jazztalk.net

So, I'm definitely enjoying the system. Listened to a number of albums yesterday, including Folk Songs by Charlie Haden (already coming up on one year since his passing), Egberto Gismonti, and Jan Garbarek. Also tried something out that I don't think I will use terribly often (but it's still an interesting capability), which is to stream music directly from my tablet or smartphone over Bluetooth to the amp (which supports Bluetooth pairing). It could be good for auditioning music on my Amazon prime account at the very least. One more way to get audio into my ears...

Close-up of one of the Wharfedales in their natural habitat...

Although I didn't spend an enormous amount of time listening to your new system during our recent visit, I heard enough to impress me with it's qualities. Those Wharfedales are quite transparent and tight while delivering ample bass response. Your little MyAmp amp/preamp really gets the job done ... cleanly.

Utilizing your Bluetooth capability for checking out samples via streaming sources seems smart to me.

It's a handsome, superb-sounding little audio system with a remarkably small footprint.

And now, the rest of the story...

After a couple more months of use, the amp's overheating circuit started firing rather regularly, rendering the system essentially unusable. Worried that I had a defective amp, I sent it to the manufacturer's service center for inspection. They concluded that it was faulty, and sent a replacement (note: this took nearly a month due to it being August in France). I ran the replacement through its paces, and after a few days... overheating again.

At this point, I did not want to sit through another lengthy delay. Plus, it seemed pretty unlikely to me at this point that the amp was at fault. It must be one of the other components, I thought... or, the cables. Either it was the USB cable connecting the amp with the PC that serves as my media host, or the bi-wired speaker cables connecting to the amp. After ruling out the USB cable fairly quickly (overheating continued despite which cable was swapped in), I ran the system with the factory-included brass bridge plate installed on the speakers, and only used the first two of four connectors of the bi-wiring cable attached to each of the speakers, and had no problems over the course of several nights of tests. But of course it looked pretty messy with the extra dangling bits and the now unnecessarily thicker cable housing (attracting my toddler's curious fingers), so I did some research on replacement standard wiring cables that were more compact, and less likely to be capable of flipping the speakers if tugged.

I accidentally stumbled upon an audiophile company in the UK that makes some very interesting cables (and they actually make them in the UK, not China), which start in the reasonable price range and go straight up to astronomical prices. After reading the reviews, I debated getting the "starter" range versus the next model up, but particularly given that I am running short cable lengths, and the next model up costs about double the starter model (and I don't have money to burn), I went with the starter model. Oh, and they are blue.

Tellurium Q Blue


The other piece I wanted was a set of jumper cables to replace the factory brass plates. The Tellurium Q Blue jumper cables were overpriced for what they are, so I stayed in the US for these, going to Anticables in Minnesota (again, made in USA, not China - 2 for 2!), and picked up their solid copper core jumper cables with spade connectors.

Anticables Level 2 Jumper Wires


The Tellurium Q cables were delayed in getting out of the UK by a week (but on the plus side, were assembled and terminated at the factory in UK while I was waiting, and were run through a 24-hour cycle on a Nordost break-in machine), so the jumpers, which had arrived quickly, stayed in their packaging in the meantime. Once both were in hand, I installed and tested the new arrangement over a weekend, and after playing with the speaker wire connection techniques, now I am settled on a diagonal arrangement (red wire from amp into the treble red connector, black wire into the bass black connector, with jumpers connecting the corresponding red/black post, and following the directional indications coming from Anticables, although I think it shouldn't matter), and the result is a stable system with excellent sound (maybe some suggestion bias, but I feel the sound is slightly cleaner now with maybe a hint more bass response), and no overheating, nor any unusually fat or dangling bits to entice my son. It just works.

New speaker wire arrangement

So now, I really have a new, bullet-proof setup that delivers on the sound. And no overheats ever since.