austinstereo
Responses from austinstereo
| Frustrated with Vinly I don't think recording cleaning is the issue. Especially with new records. A better turntable will yield greater dynamics, effectively pushing the noise floor down. A Rega PL2 would no doubt be a significant upgrade. A PL3 or SOTA would be a ... | |
| BEST SPEAKERS AT A REASONABLE PRICE No simple answer. It really depends on your system, your room, and your listening preferences. There are some good bargains to be had in used floorstanding speakers, if you don't mind a nick or a scratch. You can usually end up paying half or l... | |
| Question about TT Power Connections The optional Rega PSU external power supply for the Planar 3 and up, is a significant upgrade over the included wall wart. It generates a far cleaner sine wave, as just using the local utility generated wave. A side benefit is that you also gain t... | |
| My stereo receiver is a little too bright. Can a cable help me out? @teo_audio is right. You need to give it time to break in. It will take around 50 to 100 hours of operation to fully break in. Secondly, a receiver with 40 year old caps typically sounds pretty dark. So there is an added contrast. Our shop ha... | |
| downloading music worth listening to on a computer Compressed audio, and highly compressed audio in particular, sounds awful. However, uncompressed audio, or lossless for that matter, can sound as good or better than any CD. Provided the right software and hardware is used that is. | |
| Best speakers out there for Midrange and Highs If you're willing to stay in the sweet spot, it's hard to be panels for mid and hi frequency reproduction. Especially for the money. | |
| Banana Plugs too narrow A good, well designed banana plug should fit snugly. I'd return these if they are as you described. Hopefully just a bad set. Yes, you can widen some bananas with a split pin, but this tends to fatigue the metal. You'd soon be back where you s... | |
| SET vs Class A vs tubes vs Class AB amps All SET amps are class A by nature. In a class A amplifier, the output devices are biased on for the entire waveform. This is why they are lower power output when compared to similarly sized class A/B amps. Some of the best amps we've heard are... | |
| Why does my old CD player sound so much better than my new streamer? It is quite possibly not actually the digital conversion, but rather the analog stage in the DAC. The analog output stage designs vary pretty wildly in both DACs and players, and range from op amp based. all the way up to fully discrete output st... | |
| Best budget streamer on the market now? I'd just pick up a used desktop PC. The mini Dells are perfect. Install Jriver media server. Ad a wireless remote, and you are up. Ideally a high quality DAC card, or a USB DAC is the final touch. All easily done for less than $300. | |
| Phono stage for my system? The Rega Fono Mini is an outstanding phono preamp, and would be a sonic upgrade for most receivers. This includes many vintage receivers as well. Full disclosure here. We are a Rega dealer. ;-) | |
| High value, giant killer speakers? We're fans of the old Acoustic electrostatic speakers. The 2MH hybrid predated the Martin Logan Monolith by a couple of years, and at less than a third of the price. Huge bang for the buck. 2+2's and 1+1s are also great examples. Panels aren't... |