russ69

Not what I said at all. I said relying on measurements instead of listening is a fools journey, the implication is totally fabricated on your part. My statements are only an opinion, I'm sure Thebes is a big boy and can take a contrary opinion without thinking I'm making a personal attack .

Not familiar with that particular tube but I bought some JJs recently (not the old JJs) and they are a little wooly.

Looks nice and it has a loudness control, great for low level listening.

Tubes, Cornwalls and some jazz, sounds perfect.

Thebes, Every change you make to your system changes the sound. It's up to the listener to determine if the change was for the better or not. We are not listening to measurements and if you are, you are on a fools journey. For most people here standard stranded zip cord (say that fast three times) is their reference standard, it's just not my reference standard, nor the choice of many audiophiles. You get my vote for the most confrontational post of the thread! It's a good thing that a flame war didn't ensue. Oh my. You need to spice things up once in a while. This was a good thread, everybody got their viewpoint in and the OP got the full info. I'd say we done good.

Thebes, Every change you make to your system changes the sound. It's up to the listener to determine if the change was for the better or not. We are not listening to measurements and if you are, you are on a fools journey. For most people here standard stranded zip cord (say that fast three times) is their reference standard, it's just not my reference standard, nor the choice of many audiophiles.

Many here have never heard Mono and have no idea about anything that happened in the 1960s, 70s, and just barely the 80s....We are in the two channel forum and that's the format I live in. Having seen mono die and Quad get squashed, I'll remain in the 2 channel format until my last days. I will also quote that two good channels sound better than 5 or 7 lessor channels (to me). I have never been exposed to a ultra high end multichannel system (read that as hundreds of thousands of dollars) so I'll reserve judgement until I do. Thanks for the discussion.

I might argue that the popularity of stereo is not by accident and that in this case the majority and the marketplace is correct. For comsumer items, popular opinion does have weight, a lot of weight. This is not a question of science or fact where popular opinion is meaningless. Popular opinion has chosen stereo as the prefered format, there is no logical fallacy in that.

Because they sound better and people want them perhaps? Yeah, budgets are a PIA.

Minor thread drift; A question for the Cable Guy. Is solid 2-wire telephone cable any good for speakers? +++ A member of another forum got p.o.'d at the cheap cable he had been getting, so he wrote to all the cable manufacturers in the US and asked for samples. He said THIS is the best wire he heard. http://www.knukonceptz.com/home-theater/speaker-wire/kord-speaker-wire/ Can't say anything about telephone cable, I have not tried it. The gauge seems small though. As for your "Kord" wire, that's stranded, not my favorite. Works in some systems but nothing I have sounds good with stranded. At 3 bucks a foot Type 2 is hard to beat.

If the power supply is in the chassis, the designer is in control of the problems created by the power supply. You can design it for the least amount of negative impact. The other thing to remember is that as soon as you make the electrical connection the power supply is no longer a separate item, it just has a longer cable run and an extra connector.

A good performance and recording trumps the type of playback system. You can get very satisfying results with just about any recording format. However the whole reason I listen to recorded music is the 3 dimensional space from a 2 channel recording. For me stereo is best and I think popular usage also supports that assumption.

I'm the only cable guy around here, well one of the few anyway. A solid copper core cable is always my choice. Audio Quest Type 2 or Type 4 sound very nice. Very affordable. Three bucks a foot.

I dumped my early 70s receivers, well....back in the early seventies. They were fine for a young guy just starting to build a good system but a simple change to separates, was a big step up. Just adding a power amp to the receiver made a giant change for the better. Except for the visual appeal of vintage receivers, the seventies solid state receivers did not sound that great, IMHO. The smoother sound of even the cheapest modern receivers is a good match for Klipsch and an affordable purchase. I understand vintage gear, his application would be perfect for a tube receiver....just saying.

Just get a cheap new Sony. They sound better than those old receivers anyway.

You have a number of options but if you are ready for a substantial change I'd think about some Cornwalls. Otherwise all your electronics have to go to move up a level. Changing speakers is always the best way to make a major change.

The only thing that matters is how it sounds, the design is meaningless. There are good and bad products in every design configuration.

I have a few Cary pieces, very nice products. You may also want to look at Prima Luna, Audio Research, and Conrad Johnson amps. If I was buying a mid power tube amp today, I would take a serious look at the Prima Lunas.

I didn't like the JJ tubes (too soft/loose bass) so I installed some Mullard re-issues. I like the construction and the sound of the Mullards, seem like quality tubes for the price. I pulled a number out of my butt and biased the new tubes at 22 mv, thinking 10% over factory recommendation sounded reasonable. I'll save the re-engineering for another day. Being a retired engineer, the operative word is RETIRED! Plus I have a dozen other projects going right now.

Thanx.

I have an early one before all the probems with the "two Jolidas". I talked to the same people that the amp came from back in the day. I'm thinking 25mv might be a good number for my usage.

Quickilvers are some really sweet amps. Not too expensive and worth every penny. It's the pre-amp that will eat up the budget.

The factory changed the setting. I can only assume they had too many warantee issues and made the change. Mine worked fine for 10 years at the higher setting but I'll have to admit that I dont drive my stuff very hard so I'm not the ultimate tester.

I put the "over prided/hyped craps" in the various systems inside the house and I use the "cheap Chinese POS" in the garage. Works for me, YMMV. Man, a fellow needs some thick skin around here, lucky for me I have it. I just run the stuff, I didn't design it....

I just checked with Jolida, they say 20ma. It sounds fine at that setting, maybe a little more bloom in the bass but that might be from the different tubes? I'll play around some more and see where it takes me. This is my most used unit and the tubes were near 10 years old so I'm not sure you can blame the POS amp. Yeah, it is what it is but it's given me a decade of solid service. I think we were just looking at tube failure. You didn't expect me to put the McIntosh, Quicksilvers, Audio Research, or the Carys in the garage did you?