MeloManiac

Thank you for that insight. I was not aware of all this. Actually, Astral Weeks came out the year before I was born. Besides the obvious classics like Brown Eyed Girl and GLORIA, I truly discovered Van Morrison almost accidentally in the mid 80s when I bought two of his albums (No Guru, No Method, No teacher and Poetic Champions Compose) by mistake. These two kind of grew on me as a student at uni. Later I bought Moondance (1970) on CD, which is a classic of course, and Irish Heartbeat, and Avalon Sunset (both on vinyl). Avalon Sunset has the killer hit (Have I told you lately), but is actually an amazing recording that everyone should have in their collection. Astral Weeks takes a special place in the story: for all these years, I have listened to the album on some illegal carrier, can't remember if it was cassette or cd-rom. There are no true 'hits' on this album, but many songs I found mesmerizing in a way. The arrangements are very noticable too: the strings, the harpsichord, the flutes. Also, this is no folk, no jazz, what is this thing? The closest thing to a single/hit is 'Madame George', but it lasts 9'25 (!!!). That's insane. And then there is the intertextuality: in Sweet Thing he sings "And I will walk and talk, In gardens all wet with rain" (in 1968) and in "In the garden" (1986) : After a summer shower when I saw you standin', Standin' in the garden, in the garden wet with rain". This kind of time scale blows my mind and reminds me to put things into perspective when it comes to my own, personal life.

Bought this one today. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison

It's the Tubecube 7 with a Chromecast!

Hi you all, I waited a while to respond because my gear is not an exact match to the OP's question. I own 1972 Heresies and the original Leben CS300, of which the original Sovtek tubes were replaced with their Gold Lion equivalents. I still have the original tubes, but haven't used them. I listen a lot to vinyl, CDs and Spotify through a streamer. Check my signature for the details. For vinyl, depending on the record, I dial the Bass Boost +3dB or +5dB, in order to increase the low frequencies a bit. For the rest, I leave it at 0. As for volume, Heresies are highly sensitive, so with 12 Watt I have more than enough decibels to fill my 10m x 5m living area. I have never gone higher than 12 o'clock. As for sound quality, I get a very analogue sound, even from digital sources. The thing I had to get used to is this: my Leben and Heresies make good recordings shine, no matter what the carrier is, and they are very unforgiving for bad recordings. Sometimes I think 'Really, so bad' and I must force myself to put in one of my reference albums (eg Dire Straits) to make sure my system is ok, and then I get back to the album I was originally listening to and must conclude that it's really that bad. Some will argue that a 12 watt Leben is best for acoustic music (baroque, jazz, folk...) and less suited for for symphonic rock, classical symphonies etc. But I'm not sure that's right. I have some albums that are complex and still sound really good. There are some 'limitations' you have to be aware of: there is no easy way to connect a subwoofer, and the Leben doesn't have bass/treble dials. Some people like this. The Leben gets really warm. You need to leave enough space to ventilate.

My condolences to his family and close ones. A sudden loss like this can be devastating. My thoughts go out to you all.

That Union Research Simply Italy model surely looks very promising too! http://www.unisonresearch.com/en/products/valves/integrated-amplifiers/simply-italy.html There are quite a lot of fans of the Prima Luna brand here on the forum as well. The Leben CS300F (or CS300X s) also falls within your budget: https://www.hansaudio.nl/leben/

You may want to look a the Synthesis brand as well, whose gear is made in Italy. Their entry level model, Synthesis Soprano (12W) is a very all round machine and has more than power enough to drive your Heresies. http://www.synthesis.co.it/product.php?id=90 https://hifipig.com/review-synthesis-soprano-integrated-valve-amplifier-with-dac/ Greetings from Belgium, btw!

Would any of you consider using the Puffin for 78 records? http://parksaudiollc.com/ Seems to me the ultimate preamp.

I've used the TubeCube7 (one) with my 1972 Heresies for over a year. They sound pretty impressive and with a CD player or streamer they play loud enough. I did buy Sovtek EL84M tubes and a mechanical switch to connect several inputs. If I were you I'd start with one simple TubeCube7 first.

Vic has a pretty impressive personal system... https://www.trans-fi.com/my-system He's got the Puffin pre-amp, btw. Have been looing at the Puffin for a while myself, but taxes and import duty (I live in Europe...) are holding me back: would have to add between 100 and 200 euro to the price... Been in contact with Shannon too, great guy. http://parksaudiollc.com/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DKHM2HS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07DKHM2HS&linkCode=as2&tag=parksaudio-20&linkId=c6d5c6a70658a4af2da4ccef9614c08e

I'm totally impressed by the craft and technique that went into this project! Also, that tone arm... Had never seen anything like it. https://www.trans-fi.com/terminatortonearm.htm

Please post some info about your turntable and that Tonearm. Was it made by Nasa?

I tested this song from CD, on my Leben with lows turned up 6dB. All was fine. The crossover may not be completely fixed, or some part of the crossover may resonate on that particular frequency. After I had recapped my H1s, this is what happened to me, I was sloppy when putting the crossovers back. Got the problem solved when I fixated the crossover.

That's very interesting to watch. I wonder if they work under purified air (dust free) conditions. I don't think so. But I do think this would further improve quality.

First I thought you were a spammer. 😉 They are on sale, btw:

Considering the price difference, the JBL speakers are doing pretty fine, based upon your comparison. It's a bit 'nut' to compare them with a high end speaker like the CW4. 😉

The final thoughts at the end are interesting: what about being the 'best looking' and the 'best sounding' receiver... That's all very subjective and cannot be expressed with a cipher/number... The video focusses completely on the 'watt wars' and less on the technology, eg harman kardon's twin engine technology.

Still alive and kicking!

Fabulous look, jealous of the space!

I bet you all know this song, but you kind of forgot it ever existed.... Dire Straits' Twisting by the Pool EP Comes with a very jazzy Badges, posters, stickers, T-shirts with Knopler doing some scat singing, believe it or not...

Yes, but they do look like a UFO from outer space! 😉 I understand you point of view. This morning I put time in switching my RP160Ms with my Heresy's. My wife and I had gotten used to the Heresy's in the living room, but I decided to switch anyhow. After some heavy labour by both of us, I finally hooked up the smaller RP160Ms. Within one second we were both shaking our heads and ...switched them back again. The Heresy's + Leben CS300 are perfect for our larger living room, while the RP160Ms+H/K430 are a perfect match for our den upstears.

Not trying to start a fight here, but hoping to learn: why do some speaker designers (and consumers) choose for low-sensitive speakers and high powered amplifiers? Is it just to be able to show off with big numbers, is it to push the consumer into spending more on heavy equipment, or is there actually an advantage on the level of accoustic quality and sound quality for low sensitive speakers? Why, for instance, did KEF design the highly successful LS50 (Meta) speaker, which is 85dB and requires a hefty, powerful amplifier? Edit: "In general the main reason to design a less efficient speaker is to enable more extended bass out of a smaller speaker. This has been the popular trend for the most part ever since higher power SS amps started to make their mark." (https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/is-there-any-advantage-to-lower-efficiency-speakers-87-or-below) If someone could elaborate on this, I would appreciate it.

Back in the early 1980s, Dire Straits' Making Movies. With an amazing, daring album design. Tunnel of Love and Romeo and Juliet were to become classics!

That's so much ME!

If you can put them in the corners, left and right, that would be ideal, in fact! Steve Huff wrote about the CW4s too: https://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2020/04/13/klipsch-cornwall-iv-speaker-review-the-gentle-giant/ This is his setup: