jp11801
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Posts posted by jp11801
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great cart,
i like their yatra cart bit better but the bloom easily outclasses the competition in its price class like the dyna 20x r even the shelter 501. I have owned both and consider the bloom an upgrade.
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no it sold out from under me on agon and so far I have not seen another, someday all gear comes around if you just give it time.
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Dom good to see you here, there are alot of good folks here. The board is more rough and tumble than HF and people are more apt to say what they think and feel. It's good stuff and lots of knowledge here!!
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Adam your dac in action , the jitterbug makes a big difference with the usb feed.
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ghetto version of the 800 the ps-x500, nice table no motor noise but the arm can exhibit some noise particularly at the begining and end of lps. Overall a great table and easily as good as most regas and music hall or project tables.
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just got it delivered today a 16 slot bookcase for my LPs each slot is 13 inches
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Wow, CS4328 18 bit DAC chips. That brings back memories; there have been some very engaging 18 bit DACs made. The circuit seems very simple and easy to mod. The first thing I would do is take out those 4.7uF Solen output caps or bypass them with teflon or polystyrenes.
Funny you mention 18 bit dacs I also have a sonic frontiers transdac (Filburt modded) that has 1702ks in it and sounds fantastic.
I really would like to see what a full bore mod (upgrade to this circuit could yield. Jon are you not a fan of solens, is there a brand of cap you would recommend in its place (please do not say v-cap).
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Dusty there is no doubt the mind is the most power DSP computer but I find it wears thin after a while and fails during long sessions with fatigue setting in, so far no such signs are present.You know, there's something to be said for beautiful gear. And that is: are you sure you weren't just mesmerized into thinking it sounded better?
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I'm selling my imod. You can buy it. Red and blue is very nice. Have you checked out the gallery page yet?
http://www.ultimateears.com/_ultimateears/community/earartgallery/index.php
I just say no to the imod portable amp lod bag of tricks
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C'mon, baby. It's so pretty on this ledge. You know you want them, and UE11s don't need no damn amp. What color are you getting? I'm letting Edwood decide for me, but I'm thinking something along the lines of translucent baby blue or aqua. What art are you choosing? I'm going fem floral. 20% off, 20% off, 20% off
wait a minute TRose said you need an imod, LOD and amp to enjoy these so...
and I was going to go with one red and one blue, still don't know if I can justify it for strictly Iphone use on planes and days in Golden Gate park. -
Well, I suppose that's the more realistic route. I was just feeling so light and free after selling that stuff. It made sense at the time. Joining Team Out of Control and Sonic Bliss. Next year it's Team New Car!
If I keep my pace up it will be team food stamps and govt cheese that I'll be joining. Although the sound of the iphone with the shure 420s could satisfy me. Anyone know if the iphone will properly power the UE11s
WHile I keep trying to talk myself off the ledge Vickie keeps enticing me back on the ledge and urges me to jump 
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Vickie I just do not see how a 10k dynamic rig exemplar>extreme plat>R10 and exemplar>Blue Hawaii SE> Omegas and a portable creme de la creme rig of a pico>UE11s qualifies. I fell off the rails early and often in my quest to not purchase gear in 2008 and shamefully so. So while my failure in that area is humorous I in no way think that I have lived up to that pledge.
To me team minimal is a middle of the road set of headphones and amp like a pair of 225s or stock senn 650s with a decent but not esoteric amp. I mean your amp has 2 power cords for christ sake
. I am none too sure that one could be considered a card carrying member for team min if all your rigs are equal to or greater than the cost of a new entry level car. So does Gary qualify for team min with the HE90 rig? Embrace team Out of Control and team Sonic Bliss.
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About a month back I picked up the Kora Hermes DAC after reading about it on Agon and AA. It was a reference for a bit for a few reviewers so O thought I'd give it a go. I am using it slightly unconventionally in a computer as source rig with a hagusb/aes converter to take the usb signal out of my apple mac mini to the aes input of the Kora dac. I have been on a search for the holy grail for a while now looking for a dac that would plit the difference between the thicker analog sounding wadia/opus21 sound and the faster but brittle sound of some of the newer top gun dacs. Having gone through the wavelength cosecant, transporter, transporter APL modded and apogee mini dac owned or listened to ayre , esoteric, exemplar and the sony flagship scd1. The Kora for now
hits the spot and strikes a solid middle ground between the thicker sound of the wadia and the faster sound of the best of the newer players. It sounds particularly good through the HD2 a a headphone source but also is very nice through my current cobbled together speaker rig of alonl's powered by the ASL Typhoon with a passive volume pot. Great sense of soundstage with speakers and great air around each of the instruments with a solid bass response and gorgeous mids. The highs are not as present as some of the newer players but cymbals are full with hits well resolved.Here are some pics for those that need to see the insides it reminds me a bit of my micromega cdp that I loved for about a decade.
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The folks from NOLA used to make ALON speakers and Carl was the designer for the Dalquist line as well. I have a pair of Alon 1s and 15 years later I can not beat them for under 4k. They regularly show up on Agon for $600-800 and the lVs show up for about a grand these are the best buys IMHO in the speaker world today. Voltron and I took a road trip to hear the Nola 1 and 2s in a shop in Santa Rosa and they in no way outclassed their older sibling the Alon 1s I brought. It was a shocker for me as I wanted to upgrade after 15 years and after ABing for an afternoon even the sales guy said he's keep the pair I have over the upgrade.
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Surprisingly it sounds very detailed and musical at the same time. I'll be happy to have the NorCal crew put it through its paces at the next meet. I could be wrong but I think my version (first version) uses 6922s but I have not opened it up since purchase. It has some high end seimans in there now but if I ever find my amperex white label pqs I'll give them a shot as well.
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my current favorite dac is the Kora Hermes dac. It is a french design, dual transformers one for the digital end and one for the output stage, tube output and has optical, rca and aes digital inputs. I think that it out classes the wavelength cosecant and has a sound I love. It is much more musical sounding and does not have the high end glare that many of todays dacs seem to have that upsample the signal. I put this up against the APL modded transporter and it was miles above that unit. While I like Alex's work I disagree with him on his old dac chips are inferior to modern ones. If you look on audiogon you can find great buys in the 1k range for Theta and Electrocompaniet. I tend to like detailed and fast sounding gear over lush or warm but I really have issues with the high end glare that many newer dacs have to my ears.
I would eliminate the lavry, meier, grace, and transporter from the list. The meir is midfi to me and the others suffer from top end harshness.
I'll get pics of it up here tonight probably in a separate thread
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what software are you guys using to compress/decode dvds to the iphone/touch pm me please. I am on the road in a few days and could use the movie content on cross county flights
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Brown leather RS-1s with flats = bad? WTF, dude, you are so wrong. I will try them with bowls tonight but you are so wrong...
early RS1s are flats all they way, that is the way they were designed. Having owned brown leathers and black no serial # they are much better with flats. The bowls sit in the drawer waiting for the day I get ps1s again.
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check ebay for pairs of 45s looks like a $100 or less a pair tube web sites are closer to $200 a pair. To me that is not that bad certainly cheaper than most 300b pairs.
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Thanks for the interesting set of impressions. Sounds like you guys had a fab time trying out these amps.
I assume that an HD2 is going to be cheaper than buying two Zana Deux? If you had to pick one, which would you take home?
On the new balancing act amp, is this a true balanced amp? If so, wouldn't it need 4 output triodes?
Also, I've never understood why running 300B tubes in a headphone amp is necessary, unless it's used to drive speakers or the K1000. Apart from being expensive tubes, wouldn't you need to reduce the output via a transformer like in the Woo Audio 5 so as not to blow up your headphones? I'm assuming there are 2 gain stages - I'm probably mistaken...
The option to roll 45 tubes makes a bit more sense - but still, expensive output tube
There is more than one way to balance an amp, Craig uses transformers in his balanced circuit, if you google 'audio transformer balanced' you will see a few white papers and general articles on the concept and its use in pro audio for decades. I do not pretend to understand the ins and outs of balanced audio but if you have a moment read some of the articles.
Why not run 300b tubes, one thing that I have learned with this hobby is, yes you can power a headphone by providing enough power to satisfy the minimum/basic requirements but when headphones are hit with more power they generally respond positively to it. As an example if a 300b supplied 10 watts of power at the balanced jack (it would provide less in this case) and another amp supplies 1 watt the 10 watt amp would deliver roughly double the volume of the 1 watt amp providing they both were at the same ohm rating. Again I am not a really tech guy I just know enough to get myself into trouble.
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had a chance to hear the 780's and have to say not too bad, they were apuresound rewired and had a decent range a bit heavy on the bass end and tonally all wrong but it would not qualify as an enhanced interrogation technique
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Wow another great mini at Craig's house, I wanted to come down to hear Joe's (Dreamcomposer) balanced Zana and A/B with the HD-2 that I own. Well I got to do that and a whole lot more.
Rounding out the amp line up was
Eddie Current HD2
Eddie Current Balanced Zana Duex
Eddie Current balancing act (prototype)
We also had a singled ended Zana and a EC proto amp with C41 power tubes that sounded great.
David (909) was nice enough to bring his amazing source the Reimyo 777 CDP, if you get the chance this is one great sounding source. We also had the pleasure of going back to the future and hearing to well regarded linear tracking turntables from the late 70/80s the Sony ps x 800 and the Harman Kardon st-7.
For me the HD2 and the balanced Zana were tops at the meet it was hard for me to say which I prefered as they each did different things better. The HD2 wqas faster and more dynamic while the balanced Zana has a huge soundstage (best I have heard) with a more lush sound. The Zana balanced favored classical music and the HD2 favored rock and jazz. although I would thing the the balanced Zana would also be great with classic era jazz.
Craig as usual had a few tricks up this sleeve and had a new proto of the balancing act amp. This amp is a tube rollers dream come true with a 6sl7 up front with the option to run either 300b or 45 tubes in the power section. The 45 or 300b is switchable by the user with a knob upfront in the proto it is a switch on the top of the amp. We tried the amp with graphite plate tubes from China and we also had AVVT 300bs as well the AVVTs sounded great. This amp will be a winner, if it comes out... Also in the design stage is a proto of a scaled back version of the HD2 amp. The amp that sounds best will in all likelihood go into production.
The linear tracking turntables were a real treat the Sony is so advanced it is amazing. The arm constantly checks to ensure it is aligned properly with sensors and tracking force is knob adjustable as the table can measure the weight and adjust accordingly. The Harman Kardon was far simpler with a Rabco arm and stainless/aluminum chassis it looked really cool. The HK sounded a bit better but I really felt it was more of a case of being better dialed in with a cart that matched the arm better. I am looking forward to hearing this deck again with a better cart match. I like the HK so much I found one on line today and bought it.
We took some pics so hopefully they will go up soon. I am leaving out a bunch but more to come.
Oh and for the surprise of the day Foome was in town also and stopped by with his Zana, it is always great to see a him.
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good to hear that they repaired t#357 as I was the original owner, I just thought they sounded off in tonal accuracy. Sad to hear that there may be a batch of these with iffy sounding drivers. I recently heard Voltron's pair and they sounded really nice but I am still not sure I'd take them over the 650s or rs1s.
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update on the gem dandy, I do not recommend this unit unless you own a wet suit or have been to a Gallagher comdedy show and enjoy sitting in the front row. It cleans the lps just fine but even doing this outside produced a mess. I am going to stick with steam cleaning for now.
For those that worry about the steam cleaning a record damage I have cleaned over a dozen lps and played them all without a trace of damage just clean pure music and amazingly clean records.
and I was going to go with one red and one blue, still don't know if I can justify it for strictly Iphone use on planes and days in Golden Gate park. 
WHile I keep trying to talk myself off the ledge Vickie keeps enticing me back on the ledge and urges me to jump 
. I am none too sure that one could be considered a card carrying member for team min if all your rigs are equal to or greater than the cost of a new entry level car. So does Gary qualify for team min with the HE90 rig? 
hits the spot and strikes a solid middle ground between the thicker sound of the wadia and the faster sound of the best of the newer players. It sounds particularly good through the HD2 a a headphone source but also is very nice through my current cobbled together speaker rig of alonl's powered by the ASL Typhoon with a passive volume pot. Great sense of soundstage with speakers and great air around each of the instruments with a solid bass response and gorgeous mids. The highs are not as present as some of the newer players but cymbals are full with hits well resolved.
Recommendation for high sensitivity speakers
in Speakers
Posted
I would strongly recommend the super hemps or the abbeys with a sub. I have wanted to hear the coicident line for some time but do not have a dealer local.