hotei

Responses from hotei

Looking for integrated solid state amp for daily usage
Hegel H190  
Recommendation Tube Integrated
You can find an ARC VSi75 in your price range, great amp and only six tubes to deal with. four power and two preamp.  
What to expect if I import an amp and preamp from a Japan seller via US eBay
If you can find out the commodity code, you can figure exactly the import duties.  
Need a new integrated, what say you?
Have to agree with the Hegel H190.  Mine sounds good and the streaming is excellent too.  Got a wi-fi extender with an ethernet port on the side and run it to the Hegel.  Works great if your router is downstairs and stereo is upstairs.  
BEST little know Jazz Album that you ever heard?
stuartk,  the NHOP you mentioned is definitely unknown to me.  Thank you for the heads up.  I will definitely check them out.    
Speaker Efficiency
Then why even make speakers in the 80db range if higher impedance is better?   
BEST little know Jazz Album that you ever heard?
To me it was little known,  "The Trio" Peterson, Pass, Pedersen  
Whats on your turntable tonight?
Three Blind Mice Japanese Jazz sampler.  
Old records.
Or, send a few of the worst ones to a record cleaning service and see if that makes a difference.    
Old records.
Just use some audio intelligent solutions one step No. 6 and a vacuum record cleaner.  With 3000 records, I would think even with a bad stylus rotating through records would take quite some time for a bad stylus to do terrible damage.  
what amplification are you running with your Dynaudio Heritage Specials?
I’m happy with an ARC VSi75 and a REL sub.  For solid state, I use a Hegel H190 which sounds very nice.  I didn’t need the power of upper level Hegels.  
Getting Back In - But Doing it Sanely
I'm liking a Hegel H190 at the moment.  However, a ARC I-50 for tubes would also be sweet.  For tubes I use a ARC VSi75.  
Hegel H190 $2800
They are on sale now for that price.  
speakers for small room
I second the Dynaudio Heritage Specials.  For those who say they need a lot of power, I have not found that to be accurate.  I power them with a ARC VSi75 and find that to be plenty.  
MoFi lawsuit
+1 on the Tom and Kathleen Waits reissues.  They are superb.