russbutton
Responses from russbutton
| Lush and Romantic Tube Amps I want to echo what @vthokie83 had to say about the VTA amps. The prices quoted for them were fully assembled. You can save a lot of money if you buy them as a kit and build it yourself. Look. ANYONE can build these things. I was using a so... | |
| Building a 100 album vinyl collection 3 must have albums are? These are the three I HAVE to have, due to their sonics and sheer musicality. John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman Supersax Plays Bird Just For A Thrill (Weslia Whitfield - a little rare, hard to find, but worth it) Here's a rip from vinyl. | |
| First Tube amp suggestions When you just go out and buy an amp, what you have is a compromise constrained by your budget, compatibility, etc. Those little SET amps have no juice and unless you're running K-horns, will have no head room or depth. Pbfffttt... It's a totall... | |
| Does it make sense to "ignore low ball offers"? Price negotiations are just business. It's never personal. This is a free country and the buyer is free to make a low ball offer as I am free to not take it. When I'm selling something, I have in my mind a bottom price I'm willing to sell i... | |
| UPS Driver Literally Drops Package with New Hana Umami Red Whenever I pack something for shipment, I pack it in such a way that it can survive an 8 foot drop onto a concrete floor. Put that in your mind when you double box and pack things and you'll be good. | |
| Speaker that are 'KEEPERS" for the long haul!!! I run a set of custom built Linkwitz Orion loudspeakers. Like everyone else, I get Audiophile Lust, but then I play my Orions and it goes away. The Orions sound amazing on voices, piano and most anything acoustic that is well recorded. They are... | |
| Are Sales Down Hi-end audio has ***ALWAYS*** been a lousy market. It has never sold well. It's never going to get any better either as the lower priced gear continues to improve and the higher priced stuff today is really all about demonstrating to people that... | |
| Help this old rookie with speakers My first "hi-end" system was horn based, not all that different from the Crites. What a mistake. Terrible on voices. What's an insane value right now is a pair of SEAS Thor speakers well-built from a Madisound kit that's for sale now on US... | |
| List some of your favorite live Jazz recordings "Side By Side" Richie Cole with Phil Woods This has a version of Donna Lee that totally rips. | |
| Integrating speakers into contemporary decor - can WAF ever be overcome? Larsen loudspeakers are engineered precisely for extreme WAF problems like you have. They sit up against the wall. You need to have them both on the same wall of course, and an appropriate distance apart. Don't let the wife put them on differen... | |
| Turntable recommendation I always recommend against getting into vinyl for newbies. Good new turntables start at $1000 go waaaay up from there. It's very easy to drop $1000 on just the cartridge. Not every tone arm works well with every cartridge. You spend $20 on a ... | |
| Looking for high power warming sounding tube amps @smodtactical I run a VTA preamp I’m thrilled with. I’ve heard one of their ST-70 amps. Were I in the market for a big tube amp, the M125 pair would be what I’d go for. The designer, Bob Latino has a very good rep. These are well built and enginee... | |
| Looking for high power warming sounding tube amps Get into a VTA M-125 monoblock pair. 120 watts each. You can enjoy the immense satisfaction of building them as a kit ($2000/pair - no tubes), or just buying them fully assembled and tested ($2800 - no tubes)(tube sets available for $750). | |
| McIntosh to Luxman? Both Mac and Luxman are good gear. I doubt you're going to hear significant differences. Certainly not worth what it will cost you for the Luxman, plus the pain of selling off the Mac. Do you enjoy what you have now? If so, be happy with it.... | |
| Good Suggestions for Tube Amps under 6k With your budget, I'd get the Don Sachs ($3000) custom built version of the VTA SP14 preamp ($1600). They're both the exact same preamp, but the VTA looks like a home-brew kit. It is available as a kit and if you feel you'd enjoy the satisfacti... |