larryi
Responses from larryi
| Sunday dreaming about preamps... I find the ARC linestages to be on the leaner side. It sounds like you are looking for something more in the Shindo, Audio Note side, but, with remote control. I personally also think that remote control is a must. I also think a balance contro... | |
| Sunday dreaming about preamps... It sort of depends on what kind of sound you are after and whether you are contemplating any other component changes, such as a different amp. When you say preamp, do you mean something with a built in phono stage? What features do you require (e... | |
| Too Much Power I’ve seen more speakers blown from accidents, like pulling an interconnect with the amp on, or volume set at full blast than the supposed danger of harmonic distortion from clipping burning out tweeters. That sort of extreme distortion is so obvi... | |
| Too Much Power Aside from greater potential to blow up speakers accidentally, excess power in-and-of-itself is not a problem. But, in the real world, how one gets there—running many output devices in parallel— could reduce sound quality. Many years ago, I hear... | |
| Cartridge Loading.....Part II What it boils down to is that loading matters to the sound, but there is some disagreement here as to why it matters and the cause of the sonic difference. One position is that low loading is preferred because it CAUSES distortion that is perceiv... | |
| Cartridge Loading.....Part II I suppose I should have preceded my comments with the phrase "I perceive as" because I did not take measurements. In any case, the sound changes, both with loading changes and VTA, and whether or not it is actually added distortion that one might... | |
| Large room with low budget for speakers Have you heard ANY speaker in that room that did not sound strained? It may not be the speakers and it may just be the case that the room itself is being overloaded. Unless you are trying for extreme volume levels, the Rockports, Focals, Vivid,... | |
| Better sound on rainy days? With some paper coned drivers, humidity does alter the sound, particularly ones with paper that is not coated or heavily doped. The tendency is to sound not as good with high humidity. | |
| SME is selling tonearms again! This is good news because of the loss of Jelco (Japanese supplier of arms to other brands). It was becoming harder to find decent arms that are reasonably priced. | |
| Volume matched inputs on a preamp? My old Levinson No. 32 allowed gain levels to be set for each input. It even allowed other settings, such as left-right balance on phono input to be programmed apart from the system balance (most cartridges do not have identical channel output). ... | |
| Turntable Identification That is a Thorens 124. Properly reconditioned, it is one of the better turntables around and worthy of very high end systems. I know of at least a half dozen six figure systems that utilize this table; some are well into six figures. These old ... | |
| Tubes getting hard to come by? Unless you cannot operate without a particular tube, it might be best to wait until the hysteria\hording abates. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for me, there is no change in the availability and price of the tube types I need (348, 349, 310)--the... | |
| Cartridge Loading.....Part II The lower value 200 ohm vs. 47k ohms means more loading which tends to attenuate higher frequencies (because we hear things in terms of overall balance, attenuating highs can also be perceived as more bass). Another way to attenuate highs is to ... | |
| Large room with low budget for speakers How big a room, how loud do you intend to play the system and what are your other components? It is a bit hard to gauge what the basic requirements of the speakers you need. What are you currently using and in what way to you hope to improve on ... | |
| What's a good amount of time to have my preamp unplugged before I swap out tubes? Aside from getting burned, there is no reason why you should avoid contact with the glass envelope of a tube. Tubes do not get so hot that oils from your hand could lead to failure. The best reason for not touching the glass when changing tubes,... |