russbutton
Responses from russbutton
| How much discount typically for a new MC275 to expect from a dealer? If you're worried about price, why don't you just buy a Bob Latino M125 monoblock (120 watts each) pair for more than $1500 less than it would cost you for the Mac? And you can save another $700 or so if you buy it in kit form and build it yours... | |
| Best speakers for max. $3000? Your best value will always be a good DIY design. It's not even close. No commercial loudspeaker can ever come close to what you can build yourself. There are any number of truly excellent designs out there. And if you don't have the ability ... | |
| Recommendations for Vintage Speakers A buddy of mine runs a pair of late 70's KEF Calinda loudspeakers being driven by a Marantz 8B power amp. This is absolutely magical. More than any other loudspeaker I've heard. the Calinda is very revealing of the sonic character of your amp. ... | |
| Anyone else attend the California Audio Show in Oakland? I also liked the Sound Kaos system. I thought the loudspeaker design was interesting in that the crossover points were at 200 hz and 10,000 hz. This solves a LOT of problems.What's also interesting in this $6700 loudspeaker pair is that this ma... | |
| Best budget preamp for my entry level system? This is easy. One of your very best values in budget gear are the Hafler line. For a preamp, look for a DH110. In fact, there's a Hafler DH110 on EBay right now for $169. Snap it up.https://www.ebay.com/itm/113833599853 | |
| Why No McIntosh Recommendations? I'm partial to the older Mac tube gear. A properly serviced C22 preamp is one of the best preamps money can buy. They also hold their value and even appreciate in value over time.A buddy of mine used to be the Mac repair tech at San Francisco'... | |
| How far have ss amps really come in the last twenty years? P.T. Barnum was right... | |
| Tube Amps Watts vs SS amp This is what you want. Monobloc pair at $125 watts each.http://www.tubes4hifi.com/bob.htm#M125You can buy it as a kit and build yourself, saving a fair amount, or buy it fully assembled and tested.kit - no tubes: $1778kit - with tubes: $2213Wir... | |
| Affordable alternativ to the PS Audio DirectStream DAC A few months ago a friend brought over his PS Audio DirectStream DAC and a Schitt Yggdrasil. I run an old Peachtree DAC-iT, which I paid $500 for some years ago. The follow-on model is now available from Peachtree for $250. You can find my uni... | |
| Vintage Speaker Choice For that money, look for a pair of the late 70’s KEF Calinda or Cantata loudspeakers. As we used to say about the Large Advent, they have that "hole-in-the-middle". It wasn’t a great speaker when it was new and certainly hasn’t gotten better over ... | |
| Supratek or Don Sachs - which way to go? If you carefully read the pages on the Don Sachs website, his custom phono preamp, line stage preamp and 60 wpc power amp are all based on the circuit boards he gets from VTA - http://tubes4hifi.com/You can buy all of these things as kits from V... | |
| Is There a Speaker for Me/Impossible Requirements? (budget: $2000) With $2000, what I'd do is score a pair of late 1970's vintage KEF Calinda loudspeakers and then pair it with a VTA ST-120 power amp. A buddy of mine has a Calinda pair he drives with a Marantz 8B power amp. Absolute magic! Will make you forget... | |
| I want to be moved and have the music touch my soul! Then you need to get familiar with Wesla Whitfield. First, listen to these three full CD rez tracks:http://russbutton.com/tmp/over_the_rainbow.wavhttp://russbutton.com/tmp/Lucky_to_be_me.wavhttp://russbutton.com/tmp/Rhode_Island_Is_Famous_For_You.... | |
| Looking for suggestions on best small footprint speaker under $4K If you're hell bent on dropping $4k, I can't readily help you. But if you're willing to spend a lot less than that and be willing to live with some real magic, then here's a completely different thought.One of the most wonderful systems I've ever... | |
| Are DAC's overpriced? I run a Peachtree DAC iT, which is their older model. Picked it up about 5 years ago and paid full-ticket of about $500. Sounds awesome and you can find them on EBay for about $125 or so. The newer iTx model does 192 khz whereas my older beast ... |