Daddyjt

This thought has been bouncing around in my head for over a year, so I apologize in advance if what follows is verbal diarrhea. **Disclaimer** This is NOT an endorsement or admonishment of ANY particular type of gear, nor is it an indictment of anyone’s preferred sound signature. This thought started forming during the dust-up with Unclemeat and the great opamp debate. I was defending the use of the dual 2134 opamps as measurably more accurate, and Russ was adamant that the stock 4136 had a better “sound”. No matter what I tried, I was unable to convey my point that, especially in a preamp, accuracy should be the number one goal. Period. I finally came up with an analogy that I wish I had then (not that it likely would have made any difference, but hey...). Imagine that you are going to taste several different flavors of ice cream, to try and determine your favorite. You take a small spoon, and taste chocolate, strawberry, mint chocolate-chip, and on and on. As you compare all the flavors, you stack rank them in your head, and determine your favorite. Now, anywhere you go, you have a pretty good idea of what you like, and what you don’t. Now ot imagine that before you taste each flavor, someone dips your spoon in vanilla extract. Vanilla tastes good, right? You could even argue that vanilla makes everything else taste better, right? But there’s a problem - now every flavor you taste is “colored” by the vanilla. You don’t really know what any of the ice cream flavors taste like. You may really like some of them with the vanilla, but your entire comparative analysis is skewed. Wouldn’t it be better if the “spoon” (preamp, in this case) were always pure and un-flavored (un-colored), so you knew what each flavor tasted like? Then, if you like vanilla, you could add it later, without having it color the entire tasting process. This is why I believe a preamp should sound “like it isn’t even there”, to quote the late BillD. “Warm”, “open”, “polished” are all great - but I believe that any coloration of the sound should be a voluntary choice, via DSP, tube buffer, or EQ - and not a “built-in” feature of a preamp that one is stuck with. I always prefer to start with a pure baseline, then add, subtract or adjust to my liking - but the baseline is critical, as no matter how far I stray, I can always return there and start anew. This applies to my tv color settings, my sub settings, and on and on. I hope this makes some sense... If not, disregard and carry on.

This is an elusive disc. There are multiple SACD versions, and the MOFI is not the preferred one, believe it or not, as it has no surround mix. Most I’ve seen thus far are in the $100 range...:-(

Oh, and did I mention that Tim is one of the lucky few that has a wife that lets him buy anything he wants for his audio hobby...😉

Being away from home for months at a time with the new job is certainly far from ideal. However, one of the pluses is that it’s getting me out to parts of the country to meet my “Carver Family” face to face. First, it was Christmas with @Sk1Bum in Missouri, and last night it was pizza, beer, good company and good music with @PhilDent in California. After a wonderful dinner - pizza with the best spicy ground pepperoni I’ve ever had, salad and beer - it was off to the music room. After our listening night at my place, Tim hunted down a pair of NHT 2.5i speakers for himself. I was shocked at the bass extension he was getting in his room, with no sub! I was intrigued with his setup, specifically the placement of his surrounds. They are ear-level (floor standers), and directly to the side of the listening position. This yielded perhaps some of the best music surround I have experienced. In fact, I haven’t stopped thinking about my own surround placement since listening to his setup. His system sounded excellent - clear, punchy, and great imaging - a joy to listen to. I also “discovered” a new reference recording - Billy Joel, The Stranger on SACD. Tim put this disc in, and I inwardly groaned when I saw it playing in surround - man, was I wrong... that disc is THE BEST surround encoded music I have ever heard. Before you get too excited, let me explain why - it’s perfect, and what more surround mixes should be, because the mixing engineer uses the surround channels for ambiance, and to create a sense of space ONLY - no gimickie sounds, or too loud effects, just exactly what it should be - ambient sound to create a sense of space. I already have my son hunting us up a copy. That said, he’s also hunting another that Tim played for me - Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral on SACD. Full disclosure, I’m going to be a hypocrite here - I loved this SACD surround mix because Reznor uses the surround and center channels to FULL effect - this one is more for fun and “wow factor” and not so much critical listening. And after all that, perhaps the funnest part of the evening was just sitting and chatting with Tim and his wife. friendship is a beautiful thing, and Im blessed to have a friend like Tim - thank you for your hospitality my friend. looking forward to next time:-)

Horrible idea. Haven’t we learned our lesson with the war on drugs, prohibition, the drinking age, etc...? All this will do is spur Chinese counterfeit product, of questionable purity(?), and feed a thriving underground market.

Nice - it’s always a bonus when you 1. Remember you have something you could use, and 2. Actually put it to use. how do they sound?

Nice Kevin. is there a thread on the perfect 10 subs?

I’ll be overseeing 15 stores in CA. The ones near LA are Camarillo, Canoga Park, Arcadia and Costa Mesa. Are you close to any of those?

3 men go into a hotel. The man behind the desk says a room is $30 so each man pays $10 and goes to the room. A while later the man behind the desk realized the room was only $25 so he sent the bellboy to the 3 guys' room with $5. On the way the bellboy couldn't figure out how to split $5 evenly between 3 men, so he gave each man a $1 and kept the other $2 for himself. This meant that the 3 men each paid $9 for the room, which is a total of $27 add the $2 that the bellboy kept = $29. Where is the other dollar?

2019 was a mixed-bag for me. On the down side, I lost my job in spring (company bankruptcy). On the upside, I saw my mother-in-law beat cancer (for the THIRD TIME), finished my basement, spent some of the most quality time with my kids since their birth, and got a new job that pays well but requires a lot of travel. I was also fortunate to meet four (4) site members: Mike @69Chevelle, David @4RUNNER, Tim @PhilDent, and Dick @Sk1Bum. Prior to 2019, I had not met any site members, so this was a great start. There are still many more of you I would love to meet, and with my new job, I will have the opportunity (I’ll be in California next week, for several months!) Prior to writing this, I had thought of 2019 as a less than stellar year, but looking at it now, it wasn’t too bad... How was your year?

This update is a day late because quite honestly I was in a food-coma yesterday... I arrived at Dick’s house around noon, and we loaded up his brisket and his gifts for his family and took a 45 minute drive over to his moms house. We ate (first time I’ve ever had turkey, ham, and brisket on my plate at the same time. It was heaven), then the family (all 20ish of them!) exchanged gifts. It was nice to watch, and even nicer meeting his family - I’ve even got about 1/3 of their names down! As everyone was leaving, eventually it came down to Dick, his brother, and myself. We sat around chatting for close to an hour, and it was probably the most enjoyable time of the day - truly made me sad to leave. All in all, I could not have asked for a more welcoming and enjoyable day - thank you to you and your family, Dick.

While cruising from Tulsa to Springfield MO, I came across a huge outlet store for knives and cutlery in Lebanon MO. I’ve always wanted an OTF (Out The Front) auto knife - formerly known as a switchblade. Problem is, even though they are legal to own in most states, dealers will only sell them to law enforcement and military. Well that’s NOT the case in Lebanon MO! So I am now the proud owner of a Benchmade Infidel OTF... merry Christmas to me!

Niiice! The Dude it is! how do the headphones sound? I’m sick of earbuds, and considering an over the ear design...

After hearing it last night at Dick’s house, I can definitely second the recommendation. Outstanding detail and clarity!

As a few of you know, my new (and hopefully temporary) job requires A LOT of travel. As luck would have it, my current assignment had me leave home on Dec 18th for 4 months, and with a work radius of about 400 miles - Kansas City MO to Littlerock AR, and Oklahoma City to Osage Beach (Lake Ozark). I was (am) not thrilled with the concept of being away from the family for the holidays, but as the old saying goes, “ya gotta do what ya gotta do”. The one bright spot spot in all of this, is that Dick (Sk1bum) resides within this area. While I relish the opportunity to meet ANY member on this site, there are a special few that I especially want to meet. Dick certainly fits that bill, as he and I talk regularly and have a great deal in common. So when I call Dick a couple weeks ago and told him I’d be in his neck of the woods for work, we immediately decided to meet up. As the conversation progressed, I mentioned that I would not be able to travel home for Christmas (there are no trips home for this job). Dick immediately told me that I would be spending Christmas with his family - it wasn’t an invitation, it was an expectation. I graciously accepted, after receiving reassurance that I would not be intruding. I planned my travels to arrive in Springfield yesterday afternoon, and after checking in to my motel, went out to his place for the evening. This visit was separate from what is to come today. Anyway, Dick was so kind as to bbq a couple of rib steaks bigger than my foot, fry up some potatoes, and to top it all off, we shared some 21 year old single malt Glenfiddich - hospitality level off the charts! I can’t begin to tell you how a home cooked meal hit the spot after being on the road! We did a little listening to Dick’s multiple systems, and I am now intrigued by electrostats (just what I need, another speaker itch...). His Martin Logan’s, powered by a 500t mkII, sounded sublime with both vinyl and digital. I was also intrigued by his vinyl reproduction, but I’m just too lazy to chase that rabbit, lol. So as I sit here in a lonely hotel room, I am beyond thankful that I’ll be heading over to Dick’s house in a couple hours to travel to his mother’s home for a family Christmas gathering. I simply don’t have the words to express my thanks for your generosity and friendship. Merry Christmas everyone.

I actually took this photo in downtown SLC last week...

Very nice Karma - not in, as I already have a digital scope. good luck to all that are in!

A couple months ago, I was selling my ALIII pair. I had them set up in the garage, and was demoing them for a guy when my son came home from work. The guy made a low-ball offer ($250), and I said no. He left saying he’d think about them at my asking price ($600). Apparently my son fell in LOVE with them while I was auditioning them for the guy. As soon as he was gone, my son said he’d pay me the $600 for them as long as I’d take payments - he WANTED the speakers - best sound he’s ever heard. I kind of hedged, and told him I’d think about it - he’s been asking me every day since. So while he he was at work the other day, I gutted his current AV set up, and installed the ALIII speakers, his Denon DVD player, receiver and other bits. I did all of this to give him the speakers as his Christmas present, as I’m leaving tomorrow for work for several months, and won’t be here for Christmas. The setup is not anywhere near its final point, but I really want him to experience the incremental improvement that most of us went through with our first systems, vs just handing him a turn key top shelf system - if that makes any sense. BTW, I made it clear to him that the McCormack was on LOAN, just until I have time to mkII a 1.0t for him! anyway, that brings us to the Oppo. I want one for him so he can stream the FLAC library on his system. His Denon will not do it, although it has a USB input...? If anyone has a line on one in the $400ish neighborhood, (with remote and WiFi stick) please let me know. Thanks all!

The only different component may be the main filter caps. I ran out of the UC caps that we now use, and used a pair of the Panasonic ones that I have on hand. I only stopped using the Panasonics because it’s a chore to bend the legs of one to fit the space - they are the same spec however (10kuf, 100v) so I don’t see how they could make a difference....🤔

That’s a good looking stack Dick! How does it sound? (Inquiring minds want to know!)

In my defense, you said right now... I just finished up Mike’s C11, and haven’t cleaned up yet, lol. I tend not to clean up until after a piece of gear, then I put everything away, and start the next piece. Messy? Yea, sure. Work for me? Yup....😉 BTW, I like the trophy buried in the background of yours... baseball or softball?

Yea...