Thanks for the info Steve. What I'll try next is adding one of the CSP2+ or the trusty old CSP2 that I have to the Taboo MK III and see if it does "outperform" this modded Zen C amp.

I'm also going to try the Vinyl Flat "Can Opener" that I have with the Zen C amp to see if that makes a really good headphone amp out of the Zen C. What I want is to have from my available stash an amp or amp and preamp combo upstairs that can serve to drive speakers and also the Oppo headphones I am used to using upstairs--and then start thinning the herd of my audio excess. The Taboo Mk III should be a good fit for that, but it would also be easy to sell. We'll see what happens in the next week or so.

(I find the weekends a bit of a pill--I don't get to do much audio futzing or listening!)

Lon, what I'm hearing is good...how much is the new interconnects and how much is the 1961 Amperex 12AX7s...not sure but in the future I'll put the Sylvania 5751s Gold Pins back in to see what the interconnect may be adding.  Might be a small incremental change since I'm going from a Voodoo Evolution to the Voodoo Stradivarius Cremora.  Plus my audio memory is poor.  Mark.

Can't wait for Spanish caravan..

Mark, I don't think it would be a small incremental change in my system. Evolution to Stradivarius Cremona is a jump of a few design groups in the cable line (even more if you count a few versions of several of the cables that are now superseded by new versions). Evolution to Cremona. . . big difference in my system. And a positive one. Hope you get to experience that as well.

The Analogue Productions SACD (still in print, the Mobile Fidelity is long out of print).

In the Cave once again spinning Vinyl....

Disc 2

Last nites LP's

Geez Ace, THE TUBES! That's a crazy blast from the past. Still have the vinyl somewhere...

The Tubes reference got me thinking about what else we listened to in 1978 (the year I graduated from HS) and I remembered Mott. A band that rose from the crashed ashes of Mott the Hoople. I dug around way in the back of my shelves and found this. High School all over again.

The recent SHM-CD from Japan. Not my favorite Weston, but sounds extremely good in this edition.

The SHM-CD. Really two LPs as there's a whole other session added to the end that was never released at the time.

Japanese Blu-ray Audio disc. Was on sale for 10 bucks!

The new May 1977 "Get Shown the Light" box set, the Cornell Show, disc 3.

The SHM-CD. BAM! Great feeling album.

Well, I got in some Belden 9497 speaker cable this morning which allows me to set up the speakers in this second upstairs system more optimally and. . . wow.

Upstairs is really one big room with a little bathroom off to one side and a closet behind that. Like a loft really. So it's a much larger space than a bedroom and a surprisingly good room for sound.

The system is sitting on an all maple coffee table except for the speakers which are on a dressing table Lucy uses at right angles to the coffee table. The Denon sits on a 4" maple platform, the CSP2+ and the C amp both sit on Skylan amp stands made for Decware. All components rest on Herbie's Audio Lab Iso-Cups with Deep Moss Gemstone balls.

I have a PS Audio PPP as the electrical foundation, the Denon flagship universal player as the source feeding the CSP2+ and that feeding an Eddie Vaughn modded Zen C amp. This powers a pair of Peachtree Audio bookshelf speakers. All power cords to the PPP and to all components are PS Audio AC-12, and the interconnects to and from the CSP2+ and VooDoo Cable Stradivarius and Stradivarius Cremona. All the cabling is top-notch. This Belden speaker wire has a good reputation for use with tube amps and was not expensive. I think the PS Audio xStream Statement wire is much better speaker wire, but I just can't use it in this situation, it is heavy, rigid and I hate that I can't use it! But the Belden is proving to be suitable and it is very flexible and easy to route.

Wow. The sound is great! Lacking in low low end (the Statement wire would help there) at least so far (the wire is brand new). But lots of presence, plenty of detail and imaging and the tonal balance is pretty nice. Fast, dynamic. I can really sit and listen to this system quite a bit and I imagine it will get better as time goes by. I will enjoy having this system upstairs as over half my collection and half my instruments are upstairs and now I can listen as I browse and play along to something when I want to. Though without central air this is more a fall, winter, spring thing than a summer situation!

I rotated a few other preamps I have on hand (a CSP2 in a Select chassis, a CSP2+) and this CSP2+ will stay. The C amp will stay as well until my Taboo Mk IV is built and received, and then I'll put the Taboo Mk III that is in my main system as a headphone amp in place of the C amp and have a shoot out!

Last disc of the night. . . shutting down after this.

last nites LP's

2013 Remaster -

SRCS 9126-7, the 20 bit SBM version. Sounds really good.

The CD version of the RSD LP set, out today.