fsonicsmith
Responses from fsonicsmith
| Audio Research Ref 6 SE Frankly, I am pleasantly surprised. My take (rightly or wrongly) is that Mr. Wasserman must sell a lot of ARC gear such that the folks at ARC could not say "no". I love my Ref 6 and Ref 150SE combination. I paid full boat for each three years ago.... | |
| Is the Manley Steelhead still relevant? I've owned mine for five years and I love it. Each time I have improved some aspect of my turntables I have discovered just how good the Steelhead is. Changing from VPI decks to hot-rodded NOS vintage decks with Reed 3P arms. Ven den Hul Crimson C... | |
| Replacing Manley Neo-Classic 300B I am not going to sit here and tell you that I have critically compared the world’s best ~$10,000 to $15,000 preamps but I have heard a great many in individual settings and I decided upon an ARC Ref 6 and would confidently say it is among the bes... | |
| VPI's new "Vanquish" Ultra High-End turntable is a STUNNER! Like Rolex, maker of the world's finest $800 dive watch, which they somehow manage to sell for $8k,I hope you know more about audio than about fine timepieces. Granted, 10K (the actual starting price of Rolex's after sales tax) is high, but the qu... | |
| VPI's new "Vanquish" Ultra High-End turntable is a STUNNER! My understanding is that the Vanquish does not use a junction box, but instead has concealed wiring and a built-in phono stage. So you might want to check your facts on that.Check your eyeballs. The second arm on the longshoreman's pier of an armb... | |
| VPI's new "Vanquish" Ultra High-End turntable is a STUNNER! At this level, I don't understand VPI's failure to design around two inherent compromises that VPI is infamous for implementing; 1) a junction box instead of continuous wiring from cartridge pins to connector of choice and 2) ridiculously lengthy ... | |
| Devore O 93 I have owned mine for just over two years. They are great with rock. I have seen people in an obvious state of awe when I play LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver on my digital rig. I own the same record on vinyl and though I generally prefer vinyl,... | |
| Contemplating DEVORE SPEAKERS (and others)....LONG audition report of many speakers Prof-hope the Josephs fulfill all your expectations-I am sure they will. On that topic of others not having a clue, I got conned one year into hosting a Christmas party for our law firm. I knew it would be a mistake. I asked my son-then in high sc... | |
| Amps I Like I am an ARC owner. My reservation with VSi75 is the volume control. I have the same doubts/concerns with most integrated amps. Preamps are critical to overall sound and the vast majority of integrated amps are amplifiers with shortcuts taken in th... | |
| What are the current "speaker trends" in your opinions? I visited most of the rooms at AXPONA this year and I would answer that there is no trend. There were line arrays, wide baffles, open baffles, side firing woofers with narrow baffles, you name it. I agree that the "vintage thing" is making a comeb... | |
| A civil discussion about the state of Audio Research I want to say a hearty thank-you to Jeff Haagenstad of Exogal for putting his perspective into this topic. I appreciate the positive comments. But why not address the questions that remain unanswered; who is going to replace Ward Fiebiger with eng... | |
| A civil discussion about the state of Audio Research The beauty of having clearthink join your discussion is that it is amazingly easy to diplomatically remain silent. Everyone knows his act by now. Someone mentioned a "jester" already. | |
| A civil discussion about the state of Audio Research With ARC going to autobias, the tube matching issues will only be a problem for the existing user base. Everyone hears differently and prefers what they prefer. With this caveat, the kt150 has a superior sound signature to the 6550, kt88, kt90 and... | |
| A civil discussion about the state of Audio Research Thread drift from my own post but; I ended up buying from Tyler and Chelsea of TCtubes. This is what Tyler had to say about the KT150;I avoid most QC issues by paying extra for tubes tested and matched by New Sensor. This costs me more on the fron... | |
| A civil discussion about the state of Audio Research I wish to apologize-and do so humbly-to the excellent mods for using the "C"-word (censorship) as it was totally uncalled for. I am often surprised by the threads that remain unfettered on this Board-the mods have proven their tolerance and restra... |