jfuquay
Responses from jfuquay
| For the love of...kits? The kits from diyAudio are excellent. Step by step illustrated instructions for many amps and preamps. Most are Pass/First Watt designs generously shared with the diy community. And if you have the online forums if you run into trouble. I did my f... | |
| How important is the efficiency of a speaker to you? I think a very reasonable argument can be made for low-power amps, along the lines of “the less you mess with the signal, the better.” So assuming you select a well-designed amp, you simply find a speaker that pairs well with it. I have a couple o... | |
| Can you provide context on First Watt? I think you’re on the right track with high-sensitivity speakers for low-volume listening. Whenever I hear a speaker with a cone tweeter I like it’s often a highly efficient speaker, like a DeVore Orangutan. Also, you sound like a careful listener... | |
| Does a particular musician’s songwriting and artistry speak to you above all others? Joni Mitchell is a poet. Hard to top in my world. And Mark Knopfler is just a wonder on his instrument. | |
| At what price is one considered an Audiophile. It’s a state of mind, not state of wallet. If you listen thoughtfully and critically, I’d say you’re there. | |
| Pass Labs 1st Watt Rundown I have a 20x20 family room that serves as my Pass/First Watt DIY venue. If there is a common denominator it is what I hear as purity of sound. A friend likes to say that power and purity are at odds in audio equipment. He’s a low-power tube and Fi... | |
| UPS Driver Literally Drops Package with New Hana Umami Red This probably applies little if at all, but as a reporter I toured a football helmet maker’s factory. They measure impact with an accelerometer inside a model “head.” They then dropped an 8-pound “head” with and without the helmet and measured the... | |
| Used PS Audio Items When I traded in a piece of Musical Fidelity gear for a new PS Audio product, they told me the trade-in would be resold thru The Music Room, which is near by. I now have three items from PS Audio and n repair needs. Good folks. | |
| Sat front row at the symphony... I find attending a live orchestral performance a unique sound experience because of how much more involving it is for the listener. I can think of some composers, like Mahler or Shostakovich, whose compositions can be so complex that listening at ... | |
| Warmer class D amps for magnepan? I use a Rogue Sphinx and REL 9x sub with my Magnepan .7s. Very good combo for the acoustic music listening I do 95% of the time. I really think the use of a tube input stage can be beneficial with Class D power. Several makers doing that now. But ... | |
| Thanks to Paul McGowan Per the comment from optimise regarding BHK and Paul McGowan. Maybe you noticed this week that Gregg Popovich made the NBA Hall of Fame. Pop never scored a single point, or grabbed a rebound or had an assist. All he did was build and cmaintain one... | |
| Streaming Dac $5000-8000 +1 on the new PS Audio Directstream. I have the first version with streamer card option and it’s simply outstanding. The free updates can really add improvements over the years as well. | |
| Fantasy or reality? Inexpensive solid state preamps that get you 80% there? I’m going to say that getting to 80% is fairly easily done in electronics, especially solid state. I don’t think there are that many secrets in circuits or components, having built five DIY amps and preamps, mostly Pass designs. But I don’t think ... | |
| Classical music newbie needs your suggestions I had a college friend share his appreciation of classical music with me. Since it sounds you’re beyond that, I’d now say to find a copy of Ted Libby’s NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection. (Ignore the “CD” part of the title.) The great... | |
| Pass Labs Speaker Choices The first Magnepans I ever heard were driven by a First Watt amp, I forget which one. The owner thought it showed that a good power supply and solid engineering provided plenty of juice if you weren’t aiming for rock concert sound levels. I took i... |