ghdprentice
Responses from ghdprentice
| CDP or DAC? @jond …I am sure Audio Research has a huge supply of transports for repair so their customers never become boat anchor owners… it is a reputable company. Also, I actually do not use the transport part, I use it as a DAC. I had a Berkeley Alpha 3 (... | |
| Best Sounding Speaker Cables? @mahlman I suppose obsessing about wire would be a bit silly. But the often substantial effect on sound quality of cables and interconnects is pretty counterintuitive. So folks that thought it silly and then hear the difference are likely to be vo... | |
| Where do you put your money? As a percent of income is an interesting figure. If I average my income over the last ten years (relatively stable) then it is 100%. So the total cost of my system equals my average annual income. | |
| CDP or DAC? If you want to get close to analog I recommend an Audio Research CD9se. This is the best sounding CD player / DAC I have heard. The tubes allow for a wonderful midrange bloom and natural analog sound. I actually did a side by side comparison with ... | |
| Can you share your older Pass Labs experiences? Considering the feedback from others I’ll add some further thoughts. The XA lines are warm and natural with low power. The X lines are very powerful but less warm. Pairing is important, for the XA series with the right speaker and the X series the... | |
| Can you share your older Pass Labs experiences? I have owned Pass amps for 40 years and very highly recommend them. I only recently moved to a tube amp. They are built like tanks, have high current designs, with excellent neutral / natural sound. | |
| Smaller Audio/Video stores- Free delivery service My dealer drops demo units by my house and sets them up. When I decide to buy, I keep the demo unit until my new one is delivered. He brings it over and installs it… meaning making sure all components are working correctly together. I am 35 to 45 ... | |
| Where do you put your money? Interesting question. I hadn’t calculated it recently.System 80%Recordings 20% (if I was doing this starting now… I would only have a Qobuz subscription, $19.95 / month, no physical media)Breaking down system only:Speakers 23%Music Server 16%Pream... | |
| Tube Preamp - What to buy? Audio Research and Conrad Johnson are outstanding choices. ARC was my first solid piece of audio equipment. Built to last truly audiophile quality so will sound great regardless of age. If I was starting over it would be these two brands I would c... | |
| What's your dream speaker? The WAMM is amazing… but actually not my idea of a speaker I would want to listen to every day . that holographic imaging is amazing, but not my cup of tea.I would think it would be somewhat like owning for your every day car a McLaren, for grocer... | |
| Paying for equip? Ach wires or check or cc? I always pay by check. It gives my dealer more room to discount… typically by inflating the value of trade-ins, since that allows him to show he charged full price to the company he buys from. | |
| Considerations prior to your next purchase I thought the definition of an audiophile was someone with an audio system of greater value than their automobile. | |
| Buying used vs new? In general, who cares where it has been. Unless banged up or with grease dripping from it. Most likely bought by someone that knew something about high end audio. I guess if it is from an inner city pawn shop… I would be hesitant. | |
| As you have moved on, are there any items you remember fondly...or most fondly? Acoustat 2 + 2. I brought them home with an amp capable of powering them. I couldn’t afford the amp and the speakers, so choose to get the amp first and by the time I paid off the amp no longer had a place large enough for the speakers. | |
| USB vs. HDMI vs. Toslink Yes, a very high probability. Less is always more, and conversion is never a good thing. |