The Las Vegas Audio Club: September 2013

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Our Second Meeting

Ok, fellow audiophiles in the Las Vegas area and everywhere really (this is the world wide web after all,) the first audio club ever in Sin City, has now completed its second meeting!

We had our second meeting this last Saturday, (which was 9-28-13)

This time LVAC member Kirk hosted the affair, with his amazing 5.1 surround sound system!

We had a great time listening to tunes, sound effects, and watching videos on Kirk's system. Good food and drink were served. And once again, it was good times!

Right now we have 8 members, and we're looking for a few more good audiophiles in the Vegas area and beyond.

We also would like to introduce our new members Tony, Nick, Barry, and Robert! Thanks for joining guys!

Again, meetings will be once a month.

So, don't be shy, we'd love to have you for the next meeting, and as of now it's still FREE to join!

Any questions? email us at: dave_a_2005@hotmail.com or motorcitydeadman@gmail.com

Photos of the event are below. Photos were taken by club member Des Williams, who once again is conspicuous by his absence!

The system is as follows:

Television:

Sony Bravia IV (LCD), 55”

Prepro:

Marantz AV8801

Amp:

Arcam P1000 (135w x 7)

Blu-ray/CD player

Oppo BDP-95

Speakers:

B&W LCR-6 (Left, Center, Right)

B&W CDS-6 ceiling mounted surround speakers

Subwoofers:

Velodyne SPL-1000

iPod interface:

Wadia i151

Cables:

AudioQuest Carbon HDMI (DVR to prepro, Blu-Ray to prepro, prepro to TV)

Silnote Morpheus Reference II XLR (Oppo BDP-95 to Marantz AV8801)

JW Cryo-Nebula RCA (Oppo BDP-95 to Marantz AV8801 -- for demonstration of difference between Silnote XLR and a decent RCA cable)

Monoprice 0.5m XLR (Marantz 8801 to Arcam Amplifier)

Kimber cable speaker wire (L, C, R) with locking banana plugs from Blue Jeans Cable

Kimber cable digital (RCA) cable (Wadia to Marantz AV8801)

Tributaries subwoofer cables (RCA)

LVAC member Kirk with his system


What a Motley Crew! From left to right, LVAC members Dave, Tony, Kirk, Robert, and Nick Not pictured: Barry and Des.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Component of the Week: Accuphase C-27 phono preamp

This is LVAC member Dave's pick for Component of the Week.

Dave says: "One of the best phono preamps on the market today. It will literally make your records sing. There's lots of loading options and the ability to connect 3 turntables! And that fantastic Accuphase build quality. A true state of the art product!"

Links: http://www.accuphase.com/model/c-27.html

http://www.accuphase.com/model/c-27.html

Price: $12500 USD

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Component of the Week: The McCormack DNA 1.0 Deluxe amp (gold level)

This is LVAC member Nick's pick for Component of the Week.

Nick says:

"I bought the McCormack DNA 1.0 Deluxe amp used on Audiogon for $1,000 last year. Have upgraded it to gold level which cost $1,865. That includes the high performance diode bridge and HiFi tuning fuse. I did the diode bridge not necessarily for performance at this time, but rather because Steve said it is so much easier to do now while the gold upgrade was being done. Here's the link to his site http://smcaudio.com/ upgrades The amp has 100 hours on it. It is a huge improvement over my CIA D100's. Excellent resolution, more body and slam. Gorgeous midrange. I have SP Tech 2.1's upgraded to 3.0 status. It's a great speaker imo. Both the amp and speakers are very neutral. I am only running my dac into the amp. It is a modded Squeezebox 2 with dedicated power supply. The sound is quite good considering it's from 2007. But it has that digital edge. A friend is lending me his Buffalo diy dac. I will have it in a few days and that should (hopefully) be an eye-opener for me. I'll be auditioning interconnects and speaker cables soon as well. I also have a Basis Ovation turntable with a Graham 1.5 arm, but I haven't run phono for 5 years. I know, I have to get that going.... So I'm going to be a busy guy for a while with all this going on."

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Component of the Week #2: Oppo BDP-105 Universal disc player

This is LVAC Robert's pick for the second Component of the Week.

Robert says: "Can be used as a pre-amp, has hdmi switching builtin, USB Dac, can do DSD playback, uses the acclaimed ESS Sabre DACs, balanced outputs. Wish I had one!"