Painful Reality

He he… Anyone from back then still hanging around? Paul Parrot, Dean G, etc.?

Still have this one in semi-retirement, the Panthēon Audio Seth, a PP2A3 amp.

Pantheon Audio is a bit 20 years ago. Some old timers on this forum may remember these.

My Line Magnetic LM518ia and Pantheon Audio Sekhmet (D3a driving a 300b). Currently driving a pair of CW IV (having replaced a pair of Forte III).

Hi Kudret, I found my Hickock tube tester manual. I think you should have it... Please let me know of your address so I can ship it to you. Drop me a mail at jeff.lessard at hotmail.com

For my ears, they are absolute KRap. If you like earing the deeeetails instead of the music, just go for it. You'll like them. Overprice hype of a doubful quality is my rating. This being said, I am refering to the stuff they did around 2000. Things might have change.

You do not buy an album from The Stooges for the sound quality. You do not buy an album from Sebadoh for the sound quality. You don't buy a Clash album for the sound quality. And so forth. Yet if you don't, you will miss on something.

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The Plitron are absolutely great for a 300B amp. I built a JELab 300B type of amp using Plitron (2.5K primary impedance). It was within my best "non parafeed" sounding amps. The only drawback is their size. These are HUGE. As for the OPT I do prefer for a 2A3/45, it would be the EXO36/EXO45 from MagneQuest (mind you I'm highly biased in favor of these). But you would need to go the parafedd route. The TFA204 from MQ would also be excellent in the air gapped category.

According to my "taste" Sowter, Partridge and MagneQuest are my favorite output transformers. I never liked the japanese/asian stuff (Tango, James, Tamura, etc...).

Things don't change much around here it seems! Oh well...

I arrived in Perth early February. Cool place but unrealistic price of houses. Other than that, it's a paradise for a die hard cyclist. I'll hit perfection when I'll get a Perth based job and ditch the fly in fly out (though 4-3 ain't that bad). Crap from the wall is an understatement. I've had better line voltage in Senegal...

Then go for the old fashioned wood planks covered by plaster... That is what I had in my best sounding room ever. Masonry walls sounds like shit.

Coax are cool. I usually love Tannoys. The Trends did sound like crap with the 16 ohms load from the Lamhorns. Dean judiciously made me remember that digital and solid state amps don't like high impedence load (V=RI and all).

Things are pretty good actually. The weather of Perth is incredible. Life should remain good until the mining boom goes bust. Some dowsides are: horribly bright rooms due to the masonery used everywhere even in interior walls. awful line power fluctuating anywhere from 220V to 260V. It's power conditioner country if you want to use tubes. incredibly expensive houses

OK... Seems that my initial assessment was a bit rough for this cheap POS. While I still think this amp is uninvolving, turdish and yet another proof that you should never trust what you read but only trust what you hear... I'll admit that this $130 thingie beats some quite more expensive offering. I just realized that after setting the foot in an Hi-Fi audio store (a thing I haven't done in a loooong while). I didn't remember how much the typical HiFi range between $1000 and $3000 sucked (Conrad Johnson, Musical Fidelity, etc.). Another thing I didn't remember was how boxy minimonitors do sound. I wanted to buy a pair for a temporary replacement for my CWs (or Lamhorns) but the sound was so crappy that even the CW and their horrible integration in my small listening room is still better than what came out of these small things. Moral of the story the Trend still sucks but it might be a relief that costlier amps also sucks. the CWs suck in a small room but minimonitors under $3000 sucks even more. don't bring your 2 years old daughter with you when you go to a HiFi store (unless you give her a sedative).

I bought it, tried it and found it to be a POS. One of those internet frenzy that pop out from time to time. Extreme lazyness, lack of time and too cheap a reselling price for me to bother anyway will makes for this lame chinese wonder to remain in the garage with the redback spiders.

POS = Piece of... filter won't allow the last one. The room is too small in order to have any kind of useful treatment. Lamhorns need a long and relatively narrow room to be happy. CW are more forgiving but demand more than a cupboard. It's a rented house so its only temporary.

Tut tut tut... I think it's worth $130.

I'll have to confess than the brightness of the room might push the end result (POS+CW) from Blah to Bad. I'm still stuck with a rather poor room that would benefit from mini-monitors instead. I didn't really check the bias since there was no pop at all at turn on. While quite subjective as a way of performing measurements, it is a good indicator that you're not shooting DC in the drivers. I'll double check with a multimeter though.

Just hooked this $130 POS to the CW. Guess what. Crap too. A bit less than with a 16 ohms load but still. Me think most of you who go "wow" are saying in reality "wow I only paid $130 for something that makes sound". Oh the power of internet. For the next cheapo hype, I strongly suggest you shell out the $130 to get the missie in a nice restaurant instead. We never know, you might get lucky in the evening. Can't think of a better way to get a life.

From experience I can say that the Khorns in an unsuitable room are bordering horrible.

Dunno... an end result?

Ever heard of Montreux or St-Germain-des-Prés?

Not Klipsh. Not Bose. Lamhorns are the perfect illustration that everything in audio is a compromise (and overpriced). Trained audiophiles, according to your own definiton of it, have give it two thumbs up. http://sixmoons.com/audioreviews/lamhorn/18.html http://www.lowtherloudspeakers.co.uk/lamhorn.html Not too many impurety in this wine... But aromas some are preferring might be found lacking.