MeloManiac

Agree! My Denon with Rp160m is nice and warm. However, my new Marantz pm5005 doesn't go well with my vintage Heresys. The HK430 with the Heresys is excellent!

Welcome to the forum! I 've owned the RP160M speakers, which are very similar, for 2 years. They are in my living room. They've gotten even better since I got them. The Echo Link Amp doesn't get very positive reviews sound quality wise. https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/amazon-echo-link-amp The reviewer in the link above may be biassed, though. Still, if you have any other amplifier in the house, you should try it with your new speakers. The RP600Ms are great with vintage solid state amps too. If you are lucky, you can pick one up for little or no money. Or a relative or friend may have one unused. Anyhow, you did a really smart investment and you are looking at many years of musical enjoyment.

Correct me is I'm wrong, but Technics, at the time, had a huge reputation for quality, while now it is a lesser sought after vintage brand. I recently came across a Sierra branded amplifier, at give away price... This one certainly has the looks of quality, don't know how it sounds, though.

Raspberry Pi?

Nice build. What does the battery pack do?

Yeah I was so in a hurry to listen... Going to rearrange and 'de-clutter' my audio corner... I have same feeling I had after I bought my analogue camera Eos Canon 1v: after that, I was cured from my 'GAS' (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) for cameras, because nothing could do better than that camera. The HK430 plays in the same league.... 😉

Ode to my newly acquired H/K 430 Please bear with me. I know this anecdotal, and I have read similar stories on this forum but I would like to share it with you anyhow. So in the beginning of the week I bought a H/K 430 on an auction site from a private seller. He had a 100% rating as a buyer, but never had sold anything on the site. So that made me a bit nervous. It arrived on Friday (yesterday). After I contacted the seller to thank him for the excellent transaction, he told me he actually hadn't intended to sell it. He had owned it for a while, unused, and then put it on the auction site. Then he started listening to it. He loved it so much that he decided to restore it, so he had ordered an upgrade kit. That's when I came into the game and bought it and paid for it immediately with Paypal. He then realized he'd forgotten to take it off the auction site. For fear of losing his 100% rating, he reluctantly decided to let it go. So when I got home from work, the H/K 430 was in my carport, packed in a Canon A3 printer carbon box. I couldn't wait to unpack and to start listening. The amp is in pretty mint condition (for a 44 year old) and all the lights are working too. Connected to the 1972 Heresy's, The sound is simply amazing. After I connected an FM-antennae, the vu-meter went up to 7 or 8 for the main stations. At first, I thought the phono stage was just average, but later in the evening, it sounded much better (or my brain had adapted). Now I think it is amazing. Also CDs and my DAC sound pretty amazing. As the hours progressed, the bass tones became even more prominent. But all this, my friends, is just introductory. Late at night, my wife returned home. She was in a terrible state: a very long, tough working day, followed by 3 hours of difficult cello class. She was exhausted. I convinced her to take a seat in my listening rocking chair to have a quick listen to my new amp. Just five minutes. She reluctantly gave in and sat down. I started playing Katie Melua’s “The Closest thing to Crazy”. The wife closed her eyes. ‘Now play “Nine Million Bycicles” please.” Her eyes were still closed. When that song ended, she said: “Now play “Oblivion” (Il Gardellino).’ And she added: “Does it also play any louder.” It was already past midnight. Our 3 teenage kids were already in bed. She: “Turn it up a bit.” Now usually, she would say something like: “Can you turn that damn music down please.” But not tonight! So we ended up browsing through our Spotify playlist until way past 1 o’clock. All stress and exhaustion was wiped off her face. As we were going through the ‘usual suspects’ on my playlist, I had an existentialist experience: it was as if I had never heard them before. Really. Just like that. The more I focussed, the more they sounded completely new to me. Mind you, no alcohol consumption was involved. 😉

Well, today my HK430 was delivered. It is unrestored, in original condition, all is working. First impression: the radio section is amazing, phono stage okay. Will be testing CD and DAC in the course of the night. Perfect combo with my 1972 Heresy speakers. Update: falling in love with the stereo fm all over again... Update 2: the twin power really makes my 1972 Heresy shine in the low frequencies. Update 3: I know it's a cliché, but I 'm hearing new details/aspects in my music.

I read somewhere that tubes that are popular among guitarists are different (warmer?) than the more 'accurate' tubes popular among audiophiles. Still, some say it is the architecture of the amplifier that determines the warm sound, not the tubes. Leben, a famous Japanese audiophile brand, builds their amps around the stock of NOS valves they have on their shelves. For instance, the Leben CS600 is now replaced by the Leben CS600X, which has different tubes. Inside, the architecture has been changed dramatically by the engineers, though the outside of the ampl looked identical. What you are asking is like asking for the 'secret formula' of Audiophile Universe. Many have opnions on this, few are experts. (I know I am not...) https://www.psaudio.com/article/whats-the-warmth-in-tube-amps/ This is what I gather from the artilce: According to the linked article, the warm sound has much to do with the 'darkness', the noise the amp produces. The signal-to-noise ratio is crucial here, for phono stage, and another spec I would look at is the 'total harmonic distortion': some amps have 0.3, while others are 0.03 For hifi, the latter is better, for guitar amps, some will find the 0.3 more interesting. While at first sight, there is little difference between 0.3 and 0.03, but in fact it is huge, and certainly audible, esp with efficient speakers such as Klipsch.

I would go for a recent iPad, with recent OS and security features. Amazon's Kinde Fire tablets are cool too, I bought a dirt cheap Fire 7 tablet several years ago. It still runs Spotify fine.

When mine arrives (can't wait...), I'll first listen to the as-it-is for a while. I've already found an upgrade kit: https://www.audio-high-store.com/product/harman-kardon-430-upgrade-kit-audio-capacitors/

After reading these posts, and much deliberation in the months leading up to now, I won the bid on a HK 430 in original untouched state. Just curious about the state is will be in. The seller explained he unsoldered one capacitor to do measurements, then ordered an upgrade kit, but never got to replacing the caps. He put back the original capacitor. I asked for aditional pictures and he sent some in low resolution. Had me worried a bit, yet I bought it... Very excited about all this, hope it will play when I connect my 1972 Heresy set. Any thougths or suggestions welcome. I'll post again here on the forum when the amp arrives.

I came along another song that pushes speakers to their limit, at sub 40Hz levels... Play this at your own risk! Chameleon, Trentemoller

B-stock Heritage in Europe... very, very rare...

Prices in Europe: Black matte H3 duo is 1,822 dollar, wall nut veneer pair is 2,355 dollar. H4 pair is 3,230 euro, or 3,821 dollar.

HIII Matte black 780 euro per unit, 1540 euro for two. Walnut veneer is 1990 euro per pair here in Europe.

Now that the Heresy 4 has been available for a while (and its price has slightly dropped), I've come to find a site (in Europe) where they sell the Heresy 3 at reduced price (around 780 euro per unit). It's the black, matte version. I'm mildly interested, but I wonder why they are being sold per unit, and of course, when you buy them, they will not have consecutive serial numbers. Any thoughts on this?

The iFi Audio Retro Stereo 50 looks in really mint condition and it is a no-brainer. When I was in my first steps into the journey through audiophile land, I came across one, being sold used in Bruges (Belgium). I hesitated because of the price (similar to yours) and then it was gone, of course. I've always regretted not buying it, because since then, I've never seen it again being sold pre-owned in my region. At that price, the iFi is hard to beat. You can't even buy a diy-kit for that price/watt output and features.

Putting a laptop on a heat producing device, or a heat holding surface like a cushion or a blanket, is never a good idea. In the past, I've 'bricked' two laptops by just doing that... Putting them on risers or vented stands is definitely much better.

Nice!

I followed the link on this picture and ended up watching the video below... It made me realise that using high end gear, in this case 'enameled' wiring, may lead to problems for the uninitiated (here: you must remove the (invisible) enamel on the copper before soldering). http://www.cardas.com/litz.php

The RP160Ms are very decent speakers too. Some around here call the Heresy bookshelf speakers but that's irony. These guys live in the middle ages and read medieval manuscripts folio size only. ;-))

I wish I had them over at my place... Turn them into magnificent 'beat boxes'! Here in Europe, a 'turd' like that is worth a lot of money...

https://hifimediy.com/savitech-asio-driver-installation-guide/ What you experience is 'normal': From the link ABOVE: Note: It will say Device “Not Available” even when the DAC is connected, it will only say the DAC name when music is playing. The sample and bit rate is selected by the source file, and not in the ASIO control center. And here is the answer to your original question: The Windows output has other limitations: it can max output 192kHz sample rates If you choose for ASIO output, you can get higher sample rates.

https://www.klipsch.com/products/the-sixes#product-downloads Here it works, I've just downloaded the driver...