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Best Gear Change of '08


thebes

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Well it's New years Eve and I'm temporarily restrained.

Seems
the entire multifaceted internal security apparatus of the greater
Washington DC area has decided they don't want me out and about on this
night of nights. They've established a 40 mile in-depth free-fire zone
with assets employed by land, sea and air. There's more flashing lights
outside my house than an airport runway.

Despite there best efforts I'll soon be on my way.

Before I go, though, how about a thread wherein we recall our best gear swap of of the year.

For me it boils down to either my replacing the Ariston RD11 TT with RB300 arm to an Empire 398 with a Ortofon RS211....or the magic (and still secret until I buy up all existing supplies) 6DJ8's I rolled into my preamp.

So what did it for you?

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I'd say its a tossup between getting my Onkyo receiver and getting my Hsu MBM-12. The Onkyo just cranks out the power to no end. The MBM really gives you that punch in the gut that my SVS doesn't. The SVS and the MBM pair up together wonderfully.

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For me, this year, it was all about the capacitors for my MC-30s....selecting the K40 Russian military capacitors for my second pair of 30s, built to sound more "relaxed" and vintage - that "PIO" sound I was looking for on that pair of amps. It's the only real significant change this year.....bought NO hardware, per se. Had that pair of amps in the back room for 2 years before I did anything with them....and finally arrived at a decision on how to do those. Best "change" this year.

Instead, the majority of my audio $$ in '08 has been in the realm of building a tube "stock" for my gears here (VRDs, 2 sets of MC-30s, Mac MX-110, and a "preamp to be"), which I intend to keep for the long term. The relative success of the tube stocking project is really more significant for me long term as I am now assured of being able to enjoy my gears with the good vintage tubes I like for the far future. I'm almost done with this.

So while I have been relatively quiet in the background, it has been a productive audio year.

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Gear Swap, eh? How about an honest to goodness real Swap with another Forum member?

I drove west about 6 hours while Bill Hendrix drove east the same mileage. We swapped my KI362 for his KP362's- 4 massive cabinets each. He needed the smaller cabinets with swivel horn pods for a church sanctuary surround system. I needed the portable versions because they are more full range, and have handles and driver protection fuses.

On the same trip we swapped some parts and divvied up a pile of KP262 trapezoid two way 12" speakers and KSM12II monitor cabinets. I think I came home with 4 pro cabinets on the same day that I left Indy. 750 miles round trip if memory serves. Great swap for us both.

Michael

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Parsound HCA1500A. Didn't really swap it out, just added it. I switch it with the 300b's or bi-amp. I can't decide if I'm SS or Tube.[:|] But hey, variety is the spice of life.

Swapping the xicon output caps for Vcap OIMP in the Bottlehead pre really took it up a step as well.

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Temporarily swapped both my Baldwin and BEZ tube amps back to my '78 Sansui G-7000 transistorized receiver...go figure, this 85Wpc monster receiver sounds fantastic!

Also swapped my RB-75s to my bro's '85 DCM TimeFrame TF350 loudspeakers...change is good! I could get used to these remarkable towers.

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