dogearedaudio

Responses from dogearedaudio

Big problem / bottleneck in my chain
To address one part of your post, I recently bought a used Chord Qutest, which I like a lot.  A friend was thinking of selling his MScaler and I considered buying it, but he had a Qutest and now has the Dave, and he said the difference it made wit... 
DAC 'Scam' Vid
My TL/DR opinion is that this is nonsense.  Buy the best DAC you can afford.  I had a Doge 7 DAC for a number of years, not a bad DAC, but I got tired of the tube output colorations.  I borrowed a friend's Chord Mojo and thought it pointed in the ... 
Would you buy a tube amp if you were unable to use vintage tubes in it ?
Like others have said, I wouldn't have patience with a tube amp that demanded NOS tubes to sound good.  There are plenty of good new tubes on the market today.  My Williamson amps sound great with Gold Lion KT66's and GZ34s, and Tung-Sol 6SN7s.  
Is my Dynaco Stereo 400 worth repairing for resale?
Under no circumstances should anyone buy "restoration" parts from Hi-Fi-Audio-Rocks on eBay.  He's notorious for send poor or wrong components and providing weak or nonexistent documentation.  There's a long thread mover at Audiokarma about this s... 
Anyone else constantly curious about amps?
I'm not familiar with your speakers, but judging from the specs, I don't think you have enough power.  They may play "loud enough" but you're not really hearing what the speakers can do, even at lower listening levels.  Also, you've got single-end... 
Replacement/upgrade for Bluesound and Chord Mojo 2 streamer/external DAC combo
@nothelle Unless you need a headphone amp, I'd go with the Quetest, you save a lot of money, and you can use better cables for connection to the streamer instead of being limited by the Hugo's miniature input jacks.  Once the Qutest arrived I spl... 
Does and don't
I don't think the Furman with the Bryston is a good idea.  I use a 15A Furman regulator because I have low-powered tube amps and my line voltage often drops to 114 or lower during the summer, causing the amps to under-perform.  But the Bryston is ... 
Replacement/upgrade for Bluesound and Chord Mojo 2 streamer/external DAC combo
Keep the Node for now and get a second-hand Qutest.  Upgrade the streamer later.  I borrowed a friend's Mojo and liked it enough that I found a used Qutest, which I absolutely love.  It replaced a massive Doge DAC 7, with a Sabre chip and all-tube... 
5ar4 rectifier tube
I've had no problems with Gold Lion 5AR4s, but I would use what the manufacturer recommends.  A friend of mine continually rolls tubes and has managed to trash a number of expensive amps.  The manufacturer of one amp specifically advised against u... 
Considering a New Tube Pre-amp
I'll probably raise some hackles but as nice as the Cary SLP-98 is, natural and musical, it's also thick and sluggish.  Consider Tubes4HiFi SP-14.  This is based on the open-source "Aikido" circuit--four 6SN7s arranged in a noise cancellation circ... 
New buy, no return policy
@inna  I disagree!  $48K speakers?  I want to hear them in my own space.  That dealer made a...what's the markup?...$20K mistake?  
How to find local audiophiles
When I lived in the DC/VA/MD area, I tried joining an audiophile club. Hmmmmm. One visit to a very high-end system that sounded...not very good...cured me of that impulse. That and the bragging and "competition." Fortunately, a DIY audio group was... 
Bose Chucks Mac
I was in Best Buy last week looking for an AudioQuest cable in the Magnolia section, but they didn’t have what I wanted. A nice young man came up and asked if I needed anything. I said no, but thanks for asking. Without prompting he said, "Those c... 
Big Jazz Band Music with Great Sound
There are a lot of great big-band recordings from the stereo era. Terry Gibbs' Dream Band.  Seven CDs worth of live recordings from 1958/59 recorded by the great Wally Heider. Ellington at Newport 1956.  "Accidental" stereo.  Originally issued i... 
Best Classical Labels for Sound
Cedille Records is a specialty classical label that focuses on high recording quality.  I find Alpha recordings of Baroque music to be very good.