Voltron

Hail to the King of the Slow! Nice avvy.

Agreed, and here are some new avatar options for our king:

First of all, I am pissed off that one of you two guys didn't get mated with -=Her=- because that would have been fun times. Second of all, are you exchanging a Beta22 for US Dollars, or are you going to come up with something in addition to your commercial exchange?

I like Arcam gear and own several pieces, including the FMJ DV29 (cd/dvd/dvd-a). The CD23 is a very solid player for Redbook only (HDCD supported) and it incorporates the dCS Ring DAC that many people love. It is a great sounding, musical, and accurate player, but it will not be a super-detailed clinical kind of sound. The 2900 would not fall into the super detail camp either. The CD23 had a couple of versions, one had a new transport added and the more substantial one was called the CD23T, for text support on the readout and better CD-R handling. If you go later in the FMJ CD line, the CD33 and CD36 do not have the Ring DAC but are also well regarded. I think the value is still in the CD23 assuming it is in good shape and functions well. I have been using my DV29 for 4+ years without any problems at all.

Don't tell them I hot-linked!

The first page says max $40-50 but the normal expectation is one CD. You and your partner can decide how you want to handle it.

Done. My people will talk to your people.

Well, Vicki is damn lucky to get this beauty, although as she puts it, this way just cuts out the middle man (aka Mike)!

WTF?! Seriously?

Congrats Vicki! That is a great looking B22 and who needs speakers anyway! Enjoy it!

I am in too. I will ship wherever.

Happy birthday my dear friend. Wish I had seen this earlier and called you. Hope it has been a great one for you as you deserve only the best! Cheers.

Wait, CJ, grawk makes a good point. Have you tried a CDP or something as a source? The headphone output of a laptop isn't a real test of the amp and may be a cause of problems.

CJ- Can't you get together with Mike or Vicki or Dom and your amp and try going over what you are doing and what you are experiencing? I know you do not have any tube experience and the type of problems you are having are not easily pinpointed. I cannot understand what is happening from your posts, and the intermittent nature after sounding fine for some period is pretty odd. I don't understand what shipping damage could be blamed for this behavior and I believe Ricey was using the amp without problems before sending it. I don't think the Extreme is that complicated on the inside and flecom could certainly troubleshoot it with you if you can talk to him about getting together. My personal take is that you should try to figure it out before selling off tubes and shipping the amp somewhere else, but I have been biting my tongue so as not to butt in from afar. Good luck either way.

Kinda like Gene except with massive amounts of alcohol instead of freezing temps and improper gear.

Happy birthday Salty! Have good fun.

Well, the sad truth is that I got a very short listen to the completed setup but I am very happy with the initial results. The Doshi fit right in very nicely and add some welcome warmth and sophistication to the rig. The EMM Labs direct certainly sounded good but didn't have as much character and tended to a harsher edge. As far as the very limited listening I have done, the Doshi is very quiet and the sound is nicely detailed and dynamic. The mids are going to be in my dreams tonight. Wut can I say, toobs r gud. The Ayre really has an amazing sound and I am sure that it would have some benefits over the Doshi. The really sick thing would be to use the Doshi as a phono stage and then have the Ayre serving preamp duties. I mentioned that to JP#s at one point and he nearly passed out. The Ayre really drives my imagination and it has a remote, but I am going to stick with this setup for now. The Doshi does have a separate power supply that is in the full rig picture on the lower right next to the KGSS DX. It is solid state and built like a tank. It has a ground lift and an on/off switch. That is it. It is connected to the preamp section by an XLR cable and a power cable with multiple pins that screws down (like the Woo Audio 5). There is also a ground pin that plugs into both ends. The phono section uses a total of 6 tubes. All tubes right now are JJ gold pins. The 4 on the right are ECC83, and 12AX7 are substitutes I will try at some point. The 2 in the middle are ECC81, and substitutes are 12AT7s. Lastly, the line stage tubes are ECC99s, and 12BH7s are the primary substitutes. There are other variations that are acceptable, but right now I don't have the manual with them all listed. I may have some more info about the internals in the Casino at some point. More when I am able to listen more. I desperately wish it was right now.

The Unicorn Lives!!! And it is rocking my world. I have played Bill Evans, Steely Dan, and Dave Alvin on SACD and LP and all have been awesome. I was also fixing the Reks curse which struck my HT amp by popping some fuses while I was taking stuff apart. Anyway, more thoughts later, but my family is waiting for me and I am running 8 directions at once. Pics, with a proper Voltron Lion at the end for Nate. Woo Hoo!

Don't ban me bro! Two boxes just now arrived and I do not hear large objects rolling around inside them. Stay tuned!

Wait, maybe UPS tried to use non-virgins to ship it to me! Dammit, I knew there was a hitch! And thanks for the well-wishes Dreadhead.

I agree with JP's scoring, but those Watt Puppys were really amazing in certain respects such as bass depth and definition as mentioned perviously. That whole system was really nice but the ATC 50s manage to split the difference between the too cold and detailed Puppys and the too warm and bloated Sonus Fabers. I am awaiting the return of the Unicorn today, which is very exciting. I think that its introduction into the system will improve dramatically over the EMM Labs direct to ATCs, plus the Doshi phono stage is said to be extraordinary. Will post more pics and thoughts later. Wish me luck on a safe delivery this time...

Obviously separated at birth: Well, except for the fact that the second one appears to have been aborted.

Don't you listen to the Shane Co. ads? Tom Shane always say Antwerp is the diamond capital you twerp.