Audible Nectar

don't be concerned; I find with mine that it doesn't drift enough to worry about. About every 6 months or so take a digital volt meter, the supplied tiny screwdriver and about 2 minutes of your time to adjust it. Agreed. I don't see the manual biasing of the VRDs to be a detriment - it's an advantage. Biasing is not difficult at all. It's much like Caretaker said in "The Longest Yard": "Well it's just like makin' love - once you've done it you never forget how". []

It seems that those happiest with Bryston long term are those who have their preamp too. There is a special synergy enjoyed when the amp and pre match up right, and the same manufactured amp and pre can potentially end up a place you come to "rest" for a number of years. I have heard that from Bryston owners a lot over the years. Bryston does definitely have that rep for "neutral", and it's a presentation you either like or don't. If I were persuing a solid state 2 channel rig for Khorns I would look at Mac amp/pre (and lots of vintages to choose), Classe,, Accuphase is good, maybe some Nelson Pass designed options, maybe B&K even for a good value. All of these are more on the warmer/more liquid side. It's a matter of what matches your preference here. I wouldn't exclude Bryston - in the right application they might work well for some. But if it's too dry you'll know which way to go.

Yep. That and a similar stash of Philips/Amperex means I never have to use recent production 12AX7 again[8] I'm not so,lucky on all tubes I use so it is good to know about alternatives. Appreciate the update.....

Brand loyalty comes very hard from my perspective. I am iron-arse hard to please when it comes to corporations, and in the current time I have loyalty to VERY few. Even the ones I'm loyal to only apply to certain product segments within those companies....and if those segments disappear or fail to be lived up to I discard that loyalty in due course. I have an exception below.... - Klipsch: The exemplary openness of this forum is a testament to how Klipsch stands up as a company: PERFORMANCE. We can come in here and compare and contrast gears that compete directly against Klipsch product, and in many cases members mix in these other gears while still offering us a home to create and build our systems. Oh, then they let us beat each other up over how to best feed them. What other company allows such open natured discussion of competing products on thier own forum? Klipsch can do this because no matter what us internet based audio junkies do with it (and that's a considerable danger), Klipsch's products consistently rise above the competition, particularly in value per dollar at most any given price point. While I will always be impressed forever regarding Heritage Series, and would be a fanboy of the old brand regardless, I still look to Klipsch today as being still worthy of that loyalty, as they exhibit many open characteristics that few other companies have the guts to do. This forum as it stands says a LOT. THAT's "putting yourself out there". - McIntosh (audio, of course): Again, primarily a fanboy of the old schoiol gear but am still impressed with what they do today. I like the simpler, hard wired early tube stuff, but one has to be impressed with their attention to the old school ideas today without ignoring modern realities and technologies. Still being a player in the high end audio biz over all the changes in that industry is a FEAT. - Toyota: I owe a good portion of my progress here on this forum to this company. What the hello does my car choice have to do with my audio exploits? The fact that I don't spend exorbitant repair fees and replace my cars very often. When I started buying Toyota vehicles my car troubles stopped. Corolla, Camry, Four-Runner and light trucks completely changed the game of "average affordable cars for average people", and the Sienna might be one of the most versatile vehicles I've ever driven. Aside from the basic regular maintenance, they start every day and run better at their respective mileages than any other cars I have ever owned. Not getting "nicked and dimed" by my vehicles allows for progress to occur in other areas of life. - "The Vintage Brand": In many, many cases, I am "brand loyal" to many of the old classic companies who made stuff so good they last for years, or are of such quality as to not be available new today. I buy used Electrolux vacuums, Telefunken 12AX7s and other vintage tubes, and used goods of all kinds, because older durable goods of 40 years ago are often preferable to the brand new of today. Furniture often falls into this category, too.I oft purchase used/vintage because it's preferable or more affordable to new. - "The Craftsman": The individual craftperson - often with no brand at all, might be the ones I am most loyal to. Craig (AKA NOSValves), Mark at JiucyMusic, and many other single craftspeople provide the best quality AND service for the $$$. It is with these individuals that quality still exists and is easily recognizable, a trait all too absent in the "mass produced, lowest price, one size fits all" goods of today. The best brands are only the name of the person who did the work.....the best "brand" of all. Honorable mentions: Panasonic, Nikon, Honda, Sony, JBL, Krell, New Belgium Brewing, John Deere. I also am impressed with a company like Harley-Davidson, but I know I will never own one so many brands like it are not on my list.

I love the Visa ads where they tried to convince people that paying with plastic is more convenient and will yield less "bad looks" than paying with cash. I guess if you are getting 3-4% on every transaction than it's worth it to convince people of this - even though it's always the sloooooooow process of cards used in menial transactions that get the "looks" in real life. Guess that's why they call it a "commercial".....

T H O R E N S T D - 1 2 4 THE classic vintage table, IMO. There's TONS of threads on this in the 2 channel section of this forum. The table choice is EASY. The arm choices for it are myriad and might take more time to sift through.

Units can vary as to thier tolerance for excess voltage. In some cases the 5-10 extra volts are an issue, sometimes not. I do tend to prefer knocking down voltages for these vintage units that are most comfy in that 110-115V area though.....just seems to be the thing for keeping them comfortable - and they ARE vintage units so keeping them in the sweet spot is probably a good thing. I use a unit called a "VIZ Isotap" on my McIntosh MX110, because it is a preamp from that earlier era (50's-60's) where units were optimized for 110-117V use. My power can also run a few volts high here (122V or so), and that has my tranny on the 110 running a bit warmer than necessary. The "Isotap" allows me to knock the voltage down to the 110-115V area, where the 110 runs cooler. The Isotap is great for lower current draw devices. On monoblock tube amps I'm not so sure. I use a variac on my MC30s, but not because of high voltage (there are adjustable taps within for 117 and 125V use so that's solved), it's that I don't like all 120V hitting the amps at the same time - so I prefer to bring them up slowly. Might be worthy of a bit of investigation to see where your amp is happiest in terms of wall voltage.

I would certainly enjoy that Amperex for a while and get to know that tube thoroughly. In many ways, having this in your main 2 channel system might be a benefit for that tube (again, linearity). I tend to use Mac gear for older and less perfect recordings as well as a "SET" ish sound I get from certain builds, and my main kit for the best and more modern recordings. The subtle nuances of the gears and tube flavors are appreciable and enjoyable. When you're playing in that class of tube you'll oft find no clear winner for every purpose and gear combo, and lots of good in all of them. I find the Teles have a bit of a "kink" in the mids in Macs particularly, much like a 6L6, vs. the Amperexes being more like a "KT66" - a "super 6L6 without the kink". Fun stuff[]

The D getter Philips family 12AX7s are superlative, to be sure. There is no tube on this planet in 12AX7 with the full top to bottom realism that these tubes provide. The finish of a cymbal - and the female voice - might not be reproduceable in any way like the early Philips do. Might well be the perfect 12AX7..... BUT...... I find in McIntosh vintage gear that the Teles are still my personal favorite. In both my MX110 and twin pairs of MC30, the Teles reign supreme. I ran extensive sonic tests in multiple builds of MC30 - and one of those tests was shootouts between all Amperex vs. all Tele 12AX7. I found the Amperex/Philips 12AX7s to be a bit more linear, where the Teles have a more accentuated midrange "glow". Particularly when I used all Teles through the whole Mac sonic chain (all amps and pre), the midrange has a life that is what makes the Macs like no other - that ability to wake up those old recordings "from the dead". I also find that the lighter/quicker bass of the Teles mesh extremely well with vintage Mac gears as the bass is a bit more pronounced with most other 12AX7 (including RCA and euro Philips). I DO prefer the Philips on the phase splitters for Mac amps. When I did my tube rolls on my Mac amps I ran preselected sets of 12AX7 for a few weeks at a time, sometimes longer, to get a bigger overall sense as to the "finish" of these tubes. What I discovered was that many aspects of the sound would lean to one tube or another, but not always a clear winner. But in the overall, I selected the Teles in the vintage Mac gear, where I use my Philips/Amperex 12AX7s in everything else. All early Philips in the VRD/JM kit, as well as in the tube buffered CD. It's all preference, of course, and you might consider rolling a Tele back in there, a few months down the line, and see what you think then. You'll find reasons to love them both. Oh, and don't ever try the 50's Mullard square getter 12AX7. They are as addictive as crack. The prices will talk you out of them.

Our locality (Eastern IA/Western IL) has done OK...in fact, better than most. Our core industries are mostly fully operational; there have been some smaller plant closings and retail issues, but mostly holding steady - and those with good jobs are spending with reasonable regularity. The wealthy are still buying new homes. But most people ARE being selective. For example, this Valentine's Day was quite good for local businesses.....but then the rest of the week fell flat. People are now making more of "hallmark holidays" in leiu of more expensive possibilities. They are "picking their spots" in which to spend. Could be worse.....could be better. But in the overall, better than most, both statistically as well as much anecdotal evidence of "survivability" (low cost of living, avenues of help for people in trouble, etc). I have seen a LOT of people working jobs that would be "beneath them" 10-15 years ago, like 40-50 year old men flipping burgers and so forth, so much evidence of the general overall downgrade of the country resides here, but just not as extreme as it seems in other places.

With exception to an unexpected little birdie that showed up, I think the NFL got what it wanted out of the halftime show. Some of you people don't understand why it has to be such a "production": Because it's the SUPER BOWL, and "MEGA" is the only way the Super Bowl does business. There are a VERY select few artists who can carry the day on such a show, that also have a wide appeal (both are required). They will never make everyone happy, nor will everything come off perfect....but the recent slate of halftime Super Bowl offerings is essentially what the NFL is looking for: the biggest name entertainers and the biggest accomplishable production. Look at the bright side. It used to be a choral variety review type gig with an outfit known as "Up With People". When I attended my first Super Bowl (Bills/Giants - XXV) the only thing we cared about at the half was the Beer Line. If you were able to replay some of that stuff, you would be thanking whoever you think created you that Madonna and similar are doing the halftime shows now, because some of those old halftime shows were Homer Simpson stereotypical BAD. Madonna's not my cup of tea, but the 5.1 Dolby Digital NBC feed does sound really good here, so the theater was getting a workout yesterday. I must say that the new HT upgrades do much to assuage my non-attendance, which was tempting, as ticket prices fell markedly Friday and Saturday..... Good game, too (no rooting interest).

The pats had a roster decision to make..... They were deciding which two to keep out of three for today's game: Chad Ochocinco was expected to be that one left off the roster, but Belichick chose differently. It was a procedural move - and knowing what I know about the Pats and how they do business internally they will handle the cut player with class. He will certainly be welcome for the postgame celebration if it comes to that....

Special note on this year's game: Vegas set the line at NE (-3) after the conference championships. NY has garnered in excess of 55% of the action based on this line, but the oddsmakers DO NOT want to move the line, It would be expected that the line would drop to NE (-2) or (-2 1/2), instead you can still bet NY (+3) but must pay 30% juice (instead of the customary 10%).

Just curious if any of our Indy based folks have taken in any of the Super festivities! As an attendee of five such soirees, I can tell you that there are few parties on earth that compare[] Hope you are enjoying a rare opportunity to take in the Super Show! From past experience, it is always the "outside the norm" Super Bowl host cities (like Detroit, Jax, Minneapolis) that throw the best game week parties. Places like Miami and San Diego don't do as much during Super Bowl week - they typically will just "be themselves" with the same beaches/golfcourses/clubs that vacationers down there do anyway. But the colder weather cities always make an effort to "compensate" by throwing the biggest and best parties.....and Indy seems to be no exception. Hope you're taking advantage of this[]

That's a pretty good deal on that set. The VT25 is a very good machine, and while yes, it does have some reported issues with floating blacks, I doubt anyone aside from the most picky of videophiles would have a complaint on that. It's not far off from a VT30 in the bigger picture.....very similar machines. Even if the TV is a year old, and ran 12 hours a day for a year (and that's pushing it, but if it spent all that time in a store that's about right) you would have 4,000 hours on the set. I doubt that, though - you likely got a recondition or refurb unit that might have had an initial defect, then repaired and sold. These newer panels are rated to run well in excess of 50,000 hours, and as long as the set passes an initial week or two of watching it in your home you should be OK. If there are picture anomalies you will be much more likely to see those after a few viewing seesions at home as opposed to in store. I assume you have a return/exchange policy if you find any defects with it, and particularly if you see no issues with image retention you should have no worries. Panasonic plasmas are pretty well made machines with a good rep for service life.

Don't care about 3D. I look for a good 2D picture, which in current large models will offer 3D anyway. In plasma I like the Panasonics, in LED I like the higher end Sonys.

My mom used to have an Electrolux similar to the one in the attached pic. Sounded like a turbine running in your house and you should really have hearing protection while using it. Lots of metal... you knew it would last forever. Somehow it got out of the house and gone when we transitioned mom to a care facility. It worked great.Bruce That's a late 40's/50's era machine, and quite good for it's time. The later versions went to the power heads - with only minor changes and exceptions the late 60's through the 90's was basically unchanged. Bulletproof, easily serviceable, has all the adjustments and attachments and were very clean at the exhaust. If I replace any of my machines they will be later versions of what I have now (and they are due, as they are 45 and 20 years old respectively).

Filter Queens are another good machine. Nothing bad to say about those whatsoever. I haven't looked at the ShopVac filter setups recently. If it's "HEPA" you know it's good, and even the older Luxes and FQ's might not be full HEPA spec but they're really close. The trick is to ensure clean air at the exhaust if you want to use it indoors. I see ShopVacs as outdoor wet or dry, and a rare use inside for a specific job but usually I use the indoor machines indoors.

I'll stick with specially manufactured capacitors blessed by Tibetan monks for myself personally - but thanks anyway.

That's awesome to still see it in service. I replaced the pallet with a more sturdy variety when it was here some years ago. There's much happiness as a result of that box......

Yeahhhhh.....I seem to recall you were from my area (Moliner here). I got mine at Best Buy.....had it ordered from the Magnolia line and they delivered it inside of a week. They had an in store only sale over Veteran's Day weekend where I got it for $1799 ($100 off the usual discount price of $1899). I took the Best Buy calibration service along with the deal, and while I was a bit nervous about what level of expertise that tech would supply, he turned out to be VERY knowledgeable (and his calibration bears out on my reference test discs, as well as being very noticeable visually). Dare I say he was the most knowledgeable person in his field I have ever met at that company. I have his info too, so I can contact him if I need to. You're more than welcome to have a look at mine....I'm running an Oppo 93 BR and Mediacom cable on this and it does look quite good. PM me if necessary.....

Shop Vacs biggest issue is FILTERING. Try vacumming your garage on a late sunny afternoon, and set the canister out in the sun so you can see the light through the ejecting dust from the vac exhaust[:#] You don't want to use a Shop Vac in the house, generally speaking, unless it's post construction cleanup on an unfinished home interior, etc.... While some of these above "boutique" vacs do cost more (because yes, there are commissions and dealers to pay to sell them), some of these vacs are very good. Rainbows make great filters because the dust stays in the water. Seems simple, but harder to implement in an electrical device :-) They DO work very well. But the "King" of boutique vacs over the years was the Electrolux. Electroluxes are like Klipsch Heritage: A working person can afford one used, and it might well last longer than you will. I have two such machines - a canister from 1967, and a late model upright, and I dare say they are as good as any vacs ever made. A bit of a tale of a "move-in" to a dwelling.... When my wife and I got married, we were in need of a more appropriate home.....and luck would have it found a place through my wife's work. An old retired gentleman had a home for rent that had been a bit neglected by a single "grand-nephew", although the place had been gone over fairly well. But the living room carpet was a PROJECT. The place WAS a good deal, and a person we knew so we expected a good "owner/tenant" relationship. We discussed the living room carpet, and decided to live with it for the time being, us not being able to just pay for the project at move in, and the owner giving us such a deal as to not expect a full remodel :-). So I hit that carpet with the Lux gear. We sucked five full bags out of that carpet, then two rounds with the carpet shampooer (moist foam, but not a full water stemer method). We got that carpet pretty clean. And of course we maintained it with that Lux gear until this last fall, when we completely remodeled that room at our expense. When we pulled that old carpet, we expected it would be a bit dirty below there. If you had seen the five plus full bags of dirt we pulled from that carpet at move in you would have guaranteed that dirt would be present at the subfloor. No sir. That subfloor was CLEAN. Those repeated vacuums, plus the regular care over the years brought all the dirt through the carpet. I know all this because I am acquainted with an old Lux salesman of over 40 years, who furnished Lux vacs to several families and businesses around here over the years. Yes they are more expensive, because they are made well, and people got paid well to sell them. But I will accept - even encourage - that it was better to pay a higher price for a truly quality unit, where maker and seller got paid well, versus the big-box mentailty of today, where you get a marginal unit sold by people who make very little. Electrolux to me are like Heritage Klipsch and Mac tube gear: I would rather own one of these used than a new anything else. I have a 1967 "Super J" canister and a early 2000s upright and they work like no other. I can even do my own service work on them in many cases - simple and "modular" so I can swap out brush bars with ease. If one of these fail I will buy another like them. I actually like the stuff they were building about 10 years ago, and would buy one of that age and refurb it to new spec for another 30 years of service. It's sooooo nice to buy something once and not have to do it again for years......if ever[] While that old "Electrolux way" of selling vacs door-to-door is a method that doesn't play well today, the quality they had was never out of style in my book....one of a few old classic brands I still appreciate now.

Mine works OK too.

Finding the right tech is KEY to your quality vintage amp experience. If you can find the right tech, vintage amps can not only be a good way to sonic bliss, they often can be THE BEST choice in many systems. One of the reasons I like vintage tube gear is that those gears usually are more simplified, making it easier to not just find parts......but to find the best SOUNDING parts as well. Not to mention the quality of available techs in that specialty, which make owning cherished vintage tube gears not only viable, but top performers.

You are to be congratulated for your install skills! You sure know how to make the most of the space that you have. I tend to see rooms laid out as such to be an HT challenge (as in "there's no room for Cornwalls back there"), but you have made it look great!