larryi
Responses from larryi
| Auditioning Used Equipment - Am I crazy ? We don't know enough about the particular circumstances to say whether or not the dealer was behaving reasonably. Most dealers have used gear as trade-ins on a purchase of new gear. Taking in trade-ins is a BIG favor to customer and the dealing ... | |
| Quandary Tube gear, in particular power amplifiers, vary much more in their sound than do solid state amps. It is not easy to characterize tube amp sound and know tube amp ‘sound” from just a few examples—Audio Research sounds radically different from Aud... | |
| Quandary Yes, tube linestages can work well and sound good with solid state amps. But, the biggest difference in sound comes from using a good tube amp. I hang out at a very serious audio shop that does not sell ANY solid state amplification. They also ... | |
| Transfiguration Phoenix S cartridge - impedance loading recommendation? I own a Transfiguration Orpheus L, which is also a low impedance cartridge. It is not sensitive to loading and I run it with 360 ohm loading. | |
| Quandary I think that the $300 review, which involves two trips by the dealer, plus the opportunity to have the $300 put toward the purchase price is a reasonable offer. Whatever you decide, it is a decision informed by much more than most people base the... | |
| Watts! How many do we need? It is FAR easier to sell something on more-is-better because that is easy to understand. If the extra power does not come at an expense in terms of sound quality, that would mean no harm in having way too much power in reserve. But, that is not r... | |
| Help, my system seem to have slowly gotten " bright" I am glad it is not a hearing issue. Now, to diagnose the problem. Put on something that is a mono recording which exhibits the problem. Use a balance control, or disconnect one speaker to listem to one channel at a time. Is the problem the sa... | |
| What to do with gear which is beyond repair? What do you mean by ‘beyond repair? Has someone tried and found parts to be unavailable? Is it simply not worth repairing, although repair is possible? What is it specifically? There is almost always someone who wants a particular item even if... | |
| Do you belong more to souce first or to speakers first school of thought ? If you are talking about creating a system and not planning on gradual, incremental improvements, the answer might be different than someone establishing a strategy to improve the system. Linestages, followed by digital source components, are MUC... | |
| Help, my system seem to have slowly gotten " bright" Again, I would recommend having your ears checked. What you describe might be the start of hyperacusis, an ear condition. If it is an equipment issue, my bet is on the speakers. But, it would be extremely unlikely that both speakers have the ... | |
| Help, my system seem to have slowly gotten " bright" Can you confirm that it is the system at fault? Do others hear the problem as well? Do you also hear this problem when you visit audio stores? I am wondering if you might be developing a hearing problem. | |
| Taming/Damping Electrostat Backwave Diffusion is the better approach. I actually experimented with absorption of the back wave. I bought a lot of foam rubber and made a big wrap-around block of foam for a pair of Acoustat 1+1 speakers. This seriously deadened the sound and quickl... | |
| Taming/Damping Electrostat Backwave Provided you have enough room to place the panels away from the back wall, the backwards radiation is a feature, not a problem with such speakers. The out of phase signal cancels to the side a bit, given that bass waves wrap around "small" object... | |
| Your Ultimate Phono Preamp: Which One Would You Choose? Maybe, for fun, ones that allow use of other equalization curves. I don't care if RIAA was completely adopted a long while ago, I've heard use of other equalization curves, and there are some records that happen to sound better in a specific setu... | |
| Your Ultimate Phono Preamp: Which One Would You Choose? I would pick something quite long out of production: Lyra Connoisseur. I would then have comparably priced tube and solid state phono stages which might be interesting. |