petaluman

Responses from petaluman

life span/failure rate of filter capacitors?
Note that loss of capacitance would result in poorer filtration and eventually an increase in your noise floor. Nelson Pass is one of my audio idols, but I'm not sure his words are entirely relevant to the OP.  Cap lifetime may not be the same in... 
Perception and Watts: Doubling of power
50 W difference isn't really that much - unless the user is pushing the lower powered amp into clipping.  Clipping results in increased high frequency content, harsher sound, and possible damage to speakers and/or amp.  
Where does "MidFi" differ from "HiFi" or "LOFI"?
I have a totally different take on this.  Breaking down these categories by price point is basically another kind of objectivist approach.  The High End or whatever you want to call it differentiated itself originally by its focus on sound quality... 
Vintage worth the time to explore?
As others have noted, all gear sounds better when played louder, within their performance envelope.  Many will scorn their use, but if your Marantz has a loudness button, give it a try.  If you're satisfied with the result, then don't worry for no... 
What am I missing?
The idea you can "timeshare" 1,000,000 albums for the price of one is enticing.  Assuming 1n hour/album and no eating, sleeping, working-type distractions, it should take a bit over 114 years to listen through all of them.  Of course, by the time ... 
Jim Campbell (the turntable restorer)
Were you able to reach him?  Is he still "in the biz"?  Roughly where is he located?  
What Gear Has Disappointed You?
@curtdr  I can't speak to any specific examples, but iirc, many SS receiver/amp makers in the early 70s were engaged in a race to the lowest possible traditional distortion figures.  The result was the emergence of transient intermodulation disto... 
Disappearing Jazz?
If you want a more live experience with current jazz artists: A digital membership at SFJazz costs $50/year and you get a livestream concert every Friday at 7 or 7:30pm PT (repeated on Saturday at 11am).  Expect a fascinating range of artists. J... 
Aurender ACS100 as streamer/player
I've heard from many musicians that the streaming economics model ranges from unfriendly to disastrous for them.  If you don't want to own the CDs, you can always buy them to support artists you care about, & give them away.  There are also co... 
Pass Then vs. Pass Now
Threshold made fabulous gear, but a 400A would be >40 years old now.  If it hasn't been updated, you should definitely include the cost of having it gone through, and at the very least having the power supply & other electrolytic caps repla... 
5 Dumb Things Audiophiles Believes.
from his title, I'm guessing that he's stereo-typing  
Rebadging of Streaming Platforms
I'm sorry that no one seems to be able to answer the original question from the OP.  My guess is that this is a similar situation to high end class D amps.  Most of them are based on a few different amplification modules.  Of course, different inp... 
Comparing external DAC to CD player DAC
"Old Mac" is probably the weak link.  As suggested, try the CDP direct to your external DAC.  If you're satisfied with the resulting sound, you'll only need to replace your streamer.  
Magnepan .7 Alternatives
Your room is the obvious limiting factor, with both size & dimension issues.  A smaller Maggie might improve the situation, but not likely to cure it. The safest approach is switching to nearfield monitors.  You've already got the subs, so th... 
What is the added value of a streamer over a networked dedicated Computer
@Yage The problem is that the digital data is robust, but you can't listen to it without converting it to analog.  That process is extremely time-sensitive and intrinsically imperfect.  Streamers like the Aurender mitigate timing errors in the si...