Dedicated Stereo/Audio/Video thread

[tsmith1315]

Received my Mapleshade isolation platform, today. It's a gorgeous piece of audio furniture!

View attachment 498975View attachment 498976View attachment 498978

That's some nice looking Schiit. I love to see all that vinyl.

 

[Hobie1dog]

 

[John Kemker]

Yesterday, I received an email from the Marketing Manager of Sumiko. It seems I won the Part Time Audiophile Sweepstakes and they're sending me a Sumiko Amethyst cartridge. Nice cartridge, but it's a Moving Magnet and I'm trying to get a Moving Coil cartridge. I'll probably flip the Amethyst and buy a ZU DL-103 with the proceeds.

 

[watheyak]

I just added this Primaluna EVO 300 integrated amp to power my Klipsch Forte IVs. Got it used on Audiogon with a selection of tubes to experiment with. So far it sounds outstanding, but there much fun experimenting to he had. KT88 tubes are in it now, I'm excited to try the EL34s that were stock. Also the 4 ohm vs 8 ohm taps. Rumor has it the Fortes sound great on 4 ohm.

DAC shopping next. Although that's a little ways off.

 

[Grog6]

The Tubes .vs Transistors debate leaves a lot out, and some of it is BS.
The tubes=2nd harmonics .vs transistors=3rd harmonics debate is at clipping; Proper design alleviates both.

 

[Grog6]

The Tubes .vs Transistors debate leaves a lot out, and some of it is BS.
The tubes=2nd harmonics .vs transistors=3rd harmonics debate is at clipping; Proper design alleviates both.
I've been looking at all the amps I have, looking at who has the best Phono preamp, for recording vinyl. so far it's a tie between my 80's Technics amp, and the Dynaco 60's era tube preamp.
The tube has a higher hiss , but it fas the best RIAA Equalization.

So f

 

[jderimig]

Tubes=simpler topography, less components in the chain, transformer most critical component not the tube, picky around speaker loads. Glow is nice!

Transistors=easy to make sound good, all will sound basically the same. Glow is bad!

 

[John Kemker]

Received my sweepstakes prize today: Sumiko Amethyst phono cartridge. The Amethyst is the top of Sumiko's MM Oyster line. Line contact stylus, so similar to a microridge in detail resolution.

Planning on selling it, as I'm working towards a DL-103 rebuilt with a microridge stylus. I want that MC sound.

 

[OKTurbo]

I’m gathering parts for a new guitar amp project. 15 watt dual EL84 Matchless style. Going to wait until all the bits are here before I cut and drill on the chassis, but it sure is tempting to go ahead and start soldering.

Guitar amps are very different from high fidelity stereo amps. Much simpler, but that‘s where the ‘tone’ comes from.

 

[Hobie1dog]

 

[Tobor]

"$ $ $ $" If only...........

 

[Hobie1dog]

vertical tracking turntable

 

[John Kemker]

Modern vertical turntable. You can get it anywhere from $400 (bare bones) to $650 (w/cartridge).

 

[FredA]

Is this thread about audio fantasy or audio reality - like you own the stuff you post?

 

[John Kemker]

Most of what I post I own. In particular, I have a lot of Schiit Audio gear. However, I posted the Pro-Ject vertical turntable in response to @hobie1dog posting an old vertical turntable.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Is this thread about audio fantasy or audio reality - like you own the stuff you post?

just some of it....90% is for wealthy Capitalists that can afford it, fantasy for us poor folks.

 

[Hobie1dog]

 

[justforfun]

My poor mans setup.

Sold it in 2008, getting ready to retire and was down sizing.

Crown, Mg mags and some powered subs, Thorens with Sonus.

Worked for me.

Roy

 

[Hobie1dog]

Magnepan for the win.

 

[Hobie1dog]

 

[Hobie1dog]

 

[deandome]

a few comments;

1. Recent hobiedog turntable shots are state of the art reference players.....fro m the 70's-80's. You can probably get them for a relative 'song' today, but I shudder at the hassle & cost of rebuilding them...but they'd probby sound great
2. If you want to check out serious (and/or absurd), current fantasy gear, check in with monoandstereo.com regularly (always gotta scroll thru several big ads...hey, I'm glad he has support!). He's based in Slovenia, they're ALWAYS updating/adding pieces (like 5 per day) showing off THE most $$, well regarded stuff in the industry from all over the year. BTW, there are a lot of EXTREMELY wealthy audiophiles in Vietnam, in particular
3. Trivial in the grand scheme of things, but you tube-guys are really kinda 'effed cuz over 75% global tube production comes from one big factory in Russia. Might wanna stock up now....

As with watches and cars, I read up on high end audio daily, though I've devolved into having a relatively mundane home theater setup (yamaha rx, KEF T301 speakers & recently-rebuilt vintage B&O 8003 turntable). sold my Revox integrated amp a few years ago, had luxman before that.

I'm looking for an excuse to get a nice integrated amp and KEF LS 50s for my office/hobby room...but I have nice, powered computer speakers that are sadly good enough as is

 

[UhClem]

Magnepan for the win.

I took advantage of their deal on MMG's a decade or two ago. They are great. If your head is in the exact right spot.

Move your head up or down and the treble falls off. Left or right and the imaging goes away. But sit in the right spot and they are magical.

A sub to fill out the low end of course helps a lot. Especially if you are fond of organ music. If I could just manage to recreate those low frequency interactions between two pedal notes. Felt more than heard.

 

[Grog6]

I've been repairing my 70's era audio gear the last couple of years; I ran an electronic repair and sales store for about 10 years in the 80-90's era. I bought parts to repair all the stuff I owned at the time, and still do.Mabuchi motors for tape decks and my turntable.
The hardest part was getting a tape to set the speed of the tape deck.

The Dynaco tube phono preamp is a better response curve than any of my modern amps, but noisier than they were, so I looked at the design of the dynaco, and added some parts to my Pioneer receiver to match, and it sounds much better.

 

[OverTheTop]

Mabuchi motors for tape decks and my turntable.

We use Mabuchi motors for shutters in our spectrometers. Very inexpensive and reliable, but we have to buy 10000 at a time.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I took advantage of their deal on MMG's a decade or two ago. . But sit in the right spot and they are magical.

A sub to fill out the low end of course helps a lot. Especially if you are fond of organ music. If I could just manage to recreate those low frequency interactions between two pedal notes. Felt more than heard.

I started out with the SMG models, then the legendary 6 panel Tympani IVa ribbon models, last year got some 3.7 and had to sell them 3 months later to pay fu#!^ing medical bills

The trouble with most consumer subs is that they are not really subwoofers, as most of them start rolling off at 25 Hertz or so and they just simply bottom out and Give up. So it makes them rather worthless for pipe organ music. It takes a very high quality driver to have excellent transient response and a very large magnet to control a large cone so that it can move lots of air. It's all about displacement, simple physics. The audio file crowd always goes for the small subwoofers thinking that the smaller diameter means tighter base but it has absolutely nothing to do with it as the tightness or the quick transit response is actually a factor of the inductance of the driver. Read this article to gain knowledge on woofer size:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040403205713/http://www.adireaudio.com/tech_papers/woofer_speed.htm
Such as the very popular REL audiophile sub. All of those guys go absolutely nuts over that one, thinking that it is the greatest small sub on the planet, but it won't do anything really below 27 Hertz which again makes it not even a real subwoofer.. Sub means below 20hz. It's just a woofer and that's it. and all of the other real popular brands such as SVS and Hsu and others, really do not have the Xmax to play anything below 20 Hz and they're really not tight woofers as the woofer cone is not controlled very well because they're using such a small magnet on it. The reason they're using a small magnet is because the manufacturers don't want to spend more than 25 or $30 on the actual woofer.

 

[UhClem]

The trouble with most consumer subs is that they are not really subwoofers, as most of them start rolling off at 25 Hertz or so and they just simply bottom out and Give up.

Mine isn't exactly a consumer sub. It is home built using the smaller (8 cu. ft.) cabinet from plans published in Audio magazine many years ago. Based on the JBL commercial sub and using an 18" 2245H driver.

Another sub article I have a copy of has the title: "Certified Bass for the Certifiable". I am not quite that bad.

 

[tsmith1315]

I've been repairing my 70's era audio gear the last couple of years

You know we like pictures, right?

 

[Hobie1dog]

Mine isn't exactly a consumer sub. It is home built using the smaller (8 cu. ft.) cabinet from plans published in Audio magazine many years ago. Based on the JBL commercial sub and using an 18" 2245H driver.

That was used in the B460 sub. I got to hear one of those back in the late 1980's and I think I still have that issue of the magazine.

 

[FredA]

My SVS SB16 Ultra manages to reproduce a pipe organs pretty well.