crustycoot
Responses from crustycoot
| Confession: I only like Norah Jones because so many others told me to Listen to ‘I’ve Got To See You Again’ on her first album. It’s a slow fandango rhythm burner with superb musicianship, great sexy lyrics and perfectly poised delivery. Also demo caliber imaging and stage. If that doesn’t do it for you….I don’t kno... | |
| Two powered subs with bookshelf speakers or two floor-standing speakers? It may depend on what you define as bookshelf. A 7” or 8” woofer can go low enough to make the sub truly a subwoofer. A 4” or 5” woofer usually cannot, so the “sub” is really covering a range into the midbass where its presence is more discernible... | |
| McIntosh Announces Mc451 Dual Mono Power Amplifier As a factory-indoctrinated Mac sales guy, to those complaining about the appearance, I will guarantee they will not change it. It is a BIG part of their brand identity…you can buy a new Mac and integrate it with an older system, and it looks like ... | |
| Are mcintosh rca and xlr cables any good. McIntosh turntables are indeed Clearaudio, and the cables are Tributaries. One should remember that McIntosh Labs is a bastion of objectivist engineering types. They make very good gear, but aren’t into magical thinking. The cables are well made,... | |
| Digital gain vs analog gain If your power amp has input level controls, as some vintage Crown amps did, I would suggest attenuating them to allow your analog preamp volume control to operate with normal listening at the noon mark or a bit above, and your DAC or source unatte... | |
| What am I missing? To me, it’s the recording, not the format. Dynamic, well rendered recordings can be heard in their glory in 16/44 Redbook CDA, whether streaming or from CD. Using more data may squeeze a bit more realism out, but mediocre recordings are far mor... | |
| Advice? Less than $4k, solid state preamp, neutral to gentle Just pointing out that 3 subwoofers is only an issue if the preamp has no monaural sub output. So a Parasound Halo P6 would be perfect with a Y connector to creat a 3rd output. No need to spend more of your tuition money on a backup pre. | |
| Only two tracks to test your system, forever! Only 2?? Waahhh! OK. “Walking On The Moon” by Yuri Honig Trio…open and dynamic Mahler 6th by the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra on CD or Tidal…live. I was there and the recording nails it. Runners Up: “Kit Carson” by Bruce Cockburn on ... | |
| Counter weights on your turntable...another dirty little secret? Dadawada has it exactly. Talk to a tech at Fine Sounds and get the right counterweight. The other option is to add weight to the headshell. A half gram of Bluetack will also damp any resonance. | |
| Newbie want to improve what I have Sopra No.1s are one of my favorite 2ways ever. Congratulations on your purchase! The key with this sport is fitting the system to the room in terms of proximity to adjacent room boundaries, overall room volume, etc. The normally rational Erik Squ... | |
| Lost it to Black Friday! Ordered it! Roy, What appealed to you about the GAN mini 5? I have one too, as summertime relief from my Dyna tube amps. Seems good to me despite the disappointing results obtained by ASR. Curious to hear your reaction. | |
| Just how many options does 1 need in a 2 way bookshelf design? The 6” 2-way is the most versatile and practical speaker design for home stereo is why. A 6” woofer can go deep enough to blend with a sub, and high enough before breakup to match a dome tweeter and maintain good off axis linearity. Bigger woofe... | |
| New TT vs Cartridge/isolation upgrade The Bronze engine is different…it uses silver plated wire, and the cost difference is trivial between stylus and cartridge, so get the whole Bronze. I too recommend keeping the RPM1 and addressing you upgrade itch with a cartridge. For under $500,... | |
| New transport or repair CD player Meridian is expensive to buy, and to fix. The Repair Shop in GA has a monopoly on their parts and they have the expertise to be sure. Trust them to send it back in tip top working order. Those players are hard to beat. | |
| I need an Audio Detective I have worked in Audio stores for almost 50 years and only encountered a similar situation once. Guy had bought a Fisher HiFi VHS machine and brought it back saying it didn’t work. We hooked it up and it was fine. 2nd unit, same result. I went... |