tromprof
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Posts posted by tromprof
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Tubes and made in Canada. No remote but the exrecise will do you good.
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There is a higher def. version of Morph the Cat available. It is in the DVI-DVD set of the Nightfly Trilogy ($53.99 at Amazon). Sound is far superior to the regular CD if you have a quality DVD player like my Sony ES unit.
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Sheltie Dave,
I am definitely intersted in your Monarchy amps. Please get in touch.
Thanks
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After receiving a lot of good advice regarding tube amps to pair with my Klipschorns and some further research on my part I have come to the conclusion that I cannot afford most of what was recommended. I cannot spend more than $1000.00 max and much of what was recommeded far exceeded that. I'm sure it sounds great but its not going to happen. My wife will not be pleased with any money I spend on this and like me is a professional musician. She is a violinist and can hear if I have made it sould better or am just spending money. I currently have an Adcom GFA-555 and matching preamp which I will be selling off to help fund this venture. The Adcom equiment has been very reliable but sounds a bit bright and harsh with the K-horns. I was using a pair of Tannoys previously which were not bright with the Adcom stuff. After further reading I am considering a better solid state amp as well. The three choices that seem to fall in my price range are:
1. Monachy Audio SM-70, $719.00. A class A 25 watt ss amp.
2. A Chinese tube amp from Pacific Valve and Electric Compnay in Illinois. It is a "Shuguang Blue S8" rated at 50 watts, price $999.00. http://www.pacificvalve.us/ShuguangBlueS8.html
3. An old Scott 299. Cost to get and get working correctly, $400 and up (and up and up?). There seem to be a lot of them floating around on Ebay but I a very wary of this option as I am a novice in the land of tubes and to not want something that is cranky and needs to be worked on and tweaked all the time.
Any advive on the above would be appreciated, especially on the Pacific Valve amp and the Monarchy amp.
Thanks
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I am sure the NOS amps sound great but that kind of price ($2000 and up) is and will remain well beyond me.
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Here is a link to the Canadian dealer who sells the Chinese amps. Has great feeback and is offering a warranty. Price seems middle of the road and he claims to test all the units prior to shipping.
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Thanks for all the advice so far. I don't think my electrical skills are up to rebuilding an old amp, and I am reluctatnt to spend much money on an older piece of equipment being such a novice in the land of tube. At this point I am leaning toward a Chinese built YaqinMC-10L or Yaqin MC-100B from a compant in Canada who does bussiness on Ebay. The amps get some good reviews and don't cost a mint and might be a good way to start. Does anyone have first hand experience with these amps?
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I actually have nothing against the Adcom stuff that I know about, I am really going on what I have read here at the forum about the positives of tubes. My current setup is reliable and sounds great, but that said aren't tubes supposed to be even better? What I would like if possible is even more clarity and instruments sounding even more true. I know a lot is up to the recording quality, and I have never heard a recording that sounds like the real thing in orchestral music, even live recordings I have been in. But as one who sits in an orchestra I know up close and personal what the instruments sound like. It seems like the stuff that sounds the best on my system is heavily produced and electronic. If tubes would provide that extra level of clarity to acoustic instruments is what I am after..
Thanks for the advice so far.
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Hi,
I have a wonderful sounding pair of 1976 K-horns that I have had for around a year. I am also lucky enough to have a nicely proportioned room for them. I am currently running them with an 200 watt Adcom 555 amp and matching preamp. The k-horns are so efficient that I barely need to turn the volume up to get a decent volume. I have read a number of posts about the wonders of matching a good quality tube amp to the horns and am thinking of giving it a try. I don't have any complaints about the Adcom stuff, but then again I have nothing to compare it to with the horns. I selected the Adcom when my main speakers were Tannoy System 12 studio monitors (I still have them). I am a professional musician and listen to a lot of orchestral music and like to be able to hear what detail is present on a recording, which the Adcom did seem to provide for me with the Tannoys over other amps like a Sony ES amp that I had before. I have been doing some reading on these forums and looking around elsewhere on the web and tube stuff all seems quite expensive so it seems if I go this route I will probably be looking at an integrated amp. There are a number of smaller makers of tube stuff I have no experience with before. There seems to be a fair amount of JoLida brand equipment on the used market (a JD-202 is listed on Ebay right now). There is a company in Canada selling a class A "Bewitch" brand amp new on Ebay and they have good feedback, though I am very wary of something like this without someone with actual expereince with it saying it's ok. Also Parts Express near me in Dayton, OH sells a couple of "Nuera" brand amps. They are a reliable outfit and I could return it if they were any problems, though the amps are $748.00. My budget is in the $500-700 range. Any advice would be appreciated.
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I have decided to replace my aging 1976 AA crossovers in my Khorn speakers with a pair of new Bob Crites crossovers. Should I go with the A or AA crossovers he sells? It is my understanding that the A crossover might sound better, but the AA has some protection for the tweeter. I do not listen to music screamingly loud, though it is easy to crank the horns up a bit as I work around the house. I am using a 200 watt GFA 555 Adcom amp. Do I need the extra protection the AA crossover offers? The AA sells for $100 more than the A.
Thanks
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Thanks again for all the advice. I do have a great room with corners perfect for the horns, and they really sound fantastic. I have already got a nice kit for sealing the tailboards, though I haven't yet found the time to install them. I think I will probably get the AA crossover from Crites (it can be switched to be an A or AA) just to be on the safe side (young kids), but I am not in a big hurry. I am following an auction for a used set of AA crossovers on Ebay and they seem to sell for a pretty good price which would make the purchase of new crossovers easier. I have also read a little about ALK crossovers which seem very expensive compared to the Crites crossovers. What is the difference between them?
Thanks again.
G
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If I were to go the Bob Crites route, should I get the A or AA crossover. The A is a good bit less expensive. The existing crossover is AA, what is the difference between the two?
Thanks
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Thanks for the many opinions. I guess what I really want to know is if the electronics in the crossovers have degraded over the last 30 years. As I said they were nicely kept and sound quite good but I don't have a newer pair to compare the sound to. I am not looking to spend a lot, but would be willing to shell out $200 if needed.
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I recently purchased a set of 1976 Khorns. They were one owner and well cared for speakers and sound excellent. I am a professional classical musician, bass trombone, and have always liked natural and detailed sounding audio equipment. I have had a set of Tannoy Sysyem 12 studio monitors for several years and thought that was as good as it gets, but the Khorns surprised me with the detail that I hear, not to mention the huge natural sound! I have read a number of posts about people having their Khorn crossovers rebuilt or replaced. Is this something that needs to be done after a few years and would make the speakers sound even better? The current crossovers are AA. I have seen crossovers on Ebay by Bob Crites, a name that pops up often here. He sells both A and AA crossovers. Would this be a good replacement if one is needed? Which one is better? Thanks for any help.
Glenn
I made a music server, and it even sounds good too.
in 2-Channel Home Audio
Posted
I just thought I would share my experiece making a computer based music server. I have toyed around with the idea for some time but last week I finally did it. I started with the family's recently retired Dell desktop, a Pentium 4 machine that had increasingly had both hardware issues and software issues as it aged. The USB ports had shorted out and the hard drive was on its last legs and in fact died as I began reinstalling Windows XP after wiping it clean. My goal was to have a computer based system that would sound as good as my CD players. Last year I purchased a Cambridge Audio DacMagic that I have been running my Sony CD playes through. The Dacmagic also has a USB input. I relaced the USB ports with a new card, and replaced the old hard drive with a new 500gb drive and added a second 500gb drive as well as it was my intention to not compress the music files, or use minimum compression using Fla. The program I chose to run the whole thing was Media Monkey. Well after loading in about a hundred or so CDs I sat back to listen and the sound sucked. After spending some hours on the internet I finally fixed the sound by changing the output plugin. I am now plases to report that the sound is actually better than my CD players. I did have to upgrade the memory to 2gb as well after noticing occasional sound dropout. At this point I have over 200Cds loaded with the capacity many hundreds more. My CD players will continue to be used for classical stuff, but all my jazz and rock are on the hard drive! My computer skills are limited as well as my elecrical skills but I have alsways been willing to open the top of stuff and poke around. If I can do it (with a little help from Google) almost anyone else can too. [8-|]