My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!

Who is most of us, you are answering for everyone now?

@theaudioamp
People that deal from there home have to be very particular of people they let into their home. For Jay just to invite you in without knowing and trusting you would be totally irresponsible as a husband, Father and business owner. I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind agreeing to such a ridiculous request. Seriously? You’ve got to be kidding. @jays_audio_lab Beware of this guy!

@jays_audio_lab :

The guy has the balls to ask to come to my home?

It’s a bluff. He will never meet you in person.

Also, he never says what he owns, what audio system. I have asked him under most of his previous usernames. He never lists his audio system, not even a single piece. Let alone posting pictures under Systems

One observation: he never attacked your thread until the very last username (deludedaudiophile). And now, with the brand new one.

Please ban this guy for an 11th time.

It will actually be his 14th time. Here is the list of his previous usernames:

deludedaudiophile

thynamesinnervoice

cindyment

snratio

yesiamjohn

sugabooger

dletch2

audio2design

dannad

roberttdid

heaudio123

audiozenology

atdavid

--------------

As they say, three things are 100% sure in life: death, taxes, and this dude coming back to Augiogon forums over and over and over

@theaudioamp will you verify you had all those other user names? I would find it hard to believe so please let all know the truth.

Man, what is with you?  How many times are you going to ask to go to Jay's house?  No wonder you got banned.

Administrators - Please ban this guy for an 11th time.

The dog-piling while avoiding the topic is not surprising. Disappointing, expected, but not surprising.

Here, try a new tact instead of victimizing the messenger. Address the issues. The videos are faulty. Period. Cannot be disputed.

$250K of equipment needs further AC conditioning (with no idea what the AC looks like to start with)? Seems hard to believe. Some would say unbelievable. I don’t believe it. However, I was willing to go to Jay’s house on my expense and listen. All I ask is he listen too. Just listen. That is all.

I am quite willing to go on video. You have determined I am someone else, or 10 someone elses. Well if this is true, here is your chance to see me in person .... all you need is for Jay to agree to a live video and not being able to see what equipment is running. Come on Jay, take one for the team. NO? Thought so.

@theaudioamp Clearly reading is not your thing.

I could care less especially coming from you!

And I am not going to get in a pissing contest with you as I will knock you on your ass cause I took my Flomax. 

Have a good rest of your life. 

Me I could care less, not here to impress but clearly you are and the only person you have impressed is your fellow ASR rejects 

I don't know why anyone would want someone at their home that has had over 10 different user names on a forum, and just wants to argue for argument sake.

@juanmanuelfangioii - You really need to worry more about whether you get respect here or not as you seem to care. Some of your posts are not going to get the respect you think they may.

As an audio customer, I would be more worried about the dealer who as Cleeds noted, equated a listening test to a "pissing match". I am more than willing to go to Jay's house, be on video, under the condition it is live streamed and I get to switch the equipment without him knowing what is playing.  If any Youtuber who says they will invite anyone over has an issue with that, I am not sure what to say at that point. I was looking forward to a Florida trip, visit some friends and family and stuff.   It can't be any hotter than where I am already.

@theaudioamp you are the random person .@thyname has been here on this forum for quite some time (2005). And @jays_audio_lab has been here since 2014.

You have zero credibility here. Your efforts to gain credibility and well, respect have been thwarted by your Bedpan manner.

Me I could care less, not here to impress but clearly you are and the only person you have impressed is your fellow ASR rejects and maybe kenjitt.

Cheers.

Don't worry about me - i show my face. You are a troll. Thanks 

@jays_audio_lab , I must say I appreciate your sense of humor. For instance calling into question who I am, based on the input of some random person on a forum, when you don't even use your real name for your audio channel. So funny. Please keep it up ..... but please do put a little more care in your videos. I would not want people to get the wrong audio impression.

I was not talking about Viber. The dude I am talking about is the Audioamp

I can’t believe this entire time we have been talking to a guy who disguises himself!

Man - talk about deception and not being 100% REAL. I’M DONE TALKING TO HIM!

@viber6

I’m taking off my gloves and lending them to you. Go ahead and punch it out ✊👊 with him. You just got a boat load of ammunition from @thyname !!!!

@thyname - i appreciate this!!! I wish you had been here before !

@jays_audio_lab : Yup! I have zero doubts

OMG !!!!😱 

SERIOUSLY!!!

This is the same dude ?? 

Hahahah 

ricevs

1,093 posts

08-04-2022 at 12:57pm 

There is no use in responding to theaudioamp guy.  He comes in with fixed beliefs......No way he will allow himself to hear any differences between cables, footers, inverters, amp stands, fuses, connectors, etc.  He thinks all these things have NO sound.  He thinks the only thing important is low distortion numbers, frequency response and room tuning.  Please don't waste your time trying to "fix" him......He thinks you all are broken and only his way is correct......this is how the ego works.....define and defend....we all do it.....some just do it louder than others.  

Oh I know, trust me. I have known this for years, considering his previous usernames, now all banned. Now he is back with yet another username. 

Here is a list of all his previous usernames:

deludedaudiophile

thynamesinnervoice

cindyment

snratio

yesiamjohn

sugabooger

dletch2

audio2design

dannad

roberttdid

heaudio123

audiozenology

atdavid

@ricevs  please tell us with what you think is important other than frequency response, distortion, and how the room behaves in conjunction with the speakers. I will add in phase response as long as it is not too bad and we all understand certain sources have inherent limitations and add extra stuff to the music (that was not originally there) that colors the sound. I would enjoy hearing your explanation as I am sure many others would.

I think most audiophiles are not broken at all, but some of the most vocal have rather unusual ideas about audio equipment works and how we, as people work to the point of recommending very bad cartridge matching and ignoring significant flaws in videos to justify sound perception.

Please share your wisdom on what is important other the items described so that we can all benefit.

There is no use in responding to theaudioamp guy.  He comes in with fixed beliefs......No way he will allow himself to hear any differences between cables, footers, inverters, amp stands, fuses, connectors, etc.  He thinks all these things have NO sound.  He thinks the only thing important is low distortion numbers, frequency response and room tuning.  Please don't waste your time trying to "fix" him......He thinks you all are broken and only his way is correct......this is how the ego works.....define and defend....we all do it.....some just do it louder than others.  

@theaudioamp : what happened with your Deludedaudiophile (the most recent of the past 12 usernames) moniker? 😀

Folks

Since I’ve released my last two 2500 videos, I’ve already sold one and two of the manufacturers (who i don’t represent) showcased on my channel have inquired and want to bring a stromtank unit into their facilities in order to evaluate it in their controlled sound rooms .

I don’t want to give out too much information, but yes my efforts are clearly being heard via YouTube and I’ve gotten incredible feedback from people in the industry about the performance of my system since I introduced the s2500.

You all realize a lot of brands follow me right? I just don't wanna be vocal about it but yes a lot of eyes are on me because I do what nobody does which is to display the ultra high end. 

See @viber6 ,

I knew there was no way that @jays_audio_lab would have agreed to an in person listening session where his listening skills would be put to the test. I am sure you can reach that conclusion that if he could have easily picked out the better Stromtank, and the better cables, and the better amp, that it would be very very good for his business. I was willing to provide him the perfect platform prove his skills (and components) to the world.

@viber6 

I don't expect anyone to come to my defence, but frankly it is not necessary.  The issues I have raised are cold hard indisputable facts. There is volume levelling. There is clipping. There is noise pumping. There is a frequency response difference between the videos. There is a channel difference between the videos. There is high echo/reverb. Oh, and it is 192KHz AAC. Anyone with the appropriate skills can validate that. Hence I don't need supporting defence.

I will note again that no one has of yet come to your defence w.r.t. agreeing with the musical claims. Maybe someone will, but I expect in light of the hard facts I have presented on the videos, they to realize, as I have pointed out, that it is not possible to extract potential differences between the 1000 and 2500 (if they even exist) from the videos.

I don't doubt that Jay believes there is a difference. However, if all you are doing is repeating what he has told you effectively, then one must consider that you are not forming your own factual listening impression, certainly not in light of the flaws, but are being influenced strongly by suggestion.

Having now suggested a highly flawed cartridge matching scheme, I suspect others will be questioning the validity of your listening impressions.

I’m not embarking on the pissing match you both got going on. How about you both buy one stromtank (split the cost ) and conduct your own testing ?

I got a lot of things going on that move my needles more than what you both are proposing which would lead NOWHERE for me and my business.

theaudioamp,

No, you are mistaken. Jay described the differences he hears in his room, which correspond to the differences we heard on the YT videos. We came to the correct conclusions--you didn’t.

Yes, the recordings are of mediocre quality, made worse by YT. Still, it is possible to learn the essential character of any component even using mediocre recordings. When you visit Jay, bring your own excellent quality recordings, and even mediocre ones which have musical interest. In the real world, music loving audiophiles want to enjoy the music more, both from their excellent and mediocre quality recordings.

Floyd Toole is a technician and scientist.  Nothing wrong with his scientific contributions.  But you don't know what he thinks when he sits down at home to listen to music.  He might have a mediocre audio system at home, we don't know.

Jay,

The Boulder 2108 phono stage has a max loading for MC at 1000 ohms.  This is pretty good, almost as detailed as 47K when I tried it with various phono preamps.  The MM input is at 47K, but you would need a transformer to use the MM input.  My old Mitchell Cotter transformer into a MM input wasn't as good as direct into the MC input, although people like Mike Fremer have tried MC cartridges with expensive transformers into MM inputs and have been pleased.  Keep it simple for now and try all the loadings up to the max of 1000.

@viber6 how often do you need to be wrong. I brought up noise pumping and echoes ages ago. I didn’t even know what two I was supposed to be comparing till yesterday and I immediately upon being told saw that volume levelling was used making comparisons pretty much worthless. You didn’t hear musical differences between the two, you simply heard all the flaws (differences) that existed between the two videos and assigned them as musical differences as you had to map it onto your limited knowledge. That is what many people do. They try to compress things into the framework of what they themselves know. Others realize their framework is insufficient.

Listen to someone like Floyd Toole talk. Do you hear him use flowery audiophile media language? No, he talks in clear, concise and most of all portable terms. Portable meaning anyone who uses those terms knows exactly what they mean.  You are forced to use non-concise language because you lack concise terms and in this case, are trying to map language onto something that is not there, hence creative terms.

theaudioamp,

I asked whether you heard the MUSICAL differences that others heard, not the technical noise pumping.  I don't believe you know how to describe musical sound quality--it is not in your vocabulary,  

Again, your assessment of what is wrong is solely based on measurements.  Jay will listen for himself and decide what is musically pleasurable for him, regardless of measurements.

Your good point is going to Jay's home and doing the listening.  I'm confident he will welcome you on your terms.

When I was young and had great hearing, I always found that 47 kohm loading produced the most brilliance, detail and clarity. Even midrange material was clarified due to more HF overtones. Ignore the technical talk that this is wrong, just listen for yourself and see what you like. I forgot whether your Boulder phono stage gives you the 47 kohm option, but just use the maximum loading that is offered.

Ignore the technical talk that this is wrong? Do you have any more really bad advice to give? Well @jays_audio_lab if you follow @viber6 ’s suggestion, you will end up with a system that is wrong. Without the exact cartridge loading for that specific cartridge, the response will be anything but flat.

This is what happens when you improperly load a cartridge. You end up with a hot mess, or a warm mess, but a mess any way you look at it .... and ask yourself how many audiophile setups are not properly matched and how that may be influencing their views on vinyl.

@viber6 is obviously not going to be the one to teach you how to setup a turntable properly, and frankly, most dealers don't know either just passing down bad advice from generation to generation. Setting up a turntable in a neutral system (to match your DAC) is 100% science. There is no art in it. And being science, you need proper tools to do it right.

This is like old WWF where in the end Mr. Amp, Viber and ricevs will form an alliance that nobody likes and everyone roots against    ; )

Ricevs = Jimmy Mouth of the South Hart

Viber =  the resident whipping boy for the big stars who just keeps coming back to get whipped, but his persistence finally makes them relent and let him join the team

Mr. Amp = Bobby Heenan

@viber6 , can you really ask me to describe the differences .... when I have several times. Do I need to repeat again the echos, the noise pumping, the volume difference, the softness of one of them, etc.

I would go and listen to @jays_audio_lab system and compare the two Stromtank on one condition. I get to switch which two back and forth, blind to Jay, i.e. he has no idea which one is connected, and he has to try to accurately determine which one is connected .... oh, and it has to be streamed live.  What say you @jays_audio_lab, are you in?    Oh, and we are going to do the same with some of those wickedly expensive cables and cheap ones too. Let's see if you can pick out a $20,000 cable against a $200 cable.  What say you Jay, are you in?    .... maybe I will even bring a <$1,000 amp and see if you can tell it from the Boulder when not clipping. What say you Jay, are you in?

Jay,

I am excited to hear your assessment of the Kronos + MySonicLab cartridge.  MC detractors say that MC cartridges have rising HF peaks.  This may be true above 10 kHz, but most of the music is below that, and any HF unpleasantness is usually due to anomalies in the 3-6 kHz region where the ear is most sensitive.  So try the cartridge loading at the max in your Boulder 2108 phono stage (I believe).  When I was young and had great hearing, I always found that 47 kohm loading produced the most brilliance, detail and clarity.  Even midrange material was clarified due to more HF overtones.  Ignore the technical talk that this is wrong, just listen for yourself and see what you like.  I forgot whether your Boulder phono stage gives you the 47 kohm option, but just use the maximum loading that is offered.  The MySonic output is lowish at 0.3 mv, an asset for greater detail and clarity.  Your Boulder has 70 dB of gain, plenty.  Perhaps its 60 dB setting will produce enough gain.  See which gain setting is best.

Perhaps your digital will win if you load down the cartridge at lower settings, or your vinyl setup will win at higher settings.  I don't know.  I hope you have both vinyl and digital versions of the same recordings.

theaudioamp,

If you continue to claim that the poor quality of the YT videos makes it impossible to ascribe perceived sonic differences to each Stromtanks, Jay can set you straight.  Would you accept his pronouncements based on his private home listening?  Jay has invited anyone to come to his home and listen directly.  Anyone spending almost $28K should do that--well worth the transportation costs to be present.

You say you heard differences between the 2 videos?  What are they?  Let's see whether you are competent to describe those differences.  Is your listening vocabulary equal to your technical prowess?

The (MSL) My Sonic Labs Ultra Eminent Ex has a mrsp of $6,995 not $7,999.

https://mysoniclab.com/#/ultraeminent/

One quick update, the Mephisto Apex will be in my dealer’s hands in 2 weeks which means i could potentially have in my hands the 450 lb monster amplifier by the end of this month!

That said, this is a loan from gryphon which is being facilitated by a gryphon dealer. Gryphon will not be sending this amp to any other YouTuber for a review so if you want to see this beast next to its direct rival - Boulder 3060 - you gotta tune in on my channel and put your seatbelt on.

Can a $100,000 Danish stereo amp defeat a $142,000 American amp?

Does the Gryphon APEX have no direct rivals?

Or can 900 watts of Boulder muscle destroy anything in its path?

what are you all more excited to see? Top Dac VERSUS Top Turntable? Or these two behemoths of amplification going at it ?

Man this is going to get seriously insane and i could not do any of this without you all!

@flrun

Thanks for your kind words above. Yep, once the site goes live, i will be sure to provide the link under each future YouTube video. I’ve been swamped with work too which is what is slowing me down. I also want to have enough content for when people become members, they can find content and my amplifier rankings, preamp rankings, speaker rankings and of course, THE WORST COMPONENTS I HAVE EVER OWNED. These lists will be updated as i keep pushing forward.

Folks,

I have purchased the cartridge that will go with my Kronos turntable:

My Sonic Labs Ultra Eminent Ex (Msrp $7,999)

i hope to get it this month and by the way we will do the comparisons of my MSB SELECT 2 DAC versus Kronos turntable. You all need headphones for those comparisons. I've been told by many that they feel these shootouts will be EPIC because 99% of people out there have never compared one of the best dacs versus one of the best turntables in the world. I hope you all are excited about this next chapter 😎!!!!

I'm lovin it, and digging it.

Everyone is my child...................and I am everyones child. If you want your child to grow in love.......then yes, you guide them.....as best you can.....and if you want to grow in love then you allow others to help you...........it is called win/win.

However, you have to have the desire to grow yourself and also help your children (all beings on all levels of reality) grow or there is no growth. The soul’s nature is to grow.......the ego’s nature is to define and defend. The ego is very subtle......you have to really look clearly in the mirror and have mucho help to transcend its nonsense......this is why we need each other......for more perspectives. If two people come together to help each other be all they can be......I call it a conscious relationship. Very people have one.......even mates will play games with each other.....hence they go to counseling......you have to have a great desire to love.....to really feel/know/live what is possible in each second. We are infinite.....every moment is the most beautiful moment that has every existed in the entire history of the entire universe.......can you dig it?

Fully loving yourself means you accept EVERYTHING as it IS.....including your own ego and flaws and Karmic predicament......the more you can do this the happier you are and the more loving you are towads everyone

If we had no ego or flaws....we would not even incarnate.  This is a big school.....its curiculum is love......and joy......however, sometimes we need a kick in the pants to grow.  Each soul, in each incarnation has certain lessons to learn.....you cannot learn perfect love in one lifetime.......it takes eternity......enjoy the ride.....it is the only dance there is.

I love my kids @ricevs , and you need to let them make their own mistakes and learn from them. However, love is also providing them guidance and using a stronger hand (not violence of course) when needed.

Respect is allowing someone to make their own mistakes and learn from them. It is not respectful to allow that person to convince others that their mistake was not mistake. It also does not show love for others when you allow them to do that, especially when you possess the "gifts" to use a term, to know factually right and wrong in that particular case.  If you knew an investment was highly flawed and worse, based on false premises, is the high road to allow someone to convince others to also invest when you have the knowledge to know the investment and its premise is flawed?

When you fully love yourself, is that real self esteem, or is that an inflated ego that does not either recognize or accept your flaws and seeks to improve on them?

@viber6

Whatever technical flaws there are in the 2 recordings, somehow several people here easily heard the differences. The California Dreaming recording I found problematic, and led me to prefer the inferior S1000 on that song

Of course there are differences. I listed them for you, and none of them have anything to do with the Stromtank. They all have to do with the flawed capture and playback. You are assigning the differences to the Stromtank, when you have absolutely no way of knowing that and of the available options, it is by far the least viable especially because in the framework of those videos there are too many other things that will mask that difference.

Now that others know all the flaws in the videos, I wonder if those others feel as strong as you do about the reasons for the two videos sounding different (which is not in question, of course they sound different there are so many flaws). The only logical and realistic conclusion in light of the flaws I have pointed out is to admit there is now no way to be confident of your conclusion. There is nothing wrong with admitting that. Not admitting it is just hubris at this point.

Laughing with people is love......laughing at them is ego........

Would you rather be right or loving?

Hahaha yes that was funny, agreed.