mikelavigne

Responses from mikelavigne

The longest you have owned any gear?
longest of current gear;Studer A-820 RTR Master Recorder--10 years.King-Cello tape repro output electronics--9 yearsgear where i have simply upgraded to the newer version;darTZeel NHB-18NS preamp-12 years (2005-2016-1st version, 2016-2017-2nd vers... 
Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD
Matt,well, I see you have opened the floodgates to the Boulder 2150 server/dac at $65k list price. so maybe you need to now hear an $84.5k dac/passive analog preamp.....the MSB Select II. http://www.msbtechnology.com/dacs/select-features/standard ... 
Need Help Ripping My CD Collection
ok. stop.find one of these, which will rip 50 Cd’s at a time.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00065DGBO try ebay and be patient. it’s a commercial quality device built for Kodak Photo stores to copy picture discs for customers. but works great for audio... 
What sounds best: Vinyl or CDs
another Mahler sighting.....last night I was absolutely enjoying (under the spell of) the 2012 192khz/24 bit recording of a Chamber ensemble version of Mahler#4, Trevor Pinnock conducting the Royal Academy of Music Soloist’s Ensemble. I’m not a Ma... 
What sounds best: Vinyl or CDs
Shadorne said,Oh and Mahler is amazing stuff....my favorite is the interpretation by Benjamin Zander - perhaps not he best recordings but I know Benjamin and he puts everything into his work and has amazing motivational skills in bringing out the ... 
What sounds best: Vinyl or CDs
Dear Raul,thanks for the kind words. that recording I mentioned 2 years ago is now available as a Quad dsd download here;http://store.acousticsounds.com/a/31898/Ilya_Itin_Debussyit’s is an outstanding piano recording, no doubt, if you can play Qua... 
What sounds best: Vinyl or CDs
with all due respect; generalizations about ’noise’.....pops, clicks, hiss’ from vinyl are not different than generalizations about digital sounding edgy or flat.these are not inherent format characteristics, they are artifacts of less than stella... 
What sounds best: Vinyl or CDs
my opinion used to be different. i'm listening to the Tilson Thomas-SF Symphony Mahler 5th right now, in 24-96 PCM off my hard drive through the MSB Select II/SGM server right now. on the 5th Movement. had the lights down and was kicking back for ... 
MSB Analog DAC with MQA
Congrats davt, on your MQA feedback.I’ve got the MSB Select II with the MQA quad rate USB also and have really enjoyed the MQA master files on Tidal. i have to admit i was a serious skeptic on MQA but no more. some of those files are very, very, g... 
What's been your turntable ownership over the years?
1969-1975--AR tt1980-1990--B&O Linear Tracker1994-1997--VPI TNT MkII--Graham 1.5t1998-2001--Basis 2500--Graham 2.02001-2002--Rockport Sirius II 2002-2011--Rockport Sirius III2008-2009--Grand Prix Audio Monaco2009--2011--Dobbins Technics SP-10 ... 
Price No Object Amps
LP,no worries, I did not mean to 'wet blanket' the thread either.have a great day! 
Price No Object Amps
hi John,yes, all is good and i hope the same with you....and thanks.agree completely that amps are a 'system synergy' type product. they can be a 'trophy' type product too. but at the top of the food chain the right better amps can make all the di... 
Price No Object Amps
LP,you are the one that made this claim;"Somehow I feel that anyone serious about purchasing one of these models is probably not primarily motivated to obtain the absolute sound."so it’s on you to support it. how can you know someone’s motivation ... 
Price No Object Amps
"judge not, yet ye be......."oh, wait a minute. this is an audiophile website where all we do is mind read.I'm sure you know the buyers of these amps well enough to judge their primary motivations.  
Price No Object Amps
I’m upset my amps did not make the list. :-)would not trade mine straight across for any of those.