My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
Well, Here it is... My long awaited tekton review plus my preliminary feeling on critical mass footers. https://youtu.be/pV237KJMw5k |
I made an effort to not puncture anyone's feelings about Tekton while still delivering the message and I believe I did that quite well. I have to believe there are far more tekton Ulfberht than Alexx, but this doesn't mean anything.. this means it's a more affordable product which means more people can buy it. Are there more camrys than Bentleys? Yes of course there are. I won't attack or bash anything because I have mentioned it multiple times, i am not married to any of this including all my gear. I will simply state my experience with products and nothing else. Remember, I'm sharing my view with things i have here and not using someone else's system or room to judge. I gain absolutely nothing from trashing a brand and that simply has not ever been my intent. If i feel a brand isn't worth the asking price, i will say it and i did just that with the accuphase e800. If something is a rip off, i will say it and don't care if it affects me when I have to sell it (i did this accuphase if you remember correctly). Will there be a speaker that i feel bests my Alexx for me and my taste? Sure there is always better. Have i met that speaker? Not really , not in my room anyway. Don't worry, i got another speaker coming soon....should ship out tomorrow and yes I bought this one and it is not on loan. It is quite affordable actually. I actually can't freaking believe i got talked into buying another speaker when i didn't want to keep messing with the Alexx. They are so damn heavy even if I push them on wheels. Oh well, you know I'm probably the craziest guy out there. When these new speakers arrive, i will do a live chat to unveil them. |
Thanks mrdecibel. Well Tekton has responded to my video on the comment section of my videos. If you’re interested in hearing what Eric said, please go check out my video. Eric was great at taking my feedback and as you can see he was a class act. This is how things should be and in the end you all win with my thoughts and they also win with my constructive criticism of the product as well as what can be done to take their products to the next level. Cheers ! |
Vac monoblocks are back from the dead after a 2 month hiatus. For the first time I partner them with the matching vac master Preamp. This is such a different presentation than the Mephisto. My thoughts to come soon!
Not sure if you all are having issues with tidal but right now I've been troubleshooting all day. It appears that the MQA format and Reebook are randomly skipping certain parts of random songs that I have played a million times. We tried everything possible but the issue happens sporadically. This does not happen at all with QOBUZ. By the way, this issue is happening through ROON only. |
Meh. Right now i am going to be selling and listing Mephisto and boulder. I could live with either one so whichever sells first at this point. Wont really make a dfference when it comes to satisfaction because both have a special thing going. Top 2 amps on my list. The rest of the amps I've owned would be fighting for third place. |
Unfortunately the Boulder 2150 is not an amp that will sell fast due to the money that it is. I suspect the Mephisto will sell faster because it has never been available on the used market and it would be substantially less money for a lot of people. That said, i want to ask you all what i should do in regards to powercords with Boulder. I am torn because i could either get 2 - brand new - Transparent Opus terminated for Boulder OR get my Audioquest Hurricane re-terminated for Boulder.... Damn it this is a tough one... |
I typically let the thread "cleanse" itself and I have been making a huge effort of not bumping heads with anyone as I did in my early days. Although I really appreciate your passion for music and the fact that you are a great violinist (Steve from GT audio validated this), it might be more beneficial if you begin to take your strong opinions to private messages if it's going to be an ongoing "ordinance" that the general public on here doesn't want to hear. Sometimes saying less is actually saying more. Please know that it's not personal at all ,but when the thread begins to get derailed by having debates about specific things that often aren't really contributing to the thread's organic growth then i have to become the moderator (job that I don't want). Jay
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This Saturday you will know from ME if the critical mass footers were snake oil or not with Boulder... It will be day 30 this Saturday so at this point it is sink or swim. I personally do not believe in going any longer than 30 days with any component. If you don’t like ANY COMPONENT within 30 days, guess what? David copperfield ain’t coming to make you magically like it. I strongly believe that if I don’t like something within the first hmmm 2-3 weeks, 99% chances that I won’t like it at any point of my ownership. Only few components (can count in one hand maybe) have changed the way I feel about it after 2 weeks. My judgement is pretty darn good with this. The truth will be told once I lift the massive boulders off the stand while my wife removes the footers and then I sit down and hear if things went backwards. Hell I might do a video of both presentations and let you all hear the difference but WITHOUT telling you which presentation is which. I still feel as if I lost this intense imaging the boulder had when I first got them. This is now missing ever since I used the footers. My ears will tell me immediately what happens once I remove the footers. |
@tjassoc Transparent opus are $5800 for 2m and the boulder termination costs 170 dollars per cable so you’re looking at 5970x2. Their power cords don’t need to be calibrated like their interconnects and speaker cables. They work on any component. As far as the audio quest hurricane I have here, it would cost me like 250 per cable so 500 dollars total. So we are essentially talking 12,000 dollars or 500 dollars... That said, the key here is if I want to try transparent opus for the first time or do I want to simply roll over the audio quest hurricanes with boulder. Yes, I couldn’t use either one of these cables with any other amp I have here. Both companies can convert them down the road to 15a or 20a for the same prices I mentioned above (170 boulder and 250 audioquest). I was thinking of sending my dragon powercords instead but the issue is that I need those for the mephisto or any other potential Amplifiers down the road. Remember, the dragon are $9800 per 2m cable. |
That’s what we are ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL about to find out and if that’s the case then we have found one hell of a component. What I can say is that the gold tunning bullets from synergistic research sound OMG with boulder. I am almost 100% sure (almost) that I won’t be trying more interconnects or speaker cables in a LOOOOOOONG time. The sound is outstanding. However, next week, Nordost odin speaker cables will be coming back to me because I took them in as part of a deal I put together but I don’t expect them to stay here for the long haul ( I might hang on to them just so that I have a second set of speaker cables to mix things up with other amps) Wait, more amps? Yep...wanna guess what amps are coming back for a second round in my room? Next week we will know! Guesses... Memphisto 👹 👹will battle soon... Very soon once again |
There is also something else i was thinking about which was that MAYBE the footers are not really adding too much more than what the maxxum stands already are. Let's say that the stands added 15% improvement (again, this is hypothetical), the footers might only be adding 1% or less. However, maybe if i had the boulders on a regular wood stand and i added the footers then i would easily hear the benefits of the footers? Joe said that adding the footers on his stands would be incremental improvements, but MAYBE there really isnt that much of an improvement if you already own one of his best stands? |
This weekend we will know... I don't quite believe in having to do square root of 5 time 36 divided by 3 in order to find the exact location of where the footers should go especially when Joe himself doesn't even say that to me. It's simple, lift the amp, place the footers and make sure they are seated under the amp and not the feet. The end... |
Keep in mind, my trial involves Boulder 2150. I am under the belief that I am probably the only boulder 2150 owner who CURRENTLY posts on any forum. I am also extremely clear that our mind loves to play tricks on us. If you stare at a white wall for 30 days hoping it will turn black then guess what? If you stare at it long enough you will see it turn black... The power of delusion is a thing... That said, we will need to wait until this weekend to see what ends up happening. The only thing I’ll tell you all right now is that I’m not going to be waiting months for something to "sing". If something takes months to work, this man right here ain’t spending his money on it. I couldn’t even wait on the damn bus to go to school. If you all want to wait months for something to "sing" then that’s cool (it’s your money). I also couldn’t order a car and wait 2 years to take delivery because by the time I take delivery of it, I have probably already read encyclopedias about it and I’m bored by the time I get it. The honeymoon phase left my veins by then. When it comes to other forums and reading non stop what others are doing, I see it as a valuable resource when you are perhaps running into an issue or something isn’t working correctly etc. I used to read the avsforum a LOOOOOOONG time ago when I was into home theater and then I realized I was not enjoying anything anymore because I was always reading constant critiques or people who knit pick a lot about a component they own and I started to become the same. If I heard a "click " inside a component I would be like " oh crap I think it’s defective, I need to return it " and then I would get the replacement and I would be literally searching for that click again constantly day in day out. It just made me miserable and I didn’t enjoy it. That’s why I limit myself and I try to just do my thing in here and only read other forums when I am probably interested in a product that I am planning to bring or perhaps I want to know what cables someone has used with it etc. That’s it. There are certainly some heavy hitters on what’s best forum. No question about it. I thought about posting over there and starting a new thread but I don’t have the time. I don’t really have the bandwidth to maintain two threads plus a YouTube channel. I haven’t posted a video lately because I’m taking a breather. It’s starting to get a little overwhelming and so I’ll just kinda pace myself a little more. I did a full year of videos 3 times a week so now I need to balance things better. There is also the fact that I just don’t have much interest in many amps out there. The very few that remain such as the relentless, dartzeel 468s, Boulder 3050s, etc cost as much as a house AND they aren’t widely available. Most of those 3050s are in Asia and I don’t know a single person who owns the dartzeel other than Michael Fremer. These amps are as rare as big foot is which also makes them ridiculously expensive to buy even if they are used. I mean I’ll still bring an amp here and there if I happen to strike up a deal but I can’t sit here and tell you that I am like ACTUALLY looking to bring anoother amp. I’ve pretty much accepted that the mephisto and boulder are on another planet and everything else I’ve heard or owned is below them both. When it comes to amps, I'm pretty much 98% done. Sure there are many amps I can try but I'm only talking about amps I am interested in and not those obscure brands. It will be a few years before I see an amp that I really want to bring in here. |
I’m glad you still love your luxman gear. Those components will go down in history as one of the best ever built. If I had to downsize and needed to build a good system for a lot less money than what mine currently is, I’d do this: Revel salon 2 Luxman monos/simaudio 860 Arc ref10 Dcs Bartok Wireworld platinum or gold series 7 cables throughout That system would put a world of hurting on far more expensive systems. |
I can’t share the verdict yet...you’ll need to watch the next upcoming video where I will play the system with and without footers BUT nobody will know what is playing... That is KEY because a lot of people would be biased If they knew which presentation has the footers. Let your ears decide... Yes I have my verdict and I will be releasing my thoughts AFTER you all listen to both presentations first. |
Has anyone ever wondered the level of transparency that my current system must have? Think about it, you all are able to hear a footer change through youtube...that’s how ridiculously transparent the boulder gear is. That’s one of the most fantastic things about it. We have criticized youtube for compressing things and not really allowing us to hear everything and yet we can hear footers? If you could only be here to listen and analyze things in person, I think you’d be shocked. I'm happy you all can hear footers changes through youtube. That's pretty awesome 😎 |
Jay is live and ready to introduce the amplifier that has made a come back ! https://youtu.be/-wbEnU7nJt4 |
Coming soon... My raw opinion is coming tomorrow... I want more people to vote as well... That said, this is the reason WHY I use polls so that you all can actually see WHERE your ears are compared to the rest. I always urge you all to listen more than once and hopefully on different days. Yes, if you try to listen on different days you might be shocked. This quarantine taught me to be more patient than ever. I plan to do a live chat later today after I’m done with work. That’s where you all will see the amplifier that has made a come back! |
isn’t that something? "What the eyes see, your mind believes"... has anyone heard this before or something like it? i believe this is a quote from the movie "swordfish" with John Travolta... The power of delusion is real.. Gotta love the Boulder monos... they don’t have an ounce of dishonesty. The more i play with them, the better i can summarize my own journey through the many amplifiers i have owned. No wonder why they only replace their amps every 15-17 years. I am very very excited to receive my custom-made transparent opus Gen 5 powercords next week. I was told yesterday by Transparent that i will have 95% of the performance with only a 48 hour break-in time and only miniscule improvements through the 200 hour mark. Now, THAT IS MUSIC to my ears. If these powercords are something special, i will know after 2 days of use. What is scary is how much better the 2150s could become with these powercords which should make the gap in performance between these amps and rest i have owned just brutal and too massive for any amp to close it. Now, if i could only get my hands on that Boudler 2120 dac... ugh.. i have been looking for that thing so badly and no luck! |
