larryi
Responses from larryi
| Hovland HP-100 phono vs Audio Research REF Phono 2 Stickman,I am not sure of the precise designation of the Amperex tubes. I got them free from a friend who has a vast store of tubes so I am relying on his judgment as to which are drop in replacements for the NOS RCA tubes suppli by the manufactur... | |
| Hovland HP-100 phono vs Audio Research REF Phono 2 Stickman,It is not surprising that a stand-alone phonostage, particularly one as expensive as the Ref. 2, improved upon the built-in phonostage of the Hovland. Not that many built-in stages have impressed me that much (the Audionote M-8 is an exce... | |
| Hovland HP-100 phono vs Audio Research REF Phono 2 Stickman,I am a little bit confused about the comparison. Are you comparing the stand-alone Ref. 2 phonostage (feeding what linestage?) to the built-in phonostage of the Hovland? Are you looking for recommendations for just a phonostage or for a c... | |
| DaVinci tonearm and azymuth Istanbulu,Your link to the Mint site raises another consideration -- whether azimuth should be set to optimize electrical performance or to physically align the stylus perpendicular to the record surface. Imperfections built into the alignment of ... | |
| DaVinci tonearm and azymuth Most arms are designed to dissipate and/or transfer vibrational energy so that little is reflected back to the cartridge. The first step in that transfer is the interface between the cartridge and the headshell. Spacers would probably reduce the e... | |
| 12ax7's to roll For warmer sounding 12AX7s, I like Amperex Bugle Boys. It could be just a synergy issue, but, Mullards do not sound that good in my Viva Fono phonostage, and they sounded oddly phasey in a friends Tron phonostage. Telefunkens and the one set of RC... | |
| what do you use to remove your tubes? As explained above, there is no operational reason for worrying about handling tubes. My only possible concern would be the easy to rub off markings on extremely rare Telefunken tubes. When my ECC803S tubes are near the end of their life, how will... | |
| Cartridge and step up / riaa for TW Acustic Raven Toffeng,No I have not heard the GCPH. I should add another comment about the Aesthetix Rhea. The dealer who had the unit in did not do any swapping of tubes, so I probably did not hear the Rhea at its best. I don't know of a single piece of tube g... | |
| Cartridge and step up / riaa for TW Acustic Raven Hi Toffeng, I have heard the Aesthetix Io and an older version of the Rhea as well as various Naim phonostages. The Aesthetix Io, in its various iterations, are very nice sounding phonostages, though they can be a bit noisy, particularly if asked ... | |
| what do you use to remove your tubes? While there is no harm in keep oils from your hand off of the tube, it is hardly necessary. The tubes do not suffer from the same failure mode as halogen, metal halide, etc. bulbs.When oils from your hand get on the bulb, the high temperature carb... | |
| tube pre amp plus solid state power amps? A friend of mine has the new J2 amp which he uses on a very high efficiency horn based system (105 db/w) and on some fairly low efficiency mini monitors. I believe he was using the Levinson No. 32 preamp in order to go fully balanced all the way f... | |
| Cartridge and step up / riaa for TW Acustic Raven Toffen,I've heard a Koetsu Airtight combination, which sounded terrific, but, the cartridge was a very expensive Koetsu Onix Platinum cartridge, which is quite different in sound from most of the lower priced Koetsu cartridges (the Onix Platinum i... | |
| Best bourbon? My cost-is-no-object favorite is the 23-year Pappy. The 20-year old is my "regular," and that is a terrific Bourbon too. I also like Black Maple Hill, but, it too is somewhat pricey.In the less costly category, I like Blantons and Jefferson Reserve. | |
| Best Remakes Of All Time A lot of terrific selections in this interesting thread started by Dawgbyte. Thanks everyone.I would like to add the following, not as being "better" than the original, but certainly different and interesting:Persuasions: Wanderer (U2 original)Sho... | |
| Is Kind of Blue the Best Jazz Album Ever Certainly a great album and a gateway for many listeners. The same could be said of Brubeck's "Time Out" or Mingus' "Ah Um," Oliver Nelson's "Blues and the Abstract Truth" and a whole bunch of other great albums.In 1959, the same year "Kind of Blu... |