• I'll play.

    Me too, here's my main system, its not pretty but I like the way it sounds and I've made or tweaked everything myself to get it to do what I want. (Insert Boy Scout Tweaker Badge).

    In Julie Andrews styleee, starting at the beginning ("..a very good place to start...") with Sources, I only use 2, Vinyl and Squeezebox.

    Cartridge = Denon 103r MC fitted into a DIY'd mass loaded headshell as the 103r is a Low Compliance cart which needs a good mass to work against properly.

    TT = Good ol SL1210, no mods except the pitchfader bypassed and disabled.

    103r feeds into a pair of Cinemag SUT's...

    Which are wired for switchable gain and loading scenarios...

    ...they feed a cloned World Designs Phono 3 which is an all-valve pre-amp with passive RIAA feedback and no global feedback...

    ...which in turn is fed by a fully valve regulated HT supply...

    Digital source is a Logitech Squeezebox Touch that runs a 3rd party app called 'EDO', Enhanced Digital Output, which allows the Touch to run 24Bit 192Khz without down sampling to its native 24/96 limit.

    Running EDO precludes running the in-built DAC so I built (into an old Hearing Loop amp case I found in a junk shop cos I thought it was funny) an external DAC fed coaxially form the Touch. Main DACchip is a AK4396, basically an eBay jobbie, this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-DAC-24BIT-192KHZ-CS8416-AK4396-NE5532P-BOARD-KIT-FOR-DIY-/321023942010?hash=item4abe849d7a:g:K8QAAMXQhuVRT~SM

    ...which now looks like this...

    This 2 sources feed a simple switcher which routes to either a Valve power amp or a valve headphone amp.

    Obligatory pot-in-a-box 'big knob' (sniggers) Volume control which is a shunt wired 50K Alps pot...

    ...feeding a 3 stage all valve bread-boarded amp I've been tweaking/refining for a few years. In short its a DC coupled 5687 2stage voltage amp 1:1 inter-stage coupled to a cathode biased 2A3 running in SE. Output transformers are very saucy AE 2K5 silver wound seconadaries with Amorphous cores. I sold lots of stuff years ago to be able to by this pair 2nd hand when they became available. The HT voltage to the amp is supplied via 4 seperate Voltage regulated power supplies, each output valve has its own dedicated filament supply which was made simpler by a very clever designer chum to keep hum and noise to a minimum, a big problem with Directly heated Triode valves like 2A3 and 300B.

    Amp feeds these DIY'd LS3/5a's pictured previously in this thread...

    EDIT.

    Forgot Headphone amp, its a repaired and lightly modded Little Dot Chinese Directly heated Pentode design that feeds a pair of Sennheiser HD650's. They feed schweet tunes into my ears which my brain converts into smiles.

    The end!

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