Leaderboard

See, it's not just newbies who smell bad so take heart. Balok recently wrote me to tell me that BluesPower had passed away so I wanted to drop in and offer my condolances. I'm not 100% sure but I think I sold him a Sonic Frontiers preamp that blew up his speakers many years and he was happy to return it to me in exchange for a big box of CDs. I still have that preamp here in constant use, I forgot to tell him the shut down sequence so that surprised both him and his girlfriend with the fireworks... I tried to log in but saw I was Retired so figured I must have gotten banned somewhere along the line but nope, just a forum change. Nice look to it, by the way. This site has really come a long way! Then I was bored and got sucked into a thread on audiocircle about what gear do you miss and I thought about that Sonic Frontiers preamp (got that back) and then these big VTL monoblocks which I sold to a forum member here and when he switched them both on at the same time they shut down his house! I got those back, too, and used them today. Starting to see a pattern here... Then I got to thinking boy, I really miss my old WooAudio WA6 headphone amp, I just loved that thing. It was just so solidly built and once it finally warmed up it just sounded so good... So, I went onto eBay and there's one, same color, put in an offer and sold! Happy Day. It gets better - that's my old unit which I sold to a member here, Mark, many years ago. I'm even getting the spare tubes back. What are the odds of that? I couldn't pry my old DT-880s away from his son so I snagged a pair of Beyerdynamic Amiron headphones to keep me entertained while I work at home 75 hours/week. The source will be a Harman Kardon CD player which was a Karma winning from yet ANOTHER member here! There are a lot of really good people on this site. At any rate, that's how I wandered back in here. Everybody likes pictures so here's the headphone amp that's in a box somewhere on a truck.

Here's the upstairs which sounds really good, everything is sized just right. You don't have the ribbons with the 1.7s so you lose some resolution but you can't have everything. The SVS passive sub was listed here under Found Deals many years ago and it came with two little wall mount Magnepans which I hung up but never plugged into anything. Why, who knows. That sub really did the trick.

I tried 20.7s in the living room but they were just too big but here's a shot from when I had them. The sound quality was just amazing but I needed another 6' in width and depth so off they went. If you've got the room for them, though, do it. You will have the sound of a live performance at your fingertips. I acutally found myself wondering how much it would cost to expand the house, ha, ha. I probably didn't express myself clearly; when I say a live performance I don't just mean volume. It's close your eyes and it sounds like the performers are actually standing in the room with you. They are THERE. I've never heard anything like them (they're a different construction than the lesser models so they sound considerably different).

This may sound rather snobbish but it is not intended that way. Just like there are folks who never learned plumbing, auto mechanics, fine wine or the intricacies of any other field, there are many who have never had the opportunity to educate their ears as to what sounds good and what does not. If someone has never heard real live people playing instruments in person, are they able to tell which recorded and then reproduced version of a performance sounds the most accurate or real? If all someone has ever listened to is snippets of sounds that have been stitched together is there a set of "better" sound characteristics to try to achieve as their goal? Is there a time when just plain louder is better without regard for timbre? I suppose I am a sound snob because I do know what sounds real and I do have a strong preference for it. Very little brings more happiness than finding a new CD or LP that is well recorded and a great performance of good material. In a perfect world everything would be like this. Unfortunately, that is not the majority of what I listen too. There is too much other music I like that is just plain lousy recordings. I have CD's of early Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald & Eartha Kitt recordings. These were mono recordings that only exist now as transfers from 78rpm records. I consider Ella to be the greatest female jazz singer of all time and if this is the only way to listen to these performances then so be it. Another example came up earlier in the thread. The first Van Halen album is very poorly recorded. As much as that can annoy me at times, it is still Eddie Van Halen. I like the material and performance too much to let the poor recording stop me from enjoying it. (This is one of those times when maybe louder is better...)

Here we have the downstairs and a visit from my mother-in-law...

I posted risque photos? I recall there was a best looking woman thread years ago but then it just kind of wound up being The Drunken Women Of Wal-Mart before it was finally killed off for just being too stupid for words. That was around the same time they had guess this component's guts and Kevin always won because he found some program to cheat with. Let me poke around this site some and see what's here. Just for the fun of it, here's probably my final guitar purchase (maybe), a 2008 Gibson ES-345. No, the house isn't sloping, I just can't manage to ever take a straight picture.

For those that may not know, @SteveFord is an ORIGINAL Carversite member. So don't mess with him...he is your senior.

Glad to hear that 4000t is still going strong. I had that for a bit using 4 Magnepan MMGs and then got a wild hair up my ass to get a Sunfire tube preamp used with a Barcus Berry Sonic Maximizer which worked really well. I wish that python would stop dragging me around, I'm on blood thinners and bleed like a stuck pig.

I wanna see a pic of those two ladies in your setup - you know, the Maggies 😎. Some of the coolest looking speakers I’ve ever seen...

Hello all! I hope you're enjoying the Carversite! and all it has to offer. The current Administrators are: wrf - Lead Administrator Nahash5150 - Tech Staff AndrewJohn - Community Administrator The current Moderators are: Compwaco - Chief Global Moderator Sk1bum - Moderator An Administrator's job is to protect the community. Admins also assign medals/badges, approve new arrivals, organize the boards, moderate threads, assign roles, maintain the database, enforce the rules, and manage complaints. They also present ideas to the leadership for possible implementation. The Lead Administrator sets the agenda and the rules and manages all the Member Groups. The Community Administrator keeps the information organized, performs regular tasks, and manages the Moderators. Moderators keep the boards safe and fun. Moderators are not here to stifle free-speech, arm-twist or intimidate participants. They ensure that threads are kept organized and remain on-topic, and as active participants themselves, preserve the spirit of the community. Moderators, like the Admins, are here for you so that you feel welcome to share and participate without the worry of being harassed or flamed for it. If you have just signed up, then you are Inbound rank. You have limited access and you can't upload files yet. In order to advance to basic membership, you need over 6 positive reputation points. Reactions, such as 'thank you' to your content increase your positive reputation. There are three basic member Roles: Novice Member Resident A Novice is new to the forum. They have limited access but can participate in the most popular forums such as Way Offscale and The Chain. In order to advance to Member, we expect a certain amount of activity to evaluate their willingness to be a part of the community. The post count required to advance to Member is 100. (If you are currently a Member and don't have 100 posts, you will not be 'demoted'). A Member is considered an active participant. They have nearly full access to the site and its resources, and can progress in rank and earn medals by sharing their experiences in the audio world with the Site. As time goes on, a Member can eventually become a Resident or play a role as part of the Administration. A Resident is a highly active member who calls this place home and acts as a council member with the Administration. Residents are participants who are willing to take on the challenge of discussing site policies and provide the site with valuable resources - such as funds, time and talents. Greatly concerned for the site's well-being, Residents work hard to welcome new 'inbounds', encourage participation by starting topics of interest - and offer Karmas, skills and knowledge to all who visit. There is a special Member Role: Carver repair/mod Team Carver repair/mod Team - Chosen only by the Administrator, these members are trusted with their skill to work on audio gear. They actively take work and offer a variety of services. They are also essential to the site's 'helpful hand' in assisting those who need help with their troubled gear. Carver Repair Team members are also Residents by default. There are two consequential Roles: Retired Sandbox A Retired Member is a participant who has either shown a disinterest in the community but has not violated the rules, or one who has 'moved on' and no longer wishes to be an active member. This is not a disdained Role, but a Role for members who for one reason or another, do not wish to be part of the community's growth (for example). Retirement is a friendly, mutual agreement between the administration and the member. Retired members have limited access. When a participant is Sandboxed, they have violated the forums rules. A warning is always issued before a participant is Sandboxed. If the warning is ignored, and participant continues to break rules or cause trouble - an Administrator, with the consent of the Moderators, will curtail their activity for an indefinite amount of time. Removal of the Sandbox status can only be done by the Site Owner or Administrator. This forum has a lot of options for you to find information, participate, and organize how you read and keep up with activity. Remember that you can do the following: - Follow a Topic (so that if anyone posts to it, you are notified) - Follow a Member (so that you are notified of Status Updates and more) - Post a Status Update (a personal message for your friends that is public access) - Send Private messages - View Activity according to date, member, or topic (check 'Activity' in the top menu) - Post pictures and even create a gallery (Novice or above rank) - Share links, videos and files - Browse technical Manuals, white papers and spec sheets And so much more! Our goal is to maintain a site that is welcoming, helpful, courteous and fun. With audio and Carver as our common ground, we wish to stay focused on the music, and all the creativity that results. Have a great day! Hashy

Lol, I agree. Since I don’t hunt or fish, cheaper than a truck, boat, camper, guns, 4 wheeler.......etc........grin

WELCOME @oakley104! Glad you found us. + 1 on the MKII upgrade for your M-1.0ts....

Welcome back Steve.....

Late Arriving Valentine's Day music: “It’s always been a joke in the King Crimson camp that there’s never a line for the women’s restrooms during intermissions,” says Deborah Mastelotto. “King Crimson plays loud and it’s often intense and raucous. But it can also be haunting and melodic, with some of the most beautiful lyrics ever. We wanted to help uncover that sweetness and introduce the songs to a different type of audience .” So, Valentine’s Day 2021 sees an unexpected surprise with the release of A Romantic’s Guide to King Crimson, a 12-track album of reinvented King Crimson material by the husband-and-wife duo Deborah and Pat Mastelotto. The addition of a female singer automatically changes the feel of those songs and places them in a different genre. Our idea is to create a way for people, especially women, to appreciate the beauty of King Crimson’s music without the fear and sometimes resistance attached to the word ‘prog’ getting in the way.” interesting concept, however, half way through its initial spin, I conceded to my wife who has bravely taken in King Crimson with me, The line at the beer concession, shall we go?

Soundgarden Spoonman

Radiohead Creep

Steely Dan Peg

Marisha Wallace, Tomorrow was released on December 4, 2020. "Marisha’s first album is packed with uplifting show songs and sing-along pop classics, performed with love and emotion. A delightful force of nature, she is set to light up the Winter months with her sheer positivity and joy! ... it is her positive attitude, exuberant personality and a touch of Southern hospitality that makes her instantly loveable. With a sensational voice that is guaranteed to bring a chill to your spine and a tear to your eye, she proves she is more than a singer, more than a performer, she is an inspiration. When Marisha tells you she’s “here to stay”, you’d better believe it!" You can read the rest of the review here... All I can say about her voice is WOW.

ELP Touch And Go (LIVE)

Great story as usual @Butcher! I love it! I can relate to the going into the stereo store and hearing and being drawn in by the great sound. It’s how I started my journey........grin

Ah, a topic with which I am infinitely familiar... Snobbery is one way your new audio approach can be viewed, but unless the "snob" looks down upon everyone who doesn't achieve the same height I'd rather take that word as the response a limited mind has to stimulus that it can't yet grasp. Pardon me, lads, as I embark on one of my usual lengthy tales. Imagine if you will, you're a teenager, its 1978, and your only exposure to audio is the Kenwood receiver that your family has, along with some file cabinet-sized speakers, and some arcane Garrard or BIC record changer with the lengthy chrome skewer that holds half a dozen LPs in a stack waiting to be put into service during a night's listening. Your friends are in awe of this assemblage of gear. Its loud, its clear, and it looks joyful in its display of knobs and switches and flashy brushed metal bits. In short, its the dog's bollocks. Back in that era stereo stores had interesting names. You might come across Mad Marks or Stereo Stevens, or some other alliterative appellation. Or they had some very ambitious name like UK Power Company or TV & Stereo Towne, or what have you, something that indicated This Place Means Business. Generally, they were all identical with wall-mounted shelves full of the big four- Kenwood, JVC, Pioneer, Sony. You might occasionally wander into what passed for "high end", which meant Marantz or McIntosh. And then one fateful day you happen to be hopping stereo shops, and you happen upon a proper "hifi" shop. You walk in and see the usual receivers from lesser-known but good brands like Aiwa, Sansui, and Harman Kardon. But then the hand beckons you behind the curtain to the back "sound room" where you find out about these things called "separates", also known as "components". There also happens to be a wall of speakers from half a dozen brands you've never heard of. And the cost! A Perreaux amplifier for $1800... a four foot tall pair of JBL speakers for $1500... and the most amazing looking cassette deck ever, from some Japanese manufacturer called "Nakamichi" for the price of... well, that car you drove up to the store in would be a nice start. This "Dragon" appears to be something from the future, and its not easily passed by. There's a record player that looks like it was carved from a solid piece of walnut, with a straight arm on it, when all of the famous brands had these s-curved scimitars assaulting the vinyl, and it has precisely one control - an on/off rocker. For $900 it can only load and play one record at a time and you have to move the tonearm yourself! Who are all these companies? Polk, NAD, Robertson, Carver, dbx, Proton? If they were any good, where's the ads on the telly? Why are there no print ads proclaiming their greatness in Omni? Ah... KEF - I recognize that logo, those blokes in Tovil, but I thought that was just a simple foundry? They make speakers - I'm sorry, LOUDSPEAKERS - that look like furniture? And those in turn are absolutely embarrassed by the looks of these amazing ones from some company called "Canton"? I must hear these for myself, for I am amazed and overwhelmed. And a bit combative, as I'm not used to being taken by surprise. Guard up, healthy scepticism in place, on we go. "Of course you can have a demonstration. Do you have any music with you? Perhaps that cassette we see in your shirt pocket?" "Yes, certainly. Here you go - its Fastway's debut album," and I proudly hand the case over to the salesman. I look forward to hearing Fast Eddie Clarke galloping out of those allegedly fine speakers. He looks askance at it, then me, then proceeds to launch into a healthy diatribe against production cassettes... "Are you aware that these are mass-produced on machines that copy an entire cassette in a matter of seconds, at very high speed?" "No. Why is that a problem?" "Because the tape spends less time under the heads, and you miss a lot of important information. And the tape base is very low quality to begin with. And you see the shell edges? Compare them to this high quality Denon cassette - note the differences in the molding. The Denon cassette is very precise, the factory cassette looks like a prisoner carved it out of a bar of soap. The Denon shell will hold the tape material in a precise relationship to the heads. This thing... this white, plastic... thing... is garbage." Not knowing what to say, I suggest, "Well then what do you have to show me?" "Sit down there," he says, pointing to a pair of chairs in the center of the room, of which I choose one and place my bottom upon it, the rest of me following suit. He reaches for a favorite: Dark Side of the Moon. This is one of the best-produced albums of its era, or the era in which I sat upon that chair, or this era where we're talking about the quality of a recording. Whether one likes the Floyds or not, that album should be up for a Grammy nomination for engineering, perennially, and it should simply win. Or failing that, name the engineering award after that album and move on, and everyone who receives that award thereafter should be honored to have it and also feel a slight sting knowing that they'll never achieve that height. Whereas the rest of the rock world was trying to outdo the Phil Spector Wall of Sound, these gents from out of nowhere come up with this brilliant, restrained, detailed production. Everything had its place, nothing extraneous. Alan Parsons conquers the world, in one perfect album. He places that LP - which came in a slightly unusual sleeve which looked like the standard album cover but with a bright gold band across the top of it proclaiming that it was "Half Speed Mastered" or some similarly arcane term - upon said record player (henceforth to be known as a "turntable" lest you appear to be a complete Philistine), which oddly has been on and platter rotating this entire time, despite not having any vinyl upon it. And then, rather than simply placing the needle upon the vinyl and proceeding thusly, the salesman takes out a hand-sized tube covered in what appears to be velvet or microcloth, sprays it with some clear chemical, and then he places it lightly against the record surface, radially, and rotates the tube as the vinyl passes by underneath it. He shows me the surface of the tube, which now has a line of dusty lint upon it. "How often do you clean your LPs when you play them? You're supposed to do it before every listening session." "Um..." Then he grabs something that looks vaguely like a mustache trimmer, points it at the spindle and pushes a button, and then slowly draws his hand to the outside edge of the record. "Nagaoka static killer. It eliminates a lot of the pops you might hear." Then he says, "Choose a pair of speakers," so I point at the largest pair, from the aforementioned Polk. He makes some adjustments to a selector board, and sound begins to come out of the speakers. Its not the usual pops and crackles I was used to hearing from my home system, but rather this very quiet feeling that there was something coming through those speakers. And then, the first track "Speak to Me" began, leading into "Breathe". I was astounded. Where before I might have just acknowledged 'Yes, Pink Floyd is playing. Great stuff. Louder please!' now I noticed it wasn't just this monolithic sound. My home receiver could play it loud and it could also play it clear at the same time, but nothing like this. I could distinguish the instruments from each other, and the vocals were bright and lively. It was like leaving a small room for a larger one. When the album side ended, the salesman played a few other things on a new thing called a compact disc player. He chose a disc titled "Tricycle" from the group "Flim & the BBs". Not yet in stores, they had gotten it from a new studio - DMP - at the most recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Listening to this album I could hear not just individual instruments, but the actual work each band member was doing: the gliss of a pick hitting a string, the attack of the sticks upon the skins, the resonance of each drum cavity. Cymbals were so realistic I felt they were in my head. It seemed like I could even hear the room that each song was recorded in. And the whole thing appeared before me, with my eyes closed, in three glorious dimensions. I could point in space at where each instrument was located. I could note how far away from my chair those instruments were. Mentally, I had just walked out of the large room and left the house, and I was now experiencing the wild for the first time. My mind expanded further. I opened my eyes and began to focus on the equipment arrayed upon the shelves like jewelry. NAD, Hafler, Denon, Carver. I must have it. So I began showing up at the audio store every day. I began helping out. Eventually I began representing these products to people who walked in the store. One fine day I brought home a complete stack of Hafler components. A Denon CD player and turntable. A Nakamichi cassette deck. Monster cables. Those bizarre Nagaoka products. I was most likely the only person in their mid-teens who could have contemplated and achieved such a system in that day, in my entire area. So now that I've authored that little narrative, I come to my point. After hearing that system, that first day, I'd say I wouldn't want to go back to listening to anything from Kenwood or Sony or Pioneer. Yes they all made excellent equipment for the time, very solidly built. It played loud and clear, and there were no complaints, but once you hear precise detail in three dimensions, at volume levels ranging from quiet to comfortable to garment-rustling, there's no chance of going back to mass market audio. Well, there's a slim chance, perhaps if thats all there was to listen to, but I'd say there was a better chance of a snake making it across a busy highway on a frigid winter's day. And even less chance that I'd have a Sanyo car stereo (there's a story there for another time). One cannot achieve sonic bliss and then go back to dreck. There was a very talented American science fiction author who used to relate a story of something called "Chandresekhar's Other Limit". Apparently a scientist who drafted the first specification of the limit of mass on a stable white dwarf star, Chandresekhar also got into a bit of philosophy when he tried to explain how there are barriers one can cross where one finds it impossible to impart understanding to those one leaves behind. In his example, Chanresekhar told of a dragonfly larva, born into a stream or pond or other body of water. The surface of the water was a barrier to them, and the water was their entire existence. They had no idea what was beyond the barrier. As the larvae matured, occasionally one would approach that barrier, pass through, and never be seen again. Did they die? Well, one of the larvae, a strong bold fellow, announced that he would be the one who would return and let them all know what lay beyond the barrier. As the time passed he felt drawn to it, and one fateful day he pierced that barrier and moved beyond it. His newly-found wings unfurled, he launched into the open air, and he suddenly knew his purpose. He looked down at the water, determined to return and fulfill his promise, yet he couldn't. If he landed in the water he was at risk of death, and if he tried to swim below the surface he would drown. Forlornly, he took off into the sky, hoping that everyone he left behind would soon be along. And so, after some time listening to high fidelity equipment, with well-recorded source material - something basically unknown in popular music - you find yourself unable to return. Its not snobbery, its just that you've grown, and you simply can't go back. Did this make sense? I'd like to think so, otherwise I'm just being a pretentious prat. Carry on, lads.

I remember going into the stereo store in Champaign, IL, a place called Good Vibes. Seeing all the cool stuff and listening along with people who had money in the "separates" rooms. Some of those pieces and brands were indelibly burned into my mind, Carver being one. I had a couple interesting pieces back in the day and unfortunately got ride of them. Among them was a SAE 2200 amp, a Technics SL 1600 turntable and Pioneer C-21 preamp. I still lust for the latter and its matching amp. I sometime wonder if vintage audio isn't the (relatively) poor man's version of 60's muscle cars scene. Two or three Carver amps are a lot more reasonable than a '68 Camaro Z-28 with matching numbers...

I am getting up there in years... Just ask my wife, she'll be happy to tell you.