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Hifi jim

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Everything posted by Hifi jim

  1. B&W's can definitely sound bad with the wrong electronics upstream. Personally I don't care for the FST midrange or diamond tweeter. I find the FST draws attention to itself, and the diamond tweeter just a touch slow. I agree, but a quality amp with plenty of current is needed to show what Dynaudio's can really do. I use the Audience line in my HT and have never been happier. For music, I'd take Magnepans and a JL sub for a total of about $4k and it'd smoke the other contenders... IMHO.
  2. I've found this to be true as well. The larger the SS amp, the less I liked it with Heritage, unless it was a modern McIntosh which is push/pull with output transformers so not a comparable design. The large direct coupled SS amps that I've tried with Klipsch sounded bad compared to smaller amps. I really can't imagine what one would do with 300 watts and a 97db+ efficient speaker. Hear much?
  3. As far as solid state goes, the McIntosh C26 and MC2505 were very good for their time but modern SS has come a long way. As much as I appreciated the C26 and 2505 that I owned, they were no where near the modern competition from even receivers let alone separates. Definition at the frequency extremes, transparency and imaging are all much improved in modern designs. The Macs are still great sounding and beautiful to look at and will be valuable and dependable for a long time to come. Enjoy.
  4. Much debate surrounds that. The debate you refer to is Seymour Duncans version of events surrounding supposedly two Strats, both with #0001 serials, that Seymour owned in the seventies before selling one to Phil Taylor, who then supposedly passed it on to Gilmour in the mid 70's. FWIW, Seymour is the only one making this claim, and on his own forum. Seymour claims that guitar is pieced together of a 57 neck, a different 57 body and 60 pick ups. That's fine, but Gilmours neck and body are both 54's, and the anodized pickguard and gold hardware are unusual and suggest a special build like a #0001 of a brand new design would be. It's likely that Seymour Duncan was thinking of guitar different from this 1954 Fender Stratocaster #0001 that David Gilmour currently owns. The neck and body are both dated and signed '54. The pick ups appear to also be 54's according to those who have seen it. All evidence suggests that it is a 1954 Strat with serial #0001. The historical significance of this guitar is incredible. The fact that it's owned and played by one of the greatest guitarists is just beautiful.
  5. A favorite of mine too. And he owns one of the most desirable guitars in the world. The Fender Stratocaster that he's seen playing here is serial #0001, the very first Stratocaster sold in 1954. Too cool.
  6. Excellent post Audible Nectar. Though, I've never experienced any problems with 125v. If the op had his amp recently rebuilt as stated, then it should be completely up to spec which would include operating at 125v with no problems. As an electrician I see varying voltages everywhere, but this is no cause for concern as our electrical devices are designed to operate within these variations. Yes, transformers will be warmer to the touch but the difference is negligible and I doubt it would shorten its life. As a guitar player, I've had many old tube amps that were completely original and had been played in many a honky tonk with questionable electrical services and grounding systems... 60+ years later those amps are just fine. I've never plugged my amps into anything more than a wall outlet, no problems here.
  7. Perfectly normal and within spec. Have no worries, your measured voltage is about average for most parts of the US. Voltages can peak as high as 130v in some areas.
  8. AnalogWave: You've summed it up pretty well. As a long time Audiogon'er with extensive feedback, I'm a very unhappy camper with what has become of the current site. I don't visit it daily, let alone weekly. I really can't stand the look and functionality of it. I've had luck selling and buying on eBay but it's not for the faint of heart. Stereolist and other new sites don't have many members with feedback, so buying and selling there will be hit and miss until that is established but importing feedback from other sites was a good move on their part. The number of listings on Stereolist is very small, so there's not much there that interests me yet. Craigslist seems to be the sellers that are completely unaware of fair market value and those who wish to sell crap to avoid negative feedback on eBay, I've been a victim of the latter. I miss Audiogon. []
  9. I found a great SPL meter app for my iPod Touch. It has a weighted adjustment and a slow/fast switch. It works very well and has an old school looking analog meter that can record peak SPLs. Wonderous times these are.
  10. I was under the impression that Stereophile owned Audiogon prior to the websites redesign. I don't care for Stereophile's magazine or website design either.
  11. It has cured me. I hate the site now. I was a daily lurker, always looking, selling or buying. No more. I thought it was the worst redesign I had seen, glad I'm not the only one. The colors are bad; hard to read and scan through quickly. The photos in the ads are too small; requiring that all photos be enlarged to actually see them. Communication is done publicly; no private emails. And the list goes on; I just lose interest and skip off to another site. Well done Audiogon!
  12. Wow, those are beautiful! Congrats. I keep searching my local Craigslist, but I've yet to find anything remotely that nice. Enjoy!
  13. So I was surfing YouTube for the usual fun and games when I came across something about Klipsch RF-63's. Thought I'd give it whirl and see what it's all about. I can't seem to stop thinking about dairy products.
  14. They sound like a nice pair. I'm not sure when Rogers first made the LS3/5a (Stereophile's first review of these is from 1977), but they still hold their value very well. The Rogers versions are also something like 12 ohms if I remember, the Stereophile reviews will have measurements. These are most popular over in the UK but there is a loyal following Stateside and most users will circle the Naim, Stereophile and Audiogon forums.
  15. Yard sale? Sounds like a win for you, congrats. Two pairs on Audiogon now. These are considered classics by the British pipe and slipper crowd. Commonly used with Brit hi-fi kits like Naim, Rega and Arcam. Those components help bring out the dynamics which are the LS3/5a's biggest weakness along with a lack of bass, which one might expect given it's size and sealed design.
  16. Definition; Cable: a cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. So, if you're referring to speaker "wire", then yes they are cables... no matter their construction or price.
  17. I've tried HII's nearfield and didn't care for it. I think the 3 way Klipsch need to be listened to from afar so the the drivers may integrate properly. In this particular set up, I would try a nice used pair of kg4's. Plenty of bass, they sound great in small spaces, and the MF amp would be a great match.
  18. I really enjoy mine but $369.75 each? Are they really that expensive new, or is this because of being discontinued? I paid $67.27 for a used one off Ebay last month. I see the MSRP was only a little over $100. Some serious price gouging on eBay! Looks like a great tuner, I'd like to try one myself... I'll have to wait till a used one pops up.
  19. I really enjoy mine but $369.75 each? Are they really that expensive new, or is this because of being discontinued? I paid $67.27 for a used one off Ebay last month. Wow! I have no idea what the MSRP was, but I think you got the much better deal.
  20. I agree. MIT has managed to light a 60 watt bulb at 7 feet. That currently is the high art of wireless power transmission. I think super conductors will be perfected (for purposes of power transmission) long before wireless, especially at this rate.
  21. touché! The current U.S., power grid architecture issues that I have dealt with have been related to the degree of the grid's "non-distributed architecture" and its resulting complex interdependency behaviors within the large interconnects (i.e., the U.S., Eastern, Western, and ERCOT interconnects - with particular emphasis on the eastern grid, unfortunately) and the inability of those "system-of -systems" to control their behavior in a useful way when bad things happen--such as large solar flare ("E3") events but also events that happen even less often: like man-made induced events. These interconnects are so complex and politically/legally constrained in terms of preparing for and carrying out crisis policies, like how to drop loads and how to quickly disconnect from interconnect exchanges without threat of lawsuits and armchair quarterbacking by the public, that these systems are becoming accidents waiting to happen--with due deference to my electric power industry buddies--who happen to be great people. I think that we're getting to the point where our current legal and political systems are in effect forcing the further distribution of generation resources and the heterogenization of fuel and renewable power resources. Long transmission lines are currently a big problem - a BIG problem--that we collectively should be very concerned about. Just look at the 2004 EMP commission report. Very tough political problems here--almost as severe as the U.S., "Social Security crisis" (...trust me...). Further, the public outcry about rising costs have driven the power generation community to decrease their margins--which is pure insanity from a system-of-systems perspective--resulting in "Smart Grid" concepts to "increase power generation affordability". This is not a good trend. Microgrids and local co- and tri-generation approaches look to be much more robust and more able to recover quickly from large calamities, depending on the fuel/power sources that they run on. You get to recover a great portion of the 52% rejected energy in the form of heat, i.e., ideal-100% Carnot efficiency is ~48% of total energy, that is currently lost in most U.S. power plants in my part of the woods, and you can avoid most of the 6-7% of transmission losses that are currently the state-of-the-art in the national power transmission losses. You also can expand the grid more incrementally and readily than large power generation stations--especially fission plants--which are currently mired in U.S. regulation. My $0.02 Chris Chris, thanks for the informative reply.
  22. I think George Westinghouse and Tesla were the real giants of AC power. After Tesla left Edison's company, Westinghouse bought the AC motor patent that Tesla developed. Westinghouse and Edison then each tried to have their own systems adopted. The problem with a DC system is that it requires more local co-gens which in turn require more fuel, and more maintenance. I'm not sure how that's more efficient?
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