JohnW

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/108176205871278/?ref=notif&hoisted_items=409521350555811

Just putting it out there…

Anyone on their way from NorCal to SoCal?

How much to get a pair of '78 La Scalas from Santa Cruz to San Diego?

Hey Shakey--have you posted a comparo between the LSIIs and the CWIVs yet?

Ah. The ones in Arizona? (Edit)—ah, no, the Michaeledwardjones pair—-can’t wait to hear the comparison!

Those JJ short plates look a lot like old 6922s…

Kind of love this tube in my Jolida 3502P.

I passed. Too beat to make the drive, not quite enough money in my pocket yet.

There sure is.

One of the bass cabinets has a mashed corner. It may be repairable. I made an offer. If no one beats it I may be headed that way in the morning.

https://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/ele/d/escondido-klipsch-rb5-ii-bookshelf/7374677115.html

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1185144371915987/ 89s with AL-3 crossovers. He's asking $3500. What's a more likely price to get them for?

The best luck I've had with a deeper soundstage were Teles and Matsushitas. So far...

Oh man. I’ve just spent the last year chasing The Sound. I honestly don’t know how many tubes I’ve bought. To answer your question: the only way to know for sure is buy some teles and find out. I gave up on 12ax7s a while ago when I discovered 5751s. Turns out I prefer GE. At the moment I’m trying to determine the better replacement for 12at7s: is it 4024s, 5965s, 6021s, or 12av7s? I need a couple days to listen and make another spreadsheet.

This amp has the option of switching to EL34s…but zi wouldn’t know where to start.

Which KT-88 do you prefer?

Update: replaced the Tung-Sols with new manufacture Gold Lion KT-88s (major improvement, but after researching more, maybe should have gone with Psvanes or Shuguangs), and now have a large collection of NOS 12ax7 and 12at7 pairs, in all their variants—a collection of sublime sound combinations. No one warns you about the tube-rolling rabbit hole.

I've been using a Marantz SR7013 AVR as a DAC and preamp to my Jolida Fusion 3502P for a year now, and after rolling in some good NOS tubes, I love it. I have a bypass switch so I can use the AVR for movies, and the Jolida for stereo, straight into my Cornwalls. Bonus: the AVR has Audyssey room correction. Best of both worlds.

Of course, eventually I'll switch out the Gold Lion KT88s with Shuguang Treasures. Or, knowing me, vintage Mullards. :D

Using them in V1 and V2, and paired with the right 12at7 in V3 and V4, if I can find a combo that gives me a wide, deep soundstage, my search is complete. Allegedly. :D

I know it's been a while, but do you still have the Sylvanias?

Update: I started buying NOS tubes. Oh man. And I bought a tester--friend had his dad's old Conar 224 and four large boxes of tubes (yes, including some very very nice ones--RCA, GE, Sylvania, Amperex). He sold me the whole mess for $50. So, without going into ALL the details: -Telefunken and Matsushita 12ax7s introduced me to "soundstage depth". -I'm a compulsive tube tester. I'll stand in the garage for hours testing tubes, and writing the triode values on the boxes. -I created a spreadsheet to compare the sound of every combination of my 12at7s and 12ax7s based on things like: punch, airiness, harshness, soundstage depth and width, etc... -Then I bought more tubes, so I have to start over with that. But most of all, I've discovered that in this amp, NOS GE 5751s beat the rest of my 12ax7s, and NOS GE 6201s beat all of my 12at7s. That is, until the Sylvanias, RCAs, and Mullards I've ordered arrive. And now I'm eyeballing Shuguang Treasure KT88s. You know, for down the road. And of course, I've chatted with Jared at Jolida about shipping my amp to them for capacitor and resistor upgrades. I'm just chasing fractional improvements at this point. But all in all, I'm having fun, I haven't regretted anything yet, and my system does sound truly sublime. Now I have to cull the tube herd on Ebay.

Curious what you thought about the Jolida. I bought a 3502p about the same time to go with my Cornwalls. Currently rolling the preamp (12ax7) and power driver (12at7) tubes.

George-- I get it now. Previously, I simply thought the point was to get my system to a superlative level of sound quality--one where I was truly satisfied with what was coming out of my speakers. This was the motivation for buying the Cornwalls, then replacing my Onkyo receiver with the Marantz receiver. Had I understood how to properly set up and operate the Marantz at the time, I would have been more than satisfied with that. I thought I had set it up correctly, but it seems I had a bit more to learn. But since I didn't know that, I thought the answer was to get a really good two-channel amp, which led me to the Jolida 3502P with new tubes. Everything happens for a reason. So here I am, with both, and enjoying both. I love the detail and the warmth of the "Marantz sound," and simultaneously, I love the completely different experience of the "tube sound,"--the depth, the smoothness, the fullness, yet still detailed (and the amp looks truly cool on top of my rack--let's be honest). I think I get it now. One isn't necessarily better than the other. Just different qualities. Like listening to two different guitars. This is a good place to stop for now.