u/groove-syndicate

The mission was to find an amplifier that would hold me over for awhile while I continued to research, refine my ear, and save towards something I’m going to enjoy for the next 20 years.

I went with the Ramsa WP9110 (Class A/B 150w into 4ohm) amplifier to drive my JBL 4722N (104db sensitivity) and it’s absolutely blowing my socks off (for what it is.)

The WP9110 was used primarily in studios to power passive monitors and it does exceptional with the JBL and grips the hell out of the 15” woofers.

Despite the JBL not needing much power to get loud, they certainly respond well to it. I have run them with low power tube amps and higher end audiophile amps alike and in doing so, I have a learned a ton.

You’d think that the Ramsa would be sterile and noisy being that it’s a pro amplifier and to my surprise it was neither. It has a dense and musical midrange, sweeter treble, and tight/authoritative bass.

Now, the absolute best they have sounded was with a Classe CA2100 that was lent to me by a pal. The Ramsa is surprisingly not light years away but does lack the finesse and refinement I had come to appreciate from the CA2100.

The main refinement I’m referring to is the airiness of the treble and balance of detail / smoothness of the higher frequencies. Because we are dealing with cinema horns for 2 channel music playback that makes it a big deal.

When running tubes for power, I found myself missing some of the slam I gained from solid state.
In my time listening up until this point, but believe that my final amp will be something high current and Class A adjacent but I do not feel a huge rush because I’m enjoying my little pro studio amp just fine! Haha

As always, I’d love suggestions! Bonus points if it’s silver and looks cool as hell

So I occasionally treat myself to a WFH day where I bring my work laptop in the listening room. I historically do not get much done on these days…

Anyway, it’s 2:30pm and I redid the record grid and took this neat picture 🤣

Filling up the 5-disc and enjoying the tunes is the most optimal way to spend a Saturday morning over coffee

This is a really fun system I put together for the next 2-3 months while my amp and tonearm are in for service.

This turntable downtime seemed like a primo time to experiment with CDs and lemme tell ya, It’s been an absolute blast to spin CDs for the first time since the early 00’s. The CD player I’m using is actually my late mothers that was in our family room.

The Ramsa is a pro amplifier made by Panasonic in the 80’s that’s vastly different than what I’d normally use but I’ve found it extremely visceral and dynamically engaging (especially in comparison to my daily driver Dynaco ST70). It also looks very “Mad Max” which I’m a fan of.

Is it neutral? Absolutely not.

Is it fun as can be? You bet.

Room: 12x14x8’
Treatment: (2-4) 12x48x3” broadband panels on side and rear walls, floor-to-ceiling 24” wide super-chunk style bass traps. 
Speakers: JBL 4722N Two-Way ScreenArray® Cinema Loudspeakers
Equalizer: Schiit Lokius
Amplifier: RAMSA WP-9110
Pre-Amp: Schiit Freya+ 
DAC: Schiit Gungir Multibit 
CD Transport: Yamaha CDC 655 (into Gungir)
Phono Pre-Amplifier: Schiit Skoll
Turntable (Motor): Denon DP3000 
Turntable (tonearm): Dynavector DV-505
Turntable (cartridge): Audio-Technica AT-VM740xML VMx Phono Cartridge

This is a really fun system I put together for the next 2-3 months while my amp and tonearm are in for service.

This turntable downtime seemed like a primo time to experiment with CDs and lemme tell ya, It’s been an absolute blast to spin CDs for the first time since the early 00’s. The CD player I’m using is actually my late mothers that was in our family room.

The Ramsa is a pro amplifier made by Panasonic in the 80’s that’s vastly different than what I’d normally use but I’ve found extremely visceral and dynamically engaging (especially in comparison to my daily driver Dynaco ST70). I also think it looks very Mad Max and I’m a fan of it.

Is it neutral? Absolutely not.

Is it fun as can be? You bet.

Room: 12x14x8’

Treatment: (2-4) 12x48x3” broadband panels on side and rear walls, floor-to-ceiling 24” wide super-chunk style bass traps. 

Speakers: JBL 4722N Two-Way ScreenArray® Cinema Loudspeakers

Equalizer: Schiit Lokius

Amplifier: RAMSA WP-9110

Pre-Amp: Schiit Freya+ 

DAC: Schiit Gungir Multibit 

CD Transport: Yamaha CDC 655 (into Gungir)
Phono Pre-Amplifier: Schiit Skoll

Turntable (Motor): Denon DP3000 

Turntable (tonearm): Dynavector DV-505

Turntable (cartridge): Audio-Technica AT-VM740xML VMx Phono Cartridge

Absolutely jaw dropping splatter from On Y Va Records. The colours pop just perfectly. This is a 6 track house / deep house compilation by the Canadian label, featuring the artists: Line.y, TheClaw, FRAN_CISCO, Flytz & BACK5PIN. You can check out the record here

This is the first time I’ve had a whole house to myself and after about 7 months, the listening room and living room are finally complete!

I spend most of my time in the listening room (second photo) but since completing the living room, I’ve thoroughly been enjoying lounging and watching movies (or more likely Bob’s Burgers) there a ton.

To me, they’re both fun little spaces to spend a whole day in.

I’d love to know what you guys think!

So I get suggested this sub on my feed a ton and have loved seeing what you guys put together so I’m pretty stoked to have something to share finally!

I recently found all of my old DVDs and Blu-Rays that were in storage (my mother passed and most everything from the house was packed and stored while I was away at school).

I spent the last 10 years focused on 2 channel music playback but the discovery of my old collection ignited a flame to create a pseudo-theater in my home.

In attempts to honor the collection I acquired over the course of 20 years, I set out to build a space to maximally enjoy my favorite films.
Because I have free, no extra rooms, and no roommate my “theater” is placed in my main living area.

Now, I think I’ve had some decent previous TVs; more recently was a Sony A80K that wasn’t compatible in the this space due to the natural light component. Theres also no place for rears given door and window arrangement so bear that in mind.
I was skeptical about the QM6K based on its price tag but its continued to impress me for what it is. I realize it’s not the a flagship level panel but for my less than discriminating eye, this is excellent.

The brightness component and price made this one a no brainer given the unconventional nature of my room.

I went with the Wiim Amp because this is undoubtably a casual movie viewing space and I wanted to utilize the halfway decent room calibration tools. Being that my 2 channel stereo system is all separates, I just wanted something low fuss and effort for now and this hit the mark.

The dialogue intelligibility of the B1s is exceptional. They perform equally as great for music as they do film. I chose these mainly for their treble clarity at their price point.

The Depth I was actually in my 2 channel system but I wanted to see how it paired with its fellow ML speakers and I couldn’t be happier with the performance given the limitations of the space.

I do recognize that having a center, rears, OLED would be vastly better but I feel that given the space constraints, this level of system was more appropriate and when I have a bigger house, I will likely explore building something more immersive and theater-like.

HOWEVER, I had no idea a 2.1 system could do movies as well as this system is doing for movies and I’m overall really happy!

For a more casual system, if you guys have suggestions on where I might be able to edge out more performance in this style of set-up, I’d love to hear it!

So my mother sadly passed away a few years ago and we put most of the miscellaneous household items in a climate controlled storage unit. I kind of forgot what all was in there until emptying the unit and it was a trip down memory lane…

There was tons of CDs, Blu-Rays and LPs that I simply forgot were in my possession but the crown jewel in my eyes was the Yamaha CDC-655 that was in our family room that played all of our music for the 20+ years we had the house.

Playing my mother’s and I’s old CDs on the player she had bought for our family has truly something special.

I’m running optical from it to my Schiit Gungir and I’m very satisfied sonically- hearing songs I’ve heard 1000 times growing up on a proper 2 channel system is incredible. Plus, I get to think about my mama every time I load up 5 discs.

I realize there are better transport options available, believe me.

I just couldn’t be happier to have THIS one.

I believe in my heart that a lot of us “audiophiles” became what we are because of music loving parents and that’s absolutely awesome.

My mother and step father shaped my music taste from jazz to disco and I couldn’t be more thankful to have been raised in a house where we were encouraged to play instruments and to listen to music at all times of day.

Who do you guys have to thank for getting you into the hobby?

I always regretted not taking my DVDs to college with me. I was a movie dork from a young age and even majored in film my first semester (I still work in media today funnily enough, just not FILM).

Sadly, I came home for a holiday break one year to find out my mom and step dad had separated and they were selling the house.

My mom had carefully packed my collection while I was away but unfortunately, there was a flood about a year later at our new house and (I thought) the collection was destroyed.

I remember how upset she was for me. I was pretty upset too but I did my best to hide it because it was an overall tough time in our lives. I reminded her it was just “stuff” and that it could be replaced and told her it was okay to discard them.

I don’t think I thought of my collection much since that day about 6-7 years ago…

In June, it will have been 6 years since she passed away unexpectedly.

Last weekend, my younger brother and I finally summoned the nerve to go through the storage unit with boxes of our childhood…

One of the first boxes I opened was filled to the brim with MY DVDs.

I couldn’t believe it.

Still in disbelief I opened a second box with even more than the first.

It hit me like a freight train: my mom had gone back and salvaged every single title without me having had any idea.

She passed before she ever got to surprise me with them all again but finding all of these was the closest I’ve felt to her in a very long time.

Watching these in our family’s DVD player has been really something.

Should I rotate my Kallax so the screws are on the sides? I'm worried about it collapsing if the weight is distributed wrong

To start this is a Clearaudio Concept v2 MM cartridge on a Clearaudio Satisfy tonearm on a Clearaudio Concept table.

I came home yesterday and saw that the cantilever was bent. I don't know if it got damaged, or if the tracking force / anti-skate caused it. I can push it but it does not seem to want to pop back in place, and it can hear some distortion when its playing. Here's where I need help or advice:

• Is this just the end of this cartridge? Its only 6 months old, and it just kinda sucks if so. What should I do?
• I have a Nagaoka MP-150 that was barely used on an old table - if I switch it out am I making a downgrade, lateral, or upgraded move?
• I've been in this game for years, but this is my first tonearm mounted cartridge (no headshell), and I have no idea how to switch this thing out. I can't seem to find any videos for this tonearm specifically, and I'm scared I'm gonna fuck it up. Does anyone have any advice? Also, I live in NYC, are there any services that would come on site and do it for me?

Finally made a couple of halfway decent reference playlists I thought I’d share for the fellow Spotify users 🤓

General Reference: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Te8M0mhYSfFB6qnvFG3ip?si=CY79gHnBS7qhDXRo8KxM8Q&pi=pvdqHrAQRWKzU

Bass Reference: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FEq31Qc9ja0CBvbH8hOiA?si=ix5r6dMyR2OkWErSw55OIA&pi=M7QTKmVFT9iT1

Let me know what you guys think and if I’ve overlooked any killer tunes.