kirkus
Responses from kirkus
| Why do amps sound different? While I enjoy and value Atmasphere's posts on the subject, I will take issue with the major point in the paper he presented. I don't see that these two paradigms exist at all . . . except in a hypothetical world where there is a simple, binary cho... | |
| Classical Record Labels and Recording Engineers... What about ECM New Series? There are too many stunning Arvo Part and Hilliard Ensemble recordings to list, and that only scratches the surface of what this label has to offer. The (fairly) recent John Holloway (baroque violin) releases of works by... | |
| It's 2008. Why aren't there better options ? The last line of your post is why. Would you expect any other "dream component" for a high-quality, enthusiast audio system to cost $1000? Actually, the Kaleidescape system does most of what you're asking, and they're adding more and more features... | |
| Need technical explanation Well actually, the "number of separate amplifiers" is simply the same as the number of channels . . . in the same sense that all "stereo" power amplifiers have two channels. Most of the time these days I'd expect a "7.1" receiver to have seven cha... | |
| Equipment: To Hide or not to Hide I find equipment between the loudspeakers distracting, almost as much as a blank TV screen. When my gear was between the speakers and included a big McIntosh amp, I found myself putting the record album cover in front of the amp so I wouldn't have... | |
| Need technical explanation If you were to distill down an amplifier circuit to a basic "triangle" block diagram, there are two inputs, one inverting and one non-inverting . . . and one output. The amplifier derives its output from the difference between the two inputs. A pe... | |
| Pioneer stop Plasma production....... I consider Sony the vanguard.This was quite true in the grand old days when founder Akio Morita was still running the company, esp. the Trinitron tube with its slotted shadow mask. But quite unfortunately those days are long gone, and it's wise to... | |
| Pioneer stop Plasma production....... Interesting . . . thanks for the post. I do think that while Pioneer seems like a huge company compared to many in the specialty audio business . . . they're still a chump-change company in the OEM parts manufacturing business. And Matsushita isn'... | |
| Got a New CD Player and Now I'm Bummed Dodgealum, I think a big part of your dissatisfaction is that analog is just so in vogue . . . think Hansel in Zoolander . . . "he's just so hot right now!" Many on Audiogon currently mirror the audio press, and I find it interesting that if someb... | |
| Building New House - dedicated ele. best practices Alrau, I forgot about Shak's 20A specification as I got to typing my diatribe. Of course, at 20A they will be using 12 . . . my recommendation is to use it for 15A circuits as well in new construction. In fact, the electrical contractor that I use... | |
| Is there such a speaker...(loud but smooth)? I'd also add reliability as a requirement . . . because it's no fun cranking it if you're overly worried about blowing something up. So if it's a traditional passive speaker you're looking at, you'll need a powerful amp and/or one with very dignif... | |
| Building New House - dedicated ele. best practices Unless you're wanting to drop a ton more money, I wouldn't worry about the specifics for the materials. There are, however, several things you can do . . . I'm assuming that this is typical residential construction, wood studs wired with Romex, r... | |
| Top 5 recievers of the 70's and 80's ???? Bang & Olufsen Beomaster 2400. The fact that we're talking about receivers means to me that we're talking for more casual use, not for a reference system . . . and the 2400 sounds pretty decent, has an amazing list of technical innovations, an... | |
| What is a passive preamp? C'mon, guys, this is silly . . . terminological snobbery does not endear people to our hobby. I'm personally happy with the term "passive preamp", but it's not because of any ignorance of what's going on inside the box. It's for the same reason th... | |
| Optimizing McIntosh 7300s as monoblocks The output taps are very similar to the gear ratios on your auto transmission . . . in this case, how fast you can go depends on the balance of how high the engine redline is, and how steep a hill you're going up. If you correlate maximum audio po... |