System #290 (Spire)

RichTeer · Jan 18, 2009

1. Member name: Rich Teer

2. Location: Kelowna, BC, Canada

3. ML Model(s): Spire in Natural Cherry with clear binding posts

4. Year Purchased: 2009-01-16

5. Mods/Changes: None

6. Associated electronics:
Turntable: Forsell Air Reference Mk 2
Cartridge: Lyra Parnassus
Pre amp: Audio Research SP-9 Mk 2
Power amps: PrimaLuna ProLogue Sevens
Interconnects: Nordost Frey
Speaker cables: Nordost Frey
Power cables: Stock (for now...)
Power conditioner: Furman Elite 15-PFi

7. Comments/stories: So far, I love my Spires! More details later, once they've broken in some more.

8. Images: See below.

My music room:

The infamous clear binding posts:

My turntable:

My turntable and preamp:

twich54 · Jan 18, 2009

Hi Rich, glad to see you finally have the "correct" Spire's !

Lookin' good !! nice TT by the way !

Bernard · Jan 18, 2009

Very nice system, Rich. I can see why you decided to wait for those clear terminals :devil:

I see that you have the very same preamp as I do. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you replace the volume control with a DACT stepped attenuator, which you can get from Parts Connexion. It's expensive at about $200, but well worth the price for the HUGE improvement.

amey01 · Jan 18, 2009

Nice set of components!

RichTeer · Jan 18, 2009

Bernard said:
Very nice system, Rich. I can see why you decided to wait for those clear terminals :devil:

I see that you have the very same preamp as I do. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you replace the volume control with a DACT stepped attenuator, which you can get from Parts Connexion. It's expensive at about $200, but well worth the price for the HUGE improvement.

Thanks!

I'll give the stepped attenuator some thought, but any further expenditure will have to wait until I get some income. My next box upgrade will be a new preamp, although I've yet to decide which path to take. It'll either be something like the ARC Phono 7 using my SP-9 as a line stage, or an ARC Ref 3 using my SP-9 as a phono stage. (The upgrade after that will of course be to replace whatever the SP-9 ends up doing.)

But for now I'm just gonna relax and enjoy my new speakers! :music:

MiTT · Jan 18, 2009

Looking sweet there Rich. Absolutely love that turntable, and it looks like you have a decent collection of vinyl to spin on it over to the side. Another shot of that would be cool.

Is it just me or do you not have a digital source? I don't see one and you didn't mention one in your system post! You might be the only all analog guy on the site if that's the case.

I salute you sir... :bowdown:

FISH_MAN · Jan 19, 2009

they look nice man! yet another fellow spire owner I love the space you have around the speakers very good. the dire straits sound so good on my Logans glad to see another fan

FOUNTAIN · Jan 19, 2009

MiTT said:
Is it just me or do you not have a digital source? I don't see one and you didn't mention one in your system post! You might be the only all analog guy on the site if that's the case.

I salute you sir... :bowdown:

I believe it is the component sitting just above the Furman, and I do agree that you have a very nice looking turntable. If you get time some more pictures of that would be cool. Also, the rest of the system looks very eloquent. You must be in heaven with those new Spires!:music:

RichTeer · Jan 19, 2009

MiTT said:
Looking sweet there Rich. Absolutely love that turntable, and it looks like you have a decent collection of vinyl to spin on it over to the side. Another shot of that would be cool.

Is it just me or do you not have a digital source? I don't see one and you didn't mention one in your system post! You might be the only all analog guy on the site if that's the case.

I salute you sir... :bowdown:

PIcs of record collection to follow in a bit.

I do have a CD player (some old Pioneer thing), sitting on top of my power conditioner, but it rarely sees use. But it's great for breaking in speakers! Stick on auto repeat while I'm out and Bob's yer uncle! CD is unimportant to me, so I didn't bother listing it.

Joking aside, I'd say I listen to CD no more than 1% of the time, usually as background music. Serious listening is always from vinyl!

RichTeer · Jan 19, 2009

Just for Tim, here are a couple of pics of my record collection:

LPs, etc.:

12" singles, boxed sets, soundtracks and classical records (and some odds and ends):

RichTeer · Jan 19, 2009

And for Fountain, some more pics of my turntable. I will eventually reshoot some of these in better light...

Turntable close up:

Cartridge close up:

Enjoy!

JonFo · Jan 19, 2009

Great pics and nice system Rich. Congrats!

User211 · Jan 19, 2009

That's gonna sound really nice, Rich... top vinyl front end + tubes a plenty + Spires... wow! Uber cool! Congrats from the UK!

And EXCELLENT pics! Nice tasteful room by UK standards too!

User211 · Jan 19, 2009

Foul play - those pics are at a higher res than the site image uploader allows! They defiantely look great on my 46 inch Sony close up.

What's going on? Did you realise you had achieved this? Do a "properties" on them they are 200-300K!!!

RichTeer · Jan 19, 2009

User211 said:
That's gonna sound really nice, Rich... top vinyl front end + tubes a plenty + Spires... wow! Uber cool! Congrats from the UK!

And EXCELLENT pics! Nice tasteful room by UK standards too!

Many thanks! I was born and (mostly) raised in the UK, hence my UK-decor leanings, I guess.

User211 · Jan 19, 2009

No probs... know about your UK origins...

More importantly, I know you hate Microsoft, so what browser did you use? It failed to enforce the site image size restrictions, I reckon.

RichTeer · Jan 19, 2009

User211 said:
Foul play - those pics are at a higher res than the site image uploader allows! They defiantely look great on my 46 inch Sony close up.

What's going on? Did you realise you had achieved this? Do a "properties" on them they are 200-300K!!!

I use Photobucket.com to host my photos. It saves Tom some disk space and bandwidth (and therefore $$$) and I get to post higher res images. Everyone wins! (The original pics look even better here, at 1.2 MB each, they ought to!)

RichTeer · Jan 19, 2009

User211 said:
No probs... know about your UK origins...

More importantly, I know you hate Microsoft, so what browser did you use? It failed to enforce the site image size restrictions, I reckon.

I use Firefox. But see my other post for how I "bypassed" the site's file size restrictions.

TomDac · Jan 19, 2009

RichTeer said:
I use Photobucket.com to host my photos. It saves Tom some disk space and bandwidth (and therefore $$$) and I get to post higher res images. Everyone wins! (The original pics look even better here, at 1.2 MB each, they ought to!)

Great looking rig, Rich... and thanks for hosting your own images..

User211 · Jan 19, 2009

RichTeer said:
I use Photobucket.com to host my photos. It saves Tom some disk space and bandwidth (and therefore $$$) and I get to post higher res images. Everyone wins! (The original pics look even better here, at 1.2 MB each, they ought to!)

Yup if you do a "properties" it even says "photobucket" in there somehere. Missed that one. I was getting all confused - especially as the image size will be server side enforced. I had forgotten about the URL option in the image upload dialog. Must have been a hard day at work

Cool. Get ready for my 4 Mb images

System #290 (Spire)

Help Support MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum:

Well-known member

Forum Administrator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Super User

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Super Moderator

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

former MLO owner/operator

Well-known member

Similar threads