tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 I just got my upsampler for my AH! CD Player two days ago and installed it yesterday. I read that it takes about 600 hours to break in (thats a lot). So I was nto expecting much and quite frankly, I was very skeptic about the purchase anyway. My Philips 963 SA has an upsampler and it is not a huge difference. So I install the thing and start with a CD that is very well recorded (Elton John Greatest Hits vol 1). Sounds fantastic, but thsi CD is well recorded. But wait, even the songs that I normally don't like to listen to sound good. How can this be. I listened to the whole CD. OK, so I put in Elton's Volume 2. Again, I love the way all of the songs sound. Vocals are awesome. So I put in James Taylor Greatest Hits (Yea, I know - a lot of greatest hits CD's in my collection). It is just outstanding. OK. I love Fleetwood Mac's Rumors, but some songs just sound terrible and this CD has soem noticable compression. Again, start to finish, it sounds great. I am leaving the CD player playing full time rigth now to break this thing in, but it is unreal. My only suspicion is that maybe the tubes have not been fully warmed up in a while and that is why it sounds so good, but I leave the peach tubes on all of the time and I use an SS amp. I will not use words like "Bloom" and "Smooth" because they really have no meaning. If I used these terms in contracts, nothing that I draft could ever be enforced. "Notwithstanding the foregoing, a condition of Closing shall be that the CD player must Bloom." Yea, good luck. Here is an objective comment, and Chris Robinson said it before and I just realized it this mornig, CD's and particular songs that were unlistenable or unenjoyable on the K Horns now sound fantastic and I can put in CD's and just hit "Play" and forget about it. I attached a pic of the Upsampler installed. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 8, 2005 Author Share Posted December 8, 2005 And, If you get hungry, they include a pizza box that says "AH" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 8, 2005 Author Share Posted December 8, 2005 I love thsi CD player, but a $1,000+ player shoudl not say this. Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 I love thsi CD player, but a $1,000+ player shoudl not say this. Oh well. No problem at all with that if it's better and cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audible Nectar Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 If it didn't say that, this deck would cost more than it does. It's not the "base player" that matters (after all, it's just a simple Marantz), it's the goodies added inside by Ah! that count. That's what you are paying for. And it's mucho bang for the buck - a true revelation in the CD format for me. I just love this deck. And I don't even have the upsampler yet. Gotta get that soon. One thing is very consistent regarding that upsampler - the reviews. It seems a universal hit for all who make the upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Have 2 upgrades for 2006- the Super AH!Tjoeb with upsampler and a pair of VRDS. Probably get the AH first and VRDs later. Xman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 9, 2005 Author Share Posted December 9, 2005 I'm aware of what this thing is. It is the equivalent of a supercharged Corvette. May not have teh build quality of an Aston Martin, but it certainly can run with it. It really sounds great. The upsampler really surprised me, I had my doubts, a lot of them. Just by chance, I also just bought a Benchmark DAC1 from a froum member today. I think that I am going to run teh AH as a transport (upsampled, of course) and use the Benchmark with the really well recorded material (where teh Benchmark really excells) and the AH tube stage for poorer quality recordings (where the AH really excells). To the other member that is buying an AH and VRD's. I had one of Craig's Scott units. You cannot go wrong with his stuff. Especially when you consider that when buying VRD's you are getting brand new 60 wpc tube amps. Not much can compete with them at the price. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Robinson Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Chris, Glad you're enjoying the "improved" NT ... I personally have found little to gripe about anymore, even with older recordings. I have it in my SET/Cornwall 2-channel system in the "Man Cave" presently, but I really hear the best this deck has to offer when in the SET/Klipschorn combination. The depth, clarity and naturalness of the music's acoustics are really apparent. It's very hard to describe, but perhaps the best way to do it justice is that the music just sounds "first party" with no intermediaries whatsoever. The Marantz heritage was never a problem for me in that it was a good deck to build upon with little to go wrong. As stated above, it was the "tweaks" that brought it up to a higher plane and even though it might be built in China, the resulting price point with all those bells and whistles (for a new one) really brings new meaning to audio value .... At least IMHO [] Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 I've been pining for one of those decks since I heard Dee's in Hope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Thanks Fini. I had been just as skeptical and just as surprised (and delighted) with the results of the upsampler. Another option, in an un-upsampled unit that sounds amazingly good is the Heart CDP. It is another Dutch Marantz tube conversion. Dick Olshner, who reviewed both the upsampled AH! and the Heart, gave the nod to the Heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 "Notwithstanding the foregoing, a condition of Closing shall be that the CD player must Bloom." Chris " 'Bloom' shall have the meaning ascribed to it by a 2/3 majority of participants on the Klipsch Forums." [] The only issue now would be "On what day?" [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 9, 2005 Author Share Posted December 9, 2005 Chris, I am thinking about getting a SET amp for my midrange drivers (Soon to be Altec 511b w/ JBL 2470 400 hz to ~5500hz). Any recommendations or thoughts are appreciated. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Robinson Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 Chris, I am thinking about getting a SET amp for my midrange drivers (Soon to be Altec 511b w/ JBL 2470 400 hz to ~5500hz). Any recommendations or thoughts are appreciated. Chris Chris, Well good for you ! I know mentioning "SET" here sometimes prompts some negative discussions, so hopefully we'll just keep this under the radar since you asked. Long story short ... I started with push-pull KT-88 and liked the power but missed the naturalness of SET, even though at the time I hadn't heard SET and didn't know what I was missing. I just knew that what I was hearing didn't truly float my boat. I do have PP amps in my stable (Scott, etc.) and like what they do for parties and rock and roll, but the majority of my listening is towards recordings with 1-3 acoustic instruments (guitar, bass, cello, etc.). SET to me just sounds better, especially considering that I hardly ever listen above 85 db. I started with the Wright 2A3's and loved them. I could have lived with them forever but came upon an opportunity with Dr Jeff, north of the border. The nice thing about Wrights is that if you buy them used, you can keep them for a year or two and resell them for the same price. Kelly turned me on to this and he was right on. Used Moondogs are pretty swell too, although they don't come up too often. Jeff's Horus design is awesome (Painful Reality). He built mine with the cobalt output transformers but those are now rare as hens' teeth. I know LeoK has cobalt in his as well. I'm not sure what your budget is but I don't think the Horus design will disappoint if you can find someone here to build it or take a stab at it yourself. There are other SET designs and models offered in the new/used market that are nice, but for an intro, I'd try a pair of Wrights and see what you think. If you're ever down here in the southeast, you're most welcome to drop in for a day or two and listen to your heart's content. We might find some time for some flog and a BBQ as well [] Best wishes. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 It would make sense that SET driving a Khorn HF and SS or high power tubes driving the LF would be a fabulous combination. If there is someone who has been pleased with their outcome with such a combination of amps I'd sure like to hear about it. Getting a bi or tri amped system properly balanced (from what I read) is a challenge pretty much beyond what I'd want to do. Anything that seems to much like work (to me) has little chance of accomplishment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 10, 2005 Author Share Posted December 10, 2005 I already bought the digital crossover (a Yamaha unit). I also already have a QSC 1202 SS amp for the woofer (really nice sounding amp). I also have a teac L700P for the tweeters (I will be modding it) so I justy need an amp for the midrange. I hear that the SET's have an awesome midrange so it shoudl be teh way to go. From what I am reading, the a SET 300b is more desirable than a push/pull 300b even though the push pull will have more power. Why is this? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 Chris, The SET,,, Single Ended Triode uses a single power tube. PP uses (at least) a pair of tubes that work in concert to power the amp. It could be worth your while to conider the 2A3 tube as well as 300B. The 2A3 is lower power, but is a very sweet sounding tube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 10, 2005 Author Share Posted December 10, 2005 I understand the designation one end vs. two ends pushing against each other. My question is why does the single ended design sound better? I have been looking at the angela design and see that it is a very simple circuit. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalmaniac Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 I also added the upsampler to my Ah! Tjoeb 4000 and the differance was not minor. If you really want the Tjoeb 4000 to sing you need to get a pair of NOS Seimens 7308 gold pin tubes, they made as much a differance if not more than the upsampler. For about $1300 total this player comes darn close to the $5k Naim cd5x/flatcap2 in my main rig for a quarter of the price! Can you say bang for your buck! I wish Ah! made an amplifier! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 I understand the designation one end vs. two ends pushing against each other. My question is why does the single ended design sound better? I have been looking at the angela design and see that it is a very simple circuit. Chris Pretty simple IMHO it doesn't! While other may feel it does this is very subjective on wither side of the fence. No one is right. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 13, 2005 Author Share Posted December 13, 2005 I have a pair of philips tubes in there now. Will the Seimens make that much of a difference over teh Philips tubes? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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