tom_nice
Responses from tom_nice
| Bass speaker cables I'd look at Premier speaker cables at www.interlinkhouse.com or else email the designer, stnemo@starpower.net. He once recommended Premiers to me, for a similar goal to yours: they can carry a lot of current. One thing I'd bet the rent money on: t... | |
| Best Power Conditioner I used API Power Wedges for years, but a Cinepro Line Balancer has put them into basement storage. It got a foolishly (IMHO) lukewarm Stereophile review that put me off Wes Philips for good, but its basic mode of operation is so good that its supe... | |
| Best wires for cost Since Stealth has already come up, maybe I won't be hammered for throwing in my impressions. Full disclosure: I know the designer, so assume a bias if you wish. I used to make cables like homegrown's, with relatively thick silver, and thought they... | |
| Calculating composite wire gauge Thanks Vantageaudio and Citation! What a great forum, to be able to get accurate information on an abstruse topic like this, and within a few hours. I now know what I need to know. I guess the cross sections for the series of gauges were set in su... | |
| Recommend a 20A power cord? I'd look into Stealth HAC, at www.interlinkhouse.com. Full disclosure: I know the designer, and so can be assumed to have a bias. These power cords made a big improvement for me. I had previously used power cords by Classe (old) and Cardas (more r... | |
| The best Neutral Power cord ? I'd be interested to know how a power cord can be other than neutral. Are there bright power cords? Dark ones? The only difference I've noticed, as an improvement, is hearing more of what I take to be the recorded musical signal coming through the... | |
| new power cord or dac? I'm a big fan of Stealth power cords (full disclosure: I know the designer, and so have a bias), but I think you'd be much better off replacing the DAC first. Anyone disagree? There are a lot on the used market that would beat the AA, in almost ev... | |
| What are U using? Coax,ATT,XLR?? I use the Lens too, and have used Altis Altimate optical and van den Hul AES/EBU (homemade from his wire), and now use a Stealth Varidig S/PDIF. The Stealth, claiming to be the only true 75 ohm cable around, blows the other two away, not even clos... | |
| Volume Control Help..... If you can get the specifications for it, primarily its "size" (for example, 50K ohms), you could make your own or have it made for you. It isn't hard to make an attenuator that's better than most in even very expensive preamps, like the CAT's. Th... | |
| Balance ?? Not all amplifiers, not even all good modern ones, have balanced inputs. Pass Aleph 3, for example, doesn't. Not all digital sources have balanced outputs. Likewise not all preamps: the CAT's are an example. A balanced circuit involves doubling a ... | |
| Need Genesis Digital lens manual Send me some stamps and your address and I'll copy mine for you. It's a pretty poor manual, but better something than nothing, I suppose. Please email me at nicetom@sonic.net. | |
| AC Conditioners? There's a Cinepro 20 Line Balancer for sale right now at less than 50% of retail, on Audiogon. I have one, and it's far better than the API Power Wedge I now have in basement storage. If you can afford $850 (a guess from memory), you can't do bett... | |
| Doubts on XLR config You've had advice from an expert, Kevin H, but if you want more conversation, email stnemo@starpower.net, who advised me on the same issue. He also told me that CD's are usually made in such a way that it may not matter which polarity you choose--... | |
| Opinions Needed: Active or passive pre I think you should try the best active preamp you can afford and see if its poorer detail and transparency are worse than its "midrange magic" is pleasing. I'm selling a CAT SL 1 III and keeping a homemade passive which sounds better to me, on bal... | |
| kimber kable I can't disagree with Sdcampbell's recommendation, but would add that if you want to experiment, I'll sell you Kimber AGSS, the $16.50 per foot wire in KCAG, for $9 per foot. In lengths up to 9' 2", or even a few at 10'. |