Jump to content

What would it take to get you to go SS again?


Audio Flynn

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 95
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Congrats Cal on the health improvements. That is one astonishing performance. I'm sure you feel much better



My comment about the 8 hours.......Maybe it was longer not exactly sure. I could hear my system "sharpen up" over time as the music played. Very obvious to me. Sure, it was warmed up in an hour or so and actually sounded fine after just a few minutes. But when it got HOT.....and I mean HOT.....over time.......the longer the better, the music absolutely became more detailed.



To this day, I absolutely loved that characteristic of the system. The problem became that I rarely had time to listen that long and I didn't like leaving things on all the time when I basically could only listen on weekends. The other issue is that NOW my availability is getting worse and I want to listen to a system that peaks in just a few minutes so if I have 30 minutes to listen I can fire it up and shut her down. I found over time that the Peach comes up quickly compared to amps with heavy iron.



I also have to admit that now that I have some power I was missing out on things in the bass arena. That's certainly a fact at my house. Clarity and authority. Tubes just don't do it in the bass like s/s. But being one that loves the tube sound I hung onto the Peach and I can tell you the system sounds very much like when I had pure tubes except with improved bass response.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Really? What would be a typical system they buy Harry? Yeow, that's amazing to hear in a retail setting."

I should have been clearer as in 2 channel sales. This week only ONE system sale to a girl. System she chose after auditioning a half dozen amps, receivers, speakers, etc was a pair of Altec Santana IIs, Knight tube integrated KN 928, NSM CD3101 cdp, and of all things a Yamaha TX 350 Digital tuner.

She heard all speakers with a Sansui AU-888 integrated amp/TU-888 tuner, Denon AVR-3801, Denon AVR-1300, Kenwood KR-6050, Lafatette LA-85T ss, and a little Lafayette previously mentioned LA-224, and Dynaco ST-35. Her second choice was the Lafayette LA 85T ss integrated amp which is a smooth 20 watter. She liked it with the Heresys best but went with the Altec and larger sound for her system.

Other speakers listened to included Heresy 1, Altec Valencia,(A models Duke), Polk monitor 10, Sansui Sp250 and Sp200s, A pair of vintage Magnavox 15" 3 way very good speakers, and even listened to KAK's DefTec CLR 2300, and Powermonitor700's. She is also interested in a 5.1 system as soon as I can find a good pwr sub to go with what I already have here. She's not very picky on the surround system and requested "anything that sounds ok for a HT since she had budgeted money left over". She was in the market for a good sounding 2 channel system.

All in all it took her about halfdozen visits to make up her mind on what she wanted to spend her money on. It was her tax check money and she had a $1,000.00 budget. She spent a little over half of that but she bought what sounded best to her before I priced the chosen system.

All gear was in very good to NM condition cosmetically so looks weren't so much an issue.

I have noticed considerable interest from the gals in 2 channel in the last year or so. They like music too. All you have to do is ask your significant other. It's a market that should not be ignored. I don't want to see pink amps and speakers just yet though.

Harry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mark,

No, I'm not anywhere's near the league of you big boys. I'm just a small simple operation and sub out to larger retail outlets for warranty and repairs. I get to hear a lot of the newer gear and for the most part I'm disappointed for bang for the buck. This all started out as a hobby and with contacts turned into a requested business. I get a lot of gear from auctions, estates, word of mouth, and insurance companies. Most of the high end gear I get is from the insurance companies as in smoke damage, water, stolen and recovereds, etc. I've got a very good buyer base established and also Ebay and Agon.

Poor boy with poor ways.

It's a lot of fun playing with the different gear. I can find pleasure and highlights in about any piece I get to listen to.

Indy has always been a very good audio town. There's plenty of nice old gear to be had here.

My point was that the good clean 2 channel sound is still profitable and preferred by many. Women included and I've been pleasantly surprised at their preferences.

There's not many retail stores where you can hear tube gear. It's a SS industry now. It's the reason good gear builders like yourself and others have an easier time marketing good gear. Price comparatively I'd have to say more quality listening for the buck.

JMHO

Harry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

........And I know that many of them really DO hear the diff between gritty old SS gear and tube gear even if they don't have the wordy explanations for their preferences.

No surprise here about the ladies liking tube audio over thier SS counterparts. I've got a few ladies in my neighborhood who have not only approved the upgrades from more "simple to own" and less expensive gears - but are LIKING the results once those upgrades have been done. It doesn't stop there either - they are appreciating things like cap upgrades and tube rolling too.....which in turn gets them asking questions and becoming more involved in the overall system direction making process. It's very cool to have them actively involved and enjoying all of this - it's not just MY toys, it's OUR (me and my wife's) toys!!

And believe me when I say this - if there were no noticeable improvements, they would sure as hello would let us males know about that.

Makes me wish I was back in the biz.....selling all of those ladies (with the uber sensitive high frequency hearing) tube gear would be like taking candy (read CASH) from a baby while they smile all throughout the process.

For those of you pining for tube gear that have ladies who like music, it's MUCH easier than you think to get them addicted to all of this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm. This reply form hasn't loaded up properly so I guess the formattings will not look good. Anyway - why were all that audiophiles fooled into thinking I had a tube amp?



I think there were a number of reasons. The first is that sonically it does sound rather like a tube amp - I think this is why I stuck with it. There is no obivous grain, it performs reasonably well at low volumes and with a sub handling the lower reaches no-one would expect the reduced bass to being with.



Aside from that it shoudl be pointed out that the amp is from Tsakiridis and he made his name on tube amps. I dont think he has made many SS designs for amps and so I would guess they saw the label and assumed the rest.



Finally - as I have a vinyl rig as my main source I'd guess they further assumed tubes as the 2 tend to go together.



what would be interesting - even with Klipsch speakers - would be to do a proper comparison of decent SS amps with a variety of tube pre-amps against tube amps. I have a number of candidate amps - some pricey, some not so pricey which I would be fairly confident would perform well even for the most die-heart tube fans.



I would not expect tubies to rush out and buy SS immediately after that of course. As Mark said there is a lot more fun to have with tubes - but I think they might be a little less prone to right off all SS amps as harsh, grainy etc.etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Once you put a tube preamp in front, you've already improved any of the amps to follow!"

The preamp isn't in "front", it's "downstream" -- towards the back. :) Seriously though, the preamp sits between the amp and source -- it's the amp that's hooked directly to the speakers. So how does that work exactly, what is a tube preamp "doing" that one would think is completely "undone" by those nasty transistors feeding the outputs and moving those drivers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uh, I think it more likely that because Max had been running tube gear for so long they just assumed it was tubes. What it actually demonstrates is what I've come to realize for some time now; "audiophiles" often simply hear what they want to hear, what they expect or think they should hear, or what they are told to hear. If you listen without bias, there are surprises.

This almost made me spit up my coffee...... The description almost fits you to a tee...... just insert gearheard for audiophile ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I loved my tubes but the large IcePower ASP1000 based amplifiers sound very similar to tubes. The big plus for me was the power and control afforded by the large IcePower amps with next to zero noise. Lack of noise compared to a lot of tube amps and no grain as in typical SS amps really helps when you have very efficient speakers. Listener fatigue goes bye-bye.

A quality designed and built tube amp will produce ZERO audible noise.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for remembering me Mark!

For the moment, all is well. The weight loss surgery was a very positive step for me. I have now just about stoped loosing weight and I am now officialy 1/2 the man I used to be. I have lost 185# and I now weigh 184! The kidney surgery also went well, I am all healed up and things are looking good but I still need more tests to be sure the tumors are gone!

I have dropped by here from time to time but never for very long. I sure did miss you guys, I hope to regain my lost status bar over my post count soon!

Wow great news!! Glad to see your doing so well.

Craig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...