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Index »
Radio Paradise/General »
General Discussion »
Brag about your stereo
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Page: Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 13, 14, 15 Next |
cc_rider

Location: Bastrop Gender:  
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Posted:
Feb 28, 2012 - 10:53am |
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DaveInVA wrote: The FET preamp I designed back in the 80's and have build about a dozen of them over the years and friends have built them also and some still use them. They are nice and detailed but warm sounding, They run off batteries which greatly simplifies the power supply of course and helps elimate noise and hum sources.
How does that work? Do you have to recharge the batteries, or is there a separate charging circuit that operates continuously? I'd be interested in using something like that.
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DaveInSaoMiguel

Location: No longer in a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA Gender:  
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Posted:
Feb 28, 2012 - 10:50am |
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black321 wrote: DaveInVA wrote: First, do you need (MC) Moving Coil capability? One of the best deals now is used PS Audio Phono Preamps. These are well made with high grade parts. Some also have input switching and passive line stages so they can be used as an entire preamp is desired. These can be had used for $100 ish sometimes less. WAY better than any of the sub $100 wall wart phono preamps. I have been known to build all FET phono preamps from time to time also and I build FET MC head amps. I can also supply the schematics if you want to build one yourself. No MC requirement. I just had my old Technics SL3200, with a Stanton 681EEE cartridge, repaired. Currently using an Outlaw 990 as a preamp, but dont like the forward, bright sound i get...almost CD like. Looking for something warmer. Other than a few tweeter and surround replacements, I've never tried to build a piece of equipment, although it sounds like fun? The FET preamp I designed back in the 80's and have build about a dozen of them over the years and friends have built them also and some still use them. They are nice and detailed but warm sounding, They run off batteries which greatly simplifies the power supply of course and helps elimate noise and hum sources. I'm building a fully balanced tube phono preamp for myself, just gotta get off my ass and finish it.
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black321

Location: An earth without maps Gender:  
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Posted:
Feb 28, 2012 - 10:44am |
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 DaveInVA wrote: First, do you need (MC) Moving Coil capability? One of the best deals now is used PS Audio Phono Preamps. These are well made with high grade parts. Some also have input switching and passive line stages so they can be used as an entire preamp is desired. These can be had used for $100 ish sometimes less. WAY better than any of the sub $100 wall wart phono preamps. I have been known to build all FET phono preamps from time to time also and I build FET MC head amps. I can also supply the schematics if you want to build one yourself.
Â
No MC requirement. I just had my old Technics SL3200, with a Stanton 681EEE cartridge, repaired. Currently using an Outlaw 990 as a preamp, but dont like the forward, bright sound i get...almost CD like. Looking for something warmer.
Other than a few tweeter and surround replacements, I've never tried to build a piece of equipment, although it sounds like fun?
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jagdriver

Location: Now in Lobster Land Gender:  
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Posted:
Feb 28, 2012 - 10:13am |
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SmilinJimmy wrote:...Sounds like shit." —Steve Martin
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DaveInSaoMiguel

Location: No longer in a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA Gender:  
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Posted:
Feb 28, 2012 - 9:51am |
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black321 wrote:Any recommendations for a good, reasonably priced, phono preamp?
First, do you need (MC) Moving Coil capability? One of the best deals now is used PS Audio Phono Preamps. These are well made with high grade parts. Some also have input switching and passive line stages so they can be used as an entire preamp is desired. These can be had used for $100 ish sometimes less. WAY better than any of the sub $100 wall wart phono preamps. I have been known to build all FET phono preamps from time to time also and I build FET MC head amps. I can also supply the schematics if you want to build one yourself.
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black321

Location: An earth without maps Gender:  
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Posted:
Feb 28, 2012 - 9:46am |
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Any recommendations for a good, reasonably priced, phono preamp?
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black321

Location: An earth without maps Gender:  
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Posted:
Nov 4, 2011 - 11:49am |
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I just picked up a Musical Fidelity VLink, an asynchronous USB/SPDIF converter. Price recently dropped $50 to $120. For anyone with a digital input in their receiver/preamp (or have a DAC), but not a USB input, allows you to play files directly from your PC. Works nice and accepts Hi Res files up to 24 bit, 96khz.
http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Fidelity-MFVLINK-V-Link/dp/B004PH03GU
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kurtster

Location: where fear is not a virtue Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 2, 2011 - 8:44am |
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Ethernet buffer problem solved. Ceiling cat blesses Vaio again. Antique puter has spdif out, receiver has spdif in w / assignable inputs. Digital chain is intact.
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Servo

Location: Down on the Farm Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 7:51pm |
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SmilinJimmy wrote:"So, I traded that in and got the googlephonic, which is the highest number of speakers you can have before infinity. Sounds like SHIT!" —Steve Martin  Should have bought the Infinity speakers. So close...
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kurtster

Location: where fear is not a virtue Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 7:07pm |
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SmilinJimmy wrote: ... So, I traded that in and got the googlephonic, which is the highest number of speakers you can have before infinity. Sounds like SHIT! So, then I said, 'Hey, maybe it's the needle!' I had the typical diamond needle. I searched around got the moonrock needle, cost me 3 million bucks, but what the hey. So, now I have a googlephonic stereo with a moonrock needle. ...Sounds like shit." —Steve Martin And the moral of the story is ... garbage in ... garbage out.
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SmilinJimmy

Location: Canada Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 6:34pm |
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"I bought a Stereo! Wow! With two speakers! But then I heard the quad with the four speakers and I was like this is it, so I got rid of the stereo and got the quad. I'm listening to this thing and I'm like 'Hey this sounds like SHIT!' So, I got rid of that and got the dodecaphonic with the 12 speakers. This was more to my liking...for a while. But the gear gets pretty sophisticated pretty fast and I got rid of that and got the milliphonic with the 1,000 speakers. And I'm listening to that one and I'm like, 'Hey, this sounds like SHIT too! The other one was SHIT one, this one is SHIT too!' So, I traded that in and got the googlephonic, which is the highest number of speakers you can have before infinity. Sounds like SHIT! So, then I said, 'Hey, maybe it's the needle!' I had the typical diamond needle. I searched around got the moonrock needle, cost me 3 million bucks, but what the hey. So, now I have a googlephonic stereo with a moonrock needle. ...Sounds like shit." —Steve Martin
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Servo

Location: Down on the Farm Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 3:04pm |
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justlistening wrote:(and Burr Brown - now that's a name from the past - real pioneers)
 When TI bought them, they dropped the Burr-Brown name until they discovered how valuable it was. I have no idea if the TI-made Burr-Brown brand DACs have any original Burr-Brown DNA left in them.
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kurtster

Location: where fear is not a virtue Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 2:58pm |
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Servo wrote: You finally managed to let go of your lifetime collection of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues? j/k  Tech said that the ethernet large file problem could be overcome via USB flash drive and/or a dedicated hard drive plugged into the USB port. I don't know how I managed without my cheap USB hard drives. When I travel, I carry my music and some TiVo video files on a 500GB Seagate drive that fits perfectly into an old GPS hard shell case. I can store my entire TMC movie collection on a 2TB Seagate drive that cost the same as my smaller USB-powered portable. If you have a spare HD, you can buy a case/USB adapter to use it with your receiver.
Its playtime now ! Party on!  Nope, plenty of spares, did the case thing already but they have stuff and are all NT, the receiver only does FAT. So I'll get a couple of cheapie flashes from microcenter for now and then buy a new 1TB or 2TB buss powerable HD when I get some bucks and take it from there.
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kurtster

Location: where fear is not a virtue Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 2:48pm |
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DaveInVA wrote: I looked into upgrading my homely theater and decided to just stick with my Citation 7 Preamp/decoder and Rotel/Yamaha amps for the time being. It doesn't do any one the networking stuff but has some of the best 7.2 channel sound as all the signal switching is done with relays instead of fets and all the analog circuitry is discreet. It was a $3300 unit when new but got it considerably cheaper when J & R closed them out when Citation changed hands. I've been very happy with its performance. I could sell it and the amps used for enough to get a decent enough receiver if I wanted the networking features etc but the problem I ran into right off was that most all the receivers in that range all use the same chip amps that can only safely drive down to 6 ohms and all my speakers in my 7.2 system are 4 ohm. And they many not even sound as good as the discreet amps I am currently using. So I am looking at the few newer 7.2 preamp decoders that have the newer features but none are in a price range I can afford. Fortunately getting a Sony Blu-Ray player with streaming capabilities got me most the features I wanted so I guess I will be using the Citation for a few more years. I'm glad the Onkyo is working out for you. I noticed it uses the same 192/24 Burr Brown DACs many of the Blu-Ray players use so I imagine it sounds pretty good. My new Sony Blu-Ray also plays SACD's and I think it sounds a hair better than my older modified Denon 2900. The build quality on the Denon is way better though as it weighs over 20 lbs and the Sony is about 4 lbs!!
The only reason I got a new receiver was the lightning as you know. We don't play vid games and watch very few movies, so until you mentioned it, I never even thought about the networking capabilites through X-box and Blu Ray vid. Duh ... Had my receiver lived, I prolly would've gotten there eventually, but sometimes change must be forced. We had to finally get a flat screen because of needing HDMI for programming the receiver. We just said we were going to wait until stuff broke and be happy as long as we could. Well stuff broke. So here we are. Heck, I might even drag out the rear speakers and try a little 5.1 Each channel has a programable low end cut off. Haven't listened to any in years. The blown up receiver was state of the art pro logic and no DSP, so iffen I get really bored this winter ... A call to the tech for the onkyo told me how to address the receiver from the browser and I can pull up Winamp, find the urls for the streams and just copy and paste. That was not in the manual. Got space for 40 saved stations. The ogg stream plays just fine. Hard to tell any real difference from the 192 mp3, but I can now switch to which ever really easy. Now I'm back to the dilemma of the cartridge /stylus, which is going to take a little while to reflect on.
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black321

Location: An earth without maps Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 2:48pm |
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 DaveInVA wrote: I looked into upgrading my homely theater and decided to just stick with my Citation 7 Preamp/decoder and Rotel/Yamaha amps for the time being. It doesn't do any one the networking stuff but has some of the best 7.2 channel sound as all the signal switching is done with relays instead of fets and all the analog circuitry is discreet. It was a $3300 unit when new but got it considerably cheaper when J & R closed them out when Citation changed hands. I've been very happy with its performance. I could sell it and the amps used for enough to get a decent enough receiver if I wanted the networking features etc but the problem I ran into right off was that most all the receivers in that range all use the same chip amps that can only safely drive down to 6 ohms and all my speakers in my 7.2 system are 4 ohm. And they many not even sound as good as the discreet amps I am currently using. So I am looking at the few newer 7.2 preamp decoders that have the newer features but none are in a price range I can afford. Fortunately getting a Sony Blu-Ray player with streaming capabilities got me most the features I wanted so I guess I will be using the Citation for a few more years. I'm glad the Onkyo is working out for you. I noticed it uses the same 192/24 Burr Brown DACs many of the Blu-Ray players use so I imagine it sounds pretty good. My new Sony Blu-Ray also plays SACD's and I think it sounds a hair better than my older modified Denon 2900. The build quality on the Denon is way better though as it weighs over 20 lbs and the Sony is about 4 lbs!!Â
Â
You could also add a component, like a Marantz NA 7004 network player. I've seen them go used for about half retail ($800), or something like the Musical Fidelity V Link, with a USB input and digital output (retails for $170).
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Servo

Location: Down on the Farm Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 2:34pm |
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kurtster wrote:I think that I have finally achieved what I have been trying to do for the last 10 years.
 You finally managed to let go of your lifetime collection of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues? j/k  Tech said that the ethernet large file problem could be overcome via USB flash drive and/or a dedicated hard drive plugged into the USB port. I don't know how I managed without my cheap USB hard drives. When I travel, I carry my music and some TiVo video files on a 500GB Seagate drive that fits perfectly into an old GPS hard shell case. I can store my entire TMC movie collection on a 2TB Seagate drive that cost the same as my smaller USB-powered portable. If you have a spare HD, you can buy a case/USB adapter to use it with your receiver. Its playtime now ! Party on! 
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DaveInSaoMiguel

Location: No longer in a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 1:35pm |
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kurtster wrote:
I think that I have finally achieved what I have been trying to do for the last 10 years.
Tech said that the ethernet large file problem could be overcome via USB flash drive and/or a dedicated hard drive plugged into the USB port.
Setup be done. And the puter is now optional, not required.
Its playtime now !
I looked into upgrading my homely theater and decided to just stick with my Citation 7 Preamp/decoder and Rotel/Yamaha amps for the time being. It doesn't do any one the networking stuff but has some of the best 7.2 channel sound as all the signal switching is done with relays instead of fets and all the analog circuitry is discreet. It was a $3300 unit when new but got it considerably cheaper when J & R closed them out when Citation changed hands. I've been very happy with its performance. I could sell it and the amps used for enough to get a decent enough receiver if I wanted the networking features etc but the problem I ran into right off was that most all the receivers in that range all use the same chip amps that can only safely drive down to 6 ohms and all my speakers in my 7.2 system are 4 ohm. And they many not even sound as good as the discreet amps I am currently using. So I am looking at the few newer 7.2 preamp decoders that have the newer features but none are in a price range I can afford. Fortunately getting a Sony Blu-Ray player with streaming capabilities got me most the features I wanted so I guess I will be using the Citation for a few more years. I'm glad the Onkyo is working out for you. I noticed it uses the same 192/24 Burr Brown DACs many of the Blu-Ray players use so I imagine it sounds pretty good. My new Sony Blu-Ray also plays SACD's and I think it sounds a hair better than my older modified Denon 2900. The build quality on the Denon is way better though as it weighs over 20 lbs and the Sony is about 4 lbs!!
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justlistening

Location: So. California Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 1:05pm |
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Servo wrote:My stereo is so good that when I play "Comfortably Numb" from "The Delicate Sound of Thunder", it causes my auditory cortex to send information to my visual cortex that causes me to visualize a realistic, full-color 1986 tour mirror ball. And when I play "Comfortably Numb" from "Pulse", I see the 16kW high-pressure mercury mirror ball from the 1994 tour. (and Burr Brown  - now that's a name from the past - real pioneers)
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kurtster

Location: where fear is not a virtue Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 12:56pm |
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Servo wrote: Now that the legendary DAC makers like Burr-Brown have been gobbled up by Big Business, and chip mass-producers like Crystal and Cirrus Logic are making affordable and critically acclaimed DACs, what's in your receiver is probably pretty damn good. I think that I have finally achieved what I have been trying to do for the last 10 years. Tech said that the ethernet large file problem could be overcome via USB flash drive and/or a dedicated hard drive plugged into the USB port. Setup be done. And the puter is now optional, not required. Its playtime now !
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Servo

Location: Down on the Farm Gender:  
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Posted:
Sep 1, 2011 - 12:47pm |
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justlistening wrote:My stereo is actually a closet-monaural and lives in constant fear that its secret will be discovered. It avoids Pink Floyd music at all costs.
My stereo is so good that when I play "Comfortably Numb" from "The Delicate Sound of Thunder", it causes my auditory cortex to send information to my visual cortex that causes me to visualize a realistic, full-color 1986 tour mirror ball. And when I play "Comfortably Numb" from "Pulse", I see the 16kW high-pressure mercury mirror ball from the 1994 tour.
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