JohnW

Ok, Day two was yesterday. Did a recalibration, repositioned the sub, and am happy to report that movies are quite enjoyable again. I have a weird room--vaulted ceilings--12' high on the speaker wall, 8' high on the back, listening wall. Ideally, I need to position my sub up front, so the waves are compressed and bounced the same way the fronts are...but there's no room. So I think I've found the best possible spot in the rear of the room. Still issues, but Audyssey crosses my Cornwalls over at 40 Hz, so the sub is on duty only for the low low frequencies. Seems to come in a bit abruptly. May need to figure out how to smooth the falloff. The Audyssey MultEQ app comes with this amazing curve editor feature. After it analyzes the room, it tweaks the receiver for a flat response, and generates a graph with a curve representing the response it's achieved (also gives you a before and after--really amazing stuff). You can plot points on the curve and edit it. So I punched up a bit of the upper midrange, and I think, aside from the abrupt subwoofer, we're good. This thing gets warm, and my rack is kind of enclosed on three sides, with little moving air. I'll be rebuilding the rack and putting the Jolida on top of it for cooling purposes (and prominent display) this weekend. Now for some time listening. Oh, and obligatory unboxing pics:

Will do. No, I may have to bypass the amp for the fronts and use just the receiver for movies.

I'm not even THINKING about new tubes until these are toast. Well, that's the plan, anyway.

No, that Amazon product would be perfect--if I can't make movies work with the Jolida. Not convinced it's necessary yet. Can't keep both amps. Deal I made with the wife. 🤷‍♂️ Don't need to anyway. The amp is only to improve the 2-channel playback. I think the next order of business is a fresh room calibration and then possibly relocation of my sub. It's never really worked well in it's current position, and I don't have room for two. New parts for the rack on their way. The Jolida should look fantastic on top!

That's EXACTLY what I'm after! Thank you!

Ok, here's my detailed technical analysis: something doesn't sound right. I'm sure this is about what the receiver is sending the amp. I'll try running Audyssey again with the Jolida, and if that doesn't get me closer to sorted, I'll get a switching box...because the receiver is wonderful with movies, and just needed something extra for music.

This thing is tricky with movies, too. May need to find some box that switches between receiver speaker output and amp speaker output. Any ideas? Currently have the amp on and in my rack to see how warm it gets in there. 7.5" tall, 8" space. Warm, but not hot. Still, I may need to rebuild the rack and put the tubes on top, plus buy a fan for the top of the Marantz, which gets toasty as well.

I'll keep it through the New Year...see how it works out.

Ok, first impressions, first night, out of the box: Smoother and more detailed than the Parasound. Better-defined soundstage. I'm feeding it the preouts from my Marantz SR7013. Switching back and forth between room correction via Audyssey MultEQ XT32 and Pure Direct, I think I prefer room correction. Kind of a weird room. But I need to recalibrate soon with the 3502p in the signal path. I've got some weird bass thing going on. May need to relocate the sub. By the way, it sounds fantastic. But so did the Parasound. Bit of a buzz plugged straight into the wall, but it's inaudible while listening. I'll try it in my power conditioner tomorrow. It comes with a 60-day money back guarantee, so I'm going to see what happens. It's true about it revealing shitty recordings. Turns out some of my favorite songs are shitty recordings. But Norah Jones, Nat Cole, Sinatra, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Johnny Cash, Diana Krall, Stan Getz, all sound amazing. Too much listening with my head tonight. Too focused on form. By the way, if you've never listened to this, listen to this:

Jolida 3502p.

Oceanside's a bit over 20 miles to the west. They start there and head east to us. We usually get Fedex deliveries later in the day/early evening. But you never know....

Oh lordy.

Yeah, but who sells it?

Shipment arrival pushed up to tomorrow!

So what’s this I read about warming up your tube gear before you use it?

Wow...$60? I had no idea.

Even at concert volume, it still needs to sound like I’m at a concert.

Found folks like that on motorcycle forums as well. I guess most folks are just nice like that.

The more I read about him and his Dynacos, the more intrigued I become. I live in Escondido, CA...just north of San Diego.

Well see, that's the thing, man...I have a pair of Cornwalls. Maybe "rock out volume" should be handled differently? I dunno. We will definitely see.

Reading up on the Bob Latino kits. Hmmm... Ok, I'm in a holding pattern until December 1, when the Jolida gets here. Then I'm in another holding pattern for another couple of weeks while the tubes open up.

So you have to pay stupid money to get decent wattage (over 10 wpc) on a SET amp?

Ok, now I know the difference between an SCA and an ST. Are all these Dynacos SET?

Omg I stayed up late reading forum arguments about tubes, and am happy to discover that no one agrees on which tube is better for anything...unless I want to spend twice the value of my amp on some 1965 NOS General Electric 6550s or New Jersey Tung-Sols. So I won’t have to spend more money on upgrading the Russian Tung-Sols that come with my amp. You know, if I decide to keep it. Oh Christ, I’m starting to sound like one of you crazy Tube People.

1) What’s the difference between an SCA and an ST? 2) Who’s Dave Gillespie? 3) efb? 4) what difference do the output boards make? 5) What are output boards? Do I really need to know how to build an amp before I can enjoy it?