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wspohn

Responses from wspohn

Favourite Guitarists
You are missing some good ones: Jeff Beck Tuck Andress Robben Ford Lee Ritenour Larry Carleton Pat Metheny Joe Pass Mostly jazz players, but I agree with some of your choices, particularly Stevie Ray and Knopfler  
Classical music newbie needs your suggestions
You might enjoy owning Mahler’s 2nd symphony "Resurrection" conducted by Gilbert Kaplan. The story behind the man’s determination to conduct a symphony orchestra is rather interesting. See    
What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?
I tried several arms when I got into the hobby, several decades ago, but at that time I judged the SME V to be the best choice and I still use them on a Sota Cosmos and a VPI TNT V in two of my systems.  Setting up amd trying different arms with ... 
Ditching Class A Amps due to Heat - Sort of a Poll
I own and use several Class A amps - collectively around 400 pounds of them. If they didn't sound better than most other amps they'd be gone in a second. But they do, so they stay.  
I've been selling heavier gear for lighter gear
Light speakers tend to be flexible which can have negative effects on sound, especially in the lower registers.  A lot of my gear is pretty heavy (100 lb amps, 450 lb. speakers etc).  I didn't buy for weight, I bought for sound and the weight just... 
Which Solid State amplifier would you recommend for my budget?
I still own a Rowland 5 but moved it to my AV system as it wasn't as smooth as the CJ Premier 11a I now use. Agree with the Belles recco, and some of the older Classe that is actually Class A are really excellent  
Record crates
Your problem is why Ikea invented Kallax shelving!  
Types of Audiophiles
Count me in as a purist.  I want it to sound like...real music.  
Rear speakers, generally of lesser quality?
If you mount side and rear speakers on the ceiling, and but speakers that are fairly flat, it becomes a non-issue. Take a look at something like the Vandersteen VSM-1, for instance.  
Why do Tube Amps sound more romantic v SS amps
Hard to generalize - horses for courses. I just try a given amp out in a system and then compare with whatever else I have at the time and choose whichever set up sound s the best to me. I run all tube into some big Wilsons, but solid state into... 
System that sounds so real it is easy to mistaken it is not live
Closest I have come is when I was playing solo piano on vinyl, and my wife who is a pianist was a couple of rooms over called out to me and asked who was playing (she knew that I don't play and thought that I had a visitor sitting at her piano.  
When someone tells you it's a $40,000 amp, does it sound better?
I've listened to very expensive speakers driven by equally expensive power amps at audio shows and they sounded horrid, but f course the exhibitors claimed they sounded wonderful..  I tend to rely on my ears, not on what price is charged for the g... 
Most economical way to ship large speakers?
I shipped speakers I had bought across country using a moving company. They were in three large crates that totalled 1100 lbs.  so no other method would have been as good/economical.  
Listening chair height?
With a tall speaker your seat would have to be on a ladder! I use quite tall Wilsons  - they solve this by having vernier adjustment of the forward rake angle of the module carrying the tweeter - you choose your listening chair and then use a las... 
GoldenEar Center Choices: X, XL, or Reference center
Hard to predict what will work best.  I bought a quite good centre speaker (cost ~ $2K) and found that the system sounded better with a phantom centre generated by the two main speakers. Why not try without first and see if your speakers present...