helomech
Responses from helomech
| Why Does Expensive Gear Seems To Sound Better? IME, it’s only speakers and phono cartridges that have a mostly consistent price/performance correlation. Even with those there are caveats, such as aftermarket styli or DIY speaker kits. These days, with the availability of high performance cla... | |
| Initial Impressions Shure V15xMR w Jico SAS Stylus The Jico SAS styli take many hours to break-in, closer to 100. Properly aligned and broke-in, the V15 with an SAS approaches the maximum capability of a MM cartridge. Really need to step up to >$1000 MCs to get appreciably better performance. ... | |
| Bryston or Yamaha? The preamp section of even a decent integrated amp is usually the weak link due to parts quality, component space and heat issues. To many unknow variables to verify your claims. Yeah that is true of a typical integrated amps but not the uppe... | |
| Gain level on a REL sub Another thing, you want that high-level cable cut as short as possible once you finalize your sub placement. It makes a difference. | |
| Gain level on a REL sub I had this same issue with my Carbon Special. I could not get the high level connection working with the Ayre amplifier I was using. It turned out the problem was that I had the ground cable connected to one of the Ayre’s chassis screws (the foolp... | |
| Bad idea? In 99.9% of systems, the person would be better off by saving that money toward a speaker upgrade. Otherwise, just get a couple 4’ lengths of the 12-gauge Duelund cable from Parts Connexion. It’s all anyone needs. | |
| Bryston or Yamaha? Yamaha has known how to make ultra-quiet and refined electronics for many decades now. Some will argue that their older stuff is even better than current flagships, so I wouldn’t presume the newer Bryston is superior. I’ve pitted the preamp sectio... | |
| Looking for a more solid-feeling turntable (and maybe a new preamp) Palmer and SME | |
| Re; Dynamics, Class D vs tubes… Usually its the other way ’round. What tends to cause tube amps to seem to have more power than solid state amps of the same rating is the way they make distortion, particularly, as you alluded, near clipping. My experience is otherwise. Mayb... | |
| Technics 1200G vs VPI Forever Model One I went Technics (with the lesser 1210GR) and never looked back. It’s nice to finally have a turntable that can manage sustained notes without audible flutter. Can’t say that for any belt-drive I owned. If measured performance is important to y... | |
| How to choose speakers that won't overpower your room? In a room that size I’d be very tempted to go with in-wall speakers. There are some surprisingly good ones out there that will outperform most floorstanders (small or otherwise) crammed into a small room. | |
| Re; Dynamics, Class D vs tubes… Really depends on the design, but generally speaking, I’d say tube amps. That is because tube amps tend to boost the “bass-slam” frequency range when mated to highly reactive loads. It’s the same reason for why listeners often say tube watts sou... | |
| Anybody ever dealt with Safe and Sound audio I too have had great experiences with S&S. Enjoy your new DAC! | |
| Standmount speaker suggestion If you don’t mind a little DIY, the Satori Ara Textreme kit from Madisound will outperform many of the aforementioned options and for a lot less dough. https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/2-way-speaker-kits/satori-ara-textreme-2-way-speaker-ki... | |
| Looking for a new DAC You want a highly resolving, linear measuring DAC with Magnepans because Maggies roll off the top octave considerably. You don’t want anything that truncates those fine details further. IME, for such a DAC, there is no need to get anything more ... |