What did you do to your stereo rig today?

xschop · June 14

rebelsoul · June 14

Ordered the eversolo t-10 streamer to match with damifrips pontus 15 .

invalid · June 16

Got some KT170 tubes and an 83 rectifier in my hybrid amplifier.

Unknown · June 16

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invalid · June 17

pitdogg2 wrote: »

invalid wrote: »

Got some KT170 tubes and an 83 rectifier in my hybrid amplifier.

What did that do to power output?

It doesn't give the amplifier more power as it is a hybrid amplifier. The tube is used as an input and driver to drive the gates of a mosfet output stage, but it does change the sound.

agingboomer · June 18

Rotated into my main system a Technics SL-J33 turntable that I rescued from a downsizing friend. It's a linear tracking, automatic, quartz direct drive system with programmable playing capabilities. It scans records for size, identifies the cuts, and can be instructed to play them in select order. Also equipped with a Grado Green cartridge. Works and sounds great! Really nice for free.

SCompRacer · June 26

I swapped in some 7C's Ed dropped off last Feb. He's been asking if they were OK. No loose magnets. They pass the push the passive radiator test, no leaks. Sound ok but they deserve some upgrades. They are in very nice condition with original matching serial number boxes.

Carl chipped in with some Larry's rings. They had some surface rust so I sanded and painted them. Jay surprised me with RD0194's. I bet this project wont give me any trouble like open reel decks can.....

xschop · June 27

SCompRacer wrote: »

I swapped in some 7C's Ed dropped off last Feb. He's been asking if they were OK. No loose magnets. They pass the push the passive radiator test, no leaks. Sound ok but they deserve some upgrades. They are in very nice condition with original matching serial number boxes.

Carl chipped in with some Larry's rings. They had some surface rust so I sanded and painted them. Jay surprised me with RD0194's. I bet this project wont give me any trouble like open reel decks can.....

Nice looking 7's. I'd like to karma a set of RDO plates to these beauties. If you'd like, just PM. What color are those cabs?

agfrost · June 27

After Rich breathed new life into my LT-30, I've listened to more vinyl in the past week than I had in the last handful of months. The turntable has performed flawlessly, but its feet were blowing out/cracking, and generally not attractive enough for how I want it to present.

The only "Googleable" feet for this TT are some silver aluminum ones that didn't appeal to me. Researching a bit harder, I found an open-box deal on a set of Isoacoustics Gaia III Neo feet. These are made as speaker isolation feet for speakers up to 70 pounds, but I thought they'd serve my purpose. They come with three different thread adaptors and the M6/1.0mm pitch ones match the threading on the stock feet on the LT-30.

Each foot is easy to adjust height on after installation, making leveling the turntable simple. Easy to install and happy with the new boots!

With original feet:

A new foot:

One new, three old showing their age:

All dressed up:

SCompRacer · June 27

Nice looking 7's. I'd like to karma a set of RDO plates to these beauties. If you'd like, just PM. What color are those cabs?

Thanks! That's a very generous offer considering I haven't done anything for you! Carl swore he had a pair but couldn't lay his hands on them.

They look like Walnut to me. They suffered some Styrofoam transfer, probably while in storage. I was leery of some cleaners as they can degrade the thin vinyl material. You can see how the corners look scuffed and dull compared to the unaffected areas. It's more noticeable with light from a certain angle.

SCompRacer · June 27

After Rich breathed new life into my LT-30, I've listened to more vinyl in the past week than I had in the last handful of months.

This makes me very happy. I held it hostage here for several months. I'm slipping, missing thinking the carriage motor could have a bad spot. Some guys have told me they like the mirror trick idea, observing the carriage pulley while monitoring voltage. I see the Elac is still in place. That is a very nice sounding cartridge.

Nice job on the outstanding footers! That deck deserves them. The OEM ones are aging poorly.

xschop · June 27

SCompRacer wrote: »

Nice looking 7's. I'd like to karma a set of RDO plates to these beauties. If you'd like, just PM. What color are those cabs?

Thanks! That's a very generous offer considering I haven't done anything for you! Carl swore he had a pair but couldn't lay his hands on them.

They look like Walnut to me. They suffered some Styrofoam transfer, probably while in storage. I was leery of some cleaners as they can degrade the thin vinyl material. You can see how the corners look scuffed and dull compared to the unaffected areas. It's more noticeable with light from a certain angle.

50% isopropyl alcohol wont affect the vinyl. Ive tested a couple times.

agingboomer · June 28

Reinstalled my Concept 11.0 receiver into my tertiary system after a repair hiatus to cure its tendency to go into protection mode at the slightest provocation. Now pumping 110 wpc into a pair of Infinity Monitor IIa speakers with lovely vintage audio satisfaction.

Unknown · June 28

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indyhawg · July 9

Upgraded to an Eversolo T-8 from the Auralic Mini. Matches up nicely with the Denefrips Pontus II.

SCompRacer · July 9

....from the Auralic Mini

@indyhawg Curious if you had an external hard drive connected to the Auralic Aries mini and if so, what size was it? I read the Lightning DS app had issues with over a 2TB external drive. I've also read conflicting things on using an external drive formatted with exFAT.

indyhawg · July 9

@SCompRacer - I had it hooked up to my NAS. I was still under 2 TB.

Geoff4rfc · July 9

indyhawg wrote: »

Upgraded to an Eversolo T-8 from the Auralic Mini. Matches up nicely with the Denefrips Pontus II.

Awesome!! That Pontus II is pretty great I hear.

Geoff4rfc · July 9

Added new cables to the DR2 so my signal path is 100%....or somewhere around that

AudioQuest Yukon XLR's from Denafrips to AV10, Yukon XLR's from AV10 to XPA-DR2.....and the results???? Higher highs, lower lows and especially, midder mids..........then again, that could be from the pain meds from my recent knee revision surgery

Unknown · July 10

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1ptrooper · July 19

I had this installed a few months ago.
Anker solix 10.4 kw inverter,24 panels and 20 kw of batteries(4x5kw). I had the old 6kw inverter and 38 panels replaced, the L800s seemed to like it showing some definite speed and slam , the theatre room seemed darker playing music, its ambiance lvl is 23-24 db

Butter · July 21

Tube rolling today! @pitdogg2 gave me a couple of tube recommendations. So I went with a matched NOS Raytheon, 6414 black plates with triple mica. I am letting them heat up. I have Read to let them warm up for a long period of time. And I’ve also read that it’s fine to just let them warm up naturally by playing them.I’ve read a lot of good things about these tubes and I am looking forward to running them through the paces. I have been running a matched set of NOS RCA 6201 12AT7, black plates with halo getters . I have been really happy with the way. The RCAS have sounded. They have a massive black sound stage and great musical separation so I am curious as to how the new tubes will compare.

Butter · July 21

Warmed ‘em up for about an hour. On Joe Satriani’s sleepwalk, the effects on the into tended to be a little muddy. It was very pleasant and smooth! They are pretty dang quiet!
The guitars on Aaron Neville’s feels like rain are lush and layered. Angola bound has great percussion throughout. The separation of instruments really directional.

Butter · July 21

I’m finding that the sound is kind of evolving/ changing. Some Glorious, some not so much 😂 no cracking or unusual noises. Pretty interesting so far.

Unknown · July 21

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Butter · July 21

Good to know!👍

jdjohn · July 23

I picked-up a new-to-me line-level tube preamp last weekend. It is a Blue Circle BC3. I believe these came out near the 'turn of the century', if I can use that phrase at this point. I bought it from a local dude off FB marketplace. We had a nice conversation during the sale/hand-off, albeit in the boiling TN sun. These are two-piece units, with a separate umbilical power supply.

The chassis turned out to be much larger (and heavier) than I thought from the pics, but that's fine with me. It is a true dual-mono design, with separate left/right volume knobs, input selectors, and tape monitor switches...and that's it on the front panel. The knobs are wooden, and quite substantial, with basically BBs, or small ball bearings, embedded in the wood as indicators. The chassis is all stainless steel, which contributes to the overall weight. There is a concentric blue light circle in the middle of the faceplate to indicate power is on. Honestly, the aesthetics don't appeal to me. I like simple, but I also like understated, and those knobs are definitely not understated. I will say they are easy to grab.

The rear panel has a different layout as well. Left/Right input pairs (there are 5) and output pairs (there are 2) are spread-out on their respective sides of the panel, so not even close to being side-by-side. I also discovered that the RCA jacks are very slightly smaller in diameter than typical, so locking RCA plugs are almost a must, or plugs that are considered notoriously tight on 'regular' RCA jacks.

Under the hood, there is point-to-point wiring, with most components glued to a blue acrylic board - blue, get it? There are only two tubes, which in the case of this unit, are JJ ECC99. Stock BC3 units came with 6922 tubes, but the seller of this unit sent it to Jena Labs in Oregon for 'upgrades'. I don't know enough about tubes to say whether the ECC99 configuration is an upgrade over 6922. Since I believe the ECC99 is exclusive to JJ, I guess I'm kind of stuck - no tube rolling. I took one of the tube fins and dampers off for these pics.

The volume attenuators are a different (or less-common) design as well, being resistor-based stepped attenuators. It had to be a lot of work to build those!

Finally, the caps in the signal path are apparently old-school military spec caps...based on my research. I think they are metallized film caps that are hermetically sealed - probably very reliable, but not sure about audio quality. It probably depends on the desired sound.

I'm not very experienced with tube gear, but I do really like the sound of this preamp. I don't think it's super-duper tubey, but it definitely adds some of that holographic sound. It is very quiet, and does not introduce any tube hiss noise floor, which would frankly be a deal-killer for me. The bass is really impressive with this preamp. In fact, having my SVS powered sub connected to the second pair of outputs, I actually had to turn down the volume control on the SVS sub. Also, the gain attenuation is not very precise; so much so, that even at the first volume level setting, it is almost beyond low-level, background listening. "Sorry, honey...that's as low as it goes."

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase. I'm not a fan of an overly warm sound, but this unit doesn't go too far in that regard.

Unknown · July 23

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billbillw · July 23

A Blue Circle preamp! Nice. My brother used to be the US warranty service technician for founder Gilbert Yeung (Angela now). All their preamps and amps were custom made, point to point wired units with very high quality parts throughout. You got a gem there. Their phono preamp is also a gem with similar construction.
My brother has been using BC components as long as I've been at this forum. My brother has always like the old Soviet military equivalent of the 6922, but I guess that's not an option with the change to ECC99.

SCompRacer · July 23

I recall seeing those caps referred to in the antique radio forum. They were made by Sprague for JAN (Joint Army Navy for those who may not know). 56289 can be of various materials construction. Get a full M number and you can research that. I can see what looks like M83421?? / 01 on the top one and the extension 5270R on the bottom one but not positive. If so, "M83421/01-5270R is a metallized film/paper capacitor, specifically a 2.0 microfarad (μ F) 400-volt component with a 10% tolerance (R) built to MIL-PRF-83421."

The stepped attenuators are very impressive.

EDIT: If you were interested...

https://landandmaritimeapps.dla.mil/programs/milspec/ListDocs.aspx?BasicDoc=MIL-PRF-83421

What did you do to your stereo rig today?

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