larryi
Responses from larryi
| Please Recommend Highly Efficient Floor Standing Non-Horn Speaker Suggestions we might need a definition of horn here. Are we talking about a system with a midrange compression driver, or do all of the drivers have to be horn-loaded? Does a woofer with a front waveguide qualify as a horn system? What about systems that h... | |
| Damping Factor If deep and tight bass were the be-all and end-all of amplifier performance, then only solid state amps would be in the market (cheap ones can deliver this). But, there is so much more to performance, even in the bass range. I have no idea if tu... | |
| Please Recommend Highly Efficient Floor Standing Non-Horn Speaker Suggestions If you are willing to do the audition at home and return if not satisfied routine, you should audition the Tekton Double Impacts. In their price range they are pretty good--reasonably full and rich as well as being clear and detailed. I personal... | |
| Please Recommend Highly Efficient Floor Standing Non-Horn Speaker Suggestions Among my favorites are Charney Audio Companion (Particularly with AER driver option), Cube Audio Nenuphar Basis, Fyne Audio F1, Audio Note AN-E.. | |
| Damping Factor One of the problems with determining how important is a high damping factor is the "all other things being equal" problem. You never can achieve all other things being equal, so it is hard to say if any difference is attributable to damping facto... | |
| Will you hear the most beautiful music... I've had A5 Wagyu (though not as obsessively prepared) and it is something else. It does not seen overly fatty at all. The only other kind of beef that I like nearly as much is a well-aged ribeye cap. | |
| Top Ten Tube PreAmp of all time? Around 20 years ago, I went to my dealer to audition the Stax 007 Omega II headphones. They sounded great, so I ordered a pair along with the Stax tube amplifier/energizer. When I got it into my system, it did not sound nearly as good as what I ... | |
| Over Tubing it? I am running old, but testing good, Western Electric 348's (six of them) and Western Electric 349s. I also run four Western Electric 310s. In my phono stage, I run Telefunken ECC 803S. The phono stage is particularly odd because it runs two 300... | |
| Over Tubing it? Hm, let's see--nine in the amp, seven in the linestage, six in the phono stage, and four in the headphone amp. It is not the count that is scary, but the price of the individual tubes. Ten of the tubes are in the $1,500-$2,000 each range, and th... | |
| Is there any one piece of vintage gear you most wished you owned? A mint 301 would be a nice real world choice of vintage gear. I actually like the looks of the 401 a little bit more, and it has a better motor. A friend has a 401 with a transplanted grease bearing from an older model 301. That is a really nic... | |
| Damping Factor It is literally just a number, it is eight divided by the output impedance of the amp. The number 8 was chosen as the typical speaker impedance. If your amp has an output impedance of one ohm, then its damping factor is eight. This number is s... | |
| Is there any one piece of vintage gear you most wished you owned? A pair of Western Electric 59A amps with meshplate 252 output tubes. The tubes alone would be worth north of $60k, so the amps would probably be north of $150k. I’ve heard a single amp, not a stereo pair, and it is easily the second best amp I... | |
| Top Ten Tube PreAmp of all time? My favorites are custom-built linestages made by Aldo D'Urso, an Italian builder/designer. He uses mostly vintage parts, including Western Electric capacitors and transformers. I have one of his custom linestages that employs output transformers... | |
| Cartridge incompatibility, Soundsmith and Luxman Would the quality of the resistor matter differently if the loading resistor is a voltage divider in parallel with the signal from the cartridge vs. the loading resistor being a shunt to ground? | |
| Real world life expectancy of a high end cartridge? I've had cartridges that made it easily to 2,000 hours. I keep my records clean, which might, at least partially account for the lifespan. Much of my collection has been treated with LAST. Anyone who has used LAST knows that it is not true that... |