jafox

Responses from jafox

Modern Day Good Transport
Sogood: Yes, selling the DA10 was one of the two regrets I have made over the last few years....the other being the ARC VT130 which smoked the VT100 and sells for far less here on Audiogon. Both the DA10 and VT130 are absolute runaway steals in pe... 
To Aesthetix users
You can try a quad of Ei 12ax7 tubes at $10 each. I use these in the Aesthetix Io's first stage as I have not yet been able to find a quad of Telefunken or Mullard that are as quiet as these. 
Is there a difference in balanced cables??
Rex, the cable you describe may be sub-optimal, but it allows the complimentary phases to be passed nevertheless, and therefore we have a truly balanced signal. Such a design simply ties the chassis ground to the signal ground....but this ultimate... 
Is there a difference in balanced cables??
Bblilikoi: What I suspect the dealer meant was that many electronic components with XLR connections are not truly balanced. However, it is very easy to determine if ICs with XLR connectors are balanced: verify with a multi-meter that all three pin... 
Ayre V-5xe best tube pre-amp to match with?
Frank: The cost to upgrade a VK30SE to a VK31SE was $1300 when I did it three years ago. The cost from VK50SE to VK51SE was a few hundred $$ more than this. The 30SE was so very muted in the trebles; this was significantly refined with the 31SE. I... 
Which Magnepans 3.5 or 1.6?
"At least you know what you have .....". Yes, nothing that remotely resembles the air, openness, dimensionality, harmonic structures, etc., of the series 3.I owned the 3.3 and 3.5 for a combined 6 years. Everytime I went to the Magnepan dealer, th... 
Wiremold ''NAIM'' powerstrip prices what's this???
Very interesting theory, Lazurus. I would think that components like sources would have significantly low power consumption relative to the amps. Therefore, the sources should have far less affect on the amps than the amps would have on the source... 
Ayre V-5xe best tube pre-amp to match with?
Having owned the 31SE for 2 years, and heard the Calypso many times in my system and the system of its owner, and both compared directly to the Callisto Signature which I now own, the 31SE is a mighty fine product. If you want to stay in the $3000... 
Modern Day Good Transport
Vman71: If your EAD has an RCA, BNC, TosLink or Aes/Ebu digital output, you can drive the Genesis from any of these. The Genesis has a set of the same type of outputs to accommodate pretty much any DAC of your choice. 
Modern Day Good Transport
I continue to use the Pioneer PD65 as a transport and it has performed incredibly well with a variety of DACs including the Counterpoint DA10 (awesome unit for the price), ARC DAC3 II (somewhat bright and fatiguing), ECD-1, VTL Ref and now the Man... 
Holy Crap What have I done?
I want to clarify what was covered by Swampwalker: If you put a capacitor on the input of the amp to give it a first-order high-pass at 65 hz or so, you can NOT run the sub's crossover from the main amp's speaker terminals. This is because this am... 
CAT SL-1 iterations
I can provide a little insight to some of the points made here as I have a CAT Ultimate II (w/phono) on loan for a few months to compare to the Aesthetix Callisto/Io. Amplifiers here are CAT JL-3 and Wolcott P220 driving SoundLab A1's.Because the ... 
TECH GURU's out there, how to clean Circuit Board?
Concerning the use of Flux-Off: be very careful where you spray this as it will eat away plastic surfaces very quickly. Keep the spray focused to the PCB area needing cleaning only. 
Holy Crap What have I done?
Eldartford: I know from reading many of your posts here, you and I take a different approach to our systems. I do understand the benefits of these "corrective" electronic components. In fact, I have been playing with the Rives PARC for over a mont... 
Holy Crap What have I done?
"How can you put a crossover between the amp and preamp?"It's called an active crossover. Read this for further details.Besides the Marchand products, Bryston makes the very nice 10B that comes in a version optimal for subwoofers. If you really wa...