kirkus
Responses from kirkus
| Pass Labs Vfet amps I restored a Sony TA-8650 in the late-1990s, and owned it for about ten years. I found the preamp to be reasonably competent, but the power-amp was indeed special - smooth, clean, and powerful. I also spent some time with it on the test bench on s... | |
| The Arm/Cartridge Matching Myth This Resonant Frequency has ZERO affect on the sound quality of a particular tonearm/cartridge combination and I have proved it hundreds of times with a dozen different arms and over 40 cartridges.Hi Halcro . . . I think the main conceptual proble... | |
| What makes Telefunken tubes sound better? While I've had some wonderful batches of Telefunken-branded tubes of many types, I think the idea of Telefunken being the "best" needs some qualification. I think this may have some validity when looking at a certain period of production in the mi... | |
| Switch box & audio integrity I'll add the Goldpoint products to the list; I think they have a selector-switch-in-a-box (fixed-level-passive-preamp, anybody?) www.goldpt.com | |
| Is a 12au7 a safe replacement for a 12ax7 There's no problem from the standpoint of the maximum ratings to swap a 12AU7 for a 12AX7. But I've yet to see a phono-preamp circuit where this swap won't have a significant effect on the RIAA accuracy. If the circuit uses passive EQ, the 12AU7's... | |
| Tascam BR-20T is good for a audiophile system? Hi Rolando - whether or not any reel-to-reel tape machine is of use in your system depends completely on exactly what tapes you have that you want to listen to. There are very few commercial pre-recorded tapes available, and they vary wildly in ag... | |
| Upgrade from B&O system to ? for large bright room My recommendation is to keep your Beocenter 9500 as a starting point, and looking around at speakers as a starting point. I should start by putting in the disclaimer that I have had an ownership interest in a couple of B&O stores over the past... | |
| Review: Soundsmith SG-410 Strain Gauge Cartridge Cartridge Peter admits the tolerance exceeds +/-1db but refuses to quantify this variance. He seems to prefer simply tell us it doesn't matter. Peter is beyond brilliant, but I just don't get this approach.I can't speak for Peter, but keep in mind that if a... | |
| Are Bang and Olufsen turntables any good? I really like B&O turntables, have owned many, and currently have two - a modified Beogram 4004 with an MMC20CL, and a stock Beogram 8002 with an MMC1. They are terrifically out-of-vogue in audiophile circles . . . but every "hot-ticket" vinta... | |
| Amplifier Input Impedance Many people here seem to be overlooking the fact that the input to a conventional solid-state amplifier is AC coupled, and while any "termination" resistor after does affect AC input impedance, its primary purpose is to provide input bias current ... | |
| Improving bass from a front ported speaker Speaking very generally, stuffing a port will raise the speaker's low-end rolloff frequency, but at the same time make it more gradual. There are also many gradations between completely open and completely plugged, depending on the density of mate... | |
| Top resistors Bruce Hofer (founder of Audio Precision) did a recent AES Convention lecture on many topics pertaining to low-THD circuit design, including parts quality in both capacitors and resistors. He was kind enough make the PowerPoint slides available for... | |
| Anyone try this way to wire your loudspeakers? I'm a tad confused (as always), you are running full frequency info to both woofer and tweeter/mid bypassing the crossover? The wiring setup that the original poster describes is typical of loudspeakers designed for bi-wiring, and still keeps the ... | |
| Anyone try this way to wire your loudspeakers? Although I suppose it is conceivable that there may be some rare exceptions for which doing that would provide results that are somewhat reasonable, perhaps such as certain older Apogee speakers, and the Infinity Kappa 9, that have extremely low ... | |
| Anyone try this way to wire your loudspeakers? Hi Al . . . good to be back as well. You are indeed correct, my bad. It's 6dB between the 8- and 2-ohm taps, and 3dB between the 8- and 4-ohm taps . . . same as a tube amp. |