sheltie dave

Greg, I am going to see if Taylor would like to try this out for a demo run. I have priced amp/preamp setups here in St. Louis for him, and I have half a good setup on solid state. I have a mid-late '70s Nakamichi 410 preamp for $75, which leaves about $200 to spend on a mid-powered black amp he wants. I don't want him spending at his limit if possible. It is a shame he doesn't like the way the ole HKs look. I still think he would end up enjoying the 299c much more. I will try to schedule a listening visit with his folks at my house(Heresys and LK72) which would duplicate his prospective system. Shoot me an e-mail regarding the $ (with shipping to Ryan in PA for a sorting) and I'll let you know NLT thursday evening.

Rick, I was just yanking your chain I have owned more than a few LBCs, and once you got all the kinks ironed out, they were every bit as reliable as American iron. It does take a bank to fix the bodged ones. Those Lotus engines are sweeeet to take up to the redline. The twin cam 1.6L Cortina engine is a winner, the Caterham 7 is a barrel of monkees, and anyone who owns or lusts after a Miata owes it to themselves to check out a late Sixties Elan to see where the body was lifted. And having banged and barked knuckles many a time on the underside getting engine mount nuts installed on the 440, the bay is a lot tighter than anything I ever want to stick my hand in again They run like striped-bass grapes, though!

Mungkman, thanks for saying what I couldn't! I got sniped on a rebuilt Dynaco Mk IV last night in St. Louis, but no complaints here. I didn't truely need it, someone wanted it more, and they paid $40 + shipping more than I was willing to pay. No matter the ethics, the same result would have occurred if the auction went on for another week, or if it was a live auction - once past my highest bid, I'm done. Out of curiousity, Ranger, did you have to take one or two ethics classes at ND? We HAD to take one at SLU

Win, I agree with you on helping out fellow forum members! Ranger, I think a Capehart PP 2a3 monoblock tube amp is a good illustration of what you detest about hidden snipe bids. In the last two hours, the amp went from $160 to a final selling price in the range of $480. One factor to remember in support of snipes, however, is the realization that all Ebay transactions heavily favor the seller. Unless a seller is near you, you will never be able to go kick the tires, take the amp for a spin, check the tubes on a calibrated Hickok, poke at the caps, trot it up on a variac, observe the care with which the amp was assembled. The myriad of details that you would investigate before buying even a new product from your local retail store are all out the window with Ebay. In reading your posts more carefully, I saw you do use the Ebay rachet. I have only won one item out of fifteen I used the Ebay rachet with, mainly because I was bidding on covetted gear that I could and would not pay top dollar(I'm cheaper.) I actually have had more success working through Audiogon, I think because folks on Audiogon are either cleaning out their closets, or upgrading replacement gear and want the current stuff out the door. In the end, Ebay can be a poke in the pig, so I'm less likely to pay top $$. Everyone I have made major purchase from(>$300) has guaranteed buyback if I was not happy on all transactions outside of Ebay ; I just love window shopping and trying to snag the occasional great deal on Ebay.

Erik, the Scott 208 comes to mind, and I'm sure ther are others, maybe the 290 and the 265. I know the 208 is the power amp side of the 299c. Craig and Ryan are very high on a couple of the rare amps, but they run a pretty penny on a relative basis for the vintage side, tending toward Mac prices. The Scott site has info, but mu puter and the site don't get along

Ranger, surely you have been involved in a sealed bid process at some time. A large majority of business contracts involving major dinero are handled in a sealed bid process. You never know beforehand what anyone else is bidding. You obviously want everyone to conduct bidding as in a public auction, with everything in the open. Ebay had decided that both methods can be used, ethically, as long as Rome gets the coin that is their due. They allow rachet autobidding on both their site and through sniper programs, such as auctionsniper.com. It may be that you are bidding only a single unit above the minimum bid, negating Ebay's racheting feature. Either way, whether you use a rachet bid or not, the seller benefits from accepting any higher bid. Again, those buyers and sellers that like an ethical, all cards on the table, auction are better served on ubid.com. Then again...this is kind of like the chicken or the egg discussion; which came first - the unethical bidding or Ebay? In the beginning, there was Klipsch

If we are talking about the ethics of bidding, why don't we just move Ebay over to ubid.com, which is much more traffic driven. If there is no action, the auction ends in ten minutes. I don't know of anyone who does not want to snipe a great deal, and most of the stereo gear we buy is not needed anyway! I know - we should all buy a $200 tower Panasonic system with scratchy speakers - and donate anything above that to support efforts for world peace The other way to look at the ethical dilemna is like the Polish calvalry divisions at the beginning of WWII. They had the finest horse calvalry in Europe, and Germany smashed them in three days Changing times, changing paradigms!

Taylor, I'm sorry, but I had a rough night last night. Our baby was sick, and I had to stay up til midnight to watch a news report on my little brother's company in Iraq. I called and left a message for Zal. Monday I will be able to make it over there, as I have to take Zal an Apt Holman preamp I want repaired. I will target amps between 25 and 60 watts. That will be enough to rock the house, but should not cause your neighbors to call the police. College is when you really want to wait for the police to start calling on you regarding noise complaints! Remember the thumbrule for sound pressure level when calculating the different power requirements for an 80 vs a 100 dB efficiency speaker system. An 80 dB speaker will need an 140 to 200 watt amp to get as loud as a 20 watt amp with 100dB efficiency speakers. With your Heresys, 20 to 50 good, clean watts will glaze your eyes, crack your teeth, and make Elton John sound like Ozzy or Metallica! Well, maybe...

Happiness is watching your little bro, operating in a Stryker company over in Somarrah, for five minutes on ABC's "Nightline." The oldest seargent in Mike's company is 24 years old, and everyone else is under 21, but they showed a great deal of discipline during the night raids. The reporter was with Mike's Stryker for a week, and even learned how to pronounce our last name (Shekleton) correctly. It was a great relief to see Mike walking and talking, and we are overjoyed for his wife and kid! Having served for six years active, I was glad to see the soldiers trying to treat all with as much respect as they could, and I pray that all can be resolved with peace and fairness.

Rick, I think he was so deliriously happy thinking he could get rid of this swine that his hands were violently shaking. With that 383 wedged into the engine bay like Raquel Welch slithering into a 35C bra, you could barbeque a side of beef in under an hour if within five feet of the hood! I've seen cooler temperatures in July in Death Valley. This is one of those cars that looks absolutely great parked in the driveway, and everyone loves to congratulate anyone at a car show who drives one of these rhinos It costs two grand every time you fire one of these bad boys up

I have been hammered multiple times, so I finally went to the dark side and started using Auctionsniper.com. It works great. Now I am a disciplined bidder- I can laugh when an auction goes sky high. I can smile when another sniper nips me by ten dollars, because he wanted to pay a little more than I wanted. My success rate in auctions where my snipe actually bids is running about 75%, so I am judging value pretty well according to the Ebay market The only bad thing is the account is in my wife's name, so there is no furtive sniping. By now she realizes that I'm going to do it no matter what she says, and I have yet to take a bath on anything I have sold. The chain has been loosened slightly

Jerry, your equipment tag line gets the honor of being the largest one on the forum I have recently seen. Do you want it to take up an entire screen?

T, Loud can be good Loud and clear is better! The Mac MA230 is about as bad(like horrible) as Mcintosh ever made. The preamp section really is lousy. I will go over to Alpha Audio tomorrow and see what Zal has in both black and stainless/brushed aluminum. I also have a busted Crown D150. If Zal can fix it for under a hundred dollars, and if you like it, you can give me the cost of the repair and it is yours. It is about 75 watts of Crown power a side. Remember, part of being cool is knowing what is quality good equipment. I still have my first amplifier I got when I was fifteen, not because of its looks, but because it sounds great. Looks are in second place until you get married and your wife wants everything to look nice.

T, the offer from Ryan is an incredible deal. Many of us love tube amplifiers, because they sound wonderful. However, there is a lot of responsibility that comes with them. If you turn a tube amp all the way up to 9 or 10, the tubes will blow sooner or later. If you want a solid state amp that you do not have to treat with responsibility, then you should go over to Alpha Audio. They are at 1502 South Big Bend in Richmond Heights. They are directly behind the Asthma and Allergy Foundation, just south of Highway 40. Give them a call at 314.645.5250, and ask for the owner, Zal. He will have a used amplifier that will make you very happy. They all are very reasonably priced, and he will give you a warranty as well. I wish you could take up Ryan's offer, but I think you may be a couple years too young to really enjoy a tube amp. Good luck with your search!

SPW, Greg is another real good option if you want a glorious set of sweet looking Scalas. Check out Greg's renewal of GaryMD's battered Heresys in this section, under zebrawood. They are looking GOOOOD

Ray, it has reached the second page, also Seeing as how we are off-topic on an off-topic discussion of an off-topic topic, does this now mean we are on topic, or lost somewhere south of the Topic of Cancer?

If you throw him an offer, include the original tubes in it. They are of higher quality than the ones he wants to include because he wants to keep the better sounding ones. Who wouldn't?

SPW, The Cornwalls are a little more room friendly as far as footprint. The La Scalas have a little better base presentation. Both are wonderful! Do yourself a favor. If you can stand paying some money for shipping, give Triceratops a ring and talk to him about his Walnut Belles that he has for sale in Oregon. They are a great set, and they come close to what the La Scalas will give you, and they also are beautiful and reside in a slightly more traditional footprint in your room. You can't go wrong with any of these large Heritage. It is just a question of what kind of base you want to have, and how you want the speakers to set up in your listening room. Everyone that visits my sound room loves the way the Khorns sound, but they tell their wives how beautiful the Belles are with their matched veneer

I don't know kornerhorn personally and hope he is not a forum member. I have seen him bid on over ten auctions I have dabbled in, and his nickname amongst a small group of horn buffs here in St. Louis is "retractable" kornerhorn

I have owned a 430, have a 630 and a 730, and have recently fostered a 430 and 930 until good homes could be found. I have owned an x30 continuously for 27 years, and have used them on Ohm C2s, Khorns, Dahlquist DQ10s, DCM time windows, JBL pro, Heresys, La Scalas, Belles, and Khorns again. The 730 is now serving hazardous duty in a war zone in Samarrahh, Iraq, and the 630 is in the living room with one set of Heresys, dealing with our 11 month old every day. They are wonderful warriors, brutishly reliable, and you have done good work promoting them as a dirt cheap way to get great sounds out of Klipsch speakers, Andy!

Don't you love it when a plan comes through with flying colors? It's a great treat for the eyes; how 'bout the ears?

Pilfer, that is a solid choice, and looks are excellent! You may consider contacting Alan to pick up one of his custom oak cases. They are a great deal for his current pricing, and would be a good deal at $100. I had a rouge ceiling tile that nailed my Dynaco last night, and the case saved the day

Fini, you would shudder if you saw me in my friend's Elvis outfit. While I fall at 6' and am Elvis size pre-Army, Ron is 5'8" and is Elvis size final tour. Since you will be the lady magnet on this breakout tour, we hook up tie down straps to the top of Shorty, and bolt him to the roof rack, and you can stand on top of Shorty. Just make sure you can find a fifteen foot cape so we can get some good "billow" action. Henry will be in charge of the logistics, which means we shold run out of beer sometime before Gallup, NM Where are we going, again?

Guys, guys, guys, you need to staff a crew BEFORE you buy the darn thing! I will volunteer to be one of the chefs, as long as Fini is a wine steward. And Dean can be in charge of outfitting each berthing area with tube equipment...that way, he can buy about 300 different tube amps before he runs out of room! Any more staffing suggestions?

Doug, you probably are experiencing the "One department is closed for the week due to vacation" syndrome. The customer service department probably has not been told this, and is blithly unaware that you have been hitting a brick wall. Don't get too worked up; they'll catch you next week or Friday and you will receive great service!