2-Channel Audio

Right This Minute

thebes — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 01:20:26 GMT

Although, I don't like repeating myself, this has been a lot of fun in the past.

What are you listening to right this minute?

YES YOU!

Me? I'm downstairs. Got Bob Marley's "Babylon by Bus" on the player. Song is:

Stir It Up

CDs, when will they be obsolete?

russ69 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:28:27 GMT

I'm not changing formats again. It took me 30 years to replace most of my old vinyl with CDs. I don't think music downloading is something that I'll want to do unless that is the only way left to buy music. The experts keep saying the CD is dead but I just can't see that happening quite yet. How long will it be before I walk in WalMart and find the CD racks empty?

Thanx, Russ

Gain Staging....

SWL — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:48:31 GMT

Anyone like to comment on experiences with gain staging........how you did it......what equipment used......pros/cons etc?

Thanks,

-Scott.

Sellers remorse

davmar — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:13:47 GMT

I called my friend who wanted me to buy his K-Horns and told him I wanted to keep my four La Scala for my two channel, I decided it would be a step down with me running stacked La Scalas! Am I nuts? So anyone know of a sterio guy up here who wants K-Horns let me know!

Three amp choice for la scalas

seagull — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:50:46 GMT

Ok I've some ,old quad 11"s Audionote kit one, and Unison simply 845's Anyone tried these in combo with La scalas Is there a killer match up

My 2-Channel rig in the living room - Part Two

Wardsweb — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:30:51 GMT

This updates the thread I had back in 2006. I had just build the horns but still needed to veneer them. Well 3 1/2 years later we have moved. Part of the remodel on the new house was to remove the carpet and put down mahogany flooring. While I had the speakers in the garage, it was a perfect time to pull the drivers and finally get them veneered.

I'll start with a refresher on these speakers. Baltic birch and MDF with CNC bracing and kerf MDF sides.

Frazier Users Group aka F.U.G.

tom b. 57 — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:08:01 GMT

Is anyone familiar with these speakers? I know some of you have owned or still own Frazier speakers and I am wondering if these are worth investigating. I know little about these. They are a two way incorporating a horn and what I believe to be a 12" woofer. I can get these cheap and am waiting for the seller to call me with a time tomorrow when I can audition them. If the cabinets are in good shape and they sound alright I may just snatch them up. I am hoping to go there tomorrow armed with a little bit more info. than I have right now, which is next to nothing.

Please clue me in on these if you can.

Tom

Toeing in or flat on

seagull — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:46:09 GMT

Ok guys I'm picking up my first La Scala II's on Sunday. So before I put them delicately in place is there a recommended procedure.to get the best set up { ps still looking for some pink ones )

Stands for La Scalas

seagull — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:02:47 GMT

Hi Guys, Has anyone had any success with raising the La Scalas up on stands Cheers Sg

New toy--Tubes are in the House!!!

kevinmi — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:00:04 GMT

Pics of my newly built Bob Latino ST-120 amp kit W/VTA board.

wavelength amps

joessportster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:46:57 GMT

anyone had any experience with the wavelength line of amps in particular the lightning 45 series............................Joe

Juicy Music Blueberry Preamp Impression

neo33 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:30:26 GMT

As many of you might have guess from the picture of my home theatre, there is something that resemble the Juicy Music Blueberry Preamp on the right rack. It is in fact the Blueberry itself. It took me a long time (due to the nature of my job being away from home for the most part) to finally have a chance to rebuild my home theatre and 2-channel systems and listen to the Blueberry that I borrowed from a friend.

I did not like the wood cabinet and would have prefer the metallic case. However, it was love at first sight with the faceplate. I really like the blue and purple color blending. Due to input/output labelings that were line up incorrectly, it was a bit difficult at first to hook up the cables.

I was in total shock when I first powered up the Blueberry and switched it from "Standby" to "Play" and nothing would come out of my speakers. It was just silent except for the slight hum and audible static noise which is quite annoying to say the least. About 40 seconds later as I was checking the connections of the equipments and speakers, the music come on unexpectedly and loudly which scared the living daylight out of me. I just realized that I did not adjust the volume properly. Now, I could not understand why there is such a long delay between switching from "Standby" to "Play" and this happended consistently (when I switched from "Standby" to "Play" on my AES AE-1 Pre, it played immediately).

What worse is that as I lowered the volume knob of the right channel and my left speaker gone softer. So I thought...the left and right channels are wired reverse. This is really confusing as I did not understand the concept of reverse wiring. So far thing did not go well for the Blueberry: labeling misaligned, annoying static noise, too long of a delay between "Standby" and "Play" and reverse wiring of left and right channels. What else could go wrong with the Blueberry since there were much high praises.

However, once I got the Blueberry into music listening mode, it was a different story. I popped in my favorite Jazz CD. The soundstate was quite wide and imaging was excellent considering the distance between the La Scalas was only 5.5 feet apart. At normal volume, unless you stick your ears right next to speakers which you can still hear the static noise, it was fairly quiet. The vocal was almost haunting with a natural fullness that had no hard edge. The Blueberry was tonally well balanced as there was a sense of clarity and no harshness in the vocal with smoothness in the upper mid. As the night was entering its twilight, I found myself submerged into the subliminal.

adcom gfa-5500

slovell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:03:44 GMT

anyone have any experience with this amp?
thanks, sam

I going to get an Almarro integrated.

Yukon Jackass — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:22:30 GMT

I placed my order for Heresy IIIs! Whoo hoo! I have an old, but very reliable Onkyo stereo receiver right now, but I want to take the plunge with tubes.

I am going with the Almarro A205 II. 5 watt EL84 integrated. Extremely well received by the audiophile press, and a good match for the Heresies.

The Almarro also seems to be a good choice for tube newbies, and it's priced right. I think I will be very happy with this combo.

Anyone out there have this amp?

My tuner is louder than other components

pattyr — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:08:16 GMT

I have Klipsch Synergy 3 floor speakers and a Yamaha HTR5740 receiver. If I've been playing any other component (CD player, Ipod, TV) and then change to the tuner, the tuner sound just blasts me out of my chair. Is there anything I can do to equalize the volume? (It doesn't help that the dog likes to sleep next to the speaker.)

Patty

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO AZUR 650A or HARMAN KARDON HK3490

sunnyraid — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:16:15 GMT

Hi,

For the same price i can upgrade my amplifier (now: a CAMBRIDGE AUDIO AZUR 340A) to a CAMBRIDGE AUDIO AZUR 650A or a HARMAN KARDON HK3490.

I listen to stereo music (all genre) mostly on a pair of Synergy F3 and use a Cambridge DAC (DacMagic).

Which one should i choose ? and why ?

Cheap Tube Amps ?

smokarz — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:30:03 GMT

hi all, after acquiring a pair of Cornwalls a few weeks back, i have been reading a bit on tube amps, and it seems the Scott 299b and 340b are the preferred choices. the problem is these seem to be fairly rare. ebay is selling them from anywhere from $300-$500 but there are so few of them

are there any other tube amps that work well with the klipsch heritage, but are more readily available? i am hoping to spend $300 for a used one, if that is possible.

thanks!

Add your portrait ?

seagull — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:16:01 GMT

Ok , now I'm past the too newboy status and fancy adding image to my grey box, Don't know how ?

Heresy black refinish ?

seti — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:00:11 GMT

I am getting a pair of Heresy I's to verify they are ok for a friend and to give it some nice grill cloth. I'm thinking of going the extra mile as they are for good friends. The speakers are black but I was wondering how much trouble it would be to strip the paint and sand it back to wood? Is it possible. I've done this sort of thing with just veneer but not black to wood.

Vintage Analog Nostalgia - Fully Restored Revox B77

Groomlakearea51 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:00:51 GMT

A few years ago (actually about 6-7 years ago now), my old Akai 635-DB R2R died. Since then I have had that "lust" for that "ole' timey" analog reel sound. Well a couple years ago (December of 2007), I found a Revox B-77 for sale. Always wanted one, but they were very expensive back in the day; far more expensive than the Akai's, Teac's, etc. They were however, built like a tank, and are still in general use today.

Well, thought about for a while, and bought it for $300. It had issues so I stuck it up on a shelf for the "git a round toit" list of things to do. I bought another one but it was a slow speed deck (3.75" only) and while it worked well, I decided to sell it and use the money to get the "normal one" done by a reputable technician.

Found a techniciam. Kevin Kaas in St. Petersburg. There's a couple other folks on the Forum who are aware of his work, and it is well worth it. So in May of 2008, off it went. The B-77 drove him crazy because of take up reel delays, etc. and by the time it was over, the entire deck was pretty much rebuilt, including a custom logic board circuit modification to correct a delay problem that apparently many of the older B-77's had.

It was worth the wait. It arrived yesterday, and today I unpacked it and tested it to see how it sounded after all these years. Gotta love the packing labels. The first box I've ever got from UPS that was not stabbed to death!!!

Can anyone shed light on this speaker?

finallygotmyheresies — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:38:20 GMT

This is the first pair of speakers I've ever bought. They were bought in Bad Axe Michigan and I would guess they were made somewhere in Michigan. I paid about $300 in 1993 and they were a floor model. They have no model number or name, just a s/n on the back. 8" woofer, unique tweeter design.

I haven't been able to find anything online about these speakers. I have a feeling they were made in the Ann Arbor area but nothing to back that up, just a guess.

Manufacturer is Spectrum Audio

CD's are so yesterday!

jpm — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:33:13 GMT

Fast going the way of DVD I just removed my cdp from my system. Just plug in my iPhone for most stuff. I can't hear the difference, so it works for me.

Great Listening Experience

mxr dad — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:53:21 GMT

A Great Forum Member (Thanks Tubes N Horns) was kind enough to bring some Tube gear over to my house last weekend for some good ol Listening. He offered to do so because I have been showing interest in jumping into the tube scene and I dont know squat about tubes. He brought a tube preamp, and a tube amp that he built. He also brought a McIntosh SS amp and some great listening CD's with him. I will have to let him tell us the exact models of each piece as I cant really remember all the names, especially when he started talking tube numbers. There sure are a lot of numbers to remember with these tube thingeys LOL.

With some good ol BBQ Ribs on the grill and a few cold ones, it was great.

Heres the short story:

Only 2 speakers were used. They were LaScalas. I should start by saying the listening room was horrible. It was my garage with a metal garage door and my big set of drums between us and the speakers. But it still sounded wonderful. We didnt listen to ear bleeding levels, but the garage door rumbled a copule of times. Maybe it liked it too and was dancing?? I can only imagine what a detailed sound room with treatments would sound like.

After listening to all the amps and preamps I had, and the ones he brought, I would give the winning combo to be his Tube Preamp and Tube amp that he built. (Even if it was just 3 watts !!) This was after hours of listening trying to do our best to do A/B comparison, but thats hard to do with a 5-10 minute break between setups. Even though the listening was fun, the food was good, and the beer was cold, the best part was meeting a new friend and being introduced to music I have never heard of. He has good taste in music and it was just down right fun. I now see what the fuss is about with Tubes. Now who gets the blame for starting my Tube addiction? This is America, no way can I be the blame for it right?

I had 2 amps we listened to. One was a Crown XLS 602 that has 385 watts per channel. The other was an old HK 770 power amp that I'm not sure of the power. My pre was Adcom GFP-555. While the Crown was definatley the loudest, it wasnt the best in my opinion. None of the amps were slouches, but again, I liked the Tubes better. Very non-fatiguing. We also moved to another room where we hooked these up to my RF-5's. We only listened a little bit on these so its hard to say here. But the Tubes sounded good with the RF-5's too.

A big Thank You to Tubes and Horns. That is way cool of you to offer this and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. You have a nicesetup and it has to satisfying knowing you put the kit together. Very cool.

3 watts are you kidding me????? OH THE HUMANITY!!!!

PS. I just bought the Scott 299 B Integrated Tube Amp from the Garage Sale Forum. See??????? Here I go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What to do on this fine holiday......

Groomlakearea51 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:14:05 GMT

Well, about 4 months ago, the pool started, shall we say... leaking. Alot. due to age (it's 22 years old...). It was leaking about an inch or two a day, and water, while "free" from the well, was eating my water softner system and well pump up, etc.

The summer, unfortunately for me is a massive training and military stuff time, so I just "shut it down" and let it sit. Nobody goes swimming during the heat of the day in small pools because the water is like bathwater, and the sun is brutal. I did not drain the pool because of the "rainy" season and I would end up draining it several times to clean it up, find the leaks, etc. It pretty much has to be empty and clean in order to work on any fiberglass issues, etc.

Bad move? The pool water, which was crystal clear, etc. even though I dosed it with "death bleach" decided to turn into a massive science project. There were things living in there with three eyes, two tails, etc. Well the rainy season was allegedly over last week and the temperatures below the core of the sun levels.... so I drained it. All 8500 gallons. Used a trash pump, which handily drained it in about an hour.

Then spent 4 days with a pressure cleaner, bleach, scrubbies, etc. The fiberglass man came over and repaired cracks around the steps, re-sealed the light and the skimmer intake gasket, etc. Hopefully that solves the problem...

It was pristine, clean and ready to go on Sunday. But.... Murphy's Law stikes again for the last three days..... windy (leaves & debris), rain (side effects of TS Ida..) So I have to do a quick pressure clean and run the trash pump.... again.... It's got to be really clean before I start filling it up. The pool man arrives tomorrow to take the filter system apart, recharge it with the DT (diatomaceous earth), etc.

For the hardcore tube fans

vondy — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:12:24 GMT

Anyone seen this yet?

http://www.rothaudio.co.uk/docs/products_09/MC4.shtml