desktopguy
Responses from desktopguy
| Tube DACs I've never had a tube DAC, per se (where the tube amplifies signal). But I have had tube buffers, both external and internal to a DAC. In my experience, a well designed and implemented tube buffer can add to the sound quality of a DAC, especially... | |
| 50 years of Hip Hop- How Come? I liked hip-hop pretty much from day-1. Greatly prefer it to rap, though some rap really rocks me, too. I tend to hear hip-hop as more continuous, more part of "music/time." Some of the best hip-hop I ever heard came out of France. It turns out t... | |
| Has anyone noticed a slow down in sales? I definitely noticed a slowdown. I've had a headphone amp (interesting, quality design & well priced) F.S. in various places since August. Just two sorta/kinda inquires about it, neither serious. The world is kind of in a mess now, more than ... | |
| Speakers with deep/powerful bass @Sandthemall is right--it’s the room. At least part of it is the room. My biggest system was Vandersteen 4s driven by tube amps >80 Hz and by a heavily modded Adcom GFA-555 amp <80 Hz. Prior to the mods the Adcom was a decent but unexceptio... | |
| Is a highly discerning system enjoyable? It’s easy to start thinking we have audio mostly figured out simply because it’s 2023. But that’s not true. Audio gear continues to fall far behind live music in real spaces, primarily in dynamics, scale and bass. With the exception of the lucky ... | |
| Classical music newbie needs your suggestions Rather that rattle off a list of my favorite pieces of classical music (we’d be here all day), I would advise you to do a couple real-world things to inform yourself so you can figure out what you like (of music on-hand now) and what might thrill ... | |
| Advice for bookshelf speakers Can't help with any real-world suggestions (neither of my favorite 2-ways would work well with an AVR) ... but I totally agree w/OP's comment about sealed/acoustic suspension possibly being better close to a wall. My home office system is space c... | |
| Thought I’d share: Nicely done and practical DAC review John Grandberg is the best. I read his reviews with great interest and appreciation. Not only does he write well, hear well and think well, but he often comes into the review with a novel approach or idea that makes it more than the usual "beauty ... | |
| Tube amps and a Stradivarius I've always heard (and believed) that tubes sound as good as they do for 2 primary reasons: 1 - They better convey the particular harmonic structure of notes from different instruments (accuracy of tone & timbre) 2 - And very often, they ove... | |
| Welcome to Hell, here's your 8-Track Yes, there was something good about 8-tracks. At a moment in time when the standard audio format was the LP, there were no real portable/automotive options beyond FM & AM radio. Good as those were/still are, something was missing. Much like V... | |
| Why do so many sellers take offense to offers on their listings? Early on in the audio game, I began inserting "No lowball offers, please" in my F.S. listings. I did so because I was often getting emails/posts offering 1/4 to 1/2 of my the asking price, usually w/no other questions about the item. That’s not a ... | |
| Warming up digital in my setup I can immediately think of 3 tactics to get rid of the glare: Get pretty much any competently designed R2R DAC--or better yet, a NOS (non-oversampling DAC). This will make a huge difference Get a tube buffer to put in line after the DAC. My NO... | |
| What Digital to Digital Converter Do You Use? Why? You can spend a great deal of money on a DDC these days. It seems that DDCs are audio’s new "flavor of the week." First things first: why to bother with DDCs, or their more primitive precursors, SPDIF converters? 1 - 10+ years ago when I got my ... | |
| Looking for good recordings of female vocals I have not yet tried... A couple particularly well-recorded vocal albums come to mind: Shirley Horn "Here's to Life" (1992, arrangements by Johnny Mandel) Helen Merrill "What's New" (1954) And any of Ella Fitzgerald/Norman Granz "songbook" collaborations on Verve. My ... | |
| Is it me or new audio gear is too perfect and give ear fatigue? Yes, burn-in can reduce initial apparent brightness over time. Yes, the latest crop of tube amps (as a group) are less warm & syrupy sounding. Yes, system-matching has a large effect on bright vs not-bright sound (brightness can be added or ... |