larryi
Responses from larryi
| surprising comparison of tube preamps It is very much a matter voicing of the equipment designer and the buyer's personal taste and matching of components. To me, Audio Research gear has a somewhat lean and analytical sound. Their sound has consistently been that way, so it is a hou... | |
| Your Not-So-Obvious Best Fidelity LPs Two more spectacular recordings that I have heard, and own, only in reissued versions: 1) "Satchmo Plays King Oliver"--1960, Audio Fidelity (original issue), Classic Records reissue. 2) "Alternate Blues" (Gillespie, Terry, Hubbard, Peterson)-1... | |
| Your Not-So-Obvious Best Fidelity LPs For classical music, consistently very good sounding records were produced by the label Lyrita (exclusively British composers); I have never heard even a so-so Lyrita. For 1950-60’s, RCA and Mercury recordings are also mostly good. Some of the b... | |
| Your Not-So-Obvious Best Fidelity LPs I also find many direct to disc records to deliver superb sound (the master lacquer is cut live and direct from the mixing board without an intervening tape recording). Sheffield Records and M & K Realtime made many good sounding examples. I... | |
| can subwoofers make things worse? The quality of sound with or without a subwoofer is a matter of both execution and personal preference. Even in very rooms, with unlimited budget and no placement limitations, some people prefer not having subwoofers. I usually prefer not having... | |
| Good measuring DACs vs. By an insanely wide margin, the worst testing DACs would be those from Audio Note. The images of waveforms are totally unrecognizable as sine waves. Find one to audition. That audition will convince you of the utter meaninglessness of measureme... | |
| Your Not-So-Obvious Best Fidelity LPs At the last Capital Audiofest, I spent a lot of time hanging out with and helping Phillip O'Hanlon, who was exhibiting Graham speakers. He is known for his vast and eclectic collection of LPs. I brought for him to hear a record from my collectio... | |
| Efficient speakers -- What was your journey from A to B to ? This is an interesting thread about higher efficiency speakers. It is indeed the case that most horn systems do not have great time alignment of drivers. However, if the speaker is designed properly, this in not really much of a problem. The tr... | |
| Is toeing speakers a bad idea? There are no generally applicable rules on any aspect of speaker placement, including toe-in; speaker design, room acoustics, listening preferences matter. Toe-in results in less sound first bouncing off the side wall before reaching the listener... | |
| Efficient speakers -- What was your journey from A to B to ? Charney Audio and Songer Audio make very good high efficiency speakers. Of the brands already listed above, I also like the Spatial, Pure Audio Project, Volti, and Fyne speakers. There are even large psnel speakers with powered woofers that qual... | |
| Tekton Open Baffle Speakers I have not heard the OB Tektons, but, I’ve heard their Double Impacts and Moab speakers and I think they sound good for their respective prices. OB speakers can sound a touch thin in the upper bass and they typically do not go very deep (the front... | |
| What say you binding posts or direct wire? I knew someone who did that sort of thing and it created massive inconvenience. this person also eliminated the selector knob on his linestage so that changing source components meant switching RCA cables (at least that wasn't hardwired). | |
| Anyone Here Ever Purchased A Tube Tester? I run dome very old tubes in my system. Once every three or do years, I get brief sputtering or crackling sounds that then goes away. I asked the builder about this and he said something inside the tube flaked off and fell onto the heater and th... | |
| Anyone Here Ever Purchased A Tube Tester? The Hickock TV7 was one of the types the expert I talked to liked. He had concerns with several of the people he used to calibrate some of the units he had, finding that the results did not quite match up with other testers. I suspect he was mor... | |
| Anyone Here Ever Purchased A Tube Tester? I own an Amplitrex tester, which is a fery good, albeit expensive, tester that tests at full plate voltage, which appropriately stresses the tube under test to give a realistic assessment of the tube. It is also idiot proof and simple to use, unl... |