pdspiegel

Responses from pdspiegel

How are you playing your precious MONO Vinyl?
lewm, “early” LP’s in my collection with non-RIAA EQs are from 1948-mid 50’s.  Sometimes the jacket notes will say “AES playback curve recommended” or similar.  However, often there are no notes.  There are a number of resources online to help ide... 
How are you playing your precious MONO Vinyl?
The purpose of a preamp such as the Aurorasound EQ-100 is to playback discs using a pre-emphasis equalization other than the RIAA standard adopted around 1960 or so.  If your collection includes original discs from early in the micro-groove LP and... 
Sources for 6BY5 rectifier tubes
I see 6BY5 available from the following sellers: Brent Jessee Antique Electronic Supply  
Picking a power amp
Amps and speakers need to work together.  The comments in this thread recommend choosing speakers first and then amps to drive them, which makes sense.  However, it’s your system and your hobby so do what you like!  :) The tubed Mac amps you ment... 
And the biggest influence on sound quality is...
This is a fun thought experiment. If your source is LP, then I would argue that your playback system (turntable, arm, cartridge, setup) is most important.  Imagine you had near mint pressing of Kind of Blue or Aja, and you played it on a $35 Cros... 
One of my favorite bands, one that many have never heard.
NRBQ is one the great rock n’ roll bands and I think that the best edition was with Al Anderson on guitar and Tom Ardolino on bass.   Along with Joey Spampinato and Terry Adams these monster musicians created killer grooves with a reckless energy ... 
Big Jazz Band Music with Great Sound
Strayhorn’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite recorded by the Ellington band is a great piece of music and a stunning recording.  It sounds good in any format but a friend has on reel-to-reel and I was amazed.  
The best opening act you've ever seen & heard?
Dwight Yoakam and band opening for Nick Lowe at the Palace in Hollywood c. 1983.  
Tubes and Subwoofers
I also use a REL sub (T/7x) to supplement stand mount speakers driven by a tube amp.  Sub speaker level inputs are high impedance and won’t load a tube amp output.  
Does anyone listen to the radio anymore?
I love radio, although I often listen while doing something else like driving, working on a project in my shop, or other chores.  We have many good options here in  SoCal with two classical stations, one jazz, NPR, and Pacifica on standard FM.   I... 
Power supply for ethernet switch?
@kingbr, I also have an inexpensive TP Link switch in my network attached to my network player/dac.  Interested by testimonies of better audio performance from improved network components, I made a couple of relatively inexpensive changes as a tes... 
Preamp issue
2Tuby, you did the test right.  There is no DC offset voltage on the Denafrips outputs so that is NOT the source of the problem.  At least that is ruled out.  
Preamp issue
If you have a voltmeter here’s a test you can do: Check the Denafrips for DC on the output.  If you are using the single ended RCA then measure the voltage from the center to the outer shell.  For balanced XLR measure pin 2 to 1 and 3 to 1.  Chec... 
Seeking speakers under $3K for 10x12 ft room and driven by 20wpc tube amp
I enjoy my pair of Oriaco G6 stand mount two-ways from Tonian Labs.  Lively and natural sounding to my ears.  I’ve used with both a 20W hybrid and a 10W tube amp with good results.  Work great in near field.  In your price range too. Owner/Builde... 
Rel T/7x sub sound improvement but…
I too have a single REL T/7x that I am using with a pair of stand mounted Tonian Oriaco speakers.  I found that corner placement worked the best just as REL suggests.  The sub is to the left of my left-most speaker.   If you have a sub adjusted p...