jond

Responses from jond

Great Plains Audio
Larry when I go to the site it says Buy Now at our online store, with a big Horn in the background covering the entire site. Sorry for the confusion saying Shop Now and you should see that when you open the site. Tried to take a screenshot but not... 
Cant find much info on Art Audio Vinyl Reference Phono
@jimbones So you have the unit in house how do you like it? 
Great Plains Audio
Larry as soon as I log onto the Great Plains site it says Shop Now and that link takes me to that shopify site. So yes it's legit and sorry about the price increases always a bummer. 
External Hard Drive
I use Western Digital Red drives in my NAS and knock on wood it's been 4 years and not a failure. I have not tried one of their external drives so can't comment there but they make good products. And buy the 8TB I bought 4TBs myself and am almost ... 
Kuzma Stabi Reference vs Avid Acutus
You said more musical ever consider going vintage? A nicely restored Garrard 301 or Thorens TD-124 would certainly give you a different flavor and skew in the direction of musical. 
Why Don't Local Audio Dealers Provide Tube Testing Services When They Sell Tube Gear?
I am lucky my dealer, Deja Vu Audio, has several tube testers and tests tubes for me all the time. If I didn't have that luxury I might seriously invest in a tube tester. 
Why are Trolls not blocked
You may just as well ask, why are all speakers imperfect? :) 
Lumin vs Auralic
Calgarian I totally missed your update congrats on your Vega G2 and the Leo Masterclock I'm sure that's an awesome combo! And I hope you're liking the Lightning DS app as well. Cheers! 
Your first system and your journey...
I started late besides a boombox I had in HS/college my first real system was a Bryston B-60 and Rega Planet embarrassingly driving, briefly, a pair of white van speakers. Yes I was one of those suckers! :) 
small footprint Class A mono blocks and pre amplifier
Monarchy Audio http://www.monarchy-audio.com/SE100_MK2_Main_Frame.htm 
You just won a $5,000 audio gear only gift card
A Thorens TD-124 with Ortofon arm and cartridge. 
Speaker manufacturers or box manufacturers with off the shelf drivers?
My speakers are Audio Note AN-J/lx's, Audio Note makes their own drivers and is obsessive about matching drivers in a stereo pair. From their website: Consistent performance is a major issue in loudspeaker design and unfortunately all drive unit... 
Which good discrete R2R multibit DAC & why NOS ?
Also you own a great CD player I would think most Dac's would be at best a lateral move. 
Which good discrete R2R multibit DAC & why NOS ?
In this instance NOS means non over sampling not new old stock. 
Moving up from a Node 2i
@jetter There's nothing wrong with your system your Museatex-Meitner Dac is just better than what's in the Node. Same with my Auralic Aries Mini its internal Dac is just ok, outputting to an external Dac it sounds great.