Hello dear musical mystics,

I have spent some time with my system over the past few years…. I am looking to make final tweaks in order to obtain what I perceive to be last little bit of tonal soul, texture, glow, while retaining the expansive soundstage and presence which seems present in my current setup…

How to get the last bit of tone, texture, glow, and instrumental essence?

System:
Nagra Streamer —> Cardas Clear Coaxial —> Soulnote D1 DAC —> Silversmith fidium —> ZBit 2—> Silversmith Fidium —> Zrock 3 w/ telefunkten tube —> Silversmith Fidum —> Decware 300B w/ Telefunkten 12au7, Mullard NOS Voltage, Amperex E88cc D-getter power tubes, WE 300B —> Anticables Flex 4.2 Speaker Cables —> Mundorf SGO Cap —> Anticables Flex 4.2 to 15” Woofer and Horn.

I feel I have really maximized the soundstage and speed and extension… in my pursuit of texture and tone I’ve tried the following:

1: Duelund 16ga between my crossover and horn: Promising, but the soundstage and presence collapsed a bit

2: Duelund Tinned Copper Foil Cap in parallel with my main cap in the crossover … effect TBD as it is burning in…

3: VCap in place of Mundorf SGO Cap: I enjoyed the VCap with the Duelund wire to my horn, and have been going back and forth… the Mundorf begins to feel too soft at times, even though its sensuous and glorious

I and considering the following, please tell me what you all think of these strategies:

-Snake River Audio speaker and crossover-driver Wires: From what I gather this may be a lovely solution to keep the best of both worlds: texture and tone with space and soundstage and speed… what do you think of this? I am beginning to suspect the anti cables throughout is too lean and dry for my tastes / system

-Tube rolling… I have other gain tubes available, which I will roll….  Radio technique, RCA, Bugle Boy, Mullard NOS…. Any suggestions?

Thank you all for your advice!
r.

Yes, I am on the list now for a hopefully soon to manifest Dynagrid Jr. Glad to hear it adds tone ontop of the soundstage....

The power cable on the amp is the Decware v3 (for some reason now presently sold?). The amp is also running a graphene slugo on a swiss fuse box, and running through an Angela Gilbert young XF 300 conditioner, hooked up through a Shunyata CX Helic cord, through furutech rhodium outlets, on a dedicated curcuit. (writing out this sentence proves I've lost a few marbles...!)

The rectifier is a SOPHIA ELECTRIC 5U4XL Mesh Plate. Its a new version from them as my older Sophia Electric rectifiers arced...

What is the RS Audio CF-1 and MF-1?

thank you all for your brilliant insights!

Also, taking note of the +1 on Snake River Audio speaker cables.... do you think this is the right direction, and will be a big difference???

r.

Make your signal path as simple as possible and replace your amp’s caps with Miflex KPCU, source from Sonicraft and go for level 3 matching.

Much of this is pretty subjective. For example, I haven’t found any meaningful upgrade from SRA cables over basic Decware cables. I always think it’s best to focus on your goals and what you think you’re missing rather than someone else’s selection.

The complication of having a crossover in your speaker may be having a larger impact on what you are hearing than cable and tube choices.

I'm of a different philosophy system wise from some of these others recommending. I will add on tube types:  try Tung-Sol black glass 12AU7 and the GE "Smokey" 6DJ8. These give a rich sound especially together in my SEWE300B.

I think you'll really like the Dynagrid Jr. It really responds well to tuning and will influence the whole system. I think you are beyond the KISS status (I don't think that is a bad thing as I used to ascribe to that philosophy but really have found much more happiness beyond it) and can settle down to a listening world for a while before making further changes. You have solid bones.

It's very hard for ME to answer that definitively as IMO those characteristics are also contributed to by so many other factors and systems can be so different. But my gut says yes, there will be a positive influence on those characteristics, just as some rectifiers are better than others, and to me the JR. just feels like the best possible rectifier for the SEWE300B (I haven't tried it in another component) and I have tried probably a dozen rectifiers in that amp, now gathering dust. So as the JR. seems so transparent and dynamic it makes sense to me that the tone and texture of the input signal would be faithfully transmitted.

Hello all, love the comments.... some more info...

I had previously used a Holo Audio Spring 2 with Kitsune 3 upgrades, which was nice, but I realized it felt a little bit shrouded and muted in my system. I just got the Soulnote D1, which is much more energetic and have been enjoying it a lot...

I recently tried the following:

-Duelund Capacitor 0.01uF 630Vdc CAST-Sn/Cu Series Tinned Copper Foil WPIO
Burned in on a frybaby for 4 days, In Parallel with my main Crossover Capicitor

-VCap main capacitor in crossover (Mundorf SGO is just too shrouded and kind in my setup)

-Duelund 16ga from crossover to my horn

I must say, there is surge of much welcomed tone and texture.

The soundstage hasn't collapsed as it had when I last tried duelund wire. I think all the other changes I have been making (telefunkten gain tubes, the decware zrock 3 and zbit 2, and the amperix d-getter on the power tubes) have kept the soundstage nicely far and wide.


Do you think from this point, that the biggest step forward would be the Dynagrid, or the Snake River Audio Takeshita Speaker Cables and driver wire?

Thanks all,
Richard

Quote:


In terms of your ZRock…I would suggest your Mullard NOS.  I just replaced my Amperex Holland Pinched Waist 7062 tube with a NOS Mullard Blackburn 12AU7 and it was a nice change.  The 7062 puts out a bit more gain than the 12AU7, so on vinyl I enjoyed that added gain.  The 7062 was faster, detailed, great for the top end.  But… the Mullard gave me great beautiful midrange  with more realism and natural tone.  It was slower but not in a bad way.  

Now with my CSP preamp…I am running a pair of NOS RCA smoked glass 6SN7 output tubes.  This tube is very transparent with great dynamic range with that nice lush midrange and expansive soundstage.   Hopefully this helps a bit.