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drbarney1

Responses from drbarney1

Audiophile demographics?
Neuro-scientists are still researching cognitive differences XY vs XX causes in the brain. So far, there is great overlap in any Gaussian bell curves of what they quantify. This makes a concept of gender too weak for me to ascribe this difference ... 
Preamp recommendation
Don't be too quick to rule out building one from a kit.www.bottlehead.com has easy to build kits which outperform preamps costing thousands.  
Most hyped turntable, tonearm, and cartridge?
There s something almost Zen about linear tracking tonearms. I am conflicted on whether they are better than a 12 inch or 9 inch tonearm. Many reviewers who listen and evaluate for a living seem skeptical. The added complication of air bearings an... 
Desire to try tubes
If you can get someone who had done it to mentor you, consider building a tube amp from a kit such as Bottlehead. Use polypropylene instead of electrolytic capacitors in the power supply so you not only will never have to replace them in the futur... 
What's the best and/or favorite piece of equipment you've owned? And do you still own it?
My favorite is my 833A single ended triode stereo monoblocks. I could never afford to buy manufactured ones ($350,000 for WAVAC and a "cheap $60,000 made in Poland.) I built my own with all the design features I want and could not count on getting... 
Amp repair cost — is this right?
The cost of repair is why I build my own amplifiers. I have the good fortune of liking SET amplifiers, which are very simple to design. They are easy to repair if anything goes wrong. I notice your describing a problem with power supply capacitors... 
What's your favorite boutique speaker maker
Please accept my vote for Magnepan. In my small house I pair 0.7s with a par of DWMs. Each DWM I wired the two 4 Ohm elements in series for 8 Ohms and connected the outputs of the Hammond 1642SE transformers as follows: 0.7 negative to zero, 0.7 p... 
Thinking about getting a R2R DAC
I have a vintage MSB Platinum Link DAC from the turn of the century. The frequency display went out and MSB is refurbishing it back to like new. It has two upgraded R2R ladders, one in each balanced output channel because I use single ended triode... 
spend on the streamer or on the DAC ?
I tend to go with the DAC because if you hear a composition you find so beautiful you might want to download it into your library and get it in high resolution it will sound better than what you can stream. If you run into unexpected financial rui... 
Am I too big of a jerk,even for audiogon?
There is nothing wrong with looking down on fraud such as some pop chart musicians who have little training but claim they don't need it because "I was born with natural talent," or claiming without any significant education to know more about a s... 
Streaming for beginner
I think I am less knowledgeable than many beginners on streaming and downloads. Hoping I made a good choice I bought a Bluesound Vault 2i and ripped about 170 CDs, all of my CD collection. With customer service help I made three spare copies of wh... 
A Couple Little Things I'm Wondering About
In the matter of electromagnetic radiation from a speaker cable, at 20,000 Hz at the speed of light or close thereto, how could different arrival times of a signal through the fraction of a second of two or three meters of cable at 300,000,000 met... 
Bluesound Vault 2i, Cocktail Audio X40 or ??????????
I purchased a Bluesound Vault 2i late last spring and at first it worked but was so complicated to operate that several times I needed telephone help from someone who I had take control of my computer and made a copy of the music library I had mad... 
Msb dacs why not alot of postings
I purchased an MSB Platinum DAC early in the first decade of this century when I had the income to do it. Because I prefer single ended triode amplifiers using AM radio station transmitter tubes so I don't have to use highly sensitive speakers I b... 
Bluesound Vault 2
I purchased the Vault 2i and ripped all my CDs. I listen to classical music only and the program is impossible to index by composer. My library is about 30 GB and I have a backup of two days it took to rip my library to which I added some 24/96 do...