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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: any of you guys have an entire DIY sys. posted by yamski on November 24, 2001 at 11:13:26:
Hi,> im interested in knowing if any of you guys current system is
> entirely DIY, excluding source.Mine is. Even though the preamp at the moment is a commercial unit, it's over only for a short stay. My OWN system is all DIY with indeed only sources commercial and even there I have done MAJOR modifications on all but the turntable (yes, arms and cartridges tend to be more or less modified). The DAC I use now is also a modified commercial unit, but a replacement for my previous DIY DAC is in the works. A DIY CD Transport is being worked on (slowly) too. All cables are DIY (of course). The speakers are DIY too, even though based on tannoy plans and passed on to me by the widdow of a Friend who did the DIY bit.
> How do you feel about it compared to other systems.
I have heard VERY FEW systems that match my current system in ALL the areas I count as important (Dynamics, Dimensionality, Tonality, Pace - DDTP). There is lots of stuff out there that betters one or two aspects, few is any that outperform across the board, which I'd need with my very wide taste in music. Of the systems that I like equally well one is also manily DIY (including Electrostatic Steakers), the other is Wilson Audio Watt-Puppy with Kondo/Audio Note Japans Amplification.
I think the full Rockport system is possibly better (little exposure) and FM Accoustics best amps driving JM Labs Utopia in a MUCH larger room than mine with Clearaudio Reference Table and TQ Arm, Inside Cartridge als was VERY much to my liking, but coming home was no disappointment. And for the money on that system I could have had mine, my record collection my house and nice japanese sports-car plus a real pretty and nice russian mail order bride into the bargain....
The System shown at this years London HiFi Show by the Clearaudio/Acapella Distributor was not bad either (Clearaudio Reference/Insider, Cat Preamp, Halcro Poweramps and Acapella Speaker) but had problems on dynamic range and pace, otherwise nice. I also liked the full blown Naim System with the "DBL" (Damn Big Loudspeaker?) they showed last year, normally I don't much go for Naim. Still, bright and forward tonality and poor dimensionality made thsi system weak, even if dynamics and pace where excellent.
As an aside, the Pioneer System for 5 Channel DVD Audio Demo was great, big "Japan only" TAD made Monitors * 5 plus nondescrips Pioneer AV Gear (top of the range though) in a very nice, large and acoustically trated room - this was GREAT. I want a new bigger house, more tannoys, more Amps and GOOD 5-Channel recordings, not that any of it is likely to happen.
> and include the cost for the entire system.
The Speakers where free, if I had to build them around $ 3,000 for a pair of mint Tannoy Monitor Red 15", plus $ 1,000 to make the Enclosures (solid wood, no plywood or MDf - it's 30% of the sound).
The Amplifiers are kits, $ 775 the pair, plus around $ 450 worth of Valves that where not in the Kit and around $ 30 for passive part upgrades, plus shipping, so around $1,500 in total.
The preamp is a DIY copy of the Shindo Claret, mostly build with "what I had lying around", If I had to build it in a nice 19" case, with decent passive partys etc, the cost would be around $ 600 in parts.
The MC Stepup Transformers as raw transformers where $ 240, plus a few dozend bucks for knick knacks, call it $ 300.
The Cables cost little, around $ 500 overall in materials, including good quality connectors etc.
My DIY non oversampling TDA1541 DAC will come in at around $600 - $700 in parts (I'll tell you for sure once I'm finished).
So call it overall $ 7,500 in materials for my current System, plus a few grand on the digital sources and digital room equaliser, overall < $ 10,000 I should think. Add the turntable plua Arms/Cartridges and you have around $ 15,000.
>How must do you think your system would cost if it was commercial?
As some of the prts are commercial and othrs have commercial equivalents, lets count:
Tannoy Canterbury or Churchill $16,500 or $14,000 respectively
Opera M500 Amplifiers per german pricelist $ 2,800 plus $ 450 for Valves - not quite as good as the UK modified version which matches my own units, but I ain't got the prcie for that handy
Shindo Claret Preamp - discontinued, equivalent current commercial product probably Hovland HP100, $ 4500 probably more for MC Phono.
Cables of equal quality would likely have to be in the major boutique range (stuff like Kimber 8TC/PJB does not come even close), givn the inflationary pricing of cables, the DC biased shields on interconnects, the large amount and length of cables in my system etc we shall just set the cost for equal commercial cables (including power cables) arbitrary to $ 10,000, I'm sure more is easily spend (not joking)....
For the Sources etc including turntable we counted $ 7,500 before, so we keep that.
That makes a total of around $ 40,000, though I'm not sure that the $ 40,000 commercial system would be quite as good, it should be close.
Had I not recently sold my Amp and Preamp to fund other projects I think prices would have crept majorly on both parts cost and commercial equivalents (or rather, commercial equivalents would have been out of question), but it will be sometime untill I get back to using my own designs, at the moment much gear is on Kit Level and thus has commercial equivalents with good, but easily exceeded performance.
Still, it plays music FOR ME as well or better than I'd wager 90% of all High End system would. Part of that is very much a tailoring to suit MY taste.
Ciao T
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Follow Ups
- I do.... - Thorsten 18:22:56 11/24/01 (2)
- Re: I do.... - RJW 19:30:01 11/24/01 (1)
- Re: I do.... - Thorsten 19:50:46 11/24/01 (0)
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