shazam, for the three videos above: The first is the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karaian, the Second is Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orcestra, and the third is Ingrooves Symphony Orchestra. I have a few versions of Beethoven's 5th. I will record one or two at some point and post it here for your studies.

 

[bonzo75]

According to Shazam, for the three videos above: The first is the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karaian, the Second is Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orcestra, and the third is Ingrooves Symphony Orchestra. I have a few versions of Beethoven's 5th. I will record one or two at some point and post it here for your studies.

both the trio and the first one are the same Karajan Berlin. Shazam is incorrect on the Ingrooves

 

[caesar]

There is no way to try that many cables. Obviously the first thing is to establish how much you want to spend. IC's came down to three cables -- Chord's TheMusic, Nordost Odin2 and Crystal DaVinici. I never go to audition the DaVinci butI believe it would sound very nice with the horns. What all three of these have in common is they have great timing characteristics and they are all quiet. For power cords I would have liked Odin2 but just not in the budget. With the horns it is important that the cable be quiet (Meaning lower the noise floor). Argento FMR fit the bill nicely. It gets rid of so much resonant noise in the system. I really like what it does. A word of caution to those who might want to consider FMR. It has a VERY long burn-in cycle. If you listen to one in your system make sure it has months of time on it. Even then it takes about 3 days to settle once you plug it into your system. Although Argento makes silver cables they don't have that characteristic "silver" sound to them. It seems Argento and Crystal have figured out how to treat the silver to make it sound glorious instead of etched.

Thanks for the reply. Agree that too many options with cables, and one just has to decide and stop ...

Back to sound...

Now that your setup is pretty much complete , what is your system doing better than what your at the distributor's house? Is it a night and day difference? If I recall correctly, you mentioned that her setup was good but not fully optimized. What has the extra effort gotten you? thx

 

[sbnx]

The system is nearing completion. Some recent changes:

I can't remember if I posted about the fuse exploraton project. I started with QSA yellow in everything. Unfortunately, CH gear has two fuses, main and stand-by, and they both matter. The main fuse matters more. I ended up with red/black fuses in all the main positions. I put a violet fuse in the standby on the DAC and yellow fuses on the other two stand-by locatons. This was really, really, really worthwhile. The red/black and especially with the violet breaks down what most people think of as the CH sterotypical sound.

A few weeks ago I got a set of four Neodio B2's to experiment with. You can see my thread on this topic to see what effect they had. But very positive. These things can be a great finishing touch to any system as you can really dial in the sound with them.

Two weeks ago I changed my in-wall AC cable from JPS labs in-wall to the DH Labs SilverSonic. Both 10Gauge stranded. The primary resaon for the change was I needed a little longer runs. However, the metalurgy of the JPS always bugged me. It is tin coated copper alloy. The DH Labs is silver plated copper. Better. Not an Earth shattering change but it was there.

There was one last gain switch on the iTron amp that I had not swiched to the low position. It is was the lowely -1.5dB one. I don't know why I had just never one this yet. It had the same effect as the other two. Lower noise floor. Nice effect!

This past weekend I got my last 4 power cords so everthing is now powered with Agrento FMR. I am still using the Shunyata Everest for the front end and the Denali T2's for the speaker amps. The FMR is quite an upgrade. Much, much quieter cable. Much richer sounding and smoother highs. This cable really gets rid of that mechanical noise thing (bloom and blur) that is in a lot of other cables.

My Wadax Reference Server arrived on Monday. Been warming that up and running it in a little this week without listening to it. Today I listened and WOW! that was a huge change. Massive amounts of detailed, textured bass showed up. Of course it has a lower noise floor so everything sounds so much clearer. Highs are smooooth. I thought thiings sounded great before. Well, you don't know what you don't know until you know it. The addition of the Ref Server is going to require some tweaks to the speaker placement as there is so much bass it is a little out of proportion now.

What's left? I got some "AQ Fog Lifters". I need to clean all my contacts and get all of the cables organized nicely. I also need a red/black for the Wadax and a couple more violet fuses for the stand-by's. I also need to get a better USB cable. I also need some speaker cables for my subwoofers and get them integrated (after the main speakers are set). And I need at least 8 more B2's. I also want to experiment with a couple damping plates on the Wadax. Like I said "getting close"

How is the sound? Mind blowing good. There is that saying in audio "garbage in = garbage out". I think sometimes we point our finger at the speaker and say "Ah ha; you are bright, you are edgy, you are blurry, you are ....." When in reality the speaker is just conveying the information it is being fed. Or it is the victim of poor placement by the owner. Don't get me wrong. There are some bad speakers out there. But most of the top end speakers can driven to sound very convincing with a little TLC and a lot of $$$.

There is an alternative. If you go back to the beginning of this thread you will see the video where I talk about being in a huge bubble and it is like being wrapped in a warm blanket. This effect was achieved by very rough (poor) placement of the speakers. It would just depend on what type of musical experience the person is after. The big, warm bubble is not what I am looking for.

 

[spiritofmusic]

I know you prefer to be "the first SBNX" rather than "the next Mike Lavigne", but I think you should accept that in the complimentary spirit it's made.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

@sbnx

Todd, congrats on the Wadax Reference dac, that's a winner there you got.!!!

 

[sbnx]

I know you prefer to be "the first SBNX" rather than "the next Mike Lavigne", but I think you should accept that in the complimentary spirit it's made.

Everyone has their individual journey. Just trying to communicate mine in a way that others might find useful in one way or another.

 

[sbnx]

@sbnx

Todd, congrats on the Wadax Reference dac, that's a winner there you got.!!!

Mike, thank you for the kind comment. As you know, you can hear these things at shows in systems you arent familiar with and think you got what it’s about. But when it comes home the gloves come off and you realize just what this thing is.

i have a saying “Don’t test drive a ferrari unless you are prepared to buy it on the spot.” Because one you have had the experience there is no going back. The Wadax is just like that.

 

[sbnx]

I just thought of something funny that recently happened. The dealer delivered and installed my FMR cables. Before he did he asked if he could listen and of course we did. After the first song he sat there and said “Wow, that is soooo … rich sounding”. Think about that. CH Precision on horns and the first word is “rich”. I was pleased with the comment as the system had come a long way since he last heard it. This is what I meant by the above statement about breaking some of the CH stereotypes.

 

[caesar]

Mike, thank you for the kind comment. As you know, you can hear these things at shows in systems you arent familiar with and think you got what it’s about. But when it comes home the gloves come off and you realize just what this thing is.

i have a saying “Don’t test drive a ferrari unless you are prepared to buy it on the spot.” Because one you have had the experience there is no going back. The Wadax is just like that.

Congrats! Did you get to hear it in your own system before purchasing?

(obviously you did not trust the opinion of the distributor that wadax and trio are "poor synergy", per the video you posted.)

 

[joey_v]

Todd
Congrats!
I am sure this is a one of a kind system.
I am not sure if I ever want to hear it, as ignorance is bliss sometimes.
I applaud your efforts with the hobby. Pushing the limits is something to be commended for.

 

[sbnx]

Todd
Congrats!
I am sure this is a one of a kind system.
I am not sure if I ever want to hear it, as ignorance is bliss sometimes.
I applaud your efforts with the hobby. Pushing the limits is something to be commended for.

Thanks Joey, i will have to come hear your system sometime. When i get everything wrapped up after the first of the year you are welcome to come over for a listen.

 

[Carlos269]

Todd,
Were these recordings, below, done after your meticulous set-up, Stirling Trayle’s final tweaks, with the CH+ L10 linestage, and the WADAX digital?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Mike, thank you for the kind comment. As you know, you can hear these things at shows in systems you arent familiar with and think you got what it’s about. But when it comes home the gloves come off and you realize just what this thing is.

i have a saying “Don’t test drive a ferrari unless you are prepared to buy it on the spot.” Because one you have had the experience there is no going back. The Wadax is just like that.

audio shows are not good spots to find objectivity. everyone's head is a bit tweaked, and cause and effect is so confused.

agree, no going back.

it was a huge effort to get the Wadax Ref dac and server shipped to my room to directly compare to my Select II and Extreme. and i never would have done that if i had not heard the Wadax combo in a mature system at the dealer in Florida, in a room i had heard previously with the CH Precision 7 box mono dac which had impressed me a couple years prior. while i fully expected to buy it when it was shipped to me, i wanted to actually hear it head to head.

yet many doubters even after i did my due diligence. just how things go with digital religion.

 

[caesar]

audio shows are not good spots to find objectivity. everyone's head is a bit tweaked, and cause and effect is so confused.

agree, no going back.

it was a huge effort to get the Wadax Ref dac and server shipped to my room to directly compare to my Select II and Extreme. and i never would have done that if i had not heard the Wadax combo in a mature system at the dealer in Florida, in a room i had heard previously with the CH Precision 7 box mono dac which had impressed me a couple years prior. while i fully expected to buy it when it was shipped to me, i wanted to actually hear it head to head.

yet many doubters even after i did my due diligence. just how things go with digital religion.

Hi Mike, not sure I’m following your logic here. You did your due diligence. You love wadax. you bought it. Sincerely thrilled for you! You are not an Oligarch, even if that idiot from the Analytical Sound, Steve stone, thinks you are. God bless the freedom that the Western culture bestowed upon us and free market that allows guys like you and SBNx to pursue your passions to the fullest.

but as we discussed several times before, discussing the Naive Realism psychological fallacy, why are you assuming that wadax or your prior msb will emotionally impact others the way they move you?

The NA Avant garde distributor prefers dcs apex. She’s got both apex and wadax and obviously compared …

and you think the hard core msb fan boys will agree with with your due diligence in all cases?