paul79

Don't expect a 30+ year old receiver to sound right... They cannot be judged until they are freshened up. Muel can verify this for you.

The 1250 is by far, the grand daddy of all vintage receivers. It is also the only receiver I have ever had cross my bench that truly doubles down into 4 ohms. Quite a beast. Excellent bass response and is pretty even handed top to bottom. Another great sounding receiver I recently had the pleasure of restoring is the Marantz 2330. Not the 2330B, but the 2330. This receiver has allot of the same magic as the best tube amps. Really quite special in the midrange with a 3D holographic soundscape. Really shocked me when I heard this sucker.. They are rare. The 2285 (not the B ) sounds the same, but less power. I truly think these are the best receivers Marantz offered.

Hmm..... Someone must be paying attention. Curious as to how one retaliates from such an observation?

Done

LOL! IDK... Do they make Wild Grain Cheese?? If not, Plain Jane cheese will have to do.... I'll leave it up to you to decide what I need

Mike, Love that wild wood grain on your amps! Can we have a larger pic? That's how I should have gotten mine.....

This fits. Love this old tune.

Welcome

Since you are using 10.6, you can get the Audio Optimization Tweaks for Snow Leopard Ibook from iTunes. You need an Ipad to read it though... This makes a nice improvement. I'd also go with Audirvana + as it is about the same price, and you can play anything using it as a player. The difference in sound quality is minimal between the 2.

Tiger, What solid state are you using now? I do not fully agree with the statement that all early solid state sounded bad..... There was good and bad back then, yes. Same as today.

Yep, I believe you are correct. I'll see my buddy on Friday and get the scoop. That Model 10 prototype tuner is very cool also. Quite different than the production versions. I believe he was offered $20K for it at one time. Really neat piece of history.

Siquerra or Sid, one or the other, was the one responsible for taking the hum out of the early Marantz tube designs, that Saul could not do... I'll get the correct story and share... I am good friends with the owner of the prototype 10 tuner, and he knew Saul very well.

emotivablahblah or emotion. Your call.

What's tha beef guys? (Mark and Craig)

Awesome! Thanks for sharing

Up to date, yes, but can you reinstall the firmware? The firmware that is in the player may have gotten corrupted somehow.

Seems like a firmware issue in the player. Don't know if it is possible to rewrite it or not for that player, but you may look into that.

Speakers play a big role in that sweet spot as well. Some like to be turned up to wake up so to speak. This is part of the system building process. Amps and speakers getting along is about the toughest part to nail down.

Hey Mark, Curious.... I know in Solid State land, amplifiers with fast rise times and slew rate, etc. tend to recreate the actual sound of instruments better, like string instruments FE... One amp in particular, My Sansui BA-F1, literally sounds like the guitars are in the room. I hear the string vibrating along with the tone being generated, so to speak, like hearing it live. No other amp I have tried can do this as well. I have heard tube amps get close to doing this, but never quite as good. Could a tube amp ever sound as fast as a fast solid state amplifier?

They usually play it again prior to the new episode, the following week.

Hey please realize that the difference are often exaggerated in audio and when I speak I often take more into account then most people would when forming my opinion. My opinion gets swayed by the ease of repairing a rebuilding. I also get highly sway by the quality of the business end of a audio product much more then a normal consumer. By no means did I intend to make you feel your modern McIntosh gear sounds bad in anyway. As far as your output power tubes I'm very found of these http://www.thetubestore.com/Preferred-Series-KT88 I've used the Penta Lab branded version of this tube for many years. I also like the newer Tungsol KT-120 and KT-150's...but the 150's are pretty pricey and could keep you from installing the tube cage. I purchase the Tungsol tubes from www.dougstubes.com. Doug is who I purchased the Penta Labs version (KT88SC) that is the same as the tube store preferred KT-88 for years and I believe he may end up getting another stock from Penta soon. I think he still has a few quads of the Penta's from previous orders. But from experience I tend to stay away from tubes that a tube dealer is low on since those last ones were probably scraping the bottom of the barrel in the matching department. You are correct. Nothing going through circuitry is "completely" transparent. But be damned, this is as close as I've ever been listening to circuitry.

I suggest you buy some VRD's and a NBS. Money ahead, and sonically, way ahead. These components are transparent links. Simple as that. The better the source and the better the speakers, the better the sound. The bottleneck will no longer be the amps and preamp, and this I can assure you with one listen at Casa De Moons. They are deserving of the best speakers and source you can get. I repair audio for a living, and I have never heard anything that will touch these components. How's that for an endorsement. Craig, get down with yo bad self!

Just put A/C in the garage.... I could not be without a place to get away.

Dude, I feel your pain there..... You need a TV in your mancave!!

Ya, I hear ya. If I thought people actually cared about what I thought, I'd likely post crap like that to