Fire Sale - Rancho de Doro

louhamilton

Damn, I would have loved the SVS.

-Lou

dorokusai

When I get the PB12 Ultra/2 in place, I'll drop you a line

dorokusai

Thanks for picking up the speakers today Mike! Let me know your impressions of the RTA12's

BlueMDPicker

My pleasure, Mark. I'm glad I finally made it out!

I got it all carried in and hooked the 12Cs up. The 8Ts will probably stay boxed until some of the other speakers new parents drop by (subtle hint.) I've only had about an hour with them, driven by the Manley and then the ST-70. And, I haven't played around with toe-in and placement too much.

First impression with 75w of tubes was a bit forward (compared to what I'm used to with the single driver enclosures and the ported 8Ts), bass was tight, punchy, and musical -- mids a bit overpowered by the highs. That leveled a bit with the ST-70 @ 35w.

IMO, an L-Pad might be an interesting mod to these (but, if I do it, I'll put it in-line with the leads so nothing is cut.) You know how I love to experiment, so I'm scheming on a way to rear fire the tweeters as well. With the extreme volume of the room and bay behind the soundstage, this room of the house is quite challenging.

The ST-70's added capacitance with the SDS board mod really makes it a hoss, and it drives the 12Cs very respectably. So, for the time being, the line-up is Manley on the 8Ts, Dynaco on the 12Cs, and OTL monos on the Abbys. The shared sources are EE tube CDP, Nak MR 2, Toshiba R2R, and Polk XM tuner. Pre for everything is the Transcedent Grounded Grid (a giant killer against anything <$1500, and highly recommended for anyone who likes to build and enjoy a quality product for their efforts.)

Here's a pic of my three banger old school rig.

beardog03

what model Manely do you have ?

BlueMDPicker

This one. The last two pics on the page are my actual amp - 1 of 10 on the planet.

beardog03

very cool..!!

BlueMDPicker

Thanks! But, I finally saw and heard the coolest piece of absolutely unique stereo amplification in my life yesterday -- Mark's CTC BBQ. The DCM won't quite register on the scale with it. I've picked up a few pieces that are rarities. What's really cool is when the rarity also happens to perform spectacularly.

beardog03

I agree..
I didn`t know what I was missing until yesterday...

Now I do, and I must have more..!!
My HCA-3500 is similar to the BBQ, so I must see if it can be hot-rodded, and modded to meet my new expectations...!
The new Cary has raised the bar conciderably..!!

schwarcw

Very nice Mike! Congrats on your new equipment. Did you ever get a casette player? My contact in Reigerstown never got back to me.

BlueMDPicker

Thanks, Carl! Yes, I did buy a Nak MR 2 locally. It wasn't a model I was researching, but it has the factory upgrade from belt to gear drive (and was a couple hundred cheaper than the 505 I was chasing.) It sounds very nice with all my old favorite tapes.

W WALDECKER

BlueMDPicker wrote:

Thanks! But, I finally saw and heard the coolest piece of absolutely unique stereo amplification in my life yesterday -- Mark's CTC BBQ. The DCM won't quite register on the scale with it. I've picked up a few pieces that are rarities. What's really cool is when the rarity also happens to perform spectacularly.

i fell in love with the CTC BBQ the first time i laid eyes on it. if he could find a CTC blow torch preamplifier to pair with the BBQ it would truely be a match made in Heaven! thanks....WCW III

Tour2ma

More like "laid ears on it"...

dorokusai

Thank you for your kind comments BMDP....also of note is that they eliminated about 70+ internal parts in contrast to the standard HCA3500....which in turn, caused Carl Thompson to get involved, since he created the custom circuit board work. CTC found no sonic "usefulness" in the missing parts when it came to the signal path and operation of the amplifier, as Bob Crump put it so distinctly.

It's a neat piece, I appreciate the comments. I am going to be cremated and while the amplifier is on, thrown into the guts to short it out with my used flesh.

I really like the history on the DCM as well, the quantity may be higher, but the cool factor is just as high.

dorokusai

W WALDECKER wrote:

i fell in love with the CTC BBQ the first time i laid eyes on it. if he could find a CTC blow torch preamplifier to pair with the BBQ it would truely be a match made in Heaven! thanks....WCW III

That's a great idea, but I'm not that rich beings it's 15K, linestage only. Oh well, I'm sure I can find something pretty cool to tide me over

dorokusai

I forgot to add that Russ and myself met John Curl at CES, during the Bob Crump RIP Party. He said his CTC is still sitting in the shop at Parasound, waiting to be repaired. It gave up the ghost a long time ago. I would imagine when you have endless JC1 monoblocks at your disposal, the BBQ becomes less important in the big picture.

He said he's too lazy to fix it himself and that they, the Parasound pit crew, don't want to touch it.

It was a surreal introduction.

Tour2ma

Russ had mention your meeting with Curl in a CES post he made. Don't remember seeing a pic though. You had to be grinnin' from ear to ear...

dorokusai

No pic. It was a weird event as we were just two unknown, young dudes in an apparently established crowd of hardcore, audio creators...blah blah...talk about feeling out of place.

I was just pleased to see the Blowtorch Pre-Amp, in person, and shake hands with one of my audio idols.

Tour2ma

Little did they know you and Russ are "hardcore"..

Meanwhile back at the fire... It seems that only one item is left.

dorokusai

You get my phone message?

Tour2ma

Nope... but if you called the cell, it's on the road...

dorokusai

Well, call me from your local resource....carrier pigeon and soup cans don't count. I know you're on the run from the law, but handle your business.