Sold. Esoteric P70 transport for sale.Very solid heavy transport from one of the largest players in high-end audio.
A few dings but otherwise perfect. Slight ding at top front and some discoloration on top. See photos.
Have more questions about this? Send us an email (mike+neli@audiofederation.com), or give Neli a call: 303.546.6503.
Esoteric P70 CD transport remote control
A couple of dings. One on the ridge above the open/close button. And one on upper right ridge.
Changing Times. Crank it up to warp Nine.
We’ve had a specials page for most of our 12+ year history.
But it was never like this.
The easiest way to buy demo and used audio equipment [often trade-ins or gear on consignment] is once again direct from the dealers themselves. Trust. Support. Email. And you can use credit cards.
Our new Used and Demo Audio page is very popular with links to many dealer’s special pages.
We want to be there to meet this demand and help audiophiles find their used ‘gems’ as well as, of course, their new ones.
So now we have tons of stuff on our page where we sell our own demo and used audio equipment.
I had no idea we had this much stuff squirreled away.
Lots of stuff I never knew we had at all [but someone knew. Guess who?]
Crazy Audiophile Wife Stories
One of us [not me] has been piling up boxes of stuff in the Audio Closet. In Listening room 3. The garage, the storage unit, the dining room table [seriously, yes] for YEARS. *I* just thought the ever growing mess was bad organization skills on the part of one of us [no, not me either :-)].
My wife is a pack-rat!
Who knew! [I guess maybe I am supposed to know these things? How am I supposed to keep up? Now she wants to collect phono cartridges. ???!!! Me? Speakers and amps and turntables? Yes. Definitely. Why not. Cartridges? No. That. Is. Just. Nuts. :-)].
[We’ve been trying to sell our house for awhile, and come to think of it, I wonder what the lookey-loos thought about all the boxes and cables and tweaks laying around. It’ll be nice when we can have a little more elbow room here. Maybe I’m just getting old and like to see the walls and floor sometimes ;-/]
Special Specials
So now we have one of the largest specials pages in the U.S. Us! Audio Federation! A sale. Feels weird.We hardly ever feel so ‘traditionally store-like’.
The only relatively new thing of ours we are selling [i.e. it is less than 5 years old :-)] is the Acapella Atlas speakers. These have been to a few shows and we have all agreed that they deserve a nice happy place in someone’s listening room where they can just make music for a good long while. [People, you should get these if you can swing it. Awesome performance. Awesome special pricing. Just saying.]
We take Consignments
And, beyond the stuff Neli has been putting in the corners, Under the beds. Behind the desks. On top of the closets. Is a lot of stuff we are selling is on consignment. Many people were never that comfortable with selling online, and it has gotten worse the last few years for high-end audio.
We are happy to do consignment for our customers and other reasonable people. We have one of the best world-wide reputations and tons of goodwill with audiophiles everywhere. We accept credit cards and wire transfers – and we are always happy to get gear into our international friends hands as much as we are people here in the Americas.
Happy shopping. And to infinity and a little bit more.
It doesn’t matter if you are looking to buy something.
It doesn’t matter if your system could use a little jump-start in this or that area.
It doesn’t matter if you know the names of a lot of gear or hardly any at all.
There is a inherent THRILL of plodding around, clicking through things, and finding really good deals on used audio equipment …. and wondering … “What if I got THAT? Maybe I SHOULD get that? It would be SO awesome to get to play with that.”
The thrill of letting ourselves be tempted. Kind of like the old Audiogon ‘New Today’ page.
I remember going there several times per day. Over the years, after we became members of the ‘industry’, this turned from…
‘Wow, that is EXPENSIVE, but what a deal! Maybe we should get it… ”
…to…
“Wow! That awesome old gear is hardly ever on the market – and look at the price! That guy is nuts to sell it for that. Maybe we should get it so people could hear it here… and get more people wanting to visit the store [and, winking at each other, we get to play with it to our hearts content :-)]”
See?
The T-E-M-P-T-A-T-I-O-N! [in my head this is said with the same fear and awe and fascination as the phrase: ‘the horror’ from Apocalypse Now]
It [and the sometime joy of falling for the temptation] is so much apart of our hobby. It is gear lust cross pollinated with hi-fi system design.
And a wonderful way to while away the hours for people who get bored. 🙂
You too can experience the Thrill of The Hunt.
We revived our old Audiophile’s Guide to the Galaxy Used and Demo Audio page.
This page links to several dozen ‘specials’ pages put up by dealers all over the U.S and Canada.
You can hunt by clicking through them, seeing 1000s of demo and used gear being sold by reputable dealers [all of whom, at least, we either know personally or have had an active specials page for over 10 years].
Of course, our very own specials page of Used and Demo Audio equipment is also on the list [more about our experiences with our specials page, and how did we manage to fit all that gear in the house anyway? … in the next post].
Originally from here
This is cool. Have a hard time remembering what tube is what piece – but I could learn to deal with that.
But, if we are going to go to all this trouble, what I want is a manly game of tube chess.
You know using the 833 tube, popularized by WAVAC (photo from positive-feedback):
Or the T1610, used by Kronzilla (photo from 6moons. More good photos of this tube there)
If you think of chess as a game of civilized warfare, if somewhat medieval, then one needs to use hardware that is appropriate to the task. The more massive the better :-/.
Of course, this manly man game of tube chess would have a chess board as big as my office… but that makes it even MORE cool, right? 🙂
A scientific perspective on vibrations, high-end audio, and what can be done to stop the scourge.
This is an interview conducted by Audio Perfectionist in 2007 which I, at least, was previously unaware of [though this is EXACTLY how Mike Latvis talks in person :-)].
… about 4 weeks ago.
BUT…
… the important thing is that it closes in 3 weeks or so on August 31.
So, unlike me, do NOT wait until the last minute [this year Neli registered me the first day because she is tired of all the stress :-)].
So, unlike me, do NOT forget to bring your badge and proof of registration to the show [more stress, but a nice lady registrar at the show fixed me up].
And… don’t forget you will need a hotel room to sleep in. Can’t tell if THE SHOW will be at the Flamingo again this year or not which is where we usually stay… [45 minute or longer check-ins, (at all times of year BTW, not just CES), what would we ever do without that much fun in our lives?]
Finally got around to updating the Audiophile’s Guide to the Galaxy page on All Known High-end Audio Blogs and Magazines.
Last count was at about 45 of these puppies.
Bet you heard of most of these but had forgotten them. Hard to keep track of them all, isn’t it? 🙂
There will be more. Ultimist follows a few others, if memory serves. But at least we got the major players there.
This page hadn’t been updated since 2006. Whoowee things have changed.
When we started the Guide, we were the only blog but there were many magazines online. Then, in 2006, back then there were only about 6 other blogs. Now they are coming popping out all over.
But many have also died. Gone. For example, many of the high-end hybrid magazines of home-theater and home audio…? Kaput. Many who did not want to make the transition to blog-like magazines with RSS feeds? Kaput (except for 6moons. Same as it ever was.). A lot of the smaller sites were gobbled up [i.e. the author went to work for Dagogo or Positive Feedback] or just went back to living their lives.
As far as I know, there is still no one who is exclusively Twitter or Facebook or Instagram-based. Bet we see some of these eventually.
AVShowrooms is more or less exclusively YouTube-based. Guess we need to add them too!
It’s always something…! Even the high-end audio universe evolves…
Update 2014 This was originally written in 2004 or 2005.
Originally, when HRS told us we should use Nimbus between our components and the HRS Isolation Bases, and that it helped the sound quite a bit because it helped provide a sink for chassis borne vibrations to be channeled into the large mass of the base. We were like ‘yeah. Right. Suuuuure it does.
I mean, weren’t gear manufacturers telling us about how they put so much effort in choosing the exact right feet for their gear, some even designing special feet for their gear, that their feet were the best possible feet ever for their gear?
So we played a lot with HRS Damping Plates, putting them on top of lots of things, but ignored the Nimbus. Completely.
For years we ignored them.
But one day we didn’t.
For a modest amount of money, $300 to $400, you get a set of three HRS Nimbus Spacer + Couplers feet, which experience has shown adds 30% to 70% improvement to the sound, in kind with what the $2000+ HRS Isolation Base under the component added.
And, except for the Audio Note M9 preamp [which has gazillion screws in the bottom of the chassis], it is simple as pie to slap 3 of these under a component and get a predictable, repeatable improvement in the sound.
We never looked back. Now everything is on Nimbus. Always.
Audio Aero Prestige
The Audio Aero Prestige CD / SACD Player with built-in preamplifier has both a moving mechanical device (the transport) and a vacuum tube – both of which are known to be sensitive to the dehabilitating effects of harmful vibrations. The Prestige comes from the factory with 3 black diamond racing cones as feet – a tribute to the fact that the factory also pays attention to vibration control.
As we broke in the Prestige and listened to it improve day-by-day, we noticed a little but of an overhang, a little smearing of the notes together. Yes, we thought it could be just a little more tube-like sound than we expected, but after living with the EMM Labs / Meitner in the system for a year or so, we had grown used to a more accurate sound, a more delineated soundstage, and a little more detail with our music.
As the weeks went on, the kind of dim and aging light bulb over our heads flickered on and we thought “Hey, aren’t these symptoms we are hearing are awfully familiar, kind of like exactly similar to those associated with vibrations interfering with the equipment? Oh, and, wow, the Prestige is sitting out in front of the 6 feet tall woofers of our speakers, too….”. And then our light bulbs flickered out again.
But, putting their brief appearance to best use, we decided to use some Nimbuses instead of the Black Diamond Racing cones underneath the Prestige in order to better couple the player to the HRS M3 Isolation Base platform.
Here we have removed the cones and put the Nimbuses underneath the player, in the same positions where the cones had been – letting the heads of the screws that were still in place dent the Nimbuses.
The sound was radically changed for the better. The differences in the sonics between the 50% more expensive solid-state Meitner digital and the tube-based Prestige now became almost completely one of that between different design goals and choices. The Meitner: purity and transparency, the Prestige: analog-like dynamics and harmonics.
Obviously, letting the screw heads sit on the Nimbuses was kind of a kludge, so we later used double height Nimbuses, and positioned them under parts of the player different than that where the original feet were installed.
Here we see the a picture of this configuration. Noticed that we reattached the Black Diamond Racing cones so that Mike would not lose them in the sometime mess that visits our house once in a while.
We also have another blog post on our experiences with the HRS Nimbuses and the Prestige.
Lamm L2 Reference Linestage tube power supply
There was a clarity and purity added with three of these under the L2 power supply – much better than a number of different cones we have tried. There was also an improvement in the depth and tonality of the bass.
Audio Note U.K. Kegon monoblocks
The 300B Kegon amplifiers benefited from the M3 Isolation Base, but not as much as we had anticipated or hoped for. It was then that we noticed that our Kegons, which are old and have been shipped all over the country and auditioned by many dealers and audiophiles, were ….wobbly. They rested on only 3 of the sweet little feet thingies.
So, what to do, what to do. Well, you can see what we did, we added 3 nimbuses under each Kegon (it looks like only two here, I know, but we have one under the front and two, side-by-side under the back. Bamm. That did it. Everything was tighter. The Kegons always grip the speaker with an iron (or is it silver) fist, but now there was much more space between the notes. The decay of each note was more precise and did not linger.
It was the significance of this result, the great improvement after putting the nimbuses between the HRS M3 and the amplifier, that prompted us to try the same thing under the Lamm ML2.1 amplifiers and the Audio Aero Prestige CD/SACD player – on which, it turned out, there was an even greater impact (to which I attribute the fact that the Kegons were already doing a pretty darn good job at the things that unwanted vibrations traditionally degrade).
[Update 2014] Lamm ML2 monoblocks, Lamm ML3 monoblocks, Audio Note Ongaku, Gaku-On, etc.
10 years later we put Nimbus under everything when we have them – and we have them about 98% of the time [sometimes Neli will send some out on demo, and not tell me… until I go hunting for another set and they are nowhere to be found. Audiophile wives. Huh.].
EDGE NL Reference amplifiers
We first came up with putting Nimbuses under the Reference ‘pyramid’ amps at the high-end audio show in Denver, RMAF 2005. Always on the lookout to eek every last bit of performance out of each component – the sputtering light bulbs, yes,, the same ones referred to earlier, above our heads were able to convince us to try this tweak and see if it helped any.
What it did was to even out the frequency response some. There was a little hump in the upper bass and a corresponding depression in the low mids and they seemed to even out some – and in the very large, undampened room at the show, this helped calm down the overall presentation of the music some which , of course, is always appreciated at a show.
Interestingly, at the show we only had 7 Nimbuses so one amp went limping…
Here we see an example. Most of the other feet are more centered on their Nimbus, but we haven’t noticed any ill effects with this being slightly off center. Then again we haven’t tried moving it so that it is completely on center and seeing what it sounds like either. At 220 lbs., we run out of steam after ana mazing short amount of time when it comes to doing something that requires moving them around in any way.
We also have a blog entry on our experiences with the HRS Nimbuses and the Edge NL Reference amplifiers.
SOLD. Esoteric (Acrolink Mexcel Series) 7N-A2500 interconnect. 1 meter pair. Used, mint condition. In box.
Very nice interconnects built for Esoteric by Acrolink. Part of their premium Mexcel line, beautiful chromed XLR connectors. Very nice sound, excellent extension. MSRP $5600, asking $2750 obo.
Have more questions about these? Send us an email (mike+neli@audiofederation.com), or give Neli a call: 303.546.6503.
This experience report was originally written several years ago and is on part of the old Audio Federation website that we are abandoning. Originally written around 2004, we are updating it and posting it here to make it more accessible and, hopefully, more useful for people who are interested in what the HRS M3 and M3X platforms can do..
Audio Aero Capitole Mk II
The player’s sound was significantly improved with the isolation base under it, especially the quality of the bass and midrange articulation and timbre. This is a pretty typical result.
Audio Aero Prestige
The player’s sound was significantly improved with the isolation base under it, especially the quality of the bass and midrange articulation and timbre. The radical improvement obtained by adding adding Nimbuses between the player and the Isolation Base is described below.
[Update] Audio Aero LaSource
The player’s sound was improved with the isolation base under it, especially the quality of the bass and midrange articulation and timbre. The radical improvement obtained by adding adding Nimbus / Couplers between the player and the Isolation Base, and making sure that the Black Diamond Racing cone feet that come with the player are suspended in air and not being used at all, is a critical requirement to make this player really live up to its significant potential, turning a kind of sweet yet muddy sound into a rich sound with lots and lots of resolution.
Audio Note U.K. 4.1x Balanced DAC
Similar to our experiences with the Lamm L2 preamp, we just do not have enough Isolation Bases to go round, and though this DAC has had a platform temporarily underneath it at various time – all I can remember is that there was a general nod in its direction that it improved things, but that the scarcity of platforms forced us to fairly soon thereafter move it to a higher profiles system for a series of demos. [Update 2014] We eventually got a boatload of the M3X Isolation Bases and, although never losing its harmonic richness and ‘rightness’, the bases always made sure that there was an evenness in resolution and detail across the frequency band. Similarly with the Audio Note DAC 5 Signature and Fifth Element DAC
EMM Labs DCC2 DAC
This component experienced the least improvement of any component we have tried on a HRS. We do use a damping plate on top, which has some positive effect. We hope to try Nimbuses between the DAC and the Isolation Base soon to see if this is what is required to get the usual significant delta in performance we experience with other components (often the feet that a component comes with seem to negate a lot of the effects of the HRS).
We’ll let you know!
[Update 2014] In general, as we saw with this DAC and as EMM Labs built more and robust [and heavier] components, well-built solid-state gear usually shows noticeably less improvement than does tube gear or transports. That said, there is still improvement, and in a system that tends toward brightness, putting a platform and Nimbus Couplers under even robust solid-state gear can and usually, in our experience, does make a world of difference and often eliminates the brightness [i.e. brightness and especially hardness is often caused by insufficient resolution, which the Isolation Bases always help with].
Lamm L2 Tube Preamplifier
OK, confession time. We cannot afford to buy all the Isolation Bases that we want… I mean need… in order to put them under all of our components. I know that at one time we did have an HRS underneath this component – but it has been awhile. I remember it working as expected – but I am 99% certain that one or another of the two pieces associated with this preamp (it has a separate power supply) were not on an HRS. So we look forward to both being on a platform – hopefully soon when we get our gloss black MXR rack here.
[Update 2014] Whew! That was a long time ago as we have had our MXR here for a long time, and an SXR, and… We almost never use the Lamm L2 without a platform: it is tube-based and the chassis is somewhat thin and resonant. A prime candidate for HRS racks and platforms. More dynamics and more resolution and tightens up the bass. This is pretty typical behavior – HRS does this for all components, to some degree, linearizing their response: in both resolution and dynamics across the frequency spectrum. This predictability of HRS in many different situations makes it an obvious choice compared to other solutions which are unpredictable and can sometimes even be deleterious in various systems and circumstances.
[Update 2014] Audio Note M9 and M10 pre-amplifiers
These preamps are capable of generating extremely powerful near-real-world dynamics. The M3X Isolation Bases increase and tighten these dynamics, making the whole experience a rush, while at the same time revealing their truly significant resolution which is otherwise somewhat hard to hear out of these puppies when they are sitting on top of your standard equipment rack.
[Update 2014] EMM Labs PRE2 preamplifier
Solid-state and robustly built, the improvements here are similar, but not jaw-dropping, compared to the improvement one sees for tube-based preamps.
Edge Signature One monoblocks
A real but somewhat surreptitious improvement in clarity of the bass was observed.
Lamm ML1.1 Tube monoblocks
An amazing amount of clarity was added to the midrange and bass, making these amps sound much more controlled and even across the frequency spectrum.
Lamm ML2 Tube monoblocks
I am not sure we ever used these amps without the M3 Isolation Base – so the improvements over using another platform (the Acoustic Dreams is what we usually use – which is no slacker either and we’d put it up against any of the competition [at $350/platform]) we can only assume is the same significant increase we found with the Lamm ML1.1.
We did try putting different HRS feet, ones specifically for lighter weight components, on the front because the front of the Lamm is so much lighter than the rear. I personally did not hear much of a difference using these differently configured feet in the front, not to say there wasn’t any, but that it did not jump out at me.
When we put some Nimbuses between the amps and the Isolation Bases, however, it was one of those “now we’re talkin'” moments, which you can read more about [in the next post].
[Update 2014] Lamm ML3 monoblocks
This amps have so much to offer in terms of resolution, both harmonic and dynamic, that we have always used these on top of a M3X Isolation Base, and with Nimbus Couplers between the amps and the M3X. – just to milk as much performance as possible from them.
[Update 2014] Audio Note Kegon, Audio Note Ongaku, Audio Note Kegon Balanced, Audio Note GakuOn [etc].
In general, the behavior of the Isolation Bases under Audio Note amplifiers is about the same as for that under Lamm amplifiers, but perhaps only about 75% the overall impact, specially as you move up the line into the heavier components. With the 55lb Kegons, the impact is similar to that of the ML2 [i.e. massive]. The midrange and bass both tighten up significantly resulting in much more resolution at those frequencies. With the 80lb Ongaku, less so – same kind of improvement but at only 80% or so as important as putting one of these under a lighter amp.
Brinkmann Balance turntable
HRS makes a custom platform for the Brinkmann Balance turntable.
Before the Brinkmann we used the Acapella Fondato Silenzio platform. After using this platform under both the Walker Proscenium Gold Signature and the Brinkmann, both times on the top shelf of a maple Rix Rax Grand Hoodoo – we have found that the Fondato is not the best thing for turntables (it works quite well under CDs and tube DACs and preamps) and the turntable sounds better directly on the Rix Rax shelf.
When we put the custom HRS M3 Isolation Base underneath the Brinkmann, we finally started hearing what the table could do. Before it had sounded a little thin and tizzy, and we changed cartridges a few times trying to find an solution. But it turned out to be a vibration problems. After adding the HRS the turntable sounded rich and more controlled, with more continuousness and PRaT.
Considering the comparatively high price of the turntable, getting the HRS platform for it is a no brainer.
[Update 2014] Hopefully after all this you can look at your own components: solid-state or tube, thick heavy chassis or thin metal chassis, normal feet or feet with some kind of contrived technology [in our experience, component manufacturers who try and make vibration controlling feet fail miserably – but this is perhaps more a discussion on the Nimbus Coupler experience reports].
You can now predict with some degree of confidence the impact the HRS M3X will have on the sound of your component.
This is unique, in our experience, for equipment racks and platforms that claim to help with vibrations. Predictability. And no harmful side-effects.
Unless you really prefer your sound to be dense and syrupy, which, you know, some audiophiles do, these platforms and their couplers are a must have.
