Randy Bey

clearly you do not belong to the elite club that can hear the difference. You should cover yourself with ashes and beat your back with a willow branch while shouting "unclean, unclean" when any real people chance nearby.

amateurs, all amateurs. My wife gave birth to triplets 18 years ago. At the time we had a 24 month old girl as well. Guess how many diapers we used PER WEEK. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 180

rcrump swears that changing the PC on your TT reaps the biggest benefit. Go figure, the PC to what is basically an AC motor used to spin the record. The only PCs I have are Belden 14 gauge jobbers. $11 a pop, which was $66 after I bought enough for the whole system.

Guy, don't think the decware is 1.5 watts. I doubt that it hits 1 watt going downhill with a tailwind. Having said that, if you listen to it quietly it sounds quite good. I have 300B SET and listened to 2A3 at Cut-Throats. I agree, the 2A3 is more refined, better bass, and the difference between 2.5 watts and 8 watts didn't seem as much as the difference between <1 watt and 2.5 watts. But my Laurels sound darn good. I can't bring myself to replace them. Darn good.

I guess I'm the guy that "has it in for Al K" as mentioned by others on this thread, not to mention any names, Tom. And here I've tried to keep it objective all this time, and Al's the one throwing mud. Didn't anybody notice? I hated my ALK crossover, it sounded bad. Not just bad as in cheap parts (although they weren't cheap, unless you count Solen caps as cheap) but bad as in sounding more awful than a simple parts upgrade could hope to alleviate. I spent two weeks building, and two weeks listening to them, and had friends over as well to listen to them, and ended up taking them out. They were worse, much worse, than my AAs. Throughout all this Al K was the soul of friendliness, we exchanged a hundred emails, I provided him with information necessary to refine his product, he reviewed and ultimately blessed my ALK clone. That is, until I didn't like them anymore. Then Al turned nasty. He makes money, serious jingle, off these crossovers of his, so he has a reason to pitch them here, and a reason to reduce the backtalk against them. I have no more agenda than being a music lover who likes his stereo to sound good. I receive no monetary compensation from Klipsch or anyone else on this board for promoting the type A (Klipsch) crossover. Nonetheless people here think I'm the one with the problem. Go figure.

so Paul, what speakers did you have before the Belles?

Dean, I think he should give up on the A and get an ALK, pronto. Even if the A is working now. It's generally acknowledged to be a better design, after all.

Let's play the devil's advocate here for a moment. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away a hifi salesman told me to "buy up" when selecting equipment, the theory that your hearing will grow to appreciate the difference. This was of course a cheap ploy to sell me more expensive equipment. But, there is a grain of truth in it. If you can find (and this is the weak point in the argument) a reputable source for the concept of "up", then you are on your way. I for one DON'T trust my ears, at least not at first. I spend weeks, sometimes, agonizing over whether my latest change has made the music more "correct" or less. I am painfully aware of psychological conditioning, and growing accustomed to the sound which my hifi now produces. The reference material that I use to judge comes from outside the home. Literally. Open the windows (not in the winter!) and listen to birds, to cars driving down the street -- not the boom boom cars, just the regular variety -- anything and everything. I am fortunate to go to church in the huge St. Paul Cathedral, which is both a horror and a godsend in acoustics. Don't make snap judgements; don't trust your ears. At least, not at first. Eventually you need to come to a decision, and that will involve a sort of "election" of dissenting opinions that your ears have produced. Critical listening is neither quick nor easy. It should be hard and unpleasant, in that it forces you to reconsider your values and pre-conceived notions about not just sound, but your internal driving factors (am I doing this to get in good with the tube community?) and prejudices.

Sorry Dean, you're not allowed to have an opinion. oh, just kidding, big guy. My opinion is I would NEVER take the opinion of a microwave filter technician over PWK. Just IMHO.

KCM, could you replicate the T2 taps used on your AL for the type A? There is clearly something very wrong, the type A sound instantly sound magical and wonderful beyond all reasonable expectation. I hate to say this but it's likely that you've made a mistake in the wiring somehow. Can you take a picture and post it? If it's sufficiently high resolution we can trace the wiring and help troubleshoot.

Don't let anyone convince you it's "better" if you don't like it. Put it back the way it was, and save your money for some ALKs. Don't let anyone convince you an ALK's "better".

Weber has been "the" name in soldering stations for years. Snap it up.

Allan, by any chance do you have a TD125 armboard for that SME?

geez Alan, bust my chops about Louis, will you? If bebop is the wrong term, what is it? Swing? Trance? Techno? There are so many flavors of jazz that a newbie finds it hard to classify same.

I've gotten disillusioned comparing digital v. vinyl for alledgedly the same source. There seems to be too many differences between the mastering of each to make comparisons worthwhile. While I don't have a lot of overlap between the two mediums, every digital copy seems to have digititus compared to the vinyl. Of course, the vinyl has the occasional surface noise component, but on the whole seems "thicker" or "fuller" or something. I may have to sell my CD player and get a cheaper one. Invest the diff in more vinyl.

Chill Kelly, the content was never at issue. This was a post about the recordings, not the content. Sonny has a lot of good music in him. Nothing that I have of his past about 1965 shows that, but may just be the influence of the times. Max, I have never seen a correlation between heavy vinyl and quality recordings. Generally speaking, the Blue Note stuff is both heavy and well-recorded, while other things are hit or miss. I have some very good recordings that are flimsy, and bend under their own weight. Every pre-1960 Sonny Rollins album I've seen in the vinyl stores goes for $40+, which I simply won't spend. I can get good Louis Armstrong for a third that. I don't care for his Dixieland stuff but his straighter bebop jazz is good stuff. My fav recording is still Cannonball Adderly, "Somethin' Else" on Blue Note which is all scratched to h*ll but golly it still gets a lot of platter time.

you might want to try changing your AA to an A. You have all the parts already, just need to snip here and solder there.

that Sonny Rollins will be a treat. My fav of his. Wish I had a good record of his; only problem is I'm too Scotch to lay out the cash they command.

crying out loud. My khorns survived FOUR kids. The wife was actually the biggest damage-wrecker with her potted plants sitting atop the speakers. Cage the amps. Keep the horns.

Max, I was looking at the Van Den Hul 501 (502) cable as a good TT cable. Seems to be low cap., but can't find a dealer. Any experience?

my fav:

a good cleaning helps a lot. a good cartridge with a micro-linear stylus helps too. I used to think that these stylii were only on the +$1000 cartridges but I find my Garrott P77 ($200) has one and seems to find a section of the groove below where other carts have damaged it. Runs a lot quieter. Not perfect, but good and quiet for the most part.

Here's a nice little unit: http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?ampstube&1078211299 although you'd need a preamp -- maybe a transformer ala Bent audio?

ps Cut-Throat built a pair using new but cheap metal PIO caps (motor caps) and the sound was very good.