aerius

Someone needs to tell me what these miracle amps are, I've yet to hear the K701 sound decent on anything I've heard to date.

Nope, I don't have an ortho and I couldn't get in touch with anyone who has one on short notice. Well, if I weren't into the DIY part of tube amps I'd probably buy one, but since I am I won't because I have almost all the parts to build something fairly similar. It is a nice looking amp, kinda heavy too with all those transformers and chokes.

I called up the Canadian distributors and managed to arrange an audition at one of them yesterday. I used my RS-1 and Senn 580 and brought along my mini Gilmore Lite for a sanity check. CD player was some shiny German(?) thingy, I can neither remember nor pronounce the name. In short, I concur with Augsburger's impressions, this little amp is good and does what an amp should. It's not crapped up and mushy, everything is well controlled. With my Senns I preferred using the 100 Ohm tap, it keeps the upper bass from dicking up the midrange. I think lovers of "traditional" tube sound will prefer the 300 ohm setting which loosens things up a bit, but loses some control of the bass. With RS-1's, I think this is THE amp to beat unless you have a couple grand or more burning a hole in your pocket. With the impedance switch dialed down to 30 ohms, it keeps the Grados nicely in control. The frequency response is about as even as you'll get from an RS-1, the highs don't go PPSSSSSS! like they can with lesser amps and the bass hump doesn't overpower and smear out the midrange, which does retain the Grado magic. The amp works with the RS-1 instead of seemingly fighting against it like my DIY Gilmore Lite tends to do. I decided to play "Whites off Earth now!" because I like the Ambisonics mic and I'm frankly sick of the "Trinity Sessions" album and don't want to hear the latter for a while. This album was recorded in a garage and you can hear it, the acoustics aren't exactly great but the performance sure is. With the Trafomatic & RS-1, there's a lot of depth to sound, I can clearly place all the walls on the garage along with the echoes & reverb, everytime someone moves to a different spot I can hear the change in the sound field. The sound doesn't come from the same place and the echoes don't bounce the same way either. Real fun to listen to, especially the opening track and "I'll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive". Also played some metal because if it can't rock with Grados, it's useless. I went with the remastered edition of "South of Heaven" by Slayer, it's loud and evil with crunchy guitar goodness and drums. I wasn't disappointed, Slayer sounds darn good on them, though I wouldn't mind having just a bit more dynamics & control when I cranked it to earbleed volumes. The bass started to compress a bit and the treble lost some resolution when I cranked it way up, I'd never listen anywhere near that loud on anything like a regular basis so it's not a concern for me. I only crank it like that a few times a year, and only for a couple songs at a time at most. Also played a few tracks off Blue Rodeo's "Five Days in July". "Cynthia's" fun for checking resolution & separation, can it keep the vocals from blending together, and can it also cleanly distinguish the fact that the female background vocal isn't Sarah McLachlan at all times, especially during the chorus. The background singer isn't Sarah, but lesser gear can make it seem like she is. The Trafomatic can do the job, I can tell the singer clearly ain't Sarah, it's some other woman who ends up sounding like her because of the way the vocals harmonize during the chorus. It takes a pretty good system to make the distinction clear. "What is this Love" off the same album is fun for hearing reverb in a barn, and that's also where you realize that Sarah McLachlan's voice is surprisingly strong. Most of the time I can hear that she's a fair distance behind the microphone, and only moves closer for a few parts. When she does, the tone of her voice should change, and that's also when you get the echoes off the barn. Most amps can get the echoes but leave the tonal change sounding flat, which in turn makes the distance seem screwy. The Trafomatic can get both. This is a good amp, it does a lot of things right. I can definitely recommend it unless you're one of those guys who listens at over 100dB. Also, Avantgarde Duo Mezzos are fucking awesome.

Package of microfibre cloths. There's gotta be a better cheapskate way of cleaning my records.

I say even odds that Markl's mod thread will soon get edited to read "........" Wouldn't be the first time something like that's happened on Headfi.

I like how a Microsoft Lottery uses a UK bank with a Yahoo email address. You'd think with all that money they have, they can get company email...

I took the cover off my CD player and used the lens cleaning kit from my camera on it. The lens brush thingy fixed all the misreading problems I had when I first got my CDP and since then it's been working fine.

Your net contribution to this forum is two threads filled with useless bullshit. What gives you the right to think you deserve respect?

Bullshit. Maybe you'd like to explain why every single one of your posts is in a thread relating to Ultrasones.

Every post by you in this thread can be summed up as "you must hear ultrasones with you own ears, go hear ultrasones", nevermind that most of us don't care to hear them. Some of us have tried them and hated them, others have better things to do with their time than listen to headphones which are not very well liked by well-respected members. And that's not even getting into your piss-poor attitude and communication skills. Why the fuck should we listen to someone comes across as a 14 year-old jackass?

Then why the fuck are you on a personal crusade to push Ultrasones on everyone?

Ok, update now that I've cleaned the records, these LPs are in really good shape, no scratches or scuffs, very few pops and I'm pretty sure a trip through one of those TNT vacuum machines will get rid of them.

I'm still cleaning the records and haven't had a chance to listen to them yet.

Or step up and buy an Airy 2.

Always see the greats before they pass on, always. Once they leave this world, you'll never see them again. Jazz concert, no contest.

To me they absolutely require tubes and a turntable rig, preferably with a warm fat sounding cartridge to give it more fullness and punch. Even with a Capitole or Simaudio Andromeda and some of the best amps money can't buy, they don't quite do it for me. I just like the RS-1 & PS-1 sound a lot more.

I wouldn't. The HP-2 is great on a technical level, but the presentation leaves me wanting. It's like a flawless supermodel who won't get intimate or sleep with you. The RS-1 is like a cute GF who fucks you silly every night till you can't pee straight. She may not be perfect, but she's a hell of a lot more satisfying.

You're just doing that 'cause you want to get in her pants.

I'd say the problem is our fans are too good, no matter how much the Leafs suck the ACC is always sold out so there's no incentive for the owners & management to improve the team. The Leafs could finish dead last for 5 years and the ACC will still be sold out every single night. If Toronto fans actually stopped going to the games, then management will actually start thinking about building a good team to get the fans back. Of course, there's the other problem of the Leafs being majority owned by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, those dumbasses don't know a goddamn thing about hockey.

It's even worse in Toronto, and our team completely sucks ass. The only reason I can even get tickets to a game is because my GF's friend's brother plays for the Leafs, so once in a while they can pass us a couple extra friends & family tickets. I love watching hockey, but not the Leafs since they skate like slugs and all they do is dump & chase the puck since they have so few skill players. Watching say, Ottawa & Montreal go at it is a whole different story, pure end to end action, brilliant passes and moves along with great goals. It's a much more exciting & enjoyable game.

It's probably my 2nd or 3rd favourite, behind Royal Spa. They give great massages.

It's used, on the 'gon. If you don't like it, you just flip it for the cost of shipping.

Or bump up the gain of the amp itself.

Let me make this clear for you. You're not welcome here. Go back to Head-fi or wherever you hang out until your balls drop or you grow a brain, whichever comes first. Run along now.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=W3FXcDRjtdk