New to the forum

[Kermie]

Hello all, I just wanted to introduce myself to the collective. I have been what my family calls an audiophile for many, many years. Not a true audiophile since my budget has never been audiophile worthy. Several years back I picked up a pair of ML Aerius speakers. The gentleman I got these from had a great system in his living room that he was running some newer Martin Logan speakers and was moving on from the Aerius. He also had a Mark Levinson Amp for sale, but again, budget restricted.

Anyway, I hooked up the Aerius speakers to a Crown 800CSL power amp with a Vincent SA31 hybrid Preamp. It sounded great, I was so impressed. I had to make adjustments to the set up of the speakers to get the most out of them. I finally got them perfect!!

I was thrilled until I got greedy. I did have a single powered sub hooked up, and decided to bring my dual powered subs from another system I had in the living room. I messed up the connections and ultimately killed my Crown amp.

So thanks to this great group, I have been doing a lot of research on what will work in my budget.

Anyway, thanks for having me folks and I will update once I get my new amp set up. The room is on the smaller size, so keeping in mind the set up is not ideal, it was great to my ears in the end.

Sorry for the not great focus with my Old Crown amp of the listening room.

 

[Brad225]

Welcome to the group Kermie. Audiophile is the obsession not the gear.

 

[Kermie]

Welcome to the group Kermie. Audiophile is the obsession not the gear.

Oh I am with you on that, it IS an obsession. I do rotate thru equipment in the different systems in the house.

It can be a pain to carry vintage Boston Acoustics A400s' up and down the stairs and moving some JBL L100Ts' etc lol

 

[Reverb]

Welcome to MLO! We're glad to have you join us!

 

[Leporello]

Welcome. There's no such thing as an "audiophile worthy" budget. I've known true audiophiles who could only afford a budget or minimalist system (I myself was one, for many years). Also I've heard of, though never personally known, people with gobs of money to spend on conspicuous consumption with nice gear, who are not true audiophiles.

A much better benchmark would be not how much money you've spent, but how much time you spend sitting down listening to music and doing nothing else. I see you have crate loads of LP's so that's a good start.

It doesn't even necessarily have to be an obsession (though when it becomes one, best to keep you hand tightly on your wallet). It just has to be that music (or movies if that's what floats your boat) and the high quality sonic reproduction thereof in the home is a significant part of your life.

 

[DanR]

Welcome. There's no such thing as an "audiophile worthy" budget. I've known true audiophiles who could only afford a budget or minimalist system (I myself was one, for many years). Also I've heard of, though never personally known, people with gobs of money to spend on conspicuous consumption with nice gear, who are not true audiophiles.

A much better benchmark would be not how much money you've spent, but how much time you spend sitting down listening to music and doing nothing else. I see you have crate loads of LP's so that's a good start.

It doesn't even necessarily have to be an obsession (though when it becomes one, best to keep you hand tightly on your wallet). It just has to be that music (or movies if that's what floats your boat) and the high quality sonic reproduction thereof in the home is a significant part of your life.

Very well said sir!!!!

 

[Kermie]

Welcome. There's no such thing as an "audiophile worthy" budget. I've known true audiophiles who could only afford a budget or minimalist system (I myself was one, for many years). Also I've heard of, though never personally known, people with gobs of money to spend on conspicuous consumption with nice gear, who are not true audiophiles.

A much better benchmark would be not how much money you've spent, but how much time you spend sitting down listening to music and doing nothing else. I see you have crate loads of LP's so that's a good start.

It doesn't even necessarily have to be an obsession (though when it becomes one, best to keep you hand tightly on your wallet). It just has to be that music (or movies if that's what floats your boat) and the high quality sonic reproduction thereof in the home is a significant part of your life.

Completely agree with you. I see many systems that I drool over, many on this forum. Always good to have ideas to work with. Years back I used to attend RMAF and loved to go thru the rooms and listen to everything on display. I am a mainly record fan, which helps I have a tolerant wife since storing over 2000 LP's is tough. In my listening room, I also run a Reel to Reel and have 2 cassette decks. What got me down, was I finally had the Aerius sounding excellent. But greed has a way of causing problems.

I look forward to some great listing sessions with the system when I get the new amp in place.

Thanks for the welcome everyone

 

[Mirolab]

It can be a pain to carry vintage Boston Acoustics A400s' up and down the stairs and moving some JBL L100Ts' etc lol

Oh wow... my first pair of high-end speakers in 1985 were Boston A400's, driven by an NAD 3150 (still working!). The A400's are long gone, but with very fond memories. If I found a nice used pair locally, I'd probably buy them!

 

[Leporello]

Completely agree with you. I see many systems that I drool over, many on this forum. Always good to have ideas to work with. Years back I used to attend RMAF and loved to go thru the rooms and listen to everything on display. I am a mainly record fan, which helps I have a tolerant wife since storing over 2000 LP's is tough. In my listening room, I also run a Reel to Reel and have 2 cassette decks. What got me down, was I finally had the Aerius sounding excellent. But greed has a way of causing problems.

I look forward to some great listing sessions with the system when I get the new amp in place.

Thanks for the welcome everyone

What amps are you considering to replace the Crown? How old is it? Per chance is it still under warranty?

I have a long winded story to tell, which reflects well on Crown's corporate policies, though not necessarily on the durability of their designs. I was an engineer at a small commercial TV station in the mid 1980's. The production crew flagged a D75 being used as a studio control room amplifier for the level LED's glowing all the time even with no signal. I put a 'scope on it and, as I suspected, is was oscillating at super-audible frequencies. I don't know how, exactly, but somehow I blew it up. Looking to see what I would have to replace around the transistors that had turned into wire nuts, I noticed the schematic in the service manual I had didn't match the amp. I called technical support and they asked for the serial number. I gave it to the guy, and he said that unit is still under warranty. I said that's nice, but I've probably already voided the warranty. He said don't worry, I'll be the one working on it, just send it in. I did, and a week or so later I had a working amp. Do check into getting yours fixed, if you haven't already. Of course, that was then.

Otherwise, Emotiva makes some good amps that people here have had good experience with. I have a 3 channel Emotiva amp I use for my center and surround speakers, though they're not ESL, and the capabilities and build quality are impressive.

Also, you don't hear much about them in high end audio circles these days but Adcom is still around. I paid about $600 for my original GFA 555 back in the mid-80's, to drive my then new Acoustats. It's replacement today is around $1800, which is consistent with inflation. (Yikes! All this was 40 years ago! Am I showing my age?) BTW my 555 still works fine.

Another budget friendly brand you could look at is Outlaw Audio. I have no experience with their amps, but had an a/v preamp/processor for maybe 5 years or so. They repaired it for me once under warranty (just under the wire) and it died again recently. I replaced it with an Emotiva, actually. Power amps are simpler and should be more durable.

BTW the amps I'm using now to drive my beloved CLS II's are Parasound Halo JC-1 monoblocks. They are not budget friendly, but they are magnificent.

 

[Kermie]

What amps are you considering to replace the Crown? How old is it? Per chance is it still under warranty?

I have a long winded story to tell, which reflects well on Crown's corporate policies, though not necessarily on the durability of their designs. I was an engineer at a small commercial TV station in the mid 1980's. The production crew flagged a D75 being used as a studio control room amplifier for the level LED's glowing all the time even with no signal. I put a 'scope on it and, as I suspected, is was oscillating at super-audible frequencies. I don't know how, exactly, but somehow I blew it up. Looking to see what I would have to replace around the transistors that had turned into wire nuts, I noticed the schematic in the service manual I had didn't match the amp. I called technical support and they asked for the serial number. I gave it to the guy, and he said that unit is still under warranty. I said that's nice, but I've probably already voided the warranty. He said don't worry, I'll be the one working on it, just send it in. I did, and a week or so later I had a working amp. Do check into getting yours fixed, if you haven't already. Of course, that was then.

Otherwise, Emotiva makes some good amps that people here have had good experience with. I have a 3 channel Emotiva amp I use for my center and surround speakers, though they're not ESL, and the capabilities and build quality are impressive.

Also, you don't hear much about them in high end audio circles these days but Adcom is still around. I paid about $600 for my original GFA 555 back in the mid-80's, to drive my then new Acoustats. It's replacement today is around $1800, which is consistent with inflation. (Yikes! All this was 40 years ago! Am I showing my age?) BTW my 555 still works fine.

Another budget friendly brand you could look at is Outlaw Audio. I have no experience with their amps, but had an a/v preamp/processor for maybe 5 years or so. They repaired it for me once under warranty (just under the wire) and it died again recently. I replaced it with an Emotiva, actually. Power amps are simpler and should be more durable.

BTW the amps I'm using now to drive my beloved CLS II's are Parasound Halo JC-1 monoblocks. They are not budget friendly, but they are magnificent.

Thanks for the great tips on amplifier options. The Crown 800CSL did sound great, but it was from the 90's so no warranty. My biggest issue with the Crown was the cooling fan. As soon as you fired it up. the fan was running, and really was not quiet.

 

[Russr]

Welcome aboard!
I too started of with Aerius speakers. Something I am considering (for SL3's and perhaps Aerius) is using an active XO (crossover) and bi-amping. See the thread "How to active bass", authored by @Brandon Hartwick :
https://www.martinloganowners.com/threads/how-to-active-bass-section.19237/#post-202648

 

[amey01]

You're an audiophile because you care - not because of your budget.

I'd sooner disparage someone for having ultra-high budget gear carelessly thrown into a room than I would someone with a more modest system who cares.

Some of the most intimate listening experiences I have ever had have been on some of the most un-audiophile equipment ever made. A 1970s National-Panasonic boombox playing in the garage after I had done some serious physical exertion; and a shopping centre's EWIS system when it was being fed a live performance are two examples that spring to mind.

Any system on this site exceeds the performance of 99.99% of systems in existence. Never forget that.