LonestarBlues

Hello Kelly. No I have not heard the RCA's. I still have the original tubes that came with my Moondogs. Sovteks, Brimar 6sn7 drivers & Mullard GZ37 rectifiers. I want to try out some new tubes and have read good things about the RCA blackplates. How do the RCA grayplates compare? I have read they are not as good as the blackplates but I assume they would be an improvement over Sovteks. Regards, Mike

I have been looking for a pair of NOS RCA 2A3 blackplates for my Moondog amps. Tubeworld has a selection starting at $225 pair. And increasing in $25 increments for their Platinum tubes matched within 1-2%-$250 pair & Super Platinum tubes matched wihin 1% going for $275 pair. Does the closer matching of the Super Platinum equate better sonics or will they all have a similar sound. Is it worth the increased dinero for closer matching? Does anyone know of other reputable tube sellers to check out. Regards, Mike

Hey Craig. I am looking forward to your comparison of the Octal 6ASE and your Ultra 4ASE preamp. I was going to buy an Octal 6SE back in August. I had some house maintenance expenses pop up that took priority over a new preamp so I did not buy one. Check out my Mapletree Audio Octal 6ASE post on Aug. 9-2003. Dr. Lloyd talks about the Octal 6SE you are buying. I saw the ad on Audiogon & thought of buying it the 1st day the ad ran. I decided I need a backup set of tubes for my Moondogs more. I am also curious about tube rectified preamps if I get another tube preamp. My Welborne Labs Revellie tube preamp is ss rectified. What do you think a Ultra 2ASE or 4ASE would sound like with Jensen PIO caps? For some reason I have a fascination with what I have read about Jensen PIO caps. I have Jensen PIO caps in my Moondogs. I know Auricaps are also good caps. I have not had the opportunity to hear any equipment that uses Auricaps. My Reveille preamp uses Hovlands. Regards, Mike

I want to thank Erik for trouble shooting and repairing my Moondog amps. Erik is a class individual and gentleman. I enjoyed meeting him and talking audio. He has helped me out, repaired Edster's Moondogs, gave CutThroat guidance so he could make repairs to his Moondogs. And helped Wolfram out on his AE1 preamp. My Welborne Labs combo-Moondogs and Revellie tube preamp are sounding fantastic through my Cornwalls. I have been playing music for 11 hours and will not be going to bed anytime soon. I am enjoying the music too much. Started out listening to my tuner & then switched to cd's. I have been listening to some Al Di Meola, Freddie King, Lightin' Hopkins, Roy Orbison, Dinah Washington, Keith Whitley, Johnny Cash, Patricia Barber & now Frank Sinatra. I like late night listening on the weekends. Regards, Mike

Hello Erik. I sent an email your way. The RCA interconnects are 3'-7". Regards, Mike

Hello Erik. I sent you an email. I enjoyed meeting and talking to you yesterday. Regards, Mike

Hello. Dr. Lloyd Peppard of Mapletree Audio Design visited our forum back in May. I was interested in his Octal 6A tube preamp and asked if he would build one with upgraded parts. He said yes. Well Dr. Lloyd has started making an SE version. The Octal 6A has 3 circuit topologies-common cathode+cathode follower, SRPP & passive. The common-cathode+ cathode follower uses Riken carbon film resistors & Jensen paper/oil capacitors. The SRPP uses Caddock metal film resistors & Hovland foil/polypropylene capacitors. Power supply & bypass capicitors are all Blackgate electrolytics. The Octal 6A SE preamp is $750 factory assembled/tested. He has a picture of the innards of the new SE preamp on his website. I am very interested in this preamp to go with my Llano Phoenix mosfet/ tube hybrid amp. I also asked Dr. Lloyd about the feasibity of adding tone controls. Dr. Lloyd stated he would be happy to build tone controls into an Octal 6 SE. He said he would use the traditional tone control circuitry (e.g. as in the Mullard design book) located at the input of the preamp followed by the volume control. The only real design issue is providing enough additional gain to make up for the tone control loss 10-12 db. There is at least 20 db gain with the active topologies. Dr. Lloyd wanted to know the input sensitivity of the Phoenix amp to make sure it would be compatible. I emailed Randy White of Llano Design to get that info, I do not know what voltage the input sensitivty is. He also wanted to know the output voltages of my sources and what speakers I was using. The output voltage of my Pioneer Elite PD 65 cd player is 2.0, the output voltage of my Mcintosh MR 77 tuner is 2.5. And the 1983 Cornwalls are 98.5 db efficient with 1 watt. If I buy this preamp I will use the Mcintosh C 38 preamp that I am now using with the Llano amp with my Mcintosh MC 7150 amp. The Mcintosh has been idle since the Llano Phoenix replaced it in mid May. I still have my purist system (no tone controls) Welborne Labs Moondogs & Revellie tube preamp, Mcintosh MCD 7009 cd player, Technics ST 8077 tuner and 1977 Cornwalls. I am listenig to the Moondogs now. I still like tone controls on a preamp and always will. The Octal 6A SE with tone controls would run $950. Dr Lloyd stated he would use high quality passive parts in the tone control section. Well enough of my rambling, I have been knocking back a few Lonestar longneck beer. Regards, Mike

Great post Jhawk92. I don't mean to be a wisea$$ but the Cornwalls are not II's. The horn drivers are mounted from the inside of the front baffle. All Cornwall II's have the drivers mounted on the front of the baffle & don't have the removable rear back panel. I think Klipsch also started using MDF with a veneer on the Cornwall II's. Cornwall I's were birch plywood or lumber core with veneer. Klipsch started making the Cornwall II in either 1985 or 1986, I don't remember. I own 1977 birch plywood Cornwalls with risers stained in a light cherry finish. And 1983 Cornwalls in walnut veneer without risers. Both Cornwalls & Chorus are excellent speakers. Regards, Mike

Two pair of Cornwalls-1977 pair in birch plywood with the riser stained in a light cherry. And a 1983 pair in walnut veneer with out the riser. I have a small harem of old speakers-1979 & 1980 Advents, 1992 JBL LX 55, 1996 Optimus LX 5 with Linueum dipole tweeter, 1999 Yamaha NS 10 studio monitors & 1978 Bose 301. The Cornwalls are my numero uno reigning heavy weight champions of my small speaker harem. I picked up some new cd's several days ago, a bunch of real country (not the paint by numbers pablum fluff crapola that Nashville tries to pass of as country music) that only serious country music fans would like. The new John Mellencamp-Trouble No More-an excellent cd of Americana blues & roots rock. And the new Lynyrd Skynyrd-Vicious Cycle-a little over 70 minutes of excellent southern rock. The best cd post plane crash Skynyrd has put out in years in my opinion. It was only $9.88 at Walmart. Leon Wilkerson- Skynyrd's bass player died during the making of this cd. Leon played bass & was recorded on 2 songs-The Way & Lucky Man before he passed away. The cd is dedicated to Leon Wilkerson. #9 track-Madhatter is about Leon Wilkerson. There are only two original members left in Skynyrd-Gary Rossington & Billy Powell. I am a big Skynyrd fan & love southern rock, must be a Texas thang cause I love that southern twang especially through either pair of my Cornwalls. Regards, Mike

Congratulations Mike on getting your Cornwalls. I am sure you will appreciate the Cornwalls even more having endured a long period of waiting and anticipation due to unforeseen circumstances. I enjoy my 1977 Cornwalls-birch plywood stained in a light cherry finish with the riser with SET tubes- Welborne Labs-Moondogs & Revellie preamp. And my 1983 Cornwalls in oiled walnut without the riser with either a solid state Mcintosh amp or Llano mosfet/tube hybrid amp & Mcintosh C38 preamp. The SET tubes win in quality of sonics & tone & actually can play pretty loud. The solid state gets the nod in unrestricted dynamics and high level headbangin' listening levels. Enjoy your Cornwalls & the sonic nirvana that they can give you. Regards, Mike

Excellent post Mark. I am definitely an untrained amatuer. I follow what you are saying. I guess an example would be George Wright's-Wright Sound 2A3 SET amp. From what I have read here, at the AudioAsylum and an old Positive Feedback magazine review on several brands of SET amps. George Wright uses a circuit with solid design & does not use botique designer parts. His amps are well reviewed & the guys here on the 2 channel forum & the Asylum that own them like them very much. Ron Welborne-Welborne Labs makes a standard product & then one with upgraded parts like my Moondogs. I remember reading Erik Mandaville's post about fixing Edster's Moondog 2A3 SET amps. Erik built his own Moondogs & is constantly tweaking them with changes to the circuit to hear the different sonic results. Edster's Moondogs have the ultimate parts upgrade in them. After repairing Edster's Moondogs he hooked them up to his system with Lascallas and liked Edster's Moondogs sonics much better. If I remember correctly Erik attributed the major difference in sonics to the Jensen paper in oil caps which his did not have. Hey Mark, I unboxed my Advents & gave the wanut veneer several coats of lemon oil. I hooked them up in the old venerable double stacked configuration with the top Advent inverted. Them old dogs(Advents) will still hunt. They sound good to my ears. Not as dynamic as the Cornwalls. It's funny but I am the only guy of 4 friends that owned Advents that never fried his tweeters. Thanks for your informative post. Regards, Mike

Hello Mike. My reference to Kelly as a Tube Guru was a complement to old Mobilehomeless. Kelly was very knowledgeable about tube equipment while others like myself did not know didley squat. Kelly spread the gospel of tube gear-both push pull & SET amps & tube preamps like a tube evangelist. Kelly got me and many others interested in and buying tube equipment on the 2 channel forum. I have 2 individuals that have been my tube mentors so to speak. Andrew Weiss of San Antonio who sold me my first pair of 1977 Cornwalls. Andy had 2 tube systems. A EAR 859 integrated SET amp hooked up to the Cornwalls & a EAD transport & dac. The first tube amp I have had the pleasure to listen to. I liked tubes upon my first listen. Andy's main system at the time was an Audio Research VT 100 mkII amp with a Wadia cd player with digital volume control hooked up direct to the amp & Proac Response 5 tower speakers. Andy had high dollar speaker wire,interconnects, & after market power cords. I was in hog heaven asking questions & getting to listen to his tube systems. I had only read about this type of equipment before. I had never gotten to sit down & listen to high end tube equipment. Corpus Christi(population-275,000) where I live in south Texas has one shop Marco's Electronics that carries Adcom, Sunfire, Sony ES, B&W speakers & Energy speakers. They are pretty much a hometheater dealer. The rest of the stereo shops are all hometheater reciever-ville, no separates what so ever. Kelly is my other tube mentor. Without him posting about how good tube equipment was, I probably never would have purchased my Welborne Labs Moondog amps & Revellie tube preamp. I did not always agree with everything Kelly said, but I respected his opinion. I miss both his knowledge & humor & wish that he would come back to the 2 channel forum. Regards, Mike

Hello & welcome Dr. Lloyd. I am tube newbie with no technical background. I have followed the MAD threads at the manufacturers section at Audiocircle.com. I remember the thread Mad Ear+ headphone amp No 25 Special Edition with Russian paper in oil caps & Black Gate coupling capacitors. I am interested in your Octal 6A preamp and I have several questions for you. Could you use paper in oil caps in the Octal 6A preamp & would there be any sonic benefits? Would there be any higher peformance in sonics by upgrading any of the parts used in the circuit of the Octal 6A preamp? If so, would you build a Special Edition of the Octal 6A preamp if I were to pay for the increased costs involved in using high peformance parts? We used to have a Tube Guru here at the 2 channel forum-Kelly aka Mobilehomeless. Kelly always extolled the virtues of upgraded high peformance parts raising the sonic level of performance in gear i.e. amps & preamps. I own a factory assembled Welborne Labs SET 2A3 Moondog monoblock amps with the Ultimate parts upgrade. The Ultimate parts upgrade in the Moondogs consists of using Caddock resistors in place of Allen Bradley resistors, using Black Gate electrolytic capacitors in place of Elna Cerafine capacitors, using Jensen paper in oil capacitors in place of Aura MusiCaps polypropylene capacitors, & using teflon tube sockets in place of ceramic tube sockets. I have another question, where is a good source for 12SN7 tubes. I just recently bought a used 2 month old Llano Phoenix CAS 300 mosfet/tube hybrid amp. The Phoenix is a 2 gain stage amp, Class A, uses no negative feedback, mosfet output with separate enclosures for the voltage & current sections of the amp. The VA2 voltage amp uses 6SN7,6SL7 & 12SN7 tubes. I got 4 pair of tubes with the amp- Raytheon 6SN7 GTB, Sylvania 6SN7 GT, JAN Sylvania 6SL7 WGT & G.E. 12SN7 GTA. I am currently running the G.E. 12SN7 GTA tubes in the VA2 voltage amp. I am using the Llano amp with a solid state Mcintosh C38 preamp. I am possibly interested in matching the Llano amp with your Octal 6A preamp. I am in the research mode right now looking at and reading about preamps. I pulled a Mcintosh MC 7150 amp out of my second system last week when Fedex delivered the Llano amp. I have enough spare gear collecting dust that if I buy a 3rd preamp I will use the Mcintosh gear in a bedroom system. Thanks for your reply. Regards, Mike

I own a Mcintosh MC 7150 solid- state autoformer amp-early 1990's model. I bought it used in 1999, my first entry into highend equipment. I also bought a demo Mcintosh C38 preamp in 1999 to mate with the MC 7150 amp. There is an excellent sonic synergy between a Mac amp & preamp. Mcintosh makes excellent full function preamps that also have a warm & smooth sonic signature. I own a harem of 8 pair of speakers collected from 1977 to present day. I have used Advents, JBL, Yamaha, Optimus, Bose & 2 pair of Klipsch Cornwalls all with excellent sonic results. The Mcintosh sonic signature is warm and smooth(as butter) midrange & treble-tubelike to my ears. The Mcintosh is very inoffensive-what some people might call boring sound-not to me. It does not have the ultimate bass slam or hyper detailed treble response of some other solid state amps. It is an all around good performer. I love the retro styling of Mcintosh and the big blue watt meters. Unless you have money to burn, I would go the used route buying Mcintosh. New Mcintosh is quite expensive, used Mcintosh can also be expensive. But be careful if buying used-I don't do ebay purchasing stereo equipment. Been burned twice by people with excellent feedback-one small transaction & the other on a Mcintosh MR 80 tuner at over $1,000. The Mac tuner was in excellent physical cosmetic condition but was in need of repairs. Represented as working perfect and had been purchased from Audioclassics. The seller would not respond to any emails after the sell. I contacted Audioclassics & they agreed to fix the tuner at a reduced rate. Audioclassics is a class act shop that deals in lots of used Mcintosh and stands behind what they sell. But they also charge a premium for that-they are expensive. MR 80 tuners can be a ***** to repair & there are now obsolete parts. Audioclassics was unable to fix the MR 80 tuner after 3 attempts. They picked up all the shipping charges for sending & returning the tuner after their first repair was not sucessful. I wound up trading the MR 80 for analog MR 77 tuner & Magnum Dynalab ST2 whip antena. I took it in the shorts and lost money on that ebay purchase. Caveat Emptor-let the buyer beware. I have had excellent results buying used stereo gear from Audiogon. Used Mcintosh dealers with warranties- Audioclassics, The Stereo Shop of Hartford Conn.-bought my Mcintosh MCD 7009 cd player from them used in pristine condition wth a 6 month warranty. Audioconsultants of Chicago, Ill.-bought my demo Mcintosh C 38 preamp from them in pristine condition with a warranty. Mcintosh Audio out of Knoxville Tenn. sells & repairs used Mcintosh-they are like Audioclassics, they are expensive but stand behind what they sell with a warranty. Both Audioclassics & Mcintosh Audio are listed on Roger Russell's (ex Mcintosh engineer) excellent Mcintosh product & history related website. There are several things to consider when buying used Mcintosh. The glass faceplates are prone to bubbles after they get old. Mcintosh faceplates are reverse silkscreened on the glass faceplate. Original double Mcintosh packing boxes or Audioclassics exact copy are a must prerequisite for shipping. The glass faceplates are fragile and can get broken when not properly packed-ie Mcintosh double boxes. I personally will only use Fedex Air to ship stereo gear. Audioclassics shipped the MR 80 tuner out to me by UPS after their 2nd attempt at repair. They were supposed to use Fedex Air only. Shipping guy messed up. Well UPS-United Parcel Smashers cracked the faceplate & then had the gall to declare Mcintosh factory double boxes as inadequate packing. Audioclassics dealt with them after they denied the initial claim & got a new faceplate. I have Llano Phoenix mosfet/tube hybrid amp in place of My Mcintosh amp now. It has a different sonic signature than the Mac-wider dynamic range-stronger low bass response-it has bass slam, smooth tube midrange & treble but has more upper treble detail than the Mac. It also sounds faster. Right now I prefer the Llano over the Mac, but then again I am excited because the Llano is a new toy to me and I am experiencing a new sonic flavor. I am keeping the Mac if that tells you anything-it is a damn good amp. I will wind up eventually getting another preamp to run the Mac in a 3rd system. Regards, Mike

Hello Mark. My Mcintosh preamp connects via an RCA interconnect to the input of the VA2 voltage amp. An RCA interconnect runs from the output of the VA2 voltage amp to the input of CAS 300 current amp. Yes it does get a little hot when operating. The heatsinks are 6-1/2" tall vertically & 10" long horizontally. I have never owned an amp with this much power before. It is powerful but still retains a smooth midrange & treble. Sometime later in the week I will unbox the Advents and hook the old double stacked Advents up. The Cornwalls really sound good with this Llano amp. Better than my Mcintosh MC 7150 amp. I do miss the big blue watt meters. I will eventually get another preamp and hook up the Mac in a 3rd bedroom system, I have a spare Toshiba tuner & the original Pioneer PD M6 6 disc changer-my first cd player. I am a packrat and still own every piece of gear I have acquired since 1977. It is trait I acquired from my dad. He collected antique tools-Stanley wood hand planes etc., antique cameras & sewing machines. I am living in the house he built back in 1964 when I was a 5 year old kid. He drew up the plans for the house including a woodworking shop for his power tools-table saws/band saw/radial arm saw/jointer/planer/drill press etc. And a photography darkroom-he used to be a wedding photographer as a side gig to make extra money and because he enjoyed photography. There are cameras up the wazoo in the darkroom. Thanks for your reply. Regards, Mike

Hello Mark. Thanks for responding. The second ad from the top at Audiogon when you do a search for Llano- the ad has White Labs in parenthesis-seller is Markkunkel is the LLano Phoenix CAS 300 current amp & VA2 voltage amp ad. The innards of the current amp & voltage amp are there. I have Webtv for internet purposes so I can't post pictures. Thanks. Regards, Mike

Hello Mark. I could use your technical expertise in evaluating my new used amp-it's design & whether you can determine if it uses quality parts by looking at a couple of digital pictures of the inside of the voltage & current amp at Audiogon.com. It is the Llano Phoenix + VA2 amp listed at $1900. I bought it for $1800. The amp retails for $2900. I bought a 2 month old Llano Phoenix mosfet/ tube hybrid CAS 300 current amp with the separate VA2 voltage amp. It is a 300 watt x 2 @ 8 ohms-600 watts x 2 @ 4 ohms. It uses 2 gain stages-and separate enclosures for the current & voltage sections of the amp. The VA2 voltage amp is SET, Class A, uses no negative feedback. Uses 6SN7, 6SL7 & 12SN7 tubes. The current section of the amp is Class A, uses no negatve feedback, mosfet outputs, 2.5KVA toroidal transformer, distributed node power supply caps with over 200 amps burst current available. The amp sounds great to my ears- rolling tubes in the VA2 voltage amp does change the sonic flavor of the amp. I got 4 pair of tubes with the VA2 voltage amp-Raytheon 6SN7 GTB, Sylvania 6SN7 GT, JAN Slyvania 6SL7 WGT & G.E. 12SN7 GT. I have rolled tubes & listened to each pair around 8 hours. My favorite pair is the Sylvania 6SN7 GT followed by G.E. 12SN7 GTA, JAN Slyvania 6SL7 WGT & Raytheon 6SN7 GTB. My secondary system is a Mcintosh solid state-MC 7150 autoformer amp-150 watts X 2, C38 preamp, Mcintosh MR 77 tuner, Pioneer Elite PD 65 cd player, 1983 Klipsch Cornwall speakers. I have liked the way the Mcintosh sounds with Cornwalls-warm, smooth & relaxed to my ears. I like the Llano better. The Llano sounds faster, has wider dynamic range, there is greater, stronger low end bass response. The midrange & treble is smooth & the Llano has more detail in the upper treble. I am not a technical person but I have read a lot since 1977 when I got into audio. I am guessing the Llano sounds faster possibly due to a faster slew rate & rise time, higher damping factor. And the difference in circuit design & parts used to implement each respective brand of amp. I don't have any specs on the Llano amp. I call the Llano a SET amp on steriods-it has solid state bass with a smooth tube midrange & treble. My main system is a factory assembled Welborne Labs SET 2A3 SET Moondogs with the ultimate parts upgrade, factory assembled Welborne Labs Revellie tube preamp, Technics ST 8077 tuner, Mcintosh MCD 7009 cd player & 1977 Klipsch Cornwall speakers. I am still a tube newbie having owned the Moondogs since July 2002, bought the Revellie preamp last month. It is dual mono with dual Goldpoint stepped ladder volume controls, uses 6SN7 tubes, ss rectified, with separate enclosure for the power supply. It is my first tube preamp. I am familiar with the SET sound and the Llano amp combines both the qualities of solid state & SET tubes. I have both systems set up in the same room-24'6" L X 19'W X 8' H ceiling. I have the Cornwalls set up on each respective long wall 18' apart toed in. I have not done a direct comparison yet of the Llano amp & the Moondogs. I did prefer the Moondogs over the Mcintosh in it's sonic flavor. I know the Llano amp is way overkill in power for the Cornwalls but it sounds very good to my ears. I have a collection 6 pair of old speakers from 1977 on-1979 & 1980 large New Advents-used to use them in the old stacked configuration with the top speaker inverted so the tweeters are together. 1991 JBL LX 55-same size large book- shelf speaker as the Advents. 3 way speaker-10" polylaminate woofer, 5" poly- laminate midrange, 1" pure titanium tweeter. 1996 Optimus Pro LX5 with Lineum ribbon dipole tweeter, 2000 Yamaha NS 10 Studio Monitors & 1978 original Bose 301's with the vane in front of the 3" cone tweeter to adjust the direct/reflecting spaciousness of the tweeter. Back in 1978 when I was 18 I thought Bose was the Cat's Meow. Now that I am older I realize the ingnorance of my youth when it comes to Bose speakers. I am a native Texan and lived in Lubbock, Texas from 1988-1994. Randy White of Llano Design Group & formerly White Labs lives in Lubbock, Texas. Mark the guy I bought the Llano amp from lived in Lubbock from 1988-1993 while working at Texas Tech University. He met Randy White back then & bought a mosfet amp, graduated to a Llano Trinity mosfet/hybrid that used dual triode tubes- 12AX7, AU7,AT7,AY7,6922 & 6DJ8. the Llano Phoenix lets you choose from the VA1 voltage amp whch uses the same tubes as the Trinity amp, the VA2 voltage amp which I have. VAS solidstate voltage amp, VA3-(3 channel) & VA5-(5 channel) uses the same tubes as the VA1 voltage amp for hometheater use. And an upcoming not released yet VAP voltage amp that will use a pair of Russian 6H45 pi super tubes operating at 45 db gain with a built in passive preamp combining the gain of an active preamp with signal of a passive preamp. I like the idea of owning an amp hand built from a fellow Texan. From what Mark told me Randy White is pretty much a 1 man operation. At times he has a helper. He sells direct to the public with no dealer network. Thanks for taking time to read & respond to my long winded post. I like my new toy. Regards, Mike

Congrats lynnm. Good things come to those who wait. After all the B.S. you have gone through with done deals falling through etc. I am sure you will appreciate your Khorns even more. It is a bummer that the Bozo peckerwood seller exaggerated the cosmetic condition of the speakers. It will be a labor of love when you get the Khorns refinished. Enjoy the sonic splendor. Regards, Mike

Hello Craighorn. I have had excellent results with both Mcintosh solid state & Klipsch Cornwalls. And Welborne Labs SET 2A3 Moondog monoblock amps & Welborne Labs Revellie tube preamp. I own 2 pair of Cornwalls- 1977 raw birch finished in a light cherry stain. And a 1983 pair of oiled Walnut. I do prefer the more natural sound & superior sonics in my opinion of the Welborne Labs SET & preamp. But the solid state Mcintosh is very good also. The Mcintosh has the ability to reach head bangers ball loudness that the Welborne can not reach. Had it not been for Kelly posting about tube equipment all the time. I would still be happy with my solid state Mcintosh. Old MobileHomeless got the Old Audio Nervosa Upgraditis bug in me. I found a pair of 6 month old factory assembled Moondog amps with the Ultimate parts upgrade in July of last year on Audiogon. Julian the seller got Ron Welborne to build him a set of Moondogs after Ron had quit selling factory assembled products. He spent $6640 on the Moondogs, Revellie Active Crossover, Oris 150 horns, bronze diffusers, Oris stands & A Series Drive Unit. After 6 months Julian wanted to try something else and sold all of the Welborne gear. He provided me with his invoice receipt of purchase to verify the age of the Moondogs. I will be trying out a Llano Phoenix mosfet/ tube hybrid amp-300 watts X 2 with my Mcintosh preamp & 1983 Cornwalls when Fedex delivers it Wednesday afternoon. I will also state that I like the tone controls that are on my Mcintosh preamp. They are out of the circuit and completely neutral when in the 12 o'clock position. I use my tone controls & like them. Hell I use to use an Alesis pro gear M-EQ 230 1/3 octave equalizer with 30 bands per channel. The eq had a bypass switch & db overload red led light to indicate overload distorion. I used to run both sets of my Cornwalls through my Niles selector switch box with the Alessis eq. After I got the Moondogs I took the Niles & Alessis eq out. Old MobileHomeless emailed me to help me out with my Moondogs and to suggest various preamps. I think he sh$t a brick when I told him about the eq, Niles speaker selector & 2 sets of Cornwalls. I ran the Moondogs with My Mcintosh preamp up until a few months ago with good sonic results to my ears. I do prefer the Revellie tube preamp when mated with the Moondogs, it has a system synergy. But I still sometimes miss the use of tone controls that my Mcintosh has. You can get excellent sound with either tubes or solid state equipment in my opinion. You have to weigh in the added costs & maintenance of buying tubes when they go south. If you are happy with the Aragon, keep it. It is a an excellent solid state amp. You don't have to please anyone other than yourself with your sonic preferences. Audio is so subjective, there are lots of people out there that think our beloved Klipsch speakers suck. And we might think their speaker choice sucks. It is funny how audio enthuisiasts can feud like the Hatfields & McCoys over audio sonic preferences when neither party is right. It just boils down to personal preference. Regards, Mike

Hey Justin. I was born & raised in Corpus Christi. I worked in the oil & gas industry for 16 years from 1981-1997 for Amoco Production Co. working in Natural Gas Process Plants. We took natural gas from the oil & gas wells & extracted ethane-feedstock gas used in chemical plants & refinerys. Methane-the gas that we burn in our home heaters. Then we fractionated & extracted propane, butane & raw gasoline. Brief synpopsis, it would be too long & boring to go into detail of the inner workings & processes of a natural gas plant. The money & benefits of working for a major oil company were excellent. But it was extremely dangerous work and I also worked shift work fulltime from 1991-1997. Rotating 12 hour shifts- 4 on 4 off. The day shift would be 4 days 7am to 7pm, then 4 days off. The graveyard shift would be 4 nights 7pm to 7am, then 4 days off. The money was good but you live in a counterculture society to the mainstream public when you work shiftwork. Shiftwork gets old & it sucks big time working at night. There is a natural sleep pattern called the Circadium Rhythm. Sometimes shiftworkers have problems sleeping during the day when you are working the graveyard shift. It is because your Circadium Rhythm- natural sleep pattern is messed up. In 1985 I was transferred from Corpus Christi- population 275,000 to Clayton, New Mexico-population 3,000. I went into culture shock never having lived in a small town before. It was a rural ranching community. The nearest city was Amarillo, Texas-135 miles south. I was in Clayton for 3 years and spent a lot of weekend time in Amarillo & Albequrque 5 hours west of Clayton. I was able to transfer to Lubbock in 1988-population around 180,000-college town with Texas Tech located there. I was one happy camper moving back to a city. I love live music. Lot's of good musicians with plenty of varous types of live music-blues, rock & country from Buddy Holly country-Lubbock. Not much to do in West Texas compared to South Texas. I was transferred to Midland and lived there from 1994-1997. Got laidoff in 1997 and moved back to Corpus Christi. There were a bunch of us from the Corpus Christi area, Houston area and the deep South Texas Valley that all wound up being transferred to West Texas. Amoco always had a policy of divesting & selling marginal properties. That is what happened to me in Midland in 1997. They sold the Natural gas and tore down the two old post World War II plants built in the late 1940's. Amoco was going to have to spend millions on our compressors to retrofit them to meet upcoming EPA air quality emission standards. Upper management chose to divest & sell. Most all the major oil companies have now merged. Exxon/Mobil, BP-British Petroleum bought Amoco- it was BP/Amoco for several years. BP/Amoco bought Arco & changed its name to BP Ltd. Chevron & Texaco have merged etc. I do not work shift work anymore, it is too hard on the body. Shiftwork in my opinion is no hueno por caca. My brother & family live in Katy, west Houston. I have a buddy Dwayne who lives in southeast Houston-Nasa Clearlake area. Houston is a nice place to visit but I don't think I would want to live there. Too many people & the traffic sucks big time especially getting caught in rush hour traffic. People drive like maniacs in Houston. Regards, Mike

Hello fellow Klipschheads. I currently own 2 Klipsch Cornwall based systems in my living room- 24'6"L X 19'W X 8' ceiling. My 1977 & 1983 Cornwalls are set up on the long walls 18' apart toed in. My main system is SET Welborne Labs 2A3 Moondog monoblock amps, Revellie tube preamp, Technics ST 8077 tuner, Mcintosh MCD 7009 cd player, 1977 Cornwalls. My second system is Mcintosh solid state-MC 7150 amp(early 90's vintage-150 watts X 2 autoformer), C38 preamp, MR77 tuner, Pioneer Elite PD 65 cd player, 1983 Cornwalls. I am buying a 2 month old Llano Phoenix CAS 300 SET Class A 2 gain stage mosfet/tube hybrid current amp & VA2 voltage amp from Audiogon. Retails at $2900, I am getting it for $1800 plus insured Fedex 2 day air shipping. It shipped out today so I should have it Wednesday afternoon. Randy White formerly of White Labs & now Llano Design Group has been hand- crafting mosfet & mosfet/tube hybrid amps for years out of Lubbock, Texas. He sells them direct to the public, they are not sold in stereo shops. I lived in Lubbock-West Texas from 1988-1994. The Phoenix uses two separate boxes to separate the current section & voltage section of the amp. The 1st stage VA2 voltage amp is Class A SET no negative feedback. It uses 6SN7, 6SL7 & 12SN7 tubes. The 2nd stage current section of the amp runs Class A, uses mosfet outputs, no negative feedback, 2.5 KVA torodial transformer, distibuted node power supply caps, over 200 amps burst current available, 300 watts X 2 into 8 ohms-600 watts X 2 into 4 ohms. I plan on trying the Llano Phoenix out in place of my Mcintosh ss amp. I know it is way overkill in power for my 1983 Cornwalls. The Mcintosh sounds very good with the Cornwalls-warm & smooth. What I have read about the Llano Phoenix & what Mark(the seller) has told me. The sonics of the Phoenix- has exemplary low end solid state bass response & a warm smooth midrange & treble. I have a collection of other speakers I plan on rotating in & out with the Llano amp. 2 pair of New Large Advents from 1979 & 1980. I will use the Advents in the venerable old double stacked configuration with the top Advent inverted so the tweeters are together. I ran the Advents for years like this liking the sonic results. I remember back in 1980 I was considering buying a pair of Heresy's. I grew up with one of the audio salesman at All Ears. Chuck Galbraith was the preacher's son at my church. I had known Chuck since we were elementary school age. Chuck suggested the double Advents and proceeded to demonstrate stacked Advents, top Advent inverted. He had also sold me my first pair of Advents. The Heresy's were more dinero than the walnut Advents. I was attending college at the time so money was tight, I went with the Advents. I also have 1991 JBL LX55 speakers-large bookshelf speaker the same large bookshelf size as the Advents. Each speaker weighs in at 62 lbs a speaker, heavy for a bookshelf speaker. 3 way speaker-10" polymer laminated woofer, 5" polymer laminated midrange, 1" pure titanium tweeter. The JBL's have a rounded diffraction-reducing front vertical edge & a neoprene absorptive material covering the front baffle surroundng the drivers to absorb diffraction waves. Whether it actually works or is a marketing gimmick, I am not sure. I remember AR & Avid also used similar diffraction reducing ideas back in the 70's & 80's on their speakers. 2000 Yamaha NS 10 Studio Monitors, 1996 Optimus Pro LX5 speakers-5" polymer woofer with a dipole Lineum ribbon tweeter. And a 1978 pair of the original Bose 301's wth the plastic vane deflector on the tweeter to adjust to increase or decrese the direct/refecting sound of the 3" cone tweeter. Back in 1978 when I was 18, I thought the Bose 301's were the Cat's Meow. I now know differently. All Ears, the stereo shop I bought my Advents from also carried Klipsch & Epicure/EPI. I always wanted Klipsch back in 1979 & 1980 when I bought my 1st & 2nd pair of Advents. I could not afford them then. I am eagerly waiting for this high powered mosfet/tube hybrid. The Moondogs & Revellie tube preamp system will still be my #1 system. I am just trying out a different sonic flavor of amp to see if I will like it. I also like the idea of owning an amp built by a fellow Texan. This is weird, in my emails with the seller Mark Kunkel who lives in Carrolltown, Georgia. We discovered that we had both lived in Lubbock, during the same period of time. Me-1988-1994. Mark-1988-1993. Mark is a Pyschologist & had worked at Texas Tech University while living in Lubbock. He met Randy White while living in Lubbock. Mark has owned 3 different Randy White amps-a White Labs solid state mosfet, a Llano Design Group Trinity mosfet/tube hybrid & for a short time the Phoenix CAS 300 & VA2. Mark told me that the Phoenix is the best amp he has ever owned and used in his system. There are 4 sets of tubes coming with the VA2 for tube rolling. Mark has kids in college & is having to downsize to meet some expenses. Well enough of my rambling. Regards, Mike

Hello Tony. It is very gracious & cool of you to help out a lucky fellow Klipsch enthuisiast with the give away of your tubes. I have no need for them. But I just wanted to say I think it is a very noble gesture. Your new 2A3 amp is beautiful. Jeff is a master craftsman in my opinion.He takes pride in his work & it shows. Regards, Mike

I went to the Executive Surf Club and saw John Hammond perform. Mr. Hammond played alone switching back and forth between an acoustic guitar and a National Steel acoustic guitar. He wore a headset that held his harmonica so he could play both harmonica & guitar at the same time. This is the first time I have seen him. John Hammond is talented, he blew my skirt up. I was impressed and enjoyed his show, he played 1 hour & 35 minutes. He plays a mean slide guitar. The Surf Club has an outdoor patio for music wth a coverd stage. He was not used to the high humidity here in Corpus Christi. Made several comments how do you stand this humidity. An ex local musician Michael O'Connor opened the show. Michael is a talented guitarist, also plays the mandolin and harmonica. Michael has played guitar for Ray Wylie Hubbard and currently plays guitar for Susan Gibson and performs with Cary Swinney-a Lubbock, Texas musician. Lloyd Maines a Texas legend hooked Michael up with Ray Wylie Hubbard, Susan Gibson & Carry Swinney. I lived in Lubbock from 1988-1994. Lloyd Maines is a badass steel guitar player/Texas music producer. The Maines Brothers was a country band he played in and I have seen them play, they were good. Lloyd is Natalie Maines-Dixie Chicks lead singer's father. Lloyd lives in Austin now and produces a lot of the younger Texas country and alt. country acts. Texas musicians know who Lloyd Maines is and respect him. He likes to help out young musicians which I think is pretty cool. Regards, Mike

Hello fellow Klipschters. I have a pretty wide taste of music that I like. Real Country, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Classic rock & heavy metal from the 70's & 80'S, Motown R&B, Punk & New Wave from the 70's & 80's and various other genres. This rant is being fed by Lonestar longneck bottle beer. I have been on a buying spree of cd's the past several weeks. Country-The Derailers new cd Genuine-this is the real deal Bakersfield California country sound & influenced. They also play some 60's sounding tunes influenced by Roy Orbison & the Beatles. Among the great songs on this cd is one called I Love Me Some Elvis. The 2 main guys in the Derailers are Tony Villanueva & Brian Hofeldt, they moved from Oregon to Austin in the early 90's. They cowrite all their original material. Tony is the lead singer & they both play Fender Telecasters, Brian sings also. Derailers other cds Jackpot, Full Western Dress, Reverb Deluxe, Live Tracks. Buck Owens performs a duet-Play Me The Waltz Of The Angels on Full Western Dress. On Reverb Deluxe-bonus track not listed- they take Prince's song Rasberry Beret and countrify it into a country song & pull it off, good song. I have seen the Derailers live 8 times and always talk to them. They are great down to earth guys. They tour Texas & the U.S. Dale Watson is another real deal-too country for Nashville radio. Based out of Austin. Has a baritone voice that reminds me of Merle Haggard. Have picked up some Dwight Yoakam Reprise Please Baby- The Warner Bros. Years 4 cd set, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Waylon Jennings, Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Susanna Van Tassel, Townes Van Zandt, Lucinda Williams, Hootie & The Blowfish, Norah Jones, Al Dimeola, Patricia Barber, Cassandra Wilson, Charles Mingus & Miles Davis. John Hammond the country blues guitar slinger is performing Thursday night here in Corpus Christi at the Executive Surf Club. I plan on attending. It is kind of funy I like to listen to music my parents loved when I was a kid. When I was young & dumb I thought Mom & Dad had bad tastes in music. Was I ever wrong! My Dad used to listen KSIX AM radio every Saturday morning to a show called Polka Party. Several hours of non stop Polka music. I used to hate it when I was a kid. The accordian music from the German immigrants in Texas many years ago influenced Tejano music-Texas Mexican music. The accordian is used in Tejano music like it is in Polka. My parents also used to watch Lawrence Welk every Saturday night. I remember my dad being a big fan of Peggy Lee. The NPR station here played some Peggy Lee last weekend that blew my skirt up. I am pretty opinionated in what music I like and don't like. But I respect other's choice of music. Keep on listening through Klipsch speakers and support the bands and music of your choice. Regards, Mike

Kjohnsonhp, yes it is the same Cary SLP 90 preamp. Randy Bey is Darkstar. Regards, Mike