jt1stcav

Thanks, Tony. Like you, I'm happy where I'm at, and I'd still love to own La Scalas or Klipschorns someday. Had I not lost my job and went bankrupt years ago and gone in a different audio direction like I did with SET, I would've kept my high-powered SS McIntosh amp (or traded up) and later invested in a high-end tube linestage from McIntosh, Manley, conrad-johnson, BAT, or Audio Research to name a few...and big Magnepans! Who knows what the future may bring...I just might go in that direction again! As much as I love SET and horns, I love inefficient, power-hungry Maggies just as much (if not more)!

Congrats on the classic La Scalas, neo. I've never listened to a pair yet (only Klipschorns, Cornwalls, and Heresys), but I'm sure I'd like 'em too...maybe someday when I have more room for them. Any plans to possibly modify their networks, or just leave them original?

Like Josh said, go on Craig's site: http://www.nosvalves.com/ and see what classic tube amps he has available. Or go on eBay and find one similar to what Craig restores (H.H. Scott, Dynaco, Fisher, Pilot, EICO, Heathkit, et al) that's within your budget and then send it off to him to do his magic. After Craig's done with it, you'll essentially have a brand new tube amp for a fraction of a new one that'll last you for many years to come.

There are indeed plenty of tube amp manufacturers out there...also check eBay or AudiogoN for starters. By the way, an integrated amp is like a stereo receiver but without the tuner section...an amp and preamp rolled into one chassis. If you already have a preamplifier to control your sources and to adjust volume, balance and tone, then a stereo amplifier (like the McIntosh MC225 you heard) is all you need. The TAD-60 is designed by Paul Grzybek of Tube Audio Design and built by the same Hong-Kong firm BEZ that built my own 300B SET amp. Although I have never heard the 50Wpc TAD-60, I can attest from my BEZ amp and preamp that they're well built and affordable tube components that mate well with Klipsch (I've used Cornwalls, KG-5.5s and my present RB-75s satisfactorily): http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/TAD-60.html

New or used? Integrated or just a power amp? American only, or from anywhere? Low powered single-ended or higher powered push-pull type?

So do I now...not so back in the day when the money was flowin' like milk from a cash-cow (whatever the hell that means).

Does this problem stem from a faulty mastered disc or any disc you play? Are your tweeters the problem at high gain levels or at any volume? Has this problem just crept up since purchasing the Cary SET amp or does any amp connected to your RF-3IIs reproduce this problem with high notes/vocal parts you're experiencing? IMHO any Klipsch should work well with SET amps as long as their efficiency rating is at least 92dB @ 1W/1M (the higher the better), just as any high quality SET power amp should mate well with Klipsch (as long as the loudspeakers are sensitive enough to handle their lower power). If your Cary is 15Wpc, that shouldn't pose a problem for your 98dB efficient RF-3IIs; my no-name Chinese 300B SET stereo amp is only 6.5Wpc, and they drive my 97dB sensitive RB-75's titanium tweeters without a hitch, and without any problems at higher registers or vocals at normal listening levels (a different story altogether if I crank up the gain and the amp clips and the monitors distort). FWIW...

Besides Klipsch? For under $10,000 I'd buy the MG 20.1 Magneplanars. Auditioned a pair when I bought the MGLR1s back in '99 and it was by far the best my ears have ever heard! But that's just me...

Keith, I don't know where you reside, but there's a deal on nice SMG-a planars in Chicago: http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrplan&1210095324

Damn, Keith...that sucks! Hope you hear from the seller soon. I assume no money has changed hands yet...

Thanks for the reply, Tom; I figured as much (knowing what it was like with the MGLR1s and my massive SS amps). It was a pipedream, I know...maybe someday I'll be in a better financial position to reconsider Maggies and a more suitable amp to drive them for a second system. I'd still be interested in using tubes with Magnepans, even if only a tube preamp to control a SS amp (or a bigger PP tube amp). I'll definately be interested in Keith's observations when his SMGs arrive.

Keith, since you'll be driving your SMGs with a Rogue tube power amp, it got me thinking (which is a bad thing)...what do Maggies sound like with tube amplification? With my current 6.5Wpc 300B SET stereo amp I used to drive my 91dB efficient 4 ohm Triangle Zephyr 2-way towers sufficiently. The sound was phenomenal to say the least with SET power/SRPP tube linestage, but I had to keep the gain control at bay or the Triangles could easily distort (at over 90dB SPL), which is why I replaced them with Klipsch RB-75s. Since SMG and SMG-a planars are both 90dB efficient at 4 ohms, I wonder how crazy it would be to try driving them with my present 300B SET amp? I know I should consider a more powerful amp at a minimum of 20Wpc (according to Magnepan specs), and there are plenty of 20 watt PP tube amps available. When I owned my MGLR1s, I never heard 'em thru vacuum tubes (used Carver and McIntosh SS amps with a Carver C-4000 pre), so I can only imagine how splendid Maggies would sound with tubes. It's a foolish notion, I know. Plus I'm on a fixed income right now, so I can't afford being in the market for both a pair of SMGs and another more powerful tube amp too. If only my current SET amp was 10 watts or more, I'd really consider finding another pair of Maggies (I do miss the MGLR1s)...[]

2-Way Quasi-Ribbon Planar-Magnetic midtreble : 58in midbass : 370in (discontinued) | 50Hz-16kHz +/-4dB | 6dB/octave @ 2400Hz | 20-100Wrms @8Ohms | 90dB/2.83v/m @500Hz | 4Ohms Wow, the older SMGs have a pretty decent spec sheet. And they're more efficient than most Maggies (from about 82 to 88dB or thereabouts). Impressive!

Amy, any chance the official Klipsch baseball caps will become available again?

What amplifier do you plan on using to drive your Maggies? Years ago my first high-end loudspeakers were an inexpensive pair of MGLR1 planars (slighty bigger than today's MMGs), and they sounded spectacular! Being only 86dB efficient, though, they did require loads of high-current power, first from a Carver TFM-35x (350Wpc @ 4 ohms), and a mint McIntosh MC7200 (300Wpc @ 4 ohms). At over 95dB SPL, the Maggies sucked up nearly every bit of juice from both amps, so if you like to play your music loud at times, you will need a powerful amp to really make 'em sing. If my budget wasn't so tight, I'd love to own a second audio system with another pair of Magneplanars...

Spot on, Dave![Y] Once having a residence pipe organ at one's disposal also helped! Knowing how the instrument sounded live in the house, along with recordings of organs I'm familiar with, is an excellent source for adjusting my subs as well. You only hear 'em when they're needed...no sledgehammer usage here!

Claude, what a fascinating setup. So what if your components are considered odds and ends if the entire assemblage meshes together into one cohesive unit of sound! And adding subwoofers to music-only stereo playback is IMHO a good thing (whether active or passive) as long as it's done in moderation...but that's me. For my pipe organ recordings I require to hear the full spectrum of frequencies an organ can produce, and if my bookshelf monitors can't recreate the lowest frequencies in order to achieve a most realistic representation of these instruments, then adding a subwoofer (or two) and carefully placing and adjusting them so that they blend in (and not stand out) with the music is the goal I am trying to reach. My Dayton subs may very well be cheap, but due to them being gracefully tuned in with my system, they are anything but "boom boom"! As for Dave's comment on multichannel recordings, I can relate to what he's saying. Back in the '70s I helped my dad tune an Austin pipe organ in a large church in Hartford, CT that had a high pressure, horizontally displayed Trompette en Chamade rank that was set up high in the rear of the sancuary, as opposed to the remainder of the instrument that was up front in the chancel. After we finished tuning, it was rather late and we pretty much had the church all to ourselves...my dad sometimes brought along his Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel and a pair of Shure mics and we'd record a few bursts of what little music we both could actually play (just for our own amusement...we are certainly NOT organists). I recorded the first half of my dad fumbling through the toccata of Bach's great Toccata and Fugue in D Minor...the last major chord he pulled out all the stops and used full organ, and also fired up the monster chamade pipes at the rear wall for a spectacular effect! But I noticed the next day when we listened to our tape played back thru my dad's stereo system (when his Cornwalls were brand-spankin' new), the effect of the added Trompette en Chamade just wasn't as great in the recording as it was when the organ was being played live in that grand space! It wasn't like the recording levels were off or anything like that, for the levels were set correctly within the tape's parameters...it just didn't have that air and openess about it like when we heard it being played live way back at the rear gallery wall. I guess the recording lacked the ambience we both heard when the trompette rank was used that night, and it sounded like the chamade pipes were being projected from the chancel area. Obviously, our amateurish mic placement didn't help any, but for what it was, the tape recording did sound pretty good...it just lacked what I guess a good multichannel recording today can achieve, a sense of space relative to the environment in which the recording is made. Like listening to a CD or stereo LP of the huge NYC-based Riverside Church Aeolian-Skinner organ when its own gallery-mounted chamade stop is used (which is an entire city block away from the rest of the organ). No stereo recording can faithfully reproduce its majestic sounds from the rear of the church and will only be convincing when recorded in multichannel where a more life-like representation can be realized. Thank goodness not all my organ recordings are like this!

Mike, if your listening to the ficticious music of Hannah Montana thru your Admiral, you might as well just burn up some Electro Harmonix 12AX7s and save your precious Mullards and Telefunkens for real music![] FWIW, years ago I rolled a pair of NOS '83 JAN Philips 12AX7WAs in place of stock Sovtek bottles that came with an AMC preamp I had, and the differences were not subtle. To me, a clearer, more open soundstage was present with the JAN Philips...I have no experience with Teles or Mullard equivalents, so I can't compare them with the newer Philips. IMO I feel the American made Philips are sleepers and probably underrated in the world of 12AX7s...but that's just me thinkin'...

I just glanced at NeedleDoctor's P-mount inventory, and there are lots more P-mount cartridges out there than I realized! If it were me, I'd check out a P-mount from Grado and/or Ortofon, but I'm sure all the audio-technica and Stanton carts are equally as good...whatever specs and price range you're wanting to go with will be more than adequate for your use (a maintenance-free deck for the occasional spinning of wax that still sounds fantastic)! I wouldn't worry about changing out the tonearm...with as many P-mounts that are still available today, there's no reason to IMHO. It's the arm that's designed for that 'table, which looks very substancial, well engineered, practical, and is also aesthetically pleasing to look at (I personally prefer a straight arm like the model on my Denon DP-62L to an S-shaped arm)! I don't know for sure, but I think such places as KAB for parts (http://www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?/) and TurntableTech for repairs (http://www.turntabletech.com/home.htm) will keep even the somewhat rare SL-M2 from ever becoming a $200 paper weight! I still think you'll do quite well with the Technics, but it's your choice.

I hear ya, but do you really need to enjoy that awesome film score in multichannel? Personally, I find the same score sounds just as spectacular in 2-channel, but that's just me I guess.

This push-pull amp may be within your budget: http://cgi.ebay.com/J-Sound-Lab-KT88-Push-Pull-Tube-Valve-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ200189010773QQihZ010QQcategoryZ39783QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem My brother owns a now-discontinued model integrated amp (only 12Wpc) from this manufacturer and it has plenty of oomph to drive his 89dB sensitive loudspeakers to 100dB levels cleanly! Check it out.

Brad, that's one helluva system you have there! It also reminds me of my 2-channel HT setup I had many years ago (never owned multichannel anything)...just a 20" JVC mono TV and a Sony hi-fi stereo VCR connected to my stereo system.

I think you're right, C-T. The ol' bird would've had Amy locking this thread a long time ago. It's down-right civil around here now. Kinda boring, ain't it?[|-)]

Wish I knew about the DFW Hornheads back in '86 when I lived for a short time in Grand Prairie...but I didn't own tube gear back then, nor was I interested (and the Hornheads probably weren't together back then anyway...such is life).

Parrots may come and go, but the topics usually remain the same. Scott (SWL), have you thought anymore on what SET amp you'd like to mate with your Peach and RB-75s?