Keith- I hope you were not offended. I know how foolish I once felt when I tried to explain to a client how difficult and expensive it would be to build a certain type solution to a coastal erosion problem he was facing, only to find out later that:
1. the guy was one of the most experienced and competent architect/builders on the northeast and
2. he had more $ than god!
3. he was too much a gentleman to tell me either.
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Keith- Meet Al, our resident technical analyst and voice of reason on all things electrical/quantitative. He's not a manufacturer or designer. He's kind of like our Spock but with a love of music ,a keen dispassionate "eye" for techno-babble, and a willingness to help all of use non-EE types understand some of the basic science, math, and engineering behind things audio. |
@audiolabyrinth- Pleased to meet you as well. I just wanted to make sure it didn't come across as snarky; I'm glad it didn't. I'm gonna risk it again, however, and ask you to do us all a couple of favors: 1. get a new computer that actually has a "period" key. You know, the one in between the "," and the "/" ;-) You may have just set the record for the longest sentence ever posted on Audiogon: Almarg, Can you look into this for me, the spec of 18 volts input to clip, this is the max input told to me over the phone by krell, you can do more of the math and engineering calcalating for me to find a explanation for me?, LOL!, I will never use over 10 volts to input anyway!, just currious to know my amp,, when I said that the 3.58 is the min that krell told me, they said that because all of their pre-amps put out around 6 to 8 volts for balanced operation, and this will not do nothing harmful to the krell 700cx, its the normal that I am told by krell if useing a krell pre-amp, regardless of the voltage input to drive the krell 700cx, I will not realize the power of this amp with out the speced gain you provided of the krell 700cx that a source direct to amp does not have, atleast I have not found a source with the gain I need to drive the krell 700cx, I enjoy the clarity a source direct to amp provides, but this is why I have said that the krell 700cx sounds to be half the volume its suppose to be, its still loud enough without the gain, LOL!, I just believe the amp will sound better with the appropriate db gain, do you believe that?, can you imagine the cost of a pre-amp that can do the clarity and realism a direct to amp source does with the gain I need?, thats a thought I do not like to entertain!, this is why I said, a pre-amp that would be to my liking would be very costly and you would have to provide more interconnects, in my case, very, very, exspensive, I use Taralabs zero gold, retail $14,500.00 new, around $5,000.00 to $8,000.00 used a meter balanced, yes, I bought My zero gold used, I am not that crazy to buy new, I do not agree with esoteric cabling pricing!, however, the I/C is worth what I paid used to me!, to keep the performance to my standards, I would want to buy another zero gold i/c for use with a pre-amp, there you have it, this entire conversation on this thread is a big deal to me$,, I have to be sure and carefull at the same time, this is why your input is most welcome to me, thankyou. 2. Seriously consider switching to decaf! My blood pressure went up to 249/135 just reading your post!!! If decaf doesn't float your boat, maybe some 'ludes??? All said w tongue firmly planted in check, I hope you understand. |
Active preamp or bust! It is key to a well put together system! Right on brother. I have had 6h30 tubes before, LOL!, sounded to much like solid state Many people say that about the 6H30 tube. [quote]If by using the term "tubey" you mean warmth and coloration then Atma-Sphere products might not be for you. I've never had the Atma pre-amps in my system, but thge M-60s were remarkable for thsir speed and transparency. I wish I never sold them. |
Charles- I do have a Vac Ren 30/30 now (as well as a couple of others). I sold the M-60s for I know not what reason and since I have more than 1 amp here, I do believe that I should have kept them as well as my VAC. The VAC needs a repair now, it has a hummmmm that I cannot get rid of, which was not there before it slipped when I was trying to replace it in my rack, and a lot of weight landed on the feedback selector. The Vac is going to have to go into the shop and I have a pair of Coincident MP300bs coming to try out w a pair of one-off OB speakers w Feastrex field coil single drivers (w powered subs) that are also on their way here. |
Will do, Charles and Iso. I'm very interested in hearing what OB speakers sound like at home; I heard a pair of GRs at RMAF in 2011 and was very impressed w how dynamic and coherent they were, so I'm excited to give these a whirl. The amps that are on the way are the older parallel SE 300bs. Unfortunately, I cannot afford new Franks and they have not yet appeared on the used market. |
So far no one has pointed out the obvious so maybe it does not need saying, but a review of this thread and several others leads one to believe that George is "defending his turf" by talking trash about competitive active pre-amps. And I say this reluctantly, as an owner of one of his passive Lightspeed Attenuators. The LSA is in the opinion of many on this board (myself included), the biggest bargain in high end audio. However, it's not a replacement for a pre-amp if you have more than one source and it does lose out in SQ, to my ears, to actives at 10-20x the price. I do not have the technical know how to assess his claims vs Ralph's but if Almarg says that the marketing literature in the Krell manual is off the mark, then it is off the mark. He's an EE w no dog in this fight and a demonstrated track record of providing excellent interpretation of complex (to me anyways) technical and mathematical issues.
George, your generosity in making your product available at a bargain price and your intellectual property available to the DIY community is well known and exemplary. Unfortunately, you do not do your product or your reputation a service by trashing competitors. While many of us here know that you are "in the business", that should have been disclosed to the OP at the very least, to allow him to evaluate potential motivations. |
OK, George and Knghifi- Point taken. I've got nothing to add technically to this discussion so I will retreat to the sidelines and lurk silently. |
Keith- If you want to contact Steve McCormack, you can do it thru this site (user name Stevemcx I believe) or thru his mod company SMcAudio. He's usually very approachable. |
