larryi
Responses from larryi
| Is a tube phono better than ss? I agree completely with what Salectric posted. My own preference is for tube-based phonostages. I have also heard plenty of dead quiet tube phonostages (e.g., my Viva Fono) and some surprisingly noisy solid state ones (e.g., Boulder), so I would n... | |
| Tannoy Kensington SE vs Magnepan 20.7 Both great speakers with quite different sound. If you listen at really low levels, the Kensington is probably a better choice. Maggies don't need to be played loudly, but, they do seem to come alive at a higher level than the Kensington.My "issue... | |
| Great Tube/SS Amp for Proac D40R ? Great sounding speaker. I particularly like how well the ribbon integrates with the rest of the drivers--something quite rare with this type of driver.I have heard these speakers with some fairly low-powered electronics, including the cheaper amps... | |
| What is your most beautiful component? I do like the solid wood (not veneer) bases on Emotive Audio gear. My Epifania linestage also has the tiger maple wood base and it is quite nice looking. | |
| How To Get The Best Sound From Pandora & Rhapsody? A local dealer uses a Sonos system to conveniently access a vast library of music for equipment review purposes. The Sonos system is hooked up to MUCH higher quality DACs than that Sonos supplies. That Sonos server has access to the various downlo... | |
| Thales Simplicity tonearm review in Stereophile. I haven't read the review, nor have I heard the Thales arm. But, I do note that Mr. Fremer has certain views about design that essentially preclude even reviewing certain products. For example, because he thinks that suspended tables, at least in ... | |
| The Best Audiophile Earphones headphones and Amp As an owner of a high end system, you are undoubtably aware that there is no one single "best" in any component category. There are plenty of headphone users that like electrostatics and many that don't, and there is disagreement about the merits ... | |
| LS3/5A vs Sonus Faber Liuto Monitor I have not heard the two anywhere near contemporaneously or in even remotely similar setups. But, I liked the sound of both. The Liuto is a very capable, "modern" (meaning that it tends toward the brighter and leaner side) sounding speaker. In the... | |
| Tube preamp for SS amp A friend of mine has an Act 2 and it is very quiet. His system has speakers that are 105 db/w efficient, so they reveal the smallest amount of noise in the amplification chain and he has no noise issues with this linestage. | |
| VPI Classic 3 vs Basis 2200 The Vector arm should work well with ANY of the commonly used cartridges. The arm is very good at dampening/grounding vibrational energy from cartridge, meaning that it would work with demanding cartridges that impart a lot of energy to the tonear... | |
| When to power off a tube amp? Highroller,I don't know about your Lyr, but, a time delay mute is designed to prevent any output from the amp until it is warmed up and stable. Some tube gear will put out pretty nasty noise as it is powered up so a mute is designed to protect the... | |
| When to power off a tube amp? Most tube gear sounds pretty decent within 10-15 minutes of being turned on so there is no good reason to leave the gear on all of the time--waste of energy and waste of the limited life of tubes. While there is a possible safety issue with leavin... | |
| Tube preamp for SS amp From my own experience, it is an absolute requirement that the specific tube linestage be tried with the specific solid state amplifier. Even with supposedly compatible impdedances and short cable runs, etc., the result of going from tube into sol... | |
| VPI Classic 3 vs Basis 2200 I have a synchrowave and it makes a difference, though I would hardly consider it to be a major improvement. Pitch stability is good with Basis tables without a separate power supply so what one hears is not so much related to obviously better pit... | |
| Amplifiers:A Keeper for Life. Do you know of one ? It was made some time in the 1970's by a Greek audiophile who made several variants of these amps. Two of these amps where brought to the US by a Greek diplomat. One set is a four chassis monster and the other is a two-chassis monster. I believe b... |