salectric

Responses from salectric

EL34 in triode vs 300B/845 SET
As others have said, you need to choose which component to keep—-the 300B SET or the B&W—-and then move from there.  I would just add that if you keep the speakers you don’t have to go to a Levinson behemoth.  You can stay with tubes with the ... 
In search of respectable/reasonable tube amps with 16 ohm taps
The photo of the underside of the EICO HF-35 amps is interesting.  The modifier has converted the amps to fixed bias rather than stock cathode bias, he is using a 12ax7 for the front end instead of the EF86, he improved the amp ground connections ... 
Looking for a warm sweet speaker
A used pair of Spendor SP100 speakers would be just what you’re looking for.  They don’t come up that often but when they do you can get a good set for around $2000.  I had a pair for over 15 years before finally parting with them last year.  The ... 
A New Coltrane Recording!
That’s great news!  It is hard to believe there would be any Coltrane recordings still unreleased but labels did lots of strange things back then. 
Racks - what’s awesome without impacting my kids college plans?
As much as I like Sound Anchors for my turntable stand, I would not recommend them for electronics.  I had intended to use the two shelves below my turntable for my preamps, but unfortunately anything placed on the steel supports acquires an edgin... 
Dynaco A25 -Hard to Believe
I bought my first pair of A25 speakers in the spring of 1970 shortly after they came out.  They sounded better to me, more natural, than any of the mainstream speakers like the AR-4x or AR-2ax that my father had at the time, or the Advent, or Rect... 
Opinions Please - Which Turntable Rack is Better
Another vote for Sound Anchors.  My 100+ lb Galibier table has been on a dedicated Sound Anchors stand for the past 12 years and I have been delighted with it.  Very stable.  No problems anymore with footfalls.  And it sounds great.  Highly recomm... 
Stan ( “stanwal” ) my he forever RIP
RIP Stan.  He was a gentleman indeed.  Although I never met him, he and I shared a love for Spendor S100 and SP100 speakers and had a few email and forum exchanges on that topic.  He was always respectful of others' opinions. 
Phono stage gain too high??? Should I return it??
That is odd how your 60 dB gain phono stage has lower output than the 57 dB ARC.  My guess is that your other phono preamp has a low input resistance, perhaps 100 ohms or so, and the ARC has a 47K input load.  I am not familiar with your cartridge... 
Deja Vu Audio in DC--are they open?
+1 to the above.  A few minutes ago I swapped speakers, moving back into their regular spot my Deja Vu open baffle speakers with YL Acoustic midrange horn.  Wow!  My backup speakers are really nice but a trombone on Vu’s speakers sounds much close... 
KT120 back to 6550
I recently compared Genalex KT-88 and Tung Sol KT-120 in my Emotive Audio Vita amps.  I have been using a set of KT-120s for the last 5 years but recently one of them was making some suspicious noises, so I swapped in my well-broken-in set of KT-8... 
Oomph or pressure?
Clio09 - You have more experience so maybe my generalization was wrong.  The Emia/Intact Audio autoformer is the only magnetic attenuator I have tried. 
Oomph or pressure?
The term “passive” is an unfortunate one since it includes both resistor-based attenuators and magnetics such as transformers and autoformers.  The complaints often leveled against “passives” relate to problems with dynamics and drive, as others h... 
Oomph or pressure?
One final point.  It will take a very good active linestage to surpass the Emia/Intact Audio autoformer.  In my case, the Emotive Epifania started out as an excellent sounding preamp, but I have tweaked it to death over the past 10 years by swappi... 
Oomph or pressure?
Charles, I think you got the names confused.  The active preamp is the Emotive Audio Epifania so nothing inappropriate in its name.I should emphasize that the Emia autofromer is very good by any standard.  I am somewhat splitting hairs by focusing...