retiredaudioguy
Responses from retiredaudioguy
| Pass Labs XA-25 vs XA-30.8 amplifier I cannot comment on the 30.8 but the XA25 is a superb amp, utterly transparent, that will drive my Rockport Atria IIs easily. It is revealing of poor recordings however. You hear EVERYTHING that is on the source, a singer's breathing, a a guitar... | |
| What is your scariest moment in High End audio? Reading the great posts triggered another memory. I had bought a store's (several years old) demo unit of a highly regarded PP 300B amp, with its tubes. Some months later, as I was listening, smoke came out of the ventilation grid on the chassis... | |
| ??? My First Classical Concert,What Can I Expect ??? If you ever get the chance to hear a Mahler symphony (especially #2) live, grab the experience. Some wag said the Mahler wrote for HiFi! The dynamics (pppp to ffff) and shades of tone run from ethereal to brutal. Incidentally I use Mahler 2 as ... | |
| Musings on Switching Power Supplies (LPS for Oppo / DirecTV/ Radiance) I am VERY late to this party but I think that, as usual, it all depends. A good SMPS will beat a poor LPS, and can at best beat a good LPS. Notably, Benchmark uses SMPS exclusively to lower the noise floor. The LA4 pre is silent, at full volume... | |
| What is a good all around high quality speaker to purchase? +1 on Rockports if you can stretch, then you will never upgrade. I was listening to Sonus Faber and others and there were a couple of ones of interest - I'd said $18k to $20k - when the sales guy said can you stretch to $25K. I ordered the Atria... | |
| Out of Balance I find that many CDs, and especially LPs are out of balance, usually not by much - but it only takes a couple of dBs to make a huge difference in position. Have you moved furniture around? Did you wake up with wax in one ear, had you slept aw... | |
| We Need To Talk About Ones And Zeroes A complex topic when allied to digital music reproduction, made more difficult by S/PDIF. Assuming sound engineering the bits at the output of the receiver in your device at the end of the Cat 5 cable are precisely the same as the bits stored at ... | |
| ??? My First Classical Concert,What Can I Expect ??? Sit back and enjoy the experience of The Absolute Sound, real instruments in a real space - albeit in a space that is probably a bit too reverberant. Regarding applause, this is a source of amusement and irritation for me. Amusement at "Gala" pe... | |
| Why Use Aluminum for a TT Platter? Fourteen years late to the party I just found this thread. How do manufacturers of wooden platters manage the effects of humidity changes? The third certain thing in life is that wood moves! I am an amateur woodworker, apart from a few of the l... | |
| TU-8600S I managed to get the Elekit installed in my main system, the handyman is fixing the damage to the barn caused by a falling tree this winter, he is much younger and stronger than I. The TU-8600S is definitely a rather good amp. A bit laid back in... | |
| Hlep chosing a streamer/server for my DAC I use the (old) entry level Aurender N100SC, now replaced by the N150 - $3,500. I think that the N150 is USB only, thereby reducing the price. They have excellent performance as a server and support the most popular streaming services, but not t... | |
| Need Recommendation for Coffee Shop I have no experience of Dynaudio's active speakers, but my wife has160s (not active & NLA) in her studio and they are excellent. The Xeo 10 might meet your needs. They support Air Play 2 directly so those plus your iPhone would do it I think... | |
| TU-8600S I borrowed the Harbeth P3ESRs and a BluOs box from my "kitchen" system, inserted the three NOS input & driver tubes, and a pair of WE 300Bs, hooked it up with Kimber PBJs and 4TCs and turned it on. Given its location streaming did not work so... | |
| TU-8600S I finished the build, I think it took about 15 hours overall. This kit is significantly more challenging than the TU-8600R. There are many more components (about 300 solder points) and there are a number of components whose leads must be bent ra... | |
| Speakers for leading edge, transients, speed and big sound Rockport speakers have outstanding transient response. There is a pair of Rockport Technologies Cygnus for sale on Audiogon - this is a $65k speaker on sale for $36.5k. i have the Atria IIs, two levels down from the Cygnus, they are totally tran... |