larryi
Responses from larryi
| Japanese tube amps. Wavac, Air Tight, Audio Tekne, Komuro etc. I liked the lower powered offerings of the likes of Shindo, Kondo, and Yamamoto. Some of the older Kondo gear, like their M10 preamp, are stunningly good sounding. I sort of found that out the hard way. Many years ago, I was in the market for S... | |
| Is there an 'Audiophile' Reel-to-Reel Machine for Under $1,000? The only decent machines that one can occasionally find for quite low a price is the Otari 5050 because it is a professional machine that was built in vast numbers and is extremely rugged. But, because it is a professionally used machine, most of... | |
| Piano is just 300 years old? There's more. The pianos of Stuart & Sons represent a fairly recent technological advancement in piano design and modern exotic materials are now appearing in pianos. I am sure the merits of these "improvements" can be debated, but tiny changes have been h... | |
| Piano is just 300 years old? There's more. There is a fairly recent recording called “Fantasie” by Alexander Melnikov where he plays a number of different keyboard instruments—harpsichord, tangent piano, fortepiano, and modern pianos. It is a very worthwhile recording to seek out. | |
| I’m considering upgrading my speakers internal wiring i spend a lot of weekends at a local shop that makes its own high end speakers. After the basic speaker is made, there is a lot of time spent tweaking the speaker, including making adjustments based on the specific wants of a prospective buyer. ... | |
| Is there an 'Audiophile' Reel-to-Reel Machine for Under $1,000? Not only would you have to be extremely lucky to get a $3000 machine in good shape, you will have to get lucky finding good pre-recorded tapes. Good tapes, that clearly beat out decent vinyl records can cost many hundreds of dollars each. Blank ... | |
| From Audio Note AN/J-D to where? Ideally, open baffle speakers would be placed with a lot of room behind the speaker and some room to the side-four feet from the back wall and something like two feet or more from the side wall to the edge of the baffle. But, I've heard them in s... | |
| Fine tuning the system. Where do you start and how do you proceed ? Start by assessing what you like about the sound you are getting and what improvements you want. Keep in mind that anything that you do, if it is at all effective, alters the sound and that can be for better or worse. Be prepared to accept that ... | |
| How often do you send your tube pream/amp to the manufacturer for service and calibration? Never have sent a tube amp or preamp to a manufacturer. The only thing I ever sent to the manufacturer was a CD player. | |
| From Audio Note AN/J-D to where? I like the AN-E’s, particularly because they work well with lower-powered tube amps (my favorite kind of amp). At your price point, and your preference for placement near a corner I don’t know of too many alternatives. Volti makes some good soun... | |
| Can you do anything to make power tubes last longer ? It's been a while since I ran amps that required biasing, but my approach was to start at the low end of the builder's recommended range. Then, in part because I'm lazy and because I want to be gentle on the tube. I would just leave things be an... | |
| Can you do anything to make power tubes last longer ? What is "normal" is not necessarily ideal for tube electronics, particularly vintage gear that was built for lower voltages that were prevalent when they were made. As I mentioned above, my local dealer who only sells tube amplification often has... | |
| Can you do anything to make power tubes last longer ? Yes, the concern over skin oil has to do with light bulbs, not tubes. The oil deposited on a high intensity, high temperature light bulb will carbonize from the heat. That leaves a black spot on the bulb. The light from the bulb is absorbed by ... | |
| Can you do anything to make power tubes last longer ? I agree that most tube amps sound good after a short warm up, it takes solid state gear more time to sound good so I can see why people keep solid state stuff on all the time. There is no good reason to do that with tubes. I also agree that many... | |
| Revox Introduces A New Reel-To-Reel Deck...$16k I recently heard an expensive copy of the Nora Jones tape and it is indeed terrific sounding. But, not only are good tapes exceedingly expensive, the selection of music is very limited. Still, I have been pleasantly surprised by what does occas... |