fineberg

Responses from fineberg

compare and contrast
I have the A3cr pre and amp and use it with Magnepans and am very happy. I have also heard these amps sounding great with Thiels. 
Arcam alpha 7 upgrade/alternatives/useds for 1000
I was in exactly the same position and have decided to get an external DAC. If I had the money, I probably would have gone for the EVS or a P-3 with the Dan Wright mods. However, I got a great deal on a used bel canto dac 1.1 with an Illuminati D-... 
Speaker Cables, One side longer- bad idea?
There are two issues that come to mind. First of all the electrical properties of speaker cable ARE to some extent length dependant and varying those parameters can effect how the amp interacts with the speakers. This is less of an issue in a 5.1 ... 
Which HT Receiver would you buy?
My Dad (who was also trying to simplify his system) bought a discontinued NAD (the T771, I think) which had everything but DTS (which was why it was discontinued) and has really loved it. You can often find incredible deals on these units and in m... 
Still need help for CD PLAYER .. please
Look for a Cal Ikon, Rega Planet 2000, Arcam Alpha 8se or Alpha 9se (this great player is sometimes sold used very cheap 500-700 even though it cost over $1500 new). Otherwise you could get a good new player from Cambridge Audio. there is also a p... 
Theta DS Pro Gen V or newer?
You should really look at the EVS Millenium II (great parts and upsampling), the Bel Canto DAC 1.1 used or the Perpetual Tech P-3A with Modwright parts swap (this mod is covered by their waranty). A DAC with a newer chipset makes a very big differ... 
Bel..AVo 200.2, Musical Fidelity A3cr, YBA 2hc, Pass X150
Jorge, I had a 3B-ST with and old 0.5b pre-amp. First went the pre-amp to the A3cr pre which I liked so much, I bought the amp. They also have a great effect when used together and this may explain the improvement over the Bryston (which I liked v... 
Bel..AVo 200.2, Musical Fidelity A3cr, YBA 2hc, Pass X150
I have Magnepans which are not Bass heavy and only really listen to classical, so I can't speak to heavy drum set music, but I find the bass to be very good. I had a Bryston before and find the A3cr tighter and more focused in the bass. I hear eve... 
Bel..AVo 200.2, Musical Fidelity A3cr, YBA 2hc, Pass X150
I do not have experience with all of these amps, but I own the MF A3cr and absolutely love it. I prefer by a significant margin to the Krells I have heard (admittedly not hte most expensive ones). It is smooth and detailed without being shrill or ... 
Advise for speaker cable upgrade please
I recently went to a bi-wirie config with Analysis Plus oval 9 on the bottom and oval 12 on top and it has been phenomenal. Far beyond my highest expectation. I tried the Q-10 and it was good, but not in the same league.Good Luck,joshua 
Help i'm lost... what cd player to buy ??
The Musical Fidelity A3 cd that Argent mentioned is really nice. You might find it used for around $750 (its $995 new), but they very few are resold. Upscale audio is selling all the MF gear these days. 
Any comfortable Quality headphones...
I also agree about the Senn 580s, or if budget is an issue the 560s are still pretty good. You should however know that part of why they are comfotable is that they are open. So if you are using them to avoid trouble with th neighbor, they will wo... 
Good preamp for Bel Canto EVo 200.2?
If your not completely set on tubes, you should check out the Musical Fidelity A3cr pre-amp. It's about $1500 new and sounds just wonderful. If you read Sam Tellig's Stereophile review, he goes on about the almost tube like harmonic presentation e... 
What's better? 1 amp of 250wpc OR 2 amps of 135wpc each one?
I've seen threads from a number of people use the very config you descibe and are very happy. 
PayPal not as safe as everyone thinks?
In all fairness, all those returns that may lose them their credit card affiliation are due to people NOT being ripped off. So that while they certainly need to crack down on fraud, they not the users seem to be the ones suffering.Josh