Interesting! I think that with the speakers you won't need the power of the Torii. Reading your message I thought of the new Integrated. I love the sound of the single-ended EL34 or 6CA7, and think that could compliment the disc sound well. Then again, with the deep bass and rich midrange that can be had from 78s, the basic Zen amp with it's pure clarity could be just the ticket. So my two cents is to consider those two amps.

Hi Steve,

Appreciate the quick reply. I tried emailing you through the site but an error code came up every time saying I had the four digit number wrong so I emailed Sarah.

The SE34I.3 it is! And I will go for the VCAP upgrade.

I'm a very serious record collector and it's only in the past year I discovered the magic of shellac. Even on my current HH Scott 299a and janky Thorens TD124 I've literally been blown away by the fidelity compared to vinyl, ironically I was expecting the exact opposite since I've never read such difference on any audiophile forum and people complain about the noise. I'm afraid if I'm this spooked by the holography now what it's gonna be like once my new system's in place! Honestly vinyl sounds dry and thin in comparison.  [smiley=mir27.gif]

I used to spend many days inside a vintage studio transferring old masters off 30 ips 2" tape through McIntosh amps so my 'benchmark reference' is nearly unbeatable. Of course not too many people interested in 80-90 year old music, but I believe historically poor transfer quality much to blame for that.

regards,
78 Arch

Lon,

The fact that shellac sounds charming on such primitivity of a Victrola is a true testament to its quality. It dawned on me last year that shellac has a groove width four times greater and rpm speed two to three times faster than vinyl. The material itself has a very unique sound signature as well obviously. I have some 78s from the 50's that were pressed on vinyl and they do not sound as good as shellac. I own thousands of extremely rare vinyl LPs and 45s from the 60's and 70's and I have very little interest in them anymore, just as much sonically as the actual music. I'm only 31 years old btw but I much prefer pre-war music now. I'm amazed how many 78s (race records) I've found already that have NEVER been reissued in any format yet either.

78 arch

With your high post count here I'm surprised CD's would be your source format. I just read Steve's article "Potential Fidelity of CD's vs LP's" from 2001. I would've thought most using Decware amps would be primarily analog only. I don't say as criticism but mere observation.

I do have one question before I order the SE34I.3. If at some point I decide to combine the signal before the pre-amp instead of sending to two separate pre-amps and only use one channel input on the SE34I.3, is there any problem with doing so? I know this is a simple question but I know very little about electronics. If not a problem would I just turn the volume knob of the unused channel all the way down?

thanks,
78 arch

Well, I have to tell you the cleaning and storage process of shellac drives me a little nuts. My filing system involves one cardboard filler pad, a white cardboard hole-less sleeve around the filler pad, with another holed sleeve which holds the actual record plus two polyethylene sleeves around the former for just ONE shellac record deemed too rare for my 'regular' not-rare-enough filing system which involves half the material with two records. I'm half-japanese so my attention to detail is OCD but I am archiving historical artifacts. I own several hundred CD's as well, but mostly ones which were never commercially released, or recently of Document Records to hear how mediocre their pre-war are, no disrespect to them as they're the only label in the world taking on such an immense task over the years.

It looks like I just missed an original version of the SE34I, with separate dual mono, in the classifieds for half the price of the newest version.  :-/ But I do like the look and function of the new meters.  :)

The only reason I'm keeping the two channels separate is so I can pick the lesser degraded of the two groove walls for transferring purposes but ideally for simple playback I'll eventually want to bi-amp an Altec 604 or similar. I forgot to mention most of my raving of shellac is based on true one speaker mono playback. The image depth, combined with the lack of near-infinite phase errors of two speakers which can't be understated, is in my opinion the holy grail of audio reproduction. When the holography doesn't allow you to not listen actively, that is a rare experience. With vinyl it was borderline, but with shellac it really grabs you by the cojones.  :D

The long wait's the only thing keeping me from ordering right now! Three months actually isn't that long for custom audio but I've already waited a long time for all my other components.

Lon,

I haven't picked up any of the Jazz Oracle stuff. What titles would you recommend?