Friday, October 5, 2012

New Room, New Stereo Changes

 
Due to some future job changes, I've sold my current house and have moved into some temporary rental digs.  It's still a house, but a little smaller than before.  I have a listening room of sorts, but due to the smaller room, the UREI speakers are being put into storage.  Instead I have a pair of vintage Spica TC-50s coming in the mail.  Though these will lack the punch, bass, and pure "wow" factor of the big UREIs, this little monitor is still time-aligned and known for its imaging capabilities.  Review coming soon.

The fear of moving a stereo from one location to the other is the chance of something being broken.  I made the mistake of keeping the Denon DL-103R cartridge attached to the tonearm.  A slight accident, even though the tonearm and removable base was moved separately, caused the cantilever to snap.  It was due for a replacement anyways, but it still hurt.  Since I've gone to smaller digs and less revealing speakers, I've opted to try the Denon DL-110 high-output moving-coil cartridge.  Review coming soon.

And since the overall system is being compromised, I've also decided not to burn up my vintage Mullard XF2 EL34 tubes and will be running something a little more modern.  I have a two quads of Shuguang EL34s which sound half-decent with the EICO HF-60s.  These, and a pair of Hitachi 5AR4s, will be put into service until the listening room situation improves.

On another note, moving the UREI speakers up a flight of stairs required three relatively strong guys.  Each speaker had to be strapped to a dolly and then wrestled up step by step.  Having a low trailer was also useful since tipping them up on a high 4X4 pickup truck would damage many backs.