chayro

Responses from chayro

What would be a good turntable/tonearm/cartridge
Music Hall MMF5 or MMF7. Comes all set up with dustcover and cartridge. Plug and play. You will need a phono preamp, of course. The other thing I would add is a Herbies mat. But that's about it. Prices are about 800 and 1600 respectively. I don't ... 
SACD with LFD/ Harbeth
I would work with speaker placement before I did anything. Maybe get them a bit further from the wall or change the stands or the way they are coupled to the stands. A harder footer could clean up the midbass and a bit more toe-in could result in ... 
Why does a Sony PlayStation sound good to me?
Marantz players tend to run on the warmer/less-detailed side of the spectrum. I also think the cheaper Cambridge and NAD players exhibit the same qualities. I think audiophile too often look for very detailed players, but end up not liking them. 
My Skylan stand review
Nice review. I see Noel is now including an interface between the stands and the speakers, which is a good idea. I recall speaking with him years ago about the fact that I felt the stands deadened the sound of my Harbeth SHL5s, but the sound notic... 
No cartridge is good enough.
Have you tried the best cartridges and turntables and found them lacking? My guess is you might be surprised. 
Best near wall high end speaker
Not exactly at your price or dimensions, but the Trenner & Friedl Pharoahs can go really close to a back wall and are not very deep. You can see them on my systems page. Whether they will fit your sonic tastes are another matter. 
Rock with strings
James Taylor's Fire and Rain has some beautiful cello work going on. Never noticed it when I was young, but heard it later on a more resolving system. James had some of the best musicians, engineers and production people working with him. 
Gene Simmons says the rock business is dead
I think Bowie was the first with the big stage show, although there might be some overlap. Before that, major artists would just come out on the Filmore East stage in T-shirts and play the most incredible (rock) music the world has ever heard. Fun... 
MC Cartridges Under $1,000
You need to check that it's compatible with the VPI arm, but I think the Goldring Eroica is very nice for the money. Comes in lo and hi output versions. On another note, I think your system merits a little better cartridge if you can swing it. May... 
Calling all SET fans
Schubert - when you had your Omegas, were you using a low-powered SET amp to drive them? IMO, that's what the single-driver thing is really about. I remember a friend's system with Zu speakers - I was not very impressed when driven by the big 60-w... 
£15k $22k to spend on speakers...but which?
Charles, the speaker/room interface is so critical and when you have limited placement options, you never know. As much as I love Harbeth, I could not for the life of me make the Monitor 30s work in my room. They just hit the wrong nodes (I guess)... 
Calling all SET fans
Have Fritz make you a pair of Fostex single-driver speakers. I have a pair kicking around the house and I prefer the 4" driver to the 6". You wouldn't think it would be better, but it is. I used to listen to them quite a bit when I had my Opera st... 
£15k $22k to spend on speakers...but which?
If you are looking for a speaker you will love for a long time, there is no other way than to audition it in your system and in your room. You can never know what speaker acoustically clicks with your room and taste without trying it. A friend hea... 
Dolby NR encoding - did it ever work
Only a select few ever had access to a cassette deck of that quality. I'm sure the Naks can extract some excellent sound from a cassette, with or without dolby. Frankly, I never found tape hiss that offensive. Listen to Brubeck's Time Out. Loaded ... 
Headed to New Orleans
Have dinner at Commanders Palace and August. If you're not going that upscale, I strongly recommend Redfish Grill. Also, the broiled oysters at Dragos are a must. But don't order anything else there, IMO. I've heard they have some music down there...