Deang

what Chickey said ------------------ deanG

huh...Colin...I think he's already doing the SET thang. ------------------ deanG

What is the consensus here on the board regarding passive preamps? I remember Mobile saying something about them here recently but I can't find the thread. ------------------ deanG

1. Speaker upgrade 2. Preamp upgrade 3. CD player upgrade 4. Amp upgrade 5. Cables ------------------ deanG

my cable is better than your cable oops - wrong thread ------------------ deanG

LOL, you can relax Jazman - yes, I was playing up to that 'other' thread where I was smacked around in grand style by the Heritage brotherhood I am well aware of what many here feel about those beasts and was really just helping out my my distant family members by letting them all know of a good deal on speakers I know they love. My jesting is strictly in fun. ------------------ deanG

just think, for only $1000 more he could have had RF7's ------------------ deanG

I was in cable hell for two years I will never give up my MIT's ------------------ deanG

if you don't buy the RF7's you will end up hanging yourself nuff said ------------------ deanG

Just stay with your MIT's. I sure like mine. The network in the box is not in the signal path - it is parallel to it. Read the MIT white paper at www.mitcables.com No need to spend money on new cables - spend it elsewhere. ------------------ deanG

..for $850 They are in Austin TX. http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?spkrfull&1018141186&class&3&4& ------------------ deanG

kewl ------------------ deanG

It is true though that the system sounds more 'tubie' with a tube preamp/SS amp combo than with a SS preamp/tube amp combo. I find that odd. ------------------ deanG

Be careful Max What someone else likes may not be what you like This whole thing is very subjective ------------------ deanG

It really comes down to listening tastes. I was actually listening tonight and thinking how well that Bryston preamp matched to the Amp1. ------------------ deanG

The maple is gorgeous. I had previously been using a set of RC7's and finally decided to do something I swore I would never do - own a set of towers with dual woofers covering lots of midrange. For the most part I prefer planars or monitors with mid/woofers no larger than 8". I made this decision after an afternoon audition where the RF7's left me smiling and feet tapping. It was hard for me to let go of my predjudices, but I could not argue with what I was hearing. The RF7's have a very quick sound for a tower design. They do not have that bloated, fat, woody sound you sometimes hear with even the best towers. The bass goes deep, sounds powerful, and yet remains surprisingly tight for a ported design. This they do without sounding like a box. Very impressive. With the two 10's and the slightly higher crossover (as compared to the other Reference models), I thought I would surely lose some detail in the lower midrange. I listened to some very familiar material and I could not tell any difference (in the midrange) from what I had been hearing with the RC7's. I know there is probably a difference but it must be miniscule. The mids are just as smooth as a baby's bottom and the RF7's manage to maintain this smoothness even as the bass is vibrating the floors and walls. I tried to smear the mids by juicing the SPL, but my 40 watt Anthem tubie couldn't do it. If there is objectionable IM distortion - I don't hear it. The treble is of course wonderful. The RF7's throw a nice image. The depth of the image caught me off guard and is fairly impressive for a $2200 set of speakers. I didn't notice the depth of the image during the audition - I can't really account for that. It's very noticable in my listening room however. The most dynamic speaker in the Reference Series line is actually the RB5, and when I traded mine in on the RC7's - I realized I had lost some of that when I got the RC7's home. I did however get the detail of the new driver/horn. It was an acceptable trade off. The RF7's come very close to the dynamics of the RB5. I was very happy to get some of that back. Very good slam/attack across the board. The RF7's are no Cornwall, Khorn, or LaScala - but then, they don't purport to be. They are part of a new breed and based on my listening experience - are perfectly capable of standing on their own ------------------ deanG This message has been edited by deang on 02-08-2002 at 02:06 PM

Kenratboy, your new friend is a moron - make sure he doesn't quit taking his medication ------------------ deanG

he likes it but not as much as his Moondogs I bet ------------------ deanG

That Monarchy is still on my very short list. I will ultimately have to decide between it and that DIY kit we just talked about - I can't have them both. I will probably keep the Bryston and buy the kit. I think it's time I actually learned something ------------------ deanG

I will sleep on it. I have just enough money left to do this. I will need to find an old clock radio first I don't know about going to the inmates for help - they love to crucify people. This message has been edited by deang on 02-07-2002 at 04:29 PM

...speaking generally can at times be very misleading. Let's take the following statement: "Tubes sound better than SS" Yesterday I found out that this isn't always true. Being perfectly happy with what I had, I decided to 'upgrade'. Since I'm doing almost as much time with the DVD player (movies) as I am with CD's - I decided I wanted to get a little more slam and transient attack back into my system. I purchased both a Bryston 3B-ST amp and BP-20 preamp off of AudiogoN. The original plan was to roll the tubes in my Anthem Pre1L and mate it with the 3B-ST. When the BP-20 showed up on AudiogoN I more or less bought it out of curiosity, and figured it would be easy enough to sell off if I didn't like it. The Bryston preamp showed up today, and I spent my lunch break swapping out the Anthem with the Bryston. I fired everything up and let the Amp1 warm up for about 20 minutes or so before I started a CD. So what we have at this point is a SS preamp mated to a middle of the road tube amp running stock Russian EL34's, a pair of Sieman 12au7's, and a stock Chinese 12ax7. Now the way folk talk in general, (and I am actually exluding the likes of Mobile, Colin, and many others on this board who I am sure know better) - you would think that even a middle of the road tubed preamp would sound better than any or most SS units. However, that's not what I found. In a way, I wanted the Bryston to sound bright and grainy so I could justify going to the next level - what I found was a smooth, effortless, open, and natural sounding treble. The bass was obviously tighter and there was less 'glare' at the higher SPL's. The unit is obviously a better sounding unit than the Anthem Pre1L. It probably doesn't sound better than the superior tubed offerings - but it certainly sounds better than the Anthem. I guess I can't be sure a retube wouldn't have pushed the Anthem over the top - but the Bryston does very, very good with the Amp1. The 3B-ST should be showing up within the next week and I really have no idea what to expect. I have heard there is a special synergy between the BP-20 and 3B-ST and that is what I am hoping for. Whatever the outcome - I'll be back either to whine or shout praise. later, Dean This message has been edited by deang on 02-07-2002 at 04:18 PM

Wish I knew how to read a schematic - it would be fun to do something like this. Looks like a lot of amp for the money - probably sounds sweet. Don't know what to think about those Lowthers. Seems like there would be gobs of IM distortion. ------------------ deanG

...have 24 bit/96 khz oversampling i mean - cd's always playback at 44.1 so why the 96 khz spec? ------------------ deanG

If I were doing multichannel I would definitely split up my amps. Get a 2 channel for the mains and a three or 5 channel (if doing 7 total) for the rest of it. I don't know what to think when a 5 channel amp weighs as much as most decent 2 channel amp. Also, do not buy new. Use www.audiogoN.com - slightly used gear can be had for less than 1/2 the money and allows you to really stretch your money. I could not afford Anthem or Bryston new - but I managed to get both shopping at AudiogoN. ------------------ deanG

Gentlemen prefer blondes... Mine are coming in maple ------------------ deanG