helomech

Responses from helomech

DIY Speaker Kits, a good idea?
I have built/assembled the Seas A26 and Satori Helios Textreme kits available from Madisound. In both cases I concluded the resulting performance is on par with commercially available speakers that retail for >3X the price of the assembled kit... 
Rogue Cronos Magnum -Reverse Polarity ?
Does the Cronus invert polarity? I believe it does not.   
Top DYI Speaker Options
I recently built the SB Acoustics Satori Helios Textreme (kit available at Madisound).  They perform better than all three-ways I have encountered short of high end $40K+ speakers like Rockports.  I don’t recommend purchasing the available flat-... 
Low powered integrated recommendation
 
Low powered integrated recommendation
The Croft Phono integrated. Forget everything else.   
Is More Better?
They will only help if placed in the ideal positions. Problem is, that ideal position might be in a ceiling corner. Unfortunately, subs don’t care about which way is up/down the way we do.   
Suggestions for a holographic preamp?
The humble Topping A70 Pro is the most holographic preamp I have owned among  many, including tubes and SS.  Spend the $9500 you’ll save on a nice vacation or some ETFs.  More money ≠ greater performance any longer when it comes to preamps.     
Weakest Link in my system... Power Supply, DAC, or...
DAC progress has been significant since the 2019 release of this DAC? Nope!    
KT88 vs 6550 vs ? for warm midrange - using Cronos Mag lll
I have a Cronus Dark that shipped from their factory with PS Vane KT-88s. Years ago I owned a CMII with the KT-120s. Going off memory, this newer version sounds more refined with the KT-88s, but it’s impossible to say whether that’s owed to the tu... 
Tannoy or Volti
I like the JBLs because they produce a more linear sound without any obnoxious peaks. And they don’t really suffer from horn coloration the way Voltis, and to lesser extent, the Tannoys do.  Your amps would have no trouble driving the JBLs to hig... 
I changed a Tube and…
I have a nearly new Cronus Dark in my second system. Like you, I recently began some tube rolling, only the center preamp slot, because my experience in tube rolling with a CM2 was that the other tubes make only a negligible difference.  Mostly I... 
Tannoy or Volti
I’d go with the JBL 4367s over either Volti or Tannoy any day.  Those in the know will tell you that vintage Tannoys actually perform better than their modern counterparts, so there’s that.       
Old SS amps
People often have their amps recapped unnecessarily. Many amps can go 40+ years before a capacitor goes bad.  More often, in class A and A/B amps, the bias drifts.  Outside of Class D and THX AAA designs, amp technology really hasn’t improved mu... 
Best products and process to polish piano black KEF speakers
Blask No.9 followed by some Blask No.13 ceramic spray polish.  Not cheap, but products from the likes of Griots don’t come remotely close to as good IME.   
Have some fun with bookshelf monitors!!
For $5K, you’d be remiss to not consider the Epos ES-7N or ES-14N. They were engineered by one of the best designers in the biz, Karl Fink.