newbee

Responses from newbee

Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?
Works for me. Small(er) room that is. Larger speakers in a larger room usually compensates for the size of the room and you can experience a larger soundstage etc, but you can overdrive any room (and/or system) and its important to not do so just ... 
Can you touch the tubes?
The idea I think is you use cotton gloves to keep oil off the tubes. I stopped doing this years ago because I preferred the grip you got by using bare hands. You can wipe the 'oils' off with a cotton cloth if it bothers you. Personally I don't thi... 
Pictures at an Exhibition
OK. FWIW I just ordered it. Better be good! :-)  
Audiophilia: Is it the pursuit of audio excellence or just a desire to tinker.
I like to fiddle with my stuff to see if I can improve its sound in some way. Over the years the experimentation has had very positive results, if not in the actual sound, at least in my listening skills. But I rarely go to market for new stuff. M... 
What happened to my room acoustics
As I look at your latest graph readings, and I do not know how your unit operates, my initial concern is not so much about the rise of the upper bass thru the mid range, as a unevenness of the ’curve’ which shows alternating +/- readings of up to ... 
ARE AUDIOPHILES OVERLY SENSITIVE BY NATURE?FEELINGS AND OPINIONS?
Sometimes I think 'audio' practitioners are atheists with a god substitute. They can be just as single minded and self righteous as the most devoted quite often are. Can be. :-)    
Pictures at an Exhibition
FWIW, I just listened to some of my Mussorgsky's piano versions of 'Pictures' and clearly I overlooked Kissin's recording made early i his career. My mistake, I think. I like it quite a bit and recommend it. Pretty good recording too.  
What do you all think of ADS/Braun speakers?
I heard and was amazed by the Brauns for your reasons. But that was in the late 70's and, frankly I couldn't afford them. Interestingly I've never seen any for sale. Note I'm not talking about ADS speakers. I doubt that I would try to find them no... 
Best RCA interconnect up to ~$100?
I agree with others re Blue Jeans but would add it might help in determining when to move on, if at all, to having a set of cables with known different sound you can use. I recommend an inexpensive set of Mogami. They are different. When you can a... 
Do you think driver “break in” is real?
Anything mechanical benefits from a break in period for sure. Electronic devices can benefit from break in, but not so much and it's not nearly so obvious. On the latter, long periods of break in might just be the breaking in of your ears to a new... 
Golden Ears?
Yep, we all lose some HF as we age. Some fix it with hearing aids, some with tone controls, some just adjust their system set up. All work to some degree. But, FWIW, a good headphone system, for me, is far more feasible. With my main system I note... 
Blue Jeans Cable Iconoclast
Did you not read the 'intro' that you directed us to. BJ explains their position in a rathur humble way, I think. But, FWIW, I've always think, as with most manufacturers, it's just more of a matter of marketing their product or what they sell, no... 
Warm Up Time/Cost of Operation
Good plan I think. Problem with running big amps 24/7 is the heat they produce can cause degradation to the amp's parts causing early failure etc.  
How best to arrange cables in this room...
When you are putting your new system together, if you can, I'd put the components on the side wall and use long RCA's to your amp placed on the fireplace hearth behind your speakers. I would never locate my components in the room's corner, especia... 
Are cable “upgrades” just as likely to make your system sound worse?
Clearly cables can sound different, some of the differences are predictable by their construction and the materials used.  But 'good' or 'bad' I don't know. Just different for sure and it all depends on their synergy with your components and your ...