westcoastaudiophile
Responses from westcoastaudiophile
| Needing DAC Advice @classicrockfan "you don't want to spend more than 1k for a Chinese DAC. These Chinese DACs outperform most US/European made units that cost 10x more. “ my last Gustard DAC is A22, which is an excellent implementation of Akamai Tech. DAC chip des... | |
| Would I be wasting my money to get a turntable? @fritzenheimer “Would I be wasting my money to get a turntable?" being audiophile IS about wasting money! :-) Sure! nice DD/heavy-BD TT with good cartridge is $$$$! I see you are looking to replace M33 with.. I would recommend to look class A ... | |
| ACTUAL MUSICAL SOUND VS. MEASUREMENTS being few decades experienced analog circuit designer / sound engineer / and audiophile, I can add: 1) no design whatsoever is possible without obeying standards, user expectations, and measurements! most discrepancy btw measurements and advanced... | |
| What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds? "What contributes most to a change in how an amplifier sounds?" amp designer, manufacturer, components incl. tubes, speakers, listening room acoustics, preamp incl. tone control feature etc., listener, music program and source, cables, RFI enviro... | |
| Power Cable Audioquest Dragon vs Isotek EVO3 Ascension @teammccalla "Which device is most sensitive, or would benefit most, from the best cable?” you may ask your gear manufacturer if stock cable is limiting/degrading performance of their product.. you can basically sue them if original cable is und... | |
| Power Cord for Accuphase Amplifier @jfrmusic "I have been unable to find a third party Power Cord that sounds better than the stock cord delivered with my Accuphase P4600 Amplifier." Accuphase designs amps/other to be immune to AC noise, IR drops, worst of RFI, so, your finding so... | |
| Component matching expertise - how do you do it? esthetically - yes, the same brand gears in the rack look awesome! from the sound side, not so much.. I’ve got great tunes out of SS pre+tube amp, all different brands.. | |
| Snake River Audio Power Cables - Best Unboxing "About 2x or so the warmth of the regular Cottonmouth Gold” - blind test confirmed? | |
| Veritas Cables a new brand that I found “Argentum is great for low level listening” meaning darker background? signal cables must be properly shielded, shielding isolation of 80dB + is very good for “low level” tunes! Typical cheap cables have shielding isolation below 60dB, thus any ... | |
| Veritas Cables a new brand that I found @tubeguy80 it seems we share a lot of "audio craziness” in common than disagreements, incl. enjoying vinyl/tubes/lossless/cables/jazz/etc.. :-) - thanks! | |
| Veritas Cables a new brand that I found @lak I respectfully would love to offer you challenge to prove your opinion.. take brand new and brake-in pre your method cables, and try to identify the difference.. if you are in PDX area, I would love to assist you! | |
| Veritas Cables a new brand that I found dear lak, cable, unlike SS / tube circuit, tubes, does not break-in, they age. aged cable performance is always worse than new. there is some interconnect performance improvement after tightening connections, mostly due to contact area increase an... | |
| Revisiting Chinese Knockoff Cables I use china made cables for DIY designs.. original china (non brand) cable are never done properly, terminations are not properly soldered / attached, braids of wires not all connected etc.. cables and some terminals as DIY materials are pretty go... | |
| What devices have you found useful when inspecting your stylii for cleanliness? I use stereo microscope with led illumination, currently Carl Zeiss STEMI 305 w/ 10x, and 25x oculars. It helped me to root cause “funny sound” issues, including dirt on moving magnets, not perfect needle azimuth etc. | |
| Do speakers need to be re-broken in? @mclinnguy not sure if break-in at less than five watts will do anything, but older speakers always is good to restore / check: 1) Sweep speakers freq. for resonances at 50% max power using external audio sine generator connected directly to amp ... |