Travis In Austin
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Posts posted by Travis In Austin
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I'll be using my MX-110 when the Peach leaves here. My complaint on the 110 is that it is a bit "heavy footed" in the bass. I am tempted to try a tube roll on the MX-110 (requires a good pair of 6U8) to a tube that is a bit brighter and less bass heavy. I'm using a Siemens 6U8 pair now. I have been reluctant to tube roll this because of the difficulty finding 6U8 in linestage quality (not much out there through dealers), but I'm tempted to begin looking for these.
By no means do I expect the 110 to ever elevate to the sonics of the Peach, but I do believe that I can squeeze a bit better performance from it. My biggest issue with the JM line is I have no idea what unit I would want to purchase anyway.....would I go Peach or BB? I am certainly torn between the possibilities of having both HT and 2 channel combined in one room, or having them separate in a future dwelling (as my current dwelling is temporary) - then throw the "vinyl or not" question into the equation and I have a big confusing mess. So even if I WAS to immediately buy a JM, I'm not sure which configuration to buy.
So I will likely keep the 110 for a time until I ultimately decide what is best overall. There is no question that the Peach/JM line is a better pre - but since I will keep the 110 in the system for a time, I figure I might as well make the most of it. Since I also have a lot on my plate with my MC30 rebuilds (two pairs to boot), that should keep me plenty busy while I contemplate all of this.
It's been a good month of listening.
Audible,
Did you ever find a good source for 6u8's and something you liked the sound on? The original telefunkens finally gave out on mine. I think I just have to dive in and replace them with NOS Telefunkens but they are so hard to find and they are sooooooooo expensive. Wondering if you found anything you liked that was better priced and available.
Travis
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Yeah...I priced the new La Scala's! $5500.00 if I remember correctly. My uncle is a Klipsch dealer, so I could get a great deal, but even close to wholesale I don't think I can afford them.
I have owned some Altec horn speakers in the past, and I just loved the bigness and forwardness(for a lack of better descriptions) of them. Klipsch's seem like they'll do what I want. Plus....I LOVE the look of the La Scala's!
The Dynaudio's don't really do anything wrong. They're accurate, non-fatiguing, big-sounding for their size, not too bright, look great....etc. I just don't find myself getting "involved" with them. I don't come home from work lusting to hear them. My old Alon IV and Dahlquist DQ-10's on the other hand made me WANT to listen. Can I expect the same from La Scala's?
Corey
Ok, being that your Uncle is a dealer and you can get them wholesale here is my offer. You set it up so I can purchase a set of La Scala's wholesale from your Uncle, I will drive my LaScalla's up to you, and will sell them to you for $1,000.
I have a seminar in Cambridge I am attending in July and was going to be up there a couple of weeks earlier in Newport.
Travis
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James,
Glad you enjoyed the "bear." We are looking forward to having everyone on June 3rd and or 4th.
It is going to be interesting to listen to some of the things that Eric has lined up for us to hear. I am looking forward to it!
Travis
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Porno shot of Clint.
Seeing Clint's proclivity to frolic, I am guessing he was probably not to sucsessful at the track. Ether that, or he was a great money winner and feels like he can just let loose when ever he damm well pleases.
Travis
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Malcolm is a Pyrenees Mountain Dog, or as they say hear in the U.S., a Great Pyrenees. Did we figure out which day and time we are meeting this weekend to organize the Texas Gathering?
Travis
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Another of Malcolm after he heard someone open a food package.
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Here is a photo of our dog Malcolm (my wife thinks it is her dog, but Malcollm knows better)
Travis
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Here is one of me and my wife Kelly.
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My expensive "hobby". Wife and three daughters in New York City . . .
Bill,
You better pick up the hobby of collecting Krieghoffs, Perrazi's and H&H's. You are going to need them.
Travis
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Well after a day of audio in McKinney on Saturday, my wife and I drove down to Austin to meet up with the Houston Audio Society at Ne Plus Ultra Inc. I walked through the front door and there stood our own dwilawyer. We talked about our rigs and a lot about vinyl. We listened to some very high end gear, but weren't over impressed, especially for the money. After a couple hours there we headed over to his place and did some real listening with vinyl, tubes and La Scalla's, as our wives discussed our audio lunacy. This was the most enjoyable part of my weekend. Thanks again for having us over and you've got to get down to SA sometime. I'm sure I will be seeing you at the Klipsch meet at your place in a few months, if not sooner. Don't forget to shoot me a mailing address and I'll drop those isolation bearings in the mail to you.
Luther,
I was great having you and your lovely wife Rose over at the house. After you left I told my wife "see, I'm not the only one." She laughed and said she had a lot in common with Rose. Thanks for popping over, it was nice getting your thoughts about the set up for the Texas Klipsch gathering. I know you have attended and organized a lot of those types of get togethers so I appreciated your comments.
When I heard those Wilson X2's earlier in the day I was laughing to myself. I never heard a firm price on them, the numbers I heard floating around were $70,000, $80,000 even $100,000. I am not kidding, I wouldn't pay $10,000 for them. I think part of the problem was I heard those $65,000 Redrose Audio Reference speakers as Arty's house. Those, by far were the best sounding speakers I have ever heard in my life, there is not even a close second. As it turns out, I am not the first person to have such an impression of his system.
I found this link about his system which has photos of him and the speakers: http://www.soundstage.com/yfiles/yfiles200012.htm
I felt bad for Casey, the owner of Ne Plus Ultra, he kept asking for comments about the X2's but it looked like your Houston Audio group is a tough crowd. After I heard the comment from the member on the couch who said he had a Rockport TT, adding the caveat that is was the original model, not the updated one "but it has $20,000 of mods done by Rockport" I knew Casey was in trouble right then and there.
I think Arty really likes to show off his system and he is only about 10 minutes from my house so I may ask him if some folks are interested in popping over during the Texas Klipsch gathering if he would be willing to do that. Everyone who has an opportunity to listen to those speakers should do so.
Luther, thanks again for your input on the house set up and my system, I really appreciate it. I look forward to seeing you for the Texas gathering which is either June 3rd or 4th.
Travis
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I see how you guys are! Don't look at the board for a few days and ya'll are planning a party without me. Count me in. I'm in 78704 right next to Barton Springs(bring your trunks if you wan't to take a dip at the "coolest" swimming hole in Texas). I can bring my rebuilt Dynaco MKIIIs and Cornwalls if need be.
Would love to have you, and your corns and MKIII's even more, they will go perfect in the downstairs operation.
Travis
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Craig,
Your question depends on one thing. Can VRD's be bridged?[
]Travis
They sure can!
Well that made it easy, I went with the payment plan! [
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Craig,
Your question depends on one thing. Can VRD's be bridged?[
]Travis
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I am selling a pair of ASL Wave 8 Tube mono-block amps. These have less then 100 hours on them and I simply never use them and my wife says I need to clear out some stuff.
You can go to this link for a review of the amps which has photos: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0302/aslwave8.htm
These are the perfect amps if you want to dabble with tubes without taking the big plunge. They are perfect cosmetically.
I am asking $110.00 for the pair, plus shipping, or best offer.
Please let me know if you are interested, questions, etc.
Travis
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We are good to go at my place.
Travis
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Congratulations on your new amps. Excellent choice by the way, I think you will enjoy them a great deal. Which system are these going to go into of the ones you have listed in your profile?
Travis
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Since lobster-talk has hijacked this thread, check out this big guy I found while on a business trip to Boston last year.
Seadog, beautiful photo, you could put on saddle on that one.
Well I will try to get us back on track on my original post, the side issue was my fault.
I got the two boxes home, Craig had sent me a private email yesterday with an invitation to call him so he could take me through everything, so I did. Scott, forum member I purchased the amps from) had said to pay special attention on how Craig had packed them in case I ever needed to ship them in the future. So I figured I would give Craig a call before I unpacked them to make sure there wasn't anything special to know before I put the knife to the tape. No answer at Craig's, I figure he has better things to do on a Friday then deal with me. Five minutes later Craig calls and says, "so they are out and all hooked up and ready to go?" and I proceed to tell them no they are sitting in their pretty brown boxes, and before I can finish the story Craig responds with a comment to the effect of they are not going to do me much good sitting in their boxes. I always enjoy reading Craig's posts, but after hearing that comment I knew I was really going to like Craig. He must of figured he was dealing with a real yayhoo when I asked about opening the boxes, but it didn't phase him a bit. I then told him that Scott had told me to be sure and carefully note how they are packed and I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything special I needed to be aware of and he said "nope, just open them up and start taking stuff out until you get to the amp." So I suggest I call him back when I had things unpacked and ready to go, and he says lets go ahead and take a look and make sure everything is all there.
So while I go ahead and get the boxes in my media room and start to open them he tells me all about how he does the wood on them, where he gets the trannys, etc., and you can immediately tell he has a lot of pride in his creation, as he well should. So I get em both opened up and we have a slight scare that we may not have one each of the ECC 82's and 83's. Turns out both 82's were with one amp and both 83's were with the other, whew. He then asks if the screwdriver is in there, says we will need to have that to adjust the bias if necessary. I think to myself, this guy includes a screwdriver to adjust the bias, dang! There is no screwdriver, but I tell him that I have plenty of jewelers screwdrivers that will do the trick. He asks about my VOM that we will need to adjust the bias, that is a whole nother story I will save for later. Keep in mind I bought these amps from Scott, Craig did not make a dime on this deal (yet) and he is taking me through the whole thing.
SIDENOTE: Scott, where is my screwdriver? I figure you kept it as a memento of your brief but pleasurable experience with these amps and counted on no one noticing that it was missing since who would ever figure that an amp maker is going to include one. Well you figured wrong my cheeseheaded friend. Or maybe Gary took it when he was checking out your amps because he has the same amps and he knew it was something he might lose. In any event, whoever has MY screwdriver, forget it, keep it as a small token of my appreciation for reccomending/selling these amps to me.
BACK TO OUR HERO: After the amps are out Craig gives me the exact tube placement. I look at the power cords coming out of them, nice but not very substantial and I half tounge in cheek ask him, your not going to tell me that you reccomend me upgrading these power cords with $200 or more mods are ya? He says, "see that black button on the back of the amp" and I ask him if he means the fuse holder (he is probably still thinking "yahoo" because of the box opening issue) and he says "yeah pull that out. See that little wire in there, all of the power to that amp goes through that little bitty wire, before he can finish I tell him I know what he is going to tell me, my dad (an EE who worked for Ampex in the late 50's and 60's, and who turns 75 today) told me the same thing when I told him I thought about getting power cord upgrades. I really knew I liked Craig at that point.
I tell him that I will get everything hooked up and will call him. He asks what preamp I will be hooking it up to and I tell him probably my Granite or my MX110 but my MX was a little noisy in the left channel. I tell him I may not have have the time to troubleshoot it myself and I may want to send it to him to look at. Another long story short, he trouble shoots my MX-110 over the phone and isolates it to the 6U8 3rd stage tube. (I was trying to think up ways to get this guy some money and he won't have anything to do with it).
So, that was the first hour with Craig. I get everything hooked up, using my "newly refurbished" MX110, and call him back after about 20 minutes. I tell him where each tube has been placed to confirm we are on the same page, where the ultralinear toggle switchs were placed and he then takes me step by step on how to bias the amps. I have always had Mac Tube amps which Craig explains to me are auto-bias by design and not to worry about having to manually bias these amps, that it was a snap because of his design. He then has me power on the amps, which I do. Nothing. Opps, operator error, forgot to turn on surge protector. Check the bias with Craig's assistance, and he give me clearance for take off. First he says, can you hear any hum and I tell him no. "Go right up to the speaker and put your ear next to the tweeter" he says. "Can you hear the hum,? Can you hear the hum? There is supposed to be some hum." I tell him, "YEAH there's some hum" and try to sound excited I heard some hum. There wasn't any hum, but who was I to argue with this guy if he didn't want to believe that his amps were dead *** [industry term] quiet?
He says have fun, and to call him tomorrow and let him know what I think. Two hours on the phone, step by step, and he still wants an update. What a guy!
So I hang up, grab a great original 7.5 IPS R2R tape of Byrds Sweethearts of the Rodeo, figure a little violin (fiddle to some), banjo, steel guitar will test the hign end. I am about 5 mins in to the tape and my wife walks by the room and stops and says "are you o.k." I ask why and she says she has never seen that expression on me before, I told her "thats an expression of utter amazement." She smiles that smile like I don't get it, but as long as you are happy. . . .
I then get some of my "reference" stuff, a 15 IPS original two track master tape (Jazz) and a 30 IPS original two track master tape. Since then I have played jazz, rock, some classical, played it loud and played it soft, and everything in between. As for my thoughts, you are not going to hear about soundstage, tranxparency, coloration, or lack thereof from me, I don't understand what half that crap means anyway.
In the spirt of Craig's simple and direct approach with me on the phone, let me say this. I got off the phone with Criag at about 10:30 my time, it is now almost 6 a.m. While I am by no means an expert, expecially compared to many of the folks who comment on here, I have had my fair share of tube stuff, but mostly McIntosh, including MC-30's, MC-275, etc. I was figuring on a unique and clean sound that has brought great enjoyement to many on this forum, in line with Mac, AR or CJ. I way underestimated them, thinking the previous postive comments were self fullfilling assurement they had made a good purchase, or a join the crowd mentality, and that they surely must sound good, but it's all relative. Must say that that I am truly amazed. Great amps, not for the price, but at any price.
Craig, I don't know if my thanks over the phone came through as heart felt and sincere. Honestly, I was dying to let those baby's rip. However, let me say again, publicly, I appreciate all of the time you spent with me to insure that the amps had arrived in good shape and there was no potential gross bias misadjustments. You have an incredible product and you give me a lot of encouragment about the future of "high end" audio, whatever that may be. I don't know if you read Stereophile or TAS, but both publications have given a lot of print lately to the trouble high-end audio is going through, trying to figure out how to fix it, etc. People like you are the fix, a great product at a fair price and someone willing to stand behind them. I didn't buy these amps from you, you made nothing, yet you wanted to make sure that someone who had your amps was in a position to enjoy them to their fullest. I thank you again for your time. If you ever have a potential buyer in the Central Texas area who makes an inquiry about them please do not hesitate to give them my name and number to arrange to come over and look/listen to them in person. It would be an honor to do so.
Well I gotta go, time to flip the Allan Parson's l.p. I havd playing right now.
Travis
P.S. Sorry about the length, needless to say, I am excited.
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I agree with Clarence everybody needs to calm down and relax. We do not need a us against them war we are all here for the same reason, Klipsch speakers!
I was called a lot worse when I was a 10 year old gringo and moved to Laredo on the border and met the local boys.
Now back to the original posting
The date has not officially been picked yet but we will try and pick the date that fits the majority of peoples schedules.
So the temporary date for now is June 3-4(Sat-Sun). As we get a better idea of who can come and the location we can then pick the final date.
I am good for those dates, and if we want to do it in Austin I can host.
Travis
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Well, dang. I have spinal fusion surgery scheduled for the end of May, but Marie just said she would be glad to drive me up, if ya'll wouldn't mind an otherwise healthy Klipsch audiophile. If I'm feeling ok, I would really like this.
I'll bring up a couple of light weight amps -- the Teacs. [
]Erik
Only if you bring your dog to meet my dog.[
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OK - here's the thing (she says after 2 beers)...... Assuming a Lobster Roll has something to do with Lobster & bread.... isn't the bread just tainting the lobster? Lowering it with cheap bread? Kicking it down a few notches?
Please explain. (or ignore me)....
Julia Child served them in STORE BOUGHT hotdog buns.
It's DECADENT for crying out loud--the meat from an ENTIRE lobster chopped up with some mayo and plopped into a hotdog bun. I mean, DAMN!
My point entirely! Some things you just have to try.
Travis
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OK - here's the thing (she says after 2 beers)...... Assuming a Lobster Roll has something to do with Lobster & bread.... isn't the bread just tainting the lobster? Lowering it with cheap bread? Kicking it down a few notches?
Please explain. (or ignore me)....
Me,
I don't know thats why I asked. It's one of those regional things that people say, "oh when you are there you gotta go to [insert name of local resturant/dive that has become an institution] and have a [insert name of local cusine that you have to try]. For example, boudin, fried/injected turkey in So. La, Philly Cheese Steak in the city of brotherly love, Chicago style hotdog, chippino in North Beach of San Francisco, Stone Crab at Joes in Fla., etc., etc.
Everytime I have undertaken that advice I have been very glad I did, usually coming away with the impression that is one of the best things I have ever eaten. In some cases flying back there to get some more, or having it flown in to where I am.
I have always heard that you have to get a lobster roll when in Maine and I was just trying to see what the word was on who had the best one. In fact, last weeks travel section of the Sunday paper talked about them some, so I was going to use our nice little forum here to get the straight poop, er dope on the subject.
Travis
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I returned from court about 4:30 p.m., and after a long hard day of trying to keep the innocent and oppressed out of jail, I walked into the office and much to my delight there were two big brown boxes waiting for me!. No gouges, dents, or gaping holes anywhere so they appear to have arrived in beautiful shape.
So they will go home with me tonight, get unpacked and put in place, and then we will give them a little spin.
Christmas the week before St. Patrick's day, you gotta love it.
Travis
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Congratulations! You're going to love 'em! What preamp will you be using with them?
As for the lobster roll the best one I had was at a place between Rockland and Owl's Head. My ex-girlfriend is from Rockland and we would go every year for the Lobster Festival (first week of August). Let me check with her on the establishment. Where will you be while you are up there?
BTW, the coast of Maine (Rockland, Rockport, Camden) is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is God's country up there. Get's awfully cold in the wintertime though. [
]Mike
RIght now I will be hooking them up to a Mac MX110. I am going to give them a spin with that and then I am looking a couple of things, possible the BBX, a Granite or a Rose.
We are going to be up on the Coast of Maine, those areas you mentioned.
Travis
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I saw the post about the DC Klipsch gathering and wondered if anyone in Central Texas or all of Texas would be interested in having a gathering?
If anyone is interested leave a post and once we can get a idea of how many would want to come we can work out the details.
I'm in, let me know when and where. Also, I could possibly host (I'm is West Austin).
Travis
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HAPPY EASTER GUYS......
in 2-Channel Home Audio
Posted
Jackson,
Send me your address and I will send you a case of Cadbury/Snickers eggs.
Travis