dusty

Responses from dusty

Vince Guaraldi recommendations
Try Guaraldi and Bola Sete. Great guitar and piano. They recorded a couple of disks on Fantasy. 
Bowling alley lane wood for component tables?
Yikes!Thanks Hank. I forgot about the nails. Most new lanes (well, new 20 years ago) were glued and nailed together. A 3" thick bed had the 1st 1-1/2" studded with nails. This side was laid down on the bottom crib or floor. Thus, when the lane was... 
Bowling alley lane wood for component tables?
The 1st 16' past the foul line is maple. The remaining 44' is pine. The back section where the pins are is maple. Try to get the maple portion because it is more dense. A friend of mine made a coffee table out of a 6 foot chunk. Be advised that th... 
SOTA Nova vs SME 20/2
A few years ago Charleston Heston addressed the National Rifle Association, he held up a vintage rifle and said "out of my cold dead hands". I feel the same way about my Sota Nova. The SME's don't have a vacuum clamp which is a feature that I thin... 
Music volume? What about your sound level?
When I'm really rocking (TURN IT DOWN! the wife says)my Rat shack meter reads about 92 to 95db. I don't think I ever seen more than 95db in my current room (25'x17') 
Vintage tube preamps: CJ or ARC?
2nd the PV5. I still use mine and with my speakers/room and taste in tunes, I figure I would have to spend about 5 times the price for a new full function preamp that would be as enjoyable. 
Upgrades for older Conrad Johnson?
Sending it to C-J will get it repaired. Depending on how much more you may want to spend I would recommend that the power supply caps be replaced and purchase the best output tubes you can find. The '75 is heavily biased into class "A" which is ha... 
How many "tube" watts do Maggie 3.5's or 6's need?
Have powered 3.6R's with 150 watts of tube power for the past 2 years. More than enough. My room is 22'x17'. Depends on the type of music that you listen to also. Head-banger rock would need more power than the jazz I listen to. 
Who needs spellcheck?
Now some dude is going to argue that MP3's are just as good as CD "cause the mind can fill in the missing stuff"Great!! Interesting article. 
Sleeper preamps: $500 new/used
Conrad Johnson PV-5. A Classic. The only reason that you can find one for $500 is because it was very popular during it's production run. At least 3 TAS and one Sterophile reviewer used them as reference preamps during the eighties. 
When does the law diminishing returns kick in?
The law kicks in when you find yourself taking out a second on your house to finance that new cable upgrade. Enjoy what you have! Depending on the type of music you listen to, it may not matter if your speakers or cd player can't go down to the lo... 
How Loud Do You Listen??? Do You Know?????????
Tireguy,You have JC-1's. How loud can you get? 800 watts is like 118db on the Maggies, right? 
Maggie 3.6R driven by Antique Sound labHurricane??
Like Hartwerger, I'm driving a pair of 3.6R's with tube amps with less than Herculean output. (150 watt c-j's) One big issue that you should be aware of is how loud do you listen? Buy a Radio Shack sound meter. Use it to determine the highest volu... 
Yamaha NS-690 II Speakers?? Help Identify
I had a pair of these back in '79 also. Mated them with a Yamaha B-2 amp and a Holman preamp. Smooth sound with decent bass down to the mid 30's in my room. Old retail price was $690 (my purchase) 
"Peter Gunn" by Mancini: ?other jazz style albums
Mancini did a great job on "The Blues and The Beat"RCA Living Stereo release LSP-2147. Sounds real good too.