loomisjohnson

Responses from loomisjohnson

Van L Speakerworks Quartet
i've idled away several afternoons at his shop and have always been impressed with the quartet; i still own and use a smaller van l monitor from the mid 90s. i haven't heard a simultaneous a/b of the quartets with others, but i've heard enough of ... 
Alon Speakers
the alon ivs are great--huge soundstage, very musical. they don't seem terribly fussy about electronics--a good friend of mine runs his with a marantz avr and they sound fine--i'd try 'em out with some m0re modest gear before you pop for a vtl. 
Any integrated amps with dac and 2 spkr outputs?
for your criteria, i might look at a very high end avr like an arcam avr300/350 or b&k 307/507, each of which have excellent 2ch performance, lots of power and all the features you need; very inexpensive used. 
New speakers needed on a budget
for your stated needs, in addition to the totem and psb recs i'd look at monitor audio rs6, rega r5 o rs5 or my personal faves, the focal cobalt series, all of which can be found used within your budget. you might also look at accessories4less for... 
small speakers
i'll take the contrarian view and suggest you replace the eras with a more efficient, better-sounding speaker--von schweikert vr1, psb imagine, proac, focal, rega r1 or rs1, etc.--all of which can be found in the $500-1k range. 
Arcam AVR 600 Is it that good?
conceptually, there's no reason that a well-designed avr won't sound as good as seperates utilizing substantially the same components, and a high end avr like the arcam should outperform more modest separates. to me, tho, it makes little sense to ... 
HDMI cable made a difference in picture quality??
i'm with macdad, almarg et.al.--i can't see a whit of difference between the generic hdmi cables eforcity sells for 22 cents on amazon and the megabuck super-duper, 48 carat gold, handmade by aryan-demigods cables peddled which retailers peddle so... 
DAC benefit compared to denon3930
given the inherent subjectivity of "sound quality", it's virtually impossible to tell if you're rig will sound better with a separate dac--you have to audition and decide. both your denon and your helios have high quality dacs;i haven't heard the ... 
Speakers you regret selling
von schweikert vr-1s, which i impulsively sold to a wanna-be audiophile acquaintance. great rock and roll monitor--has the slam of a floorstander; beautifully finished and fantastic value at its $500-600 used price. i also sold sold my dunlavy sc1... 
Small speakers...big sound??
of the speakers on your list, the vr1s are the real mofo--big sounding with excellent low end extension (i haven't heard the gersman). i'd also look at proac response and paradigm signature s1 or s2--very full; big soundstage. 
Did anybody else notice this about PSB Speakers?
PSB (along with Pardigm, Energy et. al.) is a big beneficiary of Canda's National Research Council, which finances R&D; because of the government's largesse, the Canadian manufacturers can sell great products at much lower cost. If our governm... 
Small Footprint Speakers for Rock
with your rel, id go for a monitor with a big soundstage--proac response, psb synchrony or pardigm signature s1 or s2. you cannot go wrong with any of these. 
Big Star..??
Gotta disagree with Jaybo, who almost always has great taste--the Big Star reunion album blew chunks, I do, however, highly recommend Chris Bell's solo record, which despite demo-quality sound is every bit as good as the Big Star records. 
Changing to bookshelf speakers. Recommendations?
qm gurus--pretty amazing wallop for their size 
Soulsavers, Mark Lanegan, Gutter Twins
thanks for the heads up on the soulsavers. their cover of "some misunderstanding", an extremely obscure gene clark track, is fantastic.