tube fanatic
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Posts posted by tube fanatic
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getting ready to order some deoxit to clean a nasty volum pot. any recommendations as to which would be most suitable? Looks like there's the plain jane, 5%, 100%??? and gold?
De-oxit isn't the only Caig product to consider. I've used the following on hundreds of antique radio and vintage amp/preamp pots (carbon type) with truly excellent results:
http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.293/.f
Be sure not to over treat the control. If, at most, 2 treatments don't cure the problem you either need to replace the control, or disassemble it and do a manual internal cleaning (which does not always work.) In some cases, even a tiny drop of general purpose oil where the shaft meets the retaining ring can provide relief from scratchiness.
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Then a friend told me he knows somebody who is selling (locally) a MC 2125 for $850 in mint condiiton. The unit comes with the walnut case in like new condition and was just recently serviced in February of 2011.
What kind of servicing was done on it, and can the seller produce detailed documentation of just what parts (if any) were replaced?
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Can you post the article? This should be interesting.
Haven't ready my September yet, but it may be that Art isn't totally ruined by association with $tereophile yet. When at Listener, Art was the voice of reason and almost everything he wrote was reliable. I really enjoyed Listener. Since he joined $tereophile he's written much that is in line with their BS line...but every now and again a bit of the old Art who could wax rhapsodic about the joys a pair of large Advents, an ST-70, a PAS-4, and an AR turntable, will show through.
Dave
I gave the issue to a friend after reading it through, and the articles are not yet up on the web site. Dave, can you perhaps scan it and post?
Maynard
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Let's face it, Sterophile and other review mags and blogs fill a need, and that's for perceived, repeat, perceived professional rendering of opinions regarding equipment that amounts to a large outlay of cash for almost anyone spending up to or beyound their audio budget. It's yet another example of faith broken in the realm of audio. Were it not for Kliipsch and a few other honest vendors, I'd be inclined to melt down my record collection before allowing it to fall in the hands of these parvenus.
Much to my surprise Art Dudley, in the September "As We See It" column in Stereophile, actually calls "bullshit" on expensive interconnects and equipment manufacturers who try to justify absurd prices by virtue of fancy cabinetry and not the contained electronics! I never thought I'd see the day that such a position would be put forth in that magazine. A similar sentiment is rendered by Markus Sauer in his review of the Munich High End Show in the same issue. Perhaps they're finally realizing that many people are not taken in by their hype.
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Something which I didn't spot in this discussion is the level at which the judgment of sound quality is made. The impression one has at 95 db is going to be quite different from that at 70 db. The reviewers at the various magazines don't seem to specify the levels at which they make their subjective determination of the sound. I remember having a demo of the B&W 801s when they first came out. At low levels they sounded like crap to me; yet at significantly higher levels they were great (in that particular room.) A friend has a pair which he drives with a Krell boat anchor of the same vintage and they sound awful at all levels in his room. Statements about sound quality are far too subjective to be of any use to others. So, regardless of how acoustically wonderful a room may be, it still comes down to what the individual experiences with a particular piece of equipment in their room. I don't see any other way around this issue.
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Unfortunately, isn't that what the typical room of most people here on this forum have? And pretty much everyone else into audio?
In my experience, Mike is quite correct in his statement. Over the years I've known very few audiophiles (and I use the term to describe listeners who are very conscious of sound quality) who had state of the art listening rooms, or even rooms which have been treated acoustically. Yet, the systems used by these folks have often been capable of spectacular sound quality (fill in your own definition of what gives you goosebumps and draws you into the music.) And in such systems, changes in components have yielded very audible differences at times. So, is it really necessary to have an acoustically perfect environment in which to judge the sound of, say, an amp costing $50k? In any event, JA's measurements are usually quite informative, and I'd imagine are truthful representations.
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Don't worry about it. There are probably spiders and other insects living inside the cabinets anyway! The drywall dust isn't going to hurt anything, and playing some loud music with lots of bass will probably blow out a little of the dust for you.
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Be sure to turn on your sound system for the music... Enjoy!!
My friend forwarded the uncensored Youtube video of Sabrina Salerno doing Boys, Boys, Boys in 1987. I'm not posting the link here as I don't want to incur the wrath of the Sheriff! But, for those who want to check it out go ahead (but be sure your significant other isn't watching with you or you may be in trouble!) My wife told me to put my eyes back in my head and laughed........................
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Thanks. I have been trying to sell the M-504, but it hasn't garnered much interest. Consequently, I am thinking about using it for a system in my garage. I have the P-306, but I definitely want a remote if it is in the garage. By "newer" I am thinking about a Rotel RC 1082. (There's one for sale locally I can get a good deal on.). I have never matched items from completely different generations.
As I recall, the M-504 never really caught on for some reason. I knew someone who bought one when it first came out and it seemed like a decent enough amp. If the price for the Rotel is right, I'd buy it as long as it is working well. Even if it doesn't have a perfect synergy with the Onkyo, for a garage system it should be quite adequate. I can't imagine it will sound all that different from any other solid state preamp.
Maynard
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Not sure what you mean by newer, but a properly working preamp of any age should be fine. The ideal preamp should not exert any sonic influence ( of course, they all do). What are you trying to accomplish? Are there features of interest to you found in some modern preamps that are not available in older models? The M-504 doesn't have any special requirements that would make using it with any preamp a bad idea. Some more info would be helpful. Regards--- Maynard
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I can't explain this!
I think I'd be perfectly comfortable referring to it as nostalgia...
Yes, indeed Mike! And as far as "accurate" reproduction goes, Langford-Smith said this decades ago, and it's still quite valid imo: "If we apply tone correction in the form of bass and treble boost, it is difficult to gauge the correct amount, and most correcting circuits only give a rough approximaton of the ideal. If we leave the adjustment of tone controls to the listener, he will adjust them to please himself and the result is usually far far from a true reproduction of the original." It doesn't matter if one is using the controls on a vintage tube amp, or a modern digital room correction device. One is still going to do what sounds "best" which is rarely the same for 2 people. My daughter grew up with state of the art sound and yet is perfectly content to listen to her music (mp3s) on her portable devices with crappy buds. Her husband, a video nut, set up a system using my AR-2s and Large Advents and she could care less about listening to music through them. While she says that it sounds very impressive she, and all of her friends, couldn't even conceive of spending money on an excellent system.
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It isn't just medical schools which are on the upswing. Check out this article about optometrists:
Only in this case the concern is a massive oversupply. In some parts of the country there are so many in a small area that none are able to earn a passable living. I have a relative in the field who has been expressing concerns over this for years.
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They have extremely varied programming and, depending on the time of day or day of the week, can satisfy the tastes of just about anyone.
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And if you think MP3 are crap, take a listen to mass produced cassette tapes of decades past or the good ol' 45rpm singles with wood slivers and metal shavings or other debris that could be found in the cheapest, most contaminated plastic they could find.
As long as some kind of original high resolution format is available that was used for the original recording I'm fine with anyone listening to whatever crap they want. And let's face it, even a lowly MP3 is major leap in quality from the scratchy old 45's or noisy cassette tapes of yesteryear. On the other hand if you think those sound better, more power to ya!!
(and I'm not saying that the old audio cassette tapes can't sound good ~ they can ~ but that is generally not true of the mass produced stuff)
This is an interesting point. There's a guy in town for whom I built a pair of mono SEPs a number of years ago to use with his Cornwalls and Wadia CD player. His system is one of the finest sounding that I've ever heard (in part because we voiced the amps in his system/room), and this guy's ears are so attuned to sound quality that I've been giving him prototype amps to audition and critique ever since. He just never seems to be wrong and can pick out extremely subtle variations in amp characteristics better than I can myself. In spite of this he prefers listening to some recordings of older music like Ella Fitzgerald, and lots of the rock oldies, on his boombox because it just does something that he can't attain in his big system. He, who is never at a loss for descriptive words about sound quality, can't define why! And he also asked me to find him an old school style record player on which to play his 45s (the one he had took a powerline spike and got fried) because he really enjoys listening to the pops/clicks/distortion and so on. I can't explain this!
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That 80s amplifier challenge was sure interesting to follow. But, there's just no charm in solid state devices- nothing compares with glowing tube filaments!!!
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This should get very interesting as bidding draws to a close:
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Wish I had been there myself.
Well there are probably a few people around who were, uh let's just say created in that bus or VW and surrounding fields ?
No doubt about that! My cousin related some "interesting" experiences he had while there. Iirc, the nudist colony in which he was living at the time wasn't overly far from the farm. At least I got to enjoy the vicarious experience!!!
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Great pix! Wish I had been there myself. My cousin, who was living at a nudist colony at the time, went and said it was a truly remarkable experience!!!
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I think I want to make an offer on these http://community.klipsch.com/forums/t/165403.aspx just need some ideas to get them packed and shipped. suggestions?
Craters and Freighters is great. Have used them many times and they pack to survive an airplane drop.
http://www.cratersandfreighters.com/
They will pick them up, and crate/ship from their warehouse. Everything will be photographed in detail before they take them from the person's location. Well worth whatever they charge imo.
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You know, I agree with you. It may sound good, but it is a pig power-wise. I worked my way up the B&W 800 series and, yea, they sounded great, but I had 700 wpc monoblocks driving them (4 ohms, the speakers dipped way below that).
It actually started to upset me that they designed the speakers to need so much current. I sold the speakers and the amps and I now have a 200 wpc amp driving speakers with a much easier load and I am much happier, same sound quality too.
Try driving a pair of Apogee Scintillas, one of the most absurdly designed speakers ever made (but they did sound pretty good): http://www.apogeespeakers.com/scintilla.htm
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Being the charming individual that I am (?!), my grad school room mate and I got bored one night and tossed a quarter sized lump of limburger cheese into a friend's oven to see what would happen. The next day he decided to cook a TV dinner. To make a long story short, the entire 3 story building in which we lived was evacuated and the fire department called. I still find the incident humorous...........The dean of the school wasn't impressed at all. We still don't know after all these decades how he figured that we were involved (although it may be related to another incident in which we tied into the building's intercom system at 3 am, but that's another story.)
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" With some caps running 20% above or below their specified value,
changing to caps which do not maintain that variance can affect the
sound in a negative way. "This sounds like you know what you're talking about (to someone that doesn't really know), but how correct is it?
Marantz (and most other designs) have the values for the coupling caps selected for -3dB points generally well below 1hz. Please explain how altering it from 0.72hz to either 0.90hz or 0.58hz (±20%) affects the sound in a negative way (example used a 1µFinterstage coupling cap driving a 220K load).
I'm about to leave for a week or two at the beach. Send me an email and let me know if you have a copy of Radiotron, a function generator, 'scope, and a tube amp in which you are able/willing to swap out capacitors and resistors. When I get back, we can pick this up. Also, as a corollary discussion of this issue, read Rod Elliot's thoughts on capacitors here:
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/capacitors.htm
Maynard
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A friend just sent this to me. Don't know if it has already been posted as I don't normally look here.
1 channel out on the phono Lafayette KT 600 pre-amp
in Technical/Restorations
Posted
Jeff Webster in Twin Falls, ID repairs/restores tube amps, preamps, etc.
http://www.vintagetunesradios.com/aboutus.html
If you run into a problem, email me. The designer of the KT-600 is a personal friend who may be willing to help you out.
Maynard