sfar
Responses from sfar
| On Line Audio Mail Order Retailers My first experience with Music Direct was a pleasant surprise. I ordered a refurbished integrated and when it arrived one channel was dead. One short phone call and a replacement was on the way, along with a shipping label for return of the defect... | |
| Power tube temperature No experience with your amp so I don't know if this is useful but when I had a Cary/AES Superamp which runs in class A I checked the 6L6 power tubes with an infrared thermometer and they were running right at 300 degrees.The EL84s in my Jolida FX1... | |
| Buying used speakers from a private seller for local pickup. My comments are based on only one experience, driving some built-in-England ProAc speakers from Vancouver Island to Seattle. No way to sneak them in since they were quite visible in the back of my car. What followed was probably half an hour of ha... | |
| Buying used speakers from a private seller for local pickup. If the speakers were made anywhere besides the U.S. or Canada (or any other NAFTA country) you might be required to play an import duty. So it would be important to be able to have evidence of the place of manufacture. Of course, customs agents ha... | |
| Great Customer Service From Simaudio I don't have any support anecdotes to share about Simaudio, despite having owned three of their amps, three DACs and a CD player. That's because I've never had an issue with any of their gear despite many, many hours of use. Great products. Great ... | |
| Which integrated? No experience with Bel Canto but I own the Cayin A-50T driving a pair of Nola Boxer S speakers and it is an incredibly satisfying combination, probably the best sound I've had in 50 years of swapping gear, both tubes and SS, some of it considerabl... | |
| Cd storage / backup Whatever you choose as a storage device have a second device of the same capacity as a backup. I helped manage personal computer systems for a large publishing company and part of that job was doing grief counseling for people who never backed up ... | |
| How to properly put audio equipment on top of an antique buffet cabinet? If you do use any kind of footers under whatever material you use for the base be aware that some of them, rubber, sorbothane, etc., will permanently stain a wood surface. Isolate any of those viscous substances from a wood finish. | |
| Shipping out of country. I have shipped expensive gear to Vietnam, Norway and Germany without any problem. Also bought speakers from Singapore with delivery to my house in the U.S. in four days. As always, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, know the seller or the buyer thr... | |
| Picking a Tube integrated amp You asked about the Cayin A-50T. I've had one for a few months and am very impressed, great build quality and great sound. I think it's better than any of the three tube amps I'd had before, a Cary/AES AE-25 Super Amp with an AE-3 preamp, a Cronus... | |
| Vacuum tube suppliers Very highly recommend Jim McShane. Hand picked, fully tested and matched tubes and a great person to do business with.mcshanedesign.net/tubes.htm | |
| Help for some friends Thanks, everyone. I am somewhat familiar with Sonos but not with Bluesound, other than comments I've come across here.I'll investigate both. These folks are not audiophiles in any sense but they love music and play it constantly. Convenience and s... | |
| Shopping for Interconnects I can't see the list of cables in your response but --I've used the Mogami microphone 2549 cable with good results. I can't say they're ideal, I haven't tried every cable out there and my standards may be lower than yours, but Mogami cables of all... | |
| Shopping for Interconnects I agree with @firstgrowth's suggestion about making your own, and it's satisfying to have done it.I've made quite a few pair and found the Vampire Wire RCAs to be the easiest to work with and very good quality. Those, along with some shrink-wrap t... | |
| Did I just ruin my amp Agree with @jond about the Genalex KT-77s but if the price is a barrier there are several good options. I would recommend you get in touch with Jim McShane. Incredibly knowledgeable and helpful with fully tested tubes at fair prices. I don't buy t... |