What did you do to your stereo rig today?

treitz3

Thank you for your service.

Tom

dromunds

Just listened to the 45 RPM mofi pressing of BIA. All of Knopfler’s recordings are so well done.

stangman67

Yes they are. Really peak analog recordings. My (new) MOFI pressing has more surface noise than I would expect but once the music starts, it is bliss

The MOFI one-step drama was annoying for sure but I appreciate the effort they put into place to create quality pressings. I am patiently awaiting the one steps for Hotel California and James Taylor’s greatest hits to be released. I’ve had them on pre order for about a year now

stangman67

treitz3 wrote: »

Thank you for your service.

Tom

Appreciate the recognition Tom, not necessary at all but appreciate it regardless!

Reagan

I wish they would just do the MOFI in 33-1/3.

zarrdoss

zarrdoss wrote: »

I tried out a set of Martin Logan's and am asking myself

erniejade wrote: »

nooshinjohn wrote: »

zarrdoss wrote: »

I tried out a set of Martin Logan's and am asking myself why I did not try them sooner?

Just skip over them and go straight to Magnepan.

I could be off but, with the Logan, you don't have to worry about integrating a subwoofer since the Logans have a woofer built in.
I know both can be a bit difficult on setup and very sensitive to room acoustics and placement.

I have heard both Logans and Maggie's sound amazing and horrible, depending on the room and placement.

They both sound better with a sub IMO. Not really bad for set up either. I tried some Magnepans again MG .7. They are in way better condition than the other ones I tried and sound much better. I have the Martin Logans on HT duty paired with a Stage center and two SVS SB3000. The Magnepans are on 2.1 channel duty with a Paradigm studio sub 12. As for which one sounds better.... really close but the jury is still out. Pretty sure I am done with conventional speakers for a while though.

GlennDog

the remote control for my preamp never worked well . . . Well, I disassembled and cleaned the pcb contacts with isopropyl alcohol

Works GREAT!

jbreezy5

Might try that on my Arcam remote!

GlennDog

jbreezy5 wrote: »

Might try that on my Arcam remote!

the tech at Cary said use the tip of a pencil eraser.... didn’t do squat.

Go with isopropyl and a Q-tip

jbreezy5

Got some tube socket savers from Valves N More…













Purchased 9-pin (8) and Octal (4). They seem to be of high quality and the Octal types had surprising heft.

mhardy6647

edit: whoops!

skipshot12

Arriving Tuesday is my Phase Linear preamp purchased in 1979.
Company in Oregon repairs these along with offering upgrades. They’ve installed a remote control operation for the whiff along with upgrades 👍
Have been playing the Oppo directly into the amp, this is gonna be awesome!

audioluvr

skipshot12 wrote: »

Arriving Tuesday is my Phase Linear preamp purchased in 1979.
Company in Oregon repairs these along with offering upgrades...

Who might that be?

treitz3

I'm guessing Rolland. He might have moved his shop. He used to be in WA.

Tom

stangman67

Website still lists in Washington but there are third party sites that do say Oregon.

Hitech Audio

skipshot12

stangman67 wrote: »

Website still lists in Washington but there are third party sites that do say Oregon.

Hitech Audio

Yes, it is Rolland @ Carver Audio Repair.
Absolutely top notch experience.

treitz3

So, which is it? His original shop in WA or did he move to Oregon?

Tom

audioluvr

He lives in Stevenson WA. Not Oregon.

skipshot12

Corrected, Stevenson, WA.
No idea why I keep thinking OR.

Had someone take a look at it a couple of years ago. Did a good job, but Rolland dealing with these for decades did find some hidden issues.
He installed remote (Wife Saver😬), upgraded op-amps, caps….
He provides a warranty of his work on a 45 year old preamp. Who does that? Absolutely incredible!
Says she’s good for another 30 years.
Someone’s gonna end up with a sweet PL 4000 II when I sell my gear down the road.

Haven’t seen the breakdown yet of all he did but he did tell me how many hours he had in it, quite a lot.

Am way stoked to get her back into the system.
Will now be able to start the bi-amp trials of the SDA’s.
Have been driving the Oppo right into the amp since acquiring the Polk’s… looking forward to this too.

Real nice person to talk to about what my goals are with this final-end-all system for us.

Next heading to Rolland is my PL 1100 II & 1200 II.
Goals on those two pieces are to factory specs & longevity.
Then the rest of the Series Two gear.

Will post some pics of our 45 year old gear driving our 37 year old speakers….

pitdogg2

Rolland is by far one of the best people in the business. I've used him many times, he's constantly innovating new tech to older equipment.

audioluvr

I know he's got a bunch of my money!

treitz3

Rolland has been highly regarded for decades by many, FWIW.

He also has many unobtainable parts for Carver gear as well. He got all of the leftover inventory.

Tom

crickstricks

I have a bit of a technical question! I have two Sansui 100 watt power amps that are bridgeable to 200 watts. I have them bridged now running the left and right channels separately. Would it be better to use them bi-amped , one running the high end and one on the low. I’m concerned about the loss of the bottom end. They are driving a pair of SDA SRS 2.3 TI’s ? They have the SL 3000 tweeters in them, 4drivers on the inside two on the outside for the sda . I remember years ago when I sold these a Polk engineer telling me to alway bi-amp them if you can.

skipshot12

Do not bridge your amps. Cuts down on the available current your amps can provide. Even though doubling of the wattage sounds good it’s actually a backwards move.
Very few amps can be bridged without taking a hit on current… and those that do are very expensive, sept maybe Macs using auto formers?
If you have 8-ohm or above speakers then bridging can be beneficial.

Your Sansui’s bi-amped would be beneficial.
Do they have a factory rating into 4-ohm? If they have a 2 ohm rating from factory they’re power houses.

On horizontal vs vertical bi-amping, from my recent research, vertical seems the recommended setup.
But, if your speakers are SDA’s, ask as many folks as possible to confirm vertical is doable.
Here on Club Polk I believe the gurus recommend an AI-1/Dreadnaught to go vertical.

I’m researching (actively now) if vertical, bi-amp, is even possible with with my Gen 3 SDA SRS blade/blade speaksers.
What I’ve found so far is it’s recommended to dreadnaught. That said, blade/blade SDA’s are not compatible with the AI-1/Dreadnaughts.
Haven’t given up all hope yet 😬


Talking to the big dogs here will be of great help as you go forward.

Skip

treitz3

So, Trey has been an advocate for Audiolund cables for some time now. I have heard his system(s) multiple times over the years, so when the time came to order a BNC cable for the new streaming kit? I went ahead and ordered one. Guess it's time to lose my virginity with this brand and BNC cables (always ran with SPDIF).

They appear to be extremely well built and they look (and feel) much better in person.





Tom

audioluvr

crickstricks wrote: »

I have a bit of a technical question! I have two Sansui 100 watt power amps that are bridgeable to 200 watts. I have them bridged now running the left and right channels separately. Would it be better to use them bi-amped?

The 2.3TL's are 8 ohm. I would stick with them in mono configuration but you should be using an Al-1 or dreadnaught transformer on the SDA cable unless you (can) have the ground wire terminals tied together. You don't loose reserve amperage going mono driving 8 ohm speakers but what you gain is wattage output, you effectively double your damping factor and you increase your noise floor.

Gardenstater

I don't know about other amps, but my Crown D150 states that damping factor is reduced if it is bridged (perhaps that is what you meant to say?). That was a main reason behind my not using another one I have access to and trying that, with my 8 ohm nom. impedance 7Bs.

invalid

I don't know how you can run the amps bridged with the SDA's, bridged amps are not common ground.

audioluvr

Gardenstater wrote: »

I don't know about other amps, but my Crown D150 states that damping factor is reduced if it is bridged (perhaps that is what you meant to say?).

Correct. My bad. Double the wattage, half the damping, increased noise floor.

skipshot12

Sweetness... PL 4000 II has just arrived from Rolland 😬