What do you spend most of your money on for the 2ch rig?

dcarlson

Good to hear. I was very skeptical. The more I listen, the more I love the results. I should have replaced the stock cord a long time ago.

What did you use for a replacement cord? There might be a burn in period for the cord as well.

I'm going to have to wait for tubes. My upgrade path is power cables, speakers/speaker wire, Turntable then Tubes. So much to do, so little money.

organ

I replaced it with a Rat Shack cord using their silver solder. It's a generic power cord but the old power cord was just that, too old and building up resistance. The connection to the power switch was also getting pretty bad. I'm planning to do a full restoration on the amp. Next thing I'm going to replace is either the internal wiring or tube sockets. Still have a long way to go until I finish everything in the amp. dynaco-doctor.com is selling the replacement driver board that's pretty much identical to the stock unit with carbon resistors. No fancy metal film stuff. A lot of people who have restored the ST-70 say that metal film resistors give a more solid state sound and carbon is warmer sounding.

I'll look for a good quality low price power cord for the pre amp ad see what kind of improvement I get there.

You're absolutely right about having so much to do and so little money. But it's funny how we always get what we want even if it's years later. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with tubes. There's so many tubes out there to try out, old and new production. Let's hope you don't end up being tube crazy like me. I have two boxes filled up with tubes and that's only the beginning. If you like trying out different power cords, you'll love trying out different tubes.

Maurice

Gary Robertson

I think i spend every damn penny i earn on friggin stereo and high end equipment. Mostly this year is an Ampilifier and speakers and i agree about those damn CD"S those things add up "oh so fast but never the less it all seems worth it to live at about 1% above poverty level because of a rediculous "AUDIO ADDICTION""Right now I don't even have a car but i have the best audio equipment in the valley---- We all gotta be a little twisted to be in this hobby anyway--You all ought to hear all my female aquaintences ( "AS long as you can hear the song is all that matters" so why do you buy all this stuff) ?? WEll ladies, I think it's pretty self explanitory..s

madmax

Gary,
I feel your pain. At my level of pay I should own a cheap sony HT with whatever the cheapest oldest polks out there are. For me, I decided a long time ago that this aspect of my life was important to me and therefore worth my attention. Is that wrong? Who knows. I say that if you are happy with your lifestyle then continue on.
madmax

organ

Gary,
Yep, I also don't drive and all my friends think I'm nuts. I think they're nuts for trying to tell me their sound systems with clipping amps are the greatest. I don't even bother trying to tell them about better systems. They just don't get it. What makes my head hurt, they perceive as detail and superior sound.
Next time the ladies come over, let them pick out a tune and let them hear what it's all about. If you want to make it even more exciting for them, place a small sub underneath their seat:D.

madmax,
I agree. Without audio we won't be happy. We also learn so much about this stuff as our systems evolve.

Maurice

scornful

I'm fairly new to high end audio. Where might I find info on building tube amps? I assume you guys dont start with some sort of kit.....

organ

Hi scornful,
You might want to start by making a tube pre amp. The most popular is the "Foreplay". You can check it out at www.bottlehead.com If you don't want to build a tube pre amp, the ASL 2004-DT is selling for $289US at www.audioweb.com

I don't know about tube amp kits but I'm sure there's some out there. Check www.audioasylum.com and go to the Tube DIY forum. The members there should know where you can find a kit. A fun thing to do is to get an old tube amp from ebay and restore it or upgrde parts to it. You learn the basics along the way and it should get you ready to build one from scratch. You can find upgrade boards and parts for popular old tube amps around the net. There's plenty of things you can upgrade in an old tube amp lke the ones made by Dynaco. Check out www.dynaco-doctor.com to see the things you can do with their amps.


Maurice

dorokusai

AES also has a tube pre-amp kit for $400, has good reviews, and resale value. They have kits for all of their tube amp/ pre-amp products.

http://www.audioelectronicsupply.com/

organ

I think Jstas built an 8w/ch tube amp from a kit. Let's see if he'll chime in with some info.

Maurice

gidrah

Tour: The Garrard is a GT250 (belt drive) with a Shure M95EDM cartridge. I hooked it up and it appears to work fine, but the bass is as lacking as the dynamics. Let me know how that Dyna treats you.

In case Jstas doesn't chime in, here's a link to the kit he built. I've read many posts on other sights from people that are quite pleased with it (as is Jstas). I've also seen pictures were people have taken the time and effort to put in a nice enclosure and made it look world class.
http://www.tubesandmore.com/

Edit: Sorry, but the link won't take you directly to it. Click on "kits"-"audio"-"K-502".

Tour2ma

Don't know the 250... pics sometime please.

The M95 is OK, and the ED is IMO better than the HE. Playing with a NOS of each. Kinda like the old M91ED better, but the V15 series is where Shure really shined... I've got a Type V-MR very nice, and a Type IV-MR that was semi-retired due to wear and replacement stylli discontinued (have to drop back to the Type III replacement, the VN35MR). But recently I scored two NOS VN45MR's for it off of ebay...

I've never auditioned the current Type VxMR... someday...

BTW, Shure will replace any stylus for $50 with trade in of your original. But in the case of the Type IV, you get back a Type III replacement. Same tip, but minus the dynamic balancer/ dust brush...