Deang

Oh yes...The Cornwalls. Very nice indeed. A perfect match with the Nosvalves Stereomaster 299b. Yes, they are as mint as they look. Not a mark on them. Of course, if I had figured my taxes before entering into this transaction -- I might be better off all the way around. Still, I'm very pleased.

This short story begins with Ken, who lives in San Jose CA. Ken ran an ad for some 1974 Walnut Cornwalls which he did not want to ship. He felt this particular set of Cornwalls were just too beautiful to expose to the shipping habits of UPS or Fedex. I peaded, I begged, I whined, and he said "No way"...unless...it gets done right. Ken said he would consider it, if we found a reliable shipping company, that would build custom crates for the Cornwalls. Enter Omar. Yes, Omar. We started with Transpak. Omar is a shipping supervisor at Transpak. Omar starts out as a very nice guy. Later, Omar is a pain in the arse. Before it is all said and done, between Ken and myself, we ended up with no less than five different qoutes for crating and shipping. Finally -- crating and shipping cost as much as the Cornwalls. We were done with Omar. Ken sends me an email stating HE will crate the Cornwalls, and that we can use Forward Air to get the Cornwalls to Dayton, since there is a trucking terminal in Dayton. As it turns out, this terminal is less than 30 minutes from my house. Ken tells me he works with sheet metal, and that he will build the crate accordingly. It took Ken 12 hours to build "The Vault", bolt it to an oak skid, pack the Cornwalls (in custom sized cardboard boxes and shrinkwrapped no less), high jack them into a truck, and then drive them from his home in San Jose to the terminal in San Francisco. "The Vault" is practically air-tight and bulletproof. Uh...I'm not kidding. I think it probably could have survived a straight on attack from a fork lift. It is a serious work of art. Total shipped weight was 315 LBS, and $400 covered labor and materials for the vault, and all shipping expenses. When was the last time you dealt with a person owning this level of commitment and professionalism?

Gee, I guess Mark is one of the lucky ones to never have experienced this. It begins with the wonderful full sonic howl of DC going to voice coils. Then the face of the woofer ignites. It's mesmerizing, putting one into an immediate holding pattern, trying to determine which response is appropriate -- fight or flight. I eventually came to my senses and dropped kicked my Advent into the front yard. Quite a spectacle it was. I'm sure the neighbors loved it. G.A.S. Son of Ampzilla. A lot of work to fix something like that. Crossover is probably toast as well.

First RF-7 is done and ready to go. This one goes in tomorrow. They will sound somewhere between outstanding and horrid.

Hell, I woulda done it for free, and then scooped up those big ole horns he's building as payment.

Chris gets to hang out with Leo. Kewl.

Mark, You've always had a knack for explaining things in such a way that enables me to comprehend more fully -- It's such a pleasure to have you back posting on the forum. Is there a relationship between feedback and damping factor? It is my understanding as of late that 12 to 18db of feedback can actually be a good thing -- or is this just a generalization that doesn't mean anything? I've been studying texts explaining the differences between triode, pentode, and ultralinear. I didn't realize that Hafler was the big contributor to the ultralinear design. Because of my listening habits, and more specifically -- my musical tastes, I'm leaning very strongly to going back to class AB ultralinear with moderate feeback. My experience with triode and SET to this point, has me feeling that both suffer from constricted dynamics on peaks at the higher SPL's. I suppose if I had K-horns, I would enjoy either much more than I did.

"I don't know how anyone can expect a well defined sound stage when every instrument is playing." LOL: Rather profound. With a nice two-way, without a squawker blaring into my face -- I do most of my Rock-n-Roll at 90 to 95 db.

Nice Leo, and nice home too. Now, I can tell you that Leo is a tweakmeister, and I can guarantee you he spent countless hours contemplating the proper stand for the Moodogs. First, know that wicker has sound absorbtion properties which properly damp unwanted resonances from attacking amps, and secondly, notice the mass loading beneath the amps. It is obvious that sound engineering principles were executed from looking at the elaborate formation of the loading. I find it interesting that someone of Leo's intellectual prowess in this hobby would have no problem using a wicker magazine stand to support his Moondogs. Hey, stability is stability. What is sad is that you have people out there who spend as much on isolation platforms as most of us spend on our systems.

Jim, Your signature line(s)(s)(s)(s)(s)(s)(s)(s) suck.

The only good tube is one running over the limit.

My common practice with sellers is to call them on the phone. I didn't use to do this, but experience has taught me that email is insufficient when you are trying to get details on an item. I also like to hear the seller's voice, and get a feel for the person I'm dealing with. The more money that is involved, the more I want to know. If a seller will not allow me to call them on the phone -- I don't deal. Period. After the phone conversation, I agree to send an email outlining what was discussed and agreed upon. The seller then sends a confirmation email back to me regarding the information. I would rather pay an extra $5 or $10 on my phone bill, than deal with the stress incurred from an email trail a mile long, with information you can't completely rely upon because you have no idea who you are dealing with.

I AM NOT suggesting anyone do this, but I have often wondered about it. Anyone ever clean an old record in the above perscribed manner(s), and then when completely dry -- coat both sides with Armour All?

Hmmm No. But I live in the greater Dayton area. Who are you?

Craig -- you have PM and/or email. See the link. Clipped -- this kind of thing can work out pretty good if you're starting from scratch (building your own). If one is working with a set of speakers already voiced using passive components, going to external x-overs can make the same set of speakers sound very bad. It takes a heck of a lot of work and tweaking to get them "right" again. At least, this is what I have heard.

It was later reported that both vehicles were filled with Bose Loudspeaker Systems.

That's a quick fix. He would probably want to know about it. Now, is it "pout Kelly", or did you mean to say you didn't want to make him pout? I know for a fact he's only taking a break from the forums to rejuvinate and get some work done. He'll be back soon enough.

Gee, I don't know about that. Ron Welborne's new preamps are going to be powered off of batteries. Hey, take that nasty old AC out of the mix, and who knows? Maybe that Radio Shack phono amp has to elevated to legendary HK 430 status. Seriously though -- I would email Dennis direct, or just call during the day and ask for him. I think he would be interested in hearing this.

The Scott on those pages is Craig's original amp which he sold to me, and I polished out with a floor buffer. The pictures were taken with my very mediocre digital camera, but I set up additional lighting around the amp to get rid of shadows and help the contrast. All considered, I thought the shots turned out pretty well. Craig, no -- if you go to the site, and roll your mouse over the images on the bottom, a text pops up identifying the amps. Put your cursor over the Scotts, and you will notice that the text comes up identifying them as Eicos. Put the cursor on the Eico, and it comes up as a Scott.

Don't worry Jeff -- I will spare you the hell I put you through before by NOT offering to buy this amp. What did you mean by, "first original owner"? Haven't these been around for awhile?

I don't think Hindus mess with Casinos.

I think to even consider this offering shows how far you have gone off. You have wandered from the shallow waters into the deep end. A terrible mistake, and a huge step back from where you are now. You are more the loon than I previously thought. This post submitted using Mobile Homeless Proxy Power® software. All Rights Reserved.

Holding out for an Eico HF-81 would have netted you more transparency and midrange BLOOM. This post submitted using Mobile Homeless Proxy Power® software. All Rights Reserved.

I have no idea why you would want to integrate a Lowther driver with the Scalas. The whole point of the Lowther is the coherency obtained from using a single driver. Seems like putting it in the mix would result in timing miscues and out of phase wave cancellation problems.

I like the blue caps. They would really look cool with dual strips of electrical tape going down the front of them -- like racing stripes! Hey, it might be the only thing I can afford as far as 'hot rodding' them.