UncleMeat

Now that's what I call: 5.1 Surround!!

WOAH! Those are some mighty 'bookshelf' speakers! Nice setup! May I make a suggestion? You might want to turn the speakers so they are pointing further toward the focal point at your listening spot to get more of that magical holography soundstage the CT-17 will provide. You will be 'immersed' if you get them set correctly (unless they are already). Welcome aboard!

Welcome Chris, the people here are extremely nice. I just joined a few weeks ago and have noticed since before joining that everyone is here to enjoy their equipment, get/give help fixing their gear, share stuff and knowledge, and of course listen to high fidelity tunes. It's a tightly knit group and I'm sure you will weave right in.

Wah She Go Do - Track 1, Side 2...

FZ - You Are What You Is - Vinyl Jumbo go away....

On vinyl, nice stereo imaging effects for a record...

Road trip?!?! Ya, someday would be nice! Carver West sounds like a plan; don't care if we are small, The Cube was small but mighty!

Thanks for such a warm welcome everyone. Again I am gobsmacked. Yes, I was totally humbled getting to sit and listen to 20k C-J monoblocks on 10k Martin Logans; I was honored when the salesman let me peruse that gear. He knew I was a college student and would never be able to afford such equipment at the time but wanted me to hear what the pinnacle of high-end could sound like. I'm grateful for the experience because It helped me continue searching for the sound I liked. I was so close to buying a Rotel, then I auditioned the Parasound and Conrad Johnson and realized that there must have been something I missed because I knew I had heard warmer, musical and spacious sound in an integrated amp before and I just wasn't hearing it in the equipment I had auditioned. I'm not saying that Rotel or NAD or Parasound are bad per-se; It's just not what tickles my eardrums. I live in the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill/Lafayette nexus of the east bay, Pmat. Where are you? Bay Area or Sacramento area? I'd like to come to a Carver club get together if it's not too far away. Thanks Show, yeah I just had to say what I think every newbie probably senses when they enter these forums and read about such nice things being done for eachother, and for people who just wander in the front door. An Audio Karma forum?!? who knew people could be so generous to total strangers (but forum aquaintances that become friends); you just don't see it very much in this day and age (aside from the noble few who do charity work).

That's a "nice" one to get to know Frank with! My first Zappa album was Joe's Garage!!! I can tell the OCCD runs rampant, by reading everyone's equipment lists!! I've got some serious catching up to do!

Thanks Barry & Raven! Yes, I picked UncleMeat because it just seemed like a good fit- In the Central Scruitnizer's Voice: Legend has it that Uncle Meat was a disgruntled laid off rocket scientist who lusts for revenge and turns evil... or something like that.... I dunno that's what was scribbled in the LP folio... Perfect...

Thanks Kingman, Del & Bird; ya my story is pretty typical to the era of Carver equipment; affordable even if you are on a tight budget, which was why I saved my pennies and worked extra hours as an engineering intern to be able to afford it. I picked up that AR XB from an audiophile in Sacramento, I think I paid 100 bucks for it. He was moving up to more esoteric gear, can't remember what it was, maybe a Sota Sapphire? Yes, the XB is really good sounding as a stock unit; I'm running a Pickering XV-15 with a D625S .3x.7 mil elliptical (certainly not a top of the line cartridge combo) and on a clean flat record it just sings despite having no anti-skate mechanism. Maggies are in a storage unit, need to get them out and start rebuilding the speaker wires that are bad inside the drivers. It's a tedious and messy job so it will be a while before I have them back and setup with my gear. Magnepan won't ship the adhesive that bonds the wire to the mylar until late April because if it freezes it's ruined. I'm going to tear down one before I order, and use the second speaker as a reference to re-wire the first one; then work on the second and use the first as it's reference. The wires have to be laid perfectly straight and in a pattern that makes them resonate at all frequencies. I'll start a thread on how this is done when I get started on it.

The Fine Young Cannibals; The Raw and the Cooked

AR XB Turntable... So simple, yet so good sounding... CT-3 on top TFM-35x middle HR-742 bottom Maggies are in storage so cant get a picture of them to post yet; I'll start a thread in the speaker repair forum when I begin the re-wire of the diaphragms.

Here Ya Go... SDA/360, sorry the picture is blurry. Sony Blu-Ray/Roku/Surround Amp on top.

I like nearly every genre of music aside from Rap/hip-hop and some of the new pop stuff and new country. My base collection of music is probably in the realm of classic rock (Zepplin, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, ZZ Top, Carlos Santana, Eagles, and of course Frank Zappa). Other types I regularly listen to would be blues rock like Van Morrison, Bonnie Rait, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton; Blues, BB King, Buddy Guy, Joe Louis Walker, The Crusaders (jazz); soft rock, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, James Taylor, John Denver; early country, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson; Some classical, Modern Classical, stuff that has good tempo, the slow long note types are too boring for me to enjoy without being put to sleep.

Thanks Zumbini, I'd post photos but my system is still in a state of chaos with replacement of the CT-3, everything is out of the cabinet stacked up on top of it while I test different connections. I'm waiting for a TDR-2400 I bought on e-bay to arrive so I can put it all back into the cabinet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Frank_Zappa_-_Uncle_Meat.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Frank_Zappa_-_Uncle_Meat.jpg

Thanks For the warm welcome Harry & Blues... OCCD ahh, that's a good thing! -Russ

OCCD? something good I hope? Thanks for confessing your condition!